So after Christmas, my husband and I adopted a greyhound, which I highly recommend. We went through this organization and in the adoption process, they advised us that it might be fun to order Briscoe's (named after "Law and Order"'s Lenny Briscoe, naturally) racing tapes. He raced up until last summer in Iowa and in Wisconsin at Dairyland Greyhound Park.

The people at Greyhounds Only said that it would be neat if we asked for races where Briscoe both won and lost, so we could get a mix, but when I got on the phone, the nice lady at Dairyland sounded so impressed by Briscoe's record that I caved and only ordered races where he won. Why would we want to see him lose? I also learned that we could personalize the DVD with our own intro so I went with the "Steve and Claire Present: Briscoe Racing Into Our Hearts" option.

I got the DVD on Valentine's Day and I couldn't wait for Steve to come home to put it in. I've never seen greyhound racing so I was psyched to see our guy do his thing, and beat all those other sucker dogs.

Um, so here's the thing--our dog is freaking awesome. Of course I'm biased since I've only seen him win but he pulled out some amazing performances (and it was easy to spot him because he has a cute widdle bit o' white at the tip of his tail). There were a few where he came from fourth place, pulled up, stumbled, and still pulled out a victory. It was amazing to see what he was bred to do--now and then we see him sprint around and it's really beautiful--the dogs have this thing called a double suspension gallop that makes them run the way they do.

Moreover it was just weird, and cool, to see our dog's former life. We're still getting to know him but we adore him. He's mellow and sweet and affectionate and has a cute fuzzy butt. Now though we've seen this old life of his and it's strange to think about him as a competitor, or an athlete. Did he know what winning was, or was he just chasing a fake bunny? Was he the same dog, when he lived in his crate with all those other dogs and ate raw meat and wasn't greeted with "Yayyyyy!" each time his owner saw him? It's like you're dating a guy and suddenly you find out that he won the Heisman trophy in college but he won't talk about it.

Anyway, I was trying to find a way to make this hilarious but it's just me, nerding out on dogs for the day. Read about Idol if you need to clear your mind.

Oh! Also, I have a book coming out this year and it is available for pre-order. More on this later. Much, much more.