Thursday Thirteen ~ Camie

Thirteen things about me:

1. I am a former racer.
2. I was adopted directly from the race track in Tiajuana, Mexico. I had been put in the kennel of the retired dogs and my first mom fell in love with me. I was hiding under a tree. She, my now mom and my papa were on a fundraising trip for the greyhound organization they volunteered for. I got to ride home on a brand new tour bus. (I will tell more about this when I tell my gotcha day story)
3. I HATE riding in the car.
4. Mom still makes me ride in the car with her to work in the summers - it is 2 miles and during the first week, I pant and whine and hate it. After that, I accept the hand fate has dealt me. I am so well behaved at her work, people often don't know I am there.
5. I am allergic to grass - my feet get really itchy during the spring and summer, and Mom sometimes makes me wear boots when I am really itchy.
6. I have a disease called Systemic Lupoid Onychodystrophy - an autoimmune disease which can cause severe claw problems in otherwise apparently healthy dogs. It is characterized by the loss of claws from more than one paw - eventually all claws may be lost. In one summer, I lost all of my claws. It hurt a lot.
7. The summer I lost all of my claws, I was put on steroids. I was so hungry, I would eat anything I could to try to fill me up. I ate something I shouldn't have (we have no idea what) and it got stuck. It was a very expensive surgery to get whatever it was, out of my intestines. Mom was very poor that summer.
8. All racing greyhounds are tatooed in both ears. The right ear containes our birth information - it is labled by birth month, birth year and letter of order of being tatooed. Mine is 67E - meaning I was born in June of 1997, and I was the fifth puppy in my litter to be tatooed. The left ear is our registration number - if mine was more clear, Mom could go online and look up my number to see how I did racing, but the middle 3 numbers are the only ones that are clear.
9. My full name is Cambria, but I am only called that when I am in trouble. I was named after a young girl Mom knew, who was named after her uncle's boat which was probably named after the artist town just north of San Luis Obispo, California. Mom really likes that town.
10. I have so many nicknames, Mom can't remember them all. Some of the ones I am called the most include, Camie, Bree, Bugsy, Bug, and Boo Bunny. Mom is weird.
11. When I was first adopted, the tour bus I was on stopped at a rest area to let me go potty (so I wouldn't go in the brand new bus) and I saw a rabbit and almost took my Papa's arm off when I took off after it. I am so placid now, that Mom thinks a bunny could hop in front of me and I would give it a bath.
12. I love to bathe my kitties.
13. Mom thinks I was abused before I was adopted. I used to hide my head under the dresser when I slept, I would cringe when people would reach for something above my head, and I used to shake when strangers would stop my mom to ask about me (that happens all the time - you would think no-one had ever seen a greyhound before). Through my mom's love and attention, I now go up to strangers and demand attention and love. I've come a long way, baby.

I have lots more interesting stuff about me, but we will save that for a later time. Have a happy Thursday. ~ Camie