GEM is the group that I have chosen to volunteer for. In September of 2000, a small group of us decided that we wanted to branch off on our own and form our own adoption group. We all had quite a bit of experience with greyhound adoption and we knew that, although it would be a lot of hard work, we were capable of doing it.
GEM officially "opened its doors" on October 21, 2000. Since then, we have placed many, many greyhounds in good, loving homes! GEM has established a good, working relationship with several trainers and breeders of greyhounds. Because of this relationship, we are able to obtain the history of most of the greyhounds in our adoption program.
GEM is a "neutral" adoption group. Our sole purpose is to find good, loving homes for as many retired racers as possible. We've been pretty successful at that!! GEM started out as a very small group of volunteers but has since grown by leaps and bounds! GEM provides support to all adopters both before and after they adopt a greyhound! All adopters are given a list of emergency contacts. In addition to that, GEM volunteers keep in touch with adoptive families to make sure that everything is going well and to answer any questions that the new adopter may have.
I had often considered fostering greyhounds but was afraid to. I was afraid that my dogs wouldn't be appreciative of "intruders" in their home and I was afraid that my husband would divorce me! Mike and I discussed it, though, and decided to give fostering a try with a short term foster. Our first foster was a beautiful parti-colored greyhound named Ghost.
Ghost was only with us for 5 days. She had a home lined up before we even picked her up, but she had to be spayed first. Ghost is a wonderful little girl and is now being spoiled rotten by her parents, Kristine and Aaron of Michigan. Ghost got along so well that we decided to foster again. Our second foster was also a parti-colored female. Her name is Zoe.
Zoe is a sweetheart! She, too, has since been adopted by a wonderful family in the Detroit area! After Zoe came Rhine! Rhine is a red fawn colored boy that loves giving kisses!! Rhine is just a big, silly, goofball!! He loves everybody and doesn't know a stranger. Rhine was with us for about 7 weeks. He recently went home with Jennifer and Tim of Michigan and
is being loved to pieces by them!! They visited Rhine before they sent in an application. They came by my home and fell in love with him! I am truly happy that they all found each other! I know that Rhine is very happy with them. In fact, all of the greyhounds that have come through my doors are living very happy lives with their new families. That makes the
pain of watching them leave all worth it!!
And along came Jean. Jean is 2 years old and she's a pretty tiny little girl! She is beautiful (but aren't they all??)!! She is very, very shy and needs a lot of patience. It is going to take some work to get her to come out of her shell, but she is certainly worth it! If Jean is anything like my Hope,
she will always be somewhat timid. Some greyhounds are just like that........they're afraid of everything. Hope is like that and we adopted her when she was still a puppy. Jean is timid and probably always will be to some extent. But Jean is more than worth all of the work!!!
GEM is a wonderful adoption group. All of the volunteers are friendly, helpful, kind people. We are all available to answer any questions that you have both before and after you adopt! We will keep in touch with you after you adopt to make sure everything goes smoothly! If you have any questions about greyhounds, GEM or adoption, please feel free to e-mail me
at the e-mail address listed below or you can visit GEM's website. At the website, you will find pictures and biographies of some of the greyhounds currently in foster homes waiting to be adopted. There is also an online application and some general greyhound information.
Please visit GEM's webpage to learn more about the group and to learn more about the wonderful dogs waiting for adoption!!
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GEM (Greythounds of Eastern Michigan)
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