Published Sunday, October 20, 2002
Herald News Editor
Eleven years ago, Debi Kilar made a speech that put her on a fast track to greyhound adoption.
She had to sell her classmates on something. Needing an idea, she opened a dictionary and randomly began pointing at words. The first few weren't appropriate. Then she hit on "greyhound."
"I had a choice: the bus or the dog. I chose the dog," she said.
Not only did she make an A grade on the speech, she sold herself on the breed.
Now, a little more than a decade later, the Sharon woman is director of Rebound Greyhounds, a nonprofit, volunteer organization she founded that placed 65 retired race dogs in homes in its first year.
"When I started research for that speech, there wasn't much out there on the Internet, except about AKC dogs," she said, explaining the Web had virtually no information about race-dog adoption.
She found that mentioned in the back of a book about greyhounds.
It wasn't until nearly two years later when she went to Wheeling (W.Va.) Downs that she learned more about the often sad plight of retired race dogs.
While her friends gambled in the casino, she admired the hounds and talked with Lou Batdorf. Batdorf directs the Greyhound Pets of America chapter that operates the adoption kennel at the track.
"At that time, more greyhounds were being killed than were adopted," Ms. Kilar said. When race dogs no longer make money for their owners, they are put to sleep if homes can't be found for them.
She knew then she would help the sleek sprinters find homes when their racing days were over. As adoption groups began spreading their message on the Internet, she found ways to volunteer. "I gave them money, transported dogs if they needed to get them somewhere, whatever they needed."
Still, "I never thought I would get one," she said.
She thought wrong.
On the Friday before Columbus Day 1997, the former Hubbard Township woman received a phone call from Ohio Greyhound Placement. A temporary home was needed for 2-year-old Ben. Could she take him?
"It was the beginning of being in love," Ms. Kilar recalled of the black beauty who still calls her home his.
Two months later, she "was convinced Ben needed a buddy," so Salt came to live.
Three months after that, it was Flashy.
A month later, Monica.
Six days after that, Nawty.
Yep. Five dogs in eight months.
But the floral designer and mother of three wanted to do more.
"I kept thinking: I go out in public with these dogs and people ask me where I got them. I'd say, Cleveland or Michigan. I realized there was no place close, so I decided to start a satellite group," she said.
Fate put that satellite group at the starting gate on July 7, 2001.
A woman from Cleveland called Ms. Kilar and wanted to know if she could find a home for her greyhound because her family was moving to Hawaii. "I still have no idea how she got my phone number," Ms. Kilar said.
She accepted the challenge and turned to an online network for adoption groups.
"I posted on Greyhound List (www.greyhoundlist.org) and I had seven applications within seven hours" for her dog, Ms. Kilar said.
Rebound Greyhounds was off and running.
Ms. Kilar then contacted Suzanne Ricci in Fort Myers, Fla., and told her she would take extra racers Ms. Ricci's adoption kennel couldn't place.
She had a Web site set up -- www.reboundgrey
hounds.org, submitted stories to free publications and newsletters, began speaking at libraries and schools and to civic groups like the Rotary Club, and held "meet and greets" to raise awareness of greyhound adoption and her organization. At meet and greets, greyhound owners take their dogs to places like pet stores, community gatherings and parades, so people can pet them and have many of their questions answered.
As word of Rebound Greyhounds spread on the Internet and in the region, dog-lovers began offering their help.
One, Melanie Johnson of Canfield, Ohio, attended a meet and greet, ended up giving a greyhound a home and began volunteering. She helped Rebound Greyhounds complete the paperwork for its nonprofit status and is now the group's vice president.
"Anyone who has adopted can volunteer," Ms. Kilar said. Most often, volunteers assist with fund-raisers, foster dogs until permanent homes are found for them, act as "buddies" for new adopters and staff meet and greets. Rebound Greyhounds holds meet-the-hounds days the third Saturday of every month at Pet Supplies Plus and the fourth Saturday at T.W. Pet Centers, both in Boardman, Ohio. Locally, a meet and greet is set for 1 to 4 p.m. Nov. 9 at Jerry Stigliano's BookSource, 2880 E. State St., Hermitage.
What would Ms. Kilar like to see at the finish line for Rebound Greyhounds?
Some corporate sponsors would be nice, she said, adding, "The ultimate would be to own property, to own a kennel where we could house 20 dogs en route to their forever homes."
For more information, contacct Debi Kilar via e-mail at:
GreyhoundAdopter@aol.com