Miles Gets Left For the First Time

January 17th my husband Roy's mother died in her sleep. She was 92 and hadn't been in the best health but it was still a shock because she had gotten better after a stroke and another hospitalization a couple of months ago. We packed our bags on the 17th and left on the 18th to drive to Texas for her funeral on Jan 19th.

Joe and Shari (Otto's parents) offered to keep Miles. Roy's family are animal people so they really didn't mind if we brought a dog with us but I didn't feel right about taking both dogs. We decided Pinky would be the better one to take since he is older and better behaved. My friend Becky took my foster Giggles. Shari took some photos of the boys while I was gone and posted them on our adoption group's forum so I could see Miles. These are all her photos.

The mean brothers

Miles had a great time playing with his brother every day. He was at Joe and Shari's from Monday night the 17th until the following Sunday when we got home. They have a huge steep hill that goes straight up behind their house that is at least 3 stories tall. They said that Otto is used to running up it but Miles couldn't quite keep up so would cut across to catch Otto. I could definitely see more definition on Miles hind end muscles when I got home.

Look a likes - can you tell which is which?


Miles is wearing the yellow collar and Otto is in the green.

Miles has a new behavior. He SITS on furniture! Now that he is so tall he just backs up to a chair and sits down next to us. He even does it on the car seat. Here he is sitting in the sun room. Roy was on the couch and I was sitting across from him talking to him when Miles walked up and sat down to join the family discussion. He stayed in that position for quite awhile.

Trip to the Track

Sunday January 16th Miles went back to Birmingham Alabama to visit. He was born there and his litter was rescued from freezing to death by one of the trainers at the Birmingham Race Track, Mel. When one of her assistants got a call at a vets office that an adopted pet greyhound had given birth to 11 puppies in an unheated bathroom and the pups were dying, she raced over to get the mom and babies. Several pups had already frozen to death. Miles was one of the 8 survivors. He was taken to Jen's house and raised there for a few weeks with her Borzois, Salukis and Silken Windhounds. At about 5 weeks the litter was moved to the Birmingham Race Track Adoption Kennel where I picked up Miles, Otto and his Mother Sara. We got his brother Kohle and sister Piper later. The rest of the litter stayed with a surrogate saluki mom there and were eventually adopted out too. On January 16 and 17th of last year I was at the track visiting the 10 day old pups.

I took Miles back to visit once when he was about 10 weeks old but he hasn't been back since then. Our greyhound adoption group, Greyhound Crossroads, needed a few dogs so Ann and I drove to Birmingham to pick them up. Miles was finally big enough to ride in the van with the adult dogs so got to go back for a visit this time. We took Ann's dog Champ along for the ride too. Champ is a very calm, older guy and it always helps to have a dog like that along on dog hauls. The young retirees calm down and relax faster if there is a dog in the van that lays down and goes to sleep.

Mel and Jen met us for lunch then took us back to the track to pick out the 3 girls that we would be taking back to SC. They commented on how much Miles had changed since the last time they had seen him. He was a tiny, blue eyed, dark brindle boy and now was a gold eyed, red brindle that towered over most greyhounds. Miles was excited to see them as he is with everyone.

When we got to the track they told me that Miles could go for a run in the track sprint path. It is about as long as a football field and about half as wide with thick sand. We had snow and ice on the ground for a week so it was Miles first time to really get to run for awhile. He had the best time. Jen had a couple of her borzoi there. One was a pup and Miles tried to get her to play but she was a little shy and Miles was a little obnoxious. Jen's older male Borzoi was NOT interested in playing with Miles either and let the pup know right away.


After Miles ran, he waited in the van for us while we went in and picked out the girls we would be bringing back. We ended up with 3 girls one red, one brindle and one black. We cat tested them with the kennel cat that LOVES to be swept with a broom.

When we loaded up the girls, Miles tried to play bow and flirt. They quickly let him know they weren't interested. You can see Miles towering above all the girls and the other male on the trip Champ (red dog with wide green collar).

Miles with his favorite girl, on the trip, Giggles. Giggles is a giant 80lb girl that is just as sweet as she can be. Found out that her mom is a Kiowa Sweet Trey pup like Miles' mom so they are cousins. She ended up being my foster.