Echo and I will leaving for the ASFA International invitational in just a few weeks, so I thought she could use just a general exam and bloodwork. She gets these strange little growths on her from time to time that eventually dry up and fleck off, so I also wanted the doc to take a peek at one of those. Her general exam was unremarkable and her blood panel came back perfect, so she’s now got  clean bill of health! The vet said the little growths are nothing to worry about…most likely just a build up of oily skin material in her coat.

Melody was also in for a general exam and follow up bloodwork to check her kidney values. When she was at the specialist to have her toe amputed last year, her kidney values were off the chart. We put her on kidney-friendly food and rechecked at several weeks intervals and the levels did drop down. And ultrasound showed nothing unusual. This visit was just to take a look at her values and see if her kidney issues have progressed or stayed the same. Her creatinine was 2.7 (up from 2.1 6 months ago) which is elevated from what’s considered “normal” for a greyhound, but her BUN was within normal limits at 27. At this point, we are going to keep her on the kidney food and just recheck. However, the vet did clear her for toe amputation surgery, so we will be scheduling that in the next few weeks.

Tater was spayed last week and I noticed a little bit of fluid pooling around her spay incision, so I decided it was best to have the doc take a look. It wasn’t painful to the touch and the skin color along the incision looked great. It was just a little….puffy. The vet examined the incision and said he could feel that all the abdominal layers were intact, that sometimes the muscles just sweat a little fluid. He put her on an antibiotic just to be safe and said to keep her as quiet as possible. We’ll be keeping a close eye on that, for sure.

Peanut was in for a wellness visit last week and to have some baseline bloowork run…something we like to do for all new pups as soon as possible after coming home. Well, one of her values was a little high so they just wanted us to bring in her urine so they could make sure it was concentrating properly. Since she has had a few peepee accidents by the back door, it’s always best to rule out anything medical. I decide to bring her along with the urine specimen “just in case” they wanted to lay hands on her again for some reason. Turns out, her urine looked good and was properly concentrated so Peanut was just along for the ride. Which she didn’t seem to mind. She rides really well in the car and is just soooooo curious about everywhere she goes and everything she sees.

$200 and four healthy hounds later we headed for home…until the next visit!

Most of the hounds in the kennel had already been petted out or sent to other tracks to race, but there was one very special girl Heather said I just had to meet. She opened the top crate about four down from the front door and I peer in to see this beautiful black face peering back out at me. This timid little girl was crouched down in her crate and not quite sure why we were so interested in her. Well, aside from a shiny black coat, this girl had the most adorable roman nose. You don’t see roman noses every day in greyhounds and it seems even less common to see them on a girl.

I was immediatly smitten, but Heather assured me that she had a promising career ahead of her. And she did! In fact, she went on to race in Birmingham for a couple years before closing out her career at Gulf Greyhound Park just a few weeks ago. Over the two years she was racing for Fishdog Kennel in Birmingham, I would always stop by and say hello to her. And every time she’d cower to the back or crate and avoid eye contact. And every time I’d think the same thing: Awwww…sweet little girl. She seemed SO unsure of things, it made you just want to scoop her up in your arms and give her a big ol’ hug.

Heather had always told me her racing owner had an interest in bringing her home when she retired, if she didn’t go to be a brood. And aside from that, with her roman nose I figured there’d be folks lined up to adopt her. So, when Heather told me she was being hauled back to Birmingham and she wasn’t spoken for…..and that if I really wanted her, I could have her…well…that just set my mind to spinning.

Bringing her home meant going back up to our limit of 15. Did I want that? Was I ready for it? I struggled and contemplated for days. And I found my answer in the turn out pen of the overflow kennel at Birmingham. When I looked into Lightning Lee’s eyes, I saw my dog. Not a racing greyhound. Not a pet. Not a foster. I simply saw my girl. And I had no more doubt about whether bringing her home was the right thing to do. It was the only thing to do.

So thank you thank you thank you to Heather,  Team Greyhound, Toomanyhounds kennel, her racing owner and all the folks who helped Lee race straight into my heart and home.

Waiting to come inside for the first time…

Oh, did I forget to mention that this shy, timid girl in the racing kennel was pulling a fast one? Oh yea…turns out, she’s not shy at all! In fact, she’s proving to be quite a mischevious little thing! Stay tuned for all of Lee’s adventures and misadventures!