We left Tulsa at 8:30 a.m. on Friday, stopping several times along the way to walk hounds and humans. We arrived in Abilene about 2:30 Friday afternoon. We checked into our motel, then headed out to visit the people at the NGA. We were given a tour of their facilities - learning how they keep the multitude of records on racing greyhounds that they do. Those of us who call these people frequently in order to track a dog were anxious to put faces with voices. Of course, during this time we were also meeting up with friends from the greyhound-l - getting to put faces with e-mails! What fun! During this time, most of our greyhounds were outside in the vans. It was an unusually cool day for June so the hounds were quite comfortable. Walking outside to check on our greys, I noticed that every van lined up in front of the NGA had greys as passengers! We just walked from van to van visiting with the hounds. True to the greyhound personality, all were wagging their tails and sticking their noses out the windows for petting!
After the NGA tour we broke for human and hound supper! Then we headed for a place that I was most anxious to visit - TLC Greyhound Adoption Kennel. Next week's article will be dedicated solely to TLC. When we arrived at TLC all the greyhounds were muzzled and allowed to run free within a large fenced area! What a joy this was to see! Yes, our pet greyhounds love to sleep on the couch, but I don't imagine the love of running will ever leave them! After a couple of hours at TLC, everyone headed back to motels for rest and free time.
Saturday morning, the festivities started early! First we went to a training track in Abilene and watched some young greyhounds run for the first time around the track! This is always so interesting. Our greys were in the van during this time - my Whitney could see the dogs running around the track, and she wanted to run with them so badly! After the training track, we went back to TLC for an agility demonstration by Randy & Janet Griggs. They were very helpful and knowledgeable.
