Greyhound Tales
Established in 1994, Greyhound Crossroads is a volunteer-driven organization dedicated to finding homes for retired racing greyhounds (and others needing homes!) and educating the public about this magnificent breed!
Greyhound Crossroads really started as Robert and I walked the Prosperity Flea Market one morning. A vendor we knew walked by us with a dog on a leash...”Look what I just adopted!” she gushed. Up walked the skinniest and most stunning dog I’d ever seen. She flowed right over to me and looked up in that way that only a greyhound can do. Apparently an acquaintance of ours from Chappells, Jo Jenkins, was there with a trailer full of dogs that needed homes. It sounds pretty shocking now, but in those days little was known in this area about adoption groups. (So little, in fact, that the local Animal Control tried to seize my dogs as viscious killers right after we got them!)
Jo was trying her best to find homes for the dogs she’d literally saved from a one-way trip to Animal Control in Florida. We stopped to talk to her and I got a ‘greyhound hug’ from a big handsome boy named King. I’ll never forget that dog and it sure wasn’t hard for Robert to convince me! In the end Jo suggested we wait until the next time she came from Florida and she would choose a couple for us to pick from. The day they arrived would change our lives forever. Angel, Stubby, and Sunshine jumped out of that van and stole our hearts. We decided to keep the family together by adopting all three of them - we were amazed to discover that they were all littermates! You can see their picture on the cover of the book Greyhound Tales, and my story of their unusual adoption is featured among the chapters. That was the fall of 1994 - all three had just turned 2 years old.
It didn’t take long for us to get the greyhound obsession. I ordered every book and greyhound thing I could find, but at the time there wasn’t much available. Somehow I found Sharon Porter in Easley who was doing adoptions and running a doggy playday occasionally in Simpsonville. We began to make greyhound friends and found them to be the most delightful group of folks in the world. Robert and I worked to organize the Greenwood Pet Expo in 1997 and invited Emily Moore, a terrific young lady doing adoptions in Augusta, to come set up a booth. By the fall of 1997 I was helping her and beginning to think this was something I really wanted to put serious effort into. Jo Jenkins, still around and working at the tracks in Florida, encouraged us and promised to help. Without reallymaking any formal plans, we decided to help in a small way. Our minds were made up when Jo told us that the mother of our dogs needed a home! Cagin Chablis became our first official foster at the grand old age of 12 years old.
By January of 1998 we accepted two dogs from the Greenwood Humane Society that had been dropped off by their owner and our adoption group was born! We began with the name “Friends & Family, Greyhounds & Love”. In the first photo taken for the group, Jo is shown holding her dog and two fosters. I have Sunshine and Angel. We were hosted by Greenwood Pet Supply in Greenwood, SC.