Here is my Christmas gift hubby let me get!

I found an ad on CL for afghan hounds needing re-homing. I contacted the woman and she said she had a few left...getting divorced and they had to find new homes. They are AKC but you had to pay a large amount if you wanted the papers. I just wanted an afghan...low to no shedding if kept in a short coat style and still the sight hound that I love...so we opted to just pay the re-homing fee and no papers.

I went yesterday to go and look at the 6 she still had...4 boys and 3 girls. After a long talk with hubby we decided that we should just get the one instead of 2...they were all in serious need of ALOT of grooming and I didn't want to get in over my head. I have baby-sat a borzoi before and I know some of the larger hounds can be a bit shady with smaller animals...and I didn't want to take more than one and end up having it hurt one of our cats or kids. So anyhow after watching the group of them interacting with each other and the woman's kids I picked out this girl.

They call this girlie Sophie...she is about 2-3 yrs old according to the woman...I didn't ask to see her AKC papers...to be honest I just wanted to get out of there before I piled all 6 into the truck and came home to a husband who quickly would demand a divorce. Well not really, but man I could have imagined the yelling though. I can tell by looking at her nipples she has to have been bred...I would venture to guess either a few times or those 2 smaller puppies were hers. The woman said that one female had a litter of puppies...but I can't remember if she said Sophie was the mom or not. I think that all of them were related, which meant the pups would have likely been in-bred so that is the main reason I stayed away from the pups...they were very cute though.

Sophie seemed the most interested in the children, and wasn't jumping up all over the woman like the younger cream/white girl. The one female that was 2 colors...umm cream and chocolate phantom (poodle term I know) I think is called a domino? was the calmest of the group...but she was spoken for already. She didn't really want to have anything to do with anyone and seemed more interested in going back into the house anyway.

She was great on the car ride home...just laid in the seat on a blanket chewing on some chew toys I picked up. She is crate trained...I crated her to feed her becuase she does have food agression toward other dogs. She gets growly, but she has yet to try to bother the kids for food, or us while we eat...she has stayed in the crate or asleep at my feet or the end of the couch. I just gave her a herbal sedative (free from my groomer friend as a Xmas gift today) a few minutes ago and I am giving it a few so I can try to trim her matts a bit more.

The woman called her color blue, but I have no idea...she is FILTHY. I took these pictures yesterday after she settled in for a few hours...this is before I went at her with a pair of scissors. I have taken off 3 lbs of hair and matted mud clumps so far...after I work on her a bit more today, I will attempt a bath.

I think this is going to take a week to finish...but I am willing to try. I am hoping that perhaps if she is groomed and behaves well hubby might consider letting us go get the other female. If not thats okay, I am just glad to have helped this girl...she is a bit thin. I get her UTD on rabies tomorrow...she supposedly had her 7 in 1 booster shot early this year, but I gave her a intranasal bordetella/parvo vaccine before I left the lady's house to be sure it had time to take a bit of effect. I am keeping her somewhat quarantined in the kitchen until later today. I put her in the crate while the kids and I are in the living room, but while I am in the kitchen cooking, cleaning I put in here with me so I can make sure she doesn't hurt anyone. So far she has been totally ignoring everyone else except when they were outside her crate while she was eating she did growl but stopped when I said no.

I took these pics when I put everyone out side so I could bring her in and give her a spray down with kennel disinfecting spray in the tub. After she dried I made her lay down on the couch so I could start cutting some mats off. UGH is my back killing me!

I will post more pictures when she is done...maybe even before then. She looks awful in these pics, but I thought I would share the pictures in case anyone near to Indiana might want to give one of these guys a good home. I can give you the link to the post I found if you would like! They sure could use someone to give the rest of them a good grooming and love! I have some large sight hound experience and lots of knowledge of sight hounds as a whole breed, and I do know they have a high prey instinct. I picked this girl because I think she will be the best around kids and small animals...I cannot say for sure if afghans hounds are right for everyone. I do know many of the sight hounds are very highly prey driven and are not as quick to be trained as poodles. I don't mind that but some people would find either of these things very annoying...so you know, just be careful before you throw your heart into something that may not work out in the end. I am willing to take the chance and I really really really hope that she works out!