"I had the first Therapy Greyhounds in Birmingham with Crash, Biznes, and Dynasty."

Growing up, I was exposed to Greyhounds and racing via my godmother, Fran Petral. She and her husband owned racers. She would come into my Gran's beauty shop every other Saturday evening to get her hair done and she'd generally bring one of her racers from Greenetrack with her. The first Greyhound I ever met was Joe Dump, a world record holder.

After graduating from High School, I got a job as a leadout at the Birmingham Race Course. I quickly went up the ladder to Patrol Judge, Clerk of Scales, Starter, Brakeman, Lure Operator, and Kennel Master. I loved the hounds though, and thanks to Melony Cleveland, I went on to work with Alan Oleson at the Southern New England Kennel. I couldn't get enough of the hounds. From there, I went to the Magic City Kennel and was the assistant trainer when "Rudy" (Twilite Review) broke the world record. Then I went to work with the Kenny Allen Kennel with Kevin Whitehouse. A kennel with 70 crates in it, and we had 68 girls and 2 boys! One of those girls happened to of been none other than San Tan Gem, the dam of Trent Lee. She was a Gem too. If you sang the theme song to "Gem and the Holigrams", she'd spin in circles and grin! I can still remember Kevin's English accent and those days working with him. I also worked for Jack and Mary Butler of the Greymeadows kennels. Whooboy what a difference the "old timers" are in comparison to some of the new people these days.

Over the years I have met many great dog folks. The original founding folks of the South Eastern Greyhound Club had some stories to tell. How I miss my father, Doug Vinson. His wife, Chelle, is still "My Momma Chelle" and will always be.

Though, kennel work doesn't tend to get you to live in grand mansions and I went on to college and graduated with my Bachelors in Culinary Arts. The Greyhounds always called me though. From 1996 to present, I've always worked around them and with an adoptive group. Now I get to merge my love of cooking with the love of the Greyhounds. I am often volunteering my culinary skills to cook grand feasts for either our group or other groups to fundraise dinners/luncheons with.

I had the first Therapy Greyhounds in Birmingham with Crash, Biznes, and Dynasty. I could go on and on and on with stories about them. Most would make you cry from joy, some cry from sorrow. It's hard not to cry when you've been present as a child passes away... surrounded by family and nurses, with their dying wish of having their best Therapy buddy with them. Or crying from joy when a child takes their very first steps ever because of a patient Greyhound. Some of those stories can be read about in Chicken Soup For The Dog Lovers Soul actually... I've found a few of my stories published in other books as well and I didn't even know it until someone mentioned it to me.

I've trained racers. I've trained Therapy, Service, and Crisis Response hounds. I've shown in conformation, agility, lure coursing, straight racing, and done some open field coursing. My hounds and I have done Renn Faire's and SCA events.


I'm now the Director of Adoption at the Alabama Greyhound Rescue and Adoption Center, which is the adoption center of the Birmingham Race Course. We have made it our goal that every Greyhound has a home. Between our local homes and networking with groups, we have made sure every hound retiring from here has a home AND countless hounds from other tracks and farms too.

I've seen groups forming. I've seen groups dissolve. I've seen groups form from one reason or another. Though I learned a long time ago, Politics don't belong in adoption... I have to say, that the TRUTH does need to be involved. From where adoption and rescue was in 1996 to where it is now, there are leaps and bounds in changes.

I've had many Greyhounds over the years. My first, Twilite Crash, was also a Therapy Dog and Crisis Response Canine. Then came Woodscolt, Pat C My Biznes, Five H Dynasty, Holland Homer (Zaboomafoo), Blue Dawg, Pathway, LD's Witchy Woman (Elsa), Stat US Birch, Dora (my AKC Greyhound). When my last girl passed in 2011, it hit me really hard. I worked with the Greyhounds, and I had other Sighthounds at home (Borzoi, Saluki, Silken Windhounds, an Afghan Hound, and a Staghound). So my Greyhounds were the ones at the kennel.

I told Samantha West Dominguez that I wanted a special hound to be my next Greyhound. One that I could take to meet and greets, go on pet hauls, be an ambassador for Greyhounds. Someone super special. Little did I know, I would be suckered into one that was uber special!

It was a joke between our group and Greyhounds Pets of Atlantic Canada that "Moose don't exist", that they're "unicorns". Add into that long standing joke a bit of exhaustion of two drivers, and you get two drivers laughing their arses off that Moose are actually Unicorns that live in the rivers and lakes of Canada... that they have snorkels in place of antlers, and those snorkels let them live in the water for long periods of time - and thus... Snorkel Unicorns are borne. The joke between our two groups led from one thing to another, and it became a great source of laughter and enjoyment between our two groups.

But one day, Samantha contacted me that she found that special hound for me... and wee little CTW SnorklUnicrn was in my life. For over two years, I've watched Moose grow up, train on the farm, his siblings go on to Southland while he stayed behind on the farm to grow up... then off to Derby Lane he went.

We received a pet transport one day with Elastic Trent, and I knew right away I was in love with Moose's momma - aka Momma Greyhound. She became my first Greyhound to have in over 7 long years. Though she prefers not to be in the spotlight and not in crowds, one on one she's the best girl I could ask for.

Now this week/weekend, my Moose is coming home to me.

He's got one heck of a legacy to follow in if he's going to match the likes of Crash and Biznes. I know he'll do just fine though, and have his own firsts and achievements too.

There's much in my life I wouldn't of done with out the Greyhounds. I'm grateful to them. They've been true blessings from God to me, and I sure don't want to envision my life with out them.


Jenn Boswell