This post is part of a series on older child adoption in which I am applying things I learned from adopting a retired racing greyhound to hoping to adopt an older child. While there are obviously many differences, I learned a lot that can be useful in adopting an older child.

I have owned one or more dogs at a time for most of my life, and I have taken all of them out for walks on a leash at one time or another. While I might get the occasional "He's cute" comment, none of those... more

This post is part of a series on older child adoption in which I am applying things I learned from adopting a retired racing greyhound to hoping to adopt an older child. While there are obviously many differences, I learned a lot that can be useful in adopting an older child.

As I mentioned in my last post, the greyhound rescue strongly encouraged us to keep the dog on a leash for the first... more

This post is part of a series on older child adoption in which I am applying things I learned from adopting a retired racing greyhound to hoping to adopt an older child. While there are obviously many differences, I learned a lot that can be useful in adopting an older child.

In my last post, Dog's Eye View of Older Child Adoption: First Few Days, I talked about the things we did to... more

This post is part of a series on older child adoption in which I am applying things I learned from adopting a retired racing greyhound to hoping to adopt an older child. While there are obviously many differences, I learned a lot that can be useful in adopting an older child.

Our greyhound rescue provided us with ample information about the first few days of having the dog in our home. They strongly suggested that when the dog comes home, we walk him around... more

This post is part of a series on older child adoption in which I am applying things I learned from adopting a retired racing greyhound to hoping to adopt an older child. While there are obviously many differences, I learned a lot that can be useful in adopting an older child.

The greyhound rescue gave us lots of ideas for preparing our home for our new addition. Their number one suggestion was to purchase a crate for the dog because he had lived most of his life in a crate.... more

This post is part of a series on older child adoption in which I am applying things I learned from adopting a retired racing greyhound to hoping to adopt an older child. While there are obviously many differences, I learned a lot that can be useful in adopting an older child.

Before we adopted our greyhound, he was living in a kennel. I took my son and our beagle along to meet him. We looked at the different on-line profiles of greyhounds available for adoption, but the picture and description... more

This post is part of a series on older child adoption in which I am applying things I learned from adopting a retired racing greyhound to hoping to adopt an older child. While there are obviously many differences, I learned a lot that can be useful in adopting an older child.

When you adopt a retired racing greyhound, the rescue spends a lot of time talking about the dog's life before he enters your home. My dog spent 22+ hours a day living in a small crate next to many other... more

My family recently adopted a retired racing greyhound. As I was moving through the process of adopting this dog, I was struck by some of the similarities to adopting an older child. Of course, adopting a child is much more complicated, and there are numerous differences, but I did see a lot of wisdom in the adoption process put into place for bringing this dog into our home. So, I thought I would put together a series on this topic.

There are many retired racing greyhounds who need homes. The breeders no longer want the dogs after they lose their profitability... more

On my post Deciding to Adopt a Child: What You Have to Offer, a reader posted the following question:

Is it bad that I don't think I'm ready to parent an older child yet? I've put a lot of thought into it. I'm not ruling it out for the future when I have more maturity, strength and confidence, especially since I might be a bit too young to parent a child younger than 9 (I'm 29) But it seems as if it involves a lot more than I thought it would back when I was 20.... more

Over on the Adoptive Parenting blog, a reader posted the following question:

When it comes to adopting children that have been abused how do you separate the fact from the fiction? How does a person distinguish real risks from Lifetime movies and urban legends everyone spouts about older child adoption? How does a person prepare themselves for this step with realistic expectations without... total fear and ignorance? – Chromesthesia from Abused Adopted... more