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"Once again the farm gave him over..."




My Greyhound love affair started in 2002 when a poor half-starved dog showed up at my job... He turned out to be a half-starved greyhound that very quickly worked his way into our heart. We had a one-year-old yellow Lab that for her Beauregard was a gift specifically for her... He was double-tattooed so we have no idea his racing history... He turned out to have somehow ended up on the illegal rabbit running racing circuit, but he was the coolest dog! He was the best gift we could have given our yellow Lab: we had five acres and that dog bounced off all four corners and would then come back in and find the softest spot, usually in his crate which always had multiple layers in it. When we cruised in the Motorhome, he laid on the couch and would get up and like the little kid look to see if we were there yet...nope not yet so he would then lay on the other end of the sofa. We never knew his racing history as we could on read the tattoo that told us he was born in 4/1998 and he was puppy D. We were heartbroken when in 2006 we came home and knew something was horribly wrong. His right rear leg was obviously broken and our worst fears were confirmed when Texas A&M confirmed that osteosarcoma was indeed the culprit.

We made the agonizing decision to put his needs first and we let him go to the rainbow bridge....our yellow Lab was as devastated as we were but we still had 3 dogs. It would take until 2014 when we lost one of our dogs and both our Yellow Lab and our Rottweiler were both going to be turning 14. We knew we were probably going to be facing the reality of sending both along to the bridge. We had always said we wanted another Greyhound and we agreed that we were ready. We started our search with GPA Texas but they had no cat-safe Greyhounds so we branched out the GALT in Dallas Texas. We were matched with Penny in December 2014. Penelope Garcia never raced, she was the runt of the litter and deemed too fragile. The farm where she was born in Oklahoma spoiled her and then at 1½ gave her over to GALT to find her a "furever" home. She fit in perfectly and mothered the 2 14yr old seniors. Unfortunately both passed in February 2015 within 10 days of one another. This left a huge hole and poor Penny was very lonesome. We were fortunate enough that we met Cat Caldwell with FastK9 Greyhounds when she did our home visit for GALT. We had kept in touch with her and she had an 11½-year-old senior that came back to her group after his family had their circumstances change.

Dominic joined us first as a foster and very quickly a foster fail permanent member of the family. He came with medical issues and we only expected to get a year with him but we were fortunate to get 3 yrs. We lost him in March of this year and Penny was as heartbroken as we were. Right before losing Dominic our friend Cat had another dog that came back to the program after struggling as an only dog. Remington joined our household and turned out to be related to Penelope Garcia...her Dad is Remington’s grandad...Remington also never raced...he had no interest in chasing anything. Once again the farm gave him over to find his furever home. Both of my greyhounds are a testament to the fact that the farms don’t kill or throw away those dogs that fail to be racers. Rather, they ensure they find happy furever homes. That said, my Greyhounds ❤️❤️❤️ to run zoomies in their yard...did I mention that Penelope Garcia’s dad is Flying Penske who I believe is still the most winning ever Greyhound. He is a Hall of Fame Greyhound as is his dad and his dad's dad...my girl is fast...my boy is not as fast but he’s pretty!

Lynn Bunn

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