Kitty's Story
| I believe that you develop an extra special close relationship with your 'problem' dogs, like 'problem' children, and Kitty was definitely one of those. I adopted her directly from Tri-State Greyhound Park in Cross Lanes, West Virginia and when she came home with me over Labor Day weekend in 1995 I had NO idea of how she was going to change my life. It soon became apparent that she had a bad habit of biting other dogs in the nose. The first thing I learned from Kitty was about using crates! I came home from work one day & there was blood everywhere and Paulette needed 13 stitches. From that day on, Kitty was in a crate when I wasn't home and eventually Paulette would be too, and all the dogs to follow them. Kitty was a real 'people' dog. The more people paying attention to her the better, she was a natural therapy dog & visited the nursing home with me every Wednesday night for 4 years. When we went to get her tested by the Delta Society for her Pet Partner registration they marveled at how she LOVED it when all the volunteers crowded in on her to pet her at the same time. (Part of the test) In October of 1995 I signed up for our first obedience class with no clue about where that would lead me. Kitty and I went to classes almost every session from that point until she finished her Novice Obedience title (her CD) in 2003, when she was 10 years old. The first time that I gave her the command to 'stay' (and she did) and I walked to the end of the 15 foot lead, turned and said 'Kitty Come' (and she did) I was hooked on obedience. Just the fact that she understood exactly what I wanted was amazing to me. Because of Kitty and our involvement in the Pets on Wheels program, I was able to bring Parker (Whippet) into my life. Because of Parker I researched lure coursing and got involved in the sighthound sports. Because of lure coursing I also started racing my dogs. While Kitty was already 8 years old before I discovered racing for fun, she did get to race (wearing #3) in a few race meets before she was retired from racing a second time. She Loved it & gave it 110%. After Paulette died in 2002, I started to notice that there was something that just wasn't quite right with Kitty. We started on our 18 month journey through 7 different vets with almost that many diagnoses to finally find out that she had Cushing's Disease. While not uncommon in older dogs, it's usually found in small breeds and therefore not the first thing a vet would think of in a Greyhound. After her diagnosis, but before we could begin treatment, she had an acute attack of pancreatitis. She spent 10 days in ICU at the Emergency Hospital in Annapolis, MD which left everyone a Greyhound fan. Her Internal Medicine vet told me that dogs that had pancreatitis as bad as Kitty don't usually survive. It did take it's toll on her, but she lived another 18 months after that before the Cushings took her at age 12-1/2. In the Retired Racing Greyhound community they say that getting your first Greyhound (Paulette) changes your life. I can say that's true for me only in that it led to getting my second Greyhound (Kitty) who really changed my life. Pretty much all the activities in my life today and almost all the friends that I have can be traced back to Kitty. She truly changed my life in a dramatic and wonderful way. |
| Flash - Kitty's picture was selected to be part of the 2009 Willowcreek Press Greyhound calendar |
| Kitty's last photo shoot at age 12, the summer before she died. Jeannie suggested we photograph her "just in case" and how right she was. |
Copyright Close Encounters of the Furry Kind, LLC
Copyright Close Encounters of the Furry Kind, LLC
| In much younger days |
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