This is a story about a greyhound, of two people teaching their children what responsibility really means and the bitter realization that often, there is a high cost for doing the right thing.
It started a few months back when Lea Anne Dobbins and her husband, Dennis, decided to take their 4-year-old greyhound, Faith, to a dog park ahead of their drive to their weekend home in Salida.
Faith had been a challenge since the day last July when they adopted her, shortly after the last of Colorado’s greyhound racing tracks shut down.
The couple had promised their children they would get a new pet, a coyote having earlier made off with the family cat.
Since they already had fallen in love with Sophie, their 7-year-old greyhound, they decided the track’s closing was a sign.
Slaytex Faith, her track name, was retired last May. The adoption folks, though, had warned that track dogs are known to have trouble with cats and small dogs. They are, after all, trained from birth to chase a “lure” around the track.
The first time she took Faith to a dog park, not long after the adoption, Lea Anne Dobbins remembers, the greyhound “freaked out” so badly she had to immediately remove her.
The dog had never known a breed other than greyhounds.
“She needed to learn there are other dogs in the world,” she said.
And then came the Salida trip. Faith had made great progress. They unloaded Sophie and Faith. Sophie soon “made a mess.” Lea Anne was cleaning it up when she heard the commotion.
Faith had picked up a small Yorkie and was shaking it. The dog’s owner quickly rescued it and began running off. Dennis ran behind him, apologized profusely, and promised to take care of any vet bills.
The vet bills totaled more than $1,000, money the couple did not have. Lea Anne Dobbins called her homeowner’s insurance agent.
The agent was nice and extremely helpful. The insurance company finally settled everything for about $650.
Two weeks ago, a notice arrived. American Family Insurance was canceling the couple’s policy, one they had paid on for more than 10 years.
If the couple got rid of the two greyhounds, the company told the couple, the policy would be reinstated.
“I love my two dogs,” Lea Anne said. “I could never do that.”
Steve Witmer, an American Family spokesman, said the company, like other insurers, has a strict policy when it comes to aggressive dogs.
“It sets off alarm bells for us,” he acknowledged.
It is a persistent source of loss for insurers, a cost that must be passed on to other customers, he added. And it is their policy to seek ways to limit such exposure.
To this day, though, the family hasn’t found another insurer willing to take them on.
“They are all saying they can’t cover us because of this liability clam we filed. Nobody will touch us,” Lea Anne said.
The best homeowner’s policy they have found so far would cost them $2,500 a year, more than twice what they previously paid.
They could have taken the easy way out, she said. But she and Dennis have a 13- and a 16-year-old.
“We would have set a bad example had we just run away that day,” Lea Anne said. “We just couldn’t do it.”
The maddening thing is, taking responsibility will not come cheap. The cost, she knows, soon will total that $2,500 a year.
It is either that, or surrendering her two dogs.
“There really is no decision to make,” Lea Anne said firmly.
Bill Johnson writes Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Reach him at 303-954-2763 or wjohnson@denverpost.com.
