Skip to main content

"But then the day arrived for our daughter Rachel and I to start our puppy road trip."




November 2018 will be the twenty-fifth anniversary of our adopting our first greyhound, Alex (racing name: Sanja Blackeyes; breeders: Jim and Sandy Hicks of Bristow, OK). In those twenty-five years we've adopted six greyhounds. But let me share a little story of how we got our fifth.

In September 2013 we'd lost our fourth greyhound, Katie (racing name: Leading Home; breeder: Mary Robinette) to lymphoma, leaving us with only our third adopted grey, Sadie (racing name: Carla Tar; breeder: Darwin Smith). Sadie did okay as an only dog, but we really wanted to get her a dog. So we thought we'd look into getting a greyhound puppy for Sadie to play with. We talked to a very good friend of ours if she wouldn't mind looking out for a puppy, especially since she made trips to a particular greyhound farm over a number of years.

A few months passed. Then she messaged me that the breeder at this farm had a four-month-old female who injured her leg somehow and was going to be petted out after getting medical treatment. The puppy was tattooed but would not be NGA-registered. So we put in an adoption application and shortly thereafter we were approved to adopt the puppy. Our friend did us a huge, huge favor by offering to foster the puppy for us for a few months until we could drive from CA to MN to get her. I told Sadie one day that we'd gotten a puppy for her and that she needed to hold on for a little while before she and I could drive the almost two thousand miles to MN. But sadly, Sadie died just two weeks after we were approved and for the first time in twenty years we had no greyhound in our home. The two months spent with no greyhound was unbearable.

But then the day arrived for our daughter Rachel and I to start our puppy road trip. After a twelve-hour drive we overnighted at my parents' home in CO, then drove another twelve hours through CO and NE the following day and stayed the next night in Omaha. The next day we met our friend at the greyhound farm where the puppy was whelped, and were introduced to the breeder and his wife. The breeder showed us around a few of the buildings that made up his greyhound farm (which isn't his day job -- he's a corn and soybean farmer by trade) and told us to go wherever we pleased. That's exactly what we did. It was my very first visit to a greyhound farm and I saw that it was immaculately maintained. And we saw and met greyhounds of all ages. The few hours we spent there went by in a flash. We will not forget that first visit.

Here is a very recent picture of our now four-year-old puppy: Bean. If any anti-racing person proclaims that racing greyhound puppies that don't make it to the finishers must have been killed, just show them this picture, share her story, and ask them to  again explain themselves.

Steve Uyehara

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

"As a person who helps connect humans and Greyhounds..."

As the President and Founder of Forever Home Greyhound Adoptions, as well as having 13 of my own Greys, I feel like it's important to weigh in with my views as not only a Grey mom, but as a person who helps connect humans and Greyhounds, every day for over 20 years now. With all the allegations and controversy surrounding the Greyhound racing industry lately, I feel like it's high time that more of us on the adoption side of the road make our thoughts and feelings known. Having been in the adoption world for well over 20 years now, I think I have seen and heard just about everything, and I am here to tell the world that all the anti-racing slandering of the industry is shameful, hurtful, and untrue. Most of the AR mouthpieces that spout toxic lies the loudest, have probably never ever seen the inside of a racing kennel, and maybe never even witnessed a Greyhound race. Well, I HAVE, and I can truthfully say, that most kennels are cleaner than some people's homes, a
Post a Comment
Read more

"She was not 'culled' like a puppy farm inmate"

It's about the dogs! It's been not quite four years since I became a "Crazy Greyhound Lady," retired racers have that effect on a large number of their adopters. NGA greyhounds have amazing careers as athletes and then are fortunate to have an adoption rate of over 95% when those careers are over. Now it's time for all of us who appreciate all that goes into the breeding, training, and care to stand up and defend racing against the endless lies put out by profit-driven extremists. My husband and I have adopted two retired racers and volunteer extensively with our adoption group, including traveling to the track to pick up new retirees and doing home visits to help match prospective adopters with dogs. We had the oh-so-common experience of mutual love at first sight when we met each of our hounds. Coming up with a testimonial should have been an very easy task. Instead I struggled with draft after draft, they all fell short. One day I realized that it was not
Post a Comment
Read more

"And one year later we visit the first time a racetrack."

My Story: so sorry my English is not perfect I hope you understand me?! I am from Germany and in 2002 I met my first greyhound. He was from the last closed racetrack in Italy and was in a shelter in Germany. His name was Teseo (Teseo della Capitale). The beginning of a very deep love to greyhounds. But Teseo was so sad an scared and unlucky ... now we know he was unlucky with us. He was the first time alone ....He missed other greyhounds. But eight weeks later we adopted Zama (Teresas Hope). A female from the same track. And Teseo was so happy! He changed in a lucky and wonderful boy.   At first we hate everything about racetracks. We heard from rescue groups so terrible things about this. This was a very bad area and all people are bad. But we met other greyhound owners in our town and we talked about everything ... and about the racetrack too. They told us so much other stories about the dogs and the people and we changed our opinion. And one year later we visit the f
Post a Comment
Read more