Geno was our second Greyhound. Sy had been such a huge success that Harry even admitted to wanting another Greyhound. I contacted my adoption group rep, Ann Whitney of Rainbow's End Greyhound Adoptions and told her "we want another one!"
That weekend Sy and I attended a Meet & Greet with Ann and she explained that she had the perfect dog for me. A woman had adopted a dog for her young daughter, but she was getting a divorce and couldn't take him with her. He had been returned the week before and was being kept in a kennel because there was no room in the three foster homes available to Ann. He was brindle, 5 years old, neutered and there would be no adoption fee except to pay his kennel bill which was $40. I also would have to pay $50 for a vet bill for deworming and an exam. No problem. I went home and told Harry about the dog that Ann had to offer. All he said was, "When can we pick him up?"
That Sunday we drove the 45 minutes to Ann's house to pick up our new boy. When we arrived, I saw Ann standing in the backyard holding a dog on the end of a leash. I recognized Ann, but the thing at the end of the leash was barely even recognizable as a dog. He was 29" tall and weighed maybe 60 pounds. His bones....all of them...stuck up and out. Hips poked out of tight skin and I could count every vertebrae and every rib on his boney, thin body. His eye sockets were sunken in and his ears looked more like radar dishes than the sleek, folded ears that were Sy's.
His nose seemed extra long, even for a Greyhound and his top fangs jutted out under his lips in a horrendous overbite. His face, chest and legs were white and the brindle kind of "leaked" through the white.
The first words out of Ann's mouth to me were, "Take your dog home! He's peed on almost everything in my yard at least twice!"
The first thought that crossed my mind was, "How in the world am I gonna tell Ann that I just do not want THIS dog!?"
At that moment, Geno practically dragged Ann over to me and threw his full weight against my legs, leaned HARD on me and looked up into my eyes and his look said, "When are going home, MOM?"
With a sniffle, I asked Ann, "Where do I sign?" (I've always been a sucker for leaners.)
That is how our wonderful, silly, goofy Geno came into our lives and he left an indelible mark on our hearts.
About a month after his arrival at Dragonflyte, Geno made his first appearance at a Meet & Greet with Sy and me and it had been the first time Ann had seen him since that day when he'd christened her gas grill, picnic table, flower garden and, well ....everything ....TWICE.
She looked him over and I asked a bit apprehensively, "What do you think?"
"He looks really good Jeanne"
"I don't know", I answered, "I don't think he's gained very much weight."
"That's not what I mean. He LOOKS good!"
"I can't tell that there's any difference yet, can you?" I asked.
"I mean", she said, "He looks.........Happy!"
That was all I needed to hear. He really WAS happy! He even rooed in answer to that like he wanted to prove it.
When I took him to my vet to have his teeth cleaned, the vet warned me that some of them looked pretty bad and may have to come out. Not a problem, I told him. Just make him comfortable. That day, Geno lost 35 of his 42 teeth! My vet told me that every time he removed a really bad tooth, all the smaller teeth next to the bad ones would loosen and fall out! All he had left were his 4 fangs and three molars that never met in his mouth, but Geno overcame that and it never was a handicap for him, (until he tried to eat a piece of hot dog. It would shoot out the side of his mouth because there were no teeth to hold it in.)
About8 months after we got Geno, our daughter, Sara, had her eighth birthday party and several of her friends came over. They went upstairs to her room to play and after a few minutes, it got to be too much for poor Geno. He had to wander upstairs to see what the kids were doing. The giggling quieted down and things got very quiet upstairs. Just as I was about to go up and see what they were getting into, I heard Geno come plopping down the stairs. I didn't really pay much attention to him at first. Then suddenly I looked up and saw our poor Geno standing there wearing a scarf around his neck, silk flowers around his head and he was donning a light blue pair of tights!!!
Even with his tail tucked down into the left leg of the tights, he was trying to wag it. I've never seen a goofier smile on a dogs face before. He was actually grinning!
