Rainbow Bridge - WV's Midkiff (Mikey)

February 1, 2004 - September 1, 2010

We are sad to report that another sweet greyhound has gone to the bridge. Mikey was adopted by Jeff and Nancy Bowman after he was returned to our group several years ago. We thought that Mikey was an exceptionally sweet and gentle greyhound; he was returned through no fault of his own. At the same time, Nancy and Jeff were looking for a second greyhound and met Mikey.

Thanks to Jeff and Nancy, Mikey landed in his real forever home. Mikey got very sick suddenly and Nancy took him to the vet. The vet found out that he had a birth defect and his kidneys were extremely small. It was surprising that he was able to race and to live as long as he did. Because of the extent of his illness, Mikey could not be saved.

We are sad to see a fairly young dog go, but we do know for sure that he had the very best home any greyhound could have. He was loved and cherished by the Bowman's and that is what we hope to find for all of our adopted dogs.

Rest in peace sweet Mikey and know that you were greatly loved.

Rally to Rescue

Recently, our group has been chosen to be a Rally to Rescue ambassador. We are one of 500 organizations chosen by the Purina Pro Plan Rally to Rescue program.

The Rally to Rescue® program is a partnership with Purina® Pro Plan® brand pet food and pet rescue organizations across the country to help give rescued pets the nutrition and care they need and the loving homes they deserve.

The Purina® Pro Plan® Rally to Rescue® program is committed to Doing More™ to support smaller pet rescue organizations that often may have been overlooked by donors or adopters due to limited fundraising and marketing efforts.

We have received items to sell to help us earn money as well as many items that will help us make our events more noticable. We have received a tent, banners, curb signs to use, and professional quality signs that will save our group a lot of money.

We are thrilled at the help and support this program will offer us. For more information on the Rally to Rescue ambassador program, click on the title of this post.

Help FFGR, Inc. for Christmas!

Would you like to help our greyhound adoption group but have limited funds? There are a lot of ways that you can help our group without spending a penny!!!

If you get gifts that you never use or have new items stored in closets that are taking up space, you might want to try selling them on Ebay! If you do, you can donate any percentage of the money you make to FFGR, Inc. if you sell through Mission Fish! It's a program on Ebay that allows you to sell the item and designate the money you make to go directly into our bank account. Mission Fish facilitates the donation as well as taking care of most of the fees. We are already registered as a charity; all you have to do is look for the Mission Fish ribbon and click on it. You can sell as many items as you want as well!

If you buy a lot on line, then you can shop through IGive.com and earn money for FFGR, Inc.! It is free; you do not pay anything. This wonderful program has loads of stores that participate in the program. All you have to do is go to IGive.com, register, and then start shopping! We are registered as a charity and you can designate the money that each store sets aside for a donation to go to FFGR, Inc. The prices are still the same for all merchandise that you buy on line through this program. Each store gives a percentage of your purchase on their own. This is very easy to do. We have lots of IGive shoppers who constantly purchase on line and designate the donation from the store to go go FFGR, Inc.

Do you use Purina pet food? If you do, Purina dog food bags contain a weight circle that has points on it. If you cut these weight circles out and save them, they can add up to lots of help for our group because we collect them for money! If we save 50,000 points (which is a LOT of weight circles!), we can get a check sent to our vet to help us with medical bills for our fosters. We have been collecting these weight circles for years and have received a number of checks during that time. All you have to do is send them in the mail, drop them off at a meet and greet or to one of our volunteers. If you have friends or family members who use Purina products, get them to save the weight circles too! Please note: These weight circles are different than the UPC symbols that some companies require for refunds, etc.

The following products contain the weight circles:

Pro Plan Selects
Pro Plan Performance
Purina Veterinary Diets
ALL OTHER Pro Plan and Purina One foods (including puppy foods); this is an extensive list and the best approach would be to look for a weight circle on the bags

The points also vary by the weight of the bags.

Other participating Purina Brands include Beef Complete, Bonz, Butcher's Burger, Chezy Chews, Chew Morsels, Chuck Wagon, Lucky Dog, Moist and Chunky, Kibbles and Chunks, Nature's Course, Praise, Prime and Ribz brands

Don't forget, it takes a lot of points to get rewards, but with lots of people donating the weight circles, it adds up very fast!

Event - Frederick Petco Grand Opening

Our group will be hosting a special and unique three-day meet and greet event at the grand opening of the new Petco, located in Frederick, Maryland. FFGR, Inc. volunteers will be on hand throughout the time to introduce the public to our greyhounds and to talk about greyhound adoption. The three day event will run from Friday, December 3, to Sunday, December 5. At times when volunteers will not be present, there will be a permanent display for people to read about our group and to pick up literature about greyhound adoption.

We congratulate Petco on their new store and are looking forward to working at this store in the coming year to find greyt homes for greyhounds! For more information on exact times when our volunteers will be present along with available hounds (as well as directions to the new Petco), click on the title of this post to access our calendar of events.

See you there!

Rainbow Bridge - Tyville Moondog (Magic)

November 19, 2000 - November 26, 2010

We are heartbroken to report that we had to let Magic go to the Rainbow Bridge the day after Thanksgiving. In the previous two weeks, the cancerous tumor on his nose (that had been diagnosed months ago) seemed to take on a life of its own. It seemed to grow a little more each day. He also started pawing at it at times. He started licking around his mouth and swallowing and when we checked inside his mouth, we saw some blood. It looked like the tumor was getting ready to burst (if it hadn’t already started). We decided that we could not let this get any worse.

This has been a particularly bittersweet journey for us. It was about watching Magic’s tumor grow, knowing that, otherwise, he was a very healthy dog. He came to us with a small lump that eventually was diagnosed as a slow moving cancer. The tumor was too involved with the blood vessels in his nose to do surgery without the risk of him bleeding out. The tumor would not have gone away but would have returned eventually. Radiation would have held that back for a short time, but it was expensive and would only serve to hold back the advancement of the cancer, not stop it. He was nine years old and we could not see putting him through that.

Magic was a grade A racer in Iowa. He even fathered a few pups that raced. He was adopted in Iowa and his family eventually moved to Ohio. There, he was turned into a group (good people we know) when he bit a child for falling on him. It certainly was not his fault, but we know how these things go. We helped the group in Ohio when they found themselves overwhelmed with senior returns. In January we brought in Magic along with Sheba and Shadow. Of course, we know that Sheba and Shadow found the perfect home! But we knew when Magic was diagnosed with cancer that it was going to be next to impossible to find him a home. So he stayed here with us and we loved him dearly.

Magic never came close to biting anyone or anything here. He was the most gentle and loving creature. Magic loved to run. He ran like the wind in our field. We could always see the good racer in him. We know that he is running like the wind at the bridge with no tumors or limitations. He was a very big dog, a gentle giant, and his presence will be missed here in so many ways.

Rest in peace our wonderful boy.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING FROM FFGR, INC.

We would like to wish all of our Fast Friends Greyhound Rescue, Inc. family a wonderful and peaceful Thanksgiving! When we count our blessings, we are grateful beyond words for the wonderful people who are a part of our family. We are especially grateful for the exceptional volunteers who have all been with us for as long as our group has been in business. Your continued support and hours spent working on behalf of the hounds has made us what we are.

Thanks to all of those adopters who understand the commitment to their dogs and for loving and caring for them. You give us the strength and desire to keep going.

Enjoy your day!

Holiday Reminder - Open Door Training

Now that the holidays are upon us, we think it's a good opportunity to call attention to the fact that this is the time of year when we experience the most calls about loose dogs. With a little planning and thinking ahead, you can enjoy that turkey and spend time with your family and not have to take time out of your holidays to look for a lost dog. Make sure all doors are closed properly when guests come to your home. Also, it's important to remind guests to be aware of the fact that a greyhound lives in the house. It seems as though every holiday we get calls about dogs escaping out of doors when they have accidentally been left open or they get through open doors when guests arrive and take off their coats at the door. It only takes a small opening in a door for a greyhound to get through because of their thin bodies.

Start to plan now for what you will do to keep your holidays happy and your hound safe. When we had our four greyhounds years ago, we worked with them all and trained them to "wait" at the door until we said "let's go." Everyone understood the commands and listened well. At the time we didn't have a fenced in yard so we couldn't afford to have our dogs get loose where we live in a rural area and on the side of a mountian. But now that we have so many dogs here, that kind of training is hard to do and many of the dogs are not here long enough to train. We do practice the "wait" command at the door before it's opened so we cut down on the chaos involved with a lot of dogs running out the door at the same time. We also back that up with the word "easy". No one goes outside until everyone is settled down and there is no bouncing around or whining.

Start now to think of what you can do to prevent your hound from accidentally getting out of a door. Here are a few suggestions:

1. Use a baby gate at the door and keep it propped up until you have your hound(s) secure. Then you can take the gate down, let guests in and then put the gate back in place. This will also work if you have a porch or deck that guests access to get to your front door. Place a gate across the porch/deck opening so that if your hound does get out of the door, he/she can only go so far.

2. Keep a leash next to the door and when guests arrive, leash your hound. This gets hard to do if you have lots of guests and lots of hounds!

3. Put an extra latch on your door so that you will have to go through more work to get a door open. This is a good reminder that you have to do something with your hound!

4. Make a sign for your door that warns guests that you have a greyhound inside the house and to be very careful when opening the door. Keep the door locked so that you have to answer it and guests can't walk in on their own.

4. To be perfectly safe, crate or baby gate your hound in another room while guests are arriving. Some people will even kennel their dog during large family gatherings; although not possible for some, it does guarantee that the greyhound will be safe.

5. Review the Lost Dog link we have posted on the Greytlinks page of our web site. You can print one Lost Dog flyer with your hound's photo and your phone number. Keep it handy and hope you will never have to use it. Keep all important phone numbers handy as well in case your hound escapes. It will get you help that much faster having the important information out in case you need it.

We hope that none of our hounds get out the door this holiday period; we hope that everyone will have a safe and happy holiday season and not have to feel the panic of searching for a beloved hound that escaped out of a door.
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