Spring 2007
Changes
Welcome to the much-delayed edition of our Newsletter. It goes without saying, these past few months have been a time of adaptation for us; we've lost a great friend and a driving force for the organization and, in the aftermath of our shock and grief, we all, in our own way, have been trying to discover how we need to grow to help fill in where this sturdy branch once was.

From this slow, tentative growth has come two guiding truths:

We have only been left on our own if we do not work together.

The appearance of our metaphorical “tree” has changed and some things will be done differently in the future to adapt to that change, but the common goal and the ability to achieve it remains steadfastly rooted.

These new changes will be highlighted in this and following newsletters. Now, more than ever, your feedback is welcome and needed. Please send any and all comments regarding this newsletter to Rachel Mittler, Newsletter Editor.
With Love to Ann
As most of you are aware, our dear friend and co-founder of our chapter Ann Sanders passed to spirit December 16th, 2006. A beautiful celebration of her life was held on January 27th - what would have been her 63rd birthday - at Los Palmas Park in Sunnyvale. Some seventy friends and family members accompanied by thirty greyhounds joined together to give thanks for the years of her live, love, and dedication to the dogs she brought into all our lives. Jon Kitto of G-BARK was the officiator for the ceremony and shared this beautiful poem:

Do Not Weep (author unknown)

Do not stand by my grave and weep
I am not dead, I do not sleep.

I am a thousands winds that blow
I am a diamond glint on snow.

I am the sunset on ripened grain,
I am the gentle autumn rain.

When you awake in the autumn hush,
I am the swift uplifting rush

Of quiet birds in circling flight,
I am the soft star shine at night.

Do not stand by my grave and cry,
I am not there, I did not die.

Thank you for everything, Ann. Godspeed on your journey.

Incoming!
Back to the business of saving dogs. Another load is on its way from Oklahoma and expected to be here March 17th. If you can help with transportation or open your heart and home to help a foster dog make the transition from track to couch, please let us know immediately by e-mailing Jim and Carolyn.
Why Would You Ever Want to Foster a Dog?
I remember thinking that exact thing when I was new to the whole GPA-NC world. To shed some light on the subject…and possibly tempt a few newcomers to give fostering a try, here's a new section for the newsletter “Five Questions for a Foster”. Our featured foster for this edition is Yvonne Oberman

Q: How long have you been fostering and how many dogs have you had?
A: My husband Kevin and I decided to take on fostering in September of 2006. Since then we have had a foster in November of 2006 and our current one, Fearless, came to us in February of 2007.

Q: Why did you start?
A: Having our own adopted greyhound and knowing the ups and downs we went through in getting her settled into our life and her new life started, it was something I wanted to do to help out these wonderful animals in getting their start with a new life.

Q: What do you like best about being a foster parent to a greyhound?
A: I like seeing the trust, the affection, and the playfulness blossom in these dogs as they explore their new environment. Whether you have them for a week, or longer, you start seeing changes almost right away.

Q: Isn't it hard to give them up when they go to their forever homes?
A: I wasn't sure how I was going to feel after my first fostering, whether I would have a hard time giving her up to her adoptive family. But, then, I read a book that compared human emotions and animal emotions. To me, as long as the greyhound was not going to pine and be miserable going to a new home, I had no problem with seeing them go off to their forever family. Sure I miss them, but I will always have a remembrance tucked away of what a great experience it was.

Q: If you could give one piece of advice to potential fosters, what would it be?
A: Have a lot of patience and a lot of love to give. The hardest part is the potty training, the cleanup after messes, and the training of doggie doors or the regularly scheduled outside breaks. But you get through that. If you've ever had a puppy, it all comes back to you very fast!
Thanks!
Our Thanks go out to Petco Foundation for a $1400 donation to GPA-NC from their Tree of Hope 2006 fundraiser. Overall, this campaign raised $2.7 million dollars that went to more than 4,000 animal organizations across the country and GPA-NC is thankful for the contributions to our organization.
Woof to Woof
Always want to help out, but never enough time? Here's a chance to help two great organizations at once! Vista Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired is hosting its 3rd Annual Woof to Woof event, Saturday, June 2, 2007, from 10:00 am to 3:00 pm, at the Skypark Soccer Complex in Scotts Valley CA. GPA-NC will have a booth there. If you and your hound(s) would like to come and help tell others how wonderful life with greyhounds can be, please be sure to save the date and check our website in the upcoming weeks for detailed information and volunteer opportunities regarding this event. For general information about this event, please visit The Vista Center and Woof to Woof.
Show and Tells, Simplified
To date, show and tells have been a major part of how we make our hounds and ourselves known to the public. However, they are getting increasingly more difficult to book, staff and coordinate. The end result being they are simply too few and far between to make a great difference. This is one example that anyone can do at anytime. (With thanks to Jack Fishbaugh for the contribution)

For the past year, every Saturday morning from 10 - 11 a.m. a group of adopters and their Greyhounds gather at Petsmart in Modesto. No tables. No chairs. No banners. No beds. Just half a dozen or more Greyhounds on leads enjoying each other and the attention they receive from the public and the clerks who know them by name. Every Saturday there is a one-hour celebration of Greyhounds at their elegant best in obvious contrast to the store full of rowdy "other breeds." People notice and ask questions and regularly vow that their next dog will be a Greyhound. This single hour never fails to leave us exhilarated and our Greyhounds ALWAYS know when it is Saturday. One even skips breakfast, because he knows that the clerks will supply him with biscuits.
The formula is simple; just you with your Greyhound and a pocketful of flyers can start it and in a short period of time you are bound to meet others who will want to join you. No one has to be there every week, but I can tell you, you will want to be.

Don't have any flyers? Click here to download one to print on your own printer!

Interested but really want a buddy for that first run? Send an e-mail to the same address (be sure to include the city where you live) and we'll see that you have the e-mail addresses of others near you making the same request.

New Adoptions
Greyt Greyhounds, this is a long list! We've successfully found forever homes for two groups of dogs that we brought in from Oklahoma and a group from Caliente Track in Mexico. We thank the many volunteer handlers, fosters, and transportation providers that made this happen.

The first group of ten arrived in California on September 16, 2006.
These included (in order of GPA-NC tag number):

*Jada*, adopted by Tim Kazerian & Machelle Parfitt. They also decided to adopt *Jayz* to keep Jada company.

*Stoney*, adopted by the Essers.

*Cassie* found a home the the Fabbris

*Nitro Moe* started out as a foster dog with the Senakarns and fit in so well with the family he had to stay.

*Magnus*, adopted by Judi Simmons and Anthony Hilliard.

*Sally*, adopted by the Wojtas family is enjoying her siblings Charlie & Lucy.

*Nyrobi* found her forever home with the Pernes

We have been told that greyhounds with Roman noses were lucky. While being fostered with Jon & Alsonso at G-BARK, *Maya* proved that to be true by convincing Joyce Lively and Ron Kardon, a couple of G-BARK's regular clients, to bring her home.

*Kismet*, adopted by Tim Peer & Bob Birnstihl, is trying to become more educated by chewing on the works of Chopin and Rachmaninof

A second group of 8 greyhounds arrived in California on November 18, 2006. These included:

*Penny*, adopted by the Mohrs

*Domino* convinced first-time foster Josephine Elizaga to make his stay permanent.

*Beth* joins Mark Anger and Sarah Burns.

*Spencer* will get lots of time near the ocean with his new family, the Huculaks

*Sadie* joined the Ousley family

*Ginger*, adopted by the Ritz's

*Ellie*, adopted by Miranda Peacock.

A group of 3 greyhounds from the Caliente track in Mexico arrived in California on February 3, 2007. Those adopted included:

*Dee* was adopted by Matt Core and Shelley Heim.

*Anubis* (formerly Buddy) was adopted by Lorraine Daoust and Dawn Benere.


New homes were found for:
*Abby*, now enjoying the life of a beach dog.

*Ginger Snap* and *Zoe*, two young littermates, were both adopted by the Mandell Family.

*Hank*, adopted by Bill Lapcevic.

*Tess*, adopted by the Russells.

*Newbie* was adopted by the Smith family, where he is getting to know his new greyhound sister Sammy and Bailey Beagle brother.
In Foster Care and Looking For a Forever Home
Pete and Fearless. Pete is a large, sweet male, was formerly in a prison dog program, and loves to be around people. Fearless is small male who is a bit shy, but coming out of his shell.
Happy Birthday to...Your Hound!
But how do you know when to celebrate? Most of us know the tattoos in a Greyhound's ear will tell you his or her birth year and month, but there is so much more information that can be gathered about your hound simply by checking ears, making a phone call, or checking the internet. Read on for some very helpful information from the Shofstahls:

Racing greyhounds have two ear tattoos that uniquely identify them. The tattoo in the left ear is the National Greyhound Association (NGA) litter registration number. The tattoo in the right ear lists the month in which the dog was whelped, the last digit of dog's birth year, and the order in which the dog was tattooed. The combination of this information is used by the NGA to identify the greyhound's owner and verify the dog's identity before a race.

You can use this information to learn more about your dog. For example, our greyhound, Wendy, had a left ear tattoo of 85541 and a right ear tattoo of 119G. This told us that her birthday was in November of 1999 (and that she was the 7th dog in her litter to be tattooed). With this information, we contacted the NGA via their website. You can also find them via their email address at nga@ngagreyhounds.com, or write to them at NGA, P.O. Box 543, Abilene, KS 67410. We learned Wendy's racing name (BC Miss Peggy), exact birth date (November 29, 1999), and family lineage (dam was Abby Absolut and sire was Bobo's Breaker). When communicating with the NGA, it helps to provide a description of a dog (sex, color, approximate age); this aids them in determining the racing name if the dog's tattoos cannot be clearly read.

The NGA website also contains a link to a greyhound database maintained by greyhound-lovers that records information about greyhounds and provides it free-of-charge to greyhound lovers. This website contains a tattoo look-up feature. Once we had a racing name, we could then search the internet to find out Wendy's racing history. As it turned out, Wendy's racing career was short and dismal - but, lucky for her, she was a winner at finding her resting place on our couch.
Current Board Members
Current Board Members

President: Jim Shofstahl
Vice President: Jill Mazzei
Treasurer: Sherrlyn Lancaster
Webmaster/Secretary: Jennifer Morales
Foster Coordinator: Carolyn Koester
Merchandise/Picnic Coordinator: Nina Denegri
Liason to GPA National: Scott Sanders (also Vice President GPA)
Board Members at Large: Jack Fishbaugh, Delene and Richard Dunne

We hope this has been an informative and enjoyable - if a bit lengthy - newsletter.

Have a greyt spring!
Greyhound Adoption California is a chapter of Greyhound Pets of America 1-800-366-1472