Past Family Members

Sweetness (Gretchen’s Gold) was my first Greyhound. Born in November 1990, this dark brindle was acquired for $45.00 from a barn in South Florida. In less than three months, she was doing advanced, off-leash obedience, jumping and retrieving. (I have a home video to prove it.) She anchored the Dancing Greyhound Drill Team and ruled it until her death in 2002. She was on Animal Planet twice, was a character with firm opinions about everything and was the Boss of me.

Chubby (Perfect Letter). This second Grey was black, born in March 1989 and adopted from McGregor Greyhound Welfare Center in 1994. She was Gil’s first and debuted at the Greyhound Hall of Fame, Fall Meet, seven months later. There are great mysteries in her background. She was an excellent therapy dog and Team member until 1999.

Mandi (Crafty Maid*). Our third was an Irish-born, red fawn, whelped in 1988. I met her in 1992 and in 1994 she was donated to us by Gloria Sanders. She was a keen learner and joyful personality. She is the only one who did not make the Dancing Greyhounds. Two weeks before our debut in late 1996, she went down to metastasized breast cancer.

Wayki or Waco (Right On By). Our fourth was another shiny black girl, born in 1991. I met her at the same time as Mandi, in 1992 at Raintree Greyhound Farm. In early 1995, Gloria Sanders said she could be mine. She was the last member of the original Dancing Greyhounds and was handled by Marlene Stachowiak for our debut performance at the Birmingham Racecourse. Wayki Breaky Heart had a stroke in 1998.

Chey (Cheyanne Bowman) was number five. A dark-red brindle with a long, white tipped mouse tail. Born in June 1995, she was donated by GPA-Greater Orlando in March 1997. She flunked race school. She taught me how to splint and save a broken tail. Chey developed a hatred of slick floors at the age of five, but performed nicely with boots. “Tender Rose” thought larval-stage humans were disgusting. She insisted on dressing out with the Team to the end. In late 2008 we said good bye.

Pasta (MLB Pasta Ann) was a light-red brindle. She was our sixth. Born in February 1994 and donated by Jodi Dotson in 1998, she, like Mandi, was one of those love-at-first-sights. She was a devoted companion and a great performer until 2002.  

Safire (Indio’s Kwik Kick) was the seventh, born in 1995. A light red brindle, she was known as Gil’s Girl. She was donated in late 1998 by GPA-Florida Southeast Coast, joining the family a month after Pasta. She was incredibly agile, very deer-like and always the show girl. In 2005, she lost her battle with protein-losing enteropathy.

Mist or MsME! (Alexandria Mist) was eighth. This little black rocket was born in October 1997 and donated in 1999 by GPA-Central Florida. She excelled in leap frog and six-foot high leaps. At age 10, she joyously took over the World’s Record Live Greyhound Jump. In 2009, she was our first to be diagnosed with osteosarcoma.

Beauty (NC Beauty) came ninth. Black, born in December 1997, she was the only one chosen sight unseen. Her pedigree was very similar to Wayki Breaky Heart. They were both hard-luck dogs, too. Beauty had a peculiar sense of humor during shows.  In late 2007, Beauty went down to kidney disease.

Chimi (Bohemian Praise)  1998 -2010

Chimi came into the family two weeks before her fifth birthday in 2003. She was Gilley Grey number 11. Selected from the Dairyland’s active racing list, she was neither fired nor retired. Chimi was chosen in the turn out pen for her obsession with a tennis ball, which she threw and caught all by herself. She was donated to the Team by her owner.  Chimi was red brindle with a white undercarriage.  

Her house name was Chimi Move since her favorite place was under foot and in the middle of everything. She was very verbal and also loved to sing strange, operatic arias while in your lap or lying on top of you. Body contact was her first priority.  She was totally social and extremely quick on her feet.

Chimi was our mathematician, barking the answers to math problems for Gil. She designed the act called “The Porpoise.” At age 11, we switched her out of the leap frog; the Porpoise act no one else can do.

About that time we turned our attention to dressage or free style and Chim was the first dancer to have a stylized routine to music. When she heard the “Coconut Song,” you could see her body pick up the rhythm. She knew the next move better than her dance partner.

There is nothing she could not or would not do; she lived to show and be the center of everything.