Greyhound Rescue Rehab

In 1999, Christine Johnson asked her husband, Chris Procopis, if they could adopt a dog, but he was deathly afraid of them, having been bitten three times as a paperboy during his teens. Chris thought he had his wife stymied when he agreed, saying, "OK, sure—but only if the dog doesn't bark, shed, drool or smell."

But Christine did her research and discovered greyhounds. Not only is this breed tidy and quiet, but, as she quickly learned, kennels were teeming with the retired racing dogs—and they were in need of homes. "In the late 1990s, around 40,000 dogs were being put to sleep each year when they were injured or too old to race," she says. Working with a rescue group in Glastonbury, CT, she met a 90-pound dog named Parris who had been returned by a family because he was skittish and uncomfortable around children. "We didn't have kids and I just wanted him to be ours," says Christine, who took Parris home that day—after just a quick call to her husband.

At first, Chris was stunned. "I agreed to a dog, not a horse!" he says with a laugh. "It was like someone had left a pony in the living room of our tiny condo." He also feared that a dog so fast it can zip through an electric fence without feeling a shock would be high-strung and require constant exercise. Instead, he says, "I was pleasantly surprised to find out that they're more like giant cats who like to curl up on the couch and hang out."

Months after Parris joined their family, the couple went to a greyhound adoption event, where one of the dogs walked right up to Christine and stuck her nose under Christine's arm. Now a convert, Chris took one look and said, "We're taking her." Christine started thinking about the thousands of greyhounds that needed homes. "I had to do something," she says. In 2000, she formed a nonprofit, Greyhound Rescue Rehab (GreyhoundRescueRehab.org), an all-volunteer organization that saves, fosters and finds homes for retired racing greyhounds. "My only regret is that I didn't learn about them earlier," says Christine.