Shock Horror!

Galaxy Defender post's another blog (see - AWWWW the poor neglected BLOG) without a reference to Star Wars AND their wasn't even a moral, I'm losing my touch so here it is....

Quote: "That's no moon. It's a space station." - Obi-Wan Kenobi
Moral: Space Stations sometimes look like Moons.

AWWW, the poor neglected BLOG!

It's been so long since I last posted, must do better!....

Well you'd have thought what with Christmas and all that the hard working GAL volunteers would have gotten a break, no such luck, seems homeless hounds don't know what Christmas is!

So what has been happening in GAL land? Well I guess the first thing to say is we've kicked off 2005 at full speed with 6 dogs already off to their new homes in fact since our AGM on October 30th we've managed to re-home 41 dogs in total, if we keep this Dave reckons he'll reach his target of re-homing 200 dogs by the next AGM in October 2005!

I've already mentioned pups in a previous post, I guess Christmas just wouldn't be the same with a couple of little ankle biters to re-home, this festive season we've seen 5 Lurcher pups and 2 Greyhound pups go to their new homes but we ain't finished yet as we still have available 2 more lurcher pups and 1 Greyhound pup.

Talking of pups, we were also asked to rehome a young Greyhound called Lulu, Lulu was actually the mum of the 3 greyhound pups we got in just before Christmas, if you check out the homeless hounds page you'll see the lovely Lulu in a quiet moment sitting beside one of her pups, Douglas (Douglas is the remaining Greyhound pup still looking for a home) ain't he the spit image of his mum? Dave tells me it took him 2 hours to take the picture (so please no-one mention it's slightly out of focus!!).

Still on the dog front we've had a small 'influx' of 'golden oldies' recently, Sandy, a 13 year old Greyhound went to his new home last month after spending his entire life in kennels, he's loving his home comforts so much that his new mum actually has difficulty getting him outside for his walk. When he sees his lead being produced the poor chap scampers off to his bed and tries to hide! We still have a few old timers looking for new homes, Suzie is a 9 year old Greyhound, currently in a GAL foster home after her owner passed away and Dash is an 11 year old Lurcher boy who we really hope to find a new home for soon with his companion for the last 7 years, Abby, a 7 year old Lurcher.

On the dog front in general we're still bursting at the seams, although the numbers have reduced slightly recently we still have 62 dogs looking for new homes.

Switching to events now, we've still to finalize our calendar for 2005, we're hoping to get it all sorted out pretty soon, a new feature this year is going to be our monthly dog walks. We've decided to organize these thinking it'll be an excellent opportunity for current owners to meet up and chat whilst giving potential new owners the chance to meet some hounds and their owners. The plan is for the walks to take place on the first Sunday of the month in Strathclyde Park in Glasgow, we're hoping for the first walks to start in February so watch this space (and the events page) for more information!!

OK, I promise to post more news later!

Record Numbers!

This time last year we had around 30 dogs looking for homes, as I write we have 65 dogs looking for homes. As you can see GAL is becoming a victim of it's own succuss with more and more owners and trainers asking us to rehome their unwanted dogs. At the moment we're just about keeping our heads above water thanks to our great foster homes and kennels and in fact the number of homeless dogs has actually decreased from 77 this time last week (yes we HAVE been busy!)

So Galaxy Defenders Christmas wish is for 65 loving homes to be found for these dogs (so we can make room for the next 65 that will inevitably come!)

PUPPY POWER (again!!)

It just wouldn't be christmas at GAL without PUPS. This will be the third year running that we've had pups looking for homes. No full litters this year, we've been handed in quite a mixed bag spanning a number of litters.

We currently have 2 Greyhound pups and 4 lurcher pups looking for homes, these all come from 4 different litters and are aged between 8 and 13 weeks, for fear of creating a mad puppy rush at Christmas we've not really advertised the fact we have pups, this is not a good time of year for them however due to space constraints at our kennels we've had to put some of them on the web....have a wee peek at the 'youngsters' page. Dead cute eh? (and quite a handful!)

Through word of mouth we've actually homed 3 pups already, Isla, Fudge & Annie will be spending Christmas with their new families!...

It's been a while....

....since I 'blogged'. I'm sorry for neglecting all you readers! GAL have recently set up a new forum and I've been spending most of my time there, I must admit to preferring the BLOG, people can't answer back to me here!

If you want to take a peek at the forum go here - http://forum.gal.org.uk/ - you'll need to register if you want to post anything!

I will return soon!

The New Boy

Here he is - Galaxy Force's first ever fawn foster dog. Try saying that after a few!



Puppy Douglas - his temporary name - is a special wee boy. He is very aware of the other dogs and gives them all the right signals, rarely getting into mischief with them. He's very submissive and tries his hardest to make friends. He's going to be a real softy.

He had his first jags yesterday and goes back in 3 weeks for the second lot. When he's there we'll have the vet (double) check him for a loud heart murmur. First time the vet wasn't sure if he was hearing it right and apparently murmurs can be misdiagnosed easily in pups, especially greyhounds.

We'll let you know how he gets on.

GAL Christmas Show

PHEW! Thats it over for another year. Despite having the show over 2 days this year we were still overwhelmed with the attendance on both days. Thanks to everyone who turned up and joined in the fun and congratulations to all the class winners, what a handsome bunch, we'll post the results here later.

On the homing front we had an excellent couple of days with 6 dogs homed on the day (Bess, Blondie & Mouse all went on Sunday, Isla (one of the Greyhound pups) went yesterday and Scooby & Abby are going this weekend)

3 dogs found new foster homes (Vixie goes in 3 weeks time and will be a 'keeper' if she behaves, Coll (another one of the Greyhound pups went yesterday) and Bella will also be another 'keeper' if she behaves with her new foster parents and their family.

2 dogs were booked pending Home Checks, Sim Card's adoptees were actually home checked on Monday and Sim went to live with them last night. Goldie's adoptees will be Home Checked in the next few days.

We also had 2 enquiries from the show about the Lurcher pups we currently have, both enquiries were from people with GAL dogs and following visits to meet the little rascals today 2 have found new homes.

Finally we received 4 application forms over the weekend and Home Checks are being organised for these.

Can't wait for next year!!

100 Club Results for November

Here are the 100 Club results for November - in time for a change!

1st - 185 - Alison Pollock - £55.50
2nd - 208 - Julie Marshall - £33.30
3rd - 196 - Claire Hart and Dave Hall - £22.20

and £111 was raised for GAL funds.

Congratulations to the winners!

My name is Legion, for we are many

OK, so I’ve started quoting the bible now.

Legion is GAL’s latest arrival, other than we thought it was a cool name we called him Legion because he’s a Black Greyhound. The Legion in the bible was 2000 devils who possessed the body of a man. (The story worked out because Jesus came along and exorcised the all, who said the bible was boring eh?)

Well, GAL has their very own Legion possessing most of our kennel space and foster homes at the moment. I am of course talking about the multitude of Black dogs we currently have available (oh god he’s on about Black dogs again!) Yes I am!

We simply seem unable to temp anyone to adopt one of these dogs, Black is definitely not the in colour this year. Of the 57 dogs currently available for adoption 21 of them are Black.

So we’re now looking for 21 Jesus figures to come and exorcise these dogs, any volunteers?..

Fireworks Again

The new fireworks legislation came into force in October 2004 and introduced curfews, noise limits and fixed penalty notices. But they haven't stopped dogs dying.

Poor Poppy was so traumatised by a firework noise that she ran off and even swam a river trying to escape. The poor girl was then killed by a car - an incident which also traumatised the car driver. And, ironically, JayCee's owners took her up to Glencoe to avoid the blitz and she ran off last Thursday and hasn't been seen since.

Several GAL supporters have reported less than normal fireworks activity but when speaking to Galaxy Chocolate the other night I wondered if she'd been deployed to Iraq to entertain the troops!

I love watching fireworks but they're not worth this!

LINK: Ban the Bang

GAL Homing Report for Year Ending October 2004

Dave, GAL'S hard working Homing Co-Ordinator, presented GAL's homing figures at the AGM last weekend. These figures cover the 12 month period to 31st October 2004. Dave was pretty disappointed at not breaking the 200 hundred barrier this year but promises to try harder in the next 12 months!

For that 12 month period GAL rehomed 196 dogs, this consisted of 68 male Greyhounds, 50 female Greyhounds, 40 male Lurchers and 38 female Lurchers.

The first 3 dogs of the 'new' year went to their new homes this week and at time of writing GAL have 53 dogs in kennels or foster homes, it's going to be a busy 12 months!!...

GAL AGM

Well thats it, the AGM is over for another year, we'd like to thank everyone who attended, it was actually the best attended AGM for a good few years. It's good to see so many of our members willing to participate in the discussions and taking an interest in what goes on 'behind the scenes' at GAL.

Hopefully see more of you there next year!

WARNING - FIREWORKS KILL

Fireworks once again account for the tragic loss of a beloved pet.

Late on Thursday afternoon Poppy a beautiful young lurcher was being walked in Linn Park by her owners along with their other rescue lurcher Cassie. Suddenly fireworks exploded far too close for comfort and Poppy took fright and bolted. Her distraught owners searched for her terrified she had perhaps tried to swim across the river badly swollen after days of heavy rain and been washed away.

They returned home once it became too dark to search any longer and found they'd received a message from the PDSA. Poppy had been brought into them after being involved in a road traffic accident. Poppy had indeed swum the river and run out of the main gates of the park onto a busy road, she died that night.

Her owners are devastated and understandably finding it very difficult to come to terms with the loss of Poppy.

Sadly they are not the only people suffering after this terrible accident.

On Saturday I received a call from the driver of the car involved in the accident. She was given my number by someone who thought I might know Poppy's owners.

Ann is a dog lover and had her own dog in the car with her when the accident took place. Terribly shocked by the accident she was unable to drive, thankfully other drivers had stopped and a kind couple took Poppy to the PDSA.

Ann had phoned the PDSA to ask about Poppy and was told they were unable to give her any information. Despite telling her as gently as I could that Poppy had died, Ann was inconsolable and said she will live with the memory of the accident for the rest of her life.

At this time of year fireworks cause untold misery to millions of pets. Rescue kennels overflow with dogs found wandering after being terrified by fireworks.

It goes without saying that we must all take extra care, even if our dog/s don't seem particularly bothered by the bangs and flashes. Like Poppy it may only take a firework to explode in close proximity and the consequences stay with us forever.

SCRUFFY

This is GAL's latest arrival, his new foster mum has called him SCRUFFY, you can see why!

Last Sunday (24th October) GAL received an urgent phone call from a vets. They had picked up a Lurcher with an unusual and terribly sad story. The dog had been spotted roaming round the local area for over 6 weeks, it was known by the local residents that the dogs owners, on discovering their dog had a broken leg, had simply abandoned him.

Many attempts were made to catch the dog and finally on Sunday the local vet with the aid of some friends managed to catch him.

The dog was taken into the vets surgery and immediately examined. The dogs leg was indeed VERY badly broken and needed to be amputated immediately. This is where GAL comes in, the vet needed paid for the very expensive operation then needed to find a home where the dog could recuperate.

As far as GAL was concerned the money was not a problem, finding a foster home at such short notice was, however, after a number of frantic calls a great foster home was found for him.

The dogs leg was amputated successfully that day and the dog went to his new foster home the next day where he was quickly renamed SCRUFFY.

As you can see by his picture SCRUFFY is a strange looking character, after being a stray for so long he is very underweight and his coat is in a pretty bad condition. SCRUFFY is also a VERY nervous boy and is only now, after 4 days in his new home, beginning to allow his foster parent to gently touch and stroke him.

SCRUFFY was taken to the vets today for a check up, he's recovering well from his operation however some bad news was awaiting him. On examining x-rays of his leg prior to amputation a large mass within the leg was identified as the cause of the leg break. Following tests on this mass it has been diagnosed as an osteosarcoma. In laymans terms this is a very aggressive cancer which had grown from the inside of the leg and forced the bone to splinter and break.

This type of cancer is virulent and fatal with the usual life span after diagnosis being 6 months, as SCRUFFY had been roaming free for at least 6 weeks the cancer will have spread to the rest of his body.

After being contacted by the vet who caught SCRUFFY the police and the SSPCA are now launching criminal charges against SCRUFFY'S old owners.

I'll leave you with the last line of an email I received earlier from SCRUFFY'S foster mum -

''I shall give him all the love he wants and more and hope that his last weeks or months are a lot happier than he has obviously been in a long time if ever''

New Web Site

WOW! Isn't the new website so COOL! Hats off to the webmistress who's been shackled to her desk for the last 6 weeks, she's now off for a well earned sleep! Hope you all like it!

Once she's recovered I'm going to ask her to install the same software into my Millennium Falcon, with that type of technology there's no way the Storm Troopers will catch me!

GAL AGM

This years GAL AGM will take place at the SSPCA Center at Bothwell bridge near Hamilton on October 31st. The AGM will start at 11am sharp.

Did you know that EVERY GAL member is entitled to both attend the meeting AND vote for new committee members for the next 12 months. All members will be receiving an invite and voting form in the next few days.

Despite a few regular attendees the turn out at the last few AGM's has been really disappointing so I'd like to encourage all GAL members to attend this years meeting.

GAL couldn't survive without regular support from our members and this is a great opportunity for all members to meet the new committee face to face, find out a bit more about what GAL have been up to in the last 12 months and what our plans for the next 12 months are.

The committee are always looking for feedback from our members and this is the ideal opportunity to have your say or get any questions you might have answered!

Scooby Snacks

Well I never thought it would happen but it just did! Click on the 'see the dogs' page then 'special needs' then 'Scooby'. I guess no matter how much we trimmed him we wouldn't be able to fool anyone into thinking he was a lurcher!!

Scooby is a young Border Collie recently dumped at our kennels in Glasgow, he's a lovely boy and being a collie he's super intelligent. We've been at a bit of a loss about what to do with him but hey we're a dog rescue so why not?

Scooby is now available for homing through GAL, fingers crossed he'll be the first collie homed by GAL (and double fingers crossed he's the last!)

The Trials and Tribulations of a Greyhound Rescue

How to waste 3 peoples time and a whole Saturday afternoon and not to mention a valuable kennel space, I'm annoyed can you tell?

Our latest addition to the homeless hounds page is GRIFF, he's a lovely 3yr old Brindle boy, here's his story -

GAL were contacted by his previous owner a couple of days ago asking for him to be re-homed, the reason? Girlfriend is 6 months pregnant and wants him outa the house by the time the baby arrives. We were told GRIFF is great with dogs and cats (as long as they are not black cats, but that's another story...) Well with 7 people currently waiting for a catsafe hound we decided to cat test GRIFF very quickly...

A couple of GAL volunteers offered their cats to be the subject of the test so of they went to collect GRIFF, the deal was this, GRIFF is to be picked up, driven 10 minutes down the road, cat tested, assessed with dogs and kids then delivered back to the current owner, if he's catsafe he goes to a new home within days....so, GRIFF is duly picked up however the owner now says he needs moved within the week as he now has a full time job. OK that's a problem but lets get on with the assessment, GRIFF arrives at the house where our test subjects live and is taken out of the car, the cats are sitting in the lounge window awaiting his arrival.

At this point GRIFF see's the cats and decides the gate, front lawn and double glazing aint goany stop him having some dinner. OK, no worries, he was on lead and our volunteers restrained him, not cat safe then....

After a quick picture shoot and a brief assessment GRIFF is taken back to his owner, this is where things get interesting, the owner is not in, the house is totally empty and there's no response to phone calls...so, couple of times round the block with GRIFF, still no owner, couple of times round the local park with GRIFF, still no owner.

Well what next? A number of phone calls later and GRIFF is heading to the GAL kennels in Glasgow, he's had to be put in the space which was reserved for a dog being moved from a trainer the next day, a dog that's been waiting on that space for over a month and will now have to wait longer (that is if the trainer will keep his promise to keep him another week)....

Well that's GRIFF'S story, we did manage to get in touch with his owner, 6 hours later. What transpired cannot be blogged, no really it can't, you can't make me, really you can't...

News from the Rebel Alliance

A big thanks to everyone who attended the recent GAL Sponsored Walks, September 19th saw our annual trek round Strathclyde Park Lock, pity about the weather, thats the second year in a row my super powers have been unable to stop it raining, must try harder next year! Spirits were raised slightly however at the site of Denise in her TUTU, she'd spent the whole of the previous day at her work wearing the thing, it certainly did the trick and raised Denise just under £200 alone! For you lucky GAL members you'll get to see Denise and the TUTU in the next edition of the newsletter!

Another big thanks to Ann & Ruby for organising our Edinburgh walk along the beach from Silverknowes to Crammond and back, the walk ended a few hours ago and they just about escaped the rain!

With money still coming in from both walks the total raised so far is a healthy £1100 so thanks to all who contributed!