Adopt a Greyhound

Isaac tells me that April is National Adopt-A-Greyhound month, a concept sponsored by The Greyhound Project ("Adopt a greyhound, make a fast friend!"). They have a nice website with information about greyhounds as pets and adopting a former racer, as well as a database of adoption groups around the world, so there's no reason you can't find someone nearby needing a permanent home.

We took in our first hound, Dowland, in 1998, who came to us directly from a track in Florida and stayed with us for nearly 11 years before his death. It was only a few months before he was joined by Sandy, an older lady who had been bounced from her former residence. Sandy left us after only 2.5 years, making room for Arlo, our ADHD dog. Following Arlo, Azalea, who is currently with us, had a couple of years overlap with Dowland. After Dowland left last year, Grant came to live with us. It's hard to have just one at a time, we've discovered.

You can find plenty of facts and myths-dispelled about greyhounds with a bit of looking around. We do find that they are easy going companions, easy to live with and fitting in well with our generally lazy lifestyle. They also rarely bark–why do people get yappy dogs?–and they make other dogs look … wide. But I won't carry on right now; anyone who wants to talk greyhounds knows that Isaac and I are usually willing to do that.

My purpose was to share this charming little video (only 38 seconds). In it Cal, a former racer, essays a personal ad, looking for a permanent home. It was produced in 2008 by The Greyhound Project.

[YouTube link for those who don't see the embedded player.]

Posted on March 30, 2010 at 23.30 by jns · Permalink
In: All, Personal Notebook

3 Responses

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  1. Written by chris
    on Wednesday, 31 March 2010 at 07.53
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    Sandy was My Girl, a delightful puppy. Not that Dowland wasn't a lovely dawg, but he was NOT the sharpest crayon in the box. Sandy was definitely the brains behind that operation. Which is why I would send her Valentine cards.

    tell the story about Dowland and stairs, go on!

  2. Written by jns
    on Thursday, 8 April 2010 at 10.51
    Permalink

    Dowland was stronger on handsome good looks than brains, but there are plenty of greyhounds who rely even more on good looks to get by. However, Sandy was all you say, a smart and savvy girl who would brook no nonsense.

    Unfortunately, Dowland was plenty smart enough to worry neurotically about things, not least of which was using stairs, a lifelong dread of his from the moment he arrived to the day he died. For those who don't know, greyhounds fresh from a track kennel have never seen stairs before and have to be taught. Before he could deal with stairs as a way to go up, he had to discover "up"–that's one of my favorite stories. Did you have something particular in mind, Chris?

  3. Written by chris
    on Sunday, 11 April 2010 at 16.00
    Permalink

    just the story of teaching him how to use stairs

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