When we had adopted Cairbre we were initially going to try to get a female hound, as Gleann always seemed to bond more with the girls than  the boys. Perhaps due to Scolaighe‘s influence when he was a puppy. But Cairbre was needing a place to land and was Gránne‘s half-brother, so that had been that. It took as almost exactly a year to feel we were ready for another. And as this might be the last we adopted before losing Gleann (wow, it’s hard to write that), we wanted to make sure we got him a sister. We also felt another rambunctious big male would over whelm him in his increasing frailness. Sadly, at the point we were ready, Greyhound Placement Service, NH where we have always adopted had only big, young, males. Beautiful boys, but not what we needed. And not cat safe and while Cairbre isn’t, either, he’s pretty low-key around the cats now, as long as he’s on leash or in his crate. So she referred us to Maine Greyhound Placement Services. So for the first time in our 20 years of adopting hounds, we went to a different kennel.
Our only specifications were female and cat possible, that would be gentle with our Gleann. The woman brought up this teeny, tiny, smallest-we’ve-ever-seen, red girl. She approached Gleann and tried to lick his face, he grumbled and she backed off. This was a good sign to us, she wanted to interact but respected his demand for space. She tested “cat possible.” We walked around with the three of them. They all seemed to expect her to come home with us, so she did. Meaning we have both our biggest and our smallest Greyhounds at the same time.
Pat C Kady, now named Ruadhán, is 4 years old and retired in August 2018. She is our first directly off-track hound, all of our other ex-racers were “bounces” who had been adopted and returned. And while many had adjustments to make, all the same, we’re finally experiencing seeing  a dog go from the structured comforts of a racing kennel, to the comparative chaos of life in a household of people who have constantly changing schedules.
It took awhile for her to relax snoozing on a dog bed near the couches. From the start she had no problem getting up on couches and the bed, but wouldn’t lie down on them. It was January 15, 2019 that she finally curled up on the end of the love seat. She was hooked, she has snuggled us while on either die of the love seat (I tend to stretch out on the larger couch, which kitty-cornered to the love seat, which has no arm on this end, so usually have a dog on the couch with me and one on the love seat beside me). But she won’t try the larger couch yet and will give up her position on the love seat if Cairbre, who is having sibling rivalry issues about primes spots, goes up to her. But it’s a start
We hope to have outside photos soon, but she would like it to be known that we really need to turn the heat up out there. However, except for small are of her butt, she is very thick furred compared to poor Cairbre who has the most pronounced alopecia of any of our hounds.
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