Ebony

We Like A Challenge

Erin loves her special needs greyhounds. Every time we get the opportunity to request a dog as our own personal foster, we always try to request a “special” dog. Broken legs, sight issues, a dog that’s been in the kennel too long….we want them! Originally we were supposed to get Jewel, a greyhound with an injury that most likely will need surgery. But fortunately/unfortunately another foster home requested her, and we were left searching for a different greyhound that may be overlooked by other adoption groups. Another option was a male greyhound with an unknown leg issue that still needed a foster home, but because of Six Pack’s recent battle with a boy dog, we needed our next foster to be a female. So we asked about available girls and Prison Greyhounds president Mary responded with a recommendation about a female with a leg issue who had been waiting in Florida to see the veterinarian. We didn’t hesitate and offered our services and the opportunity for her to see a vet here in Indiana.

It’s difficult to see any obvious damage on her left front paw, but by the way she favors it, you know something’s not right.

We had no additional information on the pup until a week before the greyhound dog drop. Even then, there was little information relayed to us besides her name, age and that she had a leg issue with her front left leg. Taking into account the great history we’ve had with the kennel that was sending us this one and half year old “puppy,” we didn’t really need more details so we let Mary know that we were game.

Ebony’s Arrival

The first thing I noticed about Ebony when she was taken off of the hauler, was her curly Q tail and her apprehension.

She wasn’t necessarily skeptical of me, but more of her surroundings in general. It had been a pretty long trip for her, so I didn’t give her a hard time. While Erin was running around dosing the other haul dogs with Pedialyte, I was just trying to keep Ebony calm and happy. So we basically walked off by ourselves. She didn’t want to drink, didn’t want to eat, didn’t want to pee or poop, and didn’t want to leave my side.

Although she warmed up to us on the trip to PetPeople, it was short lived when she found out she was getting a bath!

We’ve helped bathe countless greyhounds and to be fair very few actually enjoy baths!

Making Herself At Home

First item of business on the “Fostering Ebony Task List” was to have her leg evaluated by a specialist at VCA. Although it didn’t appear to cause her too much pain, she was still favoring it. Turns out, not only did her front left leg have some sort of injury, but her left back leg did as well. The issues with her leg were severe enough that the doctor recommended that Ebony see another specialist after her spay recovery. Not really the answer we were hoping for, but the diagnosis could have been worse. Second item on the list is to restrict her activity as much as possible and get her acclimated to our home with as few of accidents as possible, but she is a puppy nonetheless!

Restricting her activity is a challenge, especially when all she wants to do is participate in things like walks with Callie and Six Pack.

Friends Forever

Knowing that Ebony would probably not be very big fans of ours after her spay, we first treated her to some social time with her greyhound friends.

It’s been pretty adorable to watch the way Ebony interacts with another greyhound that came up on her haul, Ruby. The two of them were able to hang out on a couple of occasions and both times Ebony was caught resting her head on Ruby’s back. The two of them shared a compartment on the haul’s trailer and are extremely comfortable with one another. We think they may be new BFFs.

Ebony will rest her neck on anyone that offers it up….including our former foster Dixie.

A Spay Will Knock You Down But Not Out

At the time of this post, Ebony is almost one week removed from her spay. The first night was a little rough for her as she refused to eat or drink anything, making us a little reluctant to give her any pain meds. To make things a little harder on herself, she didn’t want to lay down either. It was almost like New Dog Day all over again! However, she was quickly back to her puppy ways wanting to follow Six Pack around everywhere and hopping on her back paws whenever we’d call her name and give her attention. When she becomes available for adoption, we don’t expect her to last long. Since she never raced, she does lack some discipline when it comes to things like being crated. She tested not cat friendly, which will deter some of her cat loving friends, but otherwise, she’s a wonderful puppy that will make a great family addition.