Help Special Needs Greyhounds with Stella & Dot

I adopted my greyhound, Flash, From McGregor Greyhound Welfare Center in Alabama & the staff was wonderful in helping him come home to me. I truly can’t imagine my life without him! He went from a shy, nervous dog to one who is happy and bouncing – always with a wagging tail! The adoption volunteers work very hard to place these wonderful greyhounds in homes not just in Alabama but in homes all over the country! Unfortunately, the group is a bit short on funds now to help some of their “special needs” dogs such as Maddock and Slick!

So what do you have to do to help?!?!

As a stylist with the ultra-fashionable Stella & Dot jewelry, I am going to be holding an “online only” trunk show starting immediately until December 31, 2011

Just purchase any item(s) from my personal Stella & Dot website – www.stelladot.com/cindipatterson - and I will donate 50% of my commission from all purchases during this period to McGregor Greyhound Welfare Center for the benefit of their special needs dogs!

And for a super fun bonus…

Normally, if you held a trunk show in your home, as the hostess, you would be eligible to receive free and half priced jewelry based on the totally amount of sales from the event.

Because this is trunk show is “online only” - anyone making an order in excess of $150, will have his/her name entered in a drawing held on January 1, 2012 to be the online “hostess” & receive the hostess perks of free and half-priced jewelry!

(The amount of benefits you’ll ultimately receive will depend on the total amount of the overall “online only” show)

In short, you’ll look fabulous for spring in some gorgeous jewelry, help special needs greyhounds AND have the chance to win some free jewelry too!

Thank you!
Cindi Patterson
Stella & Dot Stylist
www.stelladot.com/cindipatterson

p.s. if you're quick, you can still order by December 19th & receive your items in time for Christmas!

We're Baaaccckkkk!

Well things have certainly changed. For the better I hope. A very trying summer has led into an interesting fall, and what so far, as been a good winter. Flash & Evie are still together with me. Gracie is behind at the house. Without going into all the sordid details, I tried to keep all three dogs together, but logistically, I was unable to do so when I moved. We still see Gracie most weekends [as we just took her out this past Sunday]. She's quite lonely being an only dog now, and certain people work too much to care about her well-being & spend time with her, but I hope she'll adjust over time.

Flash is not the same dog I talked about a year ago or even 6mo ago! It's amazing! He's friendly, outgoing, and quite cheeky with other dogs when we're out & about.

Evie is doing well. She turned 11yrs on 10/17 and I hope to spend many more years with her! She can still be weird at times. But that's Evie. Next week she's going in for a dental & will probably lose half her remaining teeth :(

And me... the job situation is [unfortunately] stagnant. But I'm starting a GREAT supplemental opportunity to bring in some extra money & keep these dogs in the style to which they've become accustom! What is it you ask???? I will be a stylist for Stella & Dot Jewelry! Go check them out - and if you need anything, of course shoot me a message :)

Loving where I live now. Loving the great group of friends I've made over the last 7mo. Love the support I've received from friends in Australia, England, and all over the US. Odd how I can almost trust friends I've made who are thousands of miles away rather than those who are closer.

Here's a picture to tide you over. I'll write more later! Glad to be back :)

Things are Changing...

Things at home are in a state of transition. Not sure about everything now but will have to post about it at a later time.

Here are pictures from the past two weeks:

Dogs Can Get Concussions [long...]

Who knew? I learned on Saturday. After running all over town to have sets of race jackets made for Gracie & Flash and signing them up for LGRA [straight racing] and NOTRA [oval racing] for the weekend, Saturday's straight racing finally arrived.

Practiced Flash a few times in & out of the boxes to get him used to it - and the noise. When the boxes open, they can make quite a banging sound. And knowing Flash, any unknown or unfamiliar noise can cause panic. He did VERY well with the help of a pharoh hound owner! Time to qualify...a nice lady who owns silken windhounds [totally cute little borzoi/whippet cross of a dog - bigger than a whippet but smaller than a greyhound] took Flash & Gracie down to load them into the boxes while I waited at the other end to "catch" them! Perfection! Thundering greyhounds. Flash overshot the lure. Gracie dove for it - hit her head & her right shoulder flared out in an odd angle.

Walking off the field, Gracie started to collapse. She couldn't seem to put weight on her right side and her breathing seemed "off." Did she have a dislocated shoulder or break something? I screamed for help as I couldn't get her to stand & was also trying to deal with Flash. Gracie's eyes appeared to glaze over but she could somewhat focus on people. She had weird shallow breathing - not the huge chest expanding breaths a greyhound should be taking at this point. ER vet? Her gums turned a weird purpl-ish color. Hmmm. Ran to the car & by the time I got it down to her, people carried her to me & her color came back. She began breathing normally, drank some water. Loaded up Flash & made the almost 2hr drive from down near Tacoma to Snohomish to the vet.

Xrays taken. Not her trachea [thought maybe cause she seemed to be breathing oddly], not her lungs. Diagnosis = mild head trauma [aka minor concussion]. Didn't even know dogs could have such a thing, but apparently it does happen.

SIGNS OF A CONCUSSION:

• Losing conciousness for a period of time [though not always]


• Woozy or disoriented behaviour [normally from a mild/light blow]


• Vomiting, not eating OR eating normally & vomiting frequently


• Dilated pupils in one or both eyes


• Seizures


• Lethargic, extremely tired or disoriented


• Difficult to wake if excessively sleepy


• Aggressive behaviour if the bruised area is touched


• Head tilted or hanging in an odd manner

Not all of these symptoms are present but if any are, you should probably consider going to the vet as there could be a more underlying condition like a skull fracture, brain swelling or bleeding. Seizures are normally a sign of a severe brain injury. It doesn't matter how hard you were hit, but HOW you were hit. A bump on the head doesn't have to be big and dramatic to cause a lot of damage.

By the time we arrived home, Gracie was back to her normal self. Ate fine, drinking fine, and played a little. Papa was up a few times with her overnight to check on her & let her out to potty. Honestly, I was disappointed that they didn't get to run a full program of straights as the qualifying run looked SO good but I'm SO glad Gracie is OK!

Sunday, we went down for the oval racing. On vet advice [and stern lecture], Gracie wasn't allowed [quite frustrating because she was SO eager & excited] to run so we turned in their paperwork to get NOTRA numbers for next time and signed up Flash for practices.

I was concerned because Gracie wasn't running with him & was unsure if he'd run without her or freak in the boxes despite doing fine yesterday. WOW we were wrong! Flash & Gracie were QUITE vocal in the car watching the whippets run. Barking. Spinning. Yelping & yipping. Annoying, yet fun :)

Gracie & Flash watching the action with papa...

Let me at that lure papa!


And a brief run preview:

Wish Us Luck...

So, Flash has had many digestive issues since he's been here in September. All sorts of trials, probiotics, etc. Determined lamb is too rich for him; salmon & sweetpotato by Diamond [at Costco] showed some improvement but ultimately too rich I think. Settled on Kirkland Chicken...

Gracie also has digestive problems. Massive antibiotics for an infection she had plus probiotics helped marginally. Her continual plant/foliage/shrubbery eating + the poo eating = she's lacking something in her diet. I started her on vitamin supplement in her food this week - but I'm suspect that it may be giving her the horrid runny poo/diarrhea she has now.

Now to be fair, I've fed super high premium dog foods before [AvoDerm, Canidae, etc] until my dogs went from 2 to 5. When I had 5 adult *performance* greyhounds in my house that ate through 2.5 bags [at 40lbs each] per month - $50+ per bag would've been insane. Kirkland was a great choice & my dogs did great on it for years. They were also supplemented by raw food with their kibbles.

So...It came down to a choice between Go! grain free and Taste of the Wild. I went with the bison Taste of the Wild. Hopefully the meat will be nice & neutral - not too rich - for Flash. Hopefully it will provide plenty of vitamins for Gracie. Maybe the extreme gas will stop too.

From their website:



Protein: 32% Fat: 18%
Calcium: 2.1%, as-fed; Phosphorus: 1.4%, as-fed
Calories: 3,719 kcal/kg (370 kcal/cup) Calculated Metabolizable Energy
Available in 5lb, 15lb and 30lb bags.

Ingredients
Bison, lamb meal, chicken meal, egg product, sweet potatoes, peas, potatoes, canola oil, roasted bison, roasted venison, natural flavor, tomato pomace, ocean fish meal, salt, choline chloride, dried chicory root, tomatoes, blueberries, raspberries, yucca schidigera extract, dried fermentation products of Enterococcus faecium, Lactobacillus acidophilus, Lactobacillus casei and Lactobacillus plantarum, dried Trichoderma longibrachiatum fermentation extract, vitamin E supplement, iron proteinate, zinc proteinate, copper proteinate, ferrous sulfate, zinc sulfate, copper sulfate, potassium iodide, thiamine mononitrate (vitamin B1), manganese proteinate, manganous oxide, ascorbic acid, vitamin A supplement, biotin, niacin, calcium pantothenate, manganese sulfate, sodium selenite, pyridoxine hydrochloride (vitamin B6), vitamin B12 supplement, riboflavin (vitamin B2), vitamin D supplement, folic acid

Yes, it's much higher in protein than Kirkland, so hopefully it won't be too rich...but wish us luck...I bought a small bag tonight & mixed it in with the Kirkland...

It's Been Awhile...

and I know I promised myself I'd blog more this year. What happened?

Update on the dogs:
Flash is doing TONS better. He still has his moments. I'm thinking more about his behaviour, and his biggest phobia is new situations [not terribly uncommon] and the door. He's afraid of the door - as I think he thinks it's going to pinch him when he comes in the house. Coming in the house can totally freak him out. He's getting better around men - and warming to Alan more. He even sleeps with us in bed at night.

Gracie. She's very loving and friendly. Loves to lick your face and can be held like a baby. She's still *very* enthusiastic about things, and follows you everywhere to the point of being annoying. Her new nick-name is "chicane." She has also stolen 3 peanut butter & jelly sandwhiches off the counter [2 in one day no less] because someone in the house makes them, leaves them close to the edge, then walks away to do something else. She's also about to start a new vitamin supplement in hopes of stopping her eating poo and the plants in the back yard.

Evie. Started Glyoflex III tablets as the arthritis has been rearing its ugly head of late. After all the running today, she'll probably get a tramadol for pain at dinner. I just want her to have fun in her later years, as well as be comfortable & as pain free as possible.

Everyone [well, namely Flash & Gracie] are improving on their off leash skills. Today we went to the other side of the off-leash park nearby that has access to the river. It flooded a few months ago & the river changed a bit. There used to be a big sandy area to run - so maybe it will reappear this summer. Right now, I didn't want them too close as the current was wayyyyy to fast and cold!

Wordless Wednesday

Pretty.

We had some snow right before the new year - and because it stayed in the low 30s during the day, it stuck around for awhile. Just an inch or two, but it was pretty with all the snow near the house. It was also in the teens at night - so it all turned to crunchy icy snow :( Odd as downtown Seattle where I work had absolutely nothing! It will start to finally disappear this weekend as rain is expected.