I forgot to mention that Cookie has been by my side constantly since Sunday (after she spent Satuday cuddled with Tex's collar) including following me to the powder room.  She says I'm boring and not as entertaining as she previously thought.  She's lonely when I'm not home, even when Rich is home.  We're doing lots of environmental enrichment but she says she needs another dog. 

She's also doing something she's never done before.  Tex was a master of one ear up and one ear half mast.  Incredible cuteness.  Cookie has always been both ears straight up or both ears half mast but most of the time, she keeps her ears pinned to her head.  On Saturday, she suddenly started doing one ear up and and half mast, the same ear that Tex would do too. 

Introducing Gable Will I Am:

We met in a local park so he wouldn't feel like he had to defend his turf.  Cookie instantly asked him to play.  He wasn't sure about that because he hasn't been around any greys that like to play!  They were happy to sniff and walk together.

We went back to his foster home and hung out for several hours.  He is social, outgoing, incredibly pushy, but not a real leader...yet!  He would try to fill the void if no one steps up to lead but he doesn't have enough experience to do that.  I can see why things failed in his previous homes as he was the first greyhound for each home.  Pushy greyhounds need very firm rules at first - I'll actually use NILF on them for a few months to establish boundaries but soon plenty in in life is free.  Kitty was(is) an incredibly pushy greyhound and I had to have multiple in house interventions at first because we just couldn't communicate in a meaningful way.  As Kitty got older, she eventually became a decent leader.  She trained Nixon and he was a better leader than her...although when hurting he was a bit of an @ss.  Most people are too so I always gave him a pass on that.  Sorry to anyone whose dog's got a correction from Nixon.  I know two did at the last VA get together.

Willy is extremely emotional right now.  He's holding himself together well but he is trying so hard to make us like him.  The car ride home was over 5 hours and he had two emotional breakdowns.  The first time, Cookie just let him swap spots with her.  The second time, she stepped outside her comfort zone and did this.  Cookie hates strangers touching her butt.  This is a huge no no!  She just looked at him and sighed in resignation when he did that.  They stayed like that for 2 hours until we pulled into the driveway.

We took a quick walk before heading into the house.  Cookie was too tired but eventually agreed to do it.  She surprised me again by sandwiching Willy between us.  Nixon used to do this to her when she was afraid.  Kitty did this to both Nixon and Toughie when we first got them.  Toughie pretty much always was walked this way at night because he was afraid.  No one was allowed near us outside after dark, not even Rich unless he left the house with us.

A lot of Willy's paperwork has been lost as he went from home to home.  Three adoptive homes prior and three foster homes.  All of the notes from the track are gone so I'm going to see if I can find his trainer.  Tomorrow he goes to meet Dr. Huff for the first time.  His rabies certificate and tags were lost by his second home so he's going to have to get another rabies shot.  Cookie will get a chiropractic treatment tomorrow and hopefully an acupuncture session in the next week.  She asks for acupuncture by presenting me with the spot you put the first needle in.  She gets more than acupuncture though - trigger point massage, ROM exercises, and checking for any new ouchies. 

He doesn't know how to go up and down stairs.  I was showing him the landing and getting him to put one leg up on the first stair.  The second time, he decided to scramble up the stairs in a way that made Rich jump up and scream, "IS EVERYTHING OK?"  Willy is now sleeping next to Rich in the office.  We'll probably put him in the webmaster harness to teach him to go DOWN the stairs.  He can do the back porch stairs, all 5 of them.    There are 10 to go back downstairs.  Excitement the first day home!  🙂  He's sleeping really hard too so I guess getting up the stairs was stressful.