Welcome to Edition Five of the GAP newsletter! We hope you’ll find it an informative and enjoyable read.

October has been a busy month for adoptions with some of our long term residents (such as Bomber and Wayne) finally finding their perfect homes! We currently have around 60 people waiting for greyhounds that are cat-tolerant, so if you own a cat and are waiting to adopt, please be patient. As most greyhound owners will tell you, it's worth the wait.

GAP CHRISTMAS PARTY

We still need volunteers to help out at this event. If you are interested in assisting with selling raffle tickets, working on the GAP merchandise table, running playgroup or helping with the sausage sizzle please let us know.

There will be lots of fun activities and special 'Christmas Party' discount offers on the day. These include an ADVANCE marquee with a representative available to offer nutritional advice and information on the ADVANCE range along with a super special on all of their dog food range, which is available to pre-order right now!!! Just click on the link in our sponsors section of this newsletter to view the great range and special GAP prices. 

Dogs Life magazine will also be offering a special discount subscription to everyone at the GAP Christmas party.     

Don't forget to make a costume for the greyhound Fancy Dress comptition to be held at 1pm!

THE PERFECT PET - GREYHOUND ADOPTION PROGRAM CALENDAR

This great calendar is selling out quickly! You can order online through the GAP website - just click on the link below to place your order. If you would prefer to pay by cheque, the calendars are $22 each (including postage). You can post your order to GAP, PO Box 785, Seymour Vic 3661. They will also be on sale at the GAP Christmas Party.

We are now accepting photos for the 2009 calendar. As we will be producing it earlier in the year we will need all submissions by Friday 29th February 2008.  Please refer to the following guidelines for submitting your photos.

Image Quality:
Digital photos are preferred however printed photos will still be accepted if they are of a good enough quality. Images submitted need to be the highest quality due to the size they are printed in for the calendar. To improve quailty look at digital camera settings and make the size setting = largest and the quality setting =finest this will be the biggest possible file size at the best quality.

Naming:
1. Digital photos
It is important to have a clear reference of the Dog/s name and the Adopter/s name
When saving files to disk rename the file in the following format: DogName_OwnerName_.jpeg
Make sure each photo on the disk is named along with the disk itself

2. Printed Photos
Please write Dog/s name and Adopter/s name clearly on the back of each photo 
If more than one greyhound is in submitted photos, clealy state the name of each greyhound and their colour

Please post your photos to:
GAP Calendar Photos
C/o Sigrid Wilkinson
Greyhound Racing Victoria
46 - 50 Chetwynd St
West Melbourne   Vic   3003

 
VARIETY CLUB VERY SPECIAL CHILDRENS CHRISTMAS PARTY

We have been asked by the Variety Club to bring along some greyhounds to their annual Very Special Childrens Christmas Party. This event is attended by around 5000 children from disadvantaged backgrounds. It is a wonderful day and we are hoping to have around ten greyhounds go along. If you have a greyhound that likes the company of children and is calm and relaxed in a very busy and noisy atmosphere, we'd love to hear from you! The event is being held on Wednesday 12th December at the Melbourne Exhibition Centre and runs from 9am till 1pm. Please phone or email GAP if you'd like to take part.

NOVEMBER CALENDAR OF EVENTS

4th November - Park Orchards Playgroup. 1.00pm - 3.00pm. Stintons Reserve, Stintons Rd, Park Orchards. Melways ref 35 B8. Everyone is welcome but only greyhounds are allowed to run on the track.

4th November - Ballarat Playgroup. 2.00pm - 4.00pm. Ballarat Greyhound Track, Rubicon St, Ballarat. Everyone is welcome but only greyhounds are allowed to run on the track. 

10th November - Greyhound Walking Group 10.30am, Botanic Gardens Market, Birdwood Ave, Melbourne. Melways Ref 2F K12. Meet near the (upper) visitor centre near the observatory.

18th November - GAP CHRISTMAS PARTY! Everyone welcome (including wannabe-greyhounds). Stallholders, sausage sizzle, competitions, playgroup, Father Christmas, dogs for adoption. 11am till 3.30pm. Visit the GAP website for directions or phone us if you require further information.  BYO picnic lunch, chairs, dogs and friends! The event will be run regardless of the weather.  

24th November - Yea Agricultural Show. Volunteers are needed for this event so please contact GAP if you'd like to attend. 

GAP always has lots of fantastic greyhounds that are available for adoption. Each month we will choose one special dog to profile. But remember all of our dogs ready to adopt can be found on our website, just click on the link below to check out all of the dogs currently available.

Toni and Bomber, featured in the last two newsletters, have now found homes!

RATBAG

Don't be fooled by her name, Ratbag is adorable! She's a playful, outgoing, larger girl who likes to be on the go. She would love to go to a home with a big yard or acreage to do lots of zoomies on. She would suit an active owner who is looking for a dog to take jogging or someone looking for a greyhound on the more active end of the scale. Ratbag would love to have older kids to play with. She is not cat friendly. Ratbag is ready for adoption and is just waiting for the right home to come along.

Dear Oscar,

My mate Ray, also a greyhound, and I like to think of ourselves as gardeners. You can see much of our work in the St Kilda Botanic Gardens. But we don't think our work is being appreciated and some days people look on at us disdainfully as we "garden".

Sometimes we do it at the beach, but I wonder what the protocol is with the sand. If Ray gets me in the face should I do the same to him?

Otherwise life is fine as an ex-racer. I still think cats are interesting, but my best friend has two legs and likes walks.

Many thanks for helping me find a new life, post racing.

Loza

Dear Loza,

Well, I'm not really sure the answer to that one. If Ray intentionally kicked sand into your face, then I guess you'd better kick some back.

I love to garden too. Have you tried gardening in the carpet? I dig and dig and dig, but then I get tired and have to lay down for a bit. Zephyr, my brother, likes to garden outside. After he has done some digging he'll spin around and around. I'm not sure why he does that, and he won't tell me when I ask.

Oscar

Oscar is always keen to offer advice to greyhounds and their people. He loves to receive letters so if you have a question you need answered, please write to:

Dear Oscar
c/o GAP
PO Box 785
Seymour
VIC 3661

With the Christmas party almost upon us (wow, has a year passed already?), don't forget that we'll have lots of foster dogs out on display on the day. If you're thinking of adopting, this is a great opportunity to meet the dogs and their foster carers, who will be only too happy to chat to you about the dog and what they're REALLY like in their home, warts and all! Look out for the foster dogs, who'll be walking around with their "adopt me" vests on.

A lot of our carers come to the Christmas party hoping to catch up with their past foster dogs and their forever families. Nothing beats the pleasure you feel when you see one of your foster dogs looking a million dollars and behaving like a perfect pet (particularly if that dog was a bit of a ratbag when you had them!) It gives the carers an enormous sense of satisfaction to see how their hard work has paid off and it's largely due to the hard work of our foster carers that you're lucky enough to have the wonderful pet you have in your home today. So if you're coming to the Christmas party, get the name of your dog's foster carer from the front page of their foster booklet and ask Melanie or Larissa at GAP if the carer is there on the day. We can then put you in touch with them. Believe me, you'll make their day!

If you've thought about fostering but weren't too sure whether or not to give it a try, have a word to one of our foster carers at the Christmas party. They'll be the people you'll see walking the dogs with the adopt me vests on. Fostering is an easy and really rewarding experience. Even if you foster just one dog and decide that it's not for you, then that's still one life that you've directly helped to save. If every family who've adopted a GAP dog fostered just one dog, we could have over a thousand dogs out in foster care! How amazing would that be!

For more information on fostering, please click on the link below or  speak to Melanie at GAP on 5799 2909 or  mluscombe@grv.org.au

Hi to everyone at GAP, Laurel Bahler (owner breeder) and Kate Robb (foster carer),

We brought Nate (Natrone Means) home in March of this year. He joined our family of Ted and Janene, and Kim the Whippet. Nate has proved himself the perfect gentleman he has never tried to get on our bed, and allowed Kim to come to terms with having a big brother in her own time. Nate has become a firm favourite of our three year old niece who likes to tell all and dundry that he is big but he is "very gentle".

The stereotypical greyhound characteristics have not escaped Nate, and the couch is his favourite haunt. Nate loves his daily walks but the little yappy dogs of Moonee Ponds have been known to unsettle him. Nate does not disgrace himself in these situations by acting up or lowering himself to the behaviour of the other dogs. He simply backs himself into the legs of the walker as if to say "silly buggers, let's just keep moving". He is very good on the lead, doesn't pull, only gets a little anxious at the level crossing or Moonee Junction where there is perhaps too much going on.

Nate initially thought that a cooling roast chook on the bench was fair game - but now knows where his bowl is and appreciates that a dog's place is not in the kitchen.

Nate LOVES a pat, those big brown eyes seem to convey that he thinks life is pretty good.

Thank you so much for the Program you provide for the many greyhounds of Victoria, and thank you especially for our Nate.

Kind regards

Janene and Ted Richards

ADVANCE are offering a wonderful special for the Gap Christmas Party. While being availbale on the day to provide expert nutritional advice and information on their range of dog food, they are also offering a Special Christmas Party Deal , where you can pre-order your ADVANCE dog food from their entire range at the special Gap discounted price. You can collect your order at the ADVANCE marquee on the day. Just click on the link below to see what is on offer.  

All orders need to be placed by Wednesday 14th November
by Phone 03)5799 2909 or Email gap@grv.org.au

All payment will be taken on the day when collecting your order