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On that morning Janie and I drove down to Covington, LA to pick up our first greybaby. Little did we know at that time what this would bring. That morning at approx. 10 AM, we met Lola for the first time. What a little doll. Yep, today would have been her 11th gotcha day. But for reasons we don't know about she was taken from us before her third gotcha day. She would have turned 15 on October 1 had she still been with us but I don't know how this odyssey would have gone.

Since that day, Miss Lola has brought many other greys into our lives. Vinka, Katie, Nancy, Max and Pansy. She also brought in Ghost. Now Vinka brought in Bea and Max brought in his brother, Dart. Now that is 9 GREYT greys that have blessed this house. But that isn't the only thing she did since her arrival.

In the past 11 yrs we have met some of the most wonderful people in the world. most of whom are still or were members of this forum. Our first face-to-face contact was at the 2000 AOL gang Cherry Hill picnic. Now Janie and I knew where Cherry Hill was because we had lived in Doylestown, PA in the mid 60's. Back then one of the ads on the radio was which star was perfoming at the Cherry Hill Playhouse. We made what was the first of our 5 yearly trips up there. I never will forget the first trip. We had followed Leah over to the picnic area after having stayed the night with her and were of couse one of the first to arrive. Shortly after our arrival, a van pulled in and Leah told us it was Sally and her family. Being polite, I walked over to introduce myself as Leah and Janie were unloading Leah's jeep. As soon as Sally saw me she yelled "Harry!!!!". How she knew it was me, to this day I don't know. The weather was terrible but we met so many wonderful people then and as the picnic grew in size, so many more.

The following year, we met more. I was able to find Lola's brother, Cash, on Greyfind. His mom and I exchanged emails and do so to this day. Late that summer Janie and I went up to the Chicago area to fisit our son and his family. It just so happend that the Midwest Adoption group was having their annual picnic that weekend. Being our D-I-L had worked all noght the night before, Janie and I with our son and grandkids decided to go over and possibly meet Cash and his family and maybe Ken. How we would ever find someone we didn't know in that group of people? We were walking down one of the walks and I looked over and there was Lola, well not quite, but a very large Lola. I knew it was Cash. We spent a long time introducing our selves and talking. I happen to look up and saw someone I thought I knew by the pups with him. It was Ken. We spent a very enjoyable afternoon with them and then the following day we spent sometime with Linda, Cash and her family in Elgin, IL and later that afternoon we went over to Ken's house and met Pam and Lynette.

Later that same year we made our first Dewey Beach trip. We had barely got parked at the hotel and as I was opening the door, a man ran up to the dorr and yelled out, "You'er Harry". To say the least, I was surprised. I had never seen this person. It seens he was a lurker on the board and had recognized the pups and wanted to meet us.

The following year was to say the least intresting. Begining with both Jilli's Cricket and My Pansy becomeing available the same day. Spending hours and hours setting up a GUR for them and then getting them home. Well, later that year while at Dewey, Janie and I were walking the pups and we were on one of the side streets. There in front of us was another couple walking their pups and was coming toward us. As they got closer, we heard the lady exclaim "Pansy". It turned out that they were Patty and Bob Tonkin of Nittney Greyhounds,the people who had kept Pansy overnight during her GUR to us.

Yes there have been heart breaks. We have lost in addition to Lola for a "heart Attack", Nancy, Vinka, Max and Dart. All to a form of the "C" word. We have also lost some wonderful friends to that same 'C' word Leah, Jilli, Linda and ofcourse Sally.

How long this odyssey will continue, I don't know. We continue to meet greyt people. We have curtailed our travels to only Mountain Hounds now. Maybe Dewey again in the future. We have our eye on another big black boy by the name of Stanley. If he is not adopted by the end of the month then maybe.