This past summer Boo, the petite queen of our retired greyhound pack, started having seizures. Grand mal seizures are frightening to witness and we learned a lot about the best way to protect her during an episode and how to help her after an episode.  (tips below)

As much as we hoped otherwise, it turned out that she needed medication to control her symptoms because her seizures were too frequent and too intense. Twice a day now, Boo gets two medicines to manage her symptoms. Phenobarbitol is the primary and our entire animal community (okay, the finches don’t care) convenes when it’s time for her dosing.

Retired greyhound Boo helps promote

The cats come racing from whatever sunbeam to hassle me while I fold Boo’s pills into bits of Greenies Pill Pockets (excellent product, btw) Of course Brody and Bandit feel that they should get treats too as moral support. I mean come on, if the cats are getting a tiny smidge of beefy flavored treat, it’s only fair.

It’s a routine we’re used to…but occasionally something bizarre happens. The cats are intent and determined to score as much of the tasty pill pocket as possible and recently, Maverick (big black kitty) decided to steal the big bite.

Unfortunately for Maverick that big bite was full of Boo’s dose of phenobarb.

I shouted (yeah I’m cool in a crisis like that), Maverick shot down the hall, medicated treat in his mouth. My son came running and when I shouted (again calmly – not) what the problem was, he helped me corral the now-panicked cat in the dining room.

I was so worried Maverick would just swallow the thing before we caught him.

I  couldn’t imagine what a 65 pound dose of phenobarb would do to a 16 pound cat. Would he sleep for a week? Would he need his stomach pumped? Fortunately I didn’t have to find out. The poor cat dropped the big bite and my son rescued Boo’s medicine before we scarred Maverick for life.

Or maybe we scarred him anyway. Because while he still comes running, he’s a little more patient as I dole out the tasty treats.

In the rare event your retired greyhound has a seizure call your vet and keep the following things in mind:

1. Keep the dog safe, and be sure they can’t hurt themselves in the throes of a seizure.

2. Talk calmly to your dog. Use the dog’s name frequently.

3. If necessary, keep the dog cool by applying rubbing alcohol to the foot pads and ears.

4. If a seizure goes past 8 minutes, you need to get your retired greyhound to the vet for help to manage post seizure concerns of dehydration or repeating seizures.

Of course there’s plenty of information that I hope you’ll never have to discuss with your veterinarian, but don’t be afraid to ask questions and develop a seizure plan.

Live the greyhound adventure!

Being a retired greyhound in our house means bonus time during the holiday season. There are more visits from friends and family as well as the UPS man and mail carrier. There’s the extra baking and cooking which means extra opportunities to swoop in on anything that might drop on the floor. Or in Bandit’s case, the opportunity to lick anything that might be placed too close to the counter’s edge.

When Bandit first arrived he was just under a year old and he showed up a couple weeks before Thanksgiving. It was his first holiday season with people and he was curious about anything and everything we were doing.

He was sure he could help with the turkey. He was thrilled to get a bite of raw potato before they went in the pot. He did his best to convince us he would be the best one to taste-test the gravy.

Dinner that first year was a test for all of us. I sincerely believe Bandit wanted to behave and use good manners, but there were so many people, and so many wonderful smells.  Our other two retired greyhounds were setting an ideal example of resting on the floor until cleanup time, but Bandit paced around and managed to steal the napkin right out of my lap.

While people food is NOT recommended for retired greyhounds, a bite of apple or potato is a traditional treat for our adopted greyhounds. And fair warning, turkey isn’t the best type of treat. Too much turkey can result in painful leg cramps, among other problems for greys.

How do I know?

It’s a lesson we learned the hard way when everyone at our Thanksgiving table bought the pitiful look Kayla was sporting as the feast wound down. She’d managed to sneak a bite of turkey from each one of us and ended up pretty sore and limping around. It really impeded her evening romp. The cramps passed after a few hours, but it wasn’t much fun for her. And we felt terribly guilty.

Wishing you the best this holiday season and as always…

Live the greyhound adventure!

It amuses me that all of our adopted greyhounds, including every foster greyhound, romp and run with more exuberance when we clap for them as they circle the infield I lovingly call a butterfly garden.

I’ve met plenty of people who’ve gone the greyhound adoption route and said the same thing about their new forever friend. A few even say their retired greyhound won’t run at all unless someone is applauding the effort.

This just cracks me up.

Greyhounds as pets are so laid back and easygoing, and yet they know how and when to ham it up for an audience. We know they love to run period, and applause isn’t required if my greyhounds are out there running or romping together, but if we’re watching we’re expected to be active spectators.

You’d think Bandit, product of an ‘oops litter’, who only spent the first 8 weeks of his life at the track with his mother, would be different.

Surprisingly enough, he isn’t.

Though he never spent a single moment on a track in front of a crowd, he likes us to clap and cheer if we are outside when he bursts into a frenzy of laps around the yard.

Even during fetch lately he clearly has a bigger ‘smile’ and will take a victory lap (or two) if I clap for him as he’s bringing that poor dingy toy back to me.

You can’t really call it a genetic thing, unless there is a gene for showmanship. Although with the breed-wide consistency it makes you wonder what goes on in those bright greyhound minds.

Maybe it’s just something inherent that makes a retired greyhound want to work the ‘crowd’. I know it works for me as I smile, cheer, applaud and otherwise enjoy all the delightful quirks of our youngest, happy retired greyhound.

Live the greyhound adventure!

Brody is currently the grumpy ‘old man’ of the house, but when he was just over two years old, he came to us as part of our local adoption group’s foster program. The greyhound foster coordinator had barely put the leash in my hand before my daughter declared, “We’re keeping this one!”

That poignant story is just one of many personal anecdotes included in the Adopt A Greyhound Guide that is currently being re-formatted for an upcoming release to kindle.  I’m very excited about having the book available on kindle and I had fun creating a ‘second edition’.

The Adopt a Greyhound Guide!

The Adopt a Greyhound Guide has always been for the dogs…as well as for the people who work tirelessly in greyhound rescue and adoption groups to match greyhounds with forever homes.

Written for people who want to get to know the beautiful, fast friends that are retired racing greyhounds, the Adopt a Greyhound Guide is a charitable effort, with 50% of all proceeds going to help support greyhound rescue and adoption.

As I went through the book again, I thought about one of Brody’s quirky habits. He always stood over the foster greyhounds he liked. Sure it’s a stretch, but give me a little latitude here, could it be that he started this little quirk because of how our daughter first embraced him?

Yes, I know he’s ‘just’ a dog and I have a tendency to humanize the pet behavior around here. (goes with being a fan of retired greyhounds combined with the fiction gig). But I also know greyhounds are some of the smartest, most intuitive creatures on the planet.

He’s had a bond with our daughter since that very first moment. There have been rare occurences when he thought she needed help and he interceded to the point of growling and putting himself between her and the perceived threat. Just fyi, that’s not typical greyhound behavior.

From the moment we met Brody, we have discovered he is unique in all things. He’s forever breaking the standard ‘greyhound rules’. Probably another reason the two of them get on so well, as my daughter is forever breaking free of expectations and limits to reach her goals.

Please stay tuned for news of this book coming to a kindle or kindle app near you.

Live the greyhound adventure!

Our adopted greyhounds love people. They love having visitors. It’s like Christmas when visitors come to the house and even better when visitors bring wrapping paper (with or without a present inside).

Brody used to be the first to the door, but he’s older now, so he lets the annoying whippersnapper, Bandit, and the queen, Boo, handle the initial greetings these days.

While our adopted greyhounds have pretty good manners, a visitor means they get to show off all their cool skills. Usually all at once.

Skills? Sure, skills like the vertical leap or ability to kiss a visitor’s face.

Brody used to teach all of our foster greyhounds to be exceptions to the general rule of ‘no barking’. With adopted greyhounds there are always brief bursts of happy roo-roo-roo-ing, but Brody has taught many a foster to use their voice more frequently. My apologies.

Boo wasn’t obnoxious about jumping. Oh, she’d bounce around a bit when the leash came out, but it wasn’t a problem. Then Bandit came on the scene.(he taught her to like ice cubes too, a much more manageable habit). When Bandit would jump (and sort of get away with it) Boo started jumping too. This greyhound girl has a heck of a vertical leap for an average size greyhound, and lately most of our guests are seeing it for themselves.

(Recently a female greyhound set the world record for best vertical with 15 feet. But she doesn’t live with us).

No, don’t cancel your visit to our domestic petting zoo just yet…

Does she listen to the commands? On a good day, yes, but it’s a hard skill to practice without encouraging the jumping in the first place.

Now Bandit is tall enough on his back legs to kiss my 6’2″ son on the face. While we’ve finally managed to train him to calm down fairly quickly when visitors arrive (admittedly it’s more about him aging out of the hyper-puppy stage than our training skills) if the visitor is male, he goes into his super happy mode.

With smaller kids, he’s very gentle, but with adults, he fights the urge to be obnoxiously boisterous. Bandit wants to behave, really, truly.

I believe all three of our adopted greyhounds want to behave. It’s not just a fantasy. I think they know showing off good manners makes me happy and is just as valuable as showing they can talk, jump, and give you hugs and kisses.

Live the greyhound adventure!

Funny, for a small gray kitty, he doesn’t look all that threatening…

I often tell people retired, adopted greyhounds are the cats of the dog world. They sleep away a good bit of the day and they are very relaxed, laid back sort of companions. Just as loyal, but nothing as hyper as your average Jack Russell or Labrador puppy.

Of course there’s an exception to the whole adopted greyhounds have feline tendencies theory…

We had company recently that arrived with a doberman, german shepherd mix and…a most adorable kitten. All five of the dogs got along just fine. The cats and dogs did okay. But the cats and the kitten? Well that’s where things got interesting.

The kitten was just fine, but my big black cat is now officially known as ‘scaredy-cat‘ because he refused to interact with anyone he suspected had ever met the kitty. Including the dogs and the people who brought them.

However, it was the gray kitty, the one we refer to as the ‘baby’ in our home earned who a new nickname during this visit: Ninja cat.

What he lacked in stealth (there was a wide range of vocalizations previously only heard in the wild) he made up for in speed of sneak attacks.

The poor visiting kitten was relegated to safe, but mostly solitary confinement in the guest room, and still Ninja cat snuck in more than once, making a beeline for her no matter where she tried to hide, and doing his best to hiss and swat her to death.

Which meant Ninja cat had to be confined to almost solitary confinement with his scaredy cat brother. (Earlier we’d taken pity on the black kitty and moved him to my bedroom so he could do more than hide and growl behind the couch)

Now, the adopted greyhounds got along with everyone, kitty included, during the rare moments they got to visit with the kitten and her humans. Aside from Bandit’s use of his manly-mean voice while playing outside (a voice that confused the ever so patient Doberman). But that’s just Bandit being the youngest – something we deal with frequently.

He did however show the guest dogs all his good toys and he cried soulfully when the whole crowd had to leave.

Live the greyhound adventure!

Through 20 plus years of adopted greyhounds and foster greyhounds, I’ve developed some pretty solid opinions of these incredible dogs. I love them – fine I’m better labeled an adopted greyhound addict – and their many quirks and unique personality traits amuse me.

Adopted greyhounds are sight hounds, which is a rather obvious way of saying they are visual animals. They hunt, or race, when something catches their interest. The fake rabbit at the track, the squirrel or bird in the back yard, the cat across the street. Doesn’t matter what, doesn’t even matter if you see it, when an adopted greyhound sees it, they want to race off and explore.

Adopted greyhound, Bandit, eyeing a squirrel.

Unlike scent hounds who explore their world primarily with their noses, sometimes our adopted greyhounds or foster greyhounds have to be shown where a bit of treat or food has fallen. That’s a moment when I’m sure the sight thing is only for curiosities in motion.

And while most dogs possess better hearing than people, we’ve had a few adopted greyhounds who’ve made me wonder which sense is stronger: sight or hearing.

Levi could hear my husband’s car about two blocks away and would wait patiently at the door for Daddy to walk in.

While Brody and Boo perk up at opening of the garage door (even after we replaced the openers with quieter versions); most recently it’s the puppy Bandit who shows serious ”ear’ hound promise.

Like Levi, Bandit is an adopted greyhound in our pack who perks up long before my husband’s car even appears on the street. What’s more impressive? He does the same thing regardless of which car my husband is driving. (not that we have so many, but still, I’ve never seen that before).

Plenty of mini-vans and sedans of similar color go by on our street every day and Bandit ignores them…until it’s his Daddy’s car.

Odd? Sure, but I promise you it’s absolutely true. I think his super-hearing is quite an accomplishment for an adopted greyhound who’s primary genetic strength is visual acuity.

Live the greyhound adventure!

So in preparing to take our daughter to college, we had to arrange care for our domestic petting zoo. This was a moment when being a part of the community of people who’ve adopted retired greyhounds was absolutely greyt!

I’ll admit, dropping the dogs with our friend Jim and his adopted greyhounds Ozzie and Ransom gave me a weird bonus: no ginormous greyhound puppy in the bed the night before we left. There weren’t even greyhounds on the floor to trip over in the morning.

Adopted greyhounds Ransom and Ozzie

No dogs in the hotel bed wasn’t half bad either. I’d like to say Bandit learned to sleep on the floor while we were gone, but it would be more accurate to say he’s learned to be sneakier about sleeping on the bed since we’ve returned.

It was weird returning home with only the cats to greet us at the door. After a few greetings and snuggles were exchanged, we looked at each other and decided to pick up our three adopted greyhounds right away, even though we’d been on the road since 5am.

Our three adopted greyhounds were their typically ornery selves for Jim, but knowing greyhounds, and being a greyt guy, Jim told me he enjoyed it. Now that’s they type of friend you meet in the adopted greyhound community. Going from two to five greyhounds with unique issues and personalities is a lot to ask, but Jim told us he got into a rhythm with the ‘pack’ and it all worked out fine.

Of course it worked out fine. It’s greyhounds – and these five are very familiar with each other.

Picking up our dogs was an event as lively and silly as the drop off, as the pack of five adopted greyhounds greeted us at the door, ready for kisses and lovies and all eager to be up front.

Ozzie and Ransom were fantastic hosts, even if Brody broke into their food bin (Brody hates his prescription food, most especially when there’s a more interesting dog food in the vicinity).

It’s friends like Jim and his adopted greyhounds Ozzie and Ransom that are one of the singular perks of adopting retired greyhounds and working with such a caring group of volunteers who share our love for these amazing dogs.

Live the greyhound adventure!

It’s true. Our easy going adopted greyhound retirees can get stressed out due to a variety of factors. We don’t think about it much, since our current three adopted greyhounds are pretty laid back (now that the puppy is settling down) but they do get stressed out by different things and we’ve learned how to soothe them.

Boo has a classic case of adopted greyhound fear of thunderstorms. Her symptoms include hiding in the half bath, panting, trembling. She doesn’t like fireworks either, but thunderstorms are by far the worst. (The Thundershirt helped, but I had to stop using it when she started seizing for fear of overheating).

Our oldest adopted greyhound, Brody, has a classic case of fear of fireworks. He pants, shivers, refuses to lay down, and refuses to go outside while there’s any chance of noise. As he ages, his tolerance for thunderstorms is decreasing too. And lately we’ve had some doozies. A bummer, since he’s restless with whining, pacing, and trembling, rather than following Boo’s ‘find-a-cave’ example.

Adopted greyhound with 'almost curious' ears

Bandit, fortunately, has not picked up any bad fear habits from the other two greys in our adopted greyhound pack. He's mostly afraid Daddy will come home and leave again too quickly (without him! gasp). This involves a bit of whining, but for the most part is a tolerable situation for the rest of us.

Everyone knows when a cat gets stressed. The sounds, maybe the inappropriate behavior or marking. But while adopted greyhounds nap enough to be considered the ‘cat’ of the canine community, their stressed behaviors aren’t always as pronounced as Boo and Brody during storms and fireworks, respectively.

Sometimes, the greys won’t eat when they’re bothered. Sometimes, they shy away from new situations in or out of the house. An example is our daughter preparing for another school year. She’s packing and it seems our greys have set up a rotating schedule to pass by her room, get lovies, and covertly check on her progress.

You can’t always rely on the tail or ears of adopted greyhounds to show stress.  Or boredom. In greyhounds stress and boredom can look alot alike in ears and tail expressions. I’ve been at meet and greets when people thought my adopted greyhound was upset because the ears were flat or the tail was down. In reality, the grey was just in an open stance, waiting to see if the situation warranted getting excited.

Excitement however, is pretty obvious across the breed with perked ears, a tilted head, and often a high, wagging tail.

Three tips for soothing your adopted greyhound:

1. Use a steady voice. If your commands to your dog are steady and normal, you send the signal that the situation is normal too.

2. Use a gentle touch. The ears are good soothing pressure points, as is that space between the eyes. Most of our greyhounds have enjoyed gentle neck massages too. Combined with a calm voice, a soothing, repetitive touch can be a grounding point for your adopted greyhound.

3. Use a diversion. If the stress causes your adopted greyhound to act out, give them something positive to put that energy into. A safe bone, chunk of rope, or even a stuffed toy they can cuddle or destroy as needed.

Live the greyhound adventure!

Well, for those of you who’ve tuned in for an update on our adopted greyhound Boo’s tail, it seems all is well and she’ll get to keep every last inch of it. We are all (probably most especially Boo) quite happy the tail survived in tact.

The hair’s grown back so it no longer looks quite so (ahem) ugly and she’s pretty good about leaving it alone.

Brody has maintained the status quo for effectively blending grumpy with adorable as he lumbers along through each day. Though he’s started to keep a wary eye the packing process as our daughter prepares for her college move-in date.

Bandit, the youngest of our adopted greyhounds, has become quite the medical professional, keeping track of Boo as well as his human family lately. When my daughter broke her toe recently, Bandit detoured from the normal bedtime routine to race downstairs and check on her.

And in the days following that when I was laid up for several days, he seemed to understand. He hovered and checked on me, and was very careful not to lay on me, just next to me while I rested. He even forgave me for not going outside to play fetch on the days when I couldn’t quite stand upright. As a friend said recently, “That dog is just a couple hours short of achieving an LPN”.

He has help lately, as the pill pockets we use for Boo’s medicine are inexplicably more enticing than catnip to our feline contingent. If Bandit’s the nurse, Maverick has become the pharmacist and Sterling the assistant. Or maybe they’re both better classified as ‘addicts’.

Maverick barely restrains himself while I dispense Boo’s medicine. Then he’s hovering over the open bag of beef flavored pill pockets, while Sterling stalks in from the opposite side. No matter where I try to prep Boo’s ‘treat’ the cats are there, eager for a little nip of the beef.

Yeah, it’s a bit of a crazy zoo we live in with our three adopted greyhounds, two cats, and four finches, but I love them all. Most days.

Live the greyhound adventure!

For more information on finding and adopting the right greyhound for you, visit the Adopt A Greyhound Guide! Proceeds benefit retired greyhound rescue and adoption groups.