E.K. resident plans to extend dog food drive

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This article was published 30/09/2014 (4018 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Foster ‘fails’ lead to adoption — and a whole lot more, as Kareena Grywinski found out.

The 44-year-old East Kildonan resident and husband Keith fostered and later adopted Hope this summer, but Grywinski wanted to do more to help other dogs in need. Hope was adopted from Spirit of Hope Rescue (formerly known as the Sagkeeng Spay/Neuter Initiative Program, or SSNIP), and shortly after the family took in the dog, Grywinski saw a call for food on the rescue’s Facebook page.

“I got really taken in with the entire desperate situation up there,” she said.

She looked for help from friends and family, as well as co-workers at the Regent Avenue West Costco location, and was able to present 15 bags of food to the rescue. A couple of weeks later, Grywinski said the rescue got in touch and asked if she’d be interested in organizing a full-blown food drive, though she’d never done anything like it before.

She set a goal of 100 bags, and ended up with 95, which she divided between Spirit of Hope and Norway House Animal Rescue. She’s now hoping to keep the initiative, which she’s dubbed Feed the Furbabies, going. There are several stray dogs on northern reserves, and without access to veterinary services to get spayed or neutered, local pooches get pregnant and add more puppies to the population.

“I just thought that there was a possibility, since so many friends and co-workers and people I know, so many people were willing to help, maybe people outside my circle would feel the same way,” she said.

Grywinski was inspired to incorporate “furbabies” into the name as many friends and coworkers treat pets like they’re a part of the family, their own babies.

“They don’t ask for anything other than to be loved, petted, and fed,” she said. “They don’t ask for a lot.”

Grywinski described Hope as “a real broken little animal,” when she first came to live in East Kildonan, but has made tremendous progress in three months, turning around “nearly 100 per cent”, getting along with their other dog, five-year-old Cheemo.

“She was scared all the time. She was very quiet,” she said. “She would hug the walls a lot when she walked. She wouldn’t walk through a room, she would walk on the outskirts.

“It’s a calming mechanism for them to walk up against the walls because it gives them pressure on pressure points.”

For more information on Norway House Animal Rescue, visit https://www.facebook.com/NorwayHouseRescue and for more on Spirit of Hope, visit https://www.facebook.com/pages/Sagkeeng-SpayNeuter-Initiative-Program-SSNIP/285442021519614

To donate, contact Grywinski at kareenadawna@hotmail.com or 204-782-6037. She said puppy food is preferred as it is the most nutritious, and is even best for adult dogs that have been malnourished. However, she has accepted food ranging from leftover kibble from dogs who were switched to a raw food diet to a box of treats one person’s dog didn’t like.

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