My First Meeting

I met Travis at the Acworth Animal Hospital. He had been just neutered. The vet tech that brought him out said that he had tried to "go after other dogs". I loaded him into my blue mini van and he quickly got comfortable and rolled his body on the clean blanket I had provided. Little did I know how much of an adventure I was embarking on. I certainly was not looking to add a 4th hound at the time.

At this time, foster dogs often went to meet & greets. I was unable to attend, so Chris Garrett took Travis and my other foster dog, Smitty, to a PetsMart meet & greet. I did not witness the event, so this is a second hand account. Paul Cahoon liked the look of Travis (who doesn't :-) and had offered to hold onto him. Well, I guess he grabbed a hold of a medium sized sheepdog type dog and pulled out a clump of hair. Paul and Sientay decided that Travis was probably not the dog for them. The people at that meet & greet still have that memory of Travis holding a tuff of hair in his mouth.

Soon after, I learned what Pam, the vet tech, and the meet & greeters had seen. A neighbor had his medium sized chow mix out in the yard. I had Travis on leash and behind a fence. Generally, I've always found that once a high prey drive dog smells the other the dog, they realize that its a dog and not a prey animal..... especially when we are talking about a decent sized dog. Carefully, I brought Travis up to the fence to safely sniff the friendly dog who was pressing his face up to the fence to meet Travis. Well, Travis grabbed the poor dog by the face through the fence. I pried Travis off and had him pinned to the ground not sure what to do next. I have high prey greyhounds, but had never seen anything like this. Luckily, the mixed breed was unhurt. To Travis' credit (or maybe swift human intervention), he has never actually left any teeth marks on anyone and no one has ever needed medical attention. He just couldn't help himself and would grab a hold with a lock jaw, but he did exercise excellent bite inhibition..... thank goodness.

Next, I decided to take him to my friend's, Anne Jones, training building. When she brought out her border collie, Travis went ballistic. It was all I could do to hold onto him. Eventually, I had him again pinned to the floor while I thought about what to do next. I knew it was going to take a lot of work to make him adoptable.

The Monticello 21 Group

Pam Davis became involved with rescuing greyhounds from JCKC in October 2001. The track was closing and 11 greyhounds needed to be removed from the track immediately. She and several volunteers decided to take on the challenge and save the 11 dogs. Well, it turned out to be 21 dogs, Travis being on of them. It was a race to make connections with various groups and foster homes and to schedule the transportation. SEGA ended up taking Travis who immediately went to the vet for neutering. Pam convinced me to foster him and mentioned that she wasn't sure if he was adoptable. He was very high prey. She told me he was a "retrieving fool".

Life at JCKC - Pam Davis' words

The JCKC kennels are really hell-holes. It's stinky and nasty. Fleas and rats all over. The turnout pens are tiny, maybe 20x20 with 60 dogs to a kennel. No heat, no AC. Just one flourescent fixture in the ceiling, so its fairly dark in the kennels, even when the lights are on. When they're off, it is positively black in there! At the back of each kennel is a teensy area where they prepare the food - freezer and sink. I don't know where they store their kibble and other supplies. Not in the kennels. It's nothing like what we've seen at Birmingham. They used old carpet scraps in the crates instead of shredded paper. I don't know how long they leave the carpet in there, but it's moldy and gross. There are stray cats all over the place, but they don't seem to make a dent in the rodent population.

Racing Career

Travis raced from May 2000 until October 2001. He started at Palm Beach. In January 2001, he was moved to Melbourne for about 4 months and then to the "arm pit" of the racing world - Jefferson County Kennel Club. All in all, Travis ran 94 times, winning 9 races. He finished all across the board, even last place numerous times especially there at the end. He's so athletic, driven, and loves to run, but he's just not that fast.