Tiger

Tiger has only one eye. It appears that his one eye was either bad at birth, or else an early trauma to it caused it to go blind. Heather Weir of Greyhound Connection in Colorado rescued Tiger from a farm in early 1999. He was very stressed out to be in a new situation, and she delayed his neutering operation until he felt better. He was exhibiting his stress by having very bad diarrhea, and she didn’t want to risk operating.

Tiger is so many things. But this look of his really summarizes it all — Wanting to be loved

So Tiger made his journey to the Greyhound Gang on March 6, 1999. A couple driving from Colorado to Tucson brought him here.

Heather had told me about the eye, and how no other adoption group would take him because of it. I didn’t feel this was a problem. I thought a cute patch would do wonders for him. What she neglected to tell me, mostly because she had 20 dogs at her home, and so hadn’t really thought he was too bad, was how shy he was.

He really did OK with me after a few days. But he is the kind of guy that is going to attach himself to one person, and then not to too many more. He will find the one person in the family to love — most likely the woman — and then he’ll be OK with the rest. But he’ll only really love one!

Love that one-eye look!

At the time Tiger arrived, I had a lot of workers on my property putting an addition on my home. Tiger was my guard and warning dog. Whenever anyone came down the driveway, Tiger was out there barking his fool head off. I would tell him to quit and he would. But he would continue to circle the strangers, letting out a bark every once in a while.

He did this to the men for two months.

This is everyone’s favorite big overstuffed chair.
Tiger’s very comfortable in it.

I had to go into Vegas for a week, and had the Kanab vet staying at my home with a few greyhounds. Tiger was one of them. I called her the second night, and she said that Tiger had refused to come into the house while she was there. I have a doggie door and he would come in and out through it, but he was mostly living outside, and it was cold at the time. I was livid. She’s a vet and left the dog outside in the cold ALL night. I told her to get him in, and then close off the doggie door.

I was so worried about him. When I got home, he was a mass of stress. When he tried to poop he would cry and cry, as he’d worked himself into such a state of anxiety that he had diarrhea and was constipated all at once. In a few days he was OK, but now I was really worried. How was I going to find him a home if he got this stressed out?

When I last left you, I was worried about how stressed Tiger was with me just going away for a few days, and leaving a not so competent babysitter to watch him. He didn’t do well, and I couldn’t imagine what he would do in a new home.

Then some people from Salt Lake City called me. They had seen Tiger’s picture and fell in love with it. They just kept going back to it. I tried to refer them to John Burt in SLC, as I like to adopt to people closer to me. And I give John all the northern Utah adoptions. They went to see John, but they really wanted to adopt from me. And they really wanted to adopt Tiger.

I gave them all the details. Really trying to prepare them for the worst that could happen with Tiger. The big D, the not coming up to them for a while, the barking at strangers, etc. They drove all the way down, expecting to take Tiger back with them. He, of course, wouldn’t go near them, and the husband was a bit put out by that.

So they drove home without Tiger.

Two days later they called me back and said they wanted him. I tried to talk them out of it, but they were insistent. So we met half way in Beaver, Utah, and Tiger left me. I watched the car pull out, Tiger with a woeful look in his amber eyes. My eyes filled with tears.

It is so hard to let go of any of them. The ones that stay with me longer are twice as hard. The special ones that need a little more love and understanding are even harder. I conversed with myself the whole way home. Had I done the right thing? Would he be happy? Did they deserve this special boy?

I was on the phone with them daily. The reports I was hearing made my heart soar. He was playing with the other dogs, he didn’t have the big D, and he was bonding with the woman, who had short dark hair like me. Everything was going far better than I expected.

Then I got an email: “His nose is running a lot, and leaving little puddles on our carpet. What can we do about that?”

Nose running. Puddles on a carpet from a nose running?

I called my vet, Heather, and asked her about whether a nose could run enough to leave a puddle on a carpet. Her answer was the same as my first thought, “What are these people thinking?”

A dog’s nose will run sometimes when they are stressed. A dog’s nose will not run enough to leave puddles on a carpet. We both knew that a question like this just meant that they were unhappy with Tiger on some level.

Tiger had done nothing wrong. He’d been better than expected. But his nose was leaving puddles on the carpet.

I spoke with the wife, and got straight answers. As a couple they had always had problems with making decisions. They tend to vacillate a lot about decisions, even once they are made. She confided that they’d even postponed their wedding.

So what was happening was that the husband was having problems with Tiger being so aloof, though he was not making much of an effort to get Tiger to bond to him. The husband was telling the wife, it was her choice, and though she wanted to keep Tiger, she was afraid that her husband would never attach himself to Tiger, and it would always be a bone of contention.

In situations like this, when the home is a good one, and the people are good people, but there is just something else going on, my first instinct is to do right by the dog. Which means getting him back to his first home.

So Tiger went back to Heather’s in Colorado for a while, as she was able to pick him up for me. No worse for the wear, and actually the chance to see him in a home and see how well he handled it was good. I won’t be so worried the next time.

Once I got him back from Heather, it took him about a day to decide he knew me and all was OK. He is back to following me from room to room; giving me that baleful, soulful stare from his one eye; running all over my acreage, and loving on me. I can’t wait for someone to know him as I do — he’s a special boy.

Tiger is really a silly boy!

He loves to run around my 2.5 acres, leaping over sagebrush. Blue has taught him that he can do this with a toy in his mouth, too. So here is this one eyed boy, jumping sage, with a dead stuffed bunny in his mouth. Just cracks me up!

The one eye does not bother him at all. You can approach him on that blind side, and he doesn’t even startle. He does sometimes run into doors or things because he doesn’t gauge the distance correctly with the one good eye. But it doesn’t ever stop him.

When he feels comfortable, he is the most loving boy. He will follow you everywhere, and park himself wherever you are. If I’m at the computer, he is there behind me. If I’m making the bed, he’s there watching me. If we’re watching TV, he’s curled somewhere near me.

He also very photogenic. He always takes a good picture. Something I’m very envious about.

The way around his shyness is to hold him when someone new comes to visit. Then I make the person approach him, getting down low and petting him. He strains to get away, and then starts to relax. Once he starts to relax, I take the pressure off of holding him, and he usually doesn’t run away. He if does move away, then he comes right back, and shortly thereafter will approach the person.

It’s really quite silly of him. He gets all wigged out, and then he’ll approach. With most shy dogs, I don’t force the issue, but it’s the right thing to do with Tiger. The only reason Tiger has not been adopted is because of this behavior. He’s one of the most gorgeous blue brindle’s I’ve ever seen, he’s really healthy, he’s really loving (once he knows you), and he’s even cat safe. Most people just can’t get past the ‘wiggyness.’ But Jeanie Bruce did.

Tiger in his favorite overstuffed chair

I met Jeanie a year or two ago when she was with a girlfriend who rescues Afghans. I was doing a Meet & Greet and they were shopping for dog food, and we had a lovely talk. Jeanie owned a greyhound, Becky, she’d rescued from the pound, and an Afghan and a cocker and some cats. She stayed in touch, and visited the Meet & Greets once in a while.

She called me a few months ago, and told me that Becky has passed over the Rainbow Bridge. She told me that when she was ready, she’d come to me for a dog, but she needed some time.

I knew that Tiger was the dog for her.

I gave her a month or so, and then I started e-mailing her about Tiger.

All it took was for her to read these Greyt Angel stories and see the pictures, and she called me and said, “Tiger’s the boy for me!”

She drove out here, and Tiger kissed her, and his world will never be the same!

Tiger meets Jeanie

He’s now sharing his home with eleven cats, an alpha female Afghan, and a female cocker spaniel.

We are all really greytful that Jeanie and her menagerie opened their hearts and home to Tiger!