"Thank goodness I had an open mind and was willing to learn."

It starts for me with an older shepherd mix, not even a greyhound. Rex aka Mr. Grouchy just didn't like any other dogs. We took him to classes to learn manners and get socialized but he just was not interested in having a doggie buddy. Until that fateful day we took him on a trip to the pet store.....near the front door was a meet and greet! Greyhounds! They were so beautiful and calm and of course I had to walk over, keeping Rex very close on a short leash. I was dumbfounded when one of the greys got up and stood next to me, you guessed it — and leaned♡ All the while Rex just stood there watching. The next thing I know Rex and the Grey are standing side by side as if they are best friends. I had tears in my eyes and immediately thought about adopting this amazing dog. It turned out that she was already a senior and had recently lost her home due to her owner becoming ill. A week later Gracie came to live with us. She was awesome and perfect and did become best friends with Rex. I joined the old GT and tried to learn as much as possible about my rescued dog. Luckily I found the one thread that was allowed to talk about racers and waiting to adopt a currently racing dog. Those folks completely changed all the misconceptions I had been fed by the "rescue" group and others. Thank goodness I had an open mind and was willing to learn. Many of those folks are on FB now and I will forever be thankful to them. Funny that I never knew their real names on GT but figured out who most of them are because of the dogs they talked about and waited for to adopt. I progressed to owning a couple of racers, making lots of friends at the farm where they grew up and trained, then on to racing at Derby Lane and helping out at their kennel on Sundays. I have seven at home now and am still so in awe of them every day. NEVER ONCE DID I SEE ANYTHING BUT LOVE SHOWN FOR THESE DOGS! To the farms, to the kennels, and to adoption I thank you all♡

-Cathy Arrington

Comments

"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

"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

"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

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