Walker in the back seat of the little Kia on his way to his new home in Maryland (Before Emilia and the gray hair!).

Our baby boy Walker had to go to a new home today. Yesterday, Emilia accidentally put her foot on his back, and he growled (which he has every right to do), but then he jumped up and bared his teeth at her, which he had never, ever done before. It was then that Tim and I both looked at each other and we knew it was time. He will be 10 next month, and has been hurting for quite a while. We had an appointment at 10:30 this morning to put him down, but about an hour before then, the vet called us and asked if it would be alright to contact the local greyhound adoption group to see if they could find a home without kids to take him. Of course we agreed, we didn't want to put him down, but the girls do need to come first. So, we took him to a meet and greet over in North Augusta so that the adoption coordinator could look him over to see if it was possible to adopt him out or not. They agreed that he is probably too old to adopt out, but one of the ladies there has 4 or 5 greyhounds of her own and said that she would take him into her home if they couldn't find another one. They did agree that the kids do need to come first and that he can't stay here, he just hurts too much to put up with two active youngsters (especially with Shelby ready to crawl at any moment, Walker was Emilia's favorite object to crawl over). So, it was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do, but we had to drive off without our big "poor old man" baby. He just kept looking at us and trying to follow, he didn't understand why we were leaving him. I'm still trying to decide if this is really best or not. He is hurting so bad with his hips and back (he did race 4 1/2 years before we got him), but I'm sure that after they've done all of their X-rays and tests they'll know for sure (because they didn't really want to believe us that he's hurting as bad as we said) and decide from there if he's just going to live out the rest of his life in an "Old Greyhounds" home, or if they think that he's just too hurt to go on. We were told that they will keep us updated and that we can call any time to see how he is doing. We miss him so much already and Emilia keeps saying that she wants him to come home and not live with those other dogs, it's so hard for a four year old to understand. So, for everyone who loved and still loves our boy, I'm putting in lots of pictures of him, including those with his favorite people, his girls.

This is Tim and Walker standing out in the biggest snowstorm Maryland had seen in a long time, in February of 2003. Poor Walker just wanted to come inside, or at least find a place to pee that didn't have snow up to his pee-pee!

This was the moment I knew that Walker had decided Emilia was his. It was about 3 in the morning, and I had laid her on the couch while I got a bottle ready (this was before she learned to nurse, she was only about a month old). Walker climbed up on the couch (which he knew he wasn't supposed to do), and laid down with his head on her lap. He also seemed to know that I don't have a sense of smell too because when Emilia would get a poopy diaper he would go over to her, smell her bottom and look at me. He would keep doing this until I picked her up to change her, but his patrol didn't stop there. He would follow me back to her room EVERY TIME I went back there with her, I'm sure just to make sure I was doing everything alright.

Now THIS is how everyone remembers Walker. What a spoiled dog he was! He had not only his bed, but also his very own head pillow too. What a rough life!!

Here's Walker when we moved down here to Georgia last summer (2005) with Abi and Emilia. When the rest of us were sleeping on air mattresses and sitting in camp chairs, Walker still had HIS bed to lay on. Even with his bed though, he still choose to lay in the hallway right out side the door of his girls, it's where he still slept as of last night, guarding them.

Here he is with his newest baby. I had laid Shelby down on the floor for some "tummy time" and I guess he thought that she looked kind of lonely, so he moved to lay down beside her. Then he decided he wasn't close enough so he moved his head over by her head, just so she'd know he was there. When we brought her home from the hospital he did the same exact thing to her that he did to Emilia when we brought her home. He started at her belly and smelled up to her head and then licked her from her forehead to the back of her head. I think it was his "blessing" to them saying that they were OK to be in his family. He never would lick an adult, but he did lick pretty much every kid he saw (that would let him, he was a big dog with BIG teeth after all!).

I took this picture yesterday after telling Emilia that we were going to have to take her doggie to the "pet doctor" (she for some reason can't say vet) and that the doctor was going to give him some medicine so that he would go to sleep and stay that way, so he could go live with Jesus. She really didn't like that idea, she just wanted him to go to sleep, and then come home. She still doesn't understand, but she liked it better that he was going to go to a new house with lots of other dogs, instead of going to sleep. We will miss our baby boy, but we do both agree that we did what we had to do, and we trust that he's going to have a comfy bed and lots of love in his final days, we wish that those days could be spent with us, but this is the next best thing. We love you Walker!!!