krissn333

I was just about to post that Kimmie will be greeted by her brother Hank...my goodness how they resemble each other. Vicki, please know that Kimmie is free from all of that pain and hurt now...the seizure monster that claimed both her and Hank is now gone and they can be perfect again, just as they were before they were taken from you. My heart still aches every day for Sara over her loss of Hank, and my heart will ache for you too.

Oh Del...you were the first greyhound that I ever got to see videos of on the computer, and it was before I had greyhounds of my own - you showed me how SILLY they can me! Bev, I can't believe it's been 2 whole years already.... He is certainly a character, sending you the flags with his name on them My favorite video of him was when he kept stealing the dish towel off of the counter

It has taken me 15 days just to think about writing this, so please bear with me... The Bridge welcomed a greyhound angel on February 1, 2005. Garry was an inspiration to all of us and devoted the later part of his life to greyhound adoption. Garry is the man I have spoken of so often here on this board. I posted here several times asking for prayers for him as he battled congestive heart failure. In the early morning hours of February 1st, Garry's heart just couldn't keep going anymore. He was only 62 years old. Garry is the most wonderful man I've ever had the privilege of knowing. On a volunteer level, he was every volunteer coordinator's DREAM - willing to do ANYTHING to get a greyhound safe and into a new home. His motto has always been "Have Jeep, will travel" because he drove a red Jeep Wrangler with greyhound stickers plastered on the windows. Any time a call on a broken leg dog came in, Garry was headed for Dubuque as soon as he'd hang up the phone (the Dubuque, IA track is about an hour from where we are). Later his Jeep earned him the nickname "Red Leader" after a silly walkie-talkie conversation that ensued during a caravan up to Dubuque. Garry was always willing to shuttle dogs back and forth to the vet, at a moment's notice. He happily appeared repeatedly on our local noon news segment which features adoptable pets when the rest of us were almost too chicken to be on tv. I remember appearing with him once when we had a little broken leg puppy who was looking for a home. At our 2003 reunion, Garry was given the volunteer of the year award, which he proudly displayed in his home and his wife made sure the award was displayed proudly at his funeral. Our group has suffered a huge loss simply based on all that he did for us and our hounds. Yet, the personal loss that we're all feeling is what hurts the most. Garry always had a quick comment to make you smile, the interesting insight, the funny voice impersonation to make you giggle. He was a sounding board for many of us when we were having a bad day...he always had good advice and real-life stories to put things in perspective. His commitment to these dogs is one of the driving forces that has kept us going even when times have been rough. I've done tons of meet and greets and been on many GUR runs to Pennsylvania with Garry and have so many funny and wonderful stories I could fill pages and pages with all of the laughter we've all shared together, but I'd just like to share one. We had a little girl bounce from a home because her family decided to move and didn't want to put up a fence at the new house. Garry came in one Saturday to meet up with me for a meet and greet and said, "I'm going to get this dog adopted today." Off to Petco we went. Sure enough, 30 minutes after arriving, Sweetie's new family wandered over. Instantly, there was a connection and Garry did an EXCELLENT job of telling the family about the joys of the greyhound. A few days later, Sweetie had her new home and her momma now makes beautiful collars and other goodies as a home business because she is SOOO in love with this dog. Garry always believed that the perfect home for every dog was out there, we just had to find it. Garry reminded me of my grandfather, who passed away in 1992, which is probably part of what drew me to him, but there was so much more than that, I'll never be able to explain it. No matter how old you were, Garry could relate to you, understand you. He always volunteered to take us all in his RV to different outdoor events, he and his wife spent lots of time on the road, seeing the country and singing together on the way. One time I took Ace along in the RV and on the way home from an event we stopped to have a quick bite to eat...we left Ace and her half-sister Desire in the RV...but we had some plastic cartons of lemon pound cake and a bag of Chex mix...when we came back all of the food was gone, there was pound cake hanging off of their muzzles, and there were crumbs up in the loft of the RV! The girls had a party while we were gone, and all Garry could do was laugh as we all cleaned up the mess. He and his wife shared a love that I really hope that I have someday when I'm married. He always made sure to say "love you, babe" before hanging up his cell phone when she'd call and it wasn't hard to see that they loved each other very much. His son and his daughter-in-law are expecting twins in about 7 months, his first (and only) grandchildren. He also left behind his 3 dogs: Chester and Princess, the greyhounds; and Diamond, his 9 year old Shar Pei who traveled with him everywhere as his co-pilot. So, to those of you whose babies have gone to the Bridge, don't worry, Garry is there taking care of them for you until you can join them again. Rest in peace, Red Leader, not a day will pass that we don't think of you...

Kathy and Rich - so sad to hear of Winston's passing...he has been an icon of the greyhound community for many years and will be missed - I'll always remember him snoozing behind your table at events like GLGG. Run free, sweet handsome boy!

Cully I can't believe it's been a whole year already

Just heard about this yesterday, Cully. I never met the sweet girl in person but had a major crush on her picture on the website while I was still away at school...she was a beautiful girl.

Ohhh, I'm so sorry. Bless your heart for giving him all the love in the world in the short time he was with you. From the moment you posted his picture I was smitten with him, I'm sure I'm not the only one Bless you, Julio, for teaching us all about galgo love...

4 cups of Natural Blend a day: 2 in the am and 2 in the pm. She also gets a spoonful of canned ProPlan mixed in. If we've got steak, chicken, or turkey leftovers she'll get a little bit of that mixed in with her dinner too (she's extremely spoiled )

Ace, you were a beautiful black boy. Though I only just met you on Monday, you touched me deeply and I was in love. Have a good time at the Bridge, Ace...you'll no longer have to endure the pain that the osteosarcoma was causing. We'll make sure that your greybrother Sutra finds a new home that will take care of him.

Our Vice President, Nancy, had to send her little girl Darby to the Bridge today. Darby was 10 years old and had only been with Nancy for about a year and a half. Poor gal developed a very large mass on her liver and the doctor said that she most likely wouldn't survive if they attempted surgery to remove it. Last night Darby was having very labored breathing and just wasn't her usal self (she was usually very spunky and high energy)...Nancy knew that it was time. Have fun running and jumping at the Bridge, sweet little one...

I'm sitting here sobbing...bless you. Run free with your grin on your face, sweet Callie...

I said about twice a day, though it could be more...she barks when she REALLY needs to go outside...sometimes it's just a whine though. Once she's outside, if the neighbor dog is outside too, they'll "conversate" for a second...they really like each other...I take her over to their larger fenced in area for runs from time to time...he enjoys trying to keep up with her

That's a really good idea...I think this topic needs to go to the "greyt information" section once it starts slipping to the bottom

Me too!!! And that's the way I will always remember him. He seemed like a really cool dude. Bud, go show all those kitties at the Bridge how to be stylin!

Ace still has hers and they're not a problem. One of the dogs at the kennel has no dew claws and it looks like they were removed as opposed to being born without them...he's very tall and lanky...my guess is they were a problem. If, in the future, I adopt a dog and it has dew claws that look like they'll be a problem (if they're angled out almost perpendicular to the leg I've seen a couple of dogs with dew claws like that) I will ask that they be removed when the dog is under for it's spay/neuter and dental. I'll pay the extra bucks if it means saving a dog from ripping it's toenail out while running or having it get caught in a blankie.

So sorry to hear about Satin. I remember when you introduced her to us here at GT...I remember thinking that she and Barkly made a wonderful pair. Godspeed sweet beautiful girl

Happy Birthday Del...hope you're having a good day and have been keeping everyone at the Bridge amused with your antics!

Sorry to hear about your baby. Just out of curiosity, where are you from? Our group adopted out an Inez a while back, and I think she was black, but I don't remember as I wasn't really WITH the group at the time. At any rate, sorry to hear of her passing, she sounds like a wonderful baby.

So sorry to hear of Benny's passing...when I saw this post my heart just sank...it's definitely brought me some tears...hugs to you and your family

Run with the other angels, sweet guy!

Several times at the kennel we have boarded a little female named Molly...she comes to be boarded with her two greyhound "brothers" and one bulldog "brother"...Molly had VonWillebrand's and had a bad case of happy tail...one day her daddy came home to her lying on the bathroom floor in a pool of blood because she was bleeding from her tail (again)...she recovered but had to keep her tail bandaged of course...apparently she would chew at her tail too and part of it had been previously amputated...well, the little bit of tail that she had left became gangrenous (sp?) and she became very sick so her daddy had to make the decision to send her to the Bridge, where she can run pain free and have the happiest tail ever Godspeed sweet little girl, even though I only just met you, I feel like I knew you longer than that

Why would they deny your adoption? Sometimes things just happen to dogs. It's sad, but it's not your fault at all. I don't see why they would deny you the privilege of fostering or adopting, but if for some reason they would, I would find a different group to work with

Run free beautiful boy! Send my condolences to his family

Please send my condolences to the Waddells. I'm tearing up at the thought of them losing her, and I've never met her, only heard about her and seen her picture in the rickshaw - she's a legend, and a true fighting spirit. Run free, sweet Suzi

What a touching "article"...my eyes are tearing up of course...