Welcome to the GGTSA newsletter!

Before you get stuck in reading, I want to say a big welcome to all of our new members! You can see their lovely photos further

on and say ‘hi’ at our next walk!

Speaking of next walk, we have new location for June 19th , Thalassa Park in Aberfoyle Park. The details are in our walk schedule. Remember to wear your rain jackets and bring

something nice and warm for your humans as winter is well and truly upon us.

In our second newsletter of the year Harry has been busy on the internet, Nikki takes over the Royal Hounds, our members get a

bit lyrical and I go on a road trip! If you have any items you would like to share with the group; maybe a road trip story of your own, or an idea for a regular column, our contact

details are at the end of the newsletter. We love hearing your stories!

Enjoy our latest news and take care!

Sergio xxx

Welcome to the second GGTSA newsletter for 2016!

Inside This Issue

1 Welcome

2 Walk Schedule

3 Harry’s Web

4 The Royal Hounds

5 Member

Contributions

6 Sergio a Dog on the

Road

7 Member Birthdays

Issue 2, 2016

Mission Statement: Greyhound Get-Togethers aims to promote and educate the public on these beautiful and gentle hounds and we encourage families to include them in their lives. We exist to give

friendship, information and advice to owners of these Greyhounds on such matters as health and welfare, nutritional suggestions and support in times of need.

WALK SCHEDULE

June 19 Thalassa Park walk, Aberfoyle Park (NEW LOCATION) Enter the

park entrance from Windebanks Rd then meet at the first car park next to

the toilets. Scott has put a map on the website for you all to have a look at, but it’s easy to find.

July 10 Rymil Park, meet at the kiosk and after our walk have coffee at the kiosk to give

our poor coffee lady Karen a break. . .

August 14 Seaforth Park, Tarlton Street, opposite Turner Street, Somerton Park. Beach

walk and then coffee in the park.

September 11 St Peters walk, St Peters River Park, Goss Court, College Park

October 9 Oaklands Wetlands. Located at 237-265 Oaklands Road, adjacent to the old

Army Barracks and across the road from the Marion Swimming Centre. Meet in the

carpark at the front of the complex

November 13 Christmas party at Rymil Park. Starting time at 9.30am to assist with

parking and cooking times. Under the trees near the Rundle Road end.

PAGE 3 EMPLOYEE NEWSLETTER

Harry’s Web Corner – Always dreaming of my next move… Our

Facebook page has been getting more hits with 264 followers – just search for GGTSA in Facebook and you’ll find us. There are all sorts of items on the Facebook page sent in by members and other interested Greyhound followers – go and check it out!

GGTSA Web Site Quick Stats – 1st Jan 2016 to 31st Mar 2016 **

1. Number of visitors = 500

2. Here is the heat map of where our web visitors are from – it covers

40 countries from around the world (US 57 visitors, UK 11, South Korea

9). Locally the picture looked like the table below

3. Most popular web pages on our site ….

a. Upcoming Events = 85 visitors

b. Recipes = 75

c. Members Page = 70

d. Myths & Facts = 57

e. Links = 27

** All web stats and data graphics courtesy of Google Analytics

and what’s new on YouTube regarding greyhounds?

1. Factual - First up a beautiful short film on Greyhound adoption [6 minutes) – includes the top 10 reasons to adopt a greyhound and is a great video to share with your friends who were thinking “I wander if a Greyhound is for me?”. Its called "After the Race" Greyhound Racing Dog Adoption, Metamora Films (US) - https://youtu.be/vq4eIOt1xeQ?list=RDCrMwBrqKMTA

2. Factual - Even I learned quite a few new facts about the greyhound like did you know that Greyhounds became the first dog in the European world all due to Christopher Columbus…“25 Reasons Why Your Next Dog Should Be A Greyhound” [4:26 minutes) https://youtu.be/5h3NWSquNMI

For Fun - The Idiosyncrasies of Our Retired Greyhound (1:14 minutes) – “Our idiosyncratic greyhound doing her thing.” With a greyt "Greyhound" song by Buddy

Morrow and His Orchestra https://youtu.be/9B78rtU0ygw?list=RDCrMwBrqKMTA

How did some of fare in our past lives Now that we are all retired it’s interesting to see how some of our “ex-racing” member hounds did in their “professional” life of racing. Luckily there are 1 or 2 sites that provide not only our race results but also our family history. My racing name was Nullarbor Harry and according to FastTrack (https://fasttrack.grv.org.au/Dog/Form/-358092) I raced 29 times, was placed 1st 3 times, 2nd 6 times and 3rd place 4 times. The distances I ran were between 319 meters to 531 meters and the average time I was racing was only 30 seconds – my overall ranking was 268 and my prize money was $1,915. My father was Stately Bird, who in contrast to me, won 28 of his races from 63 starts, ranked 158.

Dog

Name

Racing Name Career (1st – 2nd – 3rd) Prize

Money

Ranking

Abby Abby's Me Girl 35 Starts. 1-4-3 $1,275 530

Bully Bullswool 36 Starts. 7-7-5 $5,540 290

Bunter Bushman's

Vino

62 Starts. 3-5-8 $2,305 360

Harry Nullarbor Harry 26 Starts. 3-5-4 $1915 268

Eddy Eddy Monsoon 13 Starts. 1-0-3 $925 380

Lissy Malisse Bale 39 Starts. 8-4-7 $7,050 362

Penny Benita Allen 22 Starts. 1-0-3 $1,005 532

Shadow Velocity Jewel 8 Starts. 1-0-0 $780 392

Sherlock Buck and Wing 50 Starts. 5-17-14 $8,455 255

Tigerlilly Bigs Girlfriend 13 Starts. 1-2-2 $615 430

PAGE 5 EMPLOYEE NEWSLETTER

Unfortunately I could not find any racing data for these hounds:

Dog Name Racing Name

Amy Mega Witch

Heath African Ice

Maisy Maisy Grey

Roy Kirabilli Roy

Sophy Grand Sophy

Tigerlilly Bigs Girlfriend

If your dog was not listed above and you know its racing name then either send it to us to check or open a web search engine i.e. Google, then enter the racing name + the word Greyhound in the search box and search it i.e. “Nullarbor Harry” Greyhound. If you are not directed to the fasttrack website then your dog might not have any form recorded. There is another website greyhounddata, but you’ll need a username and password to access that one.

THE ROYAL HOUNDS

Hello everyone,

It’s Nicki here. Usually it’s Heath who writes but it’s been a while since I put paw to

paper. . . Speaking of paws, what a performance I have been through. Most of you know

that I have been limping for a while and after Mum trying everything to avoid surgery we

had to bite the bullet at the beginning of the month. Mum took me out to pick up Aunty

Barb and we went to have lunch at a very nice bakery in Two Wells. I approved of the

pies and then I approved of Mum and Aunty Barbs cream tarts. It’s not easy being the

chief food taster for Mum but I managed it!!

Aunty Barb knew of a park that was fenced and we went down there and I was allowed to

bumble around without a collar and lead on. It was greyt. Then we went to see Dr. John,

he took one look at me and just knew that I had a big corn in my pad. He took it straight

out, which I wasn’t too happy about but I’m getting so much better now. I’m able to go

for walks now without my boot on and I can even run around at training with hardly a

limp.

Mum has been ordering some new ribbons and I am looking forward to choosing a new

collar or two, Candy of course just expects she will get a new wardrobe… J.

It was Heaths birthday last week, we all got to share a cream cake which was rather

yummy and he got a denim jacket for his birthday. Not that I would tell him of course,

but he looks rather flash in it…

Our friend Solly has been coming to training and at first he was just amazed at all of the

dogs, noise and movement that goes on up there. It was pretty astounding for him to see,

but Heath stayed with him for his first class and he is going so well now, he even is doing

recalls and comes racing to Aunty Julie when she calls him back. Aunty Julie is so

terribly proud of him.

Apart from that, it’s been a bit quiet up here, Mums been busy making warm ‘jamas and

raincoats for other hounds and we are getting new raincoats for this year’s walks. So

that’s about it for the moment. We are all looking forward to our next walk, Largs Bay.

Love paddling around at the beach. . .

See you all there,

Love Nicki, Candy and Heath

PAGE 7 EMPLOYEE NEWSLETTER

Member Contributions

Molly (aka the divine Miss M) and the Monks family were inspired by last editions member contributions and have these greyt poems to share:

Dance of Joy

This is the dance I do for you, do for you

This is the dance I do for you

As you get my dish of food

This is the twirl I do for you, do for you

This is the twirl I do for you

As you open my can of food

This is the eight-foot vertical leap

I do for you

As you stop serving my food to answer the phone

This is me running in a sheer panic, wild panic

This is me running in desperate, gasping, blind panic

As you continue to talk on the phone

THIS IS ME LOSING MY (censored) MIND

MY (censored) BRAINS, MY (censored) COOL

THIS IS ME WONDERING WHAT THE (censored) COULD BE SO

(censored) IMPORTANT

THAT YOU’RE STILL ON THE (censored) PHONE

This is me realizing I was perhaps over-reacting

Just a little

And so this is me eating the food

You give to me, always give to me

Poems from a book written by dogs

(from the book Ï Could Chew on This) by

By Francesco Marciuliano

Twitter at @fmarciuliano.

Also from the same poet

PONDER

Sometimes

When I’m running on the beach

The warm wind in my face

The cool water at my paws

The bright sun shining on us all

I’ll stop for a moment

Look out at the brilliant blue ocean

And think

“have I really eaten the same exact dinner

For eight years straight?”

OUTSIDE……

Best not to ask

“What is it?”

Until you finish

Rolling in it

Poems from a book written by dogs (from the book Ï Could Chew on This) by

By Francesco Marciuliano Twitter at @fmarciuliano.

PAGE 9 EMPLOYEE NEWSLETTER

New Members

Welcome to our recent new members…

Gus & Whiskey Hugo

Lollie

Manni & Myst

Pearle & Tyger

Peggy Roy

Shadow

Willow

SERGIO – Dog on the Road!

Usually when I take my vacations I go to my grandparent’s house and enjoy a greyhound rest and relaxation package, which involves good food, massages and interesting walks, but this Easter I went on a different kind of vacation! It started with a nice long car ride and snooze to a town in the mid North called Crystal Brook. We were there pretty early in the morning and lo and behold a café was open, may favourite kind of morning break! It has a lovely outdoor area, complete with fake grass, which is nice and soft on old greyhound bones and there is plenty of space for a big dog around the tables. There was nice food and coffee (apparently, but I don’t care for such things), what more can a

greyhound want? I showed off for the staff, striking poses for their cameras and using my best manners. If you’re ever in the district pop in, greyhounds are definitely welcome! Check it out at: https://www.facebook.com/vault35crystalbrook/info/?tab=o

verview After a quick stroll around the town, we went on our way to another town, called Port Germein. This was my home for the next five days! There was so much for me to do

there, I had walks along the beach (there is lots of seaweed, so it’s super interesting for sniffing), walks in the scrub where I saw a kangaroo and drives around to explore other little towns. I was so exhausted from all of the fun, I spent most days sleeping (and catching up on my cooking shows, see pic). At first I did feel a bit unsettled being away from home, but

PAGE 11 EMPLOYEE NEWSLETTER

my bed came along for the trip and I could sleep in mum and dads bedroom, so I felt comfortable pretty quickly. It is so quiet and dark at night I freaked out a few times walking after dark, but I’ve never been anywhere like that before. There weren’t even

street lights to pee on! Aside from the Vault35 Café, my other highlight was the place we stayed (http://bosunsatportgermein.com.au/) . Keep it in mind if you want a greycation! It was a lovely cottage, with 2 bedrooms and a big family room, obviously all dogs are more than welcome. There was enough space in every room for my bed, so I could sleep wherever mum and dad were. We had some great meals as there were lots of cooking facilities, but most of all, when I arrived there was a big treat waiting for me! Dog treats, just there on the table, all for me! Simply the best holiday ever.

MEMBER BIRTHDAYS

Name Age Birth

date

Loves… Dislikes…

Banjo

9

25th May 2007

I adore cuddles, sleeping

on Mum's bed & food

(with a few exceptions -

mushrooms & oranges).

I inhale at mealtimes. I

hate any loud noises,

thunderstorms & cats. I

am not too fond of the

doves that visit our

backyard and so I

occasionally bark at

them – LOUDLY.

Rocky

8

20th JUNE 2008

Heath

6

28th April 2010

His new bed, Nicki's bed

and cuddles with Mummy. Loud noises, Mum going

to work

Alfie

5

17th MAY 2011

I love my food (I have my

dinner at lunchtime now),

my morning walks, having

a snooze in the sun and

cooling off in my pool. I'm

a soaker not a splasher. I

also like stealing

interesting things like

pumpkins and knives (I

only did that once!), and

raiding the recycling

basket for something

interesting to chew. I love

cuddles and poking mum

Not too many really, but

I don't like mum ignoring

me when she has

visitors. I usually find

something naughty to

chew to show my

displeasure. I hate

getting out of the car

after a drive - I stay

there til I am good and

ready and have the

energy to get up and

out. I don't get why

some dogs bark at me -

PAGE 13 EMPLOYEE NEWSLETTER

Well, that’s it for another quarter of news! Keep emailing us your stories and pictures to mail@ggtsa.org and keep the conversation going on

Facebook! We always look forward to hearing from you!

to keep stroking me. I take it personally.

Pearle & Tyger

5 (P)

&

3 (T)

24th May 2011 & 27th MAY 2013

Shadow

4

16th JUNE 2012

Walks, food, treats,

chasing a squeaky ball,

cuddling 'pooh bear'

pet pillow, putting my

paws in water &

sleeping.

Getting wet except

putting my paws in

water. Walking where

I don't want to go.

Noise when I am

trying to sleep!

Lollie

4

16th June 2012