Found a match

Lisa called to tell us that she found a greyhound match for us. One of Lisa's volunteers, John Knowles, recently passed away at age 83, and his greyhound needs a home. He is a 6-year old, 85-pound, black greyhound. Apparently he is a certified pet therapy dog and Mr. Knowles used to take "Hawk" to hospitals.

The advantage to us taking Hawk is that he is already trained, and apparently well trained at that (well enough to be a therapy dog). We have never had a dog, so getting a pre-trained dog makes the first dog experience a little easier. Another advantage is that not only are we doing a good thing adopting an ex-racing greyhound, we are adopting an "estate dog."

The disadvantage to us taking Hawk is that he is a little older than most adopted dogs, so might not be with us for as long. Most dogs are 2 to 5 years old when they get adopted off of the track, and live 10 to 14 years. Also, we won't get the pleasure of training and introducing the new non-racing world to a greyhound.

Though Rachel would have preferred a smaller (i.e. 60 pounds), brindle female, she is excited about getting a Hawk, a huge, black male. Hawk is basically the opposite of her preferrence, but she'll love him just the same. I am excited too.

After chatting with Lisa tonight, Rachel and I excitedly talked only about dogs over our Ethiopian dinner tonight. We think it would be more reasonable to take Hawk after we get back from our vacation in 3 weeks. I guess he will have to go into foster care until then. We could take him right away, even tomorrow, but then he'd have to be displaced for a week while we're on vacation, starting in 2 weeks. Lisa agrees that it's in Hawk's best interests to stay in one place for the next several weeks. We couldn't get him tomorrow anyway because she wants to give him a bath and take him to the vet to get his shots updated.