Friday Hound Blogging

Ah, those overlords. They're all about the dogs, you know? Just ask them. Well, ask someone besides Vera Filipelli, the director of media relations at Derby Lane track. "A few dogs sick with kennel cough will mean some lost revenue for Derby Lane, but the greyhound track doesn't expect to have to close its doors," she said. "Dogs get sick, they die, we get more. It's what racing is all about."

Because state rules say dogs cannot race while under any medication - even prescription drugs - the track is now running only 12 races a day, down two from its usual 14. "Yeah, when we need dogs to race we just stop their medications for a couple of days. Most of them survive."

The losers come out here with a set monetary amount to bet, so they will still spend about the same amount of money, just divided over fewer races, Filipelli said. Overall the track's losses should be slim. "It's important that we keep the rubes coming in though because we've all got trailer payments."

"Any time you change your format there is the risk of revenue loss," she said. "We'll be down a little," she said. "But if we need to we'll just stop medications for all the dogs and race a full ticket. The marks don't know if the dogs are sick or not."

The disease is not generally dangerous unless it weakens the dog's immune system and the dog catches a secondary infection which can happen if the dog doesn't get prompt treatment, or if the dog is forced to race before making a complete recovery. "Yeah, but these are athletes. They know the risks. Besides, we're risking too. Well, it's not like we could die or anything, but having to avoid running the air conditioning because you need to keep your utility bill down can be a real inconvenience, you know?"

Yeah. We sympathize. Dying is pretty inconvenient too, right Ward?

Ward is loving, gentle, confident, and easygoing. He will follow the foster mom around the home and will lie close to her and look at her with loving eyes. He gives kisses, will rest his head in your lap. He sometimes will lie his front end down and rest his head while his hind end was still in the air. . He is happy, smart, entertaining, easy to read, and very expressive. He amuses the foster family and himself. He can be a bit needy. He enjoys playing and he gets very exuberant when he plays. He can be a bit “mouthy” when he plays. He needs to have plenty of chew toys to play with. For more information about this dog, and other rescued racing greyhounds looking for homes, go here. If you don't know about the plight of racing greyhounds go here.