My Greyhounds

My First Greyhound Maximillion

Maximillion Greyhound and Jeffrey Hunter - the only photo ever taken of the two of them by Jeffrey's nephew Trace just three months before Max passed to the after-life at 14 ½ years old.   He was a complete nut - if not for my affection for his wild ways and my tolerating his temper he would have spent his post-racing life in a kennel living in a cage.   He was the orphan that no one wanted. 


His communication skills were a bit testing, not unlike that of a wolf.  He had no patience with delays and he would not stay at home ever.  He bit me so many times I could not guess how many times - probably over 500 times many times drawing blood.  He would not let me in my bed and would become very aggressive about defending what he thought was "his spot."  I could not tame him and gave up kind of loving his wild spirit.  One thing for sure he and I had respect for each other, like brothers of the sword.


We were always together as I could not leave him home, as he would bark continuously making my neighbors mad.   He was very clever and would be determined to make sure that I would regret leaving him behind by knocking everything off my desk and basically destroy the house. If I would get dressed with pants and a shirt he would not let me out of his sight fearing that I was going go on an adventure without him.  The only way I could fool him was to play a movie at high volume, wait for him to dose off and crawl out of the house in my underwear and get dressed in the front door area.  I had to be careful turning the door knob and not making the lock sound the alarm that I was leaving.   If I was successful to trick him he would be pretty upset when I returned and become crazy. 


He was not one for missing opportunity regarding food.   In a heartbeat, he devoured $35.00 worth of Chinese food once and he was very good at opening the refrigerator, even so much as undoing the bungee cord that I used as a measure of prevention.  Once as if he was very aware of the exact contents he consumed a half a dozen New York Steaks, about a pound of ham, cheese, and even was able to eat the frozen liver in the freezer - that was almost impossible for me for me to remove without a hammer and a chisel.   He was kind enough to leave the onions for me.

When he passed away the last day of 2012 just before midnight I became an emotional wreck.  After two weeks I went to the Agua Caliente Greyhound Race Track in Tijuana so I could feel close to him.  I realized that the Tijuana Greyhound Race Track was not like I had presumed. The greyhounds were not very skinny and they were treated well. In fact, all of the trainers and vets really cared about the dogs especially the head vet who I became friends with.  After many visits and even betting on a few races, I was honored to receive a greyhound as a gift - after 150 days.  I was the third person to leave the track with a greyhound in 29 years save greyhounds that were given to adoption groups.  They were very cautious about this as if I was adopting a child, but they were very moved by my grieving over Max,  I made many of the trainers and vets and managers cry.

My second greyhound - Winstin

This is how I found my second greyhound or actually as with Max he found me.  When I adopted Max I explained to the kind ladies who had interviewed me and did the home inspection that I did not want to pick my greyhound as it would be hard for me and I would not want to see their faces and look in their eyes and leave them behind.  I choose to have them make the decision. My only request was if there was a black male and that he was wild and that he was not very easy to conform to the "real" world then that would be fine.  I explained I did not want a cat or a dog that was a push over, cute like a poodle and or shy and afraid of his shadow.   They said they had the perfect greyhound for me.   He bit made in the face the first morning, he was not a morning kind of guy I found out.


It was 5 weeks since Toms S Wasilla had run his last race.  He was a little more than a month shy of 5 years old and he was not a contender running against 3 and 4 year-olds.  He was quite the champion, winning 13 races in first place included 3 first place victories in a row twice both times in January of 1012 and 2013.  In all, he had 41 victories in 106 races at Bluffs Run, Melbourne, and Caliente.  I named him Winstin because he is really elegant and a real charmer and the spitting image of Max.  I have spoiled him rotten naturally and he has become almost another Max save the biting and the demanding to not be left home and the territorial tribal bed commandeering thing.   


I believe that Max's spirit has touched Winstin's which was what I had hoped for.  I still miss Max but I feel like he is near me in Winstin.  I know that a day will come when Winstin leaves the mortal life and that is a day that I fear with all my heart.  He has become a soul mate for me, same as Max - I cannot stand to be away from him.   I do not consider greyhounds dogs, they are too special and too wonderful to be just a dog.  The only thing wrong with ( greyhounds ) dogs is they do not live long enough, however, I am blessed to have my 2nd greyhound for as long as fate will have it. 

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