Events - Get Ready for September!

If you wanted to attend our events in August but couldn't for one reason or another, then you may want to check out our Calendar of Events for September! We not only have our regularly scheduled meet and greet events listed on our calendar, but we have a number of new events that you might want to check out. We will update this news blog prior to each event with all the details. However, if you want to mark your calendars for the month, just click on the title of this post that will take you directly to our events calendar.

We thank all of our many volunteers for working so willingly and hard on behalf of our hounds! You just don't talk the talk, you walk the walk!

Life at a Greyhound Track

If you have never been to a greyhound track and wonder what your adopted retired racer's life was like we have some great information for you! We constantly talk to potential adopters about how well trained a greyhound is when it is racing. These wonderful athletes are familiar with routine and know what to expect. They are amazing creatures; therefore, we need to honor their past as well as enjoy them as pets. We are now asking those who apply to adopt from our organization to watch a slide show on what life was like at the track. We think that this will help people to understand their dogs when they go into their new homes. We have also added the link to the slide show on our Greytlinks page of our web site and will include it on other pages of our web site as well for people researching the breed before adoption.

We hope that you enjoy this show and learn something from it. You can access the link to the slide show by clicking on the title of this post.

Event - K-9's in the Vines

The Animal Welfare League of Frederick County has invited our organization to participate in their fund raising event - K-9's in the Vines, Sunday, August 21, from 1:00 p.m. until 5 p.m.. Register at the door and it will entitle you to wine tastings, door prizes, a silent auction, dog games and activities, savings on purchases of wines, live music and lots of fun! In addition, a professional pet photographer will be available to photograph your favorite pet.

Our volunteers will be available to talk to people about greyhound adoption. We will have greyhounds available to meet. Come out and have fun with us and help the AWLFC!!

Linganore Winecellars is located at 13601 Glissans Mill Road, Mount Airy, Maryland.

Event - Spirit Night at Chick-fil-A

Come catch the FFGR, Inc. spirit! Our group will be participating in Chick-fil-A's Spirit Night. It's an opportunity presented to us by Chick-fil-A to help non-profit organizations like ours earn money (and have fun in the process!).

We will be at the Chick-fil-A (at 1005 Foxcroft Avenue) in Martinsburg, West Virginia, Saturday evening (August 20) from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. During that time, anyone coming into the restaurant and presenting a coupon for our group when they eat will help us. Chick-fil-A will donate 20% of the proceeds to our group!

The folks at Chick-fil-A have been really supportive and helpful. They gave us 500 leaflets with coupons to hand out. Ashley Lake, who has been in charge of this event, has been handing out hundreds to businesses in the Martinsburg area with great success! She has been on the go for weeks now! We have been handing out the leaflets at our meet and greet event as well. We have handed out almost all of the leaflets!

Our volunteers are also permitted to be at the restaurant and we are also permitted to have our greyhounds there! One of our volunteers will be wearing the Chick-fil-A cow costume and he will be waving at people as they come in to eat (and hopefully convincing people out on the street to come in as well!).

We will be able to talk to customers about greyhound adoption if they approach our table. If you would like to come and help out our group but don't have a coupon, please come and stop at our table. We will have extra coupons for those who request one. We will also have coupons available at our regularly scheduled meet and greet at the Martinsburg Petsmart. Stop in on Saturday, August 20, between the hours of 11:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. We hope to hand out many more coupons there as well.

For more information, go to our web site Calendar of events. Come on by and catch the spirit!!

Event - Yard Sale Success!

Thanks to all of our GREYT volunteers, adopters, friends, family members, supporters and the public, our yard sale was a wonderful success!

For weeks we collected items to sell at the yard sale and we made sure that we advertised it well. By the day of the sale, we had collected enough items to fill an entire trailer! The sale was held at the home of Jo and CL Long and they pulled out all the stops to make sure everything was done well. Jo and CL not only donated the use of their entire back yard and property along a very well traveled road, but they gave us full run of the property to store all the yard sale items prior to the sale. They provided us with the trailer and gave all of our volunteers access to it so sale items could be dropped off any time. The also brought out the grill and made all of the volunteers lunch. Thanks to another generous neighbor, another flat bed trailer was made available to display sale items.

The tables for our sale were loaned to us by the wonderful folks at the Frederick County Humane Society; they have been a true supporter of our organization from the beginning. The tables all came in handy when we started setting our merchandise as they filled up quickly1

The yard was perfect for nearly 20 hounds that visited to run in and they all had a blast! We also had a delivery of two new hounds from Florida. We were so busy the day of the yard sale that several volunteers (who live some distance from us) helped bring our hounds to us. Thanks to Connie and Steve who picked them up in Ashland, VA (in the middle of the night no less), and to John and Mary who met them in Fredericksburg, VA and brought them up to our location. We are so grateful for this help, especially considering that these volunteers live so far away and were happy to drive long distances to help out the hounds.

There are so many volunteers who went out of their way to help out and donate so much to our sale. Thanks to all who donated so much. We also thank those who paid for the advertising, who made signs, who worked the day of the sale, etc. Everyone played a huge part in making this yard sale such a success.

In spite of a questionable weather forecast, the storms and rain hit all around us but not on us! At the end of the day we made $1,750, WAY more than we ever anticipated!

We are looking forward to our next events! ROOOOOOS to all of our wonderful volunteers!!!!

Event - Multi Family Yard Sale!

Get ready for a "REALLY BIG" yard sale! Our volunteers have been collecting items for several weeks and we have to say that we now have enough to call this yard sale extraordinary! We have all been filling a large hauling trailer to the brim! And we are still collecting more!

Our yard sale will be held at the home of Jo and CL Long at 6794 Stonewall Court West
Adamstown, Maryland. The yard sale will run from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. on Saturday, August 13.

This is a major fund raiser for our group. It will also be a chance for people and hounds to get together. Jo and CL have a beautifully landscaped yard (nearly three acres of level grass!) that hounds will LOVE! We will have a number of x-pens and resting places under trees for all hounds that wish to come along with their adopters while the sale is going on.

Jo and CL live along a major route in Maryland and lots of traffic will be available to lure in to buy, buy, buy.

Unlike other typical yard sales, there will be a huge assortment of new items as well as collectibles. Here is a partial list of items that are available for sale:

New lawn mower
Two new in the box child's mountain bikes (one for a girl and one for a boy)
Wedgewood place settings
Chinese porcelain place settings complete with salt and pepper, butter dish and numerous serving pieces
Large Boyds Bear collection
Many new and slightly used tools in boxes
Antique farm related items
Antique Tools
Furniture (like new)
Dog crates
Many like new small kitchen appliances (all work)
Electronics (all work)
Portable soft sided dog crate (new)
Tommy the Train play table
Books
Many video tapes and CDs (children's)
New curtains, towels
Many many new dog related items

If you would like to donate any items to the yard sale, it's not too late! Just call Jo at 301-874-5911 and you can make arrangements to drop items off at the trailer. Some of our items will be priced, but most will be available to buy for whatever donation one wants to give. If you want to donate items the day of the sale, please bring them by.

All sales benefit Fast Friends Greyhound Rescue, Inc. Come out and have a good time, meet our hounds and get a GREYT bargain!

Event - New Meet and Greet

Dogs and Company, located in Columbia, Maryland is a specialty store that focuses on the health and nutrition of pets. They also advocate for the adoption of pets; therefore, they invited our organization to host a special meet and greet in their store to talk about greyhound adoption! We will be at the store Saturday, August 6, from noon until 2:00 p.m. You can look for us near the Canine Cafe.

Our volunteers will be present (along with adopted and available greyhounds)to visit with customers and talk about what great pets greyhounds make. In addition to several adopted hounds, three of our greyhounds looking for a home will be with our volunteers. Sid, Misty and Bart (or Bishop) will be available for people to meet. You can get more information on all of our available dogs by going to the Featured Dogs page of our web site. You can get information on Dogs and Company as well as the address and directions by clicking on the title of this post. Come out and visit us at this special event!

Rainbow Bridge - Quiet Laurie (Rose)

December 29, 2007 - July 23, 2011

We at FFGR, Inc. are devastated to report that a very young greyhound was lost recently to an unknown cause. Rose was only three years old. She got sick and within a day or two she was gone. She collapsed in her family's home and the vet could not revive her. Jamie and Brian Nichter adopted Rose in January of this year.

Jamie and her family have another greyhound and Rose was the second hound they adopted from our group. Their children (and the rest of the family) are very sad and upset.

Rose was a gorgeous blue brindle girl that loved everyone. In fact, when we placed her on our Available Dogs page, we got numerous inquiries about her and a lot of people wanted to adopt her. Jamie contacted us about adopting a second greyhound but never asked for a certain dog. They asked us to find them a dog that would fit into their family. We thought that they deserved to have Rose because she was so special.

We always are sad to learn of a greyhound passing on to the Rainbow Bridge but we are especially saddened to learn of such a young dog losing her life so soon.

We know that Rose got the chance for a wonderful and most loving home. She was truly a lucky dog. Even though her time with the Nichters was cut off way too short, Rose had the home that we at FFGR, Inc. always hope for when we place a greyhound.

Run free sweet Rose; you have lots of friends at the Bridge.