My Background and Homecoming
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 My story began with my mom. When she was just 14 years old,
she saw a TV special on greyhound racing. They followed the story of a young dog from the
track to a foster home and Mom wanted to take that dog home. She vowed that as soon as she
had her own place, she would adopt a retired greyhound. In February of 1992 I was born for one reason--to race. Because I can't talk, Mom doesn't know much about my history. One of these days she will look up the numbers on my ear tattoos and find out. Mom thinks I was born in Oklahoma because that's where I was adopted. There are a lot of greyhound breeders in Oklahoma. According to my ear tattoos, I was the sixth puppy in the litter. I trained and raced for two years. During this time, I was bitten pretty badly on my rump, was prodded with an electric cattle prod several times, and was made to wear a muzzle for such a long time that I got sores under my eyes. Mom knows all this because of my scars. I am a very small greyhound and probably didn't do too well at the tracks. This is probably a good thing, because I was retired and got to go live with Mom. Statistics show that out of a litter of six puppies, I was one of two that was kept alive to racing age, and I'm most likely the only surviving pup now. When I was 2 1/2 I was sent to the REGAP folks (Retired Greyhounds as Pets). My story is pretty scary. I was on my way to a research lab but for some reason, some of us in the shipment were dropped at REGAP before we were sent to an awful life. I am really lucky!They called me Maime when I lived with REGAP. I really took to living in a house and managed to sneak in bed with my foster mom every night. She warned Mom about this habit of mine. Mom was in college in Oklahoma when she came to get me. When she drove up I was in my cage waiting for her--on my back with my legs straight up in the air. So much for first impressions! Still, mom said I'm the best $50 investment she's ever made. |
