She's a big girl, about 75 lbs. She's got the most beautiful brindle coat, sometimes we call her Tory Tiger Stripes. She actually does not respond to her name very well. She is full of energy, gives lots of little kisses, loves walks, loves to smell everything, and loves stuffie toys. She is very vocal! She would "talk" to us almost every morning and every evening, and sometimes midday. For such a big girl, her voice was really high-pitched. Roxie has a lower pitch than her, surprisingly. Tory got adopted 5 days ago. We only had her for about 3-4 weeks.
My whole family (in-laws included) thought that when we started to foster, I'd end up falling in love with the dog and just adopting it. That scenario would very much fit my personality. However, it didn't happen. I did love her, but she wasn't the right fit for our family. I purposely kept myself just a little bit unattached because we weren't planning on keeping her, and yet it was still hard to say goodbye when she went off with her new forever family. It was a bittersweet time, seeing how good her new family was going to be, but missing her vibrant personality as soon as we got in the car with just Roxie. And she was that - vibrant.
Fun things about Tory:
Her run is one of the most graceful things I've ever seen. Before having Tory, I thought Roxie was fast and agile and graceful. She is not. She is explosive and quite the tease. Tory was obviously trained to run, and it was beautiful. I really don't know who is faster; I think Tory might win a long distance run, but Roxie's explosive muscles would give her a great head start.
Tory also really loved to have her collar on. We take their collars off when they are inside, and every time we would go to put them back on, Tory tried to stick her head through both of them. Hahaha! She's such a cutie! Tory learned from Roxie that she had to stick her nose in every single bag we brought home from the grocery store, and Roxie learned from Tory how to be a little bit more playful. Tory didn't get the chance to pick up on many tricks, but we tried. Roxie knows her tricks real well, if we have a treat in hand.
Unfortunately, "free feeding" the girls didn't work. Tory's food gave Roxie the runs, and Roxie suddenly got competitive and tried to eat both bowls of food every time. It took about a week for them to learn to share the dog bed. Roxie would get on it when Tory was laying there, but would not let Tory on if she was on first. Tory also really messed with Roxie's sleep schedule. Roxie loves her sleep. A lot. Tory was up at the crack of dawn every morning, "talking" to us and letting us know she'd like to play and go on a walk. We had to shut all the curtains so light wouldn't seep in and Rhett could sleep til 8 when he gets up. Roxie will sleep until we get up and then make her get up to go out. Tory couldn't wait to go out every morning! So every morning we had to take them on a long walk just to let Tory release some energy, and yet those walks rarely did the trick. She also needed a midday and an evening walk. Roxie will walk with us when we go, but one short walk a day is good enough for her (outside is suuuuuuper scary, there are people out there). I think all the outside time was stressing her out. Tory would get walks sometimes while Roxie stayed in, Roxie never seemed to mind those walks haha. Roxie always walks by our sides, Tory likes to pull on the leash to go as fast as we possibly can, I often danced through my walks with them because of all the twirling and arm swinging and pulling and and untangling I did. If I didn't shorten Roxie's leash, it would drag on the ground. Tory never had that problem.
Both girls LOVE chasing after squirrels. Roxie has learned that she gets a lot closer to catching one if she sneaks up on it by stalking it til she's close enough to pounce. Tory would just run at it, which would scare it away before she could get too close (plus, she was on a leash), and Roxie would get a bit exasperated, I think. I wish we had an enclosed yard where we could have just let Tory out to romp around a few times a day and do zoomies. However, we don't, so we made do. I won't lie that life is a lot less demanding now that Tory is adopted, but she was a joy to have around.
Her new forever family were thinking of renaming her to "Leona." Which I think fits her perfectly. It's been 5 days and I'm still thinking about her and worrying about her. Is she adjusting well?Is she playing nice with her new siblings? Is she getting lots of outside time? Her new family seems wonderful, I don't worry one bit about how she is being treated, I know they're probably spoiling her. I'm just being a dog mom.
Fostering was a little harder than we expected, but it was mostly because Tory had SO MUCH energy. Rhett and I are already pretty low key people, and Roxie fits right in with us being the lazy bum she is. Living on the 3rd floor of a little walk up unit is hard when you have to go up and down so many times a day just to walk and relieve the dogs. We'd take them out together, but Tory demanded much more outside time than Roxie does. We were happy to give the girls plenty of outside time, though. It was only temporary, after all.
I don't know if we'll foster again right away, but I hope we can sometime down the road. I felt good, being a transition home, and I want to do it again. It's fulfilling to help dogs; I feel like I was meant for this just as much as I was meant to be a nurse. Thank you, American Greyhound for letting me be a part of the group!
And that's the story of Tory. Ta ta!
Mary the Dog-Mom
Lazy days :)
Mooches...
Car rides aren't the easiest things with two stubborn Grey's...
Tory started to roach! Right before she got adopted.
More car rides with these two goofs.
Tory (or Leona) and most of her new family. (One cat and one dog sibling missing from the photo).
