Lilly's Adoption Tail

Friends of the Hound (the greyhound group we 'fostered' for) contacted us and asked us to write an 'Adoption Tail*' for Lilly to use on their website and I happily obliged.  You can view the Adoption Tail here or you can just read it below (but you really should check it out on their website).

If you're an Australian reader, you should have a look at the Darlings who are still waiting to be adopted.  Don't you want one?  Or two?  Or three?

* This is not a typo.  It really is Adoption TAIL instead of TALE.  Get it?  Like a dog's tail?  For some reason (possibly cause I'm a dork) I didn't get that right away and it really, really annoyed me that they'd spelled it wrong. 

Lilly is enjoying her new life and the veggies!

In November, I contacted Friends of the Hound to become a temporary foster carer.  We already had a greyhound (Alfie) and smaller dog (Harry), and although I wanted to help the organization out and trial having three dogs around the house, I didn’t want to make a long-term commitment to having a third dog. 

Until we met Lilly.

From day one we had sneaking suspicions that ‘temporary’ might become ‘permanent’ in her case.  While some dogs are wary of strangers and new surroundings, Lilly seemed to find her place in our mould immediately.  In fact, by the time we had driven home from picking her up Lilly had her head snugly fit in my lap.  And it just got worse (or better) from there!! 

 

Lilly is the first to greet us in the morning with an enthusiastic kiss, and is always at the gate waiting when we arrive home at 5:30.  She can fit in the smallest of places… no cushion is too small or couch too full!!  She’s even worked out how to get up into the hammock in our backyard—there’s nothing like trying to watch a greyhound maneuver herself into a swinging object… especially when you’re already in it!  There’s also nothing quite like watching a greyhound try to sneak oh-so-quietly up onto the bed after she thinks you’re asleep.  Once you tell her no she gets down with a great big sigh, giving you this look like ‘well, I had to try!’

So… my tomato crop may be failing (Lilly eats them right off the vine!), our dog food bill is growing, and its not quite as easy to walk three dogs as it was to walk two, but we couldn’t be happier with this new quirky, unexpected addition to our family!!

 Kinda cute,  huh?  Even though that last picture kinda makes them look like the Dogs of the Corn.  

The frosting's worn off of this love affair, though.  I'm totally returning Lilly after our most recent vet bill.  We took Alfie and Harry to the vet for their yearly vaccinations and it was a whopping.... actually, I'm not even going to tell you.  Its too earth-shatteringly shocking.  Suffice it to say that I'm seriously considering the possibility of seeing how it goes next year.  And that wasn't even Lilly's bill!  

How do people without vet-dad's cope?!  In the past, I've easily slipped into the 'finders, keepers' mentality when it comes to animals... with my love for great deals, combined with the knowledge that there's a vet-dad around to fix anything if the deal turns out to be a bit frayed around the edges, its mighty hard to pass up those sharpie and cardboard 'Free Puppies' or 'Free Kittens' ads you see on the sides of roads.  Even better if the handwriting's a bit bad or the spelling's off.  A 'Free Kiten' or 'Free Pupee' ad is a god-send, cause you KNOW you're saving whatever little bundle of cuteness you pick from an almost certain hell.  

But these days, I can't adopt everything I see on the side of the road.  Some of you might be saying; "But Jessica, don't you have three dogs already? Isn't that enough?" Yes.  I do.  But trust me, with our big backyard, if I had a vet-dad around, we'd have a whole heapin zoo full of animals.  Most unfortunately, we don't.  And I have to pay my vet bills.  I guess this is all just part of growing up.  Blah.*

*The vet DID tell me, though, that I can legally bring meds and vaccines for animals over from the States.  Which means that I'm loading up in April.