Greys from Guam

The Greyhound Rescue & Rehabilitation group had a information booth set up outside Petco Saturday in the Town of Poughkeepsie.

The three dogs in the picture above were from a racetrack in Guam.

On November 7, 2008 the 32 year old Guam Greyhound Park, with approximately 250 greyhounds at the racetrack, abruptly closed. A couple of weeks later the Guam Greyhound Park started a public giveaway of 150 of the racetrack's greyhounds. Dogs were given away free to anyone who came to the track. None of the greyhounds were spayed or neutered. No record was kept of who got the greyhounds or how many each person took. Obviously, no standard adoption process was in place: no home check and no information about greyhound behavior or care.

Many of the dogs were simply turned loose in the jungle to fend for themselves. The whole story is on the group's Web site.

The Cross River, Westchester County, organization places greyhounds in homes in Westchester, Putnam, Dutchess, Rockland, Orange and Ulster counties in New York and Fairfield and Litchfield counties in Connecticut.

Their phone number is (914) 763-2221. To e-mail them, write to greys4ever@aol.com.

Sunday finest

Here's Mocha, an 8-year-old retired racing greyhound owned by Cathy Zadany of the Town of Poughkeepsie. She accompanied the ladies of the Red Hat Society as they delivered roses to residents of Manor at Woodside in the City of Poughkeepsie today.

Not everyone can pull off an outfit like this. I think it's the painted toenails that make it work.

The Red Hat Society helped John Flowers and his volunteers hand out roses for Mother's Day.

Flowers is something else. He and his "elves" run a Father's Day parade, give stuffed bears to nursing home residents at Christmas and hold a day-long Easter egg hunt.

If you are interested in adopting a greyhound, get some information here.

Photo by Kathy McLaughlin/Poughkeepsie Journal