Friday, March 21, 2014

All Grown Up

Maddie got her period. It is hard to believe that she is all grown up now. This was my first experience with an intact bitch going through a heat cycle. It was kind of fascinating, but not something Maddie needs to do twice.  My plan is to spay her in July when she is two years old.

For those that have intact non-greyhounds, you are probably thinking that 20 months old is a super late bloomer, but greyhounds tend to be.  Some take as long as three years.
Maddie's timing was excellent.  She started March 1st and we were not going to be traveling to any agility trials in the next four weeks so it was not too inconvenient.
Maddie went into season while we had foster dog, Grover. He was a fantastic playmate. Lots of play bows, darting back and forth, and offering to be chased.  He was completely irresistible... yet Maddie ignored him. In fact, she walked over to me for a hug.  I knew something was up then.
 "I don't play those silly games anymore. I'm all grown up."

During Maddie's special time, she was a little low on energy and did not carry toys around the house like she normally does.

The really fun part were the panties.  Maddie had pink and purple ones, but they just don't fit greyhounds.  The tail hole is way too big.  So big, you might call them crotchless underwear in fact. Completely defeating the purpose of putting them on your dog in the first place. So I had to jerry-rig it.
I would bunch up the material for a snugger fit around her tail and place a rubber band around it. The husband's first go at it resulted in this text:
With practice, Stephen got much better with the panties... and he does not hate me.
Luckily, Grover was out of the house before Maddie started to find him attractive. Luckily the newly neutered male seemed quite clueless. He just wanted to play. And how freakin adorable is he?  We liked him a lot!  He traveled to Maine a couple of weeks ago and was adopted last weekend!