Ungrateful GreyhoundWith Lily gone, Michel and I were thinking about getting another dog. We had been at PETCO with Mikey recently and a bunch of people who had rescued greyhounds through Grateful Greyhound were there along with their greyhounds. They told us that greyhounds were bred for dog racing and when their career was over, they were often killed unless they were champions in which case they would be saved for bredding.

Grateful Greyhound is a rescue agency that tries to save greyhounds from their fate and turn them into house pets. As it turns out, greyhounds make great pets. They are very fast but most of the time they would prefer to sit on the couch and watch TV with their owner. All they need is a fenced in yard and to be taken for a walk three or four times a week. We spoke to the people there and they told us that greyhounds get along great with kids and even though Mikey is autistic and a little rough sometimes, that it would not be a problem. Greyhounds have a great temperament and don’t bite. The only issue would be the cats because greyhounds are trained to chase small animals but they would adjust after a little while. It sounded great and the dogs we met were sweet and gentle even when Mikey pushed them so we filled out the paperwork and waited for the call.

We got the first call just after Pop-Pop died so we scheduled it for a couple of weeks after. A couple showed up with two greyhounds. I always get along great with dogs so I tried to pet and play with them. The owners seemed to hold them back a bit and I started to get the impression that they didn’t like our house, they didn’t like our cats, and they didn’t like us. They certainly weren’t pleased with Mikey and kept insisting that these athletic racing dogs very delicate and that Mikey might injure them even though we have ten pound cats that Mikey tosses around and he has never hurt them. Anyway, I didn’t want to fight with the couple (although Michel did) so I just told them “yea, whatever,” and sent them home. So there will be no greyhound in our future.

Now we are filling out the paperwork for Canine Companions. It takes awhile to get a dog but the dog will be perfectly trained to work with Mikey and the rest of the family. We will be be getting a skilled companion team which includes one of us trained to work with the dog and the dog trained to be a friend to Mikey. These dogs look like they are mostly labradors.

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