The dogs at the track are housed in kennel buildings a little way behind the actual track. When they race, the dogs are loaded up into a dog truck and driven down to the track. This same road is the access road you use to get from the general parking lot back to the kennel compound to visit the kennels. In order to leave the track and head on out to the highway, you drive the winding road from the guard shack down to where the dog trucks turn off to take the dogs down to race.

And it never fails…when you load the dogs up, all they remember is that this is the way they go when they get to race. “Get” being the operative word. Because any race dog that makes it at any race track must do one thing: love to race. So, asI drive down the winding road and we approach the track, the dogs pace the window and whine. They think they are being taken to race! Well, I finally captured the sequence with my camera…something I’ve always been meaning to do:

Loaded up and ready to go!

Past the guard shack, you can see the Grandstand and the back of the tote board. Birmingham used to also run horses, and in the foreground you can still see the rail for what was the horse track.

Crazystreak and Claire’s Alexia enjoy the view…

As we approach the turn the dog trucks normally would make, the whining has started from these two and they turn their heads to look in the direction of the track…

And as I pass the turn and head up to the parking lot, I get this look: Hey Lady, you overshot the track!

The dogs settle down once you get on the Interstate, but the perplexed look some of them get as you bypass their track is priceless. Some will even stand up on their hind legs and dig at the window as you get close to the track. Little do they know what major changes are in store for them! Retirement and pethood.

Saturday was ASFA format, with Best in Field being awarded the Rescue Trophy (sound familiar? Echo won it in 2007) and Sunday being the newly created NLCC format. The Sunday trial was the Southern Turf Classic, featuring the Lucy-Foxey Cup being awarded for Best in Field. Uma Rapiti photography was there to capture the days’ activities and Lee really got some great shots!

All in all, I’m so glad I went. The field was a new one for SEGC and was located on an 8000 acre horse farm. Just the drive across the grounds to get to the field was gorgeous, as you passed calm lakes and ponds with their morning mist rising gently. Lush, green fields of grass sometimes dotted with grazing horses. I even spotted a couple deer who’d stopped for some breakfast in a little clearing just off the dirt road that led to the field. The company was great, the dogs were wonderful, there was a lot of great lure coursing…all in all, a tiring and fun weekend. There was a Blessing of the Hounds Saturday morning which, of course, brought me to tears. Echo and Lucky Louie had the best time not only running, but visiting with the other humans and hounds.

There is exciting news from the weekend, so stay tuned for results to be posted once I have the photo’s from Uma Rapiti Photography….

Here’s a quick shot from my iPhone as I was setting things up on Saturday….

Echo and Louie hanging out in the xpen on Saturday

Ken gets his greyhound zen moment too…

You aren’t supposed to lay on the floor at the vet office with your six year old dog and say goodbye.

So, I’ve tried to avoid thinking about it. And part of that has been avoiding this site. Updating means moving on. It means posts about  Harmony drift down in the article count…drift off the main page. As if somehow keeping her on the front page makes her any more here than she is.

Sigh.

But, life does move on. And Harmony is always in my heart. I think about her every day and remember how soft she was andhow cuddly she was and how much she adored her daddy and what a master napper she was and how she always tried to give me kisses knowing mommy doesn’t like doggy kisses on her face…all the things that made Harmony, Harmony. Nothing will fade her from my memory or my heart. So, I think it’s time I force myself to move forward. The pack has recovered. Even Harmony’s littermate Melody seems to have rebounded from her funk. The pack has grown by four hounds.

We started this site to share our experience living with a pack of greyhounds – the good, the bad and the ugly. Losing Harmony was part of the really bad. And I’m so thankful for all of my friends and family and all posts and emails of support we got through this site. So, I need to honor Harmony and honor our pack and our readers…and keep this site alive!

If you’ve made it this far, thank you. And stay tuned for more pack updates, lure coursing updates, lots of pictures and videos and a daily or weekly peek into our little corner of the world living with 14 amazing hounds.

I think I’ve held it together pretty well until today. I know it’s been hard for Ken. Harmony is, after all, one of his original 4-pack of dogs from before we met. I’ve been trying to support him the best I could and stay positive. I don’t think I really considered the possiblity that she’d get worse or that the doctors wouldn’t know how to fix her…or that she might not be fixable. With the decline in her condition overnight and the doctors still stumped, I think the realization that Harmony may not live has finally begun to hit me.  And I start crying roughly every 10 minutes. Ken is getting quite a work out coming out of his office to give me a hug and make sure I’m ok.

Of course, I’m sad that Harmony is sick. I’m devastated that we might lose a 6 year old dog who was seemingly happy and healthy a week ago. I’m frustrated and scared that we might not be able to figure out what’s wrong with her (I have no doubt that we have the best minds and most capable doctors on her case). I’m worried that if we find out what’s wrong with her, she  might be too far gone to help. And that impossible struggle of ‘how much treatment do we put her through’ has begun to ebb into the edges of my mind. Weighing the pain and suffering of her condition + the pain and suffering of treatment against the odds of recovery. Every time I even start to consider saying goodbye, my mind refuses to go any further with the thought. She’s only 6. And this is so unfair for her to be fighting for her life against God only knows what.

I’ve always been a cryer. It’s how I handle sad or stressful or even happy things. I can usually cry and get all the pent up emotion out in the open so I can then focus on what needs to be done. Not this time. It’s not working. The tears seem endless. I guess because there just aren’t any answers. No resolution in site. We can’t even be sure the meds she’s getting are helping and not hurting.

For those who have walked in my shoes, I feel your pain in a way  I never could have without being here myself. For those who have not walked this path, I pray your hounds stay healthy and that you never have to. Now, I have to figure out how to cope with this…trying to stay positive because right now Harmony IS alive and she IS fighting. And as long as that is true, I will still have hope and give Harmony every chance I can to come back home a healthy and happy hound. For every sick dog there is a scared, worried, frightened owner struggling to keep their head above water. I am no exception to that equation.

Now, I will say that we went with the intention of meeting a few retired or soon-to-be-retiring boys to potentially add to the pack. Ken will be posting more on that later But it was great to visit with all the kennel pups. I visited with some old favorites like roman-nosed Lightening Lee, Saint Marteen and Denim Days. I got to give Lee a good luck kiss before she muzzled up for her evening race (which she won!). We also met some new favorites like Skeela, Funkytown and Rights to Riches. We actually watched Funkytown’s race, which he placed in and Rights to Riches, who didn’t win at all…but she sure looked pretty trying!

It was a fun day visiting with a long-time friend and watching races with someone who’s really been in the biz for a long time. It provided a great deal of insight…and I think I finally understand what all that breaks left and breaks right business means. LOL And, of course, I always love visiting a racing kennel. It reminds me of where our dogs come from; because their past has a lot to do with who they are as pets. The regimen of racing and training combined with all they experience help to make them into such wonderful pets when they retire.

I am grateful to have the opportunity to experience all aspects of a greyhounds life from the farm, to the track, to our home. Keep an eye out for Ken’s post about the 5th dog we brought home from Birmingham this weekend. The four we brought home from the track will be available for adoption as soon as they are vetted and profiled by Greyhound Crossroads: Missa Pippi, Boo Mizzou, Son of Dave and Crazy Horse. All are really great dogs who will make fantastic pets!

Well, someone has finally done it. Someone has finally made a greyhound adoption video that I can find nothing wrong with. In fact, I LOVE IT. It addresses their racing careers and that they do need homes after their careers…but not in a sappy, pity the dogs sort of way. It has the right amount of humor, with no cheesy-ness. This vidoe happens to have been made in Australia, where their adoption program fully home-acclimates the dog before placement (and they briefly talk about the muzzles that some greyhounds are required to wear - that’s a discussion for another day) but I think it’s appropriate for US adopters as well. They packed a TON of information into just a few minutes and presented it in an interesting way that keeps the viewer engaged.

I don’t know how anyone could watch the amazing racing footage and not want to own one of these dogs! Click here to watch the video and decide for yourself.

I can’t say I really learned anything new or earth-shattering in the seminar since I’ve seen every season of his show on NatGeo. But Cesar is extremely funny and quite entertaining, so it was a really fun way to spend an afternoon. One thing I did learn was that he had 13 rotties when he met his wife! That would be quite a pack!! Now…on with the pictures!

The stage. No flash allowed so most of the pics I took came out too crappy to post…

The stage

Cesar gives a thumbs up about something

The ‘working with dogs’ session. The yorkie next to him growled and bit him a few times. He offered to take the dog home with him to rehabilitate her. Then send her back the adoption group. I know that I fell in LOVE with the blue great dane on stage!

Adoption dog on stage

Anyhoo…as part of my present, (and because he’s the bestest hubby in the world!) Ken upgraded our tickets to include VIP passes which allowed us to meet with Cesar after the show. He seems like a genuinely nice guy and, of course, I asked him to give Big Daddy a hug for me! It was really neat to feel his ‘energy’ in person. That’s always the intangible part of what he does that is hard to understand and even harder to learn/perfect.

Heather and Cesar

(I know, I know…I’m ridiculously pastey white)

Ken, me and Cesar

Cesar autographing a book

I had him sign a book to donate to a greyhound adoption auction. He signed it: I love greyhounds! Cesar Millan

Love him or hate him (I like him!), I thought it was a pretty neat thing to do! Though, if given the choice between another Cesar seminar and another Suzanne Clothier seminar, I’d pick Suzanne hands down. Much smaller venue (30 people vs thousands of people) and I learned a TON from the Clothier seminar I went to a few years ago.

The Better Together song can be found on Jack Johnson’s In Between Dreams CD.