Published Sunday, October 20, 2002
Annual event fetes 'greys' in Delaware
Herald News Editor
Last Sunday morning actress Betty White was up to her derriere in greyhounds on a sandy beach in Delaware.
"It was such a highlight, I will never forget it," she said to a house packed with dog owners in Dewey Beach for the eighth annual Greyhounds Reach the Beach gathering.
"We could learn a lot from them, their adaptability," she said of the dogs' gentle, welcoming nature and absence of aggression. "You can't walk six of us" together without someone wanting to take over, she said.
Miss White, who played the ever-naive Rose for eight years on "The Golden Girls" and its sequel "Golden Palace," said the most mail either show received followed an episode of "Palace," which featured the story of racing greyhounds.
The actress, who is well-known for her love of animals, spoke as president emeritus and 32-year member of the Morris Animal Foundation, a leader in animal health.
Last year, the foundation devoted $1.6 million to canine health studies.
Last weekend, greyhound owners raised $9,264 for Morris during the three-day gathering that, according to organizer Joan Belle Isle, attracted 3,500 hounds to the tiny beach town, just south of its more famous neighbor, Rehoboth Beach.
This year, Greyhounds Reach the Beach featured fund-raisers like a raffle and the Sunday brunch where Miss White spoke; an ice cream social, sponsored by Nittany Greyhound Adoption of central Pennsylvania; canine nail clipping; and a Greyhounds in Art show and sale.
The event, the largest of its kind in the world, this year, bringing together 2,000 greyhound owners from 35 states and four countries, is unlike any other gathering.
It starts along the highways leading to Dewey Beach.
Cars, vans, pickups and SUVs sport decals and signs in their windows, "Greyhounds Going to Dewey Beach." Some vehicles even have slogans painted on them like, "Beach Bound Hounds." Greyhounds can outnumber the people taking breaks at rest areas.
Marquees on motels and restaurants greet the four-legged tourists and their owners, from "Who Let The Dogs Inn" to "Get Ready Greyhounds Are Everywhere" and the simple "Greyhounds Welcome."
And welcome they are, every Columbus Day weekend since 1995, when 85 owners with 65 dogs first got together at the Atlantic Oceanside Motel, which now serves as greyhound weekend headquarters.
Motel owner Bob Marshall gets the credit for enlisting more property owners each year to open their doors to the dogs for one weekend in the resort town's off-season.
Even restaurateurs like Mark Jacobson and Cindy Cook allow the well-mannered greys to join their owners at chow time. Last weekend, Jacobson sported a "Big Dogs" T-shirt and hand-fed homemade meatballs to hungry hounds as he made his rounds at dinner hour in The Grill in Rehoboth.
The town of Dewey Beach is well-prepared for the annual invasion. Complimentary "poop bags" and trash toters are available on numerous street corners and at all beach accesses.
The beach itself is central to much of the weekend's activities. Early-risers, by the hundreds, take to the seaside each morning for a walk with their dogs. Afterward, they can take in a seminar, go to the art show, let their greys run at a fenced field at the elementary school or shop for special collars or coats to coddle their canine pals. Other activities on the beach this year were a candlelight memorial service for absent friends -- human and hound; a hands-on, hound-healing session using alternative therapies; and the annual blessing of the hounds.
The Rev. Alan Dash, campus chaplain at North Carolina State University, conducted Saturday morning's service, despite dreary weather. Father Dash, who is "father" to two greys of his own and said he plans to volunteer in greyhound rescue when he retires, talked of the love and companionship pets provide and about Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of animals. Afterward, he blessed greys individually, saying he would stay on the beach all day if necessary to accommodate the crowd.
Also crowded was the annual Beer and Biscuits Ball, where greys dressed in their finest costumes and feasted all evening on free-flowing treats, normally handed out only as rewards for good behavior. Meanwhile their owners struck up conversations with total strangers, finding they share a common bond.
One owner of a fluffy white American Eskimo, who accompanied her friend to the ball, marveled that owners of other breeds don't share the same camaraderie.
As Betty White termed it, "What other breed in the world can you do this with?"
Greyhounds Reach the Beach has been coordinated since 1999 by the nonprofit Greyhound Project. For online information, go to: www.adopt-a-greyhound.org/dewey/.