greydogs

Ed, you know that if anyone can speak for Gus, I can. He had the very best home, the best human and the best life ever. He was afraid of everyone until he met you, and you became his life. You did everything possible for him, and he loved you for it. The problem with falling for these hounds is that just don't live long enough. No matter what we do, it's never enough. We do the best we can in the time we have with them, and then they nearly always go first. The hole is hard to fill, the emptiness is hard to deal with. But, in time, there will be another guy out there who needs you just as much as Gus did. Thank you Ed, for giving Gus such a perfect home, and wonderful life.

done

We received this message from Joslin tonight. This is just the latest of several tough losses for her in the last couple of years, and she has done everything she possibly could for Harley: Harley Earl Murphy August 6, 2001 – April 15, 2012

I am so sorry Linda, Skip and Noah. Kidd was a very special guy and he was so lucky to have found such a very special family. I just can't believe he's gone!!

Tally has a very special place in my heart too Pat. He was in fact the spookiest greyhound I have every known. We fostered him for, I can't remember, but I think it was almost a year. When we wanted him to go out, we would open his crate door as he cowered in the back, then we'd open the back door to the house and wait for him to make a break for the back yard. He'd follow one of the other dogs back into the house, only if we were nowhere to be see. My happiest memory of Tally was after he'd been here for about six months. I was raking leaves in the yard. Tally had been hiding behind a bush, which will forever be known as Tally's bush. Both of our other hounds were out there too. As I took a breather from raking, I felt one of my hounds slip his head into my hand. I stroked the proffered head absentmindedly for a couple of seconds then looked down. It was Tally. I was so shocked, that tears started to flow down my face. It was the first time he had ever willingly approached anyone in our household. We took Tally to his first Dewey back in 2000. (I believe it was 2000). He hid out behind us for that whole weekend, but, you could tell that there was some little bit of joy in that terrified boy. With Pat and Howard he found the most wonderful home, and the best family ever. Every year since then, Dewey became more and more his most favorite place in the world. Those of us who knew Tally really loved him. That spooky, terrified boy turned into a confident old gentleman. We're all going to miss him. I am so sorry Pat and Howard. Thank you for taking such wonderful care of him.

Barney died several years ago at nearly 14. No matter what we fed him, he always had gas but never "tooted". He exploded! His farts were so.......emphatic, that he scared the heck out of himself. He'd be sound asleep, and he'd let out one of those explosions, and he'd instantly jump from his bed, and run out of the room. He'd come back a few minutes later to look for the source of the noise, sniffing and searching. He never figured it out, and nearly til the day he died he'd scare himself silly with his own "toots". God we miss that guy, and the mirth he created for us.

If it's a tumor on his pancreas, it's probaly an insolinoma. They usually metastasize to the lungs or liver. Looks like we'll have an ultrasound done, and if he only has one tumor, have it operated on. If more, well......... Poor Santos, he really doesn't deserve this.

His blood glucose reading this morning was 57. Normal would be 90-100. I gave him a bowl of vanilla ice cream to boost him up. He liked it.

He had bloodwork done today, and his blood glucose was pretty low, which could be a sign of a pancreatic tumor. We're going to be checking his blood sugar again in the morning.

This morning, just as I was putting down the food bowls, Santos, trotting happily around the kitchen, suddenly collapsed, went stiff and showed all the classic signs of a seizure. Poor guy couldn't move, or get up, as hard as he tried. I carried him outside and he was able to stand with some help. He made his way to a dog bed in the yard and lay there drooling, and stressed for about 20 minutes. A little while later, he hopped up, went over to the corner, peed, as if nothing had happened and went into the house through the dog door. He then laid down in his bed while I fed the rest of the pack. An hour or so later, Santos came up to me and play bowed, as he always does when it's time to eat, or go for a walk. He ate well, and is now bugging me for his after breakfast walk. In all these years with greyhounds, I've never had a seizure dog, thank God. I'll be calling my vet later, but in the meantime, any words of wisdom?

So happy to have you back Ed. The GAA forum was your idea, and without you, a lot of those hounds would have never been found. Welcome home.

I'll never forget the day I saw Jen on the beach at Dewey, tears flowing down her face, frustrated that QM could not control himself around the many non-greys on the beach. He saw that she was upset, and put his head down and into her chest. QM was a bit of a racist: greyhounds only please. But, he loved Jen as much as she loved him. We, all of us who knew you, are really going to miss you Quiet Man

This was probably my fault. The offender, a former foster of mine, is a guy that's been bounced around a lot, has had a lot of changes in his life, and just lost his adopted brother, whom he depended on for his confidence. I think he was just stressed: too much stimulation, too many dogs, too many changes. The new adopter is in touch, and very embarrassed, though it really wasn't anything that could have been foreseen. These things just happen sometimes. These kinds of wounds normally heal pretty quickly on their own if kept clean. In our house we'd watch it for infection, and make the vet visit if it gets inflamed. If you're worried about his dew claw, you might wrap it with some vet wrap, not too tight, to keep the danger to a minimum.

There was never a more perfect hound than Hershey. His family was a great match for him. Rest well old fella.

Great. Just what we needed. One good thing:for the first time ever, we only have girls in the house.

Saturday we retrieved an ten year old brood from a nasty situation. She seems very happy here, but we just realized that she's coming into season. Any advice, besides keeping her away from unneutered males?

Well, I'm going to ask you tomorrow, just how to do that. It's a little too close to midnight for me to concentrate on anything tonight though, and I expect the same of you. PARTY!!!! Happy New Year Jeff, and everyone.

We've had a remarkably focused and determined group of people on the forum. When asked to concentrate on the capture of the dog, they do. Only once this year has it gotten a bit heated, during a search where several Greys were found running loose. The wonderful thing about this forum you started Jeff, is it's immediacy. It works because updates go up quickly, and people focus on the search. The only thing I'd try to change and I wouldn't know how, is to separate the serious searcher posts, the ones with phone numbers, meeting times, maps and sightings, from the ones where people are sending "white light" and best wishes. These do make it a bit harder to sift through to find meaningful, up to date information. The best wishes type of post is a Greytalk staple though, and it does allow people to participate, even from long distance.

Working day after day on these lost dog searches, though most from afar, has been a very humbling experience. Each one brings new challenges, new people to encourage, new territory to learn, new people to recruit, new prayers to say. Some areas of the country have remarkable resources for lost Greys, like the group in Maryland who pulled together to find Buddy, the Greyhound Adventures Group in Massachusetts who have been responsible for, I've lost track, but think it's around 10 found hounds this year. (Unfortunately, not all alive). There's the Greyhound Walking Club of Central New York. And we can't forget the dynamic duo, Diana and Dannine in Texas who spent months on the trail of Gus, finally bring him home, and find him an adopter willing to drive from PA to TX to adopt him: and who even now are on the track of yet another loose hound. If we could clone all of these people (Ed O'Neil's idea) we'd have a lot more found hounds, and a lot fewer question marks on Ed's count. We'll be adding a new pinned topic to the forum soon. Marcia Herman, (founding editor of Celebrating Greyhounds Magazine) has written a very informative article about how not to lose a hound. I'm hoping that by reading it, it will save a lot of heartache and keep a lot of lost hounds from happening in 2006. For all of you who have lost one, found one, or who are still looking, I wish you a wonderful new year. And thanks for caring, and working so hard for these guys. And thank you Ed, for posting the numbers. I hadn't added them up myself. I guess I really didn't want to know. Now that I do know, it gives us something to shoot for. Fewer lost ones, and more recovered alive.