Photo by Trish’s dear friend, Tiff

If you feel you can help Trish’s husband, Adrian, out with the considerable medical bills, donations can be made by paypal or mailed to the Greyhound Angel Network post office box. Just put “From the Heart: Tricia Olson-Giles Memorial Fund” in the comments section or with your check.
Thank you!!!

Paypal:
Click Trish’s Orchid to Donate

Mailing address:
Greyhound Angel Network
PO Box 8012
Owensboro KY 42302

Trish was an amazing young woman. She lived through some painful experiences, and had a lot of pain in her daily life, but that’s not what defined her. If I had to choose one quality to describe her, it would be generosity. Or maybe loving. Loving generosity, then!

My own experience with Trish goes back before I made the connection that we were destined to be close friends. I can’t even remember which thing comes first! I had received a commission to do a portrait, but had a long waiting list, and lots of my clients spend the waiting time sending me new pictures of their pets! I had lots of pictures of Bebe and Peatie gracing my computer.

Then, a group of people collected to get a huge creative project together which became the Create for a Cure Virtual Quilt project and auction. Trish labored mightily and well to coordinate all the winners and their winnings. It was a huge job. I’m probably forgetting half of it! But, I still didn’t know Trish that well.

Somehow, we got connected. I finally saw that the hardworking Trish of the Quilt project was also the long patient customer waiting her turn on my list! We had a laugh over that. The first of many! We started playing online Scrabble, which I won handily. It wasn’t fair. I was cheating using an online word-finder! When I told her my prank, she just thought it was hilarious, and gave me a hard time about it ever afterwards.

After that, our contact was pretty steady, almost every day, between emails, messaging and finally phone calls. We became good friends, sharing her pain over the loss of her beloved greyhound, Peatie, her joy in her new found love Sammy, her wedding plans, her marriage to the incomparable Adrian, Flippy’s addition to her family, her art projects, her ferrets, turtles, flowers, photography …. Her humor and steadfastness helped me to hang onto perspective about my difficult puppy, Pogo (still in the pack, as of this writing! ), and I watched her cheer up many who were really having black hard times.

All this through her own pain, her own difficulties. She was a shining star even before her passing.

Trish, you are missed.

Mary (Pippin on GreyTalk) wrote this poem, which she graciously said I could share. Get your tissues handy; you’ve been warned!

Flying without wings
mvy 3/1/06 - revised for Trish 4/21/08

Some folks are bound to earth
With chains of tempered steel.
Others with but silken threads
They seem to break at will.

Some folks fly high because they know
The art of air machines,
And some, like Trish, can know the thrill
Of flying without wings.

She’s soaring now, above the clouds
That block my earthbound view.
I celebrate her flight
With a heart that’s torn in two.

She flies alone: no Adrian,
No pets – it’s solo time.
We’re left behind, and yet our friend
Is with us for all time.

We watch her acrobatic flight
With hearts that are tear-dimmed.
She soars, she wheels, she dips and dives,
Then skyward soars again.

We sense her joy at chains released,
Delighting in her flight.
And even though our sky is dark,
She’s flying into Light.

One last approach over her old home,
One last message to send.
A feather-kiss to Adrian,
Then to the rainbow she ascends.

She’ll wait for him to join her there,
For their hearts are so entwined
That even in her new home,
He’ll be always on her mind.

Love doesn’t stop for death or grief,
Or other earthly things.
And when the time is right,
They’ll both be flying without wings.

In loving memory of Tricia Olson-Giles, left us on April 19th, 2008.
Please keep Adrian in your thoughts as he moves into this new stage of his life.

Feel free to share your stories and thoughts about Trish with the rest of us using the comments fields below.

Seizure, a seven letter word that has the ability to scare people so badly causing greyhounds to stay in foster homes or kennels forever waiting for homes, mostly because people don’t have a good understanding of what exactly seizures are and how to treat them, and they can be treated.

Stated simply, seizures are short circuits in the brain, causing the brain to misfire if you will. To give you a good example as to exactly what happens when a seizure occurs, I’m going to rely on my own personal experience. I have a seizure disorder, Epilepsy if you will. I had my first seizure when I was 24 years old. Both of my children have seizures also, but the three of us all have different forms of seizures. I have grand mal seizures, without the convulsing and thrashing about that most people associate with seizures. I was so afraid to tell my neurologist that I see a vision before my seizures, a lady in a white flowing dress, and then I go out like a light. My son on the other hand has grand mal seizures. He has the most severe form of Epilepsy where he convulses and thrashes about, sometimes biting his tongue. My daughter on the other hand has Petite Mal seizures. She just spaces out and is able to continue doing normal everyday things while seizing. If you didn’t know she had Epilepsy you would never notice her seizing. From personal experience I can tell you seizures are not painful, with seizures all of your senses shut down, you can’t see, hear, taste, feel or smell.. You aren’t even aware that you’ve had one until you regain consciousness. I tell you all of this because having all this experience under my belt is the reason we adopted our beautiful seizure greyhound Saint.

Saint started having seizures while he was in the racing kennel. His trainer informed the adoption coordinator of the group we adopted from that he would seize, almost every night between the times of 10:00 – 11:00 p.m. He told her he could set his watch by Saint’s seizures. Saint was brought over to the adoption kennel and I was informed that he was there. He happens to be the brother of 3 of our other pups, Arrow, Valentino and Heart. My husband and I went out to see Saint and after looking into his eyes, we knew his chance of getting a home were slim to none so we decided to adopt him and bring him to our home. We had to wait a bit because his seizures were so bad that the vet had to start him on Phenobarbital right away. I remember the day I received a call from the kennel. Saint had just had an awful seizure and collapsed a crate on top of his self. I told them to call the vet and have the vet increase his meds immediately. Finally the day came when we were able to pick him up from the vet and take him home.

Saint wasn’t home two days when he went into cluster seizures in the middle of the night. We immediately took him to the emergency vet where he spent the rest of the night until we could get him to our vet in the morning. We brought him home that night with valium suppositories in case he went in to cluster seizures again. We spent the next four weeks battling seizures with our sweet boy, each time raising his medication level. Finally after the vet had put him on as much Phenobarbital as he dare he added Potassium Bromide to his daily regimen. After about 4 weeks on the Potassium Bromide Saint quit having seizures and has been seizure free now for a three and a half years.

The first time you see a seizure it can be quite unnerving. They can be terrifying to watch and the feeling of overwhelming helplessness leaves a person in shock. The range of symptoms is so varied that it can be something as simple as staring off into space. Not responding when spoken to, stumbling, the loss of balance to violent thrashing about, gnashing of the teeth, biting the tongue, losing control of bowels or bladder, vomiting and actually hurting themselves by throwing themselves into walls and furniture.

Diagnosing seizures can be very complicated. First have the vet do a complete blood panel, including a thyroid panel. You can also request that tests be done for TBD’s (tick borne diseases) and thyroid disease. After ruling all of those things out you can, if you choose, to have an EEG and an MRI or CAT scan done on your pup. A lot of people are under the misconception that seizures must come from some physical source, such as a brain tumor or such. If your hound is a senior, these tests may be helpful in ruling those things out. Canine epilepsy usually occurs between the ages of three and five. Some can develop it earlier and some a little later. Most seizure disorders have no known origin though and in those cases the diagnosis of Epilepsy will be made.

If you have a greyhound that suddenly starts to seize, make sure the pup is in a safe place so as not to cause injury to himself. Our first instinct is to try and comfort the pup. You can provide no comfort while your pup is seizing because he’s not feeling any discomfort. Please be aware that in coming out of a seizure your pup will be quite disoriented and may unintentionally snap or bite you. It’s best to stand back and let the seizure run its course.

Keep a journal of when, where, how long and the symptoms your pup exhibits. This will give your vet a good idea of what’s going on when your pup seizes and how often the seizures occur. Some greyhounds, like my Saint, develop a pattern to their seizures so that they happen at the same time every time.

When your pup comes out of a seizure, let him up and walk along side your pup. He may be uncoordinated and stumble into things, don’t try and make him lie down. A greyhound’s temperature rises sharply while seizing and this is your pups’ way of trying to cool off. They may want outside, only to walk directly back in again and repeat this several times. You can cover him with a damp towel if you wish to help him cool down.

Their blood sugar drops dramatically also while seizing so having some all natural ice cream around to give to your pup when he becomes awake and alert will help to stabilize his blood sugar.

You will know when your hound is back to normal because he will probably be ready to go to bed. I would walk the floor for about an hour with Saint after each seizure before he was comfortable again and tired and wanting to sleep. Let him take his time. He knows when he’s ready.

Once it is established that your pup does indeed have epilepsy, and if he is seizing more than 2 or 3 times a month, your vet will probably want to start your pup on medication. If your pups seizures are minor he may be started on Potassium Bromide. If you have a pup with grand mal seizures and they are severe and happening daily, your vet will probably start him on Phenobarbital to try and get some control over the seizures immediately. Potassium Bromide takes about 4 weeks to reach maximum strength to control seizures. Your pup may experience some clumsiness, may bump into the walls and such for a short period of time. At times they act like they’re drunk. These symptoms will disappear as their bodies adjust to the medication.

Your pup may develop a weakness in his back legs from the medication, but it’s a symptom that can be dealt with. Usually some strength training like running in the yard will overcome the problem.

Working closely with your vet and following his instructions is a must. Your greyhound is depending on you to care for him in this situation. He can’t care for himself.

One thing you must be aware of, if you have other dogs in your home, you may find that they try and attack your seizure dog while they are seizing. We have 8 hounds in our home and as a precaution they are all crated when we leave the house or at night while everyone is sleeping. I have, on two occasions, had to physically put myself between Saint and my other dogs because they tried to attack him. It’s called pack mentality. If you’ve ever been in a kennel when another pup screams or cries out you will find that instinct sets in and dogs will try and attack the injured dog. If you have more than one dog, please be aware of how your other dog reacts. The only other things we do, if we go to greyhound events or on vacation, we NEVER leave our pups alone in a hotel room with the others. The risk is too high that Saint may seize from stress and we would come back to find he was no longer with us. It’s a minor adjustment to us and we wouldn’t change a thing to have Saint with us. It’s your responsibility to protect your seizing dog at all times.

Here is a wonderful website for anyone interested in learning all they can about seizures http://www.canine-epilepsy-guardian-angels.com/

I learned when adopting Saint what a challenge overcoming seizures can be and we also learned how rewarding it can be. I wouldn’t trade one sleepless night that I spent walking the floors with Saint. The bond that Saint and I formed while battling his seizures is amazing. He is my miracle baby and I love him dearly. He is a very happy boy. He has such a joy for living that you see just by looking in his face. It’s almost like he understands he beat a formidable opponent and won! He is a happy go lucky boy who treats every day as if it is a gift to him. His epilepsy is not curable but it is controllable!

Saint lives happily with 3 of his littermates, Arrow, Valentino and Heart and with our other hounds, Emmy, Andy, Gee, Bullitt, Pistol, Sammie and our little JRT Jilly Bean.

Saint has now been seizure free for 3 ½ years. Here are pictures of our happy go lucky boy, living life to the fullest!

Did I leave anything out?

Am I the only one who turns into a total soccer mom when driving with the hounds in the vehicle?  Alone, I typically ride with the radio blasting, the windows open (depending on weather) and I enjoy the “get up and go” my car offers.  But when the hounds are in the car, I am a completely different driver, taking turns carefully to avoid spilling everyone on one side of the car, the radio is tuned to a more soothing calm music (can’t have stressed out hounds!) and I pay much more attention to the cars around me. 

Our Favorite Houndmobile

Those of us who are “addicts” are always on the lookout for the next great Houndmobile.  There are so many options to consider - how safe is the ride? how durable are the seats? how easy is it to clean?  how high off the ground (in other words, will I have to lift Bandy’s 80 lb butt into the car?)? 

Honda is often cited as having the ultimate dog friendly car (the Honda Element) and in fact won top honors for 2007 from the website dogcars.com, which has dog friendly reviews of almost 40 dog-friendly cars (some more friendly than others).  I own a Honda Element myself and I have to say, if it had a larger motor (in other words, if it could haul our business trailer) we would own two of them!

With all of the Honda love I am spreading around, I have to mention the Honda WOW concept car they just introduced in Tokyo.  The WOW stands for “Wonderful Open-Hearted Wagon” and the cool thing about this car is it features a built in kennel, wooden floors, and a raised ceiling down the middle to make it easier to load/unload your hounds.  I am thrilled to see car makers listening to the niche markets and making cars that fit their buyers lifestyles.

So what do you look for in a dog-friendly car?  If you could whisper in the ear of the car manufacturers, what features would you add or remove to create the perfect dog friendly car?

 For me?  A fart filter.  Seriously.

I will be the first to admit I am not the world’s most knowledgeable dog person. Heck I have only had a dog for a little over a year. In that time I have had two awesome greyhounds. I had my 9 year old ex-Broodie Jordan for just under a year(I lost her not long after her 10th birthday) and Sam, the young 3 ½ year old male. People do a lot of talking about the differences between the boy hounds and the girls, older versus younger. When I was thinking of getting a young’un after losing Jordie, everyone made sure to tell me I was getting a “higher” energy dog. Yeah when he is active he is way more energetic but the other 23 ½ hours? Well let’s just say a sleeping dog is a sleeping dog, ya know? Obviously I can’t make any sweeping statements about the differences between the girls and the guys but here are a few observations of the differences between my two critters.

One of the most interesting things I noticed when I got Sam after losing Jordie was their different approaches to life. Sure every creature has their own personality but I can see they both look at life in a different way. I think partly because Jordan had been a brood mom she rolled with the punches a lot more. She definitely had a “you can’t scare me… I have had puppies attitude.” There is something about mothers (no matter the species) that inures one to shocks. She would cheerfully ignore: fireworks, rock bands, cat fights and screaming children. Nothing seemed to phase her, well except for small, yappy dogs. Puppy flashbacks?

Sam on the other hand is a little higher strung. Perhaps because he is a male he seems to stride through the world looking for something to protect us from. When we first got him his arch nemesis was the dreaded Ice Maker. This evil villainous thing would attack randomly and make strange noises without warning! Obviously, a dangerous plot to take over the world. Whenever the dreaded Ice Maker would drop the ice, Sam would leap into action and fend it off with his superhero bark! Then he would retreat back to his bed and give it suspicious looks for the rest of the evening. The evil ice maker had accomplices in its plot to take over the world. It had the Blender of Death, The Reflector (i.e. the reflection of lights shining on wet pavement), and the worst of all The Thing that Blocks My Veiw of My Biskie Jar. All of these were handily defeated by a selfless dedication to thrity minutes of uber-barking.

I am not saying that boy dogs are more difficult than my girlie girl was. No, Jordan had her faults too. For instance, when it comes time to do their “thang” outside, Sam is a breeze compared to Jordie. Sam does what he needs to do in mere seconds. He has a “drop it like it’s hot” attitude. He will just stride out into the yard, lean forward and let it go. His whole body leans into it, tail up, head pointing forward. He looks just like a pointer on the hunt. His whole body says “it’s going that way.”

For Jordan doing her business was more on the line of an artistic thing. She couldn’t just leave it anywhere. It had to be precisely placed for maximum effect. She would zig zag one way then the other. She placed each “sample” with the concentration of Zen master in a rock garden. I am pretty sure she was a master of art form hitherto unknown to us humans called PooShui. I am sure that the Chi in my backyard was moving quite well. Lord knows some nights that was the only thing that was. I spent many a night, in the cold and the rain, waiting for a sign.

Now Sam is a great dog, I couldn’t have picked a better one but Jordan was a great lady! Which is better? Both, of course!! I change a single thing about either of them. I still am finding new fun differences everyday. I hope you check back and see more of my exciting adventures in the Greyhound world.

Who am I, and why on earth would you want to listen to me? As a professional, I am a budding Wedding Photographer, who has a varied photography background, primarily in animals and botanicals. I also do professional pet photography. I share my life with a variety of animals, most notably three adopted greyhounds: Bebe, Flippy Doo, and Sam.

I am actively involved in greyhound adoption through a nearby group. I got my start in photography early on, and my first and favorite subject was my Siberian Husky, who came into my life as a puppy when I was in the second grade. I have won a variety of awards for my photography, but my first and most meaningful, was a portrait of my Husky that won me a Grand Championship Ribbon at the Wisconsin State Fair, when I was in high school.

I began shooting manual thirty-five millimeter cameras at that early age. I was entirely self-taught, though recently I have added some specific photographic courses using digital SLR cameras, and am grateful to several mentors. In addition to my photography I’ve learned to enjoy digital artwork based on my photography.

My Muses

I’d like to introduce you to my current favorite subjects of inspiration, my own greyhounds. Bebe was the first to come into my life. When we first met, I had to wait for her to approach me, she was so shy. It’s been a joy to see her gradually come out of her shell.

Then Peatie came into my life. He started as a visitor as I grey-sat him over Christmas, the he returned to me permanently when his owners had to move. I sadly lost him to Lymphoma, November 5, but during his short life he had a significant impact on my life and on the lives of many hospice patients as a therapy dog.

Flippy was my third hound, with a special story. She was pre-adopted through a wonderful program, Follow That Hound, founded by Cathie and Bill Lambert of B&J Hounds in Jacksonville, Florida. It allows adopters to pre-adopt a puppy, and follow that puppy as it grows, trains, races, and eventually retires to their pre-adopters couch. It gives the adopter a fantastic opportunity to really see behind the scenes of the racing world, and it allows the racing owners to know their special hounds have good homes already waiting for them.

And last, but certainly not least, is our newest addition, Sam, who came home in Mid-November. He wasn’t a replacement for Peatie, but he has been helping me heal. And that is a mighty important and big job to fill, one he has been amazing at.

Throughout this series I will cover some of the major points of pet photography. I will discuss lighting, positioning, personality, action shots, the selection of settings, and the use of props. I will also be open to answering the questions of our readers if there are expressed interests in other aspects of pet photography.

I look forward to writing future installments, and hope that you will find them helpful, and hopefully even entertaining at times, because to photograph pets, you first and foremost need a sense of humor, and you’ll get to learn through some of my mistakes and experiences.

I was recently asked to write a introduction for the Green Hound section of The Savvy Hound. Now I was not entirely sure what makes a hound “Green” but I was reasonably sure that hemp is involved (because hemp is the poster product of the eco world. You just can’t be green with out the lovely brown of hemp). I was really hoping it involved using my Greyhound Sam’s “natural emissions” as hot new biofuel. I am pretty sure we can use his gas to power something; cars, planes, space shuttles.

So I searched out what makes a dog Green and found a lot of stuff about reducing his “Carbon Pawprint”. There was a lot of talk about reducing his impact on the environment. Then one day Sam was doing his business on my compost pile (environmentally friendly and convenient) and I thought “What is wrong with his Carbon Pawprint anyway?” The more I observed Sam and my four cats the more I saw there is a lot we can learn about being eco-friendly from our best friends.

Dogs are some of the best environmentalists of all. They don’t just eat poo, they are into “Organic Waste Recycling.” When Sam eats the cat’s puke he is doing “Biological Waste Containment and Cleanup.” Seriously though, ever watch a cat play with a bottle cap or milk tab? What is that but a clever re-use of something that would be thrown away? Sam has never once turned his nose up at wearing a used collar. He has never moaned that his stuffy is “so last season” or needed to upgrade to the latest model.

The simple fact of the matter is that much of the “Carbon Pawprint” we ascribe to our pets is really our footprint in another shape. Have you bought your dog a stuffy they never got jazzed over? Why not get together with some other dog owners and have a stuffy or collar swap meet? Save those milk tabs instead of buying pre-made toys. Watch your pets and let them teach you how to be creative, how to be green. Remember for them the box is always more exciting than what is in it and a new stuffy is only one they haven’t played with lately.

In the coming months this column will cover products and ideas to help you and your pet be green and earth friendly, and yes, I am sure there will be hemp.

Valentine’s, a day to celebrate St. Valentine who went against Emporer Claudius II and married young lovers in secret. Today it is a day to celebrate those you love - both human and hound alike.

Add the look of love to your walls with a print of this “Soulful” painting from artist Xan Blackburn. Or give the gift that keeps on giving by contributing to the Quilt for a Cure. 100% of the proceeds go to Hope for Hounds, a charity that raises money for the research by Dr. Couto of Ohio State University. Dr. Couto is a leading researcher in canine osteosarcoma. Now that’s a gift that will make your heart beat proud!

Add some spice to your hound’s life with a heart shaped Apple Cinnamon or Cherry Honey Vanilla Burpdog Cake. Or you can spice up your own life at the same time with dog shaped chocolate (for humans!) from Simply Treats.

For playtime, your savvy hound would love these heartshaped stuffies inspired by Sweetheart treats (Shown above) from West Paw Design.

Have a heart….charm, that is! With these fun engrave-able collar tags from 2 Hounds Design. These charms serve dual purposes, fun decoration for your hounds’ collars while still providing contact info in case your hound is ever lost.

Share with us, how do YOU celebrate V-day with the hounds in your life?