5 greyhounds rescued from Oklahoma begin long road to recovery
By Beth Carlson
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LEAWOOD, Oklahoma (KMBC) — A Kansas City-based non-profit rescued five severely malnourished greyhounds from Oklahoma over the weekend, arriving Sunday in Leawood to begin rehabilitation.
Kansas City Retired Greyhounds as Pets (REGAP) received notice that several dozen greyhounds were living in deplorable conditions and drove five hours to help rescue the dogs.
President Julie Morrison said it was one of the worst situations she’s seen in her years of rescuing the dogs, as they were neglected for an unknown amount of time, after rescuers believe they were in a breeding operation.
“This time was one of the most difficult for sure. It’s incredibly heartbreaking. Especially the dogs that did not survive; that was even after we got them. We still lost five dogs after that. And that was really, really hard,” Morrison said.
Several rescue groups gave the dogs immediate medical care before five began the journey back to their new home in Kansas City.
Sunday, volunteers began the long process to help the dogs recover from ticks, fleas, malnourishment, anemia, skin infections, and several other minor injuries.
“We got to the ER, and their glucose would not stay stable,” Morrison said. “So, their blood sugar just was not able to be maintained. That was the biggest concern. And that’s what we needed to stabilize right at the beginning.”
Each dog received small portions of food to slowly introduce their diets and received baths. Despite their traumatic experiences in Oklahoma, the dogs were more than happy to receive love from the Kansas City volunteers.
“They’re walking and kissing us, and being a dog with severe anemia, it’s just remarkable,” Morrison said.
The dogs will stay at a Leawood boarding shelter while they prepare to find foster families for the five greyhounds. Each one has been given a name, based on the characters in Ted Lasso, a popular sitcom with a soccer team nicknamed ‘the greyhounds.’
Morrison said despite the extreme challenges they’ve been through, the dogs have been incredibly resilient.
“We’re going to be focusing on nutrition, focusing on human love and attention, getting into the vet to begin the process of getting to where we can do spay and neuter eventually. But it’s going to take some time,” Morrison said.
KC REGAP is now looking for more volunteers and donations to help support the greyhounds as they adjust to their forever homes.
“I don’t think there’s another breed that could go through what these dogs go through and come out on the other side like they do,” Morrison said.
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