Update from Lucas (Lauretana Boy)

By Fatima |

Saturday, November 20, 2010

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Lucas (Lauretana Boy) has been a great racer (he had 90 starts!), and upon his well-deserved retirement, he was given to GAP by his trainers Penny  and Keith Sutch-Jones. He now lives in Auckland, with his new parents Julie and Geof, and their 2 cats.

I just got an update and some gorgeous pictures from Julie (thanks a million Julie!):

We have now had our beautiful boy Lucas (aka Lukey Bear or just plain Bear)  for almost 6 weeks and we have all settled in to our new routine. It was love at first sight for me and when Lucas practically dragged me to the car when we first picked him up, jumped up into the back and proceeded to kiss (lick) my face I knew I had made one of the best decisions of my life. He was out to impress that first day and certainly did so!

He quietened down after that and it took him around two weeks to really settle in and find his paws and me about two weeks to stop being neurotic. :) My husband had a wee mishap with him on day three and they were both a little wary of each other for a week or so but I can happily report that Lucas now looks at him adoringly and Geof now proudly tells friends and family about his “ferrari” of a dog hehehe.
Our two cats have been great apart from the first evening when one of them stalked Lucas around the garden and then proceeded to launch an unprovoked attack on him! This took us totally by surprise as we thought it would be the other way round. I then spent around a week of disciplining the cats. Lucas, needless to say, has a very healthy respect for them.
He absolutely adores going to Kakamatua Beach and it is such a joy to watch him race along the beach and swim. The only problem I have had personally is not wanting to leave him! :)

Lucas at Kakamatua Inlet beach

 He goes to doggy day care once a week to keep up his socialization skills with other dogs and I have talked my mother (it was not hard) in to looking after him one day a week so he is only home alone two days per week. If you have not yet adopted a hound and are still considering it I cant urge you enough to just go for it. They are so unique and it really is like having an extremely well behaved young adult in the house who just adores you. As the weeks go by it just gets better and better and I am excited at the thought of all the great years to come getting to know my new best friend.
Ps. Week 6 and we have heard him bark six times....unbelievable!

Pictures of the day :-)

By Fatima |

Monday, October 11, 2010

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I was organizing all blog my pictures and  found a few that I wanted to share. Thank you all who sent them !

George (Kiwi George) from Palmerston North
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Ellie and Shawn (New Thing Now). YES, this is clever Shawn who qualified for racing yesterday :)
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Beryl (Winsome Deluxe): Confetti anyone..?
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Lucy The Ferret and Rachel doing the figure 8 weave
at Rally O competition last week in Wanganui
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Beryl (Winsome Deluxe) and her Mum Sue 
at Rally O competition last week in Wanganui
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Thomas (Smart Thomas) with his family :-)
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Two Schofield GAP greyhounds , Louie (Charlston State)
and Beryl (Winsome Deluxe): Hello Pam and Denis!
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Cute Luke (Lauretana Boy) who just went to his new home in Auckland
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Ele (Sister Saintly) from Tauranga
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Jodi (Kirsten Deal) babysitting a pet lamb :-)
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Hobbes (Real Classic) at a GAP walk
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Aucklanders Sonny (Fratianno) and his poodle sister Lucy :-)
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Tux (Not Suited) with his new friends in Auckland :-)

Whiskey (Chivas Regal) at the Animates Pet Day in Auckland

And last but not the least: Amazing "Swift Fantasy" with her trainers Steve Clark and Kathy Wilson at a recent 'Top Dog' Challenge in Auckland:

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GAP at National Dog Show in Feilding

By Fatima |

Saturday, October 2, 2010

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Judy with her lovely Fish (Thrilling Fish) and also Stretch (Stretches), with GAP marquee in the background (on the right hand side, you can see Gail arranging her coat display :-)

We had fantastic three days at the National Dog Show in Feilding : our cute little town was buzzing with all the people and show dogs - there were many events organized in town square too :-)
But, of course, the biggest one for us was our GAP Marquee at Manfield Center, where the National Dog Show was held.

Antony and Michelle at the GAP stand. Gorgeous black&white boy is Rozzo (Maximum); Cilla, our foster girl, is on the beanbag on the right :-)

Gail and her lovely family did a fantastic job with the GAP marquee and the shop (again!). Gail is truly a superwoman - she deserves her own blog post!

Judy with Fish and Nelly, Gail with Beryl, and Jim with Corey

We had a great turnout too -GAP hounds came from as far as Wellington :-)
 Many people stopped by the GAP marquee, there was plenty of interest in adopting and fostering, so we hope to see more hounds off to forever homes as a result. We were asked to parade in the main ring again today, while the announcer interviewed Michelle about GAP and the hounds. It was wonderful to see our hounds so well behaved in the ring -my two foster gilrs Cilla and Shannon (Moon Dancer) were handled by Gails's kids, whom they have never met before. I LOVE this aspect of greyhound nature, it is so lovely to see a dog handled by a child and behaving perfectly.

Zoe (Fantasy Shifter) and our foster gilrs Shannon and Cilla handled by Gail's kids :-)

Beautiful Beryl (Winsome Deluxe) and Snuffles (Baileys Dream)

Belinda and her foster boy Luke (Lauretana Boy)

Cynthia with Shannon (Moon Dancer) and Snuffles (Baileys Dream)

Joey (Slingback) came over from Wellington with his parents Marci and Walter

Cilla kept making friends with children :-)

Cilla and Sara having a break at the back of GAP tent :)

Stretch made some new friends too :-)

Cilla and Lucy being flat :-)

Our foster girl Shannon is so small that she can easily walk UNDER Stretch!

Oh yes, that was a nice shortcut !

And we even lure coursed the hounds! There was a mechanical lure (with two white plastic bags to chase) set up for demos in the field at Manfield. My Louie had a go too and he is still on a high! :-) It was amazing to watch all the retired racers do what they love (most of the GAP hounds there tried it and loved it - Beryl was an absolute champion, check out the picture below:)

Beryl (in full flight!) and Jade lure-coursing (you can see the white plastic bag lure at the left-hand side)

My gorgeous Louie (Charlston State) resting after his lure-coursing : "Mummy, I reckon we should make this a regular event!"

Louie and Lucy ::)

Back home , Lucy the Ferret was absolutely exhausted and spent most of the evening in this position:

Tired ferret :-)

Along with being day 2 of the big 3-day National Dog Show, Friday was also Rural Day and the whole town gets in behind the rural theme.  The shops and businesses compete for best dressed rural themed window, there are many displays and competitions and lots of the displays included dogs.  Blue's Mum Odette is a manager of Curves, a woman's fitness and health facility in Feilding, and she included greyhounds in her gym display ; she did a great job with GAP leaflets and promoting GAP, with help from Sue and Beryl, and Judy and Fish. Thank you so much for everything Odette! Check out the cute picture below, taken at Curves:

Odette with Blue (Belfast Blue) and Edna, another Curves staff member, with Beryl (Winsome Deluxe)

Beautiful Beryl :-)

Beryl's Mum Sue also blogged about this past weekend on her blog, she has some gorgeous shots too, do check it out here:
http://greyhoundscansit.blogspot.com/2010/10/gap-greyhounds-hit-town.html