Sissy

Sissy is a striking, approximately 8½-year-old, white and brindle female. Sissy, along with Holly and Taffy, were the last three greyhounds in the inventory of A Place For Us Greyhound Adoption* in Albuquerque, New Mexico, which closed down. Sissy is not tattooed and was taken in by APFUGA when the elderly owner became unable to care for her. Sissy is a little shy, but warms up to people, and gets along well with other greyhounds. When Sissy first arrived her Protatek tick panel testing came back positive to Ehrlichia, and she has now been successfully treated. It is not known at this time if Sissy is cat or small animal tolerant.

*GALT sincerely thanks A Place For Us Greyhound Adoption for their 12 years of dedicated service to further greyhound adoption. Laurel Drew and Elaine Summerhill, along with their volunteers, will be missed in the greyhound adoption arena. See the Fall 2007 issue of Celebrating Greyhounds "Saying Goodbye: The Closing of an Adoption Group" by Laurel Drew – closing down is indeed not easy.

Sometimes you foster a dog that is friendly and well adjusted. There may be an illness and need to get well to become adoptable. That's pretty straightforward, and although you get to care for them, you realize that they would do well almost anywhere. Then there are the shy ones that come out of their shells and are quite wonderful. Those are special dogs. Then there is Sissy, a unique lady.

Sissy's background was apparently outdoors as a hunter in New Mexico. When we brought her home to foster her, we let her out in the backyard like we always do. Only, this time, she thought that's where she belonged. After about a half an hour, we realized that we'd have to catch her in order to get her in the house. And, although she was frightened when we did that, it was the only way to ever get her indoors. She thought she stayed outside. What a lonely life she must have had!

In the coming weeks and months, she learned to be more trusting. She was and still is somewhat of a wary and watchful hound – more comfortable with women than men. It took some time for her to allow us to approach her.

She did do one thing quickly. She adjusted to our routines right away. She seemed to instinctively know what we wanted whether it was going in her crate or to the back door to go outside. Feeding time has been easy also. At night, she sleeps on a pet bed, and is very quiet.

It has been very heartwarming for us to see the transformation in her over the last six months. She has come such a long way. She now comes to us for petting and attention, and seems to enjoy being with the other dogs and getting hugs from us. Now she's with the family and enjoys life a lot more. We've given her supplements and a high-quality diet so that she seems to be feeling her best.

She has a quiet but rather charming personality that draws you to her and can be quite playful. Sissy is extremely well behaved and congenial with the other dogs. She also has a very low, distinctive "rrrrrooooooo".

I have grown to care very much for her and wish her to have the most wonderful permanent home. She would make a great pet for anyone who wants a very sweet, intelligent girl, and who is willing to be patient for her personality to emerge - it's definitely something worth waiting for!

Sissy is a greyt dog with a sweet personality that is very intelligent and quickly adapts to routines. That will serve her well in the future, I'm sure.

Sissy's Foster Mom