We Didn’t Have To Rob A Bank For This “Money”
But We Did Endure A Snowstorm To Get Him Home
Erin has always outdone herself for my birthday. For my thirtieth birthday, she threw me a big party in downtown Indy full of food, drinks, and lots of basketball watching. For my thirty-fifth birthday, she showered me with 31 days of gifts, and a weekend getaway to Louisville to visit stops along the bourbon trail. This year, although it wasn’t a big “number,” she did not disappoint. My birthday had everything I think a 37-year-old would want – a new greyhound to foster, brewery stops, a road trip, time with friends, and oh yea, an unexpected snow storm!
As we were preparing for the day’s adventures, Erin warned me that my attire wasn’t appropriate for the day’s activities. But it was my birthday and I didn’t give in. I left the house sporting shorts and a long sleeve T-shirt, with no coat in sight. There will be more about that later. We started Saturday’s activities with several trips to breweries around the Lafayette area. We began at Teays River Brewing & Public House where we grabbed a few pints, a quick bite to eat, and headed back out. It is a marathon, not a sprint and we still had lots of travel ahead of us!, We next made a pit stop at the tiny Thieme and Wagner Brewing Co.. There, we met the owner and heard about the amazing story of the brewery. If you ever get a chance to stop, please do! The place is rich in history and has great artifacts in their tiny little tap-room. We finally stopped at Peoples Brewing Company and met with a few of our friends who live in the West Lafayette area. Unfortunately, our time was short as we had to pick up foster greyhound Money (aka BJ’s Money Pile) before heading back to Indianapolis.
The drive back to Indy wasn’t too bad. It is only about an hour from Lafayette to Indianapolis, and it is all interstate driving. There was some slight rain and a little sleet, but nothing terrible. It had been lightly snowing off and on all afternoon while we were in Lafayette but thankfully, none of it was sticking. So we thought nothing of it when we suggested meeting up with our friends Chad and Emily at the canine friendly Traders Brewing Company.
I was obviously under prepared for the drastic change in weather. Remember, I was in shorts and a (albeit long-sleeve) t-shirt. Money, on the other hand, was very well-equipped with a Gini’s Greyhound Fashions winter jacket that was donated for use for all of our foster dogs. He had no qualms with going outside, even as the snow began quickly accumulating. We had another quick drink before realizing we should probably get home soon. The icy snow was rapidly accumulating and we knew the roads weren’t going to be great. The drive home was a slow adventure in itself, but Money remained cheerful at the prospect of meeting his new greyhound brother and sister.
34 Fosters Versus 2
Because Money’s previous foster home also had a greyhound, we knew he was accustomed to other greys. We also knew that Callie, having had mentored 34 foster greyhounds, would have no issues with Money. Well, take that back – she’s still bratty and gets annoyed with the male fosters because of their size. But we knew she wouldn’t have any real issues. We were unsure though, of whether Six Pack’s experience with only two fosters, Murphy and Troy, was enough to put him at ease when we introduced Money. And go figure, to really no one’s surprise, Six Pack was immediately jealous of the attention Money was receiving and proceeded to put himself in “timeout,” ostracizing himself from everyone else. Six probably thought he was being replaced by his happy-go-lucky, attention seeking, black counterpart, with ironically a very similar personality to his. By the end of an eventful Saturday, aside from one “accident” in the living room, Six Pack was beginning to warm up to Money. If they weren’t already becoming best friends they had the entire night to do so, or at least stare at each other all night, as we positioned Money’s X-pen and bed alongside of Six Pack’s bed.
The Greyhound Impact
It turns out, fostering another dog was just the medicine we needed. Prior to picking up Money, Erin and I, as a couple, were stronger than ever. In the past month, we leaned on each other more than we ever had in our 15 year relationship and neither one of us snapped. Individually though, we both felt like we were in some sort of “funk.” Some of our moodiness could be traced back to obvious things like not getting good sleep, not exercising as much as we should, and staying up too late on the weekends. But unfortunately a lot of it we reluctantly linked to what happened with J. And don’t get me wrong, trips to South Bend help, as does finishing projects around the house (especially ones dealing with the foster bedroom), and bourbon. Lots of bourbon. But leave it to our greyhounds to leave a lasting positive impact on our attitude.
It’s Callie constantly getting up on the foster child’s bed for her daytime naps (which still drives Erin crazy). It’s Six Pack almost running into ongoing traffic (on leash of course) because he’s too busy staring at me to realize what direction he’s running. Or when he tries to pick a fight with a goose only to realize the goose is protecting a nest and not backing down. It’s Money collecting our shoes to have as his own in his dog bed. My personal favorite is the look on a greyhound’s face when they do something unexpected. The other day, Money ran into our second floor bathroom after he had led us to believe he couldn’t do stairs by himself. Even though he was so proud of himself, I could tell he enjoyed me carrying him up and down those stairs. Unfortunately for him, his free ride was over at that point. He can do his own stairs now!
