Mike's poem and our hearts go out to those wonderful greys who crossed the Rainbow Bridge last month. To those left behind, you are in our thoughts: Our hearts go out to: 

• Pat Hagler and family for their loss of Frogger. 
• Heath & Chris McGee for their loss of Nakota. 
• Matt & Linda Adame for their loss of Tice. 
• Steve & Gloria Carle for their loss of Tequila. On a personal note, Linda and I were deeply saddened at the loss of Tequila, Steve and Gloria Carle's greyhound. He was one of the first greyhounds we ever met and played with, when Steve brought him over for a home visit while working with GPA California. At the pat of his hind end, Tequila moaned and growled his way into our hearts. Linda wept when I told her he'd passed on. We'll all miss him and the other greys we've lost.

A FACE LIFT CHALLENGE!
By Joy Moss

When Carole Oglesbee told me that Gary and Lori Tracy's truck needed extensive body work and asked me to make up a donation jar, I was pleased to help. Greyhound Adoption League transports retired greys to rescue groups across the western states, through hot dry desert and into ice and snow. As a result of some of the weather extremes, and just plain wear and tear, the Tracy's 1985 Suburban needs approximately $1,500 to $2,000 for cosmetic surgery. Carole explained she wanted to ask everyone with a Tracy dog to stuff a dollar in the donation jar whenever they came to an event. And then I started thinking (a dangerous thing - as my husband will tell you!). I have two Tracy dogs, and they certainly are worth a lot more than two dollars. How many miles did the Tracys put on their truck to deliver Tanner and Sharin? How do I put a dollar value on the love of Tanner and Sharin? And if the Tracys' truck rusts out from under them, will someone else miss out on the love of a special grey? So - here's the challenge. I challenge everyone with a Tracy dog to donate a dollar for every month since you adopted your greyhound. Have I received $45 of love from Tanner and $5 of love from Sharin? Absolutely! Let's keep that truck running!

THREE YEARS AND COUNTING
By Carole Oglesbee

Three years ago the Needle Nose Crew spread its wings, broadened its focus and set out to promote all greyhounds and their rescue and adoption groups rather than just one group. Many wonderful things have happened to the Crew as a result of that change. We have more than double the volunteers who help in so many ways; a consistent and well received monthly newsletter; we participate in well over fifty events every year, and donate many hundreds of dollars to rescue and adoption organizations in dire need of the funds. Most importantly, we talk to hundreds of people about the joys of adopting ex-racing greyhounds and send these folks off to talk to the local and, sometimes, distant rescue groups. When questions and problems arise, we often assist in helping with advice, equipment loans, transportation and just someone to talk to!! I didn’t really realize how much we all do and how well we do it until we received a recent e-mail from Connecticut. After reviewing our newsletters on the Internet, Donna McCormack of We Adopt Greyhounds, Inc. asked us for some advise on how we accomplish such successful awareness and fund raising activities. I’m grateful to Donna for the compliment. More importantly, the request made me think about all our members do each and every week in order to promote greyhounds. We often take each other for granted, especially when we get busy with our activities. In addition, I realized that many new members have no idea what goes on behind the scenes and who is responsible for making all our activities run smoothly. Sooo.....here goes!! Thanks to Jan Keith, our scheduler, who makes those calls to petstore, fair and shelter personnel to set up our show and tells. Jan also follows up before the larger shows and gets thank you letters out afterward. Thanks to Janie Ulrich, our talented arts and crafts member, who makes all those wonderful collars, ruffs and other items we sell for much needed funds. Janie supplies the added touches to our show and tell displays in order to have the public take notice of us. Janie also manages our dollars by monitoring our spending and paying our bills. Thanks to Linda Shelman, our photograph expert, who collects photos for use in albums, posters and newsletter issues. Linda spends time collecting, sorting and mounting all these photos for us to use in our presentations. Thanks to Eric Shelman, our ever patient editor, who month after month puts together the Needle Nose Notes. I, for one, forget to let Eric know how very grateful we all are for the consistent, professional effort he puts into every issue. Thanks to Mike Gallas, our training expert, who helps with the endless phone calls and requests of assistance whether they are questions before or problems after adoptions. Mike is also my much maligned loading and unloading partner, who helps to move all our Crew “stuff” in and out of the various shows. Each of the above do so very much all the time and would love to have any assistance you might want to offer. So for those of you who would like to become more involved but just didn’t know who to call....here are some numbers for you to use. If you know of an activity we might be able to participate in, please call Jan Keith at 949-951-5444 or e-mail at fastfidos@aol.com. If you have craft talents, want to buy one of our special items or have a fundraising idea, call Janie Ulrich at 949-586-8086 or e-mail at julrich@wga.com. If you have photos you can part with and/or articles and tidbits for the “Notes”, e-mail Linda and Eric Shelman at shelman@home.com or mail to 22611 Demasia, Mission Viejo, CA 92691. If you would like to volunteer for any of our activities, call Carole Oglesbee at 949 552-1373 or e-mail at gogreys@juno.com. If you need any assistance, please feel free to call any of us. If we can’t help, we’ll pass you over to Mike Gallas or you may call him direct at 949-552-1373 or e-mail at gogreys@juno.com. As much as we all thank Jan, Janie, Linda, Eric and Mike for all they do to keep the Crew going, I don’t mean to leave out the consistent and loyal volunteers who attend endless show and tells and help with craft and presentation items. Thanks also to those who send photos and articles over for the “Notes”. Finally, a big thanks goes to all of you who pass out cards and encourage people to call for additional information. The Crew does not survive and succeed without everyone’s efforts and dedication. Thank you one and all for each and everything you do to help the Crew help the greys!!