Greyhound news from http://www.delawareonline.com/
It's hard to imagine that the two dogs lounging around Susan and Keith Taylor's home near Odessa were once the stars of a racetrack in Florida.
Most of the time, Piper, a 7-year-old who has a half-white, half-black face, likes to nestle in his favorite corner of the Taylor home: a soft, yellow couch with a floral design. He sits so still that he looks as if he's been painted into the fabric. Rocky, a lanky dog with marbled fur, likes to curl up in the shape of a comma on a doggie bed on the floor.
"They're big couch potatoes," said Susan Taylor, the mom whose Appoquin Farms home has become a haven for greyhounds over the last few years.
Rocky has a permanent home at the Taylors'; Piper is a foster dog.
"They're just happy to be in a home," Taylor said.
Susan Taylor shudders when she thinks about the future her dogs once faced. As greyhounds, death was almost certain after their racing days were over. Instead, thanks to First State Greyhound Rescue, her family has helped more than two dozen dogs like Rocky and Piper find homes.
Now Taylor is hoping other midstate residents will hear of her family's experience with greyhounds and think about taking in a dog or two, even for a short time.
Former speedsters adapt to life off the track
In recent years, animal lovers have organized rescue missions to take the dogs away from the track and into the homes of thousands of loving families like the Taylors.
Families don't have to adopt them, but they can play host to the greyhounds until a permanent home can be found. However, it's difficult for those who have a visual image of greyhounds as racing dogs to imagine them walking around the house or near their children, say Larry and Mary Hirsch, who have fostered nine greyhounds in their Middletown household in three years.
"Because they hear they're racing dogs, most people, they equate them with the temperament of a race horse," Larry Hirsch said.
The dogs are so gentle, say the Hirsches, that they allow their 4-year-old grandson, Shane, to play with 65-pound Davey, an 8-year-old greyhound they adopted, and other dogs they foster.
At the Taylor household, more than two dozen greyhounds have found a home, and it has never been a problem with the Taylor children: 3-year-old Gina, 6-year-old Nicole and 9-year-old Daniel. At one time, the Taylors had four greyhounds in their home.
"The biggest problem is that it's hard to see them go," Susan Taylor said.
Retired racers must learn to navigate stairs
Claudia J. Courtney, president of Greyhound Pets of America-Delaware, said a greyhound is not for everyone, but it's rewarding for those who are willing to take time to foster the dogs' socialization. Most foster dogs are between 2 and 5 years old when they come off the track and into an adoption group, she said. They need to be shown that glass is solid, that the entire house is like the crate they're used to inhabiting, that a car can take them places and that they can go up and down steps and not die.
"The foster families are there to teach them all these things and see them bloom like abeautiful flower as they learn how nice it is to be in a home with loving people," Courtney said.
Though the dogs can race to speeds of up to 45 miles per hour, get a greyhound in a home and you may have someone occupying that space you're used to on the couch, Larry Hirsch said.
"They call them the 45-mile-an-hour couch potato," he said. "They're not hyper and can sleep 22 hours a day."
One of the main difficulties is trying to get them used to the normal life of a pet, Hirsch said, because they're used to going from a cage to the track. Some of them, like Rocky, have difficulty climbing stairs because they've never lived in a home. Some have been known to run into glass doors, Taylor said.
Most of them can't jump a fence and yet, if they're unleashed, they can take off at high speeds to chase a squirrel. Once they're outside, off a leash, their instinct is to take off.
Taylor entered her dogs in a midstate parade this year, hoping that exposure for greyhounds would help save their fellow dogs' lives.
The Hirsches and Taylor said one set of numbers is behind their effort to get families to provide foster homes. According to the Humane Society of the United States, an estimated 7,500 to 20,000 greyhounds were euthanized in 2003.
Dogs repay new owners with love
Taking care of a dog is a big commitment, Susan Taylor said. She flips through pages of a photo album, where she keeps memories of the greyhounds who have come through her house. Greyhound figurines, paintings and other paraphernalia adorn the rooms where the dogs have spent time playing with the family.
Over the years, her family's efforts have paid off, Susan Taylor said, especially because the dogs have given her family the only thing they have to offer: love.
"I want my kids to be animal lovers, and I want them to care," she said.
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