[LancePearson]

Paul, et al,
Thanks for the nice thoughts from your own experiences. I still have Maxie who is the one in the car and Kate was a blue (gray color).

Stories of Kate? I could do them all day but will tell a couple..she was smart like a border collie which is a bit above the normal greyhound.

1. Kate when I just had her liked to go with me and did not like it when I left her home. One day I left for an hour but left an 8# mesh bag of naval oranges on the kitchen counter. When I returned I found she had taken the bag to the sunroom, opened it, (they won't eat oranges due to the citric acid smell) and in the center of each room of the downstairs there was one big naval orange in the middle of the room. I swear, if she could type I'd be getting emails if she were still alive!

2. Eventually I got a second grey, Leo, who only lasted 9 months before going back when he tried to kill my then girlfriend's 5# ball of designer fluff dog when the trainer was introducing them( a few greys have 6,000 years of a strong pray drive and Leo was one of them). One day when Leo first got there, it got very quiet and my home has a lot of windows and the front windows all have wood plantation shutters which hinge on each side of each window in the Palladium setup. Kate did not like the slats even when left horizontal so she would pull them with her little front teeth and pull the half of the shutter open, leaving little marks. That day I started looking for the two dogs and quietly saw them in the dining room where Kate was slowly and repetitively trying to show Leo how to open the plantation shutters so he could see out without horizontal slots blocking the view!

3. When Karen was ill the last two years she spent about 1/3 of the time in and out of hospitals for periods of a couple weeks at a time and Kate had hospital privileges at the biggest hospital in Richmond and visited about 50 times in that period with approval and great acclaim by all in the hospital. She got shown to lots of others to cheer them up plus Karen. One afternoon I left Kate home and went to visit Karen in the afternoon. She did not like not going and when I got home after dinner I walked in and there sitting by the king size bed was Kate looking at it and at me. She had taken the spread, the blankets and pulled them back in a perfect V like she saw me do every evening for Karen to get to bed and watch PBS before she got too tired to stay awake and even put the pillows the way I did them that she'd seen me do for Karen many times with her head and nose. The message was very clear: if you aren't going to take me then bring Karen home please.

I could go on but you get the drift. Kate was a very special dog and I swear spent a fair amount of time as wacky as it sounds inside my head communicating with me. Greyhounds are gentle, easily controlled and very affectionate dogs as anyone who has owned one can tell you. Kate was truly special even for a greyhound.