tim merritt [dot] net

It’s just past 10:30 on Saturday night and I’m just back from walking Gracie. Early in the walk I was musing on the dinner party I’d gone to with Ellen and the folks we visited with, and the fact that when we came home we found that Gracie had chewed up the nozzle of a little spray bottle of eyeglass cleaner. We had turned the corner a few houses down from ours, and I watched her sniffing the grass and wondered motivates her to chew things up from time to time. Does she need a crate, would another dog help, what… and I suddenly noticed how quiet it was in the neighborhood. No peepers, no crickets, no nightbirds. I also realized I had no idea what the names of the usual nocturnal noise-makers are. Another post for that sometime.

I had my phone, could have been listening to a podcast or some music or the radio, but it no, it was so quiet. She did her business, stopped in the middle of the street, and looked up at the sky as she sniffed the wind. We heard a dog bark from some streets away and stood there for a couple of minutes just listening. I shaded my eye from the streetlight and tried to see the fleecy clouds in the light of the half moon. They didn’t seem to be moving. It was chilly, but not cold. It felt satisfying to hear just the night breeze in the trees, the occasional car go by on the main road outside our street, my own clothes rustling as I walked and my shoes off-rhythm with Gracie’s claws on the asphalt as we came home.

Today we welcomed Gracie to the family. She’s a 5-year-old brindle greyhound who raced successfully for a long time in Florida and had her last race in January. The group that offers the dogs for adoption has lots of info, and screened us pretty well to make sure we’re committed to the needs of a greyhound. I thought we’d get her a week ago but today turned out to be the day!

Gracie – who raced under the name Nimby Midge – was spayed just Wednesday and has to have her staples out next week. In the mean time we’ll start learning to adjust to each other’s rhythms, but we’ve already gotten very attached. She’s so easy-going but I’m sure she’s also tired from effects of her surgery Wednesday and overwhelmed by all that’s new.

We’re so glad to have her. We also have Jeanie visiting from Charlottesville, a long-time friend Ellen knew from her time there in the early 90s. It’s a fun day at our house.

We are going to see if we can adopt a greyhound tomorrow. We’ve been talking about it for a few months now, ever since we saw some adoptable greyhounds one Saturday at a Petco. Ellen’s already spotted a few eligible dogs, to the right, which she found here.

Ellen loves the idea that they mostly want to lie around for up to 16 hours a day, and get hugs and take a walk here and there. I kind of hope we can get a second one – these folks say that two keep each other company very well for working people. There are dozens of videos about greyhound adoption, too. I haven’t lived with a dog since before I was out of high school, and I’m pretty pleased with the idea.

The adoption folks seem devoted to helping adopters find suitable dogs, and adoptable dogs find suitable owners. It’s remarkable how committed they are, and it seems that greyhounds make terrific companion dogs. More to come!