It was a special day in Kansas City today.

To put this into blogger terms, this was like TKC sitting down with Funky If Tony helped get the mayor and his wife recalled, and neither one doing any gloating about their opinions of a situation. Just talking about solving problems.

Today, a pro-racing adoption group and an anti-racing adoption group put aside their differences and went on local television to help greyhounds. In the Kansas City area, that is big news.

Anyone who knows the history of greyhound adoption in KC knows that tracks and Kansas City REGAP have historically had a luke warm relationship. Yet this morning, at a KC REGAP event, The Woodlands adoption program (Pups Without Partners) teamed up to do a news segment interview with KC REGAP.

You may, or may not know, that the Woodlands is closing August 24, 2008. PWP KC has a large job in front of it, and because the person running that program always wants the hounds to have a safety net, she decided that the best course to take was to hook up with an adoption group that would be there if and when a hound needed to be returned, because after 8/24 PWP KC won’t exist. As hard as they work to place the dogs, returns are a fact of life. It was felt that KCREGAP was the best fit to handle the job.

Now sit back and think about that for a minute. PWP KC is a track program. 100% paid for by the track. They aren’t a non-profit org., although the program costs more than it ever takes in.

Of course there were voices from the racing kennels that wanted to know why a track adoption program was teaming up with an anti-racing group. They were answered with “it’s being done for your dogs”.

I witnessed what I would call a small miracle today. Two groups, with opposing views from the people at the top of the chain of command, got together on local television news today, and not a single word was said about their opinions on racing. They simply talked about placing greyhounds in homes.

I mean, who could blame an anti-racing group for gloating on TV in the face of what is a victory to them? A track is closing. But they’ve decided to be more than that. To focus on the larger issue. The dogs themselves.

PWP has always been about placing greyhounds in homes, no matter who was paying the bills. They’ve worked with Greyhound Support of Kansas City for many years, GSKC gets dogs hauled to groups who wanted greyhounds, and GSKC is playing a large roll in the moving of greyhounds from the Woodlands, as they always have. Without GSKC, thousands of greyhounds would never have been adopted. GSKC is playing a big role in this closing, as they have with any Kansas greyhound issue.

But to place hounds locally PWP needed a partner who could provide the support that people involved in adoption know is needed, since PWPKC wouldn’t exist in a few months. KC REGAP stepped up and offered it. And they offered it for the dogs, without the animosity that too often comes between tracks and anti-racing groups, they wanted to work for the breed that all of the people involved love.

If you’d like to see the TV spots done today, you can find a good edit here

NBC Action News

So, to anyone who says that an anti-racing group and a track can’t get along.. I say check your ego at the door. I just wish it didn’t take something like this to make it happen. Both sides need to check their egos at the door and get it done.