Road trip

I drew the short straw, I get to go.

Nanny, nanny, nanny.

Staring in the face of anti-cooperation

Tonight was the night, I planned on taking those stellar, one-of-a-kind glorious Flocko pictures. (Requested by Miss Bunny)

Ya, right. This boy has got the anti-cooperation look down. He looks this way.

And then he looks that way, moves closer, turns around and gives me his butt... It never ends, always the look I'm not looking for.

So Flocko, I'm just gonna go look at other pets on the Saturday Pet Blog Hop. I suggest you do the same, see what pets look like when they cooperate.



The Pet Blog Hop hosted by Life with Dogs, Two Little Cavaliers and Confessions of the Plume. Many, many thanks to the hosts, the Pet Blog Hop rocks.

Please join us, the rules are simple:

1. Follow your three hosts
2. Check out some of the our fellow bloggers, leave them a comment and tell them you are visiting from the Pet Blog hop
   
3. Add your blog to the Linky
4. Copy and paste the html code into your html editor

TGIF

Just sayin'.

Looking

Slinky is searching for her pair of golden boy toys.

'Twas an ear-ie night

A study in dyptychs. White and red brindle.

Fawn.

I guess with all of the spring-like noises, everyone was on ear alert.

I see

Way up there, in that tree

I'm pretty sure that I see

Something fluffy that belongs to me.

New toys! or not

The girls were so excited to try out their new toys this evening. Brand new brightly colored screamin' monkeys. Promise of greyt fun and greyter pictures.

For a brief moment, while the sun was peaking from behind some clouds, I forgot where we lived. Suddenly and unexpectedly (remember the sun was shining) we were pelted with raindrops.

All hopes were dashed as Slinky and

and Jillian peered forlornly from underneath the patio cover.

I'm pretty sure I heard one of them mumble, "you have got to be *&^*%^$^%&*&^ kidding me!".

Take this, you, you evil rain

Happy birthday rainbow kids

Every month, greyhound birthdays glitter the calender.

April has been a very sad month. Every birthday is being celebrated at the rainbow bridge without us.

Duncan was one of the those dogs, you know, a foster. A foster that celebrated his last five years with us because I failed fostering. He was a great dog. Beautiful and playful and oh so loving.

Today he would have celebrated his 12th birthday if the evil cancer had not taken him away from us last May.

 

Oh, Mr. Pasha. He was such a delight. His family moved to another state when he was 12.5 years old. He was pretty weak in the legs when they moved, but for the next 13 months he wandered around the acre, just sure that the girls were there for his benefit.

He was such a playboy.

His 15th birthday is April 26.

And then, there was Barbie. One afternoon we got a call from the local Humane Society. Her human had left her there to be euthanized.  Crime, a bite. She was such a sweetheart. They called us because we volunteer with greyhound adoption.

She pranced all the way out to the car wagging her tail. She was 10 years old when she came to the gardens and she was immediately the boss.

Her 15th birthday was April 16. Cancer got the best of her too.

 

But perhaps the most memorable, is Bentley. I met Karen because of he and Murphy. I had these two beautiful black hounds that needed a home together. Karen had an acre. Bentley was one of the most regal dogs. He was a true gentleman and he was my first experience with osteosarcoma.

His 14th birthday was April 7. He was far too young to leave us at 7 years old, but his hold on our hearts is still just as strong.

Our life is so much richer for all of the greyhounds that have crossed our threshold and for all of the wonderful people that we have met because of the greyhounds.

Yup, Itsa greyt day.i

Now join us for the Pet Blog Hop!

The Pet Blog Hop hosted by Life with Dogs, Two Little Cavaliers and Confessions of the Plume. Many, many thanks to the hosts, the Pet Blog Hop rocks.

Please join us, the rules are simple:

1. Follow your three hosts
2. Check out some of the our fellow bloggers, leave them a comment and tell them you are visiting from the Pet Blog hop
   
3. Add your blog to the Linky
4. Copy and paste the html code into your html editor

When evening comes

Our evenings have been fabulous, what can I say. We've only made it up to the mid-50's during the day, but to be lacking in raindrops is such a relief.

Silence

Some days you just gotta lay there and watch the world go by.

Sun dog

Stink eye times 3

In search of a greyt story tonight, I set out with my camera in hand and found the triplets just laying around. (Trust me, that is no big surprise around here.)

Jillian was not happy with the bro, he had the couch and she did not.

 

Skirvee was nestled on snug on the couch and really didn't appreciate me hanging around.

And Slinky, well she is just not a fan of the camera.

Are any of the above good enough reasons to give me the stink eye? I think not.

What is that?

 

Something happened tonight. It was totally an un-natural occurrence.

During the evening run there was unusual orange cast on the dogs coats.

Impossible. It couldn't be. Nope, not in Oregon.

Oh looky! We had a sunset.

According to Flo

Saturday nights are so boring at our house.

She read this post from BZ Training from her golden boys to Slinky.

Flo would like to know what their Saturday nights are like.

Doe-eyed Slinky, Greyhound fair
Fleeter than the running hare
To the south, a Golden pair
Are smitten by your beauty, rare

Though they run not near as fast
(And their sleeping does not last)
This just means you'll not be passed
When you race on by, full blast

Sleepless in Salem

So this is Megan, she's my oldest daughter. She prepared me for last night. As a baby, she was a screamer. She screamed until 2, 3 and 4 am every night.

Normally, I can sleep through a freight train coming through the living room, but last night...

This Barney. As a foster dog, he slept on the twin bed beside my bed every night. Apparently his family weren't pushovers like me, because he hasn't offered to get on the bed since his return.

My bed is a small queen, perfect for one human, one hound. And most nights, they take turns, I never sleep with the same dog. (I know, I know I'm a floozy).

Last night, Barney planted his butt in my bed, rolled over on his side and never moved muscle.

This is Flo, she doesn't know no. If she wants it, it's hers, if she might want it, it's hers. Even if she doesn't want it, it's hers.

She's one of our smaller dogs, but she likes the WHOLE bed and nothing less. She lays down on top of me until the weight of her body (or a flippin' hot flash) moves me over to six inches on the edge. When it is her turn, I frequently wake up hanging on for dear life.

Last night, she decided it was her turn and she plopped down on the other side me.

At least with Barney on one side, I knew I was safe from the edge. The down side were the binding covers the two of them held down over me. Adjusting my position was going to be difficult.

Ya' all know Flocko. He also wanted to sleep with me last night. When he draped his body over my legs that I knew beauty sleep was not in my future.

I figured one night on the couch was not going to kill me.

 

 Jillian however, has gained permanent custody of the couch and even though she is another small female, she can stretch her body out over at least two thirds of it.

I managed a corner for my head and dangled my legs off of the edge. This was questionable quality beauty sleep at this point.

Flocko discovered I had exited stage left and moved to the cushion beside me on the floor. Flo discovered my disappearance and immediately wanted to be on the couch with me.

I quickly snagged my position back in bed and Barney and slept peacefully for the next few hours.

The end.

No sleep tonight either, it's the blog hop! Won't you join us?

The Pet Blog Hop hosted by Life with Dogs, Two Little Cavaliers and Confessions of the Plume. Many, many thanks to the hosts, the Pet Blog Hop rocks.

Please join us, the rules are simple:

1. Follow your three hosts
2. Check out some of the our fellow bloggers, leave them a comment and tell them you are visiting from the Pet Blog hop
   
3. Add your blog to the Linky
4. Copy and paste the html code into your html editor

Brothers and Sisters

 

 When I head out to the back yard with the hounds, I am always focused on what I see through the lens, not what the dogs are doing.

 

I thought I had better send a report card back on the twins. Hey Paul and Nancy! The girls are fabulous and spoiled, as always. (And for the record, I haven't been able to sit on the couch all week because neither Jillian nor Flo are willing to share it with me).

 

On most days, the girls have nothing to do with their brother. He does his thing, they do theirs.

But for some reason, Skirvee and Jillian were in sync this time.

 

And even for their portraits...

 

They did matching ears.

What goofy children I have.

The face of a clown

This is our clown dog. She just makes us laugh, all the time.

She plops, she flops, she hops.

Tell me please, how could you not fall in love with this face?

The greenhouse cat

I went over to the greenhouse to take a few photos today and was pleasantly surprised when I was greeted by a cat.

 

Her name is Rosie and she followed me right into the greenhouse. Visions of kitty kitty amongst the flowers danced in head.

Rosie however, had an entirely different agenda.

 

I knelt down and she crawled up on my shoulders. This is one of those turn the camera around, point it toward the cat and hope for the best shots. I thought for sure this was just a momentary kitty thought.

This was not to be the case. Rosie road on my shoulders nearly the whole time I was taking photos. It made for an interesting time for me. But she was so sweet.

I walked back into the office with her riding the entire way. At that point she left me for food.

My mom always said that three-color cats bring good luck. 

A young woman I used to work with is currently traveling around the world and she posted this on her Facebook page today...

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."—Mark Twain

The working dogs

Of course, while meeting the lambs, my attention was immediately drawn to the dogs. This is an abruzzi, her job is to guard the herd. They actually had three, one male and two females. The females primarily guard the babies, while the male watches over the field.

 

Every half hour, they demonstrated how the border collies herd the sheep. This guy is just waiting for permission to go to work. He was fascinating to watch.

 

The dog has the responsibility of making the mamas move and being ever so gentle with the babies.

There were 13 mamas with their babies out in the pasture. Apparently, when the babies aren't there, the dog is able to bring in the sheep without any problems. However, with all of the babies, the dog now has 13 different groups as opposed to one herd to bring in.

 

On occasion, a mama would square off with dog, unwilling to move. Firmly but gently, the dog would let the sheep know who was boss.

The dog worked by whistle commands. He would lay down behind the sheep so that they couldn't move back. Once he had one group moving, he would move onto the next group.

I am ready to live on a farm after our visit.

Meet the lambs

Earlier this week I just happened to notice in the newspaper that one of the local farms, Wolston Farm, was welcoming the public out to their farm to meet the lambs.

Always up for a good "aahhh" moment, I made a mental note to put in on the calender for a week-end adventure.

To say the very least, we were not disappointed. The little lambs were so sweet. Some were old enough to be out toddling in the pen with there mamas, and others like the one week old little guy above (Boyd Crowder) were in the barn.

There was even a pair of twins that had been born that morning, Mocha and Latté, but it was too dark in that part of the barn to do them justice with a picture.

They played like they had been friends forever. Each area had mountain of hay. Apparently one of their favoring games is king of the hill.

The mama sheep kept a close eye on her babies and if they strayed too far, she would call them back. However, most of the time, they stayed pretty close to her.

 

Frequent snacks were a must.