Dusty and me

Uncle Jerry and Michelle help load Dusty and Speedy into the Kia Koach. It was a little emotional, as Speedy's might be the last of more than 2,400 adoptions out of Friends of Greyhounds. Retirement beckons. ---------- Speedy has landed. For the first time in his 8.5 years of life, the former Macau racer has a family he can call his own. Dusty and I welcomed him into our Northwest Lauderhill townhouse around 5 p.m. Wednesday. We drove over to Friends of Greyhounds HQ mid-afternoon and made the adoption official. We came home, unloaded from the Kia Koach, and immediately -- before even going into the townhouse -- went on a short walk up the block to visit our friend Inge, who always welcomes Dusty to her door with a handful of treats. Inge didn't disappoint -- but Dusty got most of the treats. Speedy got one or two but was entirely too distracted by all the new sights and sounds and smells to spend much time snacking. Speedy wasn't the only Macau alum that left F...

Speedy, Dusty and I pose for a quick family portrait, shot by Uncle Jerry at FoG. ---------- Just a quick note to let everyone know that we now have a homecoming plan for Speedy. He'll join our household Wednesday of this week, the day after our new furniture arrives from Rooms To Go. We decided it would be best to get the new living room in place before he got here rather than introducing him to a new environment and then changing it on him a couple of days later. Speedy's departure from Friends of Greyhounds will leave the garage kennels empty. Victory King went home Saturday with old friend Jerry B., who gave King a new name, Vic. Vic is the fourth greyhounds in Jerry's home in Northwest Lauderhill, just a couple of blocks from Chez Dusty. I'll try to get with Jerry in the next couple of days to get a family photo and some more details of his new arrangement. Of course, I'll check back in later this week with some new photos of Speedy. CHARLIE...

King puts on a little attitude for the camera. Don't worry, it's all for show. In reality, he's 100% lover. ---------- Speedy and Victory King are coming up on a month now since they arrived in South Florida from Macau. All their vet work is done, they've adjusted extremely well to life in the Friends of Greyhounds kennels -- and now they're eager to move on to the next stage of their lives. These guys are among the sweetest and most eager to please greyhounds I've met since I started volunteering at FoG. No doubt each of these guys will be thrilled to find a permanent home and a family to call their own. The two girls FoG adopted out last week -- Yukii and Noel -- had the same kind of disposition. Sonia at Elite Greyhound Adoptions has said the greyhounds she's imported from Macau are the same way. I've spent a bit of time with Speedy and King over the past few days and have gotten to know them a bit. So I can say with confidence that these two...

Winning Star is now Noel Star with a new home. The happy family: Pat, Nico, Star and Andrea ---------- Star, who turned 8 years old the day after she arrived at the Friends of Greyhounds kennels three weeks ago, landed Wednesday in her family home in Hialeah with her new name. She was adopted by longtime FoG volunteer Andrea and her mom, Pat. She also has a canine sibling, Nico, a senior chihuahua mix who will help Star get adjusted to her new life as a domestic pet. Star and Andrea met at Miami International Airport as Star was being loaded onto the FoG van shortly after her arrival from Macau. Star was the hound who rode loose in the back of the van with me tucked among the crates of the other four arrivals. I held onto Star's leash to steady her as she snuggled with Andrea, in the front passenger seat. Andrea decided during the ride that she wanted to adopt Star. Andrea sent this photo of Star enjoying a snack on her new bed in her new home with her new toy close b...

Yuki and Shawn are all smiles. ---------- Pearl River, the 6-year-old bundle of personality who arrived from Macau a couple of weeks ago, has a new home in Davie to celebrate the new year. She also has a new name, Yuki, as she begins her new life as a domestic family member. Shawn, an old friend to Friends of Greyhounds, took Yuki home Monday evening to her new life alongside new greyhound brother Charlie. Yuki fills a void left in the home in early December when senior girl Dee Dee passed away. Shawn provided this video of Yuki and Charlie enjoying their first meal together: Her new mom hopes Yuki might follow in her brother's footsteps as an emotional-support dog for first responders at Miami-Dade Fire Rescue, where Shawn is a captain. Charlie, you might recall, earned his vest last year as the first trainee in the department's service-dog program. Speedy ---------- Another Macau girl, Winning Star, is scheduled to be delivered Wednesday to former ...

Andrea welcomes Pearl River (Zhujiang Winds) to the FoG kennels. Pearl is the cutie of the bunch. She's 8 years old. We think she arrived in heat -- to be dealt with in the next week or two. ---------- They appear happy and healthy. And thrilled to be off those damn airplanes. Winning Star is celebrating her  8th birthdaytoday. Andrea bonded with her right away and hopes to adopt her if she proves cat-tolerant. ---------- The five Macau imports taking up residence at Friends of Greyhounds enjoyed some quiet, restful sleep Wednesday night, their first on the ground in Florida. Michelle, longtime FoG friend Andrea and I spent more time Wednesday picking them up at Miami International Airport than we had anticipated. Getting all five loaded with their crates into Michelle's van was a bigger challenge than we had hoped. But we got the job done with little real problems, and the hounds are happily in their spacious kennels devouring their meals like little po...

Dusty and Sunny in the Kia Koach on their way to a walk in the park ---------- Meet Sunny, Dusty's house guest for the next few days. Sunny is staying with Dusty and me while her parents, Hedda and Shep, are traveling. Sunny stakes her claim to one of Dusty's several beds. ---------- Sunny originally was set to stay with Michelle and Jerry at the Friends of Greyhounds residence in Sunrise. But with five Macau greyhounds arriving Wednesday and Michelle's previous commitment to take in David, Turtle and Honey for the week while Joy hit the road, I offered to take in Sunny to lighten the load. Michelle and I picked up Sunny on Monday afternoon from her home in Boca Raton. The 8-year-old girl has adjusted beautifully already. She's found her favorite bed and discovered a great toy, a big squeaky fuzzy hedgehog , in Dusty's toy box. We worked on going up and down the stairway last night and this morning. She seemed to understand the concept, but it might ta...

Yahtzee, Dusty, Chumlee and Mitzi (as well as the absent Joy) await the arrival of new friends from Macau. ---------- A flood of abandoned greyhounds much of the public was expecting after the passage of Amendment 13 earlier this month hasn't happened. We still have very little word from anyone as to what is going to happen and when with all those Florida greyhounds. I have been talking with Michelle and Jerry over at Friends of Greyhounds about what they might be hearing. Most of the phone calls and contacts they've been getting are from prospective fosters and adopters. We do hear rumors out of the racing kennels every now and then as to what might or might not be going on. As with all rumors, some are unsubstantiated, some are exaggerations and some are yet to be confirmed or denied. Michelle has written a couple of blog posts to report what she's been hearing. Our best collaborative guess at this point is that racing at most of the Florida tracks is going to ...

Deb and Kim confirmed what I observed Saturday night, that Reasey really has come out of her shell in the past several months. Savvy, meanwhile, is the same big hunk of fawn lover boy. ---------- Dusty and I joined several regulars and a couple of new faces and hounds Saturday night for the first Friends of Greyhounds gathering of the new season. Michelle got us a new spot, the Panera Bread patio at the Plantation Promenade shopping center. I always love seeing Rosie and Luna. ---------- It was the culmination of an eventful few days for Dusty. Except for a couple of short bathroom breaks, she has been curled up nearly unconscious for about 14 hours now after a few days of visits from grandparents Ma and Pa Sharp, a distressing rescue of a family of ducklings Saturday morning and her meetup with old and new friends Saturday night. A couple of wounded warriors were among the group in Plantation. It was the first time we saw Mike since he went down several months ago wi...

Kristi, Lola, Tony, Handsome and Anthony, soon to follow his father into service with the Navy ---------- Another longish van trip, another successful FoG adoption. For the second day in a row, Michelle and I took a long drive in the Friends of Greyhounds van to introduce a hound to a new family. And just like Friday's journey to Vero Beach with Starsky, Saturday's turned into a successfully productive trip. This time it was Handsome's turn. The 3-year-old brindle boy with the gimpy leg went with us to Fort Myers to audition for a family who found him through a Google search. Lifelong dog owners Kristi, Tony and Anthony were looking for a greyhound to live with their 3-year-old English bulldog, Lola. Lola checking out Handsome checking out a stuffy toy ---------- Kristi contacted Michelle a couple of weeks ago to start the process and spent several days asking questions via email and doing some research into the greyhound breed. It was a little touch and g...

Starsky meets his new family -- mom Debbie, brother Heff and sister Tara ---------- Dusty got to spend the day Friday with her buddies in Sunrise while I made the drive with Michelle to Vero Beach to deliver Starsky to his new family. Starsky is the 13-year-old white greyhound who landed at Friends of Greyhounds a couple of weeks ago via a Palm Beach County vet and animal shelter. He put a couple of pounds on his skinny frame while in Sunrise and got a clean bill of health from Dr. Ansara a couple of days ago. Dusty, Luna and the FoG dogs: 'Can we go to Vero with you?' ---------- His new mom, Debbie, is a retired nurse who adopted a greyhound from FoG several years ago. She loves taking in special-needs greys and is dedicated to providing them a great home and the day-to-day care they need. Debbie's friend Laurie, another greyhound lover, helped greet Starsky, Michelle and I when we arrived at Debbie's home in early afternoon. And all of us got to meet S...

Dusty and Rosie taking a breather ---------- A stroll in the park with greyhounds and girls to start a summer Sunday -- that's as good as life gets. Luna resting with Dawn and Lily ---------- Dawn reached out to me on Facebook and told me she would love to give 5-year-old Luna some social time with Dusty at one of the parks I have raved about here in western Broward County. So I invited Dawn and the family for a morning stroll at Plantation Heritage Park, which has plenty of acreage and shade. Dawn loaded Luna and the two human girls, Lily and Rosie, into her SUV this morning and made the trip up from South Miami-Dade County. And we had a fabulous time. Dusty and Luna spent a few seconds checking each other out, they both approved of each other, and the bunch of us started on a short walk under the not-unpleasant morning sun. Lily had Luna's leash in her left hand, I gave her Dusty's leash to fill her right hand, and a great stroll was had by all. At some...

Starsky shortly after his arrival at Friends of Greyhounds ---------- The kennel population at Friends of Greyhounds has doubled with the arrival of 13-year-old Starsky, who arrived Wednesday by way of Delray Beach. Handsome (right) with FoG residents Yahtzee (left) and Mitzi ---------- The way I understand the story, Starsky was given up by his adoptive mom to a vet's office in Palm Beach County. The vet sent the boy to a nearby animal shelter, which then contacted FoG. Michelle agreed to take in Starsky, who was driven to Sunrise by a representative of the Delray shelter. Starsky is pretty skinny and has some dental issues. His back legs are shaky, and he's slow in standing up and walking. But he appears to be in good spirits, happy to interact with his kennel mate, Handsome, and his human friends. Michelle gave him a standard FoG meal of kibble, rice and canned food, and he happily ate it up. He tried to eat a Milk Bone biscuit but couldn't break it up. So...

Handsome after his Monday visit with Dr. Ansara ---------- Our new buddy Handsome has had his vet workup -- he's been neutered, he has all his shots and bloodwork is done. And he's hanging out at the Friends of Greyhounds kennels waiting for someone to take him home. Dr. Ansara's crew at Animal Hospital of University Drive  also took an X-ray of Handsome's injured right hind leg while he was there Monday. FoG matriarch Michelle has sent the picture to an orthopedic surgeon to have a look. But she thinks the injury happened several months ago and there's probably nothing to do to fix it at this point. Handsome's a tall 3-year-old brindle boy who landed at FoG last week through a back door. Michelle will tell you his story if you ask her. He's really friendly and loves hanging out in the FoG backyard with the resident dogs and humans. He gets around pretty well on that gimp leg. He'll walk a couple of steps on it now and then, but for the most...

Hi, all. Dusty and I are back. Let the blogging resume. We went radio silent three months ago after delivering Sly to her foster family. Dusty and I looked up at that point and realized that our buddies at Friends of Greyhounds had decided to close their kennels to new dogs and our favorite gathering haunts would no longer be available to us. Dusty hasn't gotten the hang of doing a proper selfie. ---------- So we decided to take a blogging break, at least for awhile. We did make the mistake of letting our domain expire, which is why you could no longer find the website if you went looking for it. But the domain was still ours to claim, which we did yesterday, about three days before it expired completely. As many of you know, an amendment to the Florida Constitution to ban greyhound racing will be on the ballot in November. Most everyone fully expects it to pass, and racing kennels are starting to move out of the state in anticipation of the shutdown. If it does happen, ...

Sky, right, and Noel in their first photo as sisters ---------- That photogenic old girl Sly didn't stay too long in the Friends of Greyhounds kennels. She moved into her new home Saturday, less than three weeks after arriving in Sunrise. The family on their first walk together ---------- The skinny 11-year-old landed in Deerfield Beach with Alan and Joan and 5-year-old brindle girl Noel. Michelle and I took Sly to meet the family Thursday. Sly went back to Sunrise for a Friday visit with Dr. Ansara's staff before returning to her new home for good. Alan and Joan gave her a new name, Sky. She's officially a foster instead of an adoption, as Michelle recommended, so that FoG can more easily help with medical issues that could arise. The staff at Animal Hospital of University Drive  did give her a clean bill of health. She is taking a couple of meds to fight off some hookworms and to boost her appetite and put on a few pounds. Sky is at least the third greyhoun...

Molly on her first full day at Friends of Greyhounds ---------- One fawn comes in as another one is on its way out at Friends of Greyhounds. Molly, racing name Molly Ringwald, came into the FoG kennels Sunday by way of the Florida Kennels compound in Hialeah. She's another 2-year-old who joins the gang after a short racing career. Molly is a friendly little girl. I met her for the first time Monday at the Sunrise kennels. She seemed happy to greet me and was thrilled when I walked out into the yard with her. But her first reaction seemed to be to retreat whenever I would move toward her with my phone as I tried to get a photo. After a couple of minutes, however, she decided to take a seat on the ground. Once she did that, she did let me approach for a photo, though she still wasn't quite sure what was happening. BJ ---------- It might have been more confusion than fear or timidity that was causing her to back away. In any case, she was happy to have my company...