Sitting with Holly, Day 1

Holly shows Dusty around the backyard.
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Dusty and I are settling in for our first evening with Holly and her cats. We arrived here right at noon, just as Frank and Janice were on their way out the door for a five-day trip to an out-of-town family event.

Holly is an older red greyhound. Janice told me her age a couple of weeks ago, but I don't recall exactly how old she is. I'm thinking she's 10, but it might be a year on either side of that.

She shares her house with five cats. I've become friends with Luna already. Dusty expended a lot of energy barking at Luna on a couple of previous visits here but by now mostly ignores her.

Making herself feel right at home
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I have yet to see any of the other four cats. I think Dusty might have seen one of them because she bolted through a couple of rooms barking a couple of minutes ago. Janice told me one of them stays outside and the other three come and go, though they mostly hide. I have feeding instructions for all of them and will probably see one or two more in the morning when the wet food comes out.

Dusty's been great since we got here. She knew something was afoot this morning when I started packing a duffel bag and throwing things into a few plastic grocery bags. She shadowed me every step I took for a couple of hours this morning before I finally put her in the Kia Koach for the drive here.

She's had a great time exploring Holly's back yard, staring into the backyard swimming pool and raiding the boxes of squeaky toys scattered throughout the house. She's on a great adventure, and she's loving it.

Here's Dusty playing with one of the toys she found:

Holly, though, wasn't happy earlier this afternoon. She also knew something was happening as Frank and Janice spent their morning packing and getting things ready for my arrival. I did notice, right after I got here, that Holly whined fairly aggressively when Janice disappeared through the door to the garage. The poor girl did not like that, even though Frank and I were seated talking not two feet away from her. That told me Holly definitely is a momma's girl.

Holly looks for mommy to come back home
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Frank and Janice left about 20 minutes after that, and Holly protested for about an hour, searching the house, staring out the front window, standing at the front door, groaning out her little whine the whole time. She finally did settle down around 2 p.m., and she's been fine since -- finally chewing down the dental stick Janice gave her right before she left.

Holly and Dusty both are curled up in nearby dog beds, both enjoying their early-evening naps. I'm going to take Dusty out on her leash for some neighborhood exploration in a few minutes, and I'll give them their dinner in about an hour. But I suspect both tired greyhounds will spend most of the rest of the evening fast asleep while I kick back in this great family-room recliner and surf some baseball and hockey on this excellent TV in front of me.