Dusty and me

Mercury out on a leash walk ---------- It's easy to see on first sight that Mercury is a beautifully sculpted, classic greyhound. If you commissioned an artist to paint a portrait of the perfect hound, this is the picture you would get. He's solid red, long, lean and muscular with that same face you've seen on every greyhound portrait ever. Mercury, born April 27, 2013, landed at Friends of Greyhounds on Aug. 15 after a career of 146 races. I met him a day or two later and caught myself staring in admiration at his awesome beauty.  His racing name was JJ's Fandango. Jerry D., Michelle and I were tossing ideas for new names for him and Oshkosh Fella, who arrived at the same time. Fella was easy. But we thought Fandango was a little off. Of course, Fandango made me immediately think of Bohemian Rhapsody. Obviously, we couldn't name him Queen, so I threw out "Freddie." We did settle on that, but Michelle resisted the "ie" spelling that...

Stormy kicking back in her FoG kennel ---------- If you like a little bit of spunk in your greyhounds, Stormy might be the one for you. This solidly built black beauty showed up at the Friends of Greyhounds kennels in late April, making her the veteran of the shelter's current roster of adoptables. She became an instant favorite of mine because she looks so much like Dusty. She has a little less white trim than Dusty does, and she's not quite as slim as Dusty. But they could easily pass as twins. Stormy was born Jan. 7, 2014 -- making her two days older than Dusty.  Stormy in April, just after her arrival at FoG ---------- As I soon learned, though, their close age and similar appearance shouldn't lead you to believe Stormy and Dusty are cut from the same cloth. Whereas Dusty generally is cool as a cucumber, pulling you into her orbit, Stormy is a go-getter. She comes to you to get your attention. Stormy guards her corner of the FoG kennels fiercely. ...

Jagger and Dusty on a leisurely stroll ---------- Hurricane Irma has been gone for about three weeks now, but we still have reminders of her lying in piles all over the place here in South Florida. Everywhere you look, you see missing sections of fencing and heaps of brown leaves and dead tree branches strewn about. For the most part, at least what I see in central and western Broward County, everyday life has returned to normal. People are going to work, restaurants and stores are open, gasoline is flowing plentiful again. But beneath the surface, many of us are still dealing with and paying for cleanup and repairs and working furiously to get our businesses back on track. All of which doesn't leave a lot of time to think about adding a greyhound to our families. Thinking back, I don't believe I know of one person who has visited the Friends of Greyhounds kennels this month to window-shop the available hounds -- and this month will be over in a couple of days. Wh...

Nothing like a shortage of fencing after a hurricane to get a re-homed greyhound out of the kennel for a couple of days. Dusty and Jagger enjoying a morning walk ---------- As most of you know, the good folks at Friends of Greyhounds lost a good chunk of their wooden fence a couple of weeks ago to Hurricane Irma. The fence enclosed a good-sized backyard at the residence and provided a perfect area for the FoG dogs to run loose a few times a day. But once Irma had her way, FoG was left with large gaps in the fence and a statewide shortage of supplies to get a new one built promptly. Michelle and Jerry improvised with some plastic netting and some spare fence rails and scraps of lumber to close up the holes as much as possible. Most of the house and kennel dogs were fine with the temporary solution. But one of the dogs, brindle beauty Jagger, found a breach. He found a way through the temporary fencing, and twice in a day, Michelle and Jerry had to chase him through the nei...

We're hitting that time of year here in South Florida. The hot afternoon sun fights for dominance with dark, loud, fast-moving thunderstorms. But once the alternating bright sky and gloomy clouds make way for nightfall, we can enjoy some gloriously breezy, pleasant evenings as we say goodbye to the humidity of summer. For us humans, those nice evenings are merely our first taste of the wonderful months ahead of us. But for our hounds, days like today make you think that maybe they don't know whether they're coming or going. Exhibit A: Our old friend Maggie in Delray Beach, who really does not like the sound those nasty afternoon thunderstorms make. Mom Joan dropped us this photo this evening: Maggie hunkers down through a Friday-afternoon thunderstorm, seeking protection from her Munchkins, Cassie and Smidgen. ---------- Dusty, in the meantime, slept away much of the day by herself, as I had a few errands that needed running. I did get back to her in late af...

Dusty having a word with new friend Reasey ---------- Ahhh, it was so good to get outside again to enjoy some fresh air and sunshine -- and, of course, the barbecue -- with all our hound buddies. We had a great turnout Saturday at One Last Cast BBQ on the grounds of Flamingo Road Nursery for the first Friends of Greyhounds gathering of the season. The weather was almost perfect. It got a little warm at times if you were out in the sun. But we had just enough clouds, some nice breezes and plenty of shade cover to make it a success. Of course, everyone exchanged their Irma war stories. Fortunately for us inland dwellers, no one had any real damage. Most of the Irma talk was about losing power for various lengths of time. Mike and Andy spent parts of one or two evenings sleeping in Mike's air-conditioned car to escape the still, humid heat of their house. Jerry D. arrived late to the gathering because he was making arrangements to have someone rebuild the fence at the FoG ...

Hello again, everyone. It has been awhile since we've talked, hasn't it? The dog days of summer just wore us down, nothing of note really happened for a couple of weeks, so we just decided to lie low. And then came Irma to shake us awake. And fortunately, there went Irma leaving most everyone I've heard from in our little community almost completely whole. A few of us lost power for a time, some of us lost cell service, Friends of Greyhounds lost part of their backyard fence. But none whom I have talked with lost life, limb or home. So we're in great shape. While we were sweating it out in Florida with Irma raging around us, old friend Buford was playing it cool at his other home in New Jersey. Travis, hope to see you guys soon. Come join us at some of our gatherings this fall when you're in town. ---------- Dusty and I were probably the luckiest of them all. Neither of us, nor the Kia Koach nor the townhouse sustained a scratch from Irma. Worst thing that ...