Monthly Archive for November, 2009

MISSING GREYHOUND, WEST CALDER

Published on November 21, 2009 in Uncategorized. 1 Comment Tags: animals, anxiety, appeal, bentyhead, black, charity, contact, dogs, dogs trust, eh55, fearful, find, foster, gracehounds, greyhounds, handmade, help, lost, midlothian, missing, nervous, pets, public, rehabiliation, run away, scotland, search, sighthound, sighting, west calder, west lothian, white.

This is an appeal to help find wee Poppy, one of Gracehounds‘ foster dogs. She has been missing in the West Calder area of West Lothian, Scotland since Monday 16th November.

Poppy

Poppy is a small female greyhound. Her coat is black with a white bib and socks. She is very frightened of people especially men: PLEASE DO NOT APPROACH HER AS SHE WILL RUN. Poppy is wearing a collar & is microchipped. The police, dog wardens and local vets have all been informed.

If you spot her please call one of the following numbers:

Dogs Trust: 01506 873 459

Lois: 07989 963556

Rhona: 07954 213977

Location where Poppy went missing

Poppy, who I blogged about just one month ago (see this post) lived in her foster home for several months, but remained an extremely anxious dog & was fearful of most people & other dogs. After being assessed by a professional dog behaviourist, she was transported to the Dogs Trust centre at West Calder on Monday evening, where she was to receive expert help with rehabilitation. However, upon arrival at the centre, Poppy managed to escape from her harness & run away.

Both Gracehounds volunteers & Dogs Trust staff have been searching for her since & she was sighted in the area on Tuesday evening. However, being so fearful, Poppy will run from anyone who tries to approach her. Therefore, if she is sighted we are asking that Gracehounds or Dogs Trust are contacted immediately by telephone on the numbers above. It has been appalling weather this past few days (wet, windy & cold) but it is hoped that Poppy has found a safe haven to keep herself warm & dry. She has a high prey drive, so may have been able to sustain herself.

Tomorrow, along with other Gracehounds volunteers & their dogs, I am travelling to West Calder to help search for Poppy & distribute posters & fliers in the local area. If you or anyone you know lives or works nearby, please please keep an eye out for Poppy & pass the word on so that this beautiful but troubled dog can be saved.

Poppy

Toasting Marshmallows

Published on November 18, 2009 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments Tags: animals, autumn, bonfire, countryside, dogs, efa, etsy, etsy for animals, fall, fire, greyhounds, guy fawkes, marshmallows, max, mcetsy, midlothian, molly, national association of registered petsitters, pets, photographs, scotland, shop, tar, treasury.

A fortnight ago, to celebrate Guy Fawkes Night (& just for fun really!), we built a big bonfire in our back garden. When I say ‘we’ I guess I mostly mean Martin as he was the one who built the fire pit in our garden earlier this summer & he was the one who gathered & prepared all the wood! I was mostly in charge of buying the marshmallows

Martin’s Dad & sister & their partners travelled up from England to join us for the weekend. With 6 people & 3 greyhounds, it was a rather crowded house, so any excuse to get outside was welcome!

It was a cracking good fire & kept us all nice & warm for hours as we huddled round it toasting marshmallows on sticks. Even the dogs were tempted off the sofas to come join us round the fire (although no marshmallows for them!).

Inspired by our bonfire (& Guy Fawkes Night in general), I curated this treasury of fiery finds on Etsy. Mmmmnn… these chocolate marshmallows look deelish!

The treasury is no longer ‘live’ (as I was somewhat behind in updating my blog!) but please do visit the shops of these talented artists, many of who are members of street teams McEtsy & Etsy For Animals.

Born to Run

Published on November 13, 2009 in Uncategorized. 1 Comment Tags: animals, bandana, born to run, charity, design, dogs, double suspension gallop, etsy, gracehounds, greyhounds, handmade, midlothian, molly, monochrome, pets, photographs, print, running, screenprinting, shop, the dog house, vest.

We adopted our beautiful greyhound Molly, a 3 1/2 year old black & white ex-racer, from our local greyhound rehoming charity in December ’08. She was photographed on a recent walk near Penicuik, running at full speed in the ‘double suspension gallop‘ typical of greyhounds, with all 4 paws free from the ground. When I see the pure joy in her face at moments like this, I know that she truly was born to run!

Using the technique I describe in this tutorial, I converted the above photograph of Molly to a monochrome image, then, as described in this tutorial, I created a reusable printing screen of the image.

So far I have used this to hand print my ‘Born to Run’ design onto cotton bandanas for dogs, as well as comfortable vests for their human counterparts…

BORN TO RUN hand printed indigo on turquoise cotton doggy bandana

BORN TO RUN hand printed indigo on baby blue ladies cotton vest top

BORN TO RUN hand printed charcoal grey on fluorescent yellow womens ultrafine tunic tank

BORN TO RUN hand printed indigo on white cotton womens racerback vest

The above products are all for sale in my Etsy shop.

Congratulations to Colin!

Published on November 13, 2009 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments Tags: adopt, charity, dogs, foster, fundraising, gracehounds, greyhounds, handmade, just giving, marathon, midlothian, new york, new york city marathon, pets, photographs, rehoming, running, torres, training.

Back in May this year, Colin, Lynne, Katy & I completed the 10K long Great Edinburgh Run in aid of Gracehounds, our local greyhound rehoming charity. Subsequently, Colin set his sights on another challenge & decided to run the 2009 New York City Marathon to raise further funds for the charity.

Roddy & Sophie ‘help’ Colin with his training

Since May, Colin has been hard in training (the rest of us took the more greyhound-like approach & relaxed on our sofas!) & on 1st November, joined by friends & family in New York, he completed all 26.2 miles of the marathon. He has raised a total of almost £3000 for Gracehounds!

17 down, 6 to go: Colin at 17 miles

Colin says,

“Well, I did it. It was not the fastest time – 4:24:41 putting me in 23,797th place but, with 43,741 starting and 43,475 finishing, it means that 19,944 runners crossed the finish line after me!

I’ve been amazed at the support I’ve had and the money you donated. It will be a great help to the dogs in the coming year.

All money donated will go to the charity to look after the dogs and none to the marathon or travel. Thank you for your support.”

25 miles & still running

You can still sponsor Colin via his Just Giving page & see more photographs of the event here.

a proud moment

In other news, Gracehounds has recently found permanent homes for both Torres & Snowflake, & welcomes latest foster dog, Jackson.