There Was A Crooked Girl...

........who had a crooked nose and a very crooked tail.   

Her name was HiLite and she was a very good girl.  She was shy, loving and patient and a blonde.   Or...better known in the Greyhound color world as a 'fawn'.  She truly did have a crooked nose with a big black hairless scar on the side of her crooked nose.  She was a racer in her day and we believe the crooked nose was probably due to an accident on the race track.  Her crooked tail was broken maybe when she was a puppy but no one knows. 

I remember clearly when she came to us.  My friend Sherry from LongNeck Deco Greyhound Collars and I drove all the way to Kansas in my extended kennel van to pick up 8 Greyhounds just off the racing track or farm from being brood mamas.  We were bringing them back for Greyt Rescues of Lafayette to be adopted out to 'furever' homes.   Normally we would have had crates to transport dogs but since we had to bring back so many dogs, enough crates wouldn't fit.  We took all the back seats out of the van, muzzled the dogs (with a special Greyhound muzzle, not what you are thinking if you are not a Greyhound person!) and everyone rode behind us.

The trip was uneventful even though the dogs were packed in and we were driving all night to get back to Indiana.  We were amazed there was not one grumble or growl.  Maybe they knew they were off to a different life?  Somehow, even pottie breaks went off without a hitch.  Something not very easy to accomplish with only 2 humans and 8 loose dogs in the back of a van!!


No matter, we made it back to our kennel at FenceRow Farms safe, sound and happy.  There the gang of eight stayed until each one went to a foster home. 
HiLite though, never left.  Imagine that!!!  We were foster failures!  

We were blessed to have HiLite in our home for 9 of her 14 years of life.  She endeared herself in such a gentle way to all the human inhabitants at the farm in such a gentle way.  Her body started giving out on her a few months ago.  I wrote about it a few posts back.  On Monday we had to make the hardest of all decisions and realize that it was time to let her go.  This decision is one that no loving pet owner ever wants to make.   It is often so hard for pet owners to recognize the line between quality of life and not wanting to let go.  

She may have been a crooked girl on the outside, but inside....she was filled with dignity and spirit.  We loved her but her dignity and spirit were suffering.  It was time. 

We miss you HiLite girl.