When I first started looking to get a dog I gravitated towards Rotweillers. A friend of mine when I was in the service had one and I had fallen in love with their protective nature. But, my wife was not all comfortable with their size or their strength. She just felt that it would be too much dog for her to handle. So, I shrunk the size down but not the protective nature of the animal and started checking out Doberman Pinchers. One of my Dad’s friends had always had one and it was one of the most well trained dogs I’d ever known. My wife and I got as far as actually having somone from DARE (a doberman rescue group) come out to see if we would meet their standards for adopting a dobe, but again the size AND the intensity of the breed didn’t leave my wife with any warm fuzzies.

One day my wife started showing me pictures of greyhounds. Now neither of us really knew anything about them but as we started reading more, the idea of adopting one of these ex-racers really started to percolate in our minds. It wasn’t long before we were itching to meet one in person. We started looking at the websites of local adoption groups and found one that was having a “Meet and Greet” where we could see some dogs. Unfortunately it was up in Hagarstown a good 1 1/2 to 2 hour drive. But we had the itch and decided to go up anyways. Well there was only 1 owner with her own dog that showed up, but we didn’t care, we fell in love with her dog and we were hooked.

We went thru the adoption process, had our home visit and did our homework. We purchased all the items that we’d need, crate bedding, leash, food bowls, etc. and were itching to pick out a dog. I can’t remember which one of us saw Shirley first but we both agreed that she needed to come to our house. We adopted her shortly after that and changed her name to Tigger, it just seemed more appropriate for a red brindle.