Genna (In her retirment pose by the dining room window)

By Genna’s Father

Our black greyhound is my wife’s third greyhound while it is my first greyhound. I have always loved and had dogs. But it’s been a long time since I’ve had a dog. Fifteen years. She started telling me it would be a nice to look at adopting a greyhound. We joined an adoption group here in central Ohio and started going to Saturday events at various pet stores around town. Greyhounds are brought to these events and potential adopters come to these events.

On a number of chilly Saturdays in the winter of the year, we went to the greyhound meeting events around town. You were even allowed to be a foster parent and take one home for a little while to see if you wanted to keep him or her or bring them back.  we went to the events at a large pet store chain our city. There, I had my first chance to interact with greyhounds. I ended up walking a number of them around the aisles of the giant pet store in some mall. All colors, sexes and sizes. But few were as large as my wife’s last greyhound Tommy who weighed over a hundred pounds.

We saw many greyhounds, but none seemed exactly right to us. But I began to fall in love with the breed from interfacing with so many of them at the Saturday events. I began really studying them in articles and videos over the Internet during this time. I even made and post a video on greyhound to YouTube.

* * *

Yet, lingering in the back of my mind was whether I wanted to have another dog again. Even wanted to have a greyhound. I had lived without a dog around since 2005 and I wasn’t sure I wanted to get a dog after almost fifteen years. Things quickly took an unexpected turn when my wife’s mother passed away in a sudden, unexpected death and she went to stay with her father for a few weeks to help him during this difficult time.

Before the unexpected passing of my wife’s mother. we had been looking at greyhounds and had met at our home with the woman who was head of the greyhound rescue group we joined. I think we both wanted a black greyhound for some reason. Around three years old. Female or male it didn’t matter to us. After we had given her the type of greyhound we were looking for my wife’s mother died and then we went out to look at a greyhound that the woman said we might like. She had it at her home with her two greyhounds. She has a female three-year-old black greyhound that has raced on the track in Alabama. Yes, we want to see it and drive through a cold, winter Ohio countryside one Sunday to meet the black greyhound she has.

When we arrived at her home in the country with a large fenced in field behind her home, on the outskirts of a famous small Ohio village. We pulled up her long driveway that day in my black jeep. We got out and went up the steps into her kitchen where she and her husband greeted us. Along with her two fawn-colored greyhounds there was the black one she wanted us to see in person. (We had already seen her pictures on the webpage she sent us. The black greyhound’s racing name was Braska Genna. In real (retired) life, she was just Genna.

I think I fell in love with her at first sight.

Within thirty minutes, we were headed home with my wife calming Genna in the back seat of the jeep.

My wife got things situated in the house with Genna.

But she was very concerned about her father and felt she needed to be with him at this time.

I certainly agreed.

Early mornning walks with Genna

So, it was Genna and me together most of the time in those first two weeks of her arrival as our adoptee. Our “daughter” or “little girl” as I referred to Genna as. It was an interesting experience that I will always remember. The first time in my life where I played anything close to a mother in life. I really had more than a dog in my life now. I also had a new child.

Genna needed a number of simply things but it required me getting onto a schedule again. It was a schedule not controlled by my personal moods cycles and all but by something else. And, you couldn’t argue with this “something else” because it came from the mind of an animal.

When my wife was home, she knew what to do with Genna. I admired her confidence and knowledge about this strange species of animal called greyhounds. But when she was gone, it was just Genna and me again.

I was quickly falling in was falling in love with this sixty-pound black, female greyhound.

Yes, I almost sound like a proud father of a new daughter. It seems like this to me once I got over my fear of Genna pooping everywhere in the house. I nervously bird dog her more than I need to (in retrospect) but my fears are pretty much unfounded as she learns quickly about doing her daily duties on our walks in the morning. She loved getting into the large cage some friends had lent us. It made her feel safe and secure. She liked the feeling of security in the cage. After all, she had been kept in a cage for many years as this is the life of greyhound racers. When she was not in her cage, she would lay on the dog cushion we placed in front of the fireplace. Lay on the beige mat and look at me with her big brown eyes, me at work in my office fifteen-feet away from her.

Genna with Sarah in the Fall

I took Genna on walks every day along a little creek that runs through our town. There is a path that weaves in the woods next to the creek and we went on this path many of those first mornings together (as well as many mornings afterwards). At, the end of the trail, there is a long wooden bridge where one is most likely to meet students going to the high school across the nearby road. It is here that Genna is also most likely to be petted and told how pretty she is. This bridge becomes a favorite place of hers in those first few weeks.

Time passed and now we’ve had Genna for three years.

She has become an important new member of our family. And, such an important friend and companion for me.

* * *

Both my wife and I are members of various Facebook or other social media groups based around greyhounds. I’ve not gotten involved with volunteering time for greyhound causes but I did create and post a film on YouTube about the history of greyhounds. I learned that greyhounds represent the longest dog species associated with human culture. Yet, there are still questions about where greyhounds are really dogs. (One doesn’t have to be a greyhound owner to believe/know this, but it helps.)

A woman on one of the greyhound Facebook sites posted that greyhounds are ugly dogs. This post immediately garnered a rage reaction from the Facebook group. As well as, an angry note to the woman from my wife. I totally agreed with what she responded to the woman. There are many nasty comments to the lady who posted to the group “greyhounds are ugly.”

My wife pointed me to the Facebook page, and I saw a number of bad comments to the woman as well as hate comments almost. Within this particular Facebook community based around greyhound dogs. I wanted my wife to write back to the woman. A second time after her first. I wanted to add my two cents into this whole dialogue if it came to this. But my wife thinks it’s not a good idea. The ugly greyhound poster is suffering enough she tells me. So, the matter is dropped.

Genna with her Bunny

But I would still like to write a short note to that woman who wrote” greyhounds are ugly” in our greyhound Facebook group.

I’d write the below.

“You’re ugly to even think this thought! Here’s ugly for you!”

 

(Scamp the Tramp. Winner of the 2019 Ugliest Dog Contest)

See my video “Greyhounds” on the history of greyhounds.