I don’t often share personal updates but today’s article is about something that’s really important to me; saving retired racing greyhounds from being euthanised and helping them find forever homes.
Over the past three years Andrew and I have looked after 10 greyhounds, some were foster dogs and some we were dog sitting while their owners were away. If you’re not familiar with greyhounds as pets, they are beautiful, calm and lovely companions. And lazy! Great for lying around and sleeping in your home office to keep you company! They also inspire me to get out and walk to get exercise, and patting them or having a cuddle is great for reducing stress.
Initially we fostered dogs via a large well-known Victorian based adoption program. Our second foster dog was named Gordo. A beautiful, honey coloured boy who would have made a wonderful pet. He was a greyt ambassador as people always stopped us while we were out walking to ask questions about greyhounds.
After 5 weeks living with us we thought we were taking him back to the program to be adopted by some lovely people. Instead, a month later I was told that it was considered that he ‘wasn’t fit to live in the community and had been euthanised’. As foster carers, we weren’t even contacted to discuss his future or help save him.
To say that this made me angry is a massive understatement. I’ll never stop being angry or upset about what happened.
So I decided to channel my skills to help change the situation and help save more greyhounds from the same fate. We’ve now volunteered for several greyhound charities, helping with their websites and online marketing, as well as fostering and dog sitting.
For one volunteer run greyhound charity we’ve helped get over 7,500 visitors to their website via a Google Grant (if you’re a not-for-profit and not familiar with Google Grants then Google it! You can get up to US10,000 per month in free advertising).
Pictured in the photos below is Betty. We had the pleasure of her company for five days this week until her longer-term foster carer was available to pick her up. She’s a beautiful girl and oh so snuggly. Perfectly ready to be an awesome pet. She’ll be available for adoption at the end of December via Racing to Rehome.
https://www.racing2rehome.org/
It’s really great that a lot of my business friends also have charity initiatives, giving a percentage of profits for a cause, volunteering time to provide services and for presentations, or promoting charity partners via their events.
I’m so glad that we’ve been able to channel our skills into doing something positive for a cause that I really believe in.
If you’ve considered doing the same, give it a go, make contact with a charity to find out how you can help. Check if they meet the criteria for a Google Grant at https://www.google.com.au/grants/
Melinda aka Mel is a Google Partner, Google Ads & Consultant, Speaker and Trainer and co-owner of Click-Winning Content.
Mel provides results-driven services to organisations around the world and is committed to never using an acronym without explaining it first. She also likes greyhounds as pets, grand slam tennis, cracked pepper and Melbourne sunsets.
Please connect at the links below.
