Denise Mabie organized the first Dessert Party in memory of Ricky, her adopted greyhound that she lost to osteosarcoma in December 2005. Dr. Couto and his program and OSU was wonderful during Ricky's fight with cancer and she wanted to find some way of giving back to them. She thought throwing a party in Ricky's memory would be a greyt way of raising money and adding desserts would just "sweeten" it up. Her idea worked and the first party raised over $1600 for the Greyhound Health and Wellness Program at OSU. In 2007, Ricky's Dessert Party became the Greyhounds R.O.C. Dessert Party after the losses of two other greyhounds important to our organizers- Gale Hollstein's Orion and Sheila Armel's Crooke. Together they form the acronym R.O.C. The Greyhounds R.O.C. Dessert Party in February 2007 raised over $4000!
Ricky Mabie
January 1, 1998 – December 27, 2005
Ricky raced for several years before retiring and being adopted in Florida by a family. After being returned by his first adopters (through no fault of his own), Ricky came to Virginia and was adopted by Denise and Jerome Mabie. Ricky was more than the Mabies could have for; he was greyt with Anneliese and their kitties, loved going for rides, meeting new people and opened their eyes to the wonderful world of retired racing greyhounds. Just a year after adopting Ricky, he was diagnosed with osteosarcoma (bone cancer) after having a limp for several weeks.
After talking it over with their vet and with Dr. Couto (at Ohio State University), they made the decision to give Ricky the chance to beat this awful disease. In October, Ricky had his front left leg amputated at the shoulder as the first step in his battle and began chemotherapy in November at Ohio State University. In December, another tumor was discovered near the amputation site which is quite rare. Chemotherapy continued and Ricky continued to do well. On Christmas weekend, the recently discovered tumor and a second less obvious one began to grow quickly. Ricky began to show a lot of pain and discomfort that his pain medications could not take care of. On December 27th, Ricky's family made the ultimate decision to free him from pain and they said goodbye to their beloved boy.
Orion Hollstein
July 19, 1997 – November 29, 2005
Orion came to live with Gale and Chris Hollstein after they lost their beloved grey, Ibis. Upon the recommendation of their group’s president, (since another greyhound, Griffin, was so depressed), they took Orion in as a foster and adopted him two weeks later. Gale felt strong affection for Orion but not the kind she had felt for Griffin and Ibis. Then one day, she was playing with Orion and he did something cute. She gave him a hug and was overwhelmed by the amount of love she had for him. He had snuck into her heart without her being aware of it. Orion was with them for not quite three years, when he was diagnosed with osteosarcoma in August 2005. Gale and Chris had his right rear leg amputated immediately. He did well after the amputation but a week later, he developed a urinary tract infection and then another infection at the surgery sight in October which required additional surgery. He faced each hurdle with courage and dignity. Throughout his short time remaining with his family, he continued to make them laugh, he never lost his sense of humor nor his rooing voice and he never missed his nightly belly-rubs. A second, aggressive tumor, unrelated to the osteosarcoma, was discovered in his abdomen and while cradled, in his families’ arms, Orion journeyed to the bridge on November 29th, 2005.
Crooke Armel
March 25, 1995 – June 19, 2006
Adopted in December 1999, Crooke became the ambassadog for Central Virginia Greyhounds. During the last four years of her life, she spent nearly every waking moment with her human mom, Sheila Armel (co-director of CVGreys) and had done countless home visits, adoptions, events and even made several television appearances. She was Sheila’s constant companion, best friend and her heart. Crooke became ill in the beginning of June 2006 and two weeks later she was gone from a rare intestinal cancer that was “just in the wrong place”. Crooke will be forever missed by her mom and her family.