C.J. and Rhonda Jergensons mission in life is to find loving homes for discarded Greyhound’s, one dog at a time.
The Jergensens have resided in Vidor, TX for more than two years, and, during all this time, have operated a small rescue shelter specializing in finding new homes for retired racing Greyhounds or those whose owners can no longer care for them.
C.J. is a retired police officer that works at various docks as a barge inspector with a flexible work schedule which makes it convenient for him to care for the needs of the Greys. Rhonda is a dental assistant with a 4 day work week with weekends off making it possible for her to work with the Greys most every day.
“I’ve been an animal lover since I was about 5-years-old,” said C.J. Jergensen. “I was always bringing animals home, and I’ve always had a special place for dogs. There isn’t a dog on the face of this earth which doesn’t like me.”
C.J. and Rhonda, have been helping find new homes for animals, before focusing entirely on Greyhounds, for nearly 25 years in places such as Ohio and Illinois where C.J. had experience as a vet tech before moving to Dallas and now Vidor. Rhonda has fostered and owned Greys, Whippets, and IG's for 30 years.
Every Saturday the couple can be found, whether together or separately, along with volunteers, at the Petco locations in Beaumont, TX and Port Arthur, TX with the dogs in an effort to find loving homes for these gentle animals.
“Greyhound adoption is not for everyone, but we try to make it as easy as possible.”
C.J. and Rhonda adopted a Greyhound which had been injured, while residing in Dallas, and eventually “re-homed” the animal. It’s been a passion ever since then.
A majority of the dogs we offer for adoption come from the dog racing track in Houston, while some do come from owners who can no longer adequately provide for the animals, or training facilities where these dogs are housed. We have taken in Greys from Florida, North Carolina, Iowa, Arizona and several other parts of the U.S. We also took in three IRISH Greyhounds that were whelped in Ireland.
“It’s tough knowing you can’t save them all, We do what we can for the ones that we can. We probably help find homes for less than 2 percent of the Greys housed at the tracks.”
Despite those numbers, 18 Shades of Grey is successful at what it does and boasts a 98 percent successful adoption rate. We are a No-Kill facility and keep every Grey we take in until proper homes can be found for them.