Scarlett,

I saw on the cat thread that your daughter has a greyhound and cats. We had a really sad experience recently when we adopted a greyhound for our son. She was a wonderful and sweet four-year-old and we were thrilled to get her. The agency told us absolutely NOT to crate her. We were very careful to let them know that we foster kittens and wanted one who had been fostered in a home with cats. She was completely oblivious to the kittens. They even slept on her for the warmth. We'd had her a month and we were outside talking to neighbors for about 15 minutes and when we came in, she had killed two of the kittens and seriously injured a third. She was so proud and thought she had done such a good thing that she "displayed" them on my son's bed. We had to send her back and I was horrified to hear that they put her down. That agency is now being investigated. It turns out that we should have crated her for at least 4-8 weeks until she completely acclimated to our environment. It was also found out that she had only been off the track for a couple of weeks and should never have been adopted out so soon.

Has your daughter ever had any problems with her greyhound and her cats? Our vet told us that sometimes the dog can suddenly "snap". It's like a flashback and is especially common if they were trained with live bait (which is illegal, but we all know they still do it).

It amazes me that in the state of Florida there is a case pending trying to shut down bingo. IMHO, people willingly participate in that, whereas, these poor beautiful animals are not given a choice and lead a miserable life. Grayhound racing is the racket the government should be going after.

Jayne, that's heartbreaking for your family, the poor kittens, and the greyhound. Ouch!

My late beloved Scottish terrier, MacDuff, was not much of a traveler, but did indeed love the great outdoors. On the rare occasions we had to kennel him, he spent a great deal of time outdoors, and all the kennel owners thought he was very smart. One day during my first year of university, my mother heard him crying and whimpering. She didn't know where he was in the house, and began to look for him. She found him lying in the hallway, up against my bedroom door. He missed me so much, he'd moved as close as he could to where my scent was strongest in the house! My mom opened my bedroom door, and he entered, looking everywhere, and sniffing everything. Eventually he ended up in front of my closed closet door, and my mother had to open it for him so he could inspect it for my presence. Disgusted at having found nothing/ no one, he exited the room, my mother closed my bedroom door, and he re-positioned himself against it, like a little sentry until my mother phoned me in my dorm room so I could "talk" to him on the phone!

BC

Oh Bookie! I can just picture that sweet little dog!

Jayne, the dog was fostered first off the track with a family with a few cats and children. She is a female and amazingly sweet. My daughters cats sleep with her and boss her around. My mom got a greyhound this past year and she too is living with a cat that bullies her.
It might depend on where the dogs come from. My daughters come from some Greyhounds as Pets organization that has people who just foster them, so they can adapt to living like normal dogs with people.
I agree, it is so awful that they still race them at all.
Dixies story:
She is white with black spots, about 60 lbs. Very gentle and sweet. She was a winner, so they bred her. Too often and continued to race her.
Her bones became weak and running around the track one day, her thigh broke. The owner took her to the vet and said 'Put her down'. The vet said he could fix it but she could not race. The owner said 'Put her down'.
The vet said 'OK', then operated on her leg and when she was able to leave, his nurse took her home with her.
The vet then called the Kennel owner and told him what he had done. Luckily, the kennel owner said he didn't care, as long as he didn't have to pay for anything. They neutered her also.
So she was fostered and my daughter got her about 3-4 years ago.
She still runs like the wind...with a big smile on her face.

All this greyhound talk reminds me that when I was walking on the docks in Halifax, Nova Scotia, this September I accidentally encountered a big parade of rescued greyhounds and their owners. It happened to be International Greyhound Rescue Day (or something like that), and the local rescue group was distributing literature and showing off their hounds. Not only were the dogs smiling, but I was, too, and I got to scratch behind a lot of ears. They are the sweetest dogs.

When I came back from Italy, there was a woman who had just returned from Turkey on a river cruise standing in line near me during customs. She had a laundry basket-type-of-thing with a lid and 2 little floppy eared fluffy white puppies with black and gray spots (think Pyrenees/Dalmation mix) that kept poking their heads out. I asked the woman about them and she said that she was on the cruise and saw the 2 puppies on a river bank as the boat was stopping. She asked one of the crewhands about the dogs, and he said that people leave dogs, especially female dogs, there a lot. She spent the rest of her vacation getting vet checks and customs clearance to bring the puppies home to her farm in Maine.