Hounds
Home > Travels in 2007 > Greyhound Adoption Expo 2007
Greyhound Adoption Expo 2007
This year we made our first trip to the Greyhound Adoption Expo in Massachusetts. Started in 2004, the Expo is a two-day event held in June to promote greyhound adoption and to allow greyhounds and their owners to hang out and have fun.
The first day of the expo was held on Friday, June 15, and the Wonderland greyhound racetrack in Revere (just north of Boston). We got the girls (Wren, Symbra, and Carrie) leashed up, put the old man Frazzle in his posh garden cart, and made our way into the building. After getting registered, our first stop was the paw painting booth. Since Wren and Carrie already had paw paintings hanging under their portrait pictures on the wall back home, we wanted to get paw prints from Symbra and Frazzle. The person at the booth was nice enough do put the paint on Frazzle's paws and press them to paper while he was lying in the cart so we didn't have to take him out.
After that, we headed through the main seating area and outside to the track area for the Fun Run. Greyhound racetracks are oval-shaped like horse racetracks. A mechanical fuzzy lure runs around the inside rail of the track, and the hounds are released from the starting boxes as the lure passes by that turn. For the Fun Run, the event organizers had set up four starting boxes at the start of the first straightaway of the track and a finish line just before the start of the first turn, so that the hound participating in the event wouldn't have to negotiate any turns during their run.
Wren and Symbra were signed up to participate in the 32nd run, so we watched the other races as we waited for their turn along with a lot of other hounds and their owners. Every time a race took place, many of the hounds watching whined, barked, and jumped in excitement, either egging the racing hounds on or pleading for a chance to race too. Wren and Symbra were amongst the excited hounds: Carrie merely watched passively, and Frazzle was too busy getting love and attention from passers-by. They were fun to watch. Some of the races were photo-finishes, others were blowouts, and a few involved hounds who either stopped too soon, kept running down the track past the dog catchers in the first turn, or turned around and ran back to the starting boxes.
Finally it was Wren and Symbra's turn. I left Frazzle and Carrie with Deanna and walked them down to the starting area. The officials checked us in and put racing silks on them: Wren got the #1, Symbra #3. We waited behind the official starting boxes (about a dozen feet behind the Fun Run starting boxes), for the race ahead of us to finish. When it was our turn, I was instructed to walk them to the front of the Fun Run starting boxes so the photographer in the announcer's booth could take a picture of us, then I handed Wren and Symbra off to the handlers and jogged down the track to the finish line to observe the race.
A few moments later, the race was on! We thought Symbra, being younger and faster, would easily beat Wren to the finish line, but they both ran at full speed and it was too close to call. It was all over in just a few seconds, but they really seemed to enjoy it.
After that, we stayed and watch some more races so Deanna could take pictures of other hounds we knew, then we headed inside. We ended up relaxing in the main seating area for awhile, during which time Deanna signed up for the silent auction so she could bid on a beautiful pencil-drawn collage of greyhound faces.
The next event was the fashion show. Deanna had stayed up late for the past several nights to make costumes for the hounds to wear in the show, so we found a quiet corner in which to dress the hounds. Frazzle's cart was transformed into a royal carriage with a shimmering purple cloth lining and a gold-fringed canopy, and Frazzle himself was dressed sultan-style with a white vest, white pants, and red sash and a purple turban hat. The girls were dressed as his harem: Carrie in green, Wren in lavender, and Symbra in dusty rose.
All of the fashion show contestants lined up outside of the main seating area in order so we could be announced and paraded in. When it was our turn, the announcer described the theme and the outfits in true fashion show style. When we got to the judge's area, Frazzle lifted his head once, calmly surveyed the crowd, then dropped his head back down to sleep to the great amusement of the crowd.
Despite the fine competition, we ended up winning the fashion show, so the hounds showed off for the crowd one last time before we relieved them of their costumes.
After that, everyone ate a buffet dinner in the main seating area, and dinner was followed by a panel discussion involving members of the greyhound adoption community and the greyhound racing industry. Since it was a hour drive from Wonderland back to our campground, we decided to call it a night so we could get south of the city before dark.
On Saturday the Expo moved to the Raynham-Taunton Greyhound Park in Raynham, MA, about a 15-minute drive from our campground. Once we got inside, we made our way over to the pavilion building next to the track to hear a panel discussion about ways to improve the greyhound adoption process, followed by a slide show and presentation about having adventures with your greyhound and what it's like to work in a greyhound kennel for a week. We remained in the pavilion for lunch and watched the first few greyhound races (real races, not Fun Runs) from there before heading back into the main building where the vendors were set up.
Deanna wanted to check out the silent auction items to see what the current bid was on the artwork she had bid on the day before. She thought that this auction was the same auction as the day before because many of the items were similar, but it turned out that her bid had been the highest bid when Friday's auction had closed, so she had won the artwork. I stayed with the hounds while she went to retrieve it from the artist.
We then toured the vendor tables inside the building. We ended up buying a few stuffed toys from one vendor and also got Symbra's nails trimmed (she doesn't like getting her nails done by Deanna).
The photographers we always go to during the Greyhounds Reach the Beach weekend in Dewey Beach, Furtography, had set up shop in the adoption office of the racetrack, so we decided to get a solo picture of Symbra as well as a group shot. Frazzle had to be extracted from his cart so he could be photographed, but he simply made himself comfortable on a cushion on the floor while we positioned the other hounds around him. It looks like the photographer (Mike) got some good shots, so we're looking forward to seeing how the pics turn out.
After that, we headed to the foyer area where several greyhound contests were being held. Wren won 3rd place in the Best Kisser competition despite the fact that she didn't kiss the judge: that's what happens when there are only 3 competitors! She did, however, earn her 2nd place finish in the Fastest Eater contest by wolfing down several pieces of hot dog. Carrie won 1st place in the Best Trick contest by demonstrating her willingness to sit, lay down, and bark for a treat. Frazzle didn't even have to be awake to win 2nd place for the Spottiest Hound.
We decided to pack up and head back to camp as the winners of the various raffles were being announced and the vendors were starting to pack up for the day. We got back into camp in the early evening, and all of us (including the hounds) took a nap before eating dinner and ending our day.
On Sunday morning we drove to Wheaton Farm in Easton, MA (not far from the Raynham-Taunton track) for the Pursuit of Knowledge trail walk sponsored by Greyhound Adventures and Trail Bound Hounds, two groups that organize events and walks for dog owners. The idea was that we would stop and several junctures during the walk, to not only take a break but to answer seven greyhound-related trivia questions posed by the event organizers. The person who answered the most questions (thereby earning the most star stickers) would be the winner.
About 38 hounds and their owners participated in the walk down the wooded trail. The organizers advised Deanna and I that there might be parts of the trail where Frazzle's cart might get stuck, but as it turned out we didn't have any trouble other than pulling him over a number of tree roots, and he didn't seem to mind the bumpy nature of his ride. It was the warmest day of our stay (with temps in the low 80s), so the organizers decided to take a slightly shorter route and skipped the last seven questions so as not to over exert the older hounds in the group. At the end of the contest, the winner with 13 correct answers was Deanna. The prize was a type of dog bed that Deanna had been considering buying, so she was quite happy with the result. Everyone was very impressed by how laid back Frazzle was during his ride, and he had his picture taken too many times to count.
That was our last greyhound event of the weekend. We spent the rest of Sunday relaxing at the campsite and looking through all the pictures taken during the weekend (some of which we've included in the slide show below).
All in all, it was a fantastic weekend. We'd recommend this event to anyone with greyhounds who can make it to the Boston area for the weekend. It was well-organized and a lot of fun.
Photo 0 of 0
![]()