President’s Message

Unfortunately, COVID has played havoc with our scheduling. Please check Facebook or our website for the most up-to-date gatherings.

Facebook: Southeastern Virginia Golden Retriever Rescue, Education, and Training! Website: https://adoptagolden.com

GRREAT Times is now offering advertising space. Rates per issue for various size ads are: Full Page = $150 1/2 Page = $100 1/3 Page = $75 1/6 Page = $50 A discounted rate for multiple issue placement is available. Email requests, size and specification questions to grreattimes@adoptagolden.com. Every effort will be made to put your ad in the desired issue. GRREAT Times is published quarterly the second week of January, April, July, and October. Deadline for submitting an AD is the 1st of the month prior to the publication date.

While 2021 was not an easy year, with this very uncertain time of COVID, the CDC ending imports of Goldens, and rescue just being hard, our mission to help homeless Goldens has never wavered. The New Year gives us a time to reflect upon where we came from, as we look ahead to what we would like to accomplish. Taking a look back at 2021, we did amazing things this past year. We took in 68 Goldens, adopted out 71, and currently have 19 Goldens in our care. Almost half of the dogs that we took in came from Turkey.

Seventeen of the dogs that were from Turkey came in less than one month – when we tried to bring over as many dogs that we could to “Beat the Ban.” As many of you know, the CDC placed a “temporary” ban on international rescue in 113 countries – siting rabies as their concern. The ban came as a shock to all of us in the rescue community. While we whole-heartedly support the CDC’s objective in keeping canine rabies out of the u.S., the agency’s approach is overly broad and will have a devastating impact on the operations of legitimate rescues around the world, who work tirelessly to help save dogs from extreme cruelty, neglect and slaughter. SEVA GRREAT has always gone well beyond the government regulatory requirements to ensure the dogs we rescue are healthy and that the public is protected. We feel that no matter where a dog was brought into this world, their life matters. They deserve love, kindness, compassion and safety.

Now, because of the ban, our rescue partners in Turkey are in dire need of our help. Their pensions are overflowing with dogs. To make matters worse, inflation is soaring, supplies are in short demand and costing 3 times more than they did last month. To help them, we have started a GoFundMe with all of the funds going to our 3 rescue partners over there. There is an article on the GoFundMe in this magazine.

For SEVA GRREAT, the New Year brings us new people to the Board with Whitney Baker coming on as Vice President and Janie Carstens as our new Treasurer. You may know Whitney as Maxwell Strong’s mom – whom he lovingly calls “Crazy lady.” If you are on Facebook, you must follow Maxwell’s page – I guarantee you will laugh. Whitney is thrilled to be a part of our team and is already thinking of ways that she can help in the way of education and also fundraising. Janie comes to us with lots of experience managing “the books.” As a SEVA GRREAT Dog Mom, Janie is super excited to do something for the organization that brought her Golda Meir. Janie has jumped into her new job headfirst and has made a number of suggestions on how we can better operate. We are so thrilled to have them on our team!

There is no doubt that the New Year will bring many new challenges and many more Goldens who will need us, but we are confident we can continue to help those in need both here and in Turkey, thanks to your support. Thank you so much for all you do helping our Goldens in need!

May love and laughter fill your New Year! Deb