Rescue ME Monday: Maine Greyhound Placement Service

Each week at the Dogged Writer website, I'll be featuring a different animal rescue or animal welfare organization around the state of Maine. This week, I visited the Canine Carnival, held by the Maine Greyhound Placement Service on their 13-acre farm.

Though saddled with a spine-tingling history and allegedly haunted even now, the home of Maine Greyhound Placement Services is an unmistakably pleasant place to visit these days. MGPS is centrally located on a thirteen-acre farm in Augusta that is renowned throughout the state as the site of one of the bloodiest murders in Maine history (see the Haunted Hounds sidebar on the Rescue ME page for more details on the farm's history).

Today, however, the old farm has been infused with new life. Maine Greyhound Placement Services bought the place in 2003. Since that time, volunteers have been hard at work putting up fencing, creating large exercise pens, and renovating the old barn to make it habitable for the rescued greyhounds that MGPS pays to have shipped here from around the country, once the dogs are retired from the racing circuit. The rescue runs a gift shop (Tally Ho Gifts) from the barn, as well as a boarding facility to raise money to keep the extensive operation running. This past year, a major goal was realized when MGPS completed construction on their very own, on-site veterinary clinic, in order to take care of day-to-day medical needs and larger procedures like spaying and neutering for their charges.

On Saturday, October 2nd, MGPS opened their doors to the public for the Canine Carnival, a day-long event that volunteers hope will become an annual fundraiser. Agility and rally demonstrations, kennel tours, vendors, and a raffle were all offered under sunny skies and cool fall temperatures. As the day progressed, I had an opportunity to speak with volunteers and greyhound enthusiasts alike, to learn more about these long-legged, doe-eyed beauties.

One of the volunteers I spoke with at length was Norman Leclair and his dog Lewy, who used to race under the name PC Triple Cash. Lewy is now a therapy dog who spends a good portion of his week at area nursing homes, doing in-home visits for shut ins, and then typically does his part for his fellow greyhounds at Petco on Saturdays by wearing the MGPS red vest to raise money and awareness for the cause. Leclair is a white-haired gentleman with sparkling eyes and a deep laugh, who had no problem opening up to me about his history with, and love for, the breed. As games, activities, and chatter buzzed around us, Leclair told me that he'd known Lewy was meant for him because the dog arrived on his son's birthday - a son he had lost when the boy was only twenty-one.

"I knew as soon as I saw him that Lewy was sent to me from somebody pretty special," Leclair tells me. He smiles at the dog, lying peacefully at his feet while we chat. "People say all the time how lucky Lewy is that I saved him, but I didn't save him. He saved me."

Check out the new feature on the website, Rescue ME, for the full story on Maine Greyhound Placement Service, plus links, photos, and interviews.