TheDay

Release The Hounds!

Hundreds Vie To Adopt Eight Greyhound Racers

By MEGAN BARD
Day Staff Writer, Montville/Sprague/Bozrah
Published on 5/16/2005

Montville- The hounds were in control of the Montville Animal Control pound Sunday afternoon.

What was billed as a chance to meet and possibly adopt a former racer from the Plainfield Greyhound Park turned into a bidding war as more than 300 people vied for a chance to adopt one of eight available greyhounds.

"It's been wild," said Jane Hatch, the town's animal control officer, while taking a brief moment to step away from the pound Sunday. "There were people here Saturday trying to see the dogs and even some people here at 8 this morning."

The Greyhound Adoption Day and Parade was hosted by Montville in conjunction with Pet Pals Northeast Inc. and the New London Animal Control department. Each dog had a brief description of its personality, its age, and name posted outside its pen doors. The dogs also had plush beds to lie on and wore collars ready to be hooked to a leash.

Saturday was the final day for live greyhound racing at the Plainfield track, which opened with much fanfare in 1976. Track owners said it was necessary to stop the races to accommodate a Trumbull-based developer's plans to complete testing on the site as part of the planning process to build a possible multimillion-dollar entertainment complex. Developer Eugene Arganese has said that the project will include a 140,000-seat domed auto racetrack and a smaller interior oval to host future greyhound races.

If live greyhound races do resume, as Arganese and park Executive Vice President Karen Keelan said they will, the dogs won't run until sometime in 2006.

In the meantime, roughly 1,000 dogs had to be relocated; some went back to their owners, others went to race at other New England tracks, and still hundreds of others needed to be adopted.

Hatch said she will keep the hundreds of applications submitted Sunday because she expects that over the next few weeks she will receive more greyhounds that need to be adopted.

Southington residents Susan Burris and Mark Mattex had read the stories and watched the television news about the track's closure. Sunday afternoon the couple waited anxiously outside a temporary pen to find out if they would be the lucky ones to bring home Private, a 3-year-old brown and black-brindle greyhound.

"We've talked about getting another dog and when we heard about the track closing, it just made sense," Burris said. The couple already has a dachshund, named Jack.

Mattex, crouched down and gently rubbing Private's forehead, didn't notice as other people crept up to get a look at the dog. Neither did Private. The greyhound's eyes were fixed on Mattex as the dog lay on his side enjoying the attention.

By late afternoon the staff were still combing through applications for Private and had not made a decision on who would be his new owners.

Moments earlier Janet and Charles Messina of Quaker Hill escorted 2-year-old Princess down the pound's concrete steps and into their waiting truck. They were going home to meet the couple's two male Labrador retrievers.

Janet Messina said she had been considering adopting a greyhound for years but it wasn't until the announcement the track would close that she knew "in all good conscious I couldn't let this chance go by."

With a house along the Thames River, the Messinas are hoping that Princess will enjoy the water as much as their two Labs. But if she doesn't, she will have plenty of fenced in area to roam, or run, and a soft, cozy couch inside.

Hatch said as important as it was to find homes for the greyhounds, it was equally important to find suitable homes for them. Hatch, along with several volunteers and representatives from New London Animal Control and Pet Pals, screened each application before making a match. The greyhounds came to the organizations on May 7 from the track and lived with volunteers during the week to become acclimated with a house setting.

Each had to be introduced to stairs, toys, different breeds of dogs and cats, and the way of life away from the track.

"They require a lot of time," said Sandi Radford, vice president of Pet Pals.

Although it was the greyhounds that stole the show and drew people to Montville Sunday, Hatch said there are always dogs available for adoption at the pound.

One of those is, Illex, a 2-year-old Beagle. Despite his occasional bellowing as people walked past his cage, at least two families had put their names on his list for adoption. It was not known late Sunday whether Illex had found a home. For more information on dog adoption, contact the Montville pound at 848-3529.

m.bard@theday.com