|
One of the fun things about adopting retired racing greyhounds is that you can learn about their lives before you knew them. The Internet is a wonderful tool for researching your retired racer, and I have outlined the steps to this research below. I have used my grey, Kaya, as an example of how to find out more about your retired racer.
1. Read your greyhound's ear tattoos from each ear. If you have trouble reading them, try shining the flashlight through from behind the ear. The left ear will have a five digit number, and the right ear will have two or three numbers followed by a letter. The first number(s) indicate the month your grey was born, the next number is the last digit of the year he/she was born, and the letter indicates what order they tattoo the litter (A=1st tattooed, B=2nd tattooed).
Kaya's left ear is 56340. Her right ear is 26F. This means she was born in February 1996, and she was the 6th one tattoed in her litter.
2. Call the National Greyhound Assocation to find out your grey's exact whelping date, his/her racing name, and his/her sire (father) and dam (mother)'s names. NGA is located in Kansas and the number is 785-263-4660.
Kaya's exact birthdate was February 29, 1996, and her racing name was Bella Ambush. Her father was Blendway and her mother was Pretty Nancy.
3. Now that you have your grey's racing name, you can learn more about his/her history. One of the best resources is Greyhound-Data (click the image below). From there, select Breed-DB and enter in your grey's racing name. Not every grey who has raced is listed, but they have many greyhounds in their database. You will find out about your grey's littermates, as well as pedigree. Most sire lines date back many generations. Sometimes the dogs' pictures are listed which is lots of fun. You can also enter in the information you have found about your grey, including your own favorite jpg picture of yours.
Kaya was listed in the Greyhound-Data database, and we found out she comes from a long line of very good racers. Her father, Blendway, has a picture included. He was a record breaker.
4. There are other ways of doing further research. You can check in the National Greyhound Association's Hall of Fame and see if any of your grey's relatives are in it. For many of the tracks in the U.S., Rosnet is a great resource for looking up racing records, although not every track is a Rosnet track. Tucson Greyhound Park, for example, does not have its stats listed there. Type in your hound's racing name in the box on the right and then click on the type of report you want. If your grey does have its records there, here is a page for learning about how to interpret their "racing lines," as they call them. Oddly enough, Google is a useful search engine for searching for racing backgrounds. Just enter in the racing name and see what you get.
Kaya's paternal grandparents, Perceive and Buzz Off were both inducted into the Hall of Fame, along with her very famous great-grandfather, Downing. Since she raced in Tucson, she was not on Rosnet but I did find a lot of stats in Google.
5. NGA can also give you information about your greyhound's owners, but there are very mixed feelings in the adoption world about contacting the former owners. If your grey has a health problem you would like more information about, that is certainly a good reason to contact them. However, some former owners may have hundreds of greyhounds and not want to be bothered about yours. They also may have thought your grey was euthanized and not want to hear about its adopted life. Others are thrilled to hear from adopters, and may even send puppy pictures or tell you stories about your grey. If you do choose to contact the former owners, please be very polite and write a letter rather than calling. It may be tempting to attack them if you hold strong opinions about greyhound racing, but this is not necessarily the most appropriate channel for your feelings.
If writing the owners, you may want to send a form you can get from the NGA that will transfer the official ownership of your hounds to you, the adoptive owner. The original owner must sign the form. If you send the signed blue transfer form along with $20, you'll get a registration certificate with a two-generation pedigree and information about your greyhound. To find out more and to submit a pet transfer request form by email, visit the National Greyhound Association's Pet Transfer page. I recommend sending along a SASE (self-addressed stamped envelope) with your letter to increase your chances of a response.
We have sent off the forms to Kaya's former owners!
|
