First Post!

Well, this is the first post! Not too sure about how this is all going to work out but here goes:

As per the title--I have 5 greyhounds here in the Seattle area. We started with one [doesn't everyone?] via our local adoption group, started doing all the adopted greyhound stuff [play-dates, etc.] and then ended up moving! We were gone from the Seattle area for about a year and during that time, 2 more greyhounds came home with us. We were lucky because we had started lure coursing with Newell but his toes couldn't really handle all the turns...but at an event we had the luck of meeting a local breeder of NGA greyhounds who had a few adults she was looking to re-home.

Very rare to get a dog directly from a NGA breeder, but we fell in love with Evie & Newell ended up with the most perfect play pal! The best part about getting Evie was that she never had her "onion skin" papers sent in, so we [well, I] was able to pick her "official" racing name. She had been in a home before she came to us with the name Cinderella because she was kinda sooty looking, but she was also the color of a dark, dusky evening...and Cashel's Evening she became.

Cherry came along almost 10 months later! Actually, the day we picked up Evie, Cherry was born at the farm & we watched her and her littermates grow over the months with no intention of getting one. Cherry was the pick bitch of the litter that Anne had decided to keep. Beautiful white and fawn ticked [and as beautiful as her mother, Chynna], and being born on the 4th of July, Cherry Bomb was more than an appropriate name! She came home with us when she was 9mo old...Anne decided that she needed to focus more efforts on her NGA dogs [as Cherry was what is known in the greyhound community as a 1/2 and 1/2 --part NGA and part AKC, resulting in her being AKC registered & unable to race at the tracks].

Oliver came home after we had moved back to Seattle. He is from one of the great American sires--Craigie Whistler. Through other greyhound people we know, we had the chance to get him directly from a FL track--as he basically got fired from his day job as a racer. Don't really understand why--as he's wicked fast--but he *does* have a quirky personality to say the least! Oliver's white & black, adding another white spotted dog to the mix. It's funny because people seem to "collect" greyhounds by color--we all have our favorites--with mine being the white/colors and the blacks!

And greyhound #5...Gizmo...is Cherry's sibling! He came to us just in October after finishing in the show ring. We're friends with his breeder and she knew we were an active "performance" greyhound home--participating in lure coursing, OFC, straight and oval racing with our dogs. So, we're trying to work Gizmo in, get him in running shape, and generally keep him from eating the cats!

That's the low-down on the dogs, more to come to update everyone on our comings & goings! For those of you interested, our kennel name is RAINIER GREYHOUNDS...

~c