Loved Hound

Your hound can be featured as a Loved Hound, too. Just bid in Greyhound Gang's on-line auction (during the first two weeks of every month) for your chance to be spotlighted. Or as a present, bid to feature a friend's hound - whether the hound is physically with us or not - they will always be in our hearts. Once you've won, you'll email me pictures and text, and the following month, this is where you and your hound will be. Loved Hound. Our wish - love for them all.

Brandi- as told by Sharon Haugen

Brandi was my 6th greyhound and the youngest one I had ever adopted. I began my passion with greyhounds in 1996. Brandi was only three when she came to live with us in January 2004 and joined one Afghan and two cats. Soon the family dynamics changed and we added another cat and another Afghan. When Gay Johnson of Nevada Greyhounds Unlimited, Reno, Nevada profiled Brandi for us we had no idea what she looked like just her age and sex. She was a massive black greyhound with intense brown eyes with a huge neck and huge buttocks and full of energy. We were not used to energy since we had only adopted seniors. My husband and I looked at each other and said “what have we gotten ourselves into”. That statement lasted about a month while she started becoming my velcro baby.

brandi brandi

Six months later we noticed she was having some coordination problems while walking and then she was paralyzed in her hind legs. She spent 10 days at the vet’s office, running various tests with high dosages of prednisone and antibiotics. Eventually she was able to walk again but her life as she knew it would never be the same. She lost 20 lbs of massive muscle and would be on prednisone for the rest of her life. Several tests done and we still did not have a diagnosis. Intense physical therapy three times a week followed. I am forever in debt to my husband who took the time off three times a week to take Brandi to PT. Forever in debt to her holistic vet, Dr. Lowell, who treated her for seven years, every 2-4 weeks.

brandi brandi Brandi loved doing M&G’s, going along for home visits (my husband and I are placement reps for Nevada Greyhounds Unlimited), loved walking in the neighbor and meeting new friends and always drawn to someone in a wheel chair or walker. She loved to run after the Afghans in the back yard. Two years after being paralyzed we realized her M&G days were finished and it became harder to take her on a walk and do a home visit. She could not stand very long without slouching.

brandi

brandi Our household slowly started to change. We added more area rugs to the hardwood floors, we built a ramp on the front porch for the two steps, we blocked off parts of the back yard that we thought were too steep for her, we started leaving a light on in the living room so the other dogs could see her and not step or lay on her. But she never lost her appetite and never left a bowl unlicked including the afghan bowls. She could find a treat crumb whereas the other dogs just could not see them.

Now there are crumbs on the floor that are not picked up, the light no longer shines in the living room and the bowls go unlicked. Brandi crossed over to the bridge on Feb. 8, 2011. Brandi, thank you for seven wonderful years. Her story also has been written in Andrea Lynch’s book, Greyhounds of the Heart.

January 1, 2001 – February 8, 2011