Shelter girls

This past Sunday I received a text from one of our volunteers that there were two greyhounds in a shelter in Altus Oklahoma.  I called the shelter and left a message letting them know that we could take them if they were full blood greys.  The Animal Control Officer called me back and said he thought they were pure breed greyhounds and that since they were owner surrender dogs they could be picked up Monday when the shelter opened.

The ACO said that the dogs were more like a seizure instead of a surrender.  The ACO states that he drove by the owner's house and saw that the two greys were in rough condition and covered with ticks.  The owner stated that he was 'about to sell them to a guy' but the ACO told him that he either surrendered the dogs voluntarily to him or he would seize them forcefully and fine him.  The owner wisely chose to go the owner surrender route.

Monday morning I called in sick *cough cough* to work and Les and I made the two and a half hour drive down to Altus.  We arrived around 11 a.m.  They had the girls crated together as the ACO said that they were inseparable, that when one would get out of sight of the other they would whine.  One of the volunteers brought the girls out and sure enough, they were pure blood greys.  I checked their ears and they are even tattooed.  Both are a blond/fawn color and both were covered in big, fat ticks, even though they had been dipped by the shelter a day or so before.  Les and I loaded them in the car and headed to Dr. Kolar's at 85 mph with the windows down. Those two girls stunk to high heaven, as though they had been living in their own filth for quite some time.

Below is a picture of them riding in the car on the way to Dr. Kolar's.

 

I named the blond one Violet, she weighed 57 pounds and is the bigger and healthier looking of the two.  The darker, smaller one is Elise and she weighed 50.5 pounds.  Per their tattoos they were born in August 2009 and are indeed littermates.  Dr. Kendi has been giving me updates by text since Monday.  She finished their spay and teeth cleaning today.  Both are heartworm negative, whew.  They will be bathed tomorrow and will come home tomorrow afternoon after I get off of work.  We will get their blood panel back in a few days.  Hopefully they do not have any tick borne diseases.

Sweetheart is going to hate me for a few days for bringing these two girls home.  She doesn't like to share her 'mom' with other dogs.  Big, spoiled baby that she is.

Sweetheart is doing fine.  Eve is going to be formally adopted this week.  She is being adopted by a dog groomer who owns her own shop and takes Eve to work with her everyday.  I am so happy Eve has a great home, she is such a great dog!

Jess and Sweetheart!

The power of Google!

The story below is real.  :)  

Wednesday, around 12:30 p.m., I was sitting at a local Shawnee OK restaurant having what I initially thought would be a relaxing lunch.  About halfway through my meal I receive a phone call from a woman who works at a school in Oklahoma City, OK.  She states she found a greyhound that wandered onto school property that morning.  She said the greyhound is rather thin and that the tag on the collar has the name of Joey and a serial type of number on it, but there is no rabies tag or local phone number on the tag.  She goes on to ask me if Fasthound has room for him and I said "of course" (there is no way I am going to turn away a stray).

We decide to meet at a parking lot in Oklahoma City at 6 that evening so that I can get the greyhound from her.  I had already talked to Dr. Kendi (her official name is Dr. Horner LOL) and she said I could bring Joey in after hours and they would board him for us.  Les and I pull up in the parking lot.  Les saw Joey before I did and the first thing out of his mouth is "That isn't a greyhound, that is a whippet"  I immediately look up and see that it is indeed a whippet.  A somewhat smallish looking whippet at that.  

Les and I get out of the car and let the woman know he is a whippet (she has had no prior dealings with sighthounds) but we assure her we will take him and find him a good home.  We head to Dr. Kolar's and take a few pictures of him while we are waiting for Dr. Kendi to arrive .  

Joey

Dr. Kendi arrives and we bring him into the clinic.  All of us, Les, Dr. Kendi and I, feel like he is in good shape.  A tad thin (not unusual for an un-neutered sighthoud) but his coat is in great shape and his behavior is sweet and loving (not like one who has been abused).  Dr. Kendi suggests that his collar number might be a microchip number since some folks will put the chip number on a collar tag versus a phone number.  Dr. Kendi puts Joey in a crate at the vet's office and Les and I go home.  (She did not scan him for a microchip at that time since it was after hours and we were just trying to get him settled in).

As soon as I got home I called three separate pet microchip companies and asked if they have any information related to the number on his collar.  None did.  The third company I called said that the number was not a valid chip number.   

After I struck out on the microchip companies I decided to Google the number.  Google pulls a sort of Craigslist ad in, of all places,  a military base in Okinawa, Japan.  I click on the ad and there are actually three separate ads posted by the same person.  The ads are recent (2012).  It turns out that the number on Joey's tag is actually a phone number in Okinawa, Japan.  Les tries calling it but of course we cannot get through because we do not have the right country code or international calling on our phones.  Les goes back to the ads and discovers that you can email the person who placed the ad.  He emails all three ads and asks if the person has recently lost a dog.

At 8:00 p.m. (just ten minutes after Les placed the emails) I check my yahoo email and discover a reply.  The reply is "Yes, please contact me" and a local Oklahoma phone number is given.  I call the number and the call is immediately answered.  The woman states she lost a whippet named Joey that day,  fawn and white, who is not neutered and that she lives in Oklahoma City, OK.  I tell her that we have her dog (well Dr. Kolar's has her dog) and how we came into possession of him.  She was so happy.  She and her husband had just returned to the states at the end of January and she had not updated his tag.  

I gave her Dr. Kolar's information.  She stated she had made flyers and put all around her neighborhood offering a $100 reward for his safe return.  She wanted to give me the reward money but I told her I did not want it.  I told her I just wanted her to have her dog back and that I wanted her to get his tags updated.  I let her know that if she wanted to put the money on Fasthound's vet account as a donation we would appreciate it.  

I emailed her today and she picked up Joey yesterday and donated the reward money to our group!!!  How cool is that.    She said Joey is doing well and that they are happy to have him safe and happy at home.  

It just goes to show you that Google really is an amazing tool!  Not only am I happy that Joey is home with his family, I am also happy I didn't have to bring him to my house because Sweetheart would NOT have been happy with me at all.  :)  She would have been SUPER jealous that her 'mom' had brought home a 'portable' greyhound!

Jess and Sweetheart  

Is Sweetheart *gasp* going to a new home?

So yesterday we did our monthly meet and greet at the Shawnee Mall.  I took Sweetheart and Benny and my friend brought her beautiful brindle male Lucius.  Sweetheart worked the crowd quite well throughout the event.  Towards the end of the event Les was talking to a girl who was petting Sweetheart and the girl said she was almost 100% sure she was going to complete an application soon.  She said she had been out to the mall several times while we were doing our meet and greets and she knew which dog she wanted because that dog always came up to her and was so sweet and gorgeous.  Yeah, one guess who it was.  You guessed it:  Sweets.  I am sure I had a fearful look in my eyes when I quickly told her "she is my dog, she is not up for adoption".  :)  The girl was a bit crestfallen but was a good sport.  She raved how sweet and beautiful Sweetheart was and how lucky I was to have her.  Yep, I know, have known since August 13th 2010.  :)

So no, Sweetheart isn't going to a new home but it is nice to know that a dog someone left to die can recover and become one many people wish to adopt.  I must admit I feel kind of special that I got to adopt her.  :)  Then I think about how jealous she, how much she likes to kill chickens and steal my stuff in the house and then I don't feel as special.  LOL.  Just kidding.  I love my Sweets and would never give her up.  It is nice to know that people do like her and that she is such a good ambassadog for the greyhound breed.

My friend who brought Lucius to the meet and greet is the one who took the beautiful picture of her in the post below this one.  She enlarged the photo and printed it out and put it in an 8 by 10 frame and gave it to me yesterday.  I LOVE it and am going to put it at my desk at work.  I was so touched she did that for me.  Such a sweet lady.

We have three new additions to our home.  3 baby chicks.  They hatched yesterday and are adorable.  Their mom is taking good care of them and pecked me several times as I moved her around to see them.

Hope all is well with everyone.  My weekend is going nicely!

Jess and Sweetheart

Pretty Sweetheart!

A picture one of my good friends took of Sweetheart
at the Shawnee Mall.  Isn't she pretty!

Still here!

Diva in a Red Chair

Sorry I haven't posted in SOOO long.  Everything is just fine with us.

Eve was still with me until yesterday.  The day before yesterday she broke a bone in her wrist on her front leg and is now in a huge cast. We think she broke it running in the back yard.  However, her foster to adopt mom wanted her regardless of the cast so Paul took her to her new foster to adopt home yesterday evening.  I must admit I am a bit sad because Eve turned into such a wonderful and goofy girl!!  She was so much fun to have for the five months I fostered her.

Sweetheart is doing great, as you can probably tell from the picture I took of her above this evening.  She is spoiled and rotten and just my silly girl.  She was bad yesterday, she tried to kill one of our hens that inadvertantly found its way into the back yard.  Lester swatted Sweets on the butt and he said she acted like he was killing her.  Sweets dropped the hen and screamed all dramatic like.  Yeesh.  However, Sweetheart survived and the hen did too (thankfully Sweets was muzzled).  Never a dull moment in this house.

I hope everyone is well.  Sweets has been great, totally healed from her mishap in October, doing  the meet and greets at the Shawnee Mall and basically just being the queen of this home.  It is hard to believe I have had her for over a year and a half!

Hope everyone is good!  Again, sorry I stayed gone so long.

Jess and Sweets