My First Major Dog Fight (for Frankie Baby)

I had two full turnout pens outside and I was inside doing beds when I heard a mighty roar. I raced outside because I knew what it meant - both pens were fighting! A greyhound fight is an awesome sight to see and I never met anybody that didn't freeze the first time they saw one. It is like watching a calm ocean rise up into a mighty tidal wave of seething, writhing dogs. It boggles your mind!

Anyway I went into the first pen to break it up (there were 26 dogs in each pen). I was pulling and pushing and screaming and doing basically anything I could to separate the dogs. I finally get the first pen calmed down and I headed for the second pen and I saw something that I only saw in that particular fight - I never saw it happen again in 13 years of racing.

There was a stud dog named Terri Hug Her in the other pen. He weighed 92 pounds, but he was a gentle giant. He was running between fighting dogs using the force of his weight to break them apart. I watched him do this with 3 different groups of dogs while I was trying to get to the pen. All I had to do when I got into the pen was to calm them down. The fight was basically over.

Unfortunately the other pen started to fight again so I had to go back over there. I ran to grab one particular dog because all the other dogs in the pen were ganging up on her. Just as I grabbed her collar the momentum of the fight shifted and a wave of greyhounds ran over me. I slipped in the sand and went down on my back. I remember in the one second that I was on the ground seeing a sea of legs around me.

I had one thought, "GET UP!" I did something that was normally physically impossible for me or just about anybody else to do. In the time that it took to think "GET", I was flat on my back with the dogs running over me! By the time I thought "UP!", I had leapt to my feet and was standing straight up (just like one of those fighters you see in a Karate movie when they are flat on the ground and they rise to their feet in one motion and you think to yourself - hey, that would be impossible to do)

Fear is a great motivator! If I had not gotten up so quickly those greyhounds would not have hesitated to eat me alive! Even though they are muzzled they can still bite through them and muzzles break and fall off in the frenzy of a fight all the time.

I grabbed the dog they were after and I dragged her out of the pen. The fight stopped in both pens and I put her in her crate (unhurt - thankfully). Then I just stood there exhausted, gasping for air, with both pens of dogs looking at me, each dog wondering what was going to happen next. About that time my boss pulled up and we put them to bed because once they start fighting they are prone to fight again.

I was proud of myself for breaking them up and nobody got hurt. (you have to break up fights and not hurt any of them because they have to race and they can't run if they are hurt)

It's a fine line to walk.

No Resolutions for Me

I'll continue to wage my ongoing battle against weight. I think I probably lost 140 lbs. last year. I weigh about the same as I did when the year started though.

I have to wonder if this was my last Christmas. Don't get all in a huff about morbid thoughts. It is not morbid. It is the fact of my life. I intend to have a few more but I am weaker than last year.

I'll continue to have fun with Eddie. He makes me laugh most of the time. He takes care of me (meaning he feeds me when I am weak - that always puts somebody on my good side )

Bright spot in my life: I'll have my truck paid off in May (I think) Then I can start to put some money into my health - who knows something might just improve (I know my teeth will anyway )

WE HAVE COOKED CABBAGE IN WEST VIRGINIA ON NEW YEAR'S DAY FOR GOOD LUCK AND PROSPERITY. WHAT DO YOU DO?

today's fortune cookie

Today I opened a fortune cookie. It said, "take a trip to a local beach, you deserve it". I had been thinking about going to the little Daniel Boone Park down the road and watching the river. River watching is highly relaxing - I recommend it.

I thought, "this must be a sign." So, I took off to the park. I watched the river a little bit. Nothing special happened. So much for "signs".

Then I went to the Shoney's Seafood Buffet. I had been given a free dinner by one of my customers as a present. I loaded up on oysters - I LOVE OYSTERS! I didn't eat myself into a coma which is an improvement. It was a good day.

I rested all day. I think I'll do the same thing tomorrow - minus the buffet though.

My 2010

I guess the biggest change in my life is that I seem to have settled into a routine. I have never had a set routine in my life - I was always too busy living life to worry about doing the same thing day after day after day. NOT THE CASE ANYMORE.

I wake up in the middle of the night usually. Sometimes I watch tv and sometimes I do a few chores or just go outside if the weather is nice and relax. Around 4 a.m. I take a fluid pill that forces me to wake up every half hour or so to empty my bladder. I do this so that I can peacefully start my day without having to worry about running to public restrooms while I am running any errands I may have.

I take my morning meds around 11:30 and rest awhile. If I am having a bad day I just stay in bed hoping for my body's natural 3 p.m. wake up call. It seems that is when I get a burst of energy if I am going to have one that day - it doesn't always happen.

At 2 p.m. Eddie and I watch One Life to Live at his apartment and we play a game of rummy - usually. Then we go our separate ways or hang out - whatever we feel like doing that day. Usually he comes to my apartment a little after 6 and we watch a movie if I have one. If not I go out and feed the squirrels (weather permitting) while he walks. He walks several miles a day - it helps to keep his pain level down.

I work 2 evenings a week as a cashier at Fruth pharmacy. About once a month I throw in an extra shift to see how my body recovers.

I blog almost every day according to when I have access to a computer in the building or if I have to go to the public library. Throw in a doctor's appointment here and there and basically that is my boring life.

I wouldn't be able to tolerate it if I weren't so sick. I had a lot of years of doing a lot of exciting things so I really don't have any regrets about not doing something or another. I've done most of what I wanted to do. I expected to be going full speed ahead at this point in my life and making money hand over fist but, alas, it was not to be.

I am reasonable content. I have no worries other than my health and my body will take care of that in it's own time - there is nothing I can do about it.

I've been to alot of great parties and ate a lot of great food with a lot of great friends while partying harder than most people on the planet.

I usually love to blog about past and present experiences with my holidays. But basically the New Year's blogs would all be about the same. Either I was too blitzed out of my mind to remember the holiday (even if I were working) or I was too worn out from working to stay awake to see the ball drop.

I've been to alot of great parties and ate a lot of great food with a lot of great friends while partying harder than most people on the planet .

explanation:

How do you party and work at the same time? If you are a greyhound trainer you have an extra matinee to work because it is a holiday. Therefore I would be working from 6 a.m. until almost midnight nonstop on every holiday. I could still party because there is not too much in the world more fun than to get drunk or smoke a joint and go play in a turnout pen with 50 or 100 greyhounds. They had a blast and so did I.

Of course track management frowns on such practices but the old joke is (and it's true) that if they would drug test everybody in the compound and then kick them out, there would be no one to take care of over 1000 dogs. Management turns their head as long as no one raises too much hell.

No Sense Doing a New Year'

Venting ?!?

When we were kids, all 3 of us got in trouble for something and my mom sent us to our rooms.

All of a sudden I could hear my brother calling me through the air conditioner vent in the floor. What was this? A new way to communicate when we were banished to the confines of our luxorious rooms with every entertainment known to kids of the seventies.

We started to talk to each other and of course my little sister, Rhonda, joined in. We were having a ball. Laughing and telling jokes and of course talking about our evil mother who had the nerve to send us to our rooms.

Then we heard it! That booming voice coming through the vents, saying, "I CAN HEAR EVERYTHING YOU GUYS ARE SAYING! I SUGGEST YOU SHUT-UP!"

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

My Measurements When I Was 20 or so...

34-22-38

My mom used to say I had a coke bottle figure.

What I can't figure out is why people were always telling me how fat I was. I would KILL to be built like that now.

DO NOT ASK WHAT MY MEASUREMENTS ARE NOW!!!!