I know that most of you who are followers of the GALT website, or are involved with GALT in other ways, are familiar with the life of Lad. To refresh your memory, Lad was found abandoned on the streets of Fort Worth last July. The animal control officer that picked him up did not think he would live through the day. After calling GALT to the rescue, Lad received heroic medical attention that led to his tenuous survival in those first few days. This medical attention, along with the outstanding work of his foster mom, Kristen Fields, brought Lad back from the brink of death.
As Lad was going through these terrible times in his life, I was getting to know my daughter's greyhound Charlie. Again, those of you involved in GALT will remember Charlie as the senior male that no one wanted. My daughter adopted him in February, and he has been one of the most wonderful dogs that I have ever been around. He is now thirteen years old and still going strong. After being around Charlie, my wife and I knew that we wanted a greyhound. We studied the website and went to "meet and greets" and settled on a dog. Although we decided on a dog other than Lad, we always kept him and his story in the back of our minds. My wife and I decided that the first grey we had chosen would not fit in with our other dogs, so we were again drawn to Lad.
It has been a month now, and we don't know what we did without Lad as a part of our family. You can see by the pictures that he has healed physically. What you can't see is that he has also healed psychologically. Each day we discover new and exciting things from Lad. He loves his afternoon walks, his runs in the back yard and of course his pets as he "cockroaches" in the middle of the floor. He loves to walk out on the dock, ride in the boat, and a couple of time he has even jumped in the water thinking he can continue to chase the ducks.
As you can tell, "Poor Ol' Lad" is now "Wonderful New Lad". I want to thank and commend all of the people across the nation involved with GALT. Because of you and your commitment to this great cause, Lad has truly been given a second chance at life. I think this second chance was given to him so that he could become a part of our lives - constantly giving us so much love and asking for so little. I look forward to many years with Lad in his new and forever home.