By Malik age 15
Adopting (or as some call it “giving rescue to”) a dog is a nice way to give a furry animal a chance to have a nice life. Some dogs really need rescuing. Take the case of racing greyhounds. In our last story, we followed the life of Jethro, a racing Greyhound in Mexico, that was rescued and taken to California.
Imagine living the first four years of your life in a box. You are only taken out a few times a day to train or occasionally to see a vet to make sure you are healthy. Then you race. You are surrounded by people in stands yelling and screaming. You and a bunch of other dogs chase a furry thing around the track; no one catches it; and then it is time to go back in the box. You spend most of your time alone. That is not to say there are not other dogs in boxes around you, but you cannot go say hi or sniff them. In fact, you even wear a muzzle in your box.
Then one day everything changes: You have slowed down a bit and are not winning or at least keeping up with the front of the pack. So your owner, who you maybe have never even met and has never petted you or shown any affection to you at all, decides it time to get rid of you. This is the story of Natalie. She raced at a track in Florida.
“Natalie only raced for three years and then she got injured,” said Gary Farkash. “Some greyhounds can race for four or five years, but that’s about it.” Mr. Gary and his wife Diane adopted the big greyhound before she was deemed too expensive to keep and would be put down (killed). “My Natalie never came in first, but a few times she was in third place.”
Bringing a race dog into a house is an interesting experience both for the new owner and the dog. The racetrack dog is no longer required to live in a box, and has no training on how to be a normal pet dog. They don’t know how to walk up and down stairs. They have never seen a toy, let alone played with one. Simple household sounds like a washing machine and a microwave bell can scare them.
“Diane and I gave Natalie all the time to grow and learn how to be a dog,” said Mr. Gary. “Fortunately, we already had Roxey in our home to help Natalie.” Roxey is a dog breed called a Boxer. “After a few months of settling in, my sister brought her Golden Retriever, Brandy, to visit, and the three of them formed a great sisterly bond,” explained Mr. Gary. How nice that the other dogs helped Natalie learn to be a pet.
Mr. Gary told us more about Natalie: “Greyhounds are just the sweetest couch potatoes! OK, couch potato might be a little nice. Couch hog might be more accurate.” Remember, greyhounds are big. They can weigh more than 70 pounds. They can take up the whole couch or bed if you let them.
Mr. Gary called Natalie “my little Goofy Girl.” She adjusted to pet life pretty quickly. “Natalie very much enjoyed getting petted, and especially brushed. We had a very soft dog brush that we would bring out every once in a while, so it was a special treat for her. I’d brush her for an hour or so from her very long nose to her very long tail. She would fall asleep loving every second,” said Mr. Gary. “She would talk to us (bark) and give us kisses all of the time. She loves to get hugged, too.”
Mr. Gary and Diane have a very large backyard where the dogs could run and could chase after squirrels and birds. Don’t worry they never caught them. “Diane and I would take Roxey, Natalie and Brandy, three different breeds, out for our daily walks. People would come over and see the pups and talk with us. They always asked what kind of dog Natalie was.”
“One thing that I’d like to make a note of,” said Mr. Gary, “while the sport of dog racing is in the decline in the USA because legislation has been passed and almost all tracks have closed; if it weren’t for dog racing, most people would never have had the opportunity to adopt these wonderful dogs. They are the oldest recorded breed going back to biblical times and they make excellent family pets. As for greyhounds, I would highly recommend getting one or two. Dogs are pack animals and do better with another one,” said Mr. Gary. “For greyhounds, all you really need is a big pillow or couch for them to sleep on. Rescuing any dog is a labour of love – and while doing so will not change the world, for that one rescue dog, their world changes completely, and for the better.”
Mr. Gary continued, “Only those lucky few get adopted. It’s a sad fact. We were lucky enough to have had Natalie share our lives for about eight years before she passed away. What I have learned through the years is that “Rescued” is the best breed of dog and that for every dog rescued, another dog had a chance to live and thrive. Mr. Gary and Ms. Diane love dogs, but they also had a cat named Miss Kitty and a rabbit named Fred.
“Even though Miss Kitty was small, Natalie never tried to go after her,” said Mr. Gary.
