10/8 NOTE: Video times changed now 11 am to 1pm & 6pm to 8pm CA time. Having a hard time getting everyone fed & cleaned at the earlier times.
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The pups whelped between 4pm & 9:30 pm on October 4th. She apparently knew when her due date was. This was a first-time experience for all of us involved and we are so glad mom Sarah knew what to do almost perfectly. There are some interestingly colored pups in the litter and 3 of them we still can't tell apart consistently. If you watch the puppy camera or look at some of the still pictures you will see that there is a dark brindle, a white & maybe dark brindle, a smaller pup with a darker brown body & light- colored head. Then there are 4 maybe solid or brindled greys. Maybe they are blue brindles. Not sure yet. One has a white patch on the back of his neck and 4 white feet. The other 3 look a lot alike just looking at their backs but have a different design on their chests.
Sarah had a rough day yesterday and she needed to go see her vet. Dr Lynette took some x-rays to make sure no one got left behind, gave her a post-delivery injection, and put her on antibiotics. Since yesterday Sarah’s temperature has dropped to normal from the 107 degrees, she ate a good breakfast so hopefully she is heading back to her new-normal life. After breakfast and a trip to the back yard she went right to her whelping box, counted her pups, and then searched around my office to make sure we were not hiding anymore. Once she had a full tummy the pups got theirs and have been napping, wiggling, and slithering around ever since. The pups make noises most of the time. It may be moans, squeaks or in some cases loud screams. Mom is slowly learning not to step or sit on the pups but that is a hard task. When she gets up to go somewhere they fall all over the place and start to move to where they think she is. Before she goes down to sit or lay she will often spin about a bit and target a safe place to land. We are thinking it is our job, at least for now to make sure the landing space is fee of small bodies. It works most of the times but in a 4ft X 4ft box it can be a challenge. Yesterday we introduced a heating pad. That has been a hit and last night one of them burrowed under it much to my worry. Today we introduced doggie potty pads since they light, disposable and a light color so you can see the puppy colors better. The pups seem to like them to wrestle with and sleep on. They seem to like to be up on or under things. We have a “pig” rail that is supposed to keep them safe from being sat on or squashed by their mom. I believe that works as intended but they also love to use it as a shaded and safe travel path. They seem to like to sleep in that space. When we can’t find one of them for one of our multiple head counts they are usually under the rail. Since I was not in CA when the “GreySave 6” were born I never saw them as newborns and so this group is quite interesting to observe. Some of their cutest parts are their little pink bear (like black bear) feet, the nearly invisible but sharp claws and their flappy ears which are growing by the hour. We just turned on the evening version of the puppy camera (5 to 8 pm - CA time) at https://www.twitch.tv/grey_save so be sure to look for it. We are also streaming from 10 to noon CA time zone. To read about and see pictures as they are growing and learning check the GreySave website News feed at https://www.greysave.org/our-news This our first official news post about the GreySave puppies. In early September we got a call from a kennel operator who said he believed he had a pregnant greyhound and could we come get her. We were not totally convinced but Jay & Stephanie got in their trusty Nissan "toaster" and drove to the track to pick up the hound we now call Sarah. Sarah stayed with Sandy our foster coordinator for a couple weeks until we confirmed that yes indeed she is with pups and that they are due on or around October 5th. Since we did not have a good puppy whelping set up in CA Sarah as many of our volunteers have jobs we moved to Utah to be with Alan & Cathy and their 4 hounds. Sarah took the greyhound shuttle from Anaheim to Las Vegas, then to Cedar City and then on to Salt Lake city on Sept 14th & 15th. Though we still don't know how many little hounds she is harboring in there we are sure she has them as she continues to grow wider by the day. We are looking forward to the whelping with a mix of excitement, concern and panic! Currently we are setting up the nursery, have ordered supplies and have a friend coming from CA to help with the delivery. Sarah will have her own doula though neither of us know what we are doing, hope she does. And YouTube is our new friend. We are planning to have a puppy camera set up like we did with the GreySave 6 born in May of 2013 and though we will put up some Facebook posts we plan to use this news feed as a prime self serve source of information a a location for a scrapbook of pictures. Our next news item will be the number of hounds "reveal" after her vet visit next Tuesday, the 28th. Cathy 1 - Sarah when she came odd the track. 2 - Taking the greyhound shuttle to Utah. 3 - on the people bed, her favorite place if we leave the door open, 4 - showing off her tummy in a classic greyhound pose, 5 - Sarah hiding her tummy and 6 - Showing it off a bit.
The title of this 1st presentation is Holistic medicine and homeopathic first aid remedies. We are very pleased that our speaker will be Dr. Megan Bamford D.V.M.. Dr Bamford earned her veterinary degree at Virginia and Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine and later trained under Dr. Richard Pitcairn in Classical Homeopathy. She is especially well qualified in these topics and has a private veterinarian practice in Sun Valley, CA. She has cared for most breeds of dogs including many greyhounds. Her holistic focused practice includes homeopathy, chiropractic care, acupuncture, nutrition (wellness medicine), cold laser therapy plus standard veterinary medicine – yes so very unique. To find out more about this presentation and register see Special Presentations on our website.
Have you ever wondered what would be involved to get your greyhound certified as a therapy dog? Certified therapy dogs are welcomed in schools and libraries. They serve as very patient and uncritical listeners as children hone their reading skills. Therapy dogs are welcome in nursing homes, hospitals and even college settings where they can meet and offer emotional assistance to patients and students.
Therapy dogs should not be confused with service dogs whose goal is to care for their own handler and their special needs but they are a separate category of specially trained hounds. Since there are quite a few certified therapy greyhounds in Southern California and many of them have been certified by BARK, a 501(c)(3) organization in Long Beach CA we have we have asked Linda Bates one of their certified trainer/ evaluator to come to the event and do a BARK and/or American Kennel Club Canine Good Citizen testing. The testing will be held from 10:00 to 12:00 at the Race to the Park for a $10 evaluation fee that will be donated to GreySave. If you think your hound has what it takes to be a BARK therapy dog or a AKC Canine good Citizen or you just want to know more about both programs contact Linda at linda.bark@hotmail.com. You can talk to her and/or just set up a time to have your hound take the test. To find out more about the requirements for both BARK and AKC Canine Good Citizen check out their respective websites. http://barkdogs.org/default.html and http://www.akc.org/dog-owners/training/canine-good-citizen/training-testing/ In the past, GreySave has held Spa days mostly in Pasadena but with last years's water issues, crazy traffic and with our adopters and greyhound friends are spread all over So CA we are trying something new. We are setting up several different sites, on different weekends so they can more of a local area social event. To find out more about Spa days and upcoming spa dates see our web page GreySave's 2017 Race to the Park will be held on May 27th at Crescenta Valley Park in La Crescenta.
You saved the Memorial Day weekend date to attend and now you can reserve your spot. Yes, the Race to the Park registration now up. Find the event information and registration button see our Race to the Park web page It’s time again for the big America’s Family Pet Expo at the Orange County Fairgrounds, and we are looking for volunteers to help in the GreySave booth. Last year saw over 60,000 paid admissions, plus school groups, exhibitors, and vendors. Once again we’re looking forward to finding some good adopters, raising money, and gaining exposure among all of these pet-oriented people. Regular admission is $15, but you can get in free by volunteering for one of the following shifts in the GreySave booth (You will have to pay $8 parking). It’s like a giant Meet and Greet with THOUSANDS of people coming by to “ooh” and “aah” over our Greys and to ask questions.
If you would like to volunteer for set up, tear down, or one of the shifts, contact me at bonnie@greysave.org. Shifts are filling quickly, so contact me right away. It’s first come, first serve. For more information about the Orange Count Pet Expo see their website at http://www.petexpooc.org/ In the last 6 months GreySave has not only grown quickly but we have been faced with some challenges or maybe just interesting opportunities.
They are in 3 categories: 1. Going into and out of Mexico to retrieve the greyhounds. It gets more challenging every month. 2. An increased number of greyhounds at the Caliente track since Tucson closed and an increased number of broken leg dogs. Broken leg hounds now number 17 for us alone this year. They are all very expensive to repair, about $5K each. However, getting the broken leg dogs back to the states and caring for them is a very high priority for GreySave that is shared by us and the other 2 large southern CA groups that take broken dogs. 3. We also have a greater need to be supported by social media and labor saving apps. We need to move some of those activities to people who understand them and can take responsibility for their set up, maintenance and then briefing the Board. So far here is what we have done to solve some of the issues/opportunities. New Van in-bound - We realized that the GreySave hauler with its nice logo and dog crates was making the boarder crossing a bigger challenge every time we went. Mexico saw us as commercial and their boarder agents were freaked out about the crates. The hauler also made it harder to get back into the US as we had to use the commercial exit lanes which were slower and we often got sent to secondary. So we have ordered a used Ford Super Duty Passenger extended van. It is a returned lease vehicle with less than 40K miles. We plan to sell our Hound Hauler soon as it is a great rescue van as long as you don’t have to cross the border. Enhanced Outreach - As to the cost of medical we have reached out to our adopters, website followers and Facebook friends for additional donations. They have been very generous and we are very grateful but we are still quite short if we plan to save as many as possible from a potentially unhappy fate. So we need to reach out to people who don’t even know who we are today! A technical advisory team and a few more great social media applications –
If you are someone who has the knowledge and skills and wants to work with us please call Cathy at 626-354-8476 or email her at cathy@greysave.org |
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