Coffee heat rising

De-Greyhounded…

It was weird, actually: the moment I saw the dog, I knew this was not gonna work. Hard to say exactly why. Gut feeling? Dog mental telepathy?

Friday afternoon, right at the height of the homeward-bound traffic, I schlepped Cassie, as bidden, to the darkest depths of a vast suburb that feeds the Valley’s ever-more-unholy rush hour. At a Petco store there, we were to meet a rep of the greyhound rescue group, who was to bring the candidate pooch to be introduced to me and Cassie. Presumably, that very evening we were to spirit him away in the Dog Chariot, to live doggily ever after here at the Funny Farm.

paduak_webPadauk is a pretty hound, not very big, with a rich brindle coat. He has the kind of neuter personality of a kennel dog — they don’t develop what we think of as “personality” until they’ve been around humans for six months or a year. But he did have one trait that marked him distinctly: the instant Cassie walked into the room, his eyes dilated eagerly and he watched every flick of her hair.

THAT looked like dinner to him, and he wanted to catch it.

After a while, he settled down a bit and actually sniffed at her as though he recognized she was a dog…upon which she tried to bite him.

Not a match made in doggie heaven, I’m afraid.

It was a little hard to tell how they might have gotten on, because the organizers had four or five hounds in the room where we met, along with four other prospective greyhound adopters and several people from the rescue group. It was a strange place for Cassie, it was crowded, and all of the dogs were no doubt a little stressed.

However, after observing Padauk’s initial response to the corgi, I realized that they could never be left together unsupervised — every time I walked out the door, even for a few minutes, they’d have to be separated with a door between them, or he would have to be crated (I really don’t want a big old dog cage sitting in my living room or family room…). And I figured the minute that hound saw Cassie shoot off down the hall after Ball or fly across the yard after Other Daughter’s cat, he would be right on her.

So Padauk was left on the far end of Tempe. Oh well. Probably for the best.

If Cassie is to have a live-in pal, it looks like she’d better get him as a puppy and he’d better be about her size when he’s grown. Then she can train him up to her own exacting standards…