Nose to the ground

No rain today! No rain today! No blue sky or sun, but at least it was dry.

Minnie and Talley were finally able to get their noses to the ground and get their sniffers working again.

Oh, and Bunny, if you are listening, Flocko is working extra hard in the beefcake department just for you.

Go ahead, ask

Ask me what it is doing outside.

We have set an official record. 28 days, straight, of measurable rain. 6.23 inches were recorded at the Portland Airport. Oh, and for the record, this has been the fifth wettest March recorded in history.

Nope, I'm not bitter.

BZ Training, Portland averages about 40 inches of rain a year. I have no clue what our backyard averages, but right now it feels like 100 inches. :o)))

No end in sight

I have a confession. I'm afraid I check weather.com multiple times a day. Not sure why, the only thing it is really consistent about is predicting the rain. Got sun? Most likely will be replaced by rain. Got snow? Nope, we can look forward to rain.

Next 10 days? Yup. Rain, followed by rain, followed by... light rain.

For those of you that admired our luscious green grass, we totally pay the price.

Mourning the end of spring break

Sunday was it, I must return to work Monday.

My heals are dragging, I'm practicing my kicking and screaming.

Sigh.

Going to work

 

Yo Mickey, you just got the call. Remember the German Shepard that needed Minnie's blood last week? They need more, time to go to work boy.

 

Mickey hates the vets, truth be told, Mickey hates anywhere but his big back yard. Going for a car ride is not one of the finer things in life according to Mickey.

 

When he heard the car keys jingle, his approach was run the other direction.

However, he proudly gave forth of his go-go juice for Sophie. A beautiful German Shepard. Minnie donated to her last week.

#$%%%^#$@%$% chickens

 

We had a rain break again this evening and thought for sure it would be a perfect time to take the triplets out and capture some moments of my pretties.

I let them get the silliness out, but the neighbors chickens began to make a little more noise than normal and I quickly became non-existent.

 

Profiles became the pic du jour.

 

All eyes immediately became glued in one direction and one direction only.

Jillian was the only one that added any interest to the photos. Note the foam that is beginning to form at the corner of her mouth. That girl is thinking desert.

Time for the Saturday Pet Blog Hop. Please 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

Springtime in the gardens

 

Yo ladies, check out this grass. It is nearly longer than my long legs.

OK Crystal, we know the grass is long. Have you seen the amount of rain we have been getting? What do you expect?

 

 Barney for one rather enjoys the cool long grass. It is much softer to lay down in.

 

Buddy took matters into his own paws and pointed the direction he thought we should be taking.

 

 Sadly, an acre of hard work has begun.

The short grass is so much nicer on a little old ladies tootsies.

Just for the record, the day ended perfectly.

The view from my desk

I'm on vacation, sort of. I have a free lance project I'm working on, so except for running the dogs, I lived in front of my computer today.

This was the view. I think I bore them. I, on the other hand, love working from home.

Five days

 

Five wonderful and much needed days off. Hope someone leaves room for me on the couch. I think I shall practice being a couch potato.

National "Where is my nose day?"

 

I paced around the room last night with my camera. "I need a subject! Give me a subject." I was demanding attention from the lazy sots that surrounded me.

As you can see, they quivered in terror.

 

So frightened, they scrambled.

Not. This was as much activity as I could get.

Dear Paul

 

A little birdie told us that you needed some pictures of your girls. Just for the record, we've been melting lately. You remember how sweet we are, well it has been raining cats and rabbits around here forever and there is no way we are going to stand in the rain for one more mug shot.

I have become a full fledged coach potato. Flo the Mouth and I duke it out every night to see who gets the coach. I think I intimidate her just a little. 

She's still a problem however and I am thinking of ways that I can eliminate the problem.

Slinky on the other hand prefers two cushions stacked on the floor. She's the gentle one, not quite as stubborn as I am. She's much more camera shy too.

We just wanted to reassure you that we had run away to the circus, we're still in the gardens, the soaking wet gardens.

Love  from your Girls,
Jillian and Slinky

Another greyt adventure with Minnie

 

Minnie could hardly contain her excitement when she heard the car keys jingle this morning. She knew it was her turn for the first greyt adventure of 2011.

However, once we reached our destination, she was not impressed. A water puddle, big deal.

Giant waves crashed against the rocks. The full moon promised and delivered a fabulous high tide.

Minnie however, remained unimpressed.

Seagulls lined the fenceposts in anticipation of the big event.

"Where are the dog bones?", was all that Minnie could mutter under her breath remaining completely and totally... not impressed.

Ye little fathead.

A love story

Ours was a November–December romance. I met him on a sunny Sunday afternoon and we both knew immediately that we belonged together.

I lived in Salem and he lived in Gresham. We stole as many afternoons together as we could, knowing that he would soon leave for training.

When our last day together arrived, I arrived Gresham with a heavy heart.

I knew they would do everything they could to keep him safe, but things happened—this could be the last time I saw him.

I entered the kennel building and headed straight for his crate. Flocko was so excited to see me. The kennel building was small and all of the other dogs could see Flocko as he flew out of his crate and wildly jumped up to greet me.

Together we went out to the sprint field so that he could run like the wind—his last run on the Oregon farm.

I hooked up the whirlygig and he chased the old mop head. Leaping in the air toward it, only to have it race out ahead of him.

He grew tired of the whirlygig and raced into the sprint field. He laid down to catch his breath and once again bolted off as if chasing the rain drops that started to fall.

The field was lined with runs filled with greyhounds. To the south were the babies, these guys were nearly five months old now. Flocko slowed down and walked over to the fence.

The babies stood on their hind legs to and touch noses with Flocko. It was as if Flocko was telling them that he would be shipping out the next day—that they too would be leaving the comfort of the Oregon farm.

Nearly two years had passed since I felt his thick puppy coat and he had gone to Oklahoma for training. Feeling quite anxious I boarded the red-eye from Portland to Ft. Myers, Florida.

I wondered what our reunion would be like. Would he remember me? How much did time change? He was a puppy the last time I saw him and now, he was a racing greyhound.

Even though I was tired from the flight, I was excited to go to the kennel. Unlike the farm in Oregon, the kennel building at the track was long, nearly 70 kennels, double-stacked lined the walls. It was turn-out time and most of the dogs were out in the turn-out pen.

It was 2 p.m. on a Florida afternoon in December. The air was hot and muggy and the hint of dog urine filtered through the air.

Greyhounds were digging, loitering around the water buckets and just laying around—resting up for a race or practicing for retirement.

From out of no where, Flocko appeared. He saw me enter the building and even after two years, knew me the moment he saw me. He stayed by my side the entire time I was there. Leaving me only for brief moments.

I bought Flocko to be my race dog, so that I could see the racing side of the greyhound industry, thinking I would be able to see him run in Portland. The next month racing ended in Oregon and although I could watch the replays of his races, I never saw him run. He was a decent runner and faithfully sent his paychecks home every week.

The day I arrived, the day of our reunion, Flocko had a race.
 

Weigh-in time arrived and Flocko proudly donned his #1 red racing silk and muzzle. The greyhounds lined up, noses pointed forward. Not Flocko, he turned his butt to the door and never took his eyes off of me. I thought “Holy shit, this dog is going to stop in the middle of the track to wave to mommy.”

The lead-outs took the dogs down to the starting box and suddenly, my adoring dog had become all business and he was ready to run.


The lure raced around the track and the dogs released. Like a shot, Flocko was at the head of the pack, leaving nothing but a wake of sand and seven other greyhounds behind him.

We want to hear your love story!

Time for the Saturday Pet Blog Hop, please 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

Break time

Every day without fail, I go home during my lunch break to let the houndy dogs out.

Today, for the first time in weeks it wasn't raining. The ground is still soaked, but everyone seemed to enjoy the little longer, a little more quality time for their noon time run.

Happy Birthday Belli Belli

 

 I hear singing! They are singing to me.

 

I just want to kick my heels up and dance.

 

Now everybody join in and sing Happy Birthday to me.

Two by two

 

It's official, we're lining up for the arc. I don't think there has ever been this much standing water for this long on the acre.

And what's worse, there is NO end in sight. White dogs have a permanent mud speckle on their legs, rugs, well, I am not even going there.

Oh the price we pay to be green.

The toothless bros.

Meet toothless Buddy and his toothless brother Barney.

The calm before the storm

 

The lighting outside this afternoon was beautiful. I rubbed my paws together in anticipation of getting some awesome shots of the hound dogs.

I managed to get one or two before the skies opened up and the gale force winds hit.

Sheesh, winds weren't even in the forecast. I have got to quit looking at weather.com. It is never right.

Rainy days

Make for a great romp in the yard.

I am, however, ready for a break in the clouds.

Waiting for the tooth fairy

 

Our poor little Barnman had his last seven teeth pulled today.

He's resting nicely tonight. He'll be sore for a couple of days, but I know from personal experience that having a tooth pulled feels so much better than an abscess.

So, while we're waiting for the tooth fairy, please join us on 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

Rhut Ro

Call just came in, they want to partake of my blood today.

Vampires!

But wait, that means extra snacks.

I see dog bones in your future

Oh, I'm gonna have fun with this crystal ball.

Figure it out before

 

Seriously Flo, you were comfy on the couch when I went to bed last night. You slept with the night before, the night before that and the night before that.

Yes Flocko, it was your turn to sleep with me last night.

But tonight, I wish you two would figure out who has the bed. Three of us in the bed is one too many.

I had more than necessary hot flashes. I hardly had any room. We're not even going to talk about the covers.

So please, discuss it now. Make an adult dog decision. I love you both. You are both welcome on the bed, just not at the same time.

And how did you spend your week-end

It has been all of 30 years since I last wrote a term paper. Anyone that knows me, knows that writing makes my palms sweat.

Of course, it is called a term paper because you aren't supposed to wait until the week-end before it is due, it's assigned at the beginning of the term.

Oi vey, it will be awhile before I take another class for credits.

Open wide

 

Last night during Barney's glamour shots, we noticed some swelling on the left side of his muzzle.

The guy only came with four teeth (it's a greyhound thing), but he's also had a course bark this week that almost sounds like he has been de-barked (he hasn't).

We rolled ourselves out of bed at 5:30 am so that we could be into the vet clinic by 7:30am.

Yup, an abscessed tooth. Poor boy. Antibiotics daily, tooth fairy Friday.

I love parenthood.

What about Barney?

If you've been following my trip down memory lane since Monday, you've met a few of our foster dogs and were always near and dear to our hearts.

Yesterday's post talked about the pair white and red brindle boys. Barney was one of them.

He moved in like he had always been here. When we fostered, we treated the greyhounds like they were our very own.

From the first night, Barney insisted on sleeping beside me on the bed.

He marked his turf calling the acre his own. Well, he had some competition.

He quickly made best friends with Danny.

And believe me he raced with wind every day. We brought him home in November after he had bounced twice for housebreaking issues. It was our charge to see if we couldn't get things turned around. Oddly enough, we never had a problem with him.

In February we got a call from a family that had just lost their greyhound to osteo. When I showed them Barney's picture, they said he looked just like their pup and adopted him immediately.

Once again with a heavy heart, I handed over the leash.

At the beginning of February, I got an e-mail. Barney had just turned 12 in December. They were moving out of state and couldn't take him with them.

I took a deep breath and called Karen to tell her what was happening. Without batting an eye, she said he could come back to gardens.

I said, "he's 12, we'll have to hold another paw when the time comes" and she said, "that's what we do."

He's not the first senior we've taken because the family couldn't keep them. We don't ask questions nor do we pass judgment. It's our job to love the hounds.

Last Sunday, we took back Barney's leash. He seemed to know who we were and he knew his acre the minute he got back. After five short days, it feels like Barney has always been here.

Welcome back Barney!

I leave you with two thoughts as we go into the Pet Blog Hop.

If you ever get a chance to foster, do it. It's a wonderful experience, a little sad when you hand the doggie over to their new family, but you do walk away with a bit of a high because you know you've done a great thing.

Secondly, adopt a senior. They make the best pets.

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