I can't thank you guys enough for your replies--I knew GFY was the right place to ask

We are totally psyched now and cannot wait to get one!! My boyfriend has wanted a dog his whole life (but never had one), so he's particularly excited

We've found an agency that looks pretty good near us, so hopefully we'll be able to get one through them. Over 20,000 are killed every year, so if you're thinking about getting a new dog, you might want to think about a greyhound
Tim, from my reading, it does sound like some of them have health problems, mostly from mistreatment though. However, I'm obviously not an expert in this area lol. I haven't read anything about short life spans. Everything I've read says that they live about 12-15 years--hopefully that is true.
Thanks again,
Cassie