TGIE Back In Black Foster Experience

On Thursday, July 7th, Rhett and I took a small road trip to Valparaiso, IN to pick up a greyhound. This Greyhound's name is Shadow. He came in with the "TGIE: Back in Black" Greyhound group from Coldwater, MI. TGIE stands for The Greyhound Inmate Experience. Yes, Shadow spent 10 weeks in a prison with 2 handlers named David and Tom. They kept a detailed log of Shadow's experience at the prison and when the time came, they gave him to American Greyhound to be fostered and adopted. "Back in Black" refers to the fact that every dog in this haul was black. Black dogs are least likely to be adopted from shelters or anywhere else, so the group decided to raise awareness for this issue by taking all black dogs this time. Shadow is, as his name suggests, quite the shadow dog. He's adorable! His racing name (from a track in West Virginia) was DKC Burrito, but all dogs at the prison get renamed to something more "pet-like."

I'd like to give you a rundown of the prison programs for dogs, because it is one of the most positive, amazing programs out there. All involved are benefited, from the inmates, to the grey's, to the future adopters, and even for the rescue groups. The dogs get picked up from a track and dropped off at a prison, where they undergo veterinary care such as worming treatments and vaccinations. Then get a bath! They are assigned two handlers and spend the next 24 hours/day, 7 days/week with these men for 10 weeks. During this time they are trained, socialized, fed, played with, and loved. The inmates sew dog beds and coats, knit blankets, compose poems, and for Shadow's group, they all hand painted bags to send the Greyhound "home" with. Inside the bag was Shadows stuffed bunny, fleece blanket, toothbrush and toothpaste, and the log of his stay at the prison. David and Tom wrote about how he did each week. How is appetite was, if he was scared of anything, how well he followed commands, how well he socialized with other dogs and inmates, how he played, etc. One of the things that touched me most when I read Shadow's log was that he sought out the disabled inmates and would let them pet him as long as they liked to. The whole log of Shadow's prison experience was seeped through with love. Tom and David really fell for him, not that anyone could really help themselves around him.

The prisons which are elected to have this program, must have all the inmates on good behavior. Good behavior means some of the inmates get dogs! The inmates who get to be handlers are serving life sentences, and must show exceptional behavior. Though all the inmates get to interact with the hounds during outside time, etc. It's a great reward system to keep prisons safer for all. Morale gets boosted for the cops and the inmates at the prison. The whole prison environment becomes enriched. The inmates families have comfort when they talk to their loved ones and hear the joy in their voice about working with the hounds. The greyhounds come out well trained, and very adoptable, which is great for the rescue as it makes room quickly for more hounds to be rescued. The future forever families get a wonderful dog. For me, the best part is hearing how these men, who have committed terrible crimes against humanity, now get to experience unconditional love. It gives the inmates more sense of purpose, to provide love and hope to a dog just rescued, and to even provide coats and beds and blankets that they make themselves! They learn hope and joy from these hounds; they learn what it is to be accepted for who they are. The hounds don't care what crime was committed, they have the best deal of all: and they are given the means for a successful adoption into a loving forever home. On top of which, they are provided with lots of affection until the time they leave the program. And did I mention, it's FREE?? That's right, it doesn't cost the prisons a dime (no taxpayer money), as all food and supplies are donated to/by the TGIE group. They're non-profit organization that manages the hounds going in and out of the program.

I know it is hard for the inmates to say goodbye to these beloved dogs, but they know that the dogs will be going to good homes. And after the dogs leave, a new haul arrives! A new hound to bond with, train and love.

Next post I'll actually talk some about Shadow. He got adopted almost a month ago now! I emailed the TGIE program head about Shadow's stay with Rhett and I, as well as his adoption, and she then sent the update along to his handlers. I'm just so impressed with the whole program.

A few pics to show Shadow's experience with us:

The black dogs. Pick up point in Indiana.

Shadow's Inmate Journal.

His ride home with us. He was tired, and just wanted to be close to us.

He liked going for car rides.

He thought he was sooooo sneaky, just putting his bum on the couch, but not his paws. 

The ride to Petco in Indiana where he was officially adopted.

Love you, Shadow!

I'm Not A Foster Flunkie!

Hey all! It's been just a bit, I know, but I have to share with you all about my first foster dog, Tory Lane.

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).

First Time Foster

Today was an eventful day; and it all started last month.

I'll explain. I have felt like our family is incomplete. I am by no means "baby hungry," but I am pretty "puppy hungry." While I don't know if we could actually take on a second dog to call our own at this point in our lives, I still knew I wanted another one. We were at first concerned about space, food, financial burden, and mostly space.  We still talked about it and dreamed about it. One of the biggest things we talked about is how much better Roxie does when she's around other hounds. It was a daydream I liked to entertain often. We'd talk and talk and talk and laugh about it. Every so often after adopting Roxie I'd get an email asking for anyone to open their home to foster, because too many dogs were coming in and there was not enough room for them all. How can you turn down a rescued dog? Many people associated with American Greyhound have more dogs than should probably fit in their houses, but they foster them and love them until the lucky dog finds its forever home.

Finally I was getting overly excited about my daydream, that Rhett said, "Maybe we should try fostering first." I just stared at him with a grin on my face. He made the deal with me that if I would be the one to ask permission from our landlady, and be the contact for American Greyhound, he'd be happy to foster. Then it was Rhett who started bugging me about it. He'd ask almost every day if I had contacted our landlady yet. At the time we decided to offer our home as a foster place, there were a few problems with the pipes in the building and I think some other things were going on. I wanted to catch my landlady in the best mood possible, so I waited. I waited almost 2 weeks to make sure everything was good and no complaints were made or repairs needed to be done around the place. Funny how the tides turn and Rhett was the impatient one to get another Grey into our home.

Our landlady took a few days to think it over, and when she got back to us she commended us for our efforts in rescuing dogs. She has rescued many herself. She told us that as long as it was only one other dog at a time, we were welcome to foster. Overjoyed, I shared the news with Roxie's foster mom first, who then put me in contact with the foster coordinator. That was around February 17th. Due to some unforeseen personal circumstances, we didn't contact the coordinator until late February.

Then we waited a little more. March 1st rolled around and I got a call back. There was a girl who was being returned to AG and would need a foster home. Because she had already spent a year as an adopted pet, she was used to retirement, and would likely make a great first foster. We said yes. The time and date for the return of the dog was set, all I was told is that her name was Tory. Of course I looked up her old bio on AG's website. Her racing name was Tory Lane, how cute is that? There wasn't much said about her, but I could see she was a beautiful brindle, and good racer.

That brings us around to March 10th. While I am typing this, it has still been less than 12 hours since we received Tory. During the 10 day wait, I had a myriad of emotions run through me. I thought to myself, "these circumstances had better be pretty extreme to be returning a dog. The only way American Greyhound could get Roxie back from me is over my dead body." I was upset at the person who would so casually cast aside a dog after having them for a year. How can you do that? I also felt bad, because if that person is anything like me, the circumstances must be extreme to return a dog. How am I to know what this pup's situation is? I wasn't sure I wanted to meet this person who was returning their sweet dog for fear of either crying, or wanting to punch them in the face.

Before I continue my story, I would like to say that I do understand when people have to return a dog. Perhaps the dog just doesn't blend well with the family, perhaps there's safety issues, or perhaps the adopter just wasn't as prepared for a dog as they thought they were. Most of these cases can be determined within the first few weeks with the dog, which doesn't really allow the dog to adjust to a "forever home." Many Greyhounds who come into AG's care require special care and treatment. Some are dependent on Prozac just to function. It's not easy to take in a dog like that. If you are unable to take care of a dog, I am all for it being returned to a place where it will be taken care of and loved. I'm grateful to the man who kept his contract with AG and returned the dogs to the rescue (Rhett and I had to sign the same contract with Roxie. We cannot ever give her to anyone else, or sell her [the thought horrifies me], if we have to give her up, the contract states she must return to American Greyhound.)

Rhett and I arrived at the determined meeting point (in Indiana) around 2:30. It was cold and windy outside. Tory immediately came up to greet us. She gave me kisses and jumped up to sniff Rhett. She had a brother with her who would be going with another foster family. The man who was returning them came around the car with an armful of things for the dogs. He looked very nice, he greeted us with a warm smile. He started dropping off the food bins, the dishes, we got a kennel for Tory, then this man brought out a stuffed alligator, and said, "this is Tory's toy that she just can't live without." I realized in that moment this would be a heartbreaking scenario for me. I wanted to give this man a big hug and tell him I'd take the best care of her ever. The American Greyhound president, Jeff, was there. He talked to the man quietly, and before leaving wished him the best of luck (with his wife, I think he said?) I knew this was an extreme circumstance. This family really could not take care of these two beautiful dogs (who looked very well taken care of). I don't know what is going on in these peoples lives, and this man whose name I don't even remember held himself together very well. I am sure he had already said his goodbyes to the dogs, but I saw sadness in his face. I did almost cry for him there, but I held myself together. I don't know if I could ever have the strength to do what he did with such a calm demeanor.

Now here I sit watching her sleep in her kennel, which we set up right next to Roxie's kennel. Praying that she will be happy, and learn to love us, and know this is in her best interest. She's been so unsure about everything. She's much bigger than Roxie, but her voice is a lot higher. She talks to us a lot. Whines and grunts and even little barks. I can't tell exactly what she wants, but she had a lot of nervous energy today. We took her on a walk to a small dog park where, after a few minutes on the leash, we let her off the leash. She didn't really enjoy the freedom the way Roxie does when she's off the leash, but at least she got some energy out. She and Roxie seem to be getting along. I'm hopeful this will be a good friendship for the both of them.

Whoever this man is, keep him in your prayers awhile. Keep Tory in your prayers, too. I'm praying she will open up to us, trust us, and find a good forever home soon. Mostly I pray she will be comfortable and at ease here with us. I can't imagine what she and her brother must be feeling, nor do I know how deeply their feelings extend. She's a good girl with a lot of love to give.

I'm finally a foster mom! It's new and exciting and a little nerve-wracking. I feel like I want to do so much for Tory, but I don't know what or how. I guess we'll learn together. I am so grateful to be part of the foster team at AG, though. I've been wanting to be more involved in the rescue, and I finally feel like I am. I needed this. As much as I know I was meant to be a nurse, I know I need to help rescue dogs my whole life long. Rhett and I have a lot of compromising to do. He says 2 dogs is the maximum we can ever have, 3 if we're fostering. I say 10 to 12 would be acceptable :) Of course we'd need a yard first, and I don't want to leave the city just yet... So we'll keep our one and continue to foster one more at a time, until we can do more. Though I am also helping by donating some art work of mine to the annual "Winning Hearts, Not Races" American Greyhound auction! April 9th, I'm so excited! It's a whole big to-do with some pretty awesome auction items. My paintings will be part of the silent auction. I just hope they do well and bring in a little extra money for the Grey's.

I truly believe in rescuing dogs. If you need anymore proof, just look at my life 18 months ago. I was a depressed and anxious wreck. Now I'm a happy dog mom and also a foster mom. #adoptdontshop

Woof woof!

Mary, Rhett, Roxie, and Tory