Tails of a Shy Greyhound: Sunday 7.14.13

Everything worked out today!!!!!!

Dolly got to stay!!!

Béla was a total rockstar when Dolly was here. She jumped on the counter as expected, hissed a tiny bit, and Dolly looked at her, then looked away as if she was anything else in the room - YAY!!!! Then Béla relaxed SO MUCH - that gave me a good feeling that this could work out. Joyce was very happy with the way things went and left Dolly with us.

I always had a boy name picked out, Carter, named after Carter Beauford of the Dave Matthews Band (while paying a little homage to Dr. Carter of my favorite TV show ever - ER.)
Girls names were a little trickier for me, since I always thought I'd have another male dog.
I narrowed it down to two names - Jersey (since I am from New Jersey originally) and Grace (after a Dave Matthews song called "Grace is Gone.")
I went with Grace.
She just didn't have enough "Jersey" in her.....yet ;)
Yes, she is super shy.
She will not come up to us for pets and pretty much spent most of the day looking sad on her bed (I started to call it her "safe bed) downstairs in the corner. She was skittish on her walks and didn't want to go very far, so we let her be for today. I am trying hard to take Joyce's advice and ignore Grace. Man, this part is hard. All I want to do is play and pet her. But, ignore I must do.
I hand-fed her dinner to work on some bonding. She was super shy going for the food and very skittish. She's also VERY skittish with sudden movements anywhere and unfamiliar noises outside. When I tried to take her out for her last bathroom break, she refused to get off her bed. I had to pick her up and bring her.
It's ok. She's been taken from what she thought was home and plopped into my house. She went from being around twenty-some other greyhounds to just me, Craig, and Béla. I can't expect her to feel comfortable. But one day she will.