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WHAT’S
IN A NAME? Thanks to all for the greyt responses about names and nicknames. Here’s a few… with more to come next month! Your Editor. By
Sharon and Richard Carpe We
adopted our first grey, Princezz (her racing name) in August 2003.
She had huge paws to fill. We had lost three wonderful dogs in the
last two years due to old age and devastating illness. Our
youngest child had gone to college and the house was too quiet. We
were beyond the point where we were enthusiastic about welcoming a puppy
into the house. After spending way too many days looking at most
of the animal shelters in Orange County and returning home only to be
saddened because we had not found the "right" dog, we
decided to join the Wednesday walks in Woodbridge and learn about these
lean running machines. Several
visits to Hemopet later, we decided on a beautiful fawn female.
But what a name! Knowing that she would be confused at the
beginning, we decided to let her keep the moniker she was used to.
Well, she has proven again and again that she was more than
appropriately named. She has a little cowlick on her head that
certainly must be her crown. She crosses her legs and poses for
visitors as they scratch her ears. She is gentle with creatures
ranging from babies to tiny dogs at the By
Roxanne Whitmey My pet name for
Indy is "Indiana Jones". When she does something
naughty, I refer to her as Sid's
pet name is Sidley Bo Didley, or just Sidley for short. He
is the original Goofy (as in Disney's Goofy) because of his horrific
overbite, but he prefers "Sidley". We
also have a rescued, long hair, 1/2 tail, one-eyed dachshund.
His name is Pauli (what were they thinking?). His nickname is
"Weasel". You can guess why!
Sometimes
when I call them to come in from the yard, they are all called
"weasel" as in, "Come in you weasels" or
"Weasels, venis aqui"
(sp?). We have a wooden deck
they run on and it does sound like a thundering herd of buffaloes or
weasels. These wonderful dogs make us laugh. Hostess By
Allison Martin My greyhound's
racing name was Shata Hostess, but I was introduced to her as
Hostess. I wasn't too thrilled with her name, but I didn't want to
change it, since I figured that is what she was used to. Instead I
have a couple dozen nicknames for her. Sometimes I call her "hosty"
for short, "schutzy" (it means sweetheart),
"cuddle-buggies" when she is in a cuddling mood,
"bunny" or "poopie." |
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Rhumba
and Ed By Bill
Haslett Several
years ago we adopted Rhumba. It was a unique and unusual name
and we really hated to try to change her name. At the
time she was very shy and appeared a bit afraid of her own
shadow. She had company during the day so we were happy with
just one Greyhound. After a year, things changed a bit and we
decided that Rhumba needed company so we went to Hemopet and walked a
number of the dogs. We
talked to the staff, thought about it and decided on Ed. We had a
soft spot for the name as we had a rescued Dachshund, and only had for a
short time, named Eddie. He was a great dog, we shared a mutual
love and you would swear he smiled when we came home. With that in
mind, we decided not to change Ed’s name. We brought Ed
home and he immediately became a member of the family, very quickly
showing his great heart and desire to love and be loved. But the
clincher to his name came a year or so later. Our daughter brought home
her new boyfriend to "Meet the Parents". They came through the
front door as I was coming in the back door with the greys, and Ed took
off running to go greet the new visitors. I yelled, "Ed, get over
here". So our daughter’s new boyfriend, (also named Ed) looking a
little confused, walked over to shake my hand, wondering why I was so
rude and abrupt with someone I was meeting for the first time. It wasn't
until the next day that our daughter explained the name
"mix-up" to her boyfriend. Now, it makes a great story to tell
when we talk to people about our daughter and her fiancé!
PLEASE CALL By
Carole Oglesbee Those
questions are the easy ones to answer. Behavioral
questions such as how to housebreak, how to alleviate separation anxiety
problems or how to get a finicky eater motivated, are a little more
complicated. However, there
certainly are techniques that others have used to help with these
issues. It’s just that with each
greyhound, a trial and error system needs to be applied until the right
combination of methods works. Each
grey is as different from the next, just as we humans are from one
another. |
The
toughest questions come when an owner calls about health issues.
Some are easily answered, such as starting with a complete vet
check and running a complete blood panel in order to get an overall
baseline of health for you pet. Others are more difficult as there can
be multiple causes and corrections for such problems as bad teeth, itchy
skin, dry coat, etc. These issues are not insurmountable though. Solutions can be worked out with recommendations from your veterinarian and knowledgeable greyhound owners. When
we get into serious illnesses, it is a whole new world.
The options vary from just helping your pet remain as comfortable
as is possible until it is time to let him go, or investing in major
surgeries and procedures that can be costly and painful, not to mention
requiring long term recuperative time. There
is no “right” thing to do in these circumstances.
Each person must ultimately make the decisions that are right for
them which include emotional, financial and time factors.
No one else can, or should, make these final choices but the
individual pet owners. As
hard as these calls are, we encourage you to make them.
Whether your call is to the Needle Nose Crew, your original
adoption organization or another adoption group with which you have
connected, please make it. As
difficult as situations with our greyhounds may become, we want to be
able to help in any way we can. Sometimes we can only offer a friendly
ear to listen. Many times we can
offer possible solutions you may not have heard of.
Often we can put you in touch with someone who has gone through
the same situation you face, and who can offer their experience and
knowledge for you to consider. No
matter how difficult your call might be for us, it is ultimately worse
to get a call after the fact. To
hear from you asking if we have ever heard of a particular problem after
you have returned your greyhound, or have had to put your greyhound
down, is always the saddest for all of us.
Again, we might not be able to do more than just listen, but we
might be able to offer more help. Regardless,
having someone to talk things through with is some of the best medicine
for all of us. Please call…someone
will answer.
OOPS…
I GOOFED! By
your Editor Those who are not mathematically challenged (as I am) probably noticed my error in last month’s newsletter. Inadvertently, I dropped a line item in the article listing the Needle Nose Crew donations for 2003. NNC donated $1220 to Greyhound Adoption League from the IVAS funds.
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