My Greyhound Saga--An Introduction

[Guest Mr_Owski]

Hi there,

 

Since my girlfriend and I have taken a dive into the world of greyhounds, I figured I’d make my first post on here a doozy. I apologize for the long back story, but a lot has happened to us.

 

A year ago we got our first apartment together while she attends graduate school. Her family is huge on cats, and mine have no desire for or love of dogs. So when we got settled into our new place the conversation came up relatively quickly about getting one. She’s been hung up on golden retrievers for a long while, but I have huge objections to shedding. We entertained the idea of a golden doodle, but the high energy level we had seen with several at a local dog park had made us question our choice. After watching the AKC championships on TV, my sights were then set on a pharaoh hound. For whatever reason(s), she wasn’t sold on them, but I liked the sleek look a lot of sight hounds possess. One day when the topic of a dog arose again, we decided to peruse the different dog breeds on a website. I asked if she’d ever consider a greyhound, but neither of us had ever met one before in 24 years of life. We started doing a bunch of online research to see if the breed would be a good fit for our lifestyle. We’ve learned a lot from this website.

 

Spontaneously, the day after Valentine’s Day, I asked if she’d like to head to a local greyhound kennel to see if we wanted to pursue things further. Needless to say, she fell in love instantaneously. We had a dog on hold by the time we left. I’ll admit it was initially out of the fear of potentially losing that particular dog to someone else. So when we got home the serious talks began of budgeting and how we would make it work. We were both extremely nervous since neither of us had owned a dog before, and getting a 70lb male was also daunting to us. We did our price shopping at the local petsmart just to see what we’d be getting into (although we bought most of our supplies online). Just by happenstance we were looking at the dog crates when a middle-aged gentleman started asking us what type of dog we were planning to buy. When we said “greyhound”, he unzipped his jacket to reveal an “Adopt a retired racer” t-shirt. Turns out he owns 3, has fostered numerous others, and has volunteered time at both local greyhound kennels. We couldn’t believe our luck, and he served as our greyhound liaison for asking questions and reassuring us about our decision.

 

Sure enough, one month after visiting the kennel we brought home our 3 and a half year old boy, Nattie (racing name: Netanyahu) with 100 races under his belt. Over the past 6 months he has been a joy to watch open up to us and to the retired lifestyle. He’s a velcro dog and loves to lean. Took him a little while to master the stairs and to understand what toys are, but now he loves to fetch even when it brings him to the point of wheezing. Despite him being initially labeled as not cat safe, he got along great with my girlfriend’s cats when we visited home, and he has no issues with small dogs. He has a curiosity to say hi to all animals, but after the initial sniff introductions he has no inclination to play with other dogs. The fact that their endurance is inexistent has been great having a dog that has such a low energy around our apartment once he gets out his running. He has mastered how to give paw, sit, stay, down, take a bow, and to wait with a treat on his nose until I say so. He’s unlike any other dog I’ve ever seen.

 

Upon getting him, we were excited to learn about greyhound-data.com and the ability to view his lineage and racing history. We learned that he was only 1 of 2 dogs in the litter, which from what we’ve heard is uncommonly small. His brother, T’s Cattywhompus, was still competing with 126 races at the time we had adopted Nattie. However, the race entries stopped at that number back in March, and we periodically checked to see what he was up to. There was no picture of him, and I had tried several times to get in touch with the track, owners, and trainers to no avail.

 

Come May, the kennel we got our dog from had their 20^th anniversary party. We ended up meeting a guy who owned retired racers and was trying to get more involved in the racing dog ownership side of things. He graciously took my information to try and see if he could locate our dog’s brother. Sure enough, a week later he told us the brother had pulled a leg muscle and was resting on a farm….I’ll admit I have no idea what that meant. We were not looking to get another dog at that point because we had only had our current one for barely 2 months. However, we still told him to let his trainers know that in the event T’s Cattywhompus was to be retired to let us know since the idea of owning the only 2 brothers was very sentimental and appealing. We weren’t expecting the next turn of events.

 

We got an email 6 weeks later saying that his brother was for sure done with racing and that we’d have to give a decisive yes/no whether they would ship him up to North Carolina from Florida, or else he’d stay down there to be adopted. My girlfriend and I were very nervous about making an impulsive decision or getting in over our heads. Given the ease of ownership and amount of enjoyment we’ve gotten out of our first one, we decided to give the go ahead and have him sent up to our local kennel. T’s Cattywhompus arrived here on July 4^th. We made numerous visits to see him and to reintroduce our dogs. After a short vacation and visit home across the country, we finally sealed the deal and adopted our second greyhound within 6 months on September 2^nd. Whompus, as we now call him, is settling in just fine and is learning how to be a house dog. Even over the past 4 days we’re already seeing small changes. There’s still a lot of progress to be made, but this breed is ideal. We love them. Lol I can’t say we’ll be getting any more in the foreseeable future since our space is limited, and I don’t wish to buy a huge car. Had this breed been overly rambunctious or energetic we likely would’ve stuck with one, but we’ve learned how easy and tame they can be…that has made our household all the better.

 

Here are shots of our first, Nattie:

 

 

This is the first day we met Whompus and the first time they've seen each other in over 2 years:

 

And these are the recent photos and moments we've been able to enjoy over the past 4 days:

Edited September 6, 2013 by Mr_Owski

[Opals_mom]

Awesome! I love me some black hounds so I'm a little jealous They are so super easy, aren't they. I don't think I'll never NOT have one in the house. Congrats and welcome home to the boys.

[PattyE]

Congratulations! They are both so handsome!

[duncan41]

Welcome, congratulations and you're in for years of love and adventures! If you look closely at my avatar, you might think you're looking at black sisters and you would be right! From our house to yours - siblings rock!

[Guest RMarie]

What a fantastic story!!! That is so awesome that you were able to adopt littermates. They look so cute together. You all make a lovely family!!!

 

Btw: LOVE the coconut hat!!!

Edited September 6, 2013 by RMarie

[fsugrad]

Wow, GREAT story, and welcome to GT!!

Nattie and Whompus are adorable!!

Please feel free to share lots more pics of your littermates with us!

[macoduck]

Welcome Mr_Owski and family! I'm the gal who took your photo just outside the kennel area. Glad to see you have made it here to Greytalk.

[Roo]

Welcome to GT! I'd seen Whompus on GFNC's site and thought his name was awesome. Looks like the brothers get along beautifully - congratulations!

[Guest Zizi]

Great story! Beautiful hounds so happy they are back together.

[OwnedBySummer]

Congratulations! I thoroughly enjoyed your story. In fact, as soon as I started reading it, I realized it was going to be good so I restarted reading it out loud for DH. You made us both laugh!

[Guest cocomom]

Wow congrats! Beautiful story. I have had my greyhound 3 months and can't wait to add another.

[Charlies_Dad]

Welcome to GT!!! And that is awesome you have two siblings and they're black! Both are beautiful, congrats.

[rascalsmom]

Welcome to GT! I had 'twins', too--both gone now though. It was wonderful having littermates, you will love it!

 

We just adopted our fifth greyhound on September 2nd....she's an 'only' dog since our other four have passed.

[Guest ShanYu]

Love your story and pics - please keep sharing!

[Guest Doggone]

Lovely story, lovely pictures!

I, too, have been amazed that greys are so easy and cooperative! Mine is an "only" and will probably remain so, but she seems almost custom-made for me!

They're definitely unlike any breed I have ever had or encountered, but in wonderful ways.

Enjoy your boys........they're gorgeous!

[DesiRayMom]

OMG.......Two handsome black peas in a pod. I'm jealous.

May you all live happily ever after!!

[Houndtime]

Welcome from Delaware. Very handsome boys.

[ramonaghan]

What a cool story and what handsome brothers! And I LOVE their names. Now you've got me curious about how to find my own girl's single littermate (a sister who never raced)...

[Guest Mr_Owski]

Thanks for all the wonderful replies! This is a very welcoming forum.

We got very, very lucky in acquiring his brother. Had the circumstances been any different, I'm not sure if we would have sprung for another dog right away, but even 4 days into having #2 we're happy with our situation.

 

I forgot to post this one earlier, but I'll be starting a line of dog toupees in the near future.

When Nattie was shedding badly back in May, I just wadded up all his hair after I was done brushing and thought it would make for a good picture.....which it did.

Edited September 6, 2013 by Mr_Owski

[Guest RMarie]

Oh my...look at that face!!!! Love it!

[ramonaghan]

Awesome! <Insert obligatory Donald Trump reference here>

[Guest cocomom]

Oh Wow. I haven't laughed so hard in years.

[RaineysMom]

both boyz are just adorable! congrats!!!

[galgrey]

Awesome! <Insert obligatory Donald Trump reference here>

Oh, the Donald wishes he looked this good!

 

Congratulations and welcome to GT! I recognized their names right away from the GFNC website. Both my girls came from GFNC. I loved your intro story and pictures! I look forward to hearing more about your two handsome boys and seeing lots of pictures!

Edited September 6, 2013 by galgrey

[schultzlc]

Welcome to GT! You have two very handsome hounds!!