Treat Tales -- Meeting The Rabbit

It's been a while since I wrote a Treat Tale, but a friend had asked me to back in October on our trip, and others mentioned it when they read about Treat on Saturday, so I thought it was time to get back into the swing of telling those stories.  We'd like to dedicate this story to our friend Max, who recently crossed to the Rainbow Bridge after a brief battle with Osteosarcoma.  He was one handsome Greyhound and he will be missed.  We decided to write this particular story after several people asked about people saw the picture on Saturday of Treat with the rabbit. 

The rabbit's name was Diamond.  She was the classroom rabbit in my class at school.  Normally, she would stay at school during the week and then go home with my teaching partner on the weekends.  However, there came a long five day weekend when we were off school because of a big conference that many of the teachers attended.  My teaching partner was going to the conference, so we planned for Diamond to come home with me over the long weekend.

I had big dreams.  There's a calendar that comes out every year called the Celebrating Greyhounds Calendar.  It's put out by the same organization that puts out the Celebrating Greyhounds magazine.  Every year people from all over send in their best pictures of their Greyhounds in hopes of getting a picture in the calendar.  I just knew that if I could get a picture of Treat with the rabbit that it would be calendar gold.  I mean, really, who could resist a Greyhound curled up with a fuzzy bunny?  It was practically a guarantee in my mind.

The day arrived when it was time to bring Diamond home.  She rode in a cat carrier and spent most of her time in a small cage.  I carried the cage inside first and Treat and Hawk along with our two cats were fascinated by it.  After I got the cage set up in the corner of the living room, I set up her hay, pellets and water, then I went outside to fetch the rabbit.  I was greeted at the back door by Treat and Hawk whose noses had gone into complete overdrive.  Hawk's eyes telescoped out like a cartoon character, his nose twitched, his ears flattened to the back of his head and he turned and beat feet into the living room as far as he could get from the little beast.  Treat turned from her sniff fest to see him leaving and followed him to curl up primly on the couch.  They both looked at me with the same look of horror that seemed to say "I can't believe you brought a wild animal into our house!  What were you thinking?"  The cats surrounded the cage and were drooling as they seemed to be preparing for the buffet.

I was not deterred from my goal, however.  After things got settled, I closed the cats in the bedroom and lifted Diamond out of her cage, carefully carrying her to the couch to sit her down beside Treat.  Treat launched off the couch as if her tail was on fire.  She had no intention of posing with a wild animal.  There was probably some fine print in her adoption contract that prohibited getting wild animals within a certain vicinty of her royal self, but I must have missed it amongst all the other requirements of life with a Greyhound princess.

A few days later, I decided to try again.  After a long walk, I got Treat settled on the couch and Mr. Taleteller was standing nearby with the camera ready.  We cajoled and encouraged her, and finally got the picture of Treat sitting on the couch with the rabbit moments before she took off to hide in the bedroom.  I have to admit, I've always loved that picture.

We did submit it to the calendar, but it was never chosen.  As a matter of fact, the next year a picture I'd taken of Hawk was selected, one that had nothing to do with the princess.  I'm sure she's sitting on a cloud somewhere with that rabbit still, laughing about me and my folly.  I guess some things seem a lot better in your mind than they do in application.  I still look back on that picture and smile as I remember all that went into capturing it.

I'd also like to add that this is our five hundredth post.  It's been a lot of fun keeping the blog going so far.  To celebrate, we're asking you to join us on our new blog.  We are still working out a few kinks, but by the beginning of the month, we hope to be exclusively posting on our new blog site.  It's a little scary to make the move, but we've been encouraged by some good friends to do it, and we feel like it's a good thing for us.  We're mostly hoping that you all will still follow us and will join us on the new site.  So, without further ado, we present Tales and Tails.  If you'd like to bookmark it, it's http://talesandtails.com/.

Treat Tales -- The Grand Entrance

I was thinking back to that first day that we brought Treat home.  In the weeks leading up to us adopting a Greyhound, we'd read and studied all about the breed.  Our plan was to get our dog, bring it home and let it get used to living in our house with us before we had anyone over to meet it or took it anywhere.  Part of the reason for that was that my husband has a large family, and his youngest brother and sister were preschoolers while his niece was just a toddler.  We wanted a bit of an idea to know how our dog would react before we placed it in that situation.

However, our well-laid plans were tossed out the window the day before we were supposed to go and pick out our new Greyhound.  There was a wicked winter storm the day before, and that day happened to be Mr. Taleteller's younger brother's birthday.  The party was postponed to the next day.  We debated about what to do after we heard the news, and decided that we'd just stop in for a few minutes and give him his present, eat a bit of cake and then take our new dog home.

Well, if you read our last post, you know that Treat finally got it through our skulls that she had chosen us and we were taking her home.  After a quick stop at McDonald's, we were on our way back home to stop at the party.  Our new dog was dressed in her new collar and and coat.  The selection of coats was limited, so she had a snazzy number that was black on one side and yellow with green frogs on the other.  It was cute enough, and more importantly, it kept her warm. 

For those of you who are not familiar with Greyhound adoption, most adoption groups send you home with a plastic muzzle like the ones they wear for turn out at the track.  It's helpful in keeping them from chewing things they shouldn't, for introducing them to your cats and in the event that your dog would get an injury that you don't want them to lick.  Many times, adoption groups get used ones donated from the track, where they often write the dog's name across the bridge of the muzzle so they know which dog it is and know who gets which muzzle.

Being new Greyhound owners, we didn't quite know what to expect.  Mr. Taleteller's parents had young children, a cat, a black lab and a cake waiting at their house.  So, we decided to be safe rather than sorry.  We put her muzzle on and headed to the front door.  Treat walked into the party to meet all of Mr. Taleteller's family and the first impression she made was "KILLER" written across her nose.

It turned out that it was completely unnecessary.  I took off my coat and put it in the pile of coats by the door on the floor as we sat there and the family got to know our dog.  They were impressed by her sleek brindle fur after we took the coat off and she was extremely gentle and patient with the kids.  She soaked up the attention for a while, and then when she got tired, she went over and laid down on my coat.  When we got up to get ready to leave, she was right there beside me.

The funny thing is, she always made a grand entrance wherever she went.  I'm not sure that we ever topped that first one, though.  I really wish I'd had a video camera back then!

Treat Tales -- The Beginning

While I was on vacation, I travelled with a friend I've known online for a long time.  I knew her long before Bunny was in my life and while Treat was still here with us.  One day we were talking about the blog and I mentioned that I wasn't sure how I felt about not having the blog going while Treat was with us.  I don't know if I could have continued the blog after she passed away, but there were many, many funny stories that involved Miss Treat.  My friend mentioned how great she thought they were, so I thought about it some and decided that from time to time, I'd write some of the funny stories about Treat here on the blog.  Today, I'll tell the very first story that I know about Treat.

When Mr. Taleteller and I first got married, we lived in an apartment for a few years, since we were both right out of college and trying to get our start in life.  Those three years were the first time that either of us had lived without a dog.  We had two cats, a cockatiel and two fish tanks, but we couldn't have a dog there.  My husband got a new job in the small, rural county where I'd grown up and his job required us to live in the county.  After almost a year of searching, we finally found a cute little house that was perfect for us.  I knew, without even talking it over with Mr. Taleteller, that we'd have a dog soon.

Mr. Taleteller had always wanted a German Shepherd, but I didn't want a dog that would be like a bull in a china closet in our house, and I knew that any dog we got was going to be in the house with us.  I grew up with Border Collies and an Australian Shepherd at my dad's house and Shetland Sheepdogs at my mom's.  I didn't feel that it would be fair or safe to a Border Collie or an Australian Shepherd to have to live in the house, Mr. Taleteller did not like the constant barking the comes with Shelties.  One day in the beginning of December, we were in Petsmart and saw a Greyhound there promoting a local adoption group's fundraiser of pictures with Santa.  We were smitten!  It was the perfect compromise for us.

We talked about it all afternoon.  There was a book that we were supposed to read, Adopting the Racing Greyhound by Cynthia Branigan, before adopting and we stopped to pick it up at the local bookstore.  At that time, we didn't have a computer at home, so we stopped by his office on our way home and looked up the adoption group online.  We filled out our adoption application online while we were there.  After pouring over the pictures of the adorable hounds in their kennel for almost an hour, we headed home.  We figured it would be weeks before we got a response since everybody must be waiting in line to adopt one of these magnificent dogs.

Imagine our surprise when we got a phone call the next evening.  We spoke to the adoption coordinator for quite a while and after it was over, she said to call the kennel and tell them we needed an appointment to come up and meet the Greyhounds.  That was a long week as we waited. 

We arrived at the kennel at dinner time, so we waited patiently while the volunteers finished getting them their food in the meeting room.  Soon, they brought in a large Greyhound who almost changed our minds about adopting one.  He nearly leapt through the window behind our heads and bounced off the walls like a ping pong ball.  Next was a dog who only wanted to go back and eat his dinner and had very little interest in us.  A shy fawn boy was next, and he did stand and lean against us for quite a while.  Finally, they brought in a little brindle female, the only female we'd met.  She leaned against us and took turns giving both of us a chance to pet her.  When they led her back to her kennel, she turned and gazed back at us.

The reading we'd done had given us the impression that male Greyhounds were better with young children, and since there were a lot of those in Mr. Taleteller's family, we thought that was what we wanted.  When we spoke to the adoption president on the phone again, she said she didn't recommend the fawn male we thought we wanted because he was so shy and we'd have to be leash walking the dog all winter.  She was afraid he'd slip his collar and get loose.  We were invited to come back up right after Christmas and decide which dog we wanted to bring home. 

There had been a wicked snowstorm the day before we were supposed to go up to meet our new dog.  We borrowed an SUV from my mom and stepdad to make sure we could get up there and set up a crate in the back to bring the dog home in.  I can't begin to express how excited we were and we still hadn't decided which dog we wanted to bring home.

We talked to the group president and a couple of volunteers and they kindly and patiently brought in the dogs that we were thinking about adopting for us to meet.  Soon, three of the dogs we'd met before and one foster dog were all loose in the storefront with us, milling around.  Three of the dogs were busy going around between the volunteers, but would come over to us when we called them.  That little female was on a mission, though.  She stood beside me, letting me pet her until she saw one of the boys go over to Mr. Taleteller.  She'd go and worm her way in between him and the other dog, then settle in contentedly for him to pet her.  Then she'd turn around and see me petting another dog and she'd have to come over and worm her way between me and that dog.  This went on for a good half hour or so.  Finally, we narrowed it down to her and one other male.  We took them out for a walk to see how they did on leash.  At last, we made our decision, the little female named Treat was our choice.

We chose a new winter coat for her, since it was so cold and snowy, as well as a collar and lead to bring her home with.  I finished filling out paperwork while Mr. Taleteller went out to take down the crate after we were told it wouldn't be necessary to bring her home in.  I looked up from writing the check and saw Treat standing in her new coat at the door, her nose pressed to the glass as she watched for Mr. Taleteller to come back for her.  So much for having one animal in the house who liked me the best!

Looking back, we definitely made the right choice, and one that certainly changed the course of our lives.  Treat was a perfect first Greyhound and she took us to places we never dreamed we'd go.  She also won our hearts and many others' over to the breed.