Adoption Tails

Join us here each Monday as Regional Vice President Kathy Kreyling shares stories from the Adoption Center. Check out our Available Dogs to see who’s still waiting for their forever home.

Trigger

The first adoption was to a woman who just relocated to Seattle from Washington D.C. and decided she was ready to adopt the first dog she has ever had in her life. She did have a turtle for a long time, but that’s a little different than a Greyhound! 😉 All of the Greyhounds this lady had met before she came to the kennel were calm, “booth savvy” dogs which are very different from those that are straight from the track. After she got through the “culture shock”, we brought out the mellowest dogs in the kennel and, believe it or not, most of them were boys!! The dog she picked is a wonderful boy who is also very smart and food driven, which she realized immediately were greyt qualities that would help with training. Since this is her first dog, she named him Laika for the first dog that went into space … BTW, you know him as Trigger!!

Abeer

The next adoption was to a family that has one of our big, sweet boys, Brutus (fka Scorpio). Brutus has so much fun when he goes to the Tacoma play day that the family realized he was in need of a dog to play with at home. We started out looking at the traditional NGA dogs, but, on their way through the kennel, the family noticed one of our newest residents — a sweet little girl all curled up in her kennel and they knew they needed to meet her. It was absolutely love at first sight for all of the humans, Brutus and the little girl. Unfortunately, the other dogs the family saw never had a chance … they were completely smitten with the tiny Dubai girl, Abeer who is nka Ember!!

Alif

This adoption actually began a couple of weeks ago when a lady came to visit just to get to know our dogs. We had just gotten 3 dogs from Dubai who needed to go out so the lady got to “unofficially” meet them. While we were out in the yard, something happened that I haven’t seen before and it was about the sweetest thing I have seen in a very long time. The lady was sitting on the concrete and one of the dogs walked over and, with no encouragement, curled up in her lap. It was pretty obvious that he had chosen her and now, 2 very long weeks later, that dog is out of quarantine and he was able to go to Portland with his new mom. We love it when we get to be a part of scenes like this and are thrilled for Alif!

More info

Available Dogs

GPI’s Adoption Guide

Join us here each Monday as Regional Vice President Kathy Kreyling shares stories from the Adoption Center. Check out our Available Dogs to see who’s still waiting for their forever home.

Kanga

Today, a lady from Victoria BC came looking for her next grey who would be a companion for her older lab mix. She has had a number of purebreds and lurchers so she is very familiar with the dogs and had an idea of what she was looking for — a middle aged girl. All of the dogs we showed her got along well with her current dog so the decision was really up to her and she chose Kanga!!

Bong

I keep saying that doing turnout and the Brightwater walks are a greyt way to get to know the dogs and identify potential ones to adopt This couple definitely took advantage of those opportunities which gave one of our more reserved dogs a chance to get comfortable with them and start to show his true colors. As they watched him blossom, they realized what a special guy he is and knew they were going to have to adopt Bong, nka Dexter.

Wynter

After we helped get all the new dogs settled, we got to help a family pick out a new friend for their greyhound, Lucy, who has been mourning the loss of her brother 2 weeks ago. The dad kept hoping that Lucy was going to make his job really easy by making the selection for him. That didn’t happen … she got along with all the dogs except one so he was forced to make the decision himself. He saw a wide variety of dogs from one of our shyest dogs to a couple of our most energetic ones. At the end of the day, he and Lucy picked our sweet girl from Korea, Wynter, who is now known as Ethel.

More info

Available Dogs

GPI’s Adoption Guide

Join us here each Monday as Regional Vice President Kathy Kreyling shares stories from the Adoption Center. Check out our Available Dogs to see who’s still waiting for their forever home.

Lexi

A Canadian lady came to the kennel with her Lurcher, Huggy (FKA Garrett), in hopes of finding a playmate for him. Huggy is actually her fifth Greyhound or Lurcher so she knows the breeds and knew what she was looking for. Since she prefers to adopt older dogs, she had been through our website numerous times to compose her viewing list. It just so happens that most of the older dogs we have at this point in time are from Macau so they were well represented in our showings today, in fact, all of the dogs she saw were from Macau. The lady had one particular dog in mind when she arrived and, even though she enjoyed meeting all the dogs we showed her, the dog that won her heart (and Huggy’s) was that beautiful, blue girl, Lexi who had been at the top of her list!!

Sumaya

The lady who was up first this day to make her selection has been doing turnout for a while and has, therefore, had a chance to get to know the dogs a little. When she was doing turnout, I’m sure she had no idea that she was going to go home with a TV star! The little girl she adopted had quite a day yesterday — she was on TV to promote GPI and, as the poster child for the Walkathon, she was also promoting our major fundraiser. Apparently, she won over the people at the TV station just as quickly as she did her new mother and I have no doubt that Sumaya will do the same thing to her new neighbors!

PJ

The next family has 3 children and 2 dogs, a Pug and a Blue Heeler. We were hoping that one of our shyer dogs might be a good fit for this family since the dog would have lots of company, however, those particular dogs weren’t very cooperative, so we moved on to some of our more outgoing dogs who ended up being way too interested in the Pug. The last dog we brought out was perfect … she got along with everyone and showed them all her favorite trick — rolling on her side to get a belly rub. Nobody can resist PJ when she does that trick and this family decided pretty quickly that PJ needed to get her belly rubs in her new home with them!

Resolve

This next guy has been with us a while and he has been waiting patiently for someone to see what a “diamond in the rough” he is. When he potential new mother came to meet him, we all had our fingers crossed as we watched the two get acquainted with each other. As our boy started to trust her, he showed her more and more of what his real personality is and what he will be like after some time. Thankfully, she was smart enough to see the real Resolve, nka Bell, and took him home!!

Truck

For this family, one of the most important things they were looking for was a dog that walked well on leash because the mother and daughter each had some back issues. The truth is that there are not a lot of dogs that fit that requirement, but we found some greyt options. They met four dogs and, honestly, after they met the first one, they were so smitten that I’m not sure the other dogs even had a chance. So, it wasn’t long before our sweet boy, Truck, was headed off to Canada with his new family! –

Jimbo

This family was from Richland and they had 2 children that they had to consider when they were making their final decision. The family came in wanting a young, active dog and we had plenty of those to introduce to them; however, as we went through the showings, we all realized that even though they wanted a really active dog, those dogs were too much for the kids and we were afraid the kids would get knocked down. One of our dogs was a wonderful combination of being energetic and cuddly and they realized he was the perfect option for them. So, Jimbo, nka Lunchbox or “Lunchie” for short, is on his way to the Tri-Cities!!!

More info

Available Dogs

GPI’s Adoption Guide

Join us here each Monday as Regional Vice President Kathy Kreyling shares stories from the Adoption Center. Check out our Available Dogs to see who’s still waiting for their forever home.

Jumper

This adoption is one that has taken way too long to happen and it was so much fun to watch. When this lady from Canada came to the kennel, she brought two of her long time friends with her to cheer her on so our dogs had quite an audience and they definitely worked it. We showed a wide variety of black dogs and slipped in one or two non-black dogs and through the whole showing, we had our fingers crossed for one special black dog. When we finished the first run through and asked which dogs she would like to see again, she said there was no need to see them again — she knew exactly which one was hers. I almost fell over when she said “Jumper” (who is nka Rupert) — it was obvious they had a connection at once and she loved his happy energy — Hooray!! 

King

This adopting couple is a “mixed” family — she is partial to Vizslas and he is partial to Greyhounds. They recently lost his Greyhound and the whole family, including the Vizsla, Levi, was missing their friend and they knew they needed to do their homework to find their next family member. They decided to walk dogs on the Brightwater outings and had the chance to meet lots of our wonderful dogs. They actually did their homework so well that we hardly had to do anything at the adoption appointment — the only real hurdle was to make sure that Levi, was going to get along with the new dog and it only took a few minutes for it to become obvious that the dogs were going to be just fine! With both dogs’ tails wagging, Levi (and his parents) took his new brother, King, home!! 

Wynter

A mother and her daughter came from Vancouver, WA to get their new family member. They were actually at the kennel a couple of weeks ago, but the dog they chose was not quite ready to go home so they have had a wait for what, I’m sure, seemed like an eternity!! On their original visit, they only saw a couple of dogs because they instantly fell in love with a wonderful girl from South Korea and she fell instantly in love with them! Their new family member is Wynter and it is interesting to note that the mother’s first dog was named Sommer!! 

Mini

A dad grew up with lots of dogs, including a greyhound, and has wanted one of his own for a long time. Whenever there is a young child involved, we never really know how the dogs are going to react, so it is a total crapshoot as to which dog will do best. It is always interesting to watch the whole process — it kind of takes a while for the dogs to figure out that they are meeting a small human and their reactions go from fear to curiosity to acceptance (hopefully!!). We did have a couple of dogs that made it all the way to acceptance and when it came down to the final choice Miss Mini was the winner (coincidentally, the daughter’s favorite character is Minnie Mouse!) 

Ben

A couple of years ago a man came in with his daughter and adopted a cute little girl (who just happened to have the same name as me ??). Now he is ready for another grey so he and Cammy (fka Kathy) came in to find her a friend. The daughter wasn’t present at this visit — I’m sure glad that I won’t have to explain to her why, but, hopefully, she’ll be so excited about their new addition that she’ll forget about it. At any rate, the dad came in wanting a “chocolate, swirly” dog (this one threw me for a loop for a minute until it hit me that he meant a brindle) and I guess Cammy agreed because that is exactly what he got when he adopted Ben!!

More info

Available Dogs

GPI’s Adoption Guide