Tilly as a puppy
Tilly is the much beloved companion of her owner, Joanna, as well as Joanna's husband, Tim. Before Yumi came to live with me, he lived with Joanna and Tim briefly until his behavior problems became too much for them to manage.
Joanna and Tilly
Anyway going back to Tilly, while I don't have the complete story behind either of them, I've been able to piece things together here and there, so this is it.
I actually met Tilly for the first time in March 2013 when I attended a meetup at a local park, organized by some of the local adopted Greyhound community. Shortly after I got to the park, Joanna arrived with a beautiful young white hound. At that time, Tilly was still basically a puppy, and her immaturity was obvious. Young pups tend to stand out in the crowd because most adopted Greyhounds are at least 2 or 3 years old when they go to their new homes. While I was busy throwing a frisbee for Pi, I overheard Joanna say that Tilly was not a former racing Greyhound, and that she got her from a family who brought her over from Hungary. Of course, upon hearing that little bit of information my ears really perked up! What are the chances that two dogs from Hungary would meet each other by chance at a local park?
Tilly, the day I first met her
It wasn't until about a year later that I ran into Tilly and Joanna again. Joanna had contacted me about the possibility of attending one of our race meets, and I of course encouraged her to come, which she did. She arrived in the late morning with Tilly and stayed briefly to let her watch. Tilly didn't seem all too interested in the lure, but a lot of dogs can start out that way if they've never seen a lure before.
Fast forward a couple more years, and that's when I got the phone call from Barbara at Greyhound Friends for Life telling me about Yumi. At that time it didn't even occur to me that Yumi and Tilly were connected. It wasn't until I went up to the kennel to meet Yumi that I was able to talk to Barbara about him at length that I got the rest of the story.
Tilly enjoying some down time
Shortly after Tilly went to live with Joanna, Yumi's former owner contacted her about taking his other, older male dog, "Yummy." Of course, given how happy Joanna was with Tilly, she accepted and he went off to live with her. It is my understanding that Tilly and Yumi were originally purchased with the intent that they become a breeding pair. Given how similar they are in type, I'm assuming they came from the same breeder in Miskolc. For whatever reason, they were never actually bred and Tilly was given to Joanna.
Joanna was devastated about having to surrender Yumi to the GFFL, so when she found out I was fostering him she contacted me to offer whatever assistance she could, and asked if I could please keep her informed about his progress.
Since then, I've kept in fairly close contact with Joanna and she loves hearing updates about Yumi's new life with me. She and Tim even came out to see us at our Nationals last October, which was a nice little reunion for Tilly and Yumi.
Yumi and Tilly at NAMAA Nationals 2015
So in sum, that's the whole story as best I can tell. Tilly has a wonderful life with Joanna and Tim, getting to go for long walks and hikes everyday and basically being Joanna's shadow. Hopefully we will get a chance to meet up with them again soon.
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