I grew up with pets. When I was in grade school, we had cats. In high school, my family got a German Shepherd. But I never thought I would have pets in my own home because I married a man with allergies.
I initially became acquainted with greyhounds through a neighbor who had adopted a greyhound. I had been looking for service work for myself and for my son who was interested in working with animals. My neighbor told me about the local greyhound rescue group that helped them adopt their dog. During their investigation into greyhound adoption, they went to see dogs coming in on a transport. A few weeks later, my son and I did the same.
The dogs were brought to a volunteer’s home, bathed, de-ticked, given their shots, new collars, and tags. We met about 10 dogs that day and helped keep the dogs company while they took turns getting baths in a kiddie pool on the back patio. My son and I mostly watched that day, but we kept going back. Eventually, I became pretty good at finding ticks and clipping nails.
One day, I got a call from one of the volunteers. Would I be able to foster a bounce for a short time? There had been a number of bounces recently and there was a shortage of foster homes. I said I'd be happy to try, but it might not work well with my husband’s allergies. Several weeks later, after no allergic reactions, we adopted our Kayla. Kayla was a lovely, fawn female who was very attached to her family—and did not want to share. I only fostered once more during the time we had Kayla. Kayla terrorized our gentle foster dog for the few days that he was in our home. We were fortunate to share our home with Kayla until she died at age 13.
We decided we wanted to get another greyhound. By then, I had met some GAGR folks. We brought Bert home with us the day after we met him at his foster home. Also through GAGR, we adopted our Kimmie. We love having the two dogs. They are a joy to watch in the yard—I can never get over how fast they are! They are wonderful companions and it is clear that Bert is much happier since we got a second dog.
These days, I mostly do home visits for the group. I like the way this group sends out the information for the home visits because I can elect to do these visits when I have the time to do so. I have met many wonderful people as an adoption rep. Recently, I have started taking my dogs to one of the local nursing homes with some other GAGR volunteers. The dogs love the attention and the people we have met are so happy to visit with our pets. I am very happy to be part of this wonderful group of people. |
