Pet Owners Can Breathe Easier
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If you have to be rescued from a burning house, Stafford County emergency crews will be ready to give you oxygen and other assistance. And now, all first-response units are better equipped to help your pets, too. Thanks to the Fredericksburg-based Greyhounds Rock, Stafford's Fire and Rescue Department now has 15 pet oxygen kits. "This is something we've been wanting to do for years," member Kim Fraser said last week when the group delivered the kits to Station 12 in Berea. Each bright orange drawstring backpack holds three oxygen masks in various sizes, along with a palm-sized training manual. Emergency crews can use the masks on birds, ferrets, cats, rabbits, dogs—or almost any other companion animal that lives in a home. First responders place the mask over an animal's face while oxygen flows from a tank through a tube, just as with an oxygen mask for humans. The department also received a training video and PowerPoint presentation on DVD. "We want to make sure it's consistent across the board," said Joe Grainger, Stafford's chief of training. One complete Wag'N O2 Fur Life Kit will be placed on each first-line unit, said Mark Doyle, spokesman for the Fire and Rescue Department. "We hope we don't have to use them, but we'll put them to good use," Doyle said. The new kits, from Wag'N Enterprises LLC of Herndon, cost approximately $90 each. This is just the first donation that the Greyhounds Rock group plans to make. "We want to get as many stations equipped to help the family pet, who is very much part of the family now," member Gale Hollstein said. The 10-member group is raising money to donate kits to other area emergency crews in Fredericksburg, Spotsylvania County and beyond. The nonprofit started in 2005 with a women's dessert party. Several of them owned greyhounds or had lost dogs to cancer. Cancer is the leading cause of death for canine companions, according to statistics from the group. "Rock" is an acronym that comes from the names of three members' greyhounds that died of cancer. Greyhounds Rock supports researchers at Ohio State University who are looking for cures for canine cancer. Members stress that though the group is named after greyhounds, it supports all types of dogs. Its seventh annual Take a Bite Out of Canine Cancer event is planned for Nov. 3-4.
Katie Thisdell: 540/735-1975 |
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