Omi's 9th Birthday

It is hard to believe, yet true just the same, that our Greyhound, Omi will be nine years old on June 1st.  Yes, Omi has aged in body, meaning now she sports white around her amazing Cleopatra eyes, though not in spirit.  OK, maybe a slower gait during the morning walk but otherwise, still uncharacteristically hyper and frenetic in her fine self.

Omi talks.  She has a verbal language whose translation has eluded us for many years.  It sounds mournful at times or simply a question repeated over and over.  Whow, whow, whow or something like that.  Sometimes it makes you want to scream but mostly, you wonder what she has been saying?

Omi, an ex-racer who raced in Mexico, one of the worst Greyhound betting countries which still uses live lures to get the dogs to hurl themselves down the track towards their prey, sometimes hitting the wall and busting their skulls open, sometimes winning but mostly losing only to be shipped to the U.S. for more of the same.

Omi won a few races in Mexico but she was still shipped off to Arizona to be kept in squalid kennels at some run down track where humans came to bet on her chances. She is a beautiful red fawn Greyhound who appears to have had her eyebrows penciled in by a professional.  She is a Gemini after all.

Today, I bought new collars for Omi and Jade and because it is a hot, hot last day of May in our neck of the woods, a couple of dog baths in a few hours to cool down.  I remember the day that Jade and I travelled to Auburn, CA to meet Omi and she raced up to me and licked my ear.  We drove home a few hours later and the rest is our history.

May all Greyhounds find their new homes, shedding the exploitation of track racing and horrifying conditions and may their humans all be as lucky as we are to have our birthday girl.

Happy Birthday Omi!