The Perry Georgia fairgrounds has always been my favorite dog show venue. The April show is especially fun. It is the biggest dog show in the southeast. For some reason, my dogs and I have never done especially well at Perry. They always run well, but the Qs are sometimes hard to come by. I am not sure why, but it did not matter, we always had a great time. This April Travis ran awesome. He qualified 5 out of 6 runs. This weekend there is another agility trial in Perry. I was really looking forward to this trip. I had found out that Heather (Greytblackdog) lives in Perry, so I was going to meet up with her. My sister, Denise, and some other folks were going to come down to cheer Travis on and then we were going to enjoy a cookout at Heather's Saturday evening. Pam Davis was coming. She had hoped she would get to see Travis run in a trial before he retired.
Travis was on Pam's first greyhound haul out of Jefferson County Kennel Club Track (JCKC) in October 2001. JCKC is a dead end track and at the time had no adoption program to speak of. Travis was lucky that Pam and her crew of volunteers hadn't started a week or 2 later. What started out as a rescue effort for 11 greyhounds turned into 21 greyhounds. And they had 3 days. Travis was one of the last 4 pulled out of the kennel. As they left, a rat scurried across the floor. Travis went to Pam's house to hang out in her kennel for a few days. She discovered his affinity for retrieving ............ and for small dogs when he had an unexpected introduction to the Davis' cocker spaniel. He scared the crap out of her, but luckily he had a muzzle on. Travis was smart. Pam said that once he learned the dog door he was in and out, in and out, practicing his new skill. He was a lot more dog than the typical greyhound is. Pam called me and asked me to foster him. At the time, all of SEGA's greyhounds were placed in foster homes. We didn't have a kennel yet. Pam said he was a "retrieving fool" and warned me that he might not be adoptable. Well, he wasn't and I'm still fostering him today :-). Just kidding, I eventually paid the adoption fee and signed the paperwork. So Travis has a special place in Pam's heart.
The picture is from the Celebrating Greyhounds article Spring of 2002.
