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GRReyt News Summer 2014
In This Issue
Picnic 2014
Picnic Photos
Featured Hound
Injured Hound Profile
Injured Hound Update
Awesome
Thunder Phobic Dogs
Thank you to our Foster Homes
Recent Placements
iGive.com
Join the E-group
Quick Links
 

  

 

Hello Friends, GRRers & Fellow Greyhound Lovers: 

 

I hope everyone is having a wonderful summer. It certainly has been flying by and it's been a GREYT summer for greyhound adoptions.

 

Behind the scenes at GRR, we have been really busy. We have received some terrific dogs from Florida, Kansas and West Virginia. As quickly as they arrive, the reps have been working hard to get them into their forever homes. As always, a shortage of foster homes, especially those without cats, is our ever present stumbling block. Hounds are given a "cat test" before they leave the track, however, we need to do our own testing before we can commit a dog to a home with little critters. We can't test them immediately on return from the vet because they're often a bit under the weather so we don't get a true read. Please consider fostering. It's the backbone of our organization.

 

GRR continues to live up to our mission of helping hounds who have been injured. We recently took in two hounds, Ghost and Sugar, who had surgery to repair their injuries. Both are going to be recovering for the next four to six weeks before they're ready for adoption.  These dogs deserve a second chance to run, for fun, and we're doing our best to give that to them. 

 

For the hounds,
 

Christine Johnson

 

President, GRR

Picnic 2014 by Bobbi Nelson

 

It couldn't have been a more picture-perfect day for our annual greyhound picnic. A good sized group of people were there with their hounds, seeing old friends and meeting new ones. As usual, the vendors had the most beautiful goods and I never saw so many items in the GUGG Booth! The bidding for the silent auction went very well and was very hectic in the last five minutes!

Kudos to the chefs who made our lunch and it was as good as ever. Our many, many thanks go out to the staff who made the day possible. Putting all the baskets together, manning the tents and all the work that went on behind the scenes is much appreciated by all....and to Danny Adams who was a great DJ as usual. A special thanks to Ruth Tuccio for the Angel Wing Tree. Many tears were shed for our angel hounds with the reading of their names and the blessing of our living hounds. It was a greyt day and I'm sure most of the houndies were asleep before we got out of the parking lot!

Congratulations to Carl Westerland who won the 50-50 raffle!!

I'm sure we are all looking forward to next year's picnic. Only 363 more days!!!

  

 Picnic Photos

 

 

 

Kim and Lia all the way from Ohio!

 

Longest Tail Winner, Lisana O'Rourke  

 

Gisella and Rocket Man Castagna run the Bandana Relay
 
   

Raggedy Ann and Andy aka Maxi and McGraw Mannix-Weinberg

won for Best Costume

 

Cooling down

 

Cindy and Fred Waybright with their new additions adopted at the picnic, Jessie and Mocha, and Christine
  

Featured Hound

  

Ghost

  

Sex: Female
Color: White

Age: 3
years
Cats: No

 

Ghost (not because she's spooky, by any means) is a funny girl who recently arrived from Florida. She arrived with a badly damaged leg, but that certainly didn't stop her from enjoying herself as she rolled around in the grass. Ghost had surgery to repair her leg and is recovering wonderfully.  She's really an awesome girl and by the first of September, she'll be ready for a forever home. Whoever is lucky enough to adopt her will be getting a wonderful friend and companion.

 

Injured Hound Profile 

 

Sugar 

 

Sex: Male
Color: Fawn
Age: 2 years
Cats: TBD

 

The sun was barely up and my cell phone was ringing. I knew it couldn't be good news. Sure enough, it was a trainer calling from a racing kennel in Florida. One of their dogs, a two year old male named Sugar, had broken his front leg and it was most likely broken in two places. Could I help? In a split second, several thoughts spun through my mind: front leg...that's a problem; we just took Ghost from Florida and her surgery was over $3000...could we afford another one?; a broken front leg can't go on a commercial hauler...how would I get him here? And instantly I said "sure, I'll take him. Let me work on getting him here".

 

Mornings are tough. I have to care for my own seven hounds and get to work on time (which I rarely manage) so I couldn't think about Sugar until that evening. I started to put out emails to various volunteer pilot organizations, including Brave Tide, but none of them were immediately available. By midnight, I was posting on Facebook to try to get a GUR (greyhound underground railroad) going. A GUR really means volunteers driving specific legs of a trip to get a hound to a particular destination. The word started to spread, people started to pull together and within 48 hours we had a GUR in place. Most of these people I'd never heard of before but, Sue Motyka, Barbara Schmidt and Lucy Kon, GRRers who have moved out of the area, played a crucial role filling in the Virginia to Delaware legs. GREAT to have GRRers working together again on a rescue mission!!

 

Sugar started his journey north on Saturday morning. One volunteer drove over 500 miles ONE WAY! Sugar spent the night in North Carolina and continued on to me in Stamford on Sunday, arriving at 9:30 p.m.

 

It was two days of angst and worry as it was apparent early on that Sugar's injuries were severe. Pain medication was passed from volunteer to volunteer to keep the boy as comfortable as possible. But he made it safely and on August 5th, Sugar had the two broken bones in his front leg repaired. During surgery, it was learned that a tendon was severed and so badly damaged it couldn't be reattached. The next eight weeks will be a waiting game to see how Sugar's toes react to the loss of the tendon. He may need more surgery or physical rehabilitation, but that's what we're here for. Take a look at his adorable face. Keep him in your thoughts and prayers for a successful recovery.

  

Injured Hound Update

 

Sandy 

 

Sex: Female
Color: Fawn
Age: 11 months
Cats: TBD

 

Sandy is doing great two weeks post op. Her once weekly bandage changes have been moved to every other week and if all goes according to plan, she will be out of the cast in another two to three weeks. She has a wonderfully endearing personality and is a true couch potato.  Thank you to all who contributed towards her medical bills.

 

 

Awesome and Nancy
Awesomely Awesome June 29, 2010 - August 7, 2014
     
We did everything possible to save his life. The disease had him before we did. At least he knew the comforts of life as a pet for a short time. Loved and cared for by foster mom Nancy Hill.
  
Thunder Phobic Dogs by Mary Fleming
  

With summer comes thunderstorms and if you have a dog that is thunder phobic, please see the attached links for some good treatment ideas. It is important to recognize that dogs can seriously injure themselves due to the panic that ensues with thunderstorms or other loud noises like fireworks:  dogs can bolt and go through a window, can scale a fence if left outdoors, become destructive, have an accident in the house, etc. I have found providing a safe place for my current dog Ivy (a walk-in closet with a dog bed) along with Rescue Remedy and the radio or television with the sound turned up to work the best for her, but each dog is different so find what works best for your dog. Keep in mind, dogs can hear thunder before we do, so if you see your dog becoming anxious, get ready because a storm is probably on the way.

 

http://www.weather.com/outlook/homeandgarden/pets/articles/d103

 

http://www.patriciamcconnell.com/theotherendoftheleash/thunder-phobia-in-dogs

 

http://www.care2.com/greenliving/6-tips-to-help-your-thunder-phobic-dog.html

 

Hodges

Thank you to our Foster Homes!

  

We'd like to thank the following who are currently fostering:

 

Nina Malmed and Bruce Levinson with Hodges

Deb and Dave Sullivan with Ghost

Christine Johnson and Chris Procopis with Sugar

 

 

SAVE A LIFE AND FOSTER!  FOSTER HOMES ARE ALWAYS NEEDED AND WE HAVE MORE DOGS ARRIVING IN SEPTEMBER THAT NEED FOSTER HOMES

 

 

E-mail [email protected] if you can foster.

 

Lynx

Recent Placements

 

The following hounds found homes:

 

Keeper aka Dante with Larry Wisser

FlipFlop with Paul Sinclaire

Buzz with Edgar and Jonathan Roberts

Carbonara with Helga LaCava 

Miles aka Country with the Feeneys

Ginger with Joe and Linda Stuart

Priddy with the Reed Family

Scotty with the Castellanos

Dollar with the Gower Family

Lurch with the Schaubs

Lap with the Scavullos

Lynx with the Levitt Family

Cosmo aka Digno with the Moes

Mocha and Jessie with the Waybrights

 

 

Congratulations to these lucky dogs and their new families!

 

iGive.comiGive - Earn Free Money for GRR!

 
Change Shopping for Good™ and earn free money for GRR! The donations keep growing as you keep shopping. It doesn't cost any more to shop through iGive, they have tons of participating stores that you probably already shop at and you'll be helping the hounds.  Birthdays, graduations, weddings, back to school or shopping for yourself - do your shopping through iGive at  http://www.igive.com/grrehab.

 

You can use iGive for searches too. A penny a search and a portion of each purchase will be donated to your favorite cause.

How often do you search or shop online? Start helping today.  

Join the E-group

 

GRR has an e-group for adopters and volunteers. It's a greyt way to post comments, questions or share greyhound stories. If you would like to join, please contact Jason at [email protected].

If you'd like to see a topic featured in the newsletter or you have a story for the newsletter, please contact Mary at [email protected].

 
Greyhound Wish