Help Racing Greyhounds

No secret that helping racing greyhounds is one of my passions. These sweet, gentle, beautiful animals deserve so much better. I hope you see fit to click here and show your support by electronically signing the petition that the Animal Rescue Site is hosting.

If you'd like to help support animal shelters in general - The Animal Rescue Site also donates food to animals shelters for every "click" they receive - .6 of a bowl of food per click. You can click every day to help - make it a part of your morning routine - get coffee, turn on the computer, click to donate food and then go about your day. It feels good to start it off doing something to help animals. You can even sign up for a daily e-mail reminder to click; can't get much more convenient than that.

Greyhound Mother

A few weeks ago I received the email below from a friend who knows about my love of greyhounds. Within two hours I had four more friends send it to me - two of them were fellow greyhound lovers. Funny how things can zip all over the country once they hit the internet.

I did check out this story via Snopes.com and I was thrilled (and relieved ) to find that it is 100% true - the text and the photos (nothing was photo-shopped). Check out the Snopes link for the story with pictures (you must see the pictures!) or I have cut and pasted the text below.

Here is the story that just about had me bawling; however, if you have ever known a greyhound you know this sounds just like something one of these wonderful, sweet dogs would do.

"In 2003, police in Warwickshire, England, opened a garden shed and found a whimpering, cowering dog. It had been locked in the shed and abandoned. It was dirty and malnourished, and had clearly been abused.

In an act of kindness, the police took the dog, which was a greyhound female, to the nearby Nuneaton and Warwickshire Wildlife Sanctuary known as a willing haven for animals abandoned, orphaned or otherwise in need.

Geoff and the other sanctuary staff went to work with two aims: to restore the dog to full health, and to win her trust. It took several weeks, but eventually both goals were achieved.

They named her Jasmine, and they started to think about finding her an adoptive home.

The dog had other ideas. No-one remembers now how it began, but Jasmine started welcoming all animal arrivals at the sanctuary. It wouldn't matter if it was a puppy, a fox cub, a rabbit or, probably, a rhinoceros, Jasmine would peer into the box or cage and, where possible, deliver a welcoming lick.

Geoff relates one of the early incidents. "We had two puppies that had been abandoned by a nearby railway line. One was a Lakeland Terrier cross and another was a Jack Russell Doberman cross. They were tiny when they arrived at the centre and Jasmine approached them and grabbed one by the scruff of the neck in her mouth and put him on the settee. Then she fetched the other one and sat down with them, cuddling them."

"But she is like that with all of our animals, even the rabbits. She takes all the stress out of them and it helps them to not only feel close to her but to settle into their new surroundings."

She has done the same with the fox and badger cubs, she licks the rabbits and guinea pigs and even lets the birds perch on the bridge of her nose.

"Jasmine, the timid, abused, deserted waif, became the animal sanctuary's resident surrogate mother, a role for which she might have been born. The list of orphaned and abandoned youngsters she has cared for comprises five fox cubs, four badger cubs, 15 chicks, eight guinea pigs, two stray puppies and 15 rabbits.

And one roe deer fawn. Tiny Bramble, 11 weeks old, was found semi-conscious in a field. Upon arrival at the sanctuary, Jasmine cuddled up to her to keep her warm, and then went into the full foster mum role. Jasmine the greyhound showers Bramble the roe deer with affection and makes sure nothing is matted in her fur.

"They are inseparable, " says Geoff. "Bramble walks between her legs and they keep kissing each other. They walk together round the sanctuary. It's a real treat to see them."

Jasmine will continue to care for Bramble until she is old enough to be returned to woodland life. When that happens, Jasmine will not be lonely. She will be too busy showering love and affection on the next orphan or victim of abuse."

MGA Won! And other doggy news

I am so happy to announce that MGA (Midwest Greyhound Adoption) won the Chicago Pet Directory Contest! (the original post about the contest is here)

Thank you if you did take the time to vote in July. Winning this contest means the group will receive some free marketing assistance and a cash prize. Since MGA always takes in so many broken leg dogs (about 80% of their dogs) this is a "greyt" win for them.

Again thank you all for helping MGA WINNNNNNNNN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Cocoa Mulch Can Be Harmful to Pets

This is one of those round-robin emails that frequently travels all over the world to end up in my email; however, I checked this one out on Snopes.com and it is legit. If you use cocoa mulch in your garden and have animals that spend time there to you should read about the possible problems here .

Spread Animal Kindness Contest

Whoo hoo! Midwest Greyhound Adoption (the organization I volunteer with and also adopted both my greyhounds from) is in the finals for the "Spread Animal Kindness Contest"

You can vote for them by clicking HERE

Hurry! Voting closes on July 20 and the winner will be announced on July 31!

Life of Kiki

This is Kiki, our Greyhound. She retired from racing at the ripe old age of 2-years old. She was in a very, very bad accident during a race and crashed into the rail with another hound. The other dog had to be put down but Kiki, although she broke her leg in three places (and now has screws and plates in her leg), was able to be saved and turned over to Midwest Greyhound Adoption. MGA picked her up in Wisconsin, took care of her broken leg surgery, rehabilated her for about 6 weeks in their kennel and then placed her with my family. They tend to "specialize" in helping Greyhounds with broken legs which is very honorable, but very expensive too.

Kiki is very sweet (which is the general disposition of the Greyhound breed) and is a beautiful brown and red brindle. Contrary to what you may think Greyhounds are not the high energy, gotta run-gotta run-gotta run dogs that are, say, Labradors. Greyhounds run very fast but their races are pretty short - something like 30 seconds. So, she is able to burn off her energy rather quickly with a 60 second tear around the back yard. Then she comes up to the deck, panting and tongue hanging out and plops down to rest.

In fact if you want a Greyhound to be able to go on long walks with you, or run with you it will take some training and time to build them up to that point. They do love to get outside, but they aren't going to last more than a few blocks (at least my Greyhounds never did!) Generally once they are retired from racing, they like to sleep, eat, poop and sleep. Mostly sleep.

Kiki loves people and loves attention (here she has her 60 lb self laying ON my husband). Sadly with two little ones in the house now she is third in line attention-wise. So, sometimes she just plops in the middle of the room and looks cute, waiting for someone to notice.

Here she is laying on a snow boot. She'll do anything to be close to something my Hubby has worn (if you couldn't tell from the earlier picture he's her favorite)

I had to laugh when I took this picture because she had her head squarely on her fleece toy, just like a pillow. Greyhounds definitely like to be comfortable - she can often be found on the couch (a no-no) or sometimes on our bed (a BIG no-no). They just can't resist a soft, warm spot to get cozy in! I think it must have something to do with them being so darn boney - it must be hard to get comfortable sometimes, even though she has several dog beds throughout the house.

Kiki has a good pal down the street - not another dog, but a neighbor, Michele. Michele will come over and take Kiki out with her for a few hours, run down to the beach (Lake Michigan) or to the dog park or just on errands. Kiki always comes home pooped out and usually with a bag of treats from a doggie bakery. She is very lucky to have such a nice human friend on the block!

Sometimes when Kiki is outside she will sit on the deck and face the direction of Michele's back yard (she lives two houses away) in hopes of catching a glimpse of her. If she does see her she gets very excited and wags her tail furiously - it's rather sweet!

For more pictures of other beautiful, sweet, loving and gentle Greyhounds check out http://www.midwestgreyhound.org/

Ice Cream Lost

My little guy had his first ice cream cone this weekend.

I was really impressed with how well he did - he held it upright, didn't spill anything and seemed to know that he needed to start at the top and eat downwards. By the way, do you notice the brindle greyhound lurking in the background?


Look at the concentration - he is doing such a great job! Hmmmmmm, that greyhound sure is hovering...


Wow - look at him go!


Ohhh, now he's down to the very last part of the cone - this was always my favorite part, where the ice cream is all melty and settled into the "basket" part of the cone. You just pop it into your mouth in one bite - yum!

Sadly, my little guy never did get to complete this last step. Kiki (the greyhound) snatched it out of his sticky little hands; while I didn't see it actually happen I did hear him squeal and turned in time to see her running with her head down and ice cream cone in her mouth. He toddled after her, chasing her and crying. He even swiped at her - he was so mad. It was heartbreaking - so much so I was too distracted to get a picture. Just as well, it was very sad.



Here is my girl with HER ice cream. Notice the greyhound skulking around again. Cue the theme music from "Jaws" - that's what it's like when you have food around Kiki. She just keeps circling and circling, looking for her chance to grab it. She can be very bold and she is super quiet and very stealthy when she does it.


My girl, at the ripe old age of 3, is on to Kiki's little tricks so she decided to go into her little playhouse to enjoy the rest of her cone. I took this picture peeking through the little notch between the shutters.

She calls the house her "restaurant" but she pronounces it "restaurahnk". I have no idea why she calls it that but it's very adorable. Anyways, she loves to hang out in the restaurahnk and wait for customers - notice the little lawn chair she pulled in there so she can sit while she waits.

This weekend she begged me to come to her restauranhnk and knock on her shutters - she likes to keep them closed until she gets a customer, you know. So I dutifully went and knocked on the shutters and she ignored me. So I knocked again and she responded with "I'm closed!" Can you believe it?? She begs me to come play restaurahnk with her and then she tells me she's closed! I say "but I'm so hungry, can't you please make me something to eat?". She's a tough cookie and replies "no, you'll have to find another restaurant, I'm closed". I call her bluff and walk away. She bites and calls out "I'm open now!!" so it all begins again.

By the way, we got the playhouse from Freecycle :-)