REBA

Starting Monday, January 11th Cable Muse Network is sharing stories of “The Phoenix Seven” every day. From the greyhound race track to forever homes.

I'm just going to write it down as it happened.

It started several years ago when we lived in Henderson, NV. A rescue group used to bring Greyhounds down to Henderson from Utah and they would set up outside a local PetSmart. Earl was very interested in adopting one at that time, but we had a Border Collie (Buddy) and knew he would not tolerate another large dog, so we put it on the back burner.

Several months ago, we lost Buddy. Earl thought that it would be a good time for us to look into the Greyhound rescue. I went online and found the closest one to us was Judy Paulson in Albuquerque (we are in Las Cruces, about three hours south). Judy had the dogs listed with photos that were going to be available in early December from the track in Phoenix.

We were interested in a female and picked several from the list that we would be interested in. We completed an application online and soon after got a call from Kim Owen here in Las Cruces. Kim and Phil came over to do a site inspection of our home and yard and reported back to Judy that she thought we would make good Greyhound owners. Judy told us that she would try to match up the dogs to the new prospective owners and thought the female, Reba, would be a good match for us.

Since Kim was going up to Albuquerque, when the dogs arrived from Phoenix, to pick up one that she was adopting, she graciously offered to bring Reba down for us. We met her locally and Kim had to actually pick Reba up to get her into our car. Reba was so scared, she was shaking. Between the trip from Phoenix and the trip down from Albuquerque, she did not know what was happening to her. We finally got her home and introduced Reba to Debbie, our 2 year old Westie, outside on the driveway. They were very curious of each other, but seemed to take to one another right away.

We also have two cats and that has been a longer adjustment period than Reba and Debbie. Debbie had a little bit of a snit for a couple of weeks when she realized Reba would be staying. Reba also decided that all the toys in the toy box were hers. We had a bed for her in the living room and she knew right away that it was hers and she was in heaven having something that soft and wonderful to sleep on. She learned right away that she could make the toys squeak, but it has taken her several weeks to actually know how to play with them. Watching Debbie throw them around and shake them has taught her a lot. She's starting to actually play with them as well as play outside with Debbie and have fun chasing each other around the yard.

Reba does love to run and will just take off when the mood strikes her and make laps around the yard. Debbie tries to keep up with her, but takes short cuts and meets her coming the other way. These Greyhounds are amazing to watch when they run. They are so graceful and seem to fly through the air.

We have found that Greyhounds are very sweet and loving dogs. They love to be cuddled and petted and have found, just as Judy told us, they are Velcro dogs and will follow you around as if they are stuck to you. Reba seemed to be a little shy with Earl at first and we think she may have had a male trainer. She is totally over that now.

Our white cat, Casper, is still wary and will get up on the counter in the kitchen and hiss. CoCo, our tortoise cat, is [friendlier] and they have actually nuzzled a little bit. This morning I found Debbie curled around behind Reba on the floor and was leaning on her. They realized I was watching, but I managed to get one picture of them together.