how exciting! he is beautiful. i can't wait to meet him at mountain hounds. he's coming, right?

Dodge is home!!





Look at this thick neck!


Disel wants to play, but Dodge is still a bit unsure about himself.



We made the 1200 mile roundtrip to Victoryland AL last weekend to pickup Dodge!
The track was crowded with people cheering on the greyhounds and betting like the economy is booming!
We met Bob Hickman (Hickman Hounds kennel) who held Dodge in his kennel for me for pickup.
Bob and his trainer Lazaro are very welcoming and nice people, their kennel is clean and the hounds are happy.
On Saturdays Lazaro works from 4:30am until the last race around 11:00pm, then back bright and early in the morning, hard work.
If anyone is in AL, stop by Victoryland, it's a nice track.
The compound is old and ugly, you need a visitor pass to enter, but they are planning on re-building it in the near future.

Welcome home you handsome fellow! What a good-looking sweetheart he is . Glad to hear everyone's back home safely.

I'm glad that Dodge is home and the trip was a good one. Sounds like he had good track mates at the track. Now he is in his forever home, and what a great life he will have. If he only knew. Welcome home Dodge, Welcome home.

He is beautiful. Congratulations on your new addition.

What a beautiful boy!!!! I love the flying nun ears in the second picture.

Hang in there Disel, he will play with you soon.

After 5 days of learning how to be a pet, Dodge actually ran a bit around the yard, not fast, but faster than usual. Then Diesel and Dodge both jumped in the goldfish(less) pond, yuck! Dodge tried to push a plastic ball with his nose and grab it with his paws, and he rolled in the grass sliding down the hill. He is very happy and learned how to take a cookie out of my hand and lick the ice cream bowl clean. He is really coming out of his shell, what a nice dog, not as a racer, but at least as a pet. I enjoy showing dogs the neat things of pet life.

Well.. race dog number two, LuLu, is not running either. She chases the lure but is just way too slow.
I am sending out her pet transfer papers and donation so she can go to an adoption group in Texas. Bummer..

But, since three is the lucky number, my third race dog, Midnight Rain, is schooling well and will be going to the track shortly!
She is a black girl out of Lonesome Cry and Nikita Rain. Go girl, make us proud!

Midnight Rain had two schooling races at Victoryland, and another one today that I don't have the results yet.
Hmmm... doesn't look too good, guess she is coming home soon... Here comes slow poke #3!

MIDNIGHT RAIN (62)
Black F., Jan 2007. Lonesome Cry - Nikita Rain
Hickman Hounds, Inc.
Cynthia Maloy, Trainer
Christina Newsome, Owner

Date Dist Tk. Time Wt. PP Off 1-8 Str Fin ART Odds Comment Grade Finish

07/25/081s 5-16 F 31.90 62 7 3 4 4 5- OOP 0.00 Trailed JrdsStr,RcntPlsres,ShrtrSnrtr 5

07/20/081s 5-16 F 30.87 62 7 7 7 7 7-25½ 32.66 0.00 Never up, inside Chsm'sPytn,BbyStrHpe,GnOfRcks 7

Does that mean it will be a "Rainy" day at your house soon?

Todays results. How slow can it get?

RACE 1 07/28/2008 5-16 MILE COURSE F VictoryLand SCH
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dk's Empress 66* 1 1 1-4 1-3 1-3 31.57 ..... Bore out break
Dk's Mate 63 3 3 2- 2- 2-3 31.78 ..... Steady threat, rail
Dk's Phat Cat 75 8 4 3- 3- 3-10 32.26 ..... Jammed 1st turn
hustle boy 69* 2 7 7- 4- 4-13 32.47 ..... Jammed 1st turn
Dk's Primo 75 6 5 4- 5- 5-17 32.75 ..... Jammed 1st turn
A Star Shotgun 77 4 6 6- 6- 6-22 33.11 ..... Jammed 1st turn
A Star Unlimited 78 7 2 5- 7- 7-27 33.46 ..... Bore in break
Midnight Rain 63 5 8 8- 8- 8- OOP ..... Trailed

Hmm..doesn't look too good for Midnight's racing career. Do you know what "OOP" means? It said that in the description for a couple of her races.

Yep, that's right, she is so darn slow that she was Out Of Picture. Like waaay slow and waaay behind! Any slower and the lure would nip her in the butt on it's second time around!

I just talked to kennel owner Bob who said nobody would even take her at a lower track and to just come and get her. He will hold her until I can either get her myself or arrange transport. That is very nice of him, not all kennel owners hold pets for more than a few days. He would also give her to the local adoption group, but I don't want her to take up a spot that another dog needs. I'll vet her and adopt her out myself.

Anyone going to Alabama anytime soon?? It feels like I just did that trip yesterday to get Dodge Meister. Hey, at least these drop outs make good pets, right?

I still own a small interest of a group of 9 greyhounds with Charter Kennels that are currently running at Wheeling WV (one of them got a ticket and now runs at Palm Beach), as well as a litter of 5 that were born Oct 2007.
I also have a few options to buy another race dog as well, but lack of finances are in the way right now. So we'll wait and see what the future holds. With the racing industry struggling more and more, it may not hold much of anything!

I can't tell you how hard I laughed at your stories.

I knew both the trainers for my girls and their stories are worthy of passing on so you can see you aren't alone.
Katie was very fast coming out of the box but as she didn't like running by herself she would get half way around and stop to wait for everyone to catch up. But by then she would be smelling the grass or going potty that the others would fly by and she would have to try to catch up by she wasn't in the mood any more so she didn't try very hard. This happened at every race, the only ones she showed in were the real short ones, she even a couple of those.
Lovey on the other hand was to fast! She caught the lure every time in training, no matter how fast they ran it. If they catch the lure they get disqualified. They did every thing to try to slow her down ever tether her to a dog that had no interest in running, her brother. Lovey weighted in at 63 LBS and her bother, Cody, was 85LBS, and she just pulled him around the track with her and still caught the lure just before the finish line. So she came out of training and became ours.