I am a dog groomer and have taken dogs no longer wanted from clients over the years. I am also a fancier, and am partial to Sighthounds. Those are the dogs that hunt by sight. The Greyhound type of dogs.
I groomed dogs, went to college part-time, got an assistantship to graduate school and then joined the Peace Corps. Some friends took care of my old Whippet while I was overseas.
When I returned from the Peace Corps, I got the Whippet back, but he soon died of old age. I used to do lure-coursing, so I called some people (this was before the internet ;) and got in touch with a Saluki breeder and got one of his older dogs. That dog died of cancer about four years after I got him. By that time, you could search breed rescues on the internet.
At the time, Whippet rescue still had no dogs in rescue. Saluki Rescue had no dogs either, but knew of a hobby breeder who had an older dog she was hanging on to until the "right person cam along." See, that the thing. Hobby breeders don't breed unless they can keep the dogs they breed indefinitely. It is generally not their dogs that wind up in rescue shelters.
I had the Saluki, a very nervous dog, for about a year when someone from Whippet Rescue called me. I had been on the waiting list for 4 years! The dog's owner had died, nobody in the family wanted the dog and they could not track down the breeder. I told them I would take the dog of he got along with my Saluki. Dogs have to choose their own friends.
It was love at first sight and they have been best buds every since. I was showing the Saluki and had Bebop (that's what we call him) at the show with us and a Whippet breeder aksed me where I got him. I told her his story and she told me, "I think I bred him! I would have taken him back." I am not sure shw would have, but the family did not know her. She gave me all his registration information in case I wanted to do obedience or agility, but he was, and still is too goofy to exhibit! He is a wonderful pet!
--Robyn Michaels
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