The Unexpected Blessing
Sometime in 2004, a big black male Greyhound suddenly appeared at the gates of a greyhound sanctuary on the west coast of Florida. He appeared to be a stray; they took him in and kept him safe, hoping to find him a forever home. They expected that this wouldn’t be easy.
Black greyhounds are not popular. The black dog syndrome many talk about today is something I’ll never understand. But a bigger obstacle to his placement was his size. He was almost as large as a Great Dane and topped the scales at 105 pounds! He remained at the rescue with little hope of finding him a forever home. They named him Thunder and moved him back to their South Florida location. He appeared to be at least 10 years old.
Mom and I relocated from South Florida to Ocala, Florida, with our canine menagerie in 2005. Oh, this also included our birds! Can you imagine sporting dogs and birds in travel cages in the same car for seven hours? What a drive this was! All our Greyhounds were adopted from this rescue over the years, and now Thunder was there, and we were here.
In 2006, Simon, another of our senior Greyhounds, crossed the Bridge. We called the Greyhound rescue and asked them to send us the dog they had no hope of adopting. As luck would have it, they had a bus traveling north, transporting several Greyhounds to their West Coast location that weekend, and there was room for Thunder.
We never saw his picture; we didn’t care about his appearance; these things weren’t important to Mom and me. The only things we knew were how sweet and gentle he was, how long he had been at the kennel, and that he needed a forever home.
We met their volunteer driver at an exit off I-75, learning that he rode shotgun because he didn’t fit in a crate and that he talked throughout the entire trip. When he exited that bus, we couldn’t believe our eyes: he was huge, and my mother and I are so small! The driver helped him into our van, and we headed home with Thunder in the back, but still wanting to ride shotgun in OUR vehicle this time.
Thunder settled into our family very quickly. And, yes, he did need a Great Dane crate, which remains in our home after all these years.
He developed kidney and liver disease, crossing the Rainbow Bridge at the age of 14. Rest in peace, dear Thunder. You left us far too soon. You remain in our hearts as another beautiful memory of our GREYSETT family.
—Lesley💞
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| Thunder traveling in the back of our vehicle from I-75 to GREYSETT |
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| Thunder safe at GREYSETT with his favorite toy |
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| Thunder, Oliver, and
Chance enjoying time outside. No Black Dog Syndrome in our home. Photo: September 07, 2010 |
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Lesley, another wonderful story. Looks like Thunder was a very big boy! Thank you for giving him a loving home. Keep writing; we'll keep reading.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Gary. He had a heart that was as large as he was.
ReplyDeleteOh, he was beautiful, Lesley. I remember you mentioning him in our phone talks.
ReplyDeleteI've never quite understood the prejudice against black dogs and cats. Oddly enough, it doesn't seem to extend to black horses.
Thank you, weavingwoman. He was so large with a heart and ears to match. A gentle giant, indeed.
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