Suzanne Gerry who runs Northern Greyhound Adoptions was very crafty, as I had just lost Gunner, and wasn’t going to go through that ever again. Suzanne called me to foster this big athletic Greyhound, to make space for another shipment coming in. Well it was winter and a big snowstorm was predicted. She warned me that it had better not snow while I have him or I won’t want to give him back for adoption. She had to have known about the storm and I do believe it was quite the set up. This dog LOVED snow! He was a blast to take out in the snow, he would leap and spin , he could run and spin at the same time, and outrun other dogs as he was adding spins along the way. Or he could spin in place like a riegning horse, and I would just hold the lead up above his head and out of his way.
After the snowstorm hit , I put him in harness and took him to the groomed and free local cross country ski trails at the Burlington Intervale. He pulled like a Husky! He also was quite controlable, as I kept one lead on the harness for pulling and the other to his collar to stop or neck reign to turn him. It was natural to him.
He was sent back to the kennel for a couple to look at who were coming down from Canada. I cried all day. Fortunately he was too powerful for the woman, though the husband wanted him, and they chose another dog. Don’t you know he ended up back in my house adopted by me. That was Sue’s plan all along. He needed work with cats first and got that work before I took him permanently. I enjoyed seven short years with him.
The end of May I noticed a small bump on his hind quarters, and thought he had bumped himself. But it did not go down, it grew quickly and suddenly , became painful one morning, in less than 2 weeks from noticing a bump. I had to help him into the car and spent a day at Peak, as Carolyn was away. Testing came back as a Sarcoma in his muscle, and too involved and too aggressive to remove.
He has been on pain meds for three weeks as this thing grew right before my eyes. Sadly 6/24/24 was the day I had to say goodbye.
Mikey, go find Gunner up there and have yourselves some fun races. Give me some signs once in a while. I did find the Tiger Lilly that just bloomed today in my garden. I’ll take that as a sign.
