Tails wag, humans brag as greyhounds have their day

By Joanne Rideout
Deseret News correspondent

April 30, 2001

KANAB — Elvis suddenly materialized in downtown Kanab this weekend, sang "You Ain't Nothin' But a Hound Dog" to a throng of greyhounds, and roared off on a motorcycle. Even in this town known for its movie sets and celebrities, it was the stuff legends are made of.

Canines, their humans and Elvis took Kanab by storm this weekend for the third annual Greyhound Gathering, sponsored by a local nonprofit rescue organization called the Greyhound Gang.

Each year, Greyhound Gang founder Claudia Presto organizes the event, which brings together hundreds of fans from all over the country. They gather to celebrate their love for this gentle, slender breed, buy greyhound T-shirts and other memorabilia, sightsee, raise funds for greyhound rescue and adopt still more greyhounds.

This year participants from 23 states, as far away as Massachusetts, made their way to Kanab for the gathering. In all they numbered 250 greyhounds and about an equal number of humans.

Local businesses welcomed the event with open arms and doors, as visitors cruised along sidewalks, browsed in shops, stayed in motels and ate in restaurants, all with greyhounds by their sides.

The weekend included a formal welcome from Mayor Karen Alvey, fund-raising auctions and the Blur of Fur Run, where the dogs got to do what they love best — run very fast.

On Saturday, police stopped traffic for a greyhound parade through town, complete with costumes for dogs and people. An Elvis impersonator suddenly appeared, sang and just as abruptly roared off into the blue, to everyone's delight.

Terri Vincent and Doris Roesch drove 10 hours from Cody, Wyo., to attend. It was the first year the two had attended the gathering, which Vincent said she'd learned about through e-mail lists on the Internet. She said that although there were other greyhound groups elsewhere in the United States, most were held too far away. "This is the event for the West," she said.

Roesch is the owner of Bliss Creek Outfitters and runs backcountry tours in Wyoming. "People are very responsible," she said, adding that owners were conscientious about picking up after their pets. "It's not as if we come and deposit 200 dogs' worth of poop in this town," she laughed.

"The fact that we all own greyhounds makes us brothers and sisters. Where we live, it's definitely a Western community, and we do the cowboy thing," she said, adding that there were few other greyhound owners in her community. "At home we're weirdos."

With millions of dogs available for adoption in shelters across the country, why greyhounds? Roesch was quick to explain. "They're very elegant dogs, and they're all rescues," she said. "The plight of the greyhound is so terrible. These dogs go for research and get experimented on."

Most greyhound owners in the United States adopt adult dogs that have been rescued from racetracks. The animals spend their lives in small cages and are let out only to race. Since the dogs can run competitively for only a few years, tens of thousands are simply destroyed annually or sold to laboratories for research purposes. There are hundreds of greyhound groups nationally that rescue dogs from tracks and testing facilities.

Roesch said there was a popular misconception of greyhounds as high-strung, when they are actually calm dogs that do well as pets for apartment dwellers. "People think they are very high maintenance, but they're not. They're quiet and grateful."

It appears to be rare for greyhound owners to have only one of the breed. In fact, most gathering attendees brought multiple dogs with them. Owners and dogs could be seen gliding smoothly around town like small schools of fish, with several greys on one leash.

Some people even added to their canine brood during the event. Roesch and Vincent each sported a new greyhound they had adopted the previous day, from a veterinarian who brought several to the event for adoption. Presto's Greyhound Gang also offered greys for adoption during the weekend.
Michelle Aisner, who flew from her home in Midland, Texas, to attend the gathering, was pondering the logistics of adopting a new dog from Presto's facility. She was searching for someone who might be able to drive her new pet back to her home state. Aisner has one other greyhound, named Sunny, and said the canine had changed her life.

"For years, I used to say I wanted to have a passion in life. Then I found Sunny, and I found my passion," she said. Michelle Sage, from Martinez, Calif., agreed. "What people don't realize about greyhound rescue is that they rescue you," she said.

For more information, see the Greyhound Gang Web site at www.greyhoundgang.org