time upstairs with us, and going places in the car. It seems it's
necessary to always have Corky or one of the other kids along, or
Lita shuts herself into a shell. I guess thats just part of her working
through her fears of the human world she now lives in. That's all
right, because having Corky along allows us to contact more people
about Greyhound adoption, and with her and Lita together, it's
always a million laughs.
We took Lita and Corky to FedEx's facility near Atlanta Airport
Saturday, then drove out to Carrollton to buy some dog food. The
owner of the store came out to see his first Carolina dog, and we
were so pleased Lita allowed him to pet her. And Corky licked that
poor man up one side and down the other. You can always count
on Corky to greet someone with gusto. The dog has never met a
stranger.
March 24nd: Dr. Brisbin contacted me, telling me that he knows a
well-known conservation biologist who is very excited about getting a
puppy from Lita; and he thinks we need to be thinking about finding
a suitable male to breed with her. Bris knows many folks in the dog
world, and told me someone to contact to see if they have what we’
re looking for. I have a couple more questions for Bris to answer
before I contact this man. For one, I’m not sure if we want to
actually own a male, or do we just want to use their male for stud
purposes. To my thinking, owning the male wouldn’t be necessary.
And, if the pups weren’t exactly what you were aiming for, you might
want to try a different male to sire the next litter. I don’t know....we’ll
gather many opinions and thoughts before we can make an
intelligent decision.
I want it to be known that we are not trying to be part of the problem
of bringing more dogs into this world, when there are already too
many needing homes in shelters. Working with endangered, ancient
breeds, however, is an important undertaking, in our opinion.
Tina and I took Corky and Lita to Newnan this morning, and we
actually took both of them into Petsmart. Lita was apprehensive to
begin with, and when the automatic door opened in front of her, I
had to hang on tight. Once inside, though, she did great. She met a
number of people and allowed some people to pet her. She stood
up on her rear feet, with her front feet on the counter top, and took
treats from the checkout girl. We were so happy with how well she
did. Of course, there again, she had Corky with her....and, there
were other dogs with some of the other customers. I haven't
discussed it with Tina yet, but I think it would be a great idea to
change Corky's name to Prozak, because of her affect on Lita! Just
kidding.
March 26th: Tina and I took Corky and Lita to Douglasville today and
visited Petco and Petsmart, taking them inside both places. Lita did
very well again! A dog trainer friend of ours works at Petsmart, and
although Tina and I have talked to Jana about Lita, she has never
seen Lita firsthand. Jana was amazed seeing LIta, as were a few
other folks who heard us telling Lita's story.
March 30th: Dr. Brisbin called yesterday while we were in Duluth at
Gwinnett Community Bank getting things settled, so that we can close
the construction loan. He left a message, saying he has two events
on his calendar he would like Lita and us to join him at in Aiken, SC.
The first of the two is on April 22nd, which is the date of the Doulgas
County Chamber of Commerce Business to Community Expo at
Arbor Place Mall. We will be in our booth for our first big
advertisement, so we won't be able to make that one. The other
should be no problem. Dr. Brisbin is meeting with the Board of
Directors of GROW (Georgia Rehabilitation of Wildlife) this weekend
here in Atlanta. The GROW Center has been proposed to be built in
Southern Douglas County. This would be a very welcome addition to
Douglas County and the Douglasville area. Please visit their website
and call your Commissioner and tell them you support having the
GROW Center be a part of the great Douglas County community. http:
//www.thegrowcenter.org/ This would be very high quality growth
for our community; good for the entire family and highly educational
for our children. You can't get enough good growth that always
attracts more good growth. I'm concerned if they can't get the
support they need to come to Douglas County, South Fulton will lure
them away with their new Serenbe Community and the coming city of
Chattahoochee Hills.
April 11th: Lita's becoming so used to car travel, she eagerly jumps
into the back of the Trailblazer now, and rides with her face between
Tina and I, eyes peering out the windshield. She happily, tempered
with caution, greets anyone now. And if Corky's along - a dog who
has never met an enemy - it loosens Lita up for anything. As I type
this, our greyhound Panama is lying next to me on my right,
greyhounds Corky and Butternut are lying behind me, and Lita's
asleep on the other side of Tina sitting at her computer. Lita seems
to feel like one of the family these days. Greyhounds Gretz and
Windy are less enamored with Lita, so they keep their distance. The
Whippets, being slightly spastic, won't stay calm around Lita, and in
our efforts to make her feel comfortable in the house, we make them
stay in another area for now. It'll all come together before long,
though, and they'll all become one, big happy family. Tina and I
have brought enough new members into this family, that we know it
just takes time to let the personalities fit themselves together.
April 15th: You won't believe it, but Lita has learned to sit on
command! This was something we weren't even able to dream of
two weeks ago. She was too fearful to allow us to stand over her to
give her the command. Now she happily sits for a treat. She
continues to move forward, with less fear than ever before. Still,
when Lita's inside, Gretz and Windy continue to need muzzles. I
don't think they can actually hurt Lita, but we don't want them to
make her bite them. A greyhound's thin skin makes them very
vulnerable to being hurt badly in a fight.
April 21st: Tina and I have been so busy this week, what with finally
breaking ground on our pet lodge, and with preparing ourselves for
the Business to Community Expo at Arbor Place Mall, beginning at
10:00 tomorrow morning, (Saturday, April 22nd) , we haven't had
much time to spend with the kids. Lita's taken it very well, though,
and seems ready to play each time we come home. Keeping her in
our basement for the first two or three weeks, she was kind of
insulated from our other crazy dogs and the deafening fuss the put
up every time we come home. Now that she's staying with the
Alabama Kids when we're out, she has learned to whoop and holler
with the rest. Her personality has been exploding over the past three
or four weeks, ever since we began taking her to Petsmart and to ride
along when we have errands to run. Our terrific neighbors, out for
their daily walk, saw Lita for the first time today. First time she's ever
seen Bob, and she wagged her tail at him and let him pet her on the
head through the fence. Simply amazing. The better she does, the
more I have to increase my expectations for her. She is so
intelligent, if she can continue to overcome her fear of new things, I
don't see why Lita can't become just one of the gang. Although none
of our dogs ever have the liberty of being off leash outside our
fenced in yard, I still won't let LIta be off leash inside the fence. If
she were to go over our fence, I just don't have very much
confidence in my ability to catch her running through the woods. I
know the day will come when I'll realize she considers this home and
she will have lost her desire to be on her own once again, but that
day hasn't come yet. She has her safe pen in the backyard where
she and the brainless Corky can run and play. To begin with, Corky
was unsure of Lita and seemed to step lightly around her. Now,
though, Corky has learned that Lita's a sweet girl, and she can pretty
much push Lita around.
May 28th: Lita had a good week. She continues to show her
intelligence by catching on to new "tricks" after only doing them a
handful of times. During our evening walks, she met two new dogs in
our neighborhood and one neighbor. Instead of showing fear when
meeting Ben (the neighbor), she wagged her tail and allowed him to
pet her head. This would have been unheard of a couple of months
ago. As far as the dogs she met, as is usual, she loved them. One
being Ben's Australian cattle dog, Babe, Babe was a little less
enthusiastic than Lita. Ben had never seen Lita, and when I told him
of her story, he was amazed at how behaved, and how beautiful she
is. It's strange how unknown Carolina dogs/American Dingos are.
They are truly unique, beautiful and highly intelligent dogs and
deserve some recognition. I am hoping Lita will help them achieve
that. The other dog she met, Sherlock, a dalmatian, went over very
well. In fact, they were enjoying themselves so much, Lynn,
Sherlock's owner, and I had to drag them apart. Next Saturday is the
Douglas County Humane Society annual pledge walk, and I am
hoping to have Lita walk with us. If I can pull that off, it will truly be a
feat.