Last lap.
Dana and I arrived at the difficult decision last night that it’s time to let our beloved greyhound Oracle go. She’s experiencing too much pain and her joints continue to cause her trouble; our attempts to treat it over the weekend just made her uncomfortable in other ways. We’d rather this happen now then after she’s deteriorated further, when she’s finding the stairs impossible rather than just anxiety-inducing (she’s taken a few spills already and it’s only a matter of time before she breaks something). We’ll be taking her in on Thursday evening.
She was four when we adopted her, which is older for a rescued racer–most get adopted at two or three, after they’ve suffered a track injury or simply stopped winning with any regularity. We took the trip up to Kenosha to meet a few other hounds, and she had just newly arrived at the kennel…they hadn’t even had time to snap her photo and put her up on the website. They let her out with four or five others; while most of them gave us a cursory greeting and then took off running around the field, she trotted up to us and more or less stayed there. We didn’t feel a need to choose another greyhound when this one had so clearly chosen us.
She’s 12 now, older than average, and we’re lucky for all of the time she’s given us. She’s been sweet and happy and bonded to all three of us in profound ways, and we’re not yet sure how we’re going to handle the void her absence will create in our home.
Here’s a photo from the day we first met her, October 28, 2006.
Creative Control 