Tom is starring on the NZ Life & Leisure facebook page today. My editor thought our readers would appreciate some of his silly pictures and I thought it would be a good chance to give you an update.
He is doing so well, very settled in and has claimed one of our couches as his own. We recently took him up north to my parents and he got on extremely well with our 14yr old terrier - my 12yr old golden retriever not so much which was expected, I'm not allowed to be Mum to two dogs according to Sam. Tom was great though, my family absolutely love him including my mum who was very unsure as she had never met a greyhound before.
We've discovered that he's an absolute klutz, always walking into something or giving himself a fright. He's good with bedtime but we've been working on teaching him that 7am is a more appreciated wake-up time than 6am (or 5am god help us).
He loves his walks but is good at telling us when he's done, 5k is the limit at the moment. And thank you for the tip about the kong, he adores it. Every time I arrive home I'm greeted by Tom with his kong in his mouth, ready to play. It's almost time for a new one as he has pretty much chewed through it.
We are taking him to the walk this Sunday, the last one was just before we were about to leave him alone for the first time and we found it so helpful to be able to talk to other owners who have been through the same thing. We were very anxious about it but found just being able to get advice and chat to the others really calmed our nerves and left us feeling like part of a great little community. Turns out he is absolutely fine being alone during the day, we leave him with his kong and some peanut butter and he doesn't even see us walk out the door. We've had no accidents or issues, I think he loves us going to work so he has the couch to himself.
So a big thank you for giving us our big muppet (as he has been nicknamed). Both Dan and I are surprised at how quickly we have become attached to him and him to us. Everyone who meets him just adores him, we are constantly meeting people in the streets and my sister, who is moving to Sydney tomorrow, drove down to stay the weekend purely to spend time with Tom rather than me!
We've been pointing everyone in the direction of the website so fingers crossed Tom helps others to find homes.