Honorary greyhound for a week

 

This is Emma Weimar. She belongs to  my youngest daughter Holly and her husband Joe. They got married in December but as of Monday night, they'll be on their way to Mexico for a honeymoon.

Emma can hardly believe that they would choose a place to go that they couldn't take her, however.

Emma is an honorary greyhound for the week.

 

She accepted her honors with dignity and grace.

 

Once the honors were bestowed, the greyhounds put their foot down. There are rules to be followed.

Emma listened closely.

 

Barney, being the newbie in the gardens knew all of the rules and he had a lot to say.

 

Crystal, on the other hand took a more gentle approach whispering sweet nothings in Emma's ear.

Greyhounds don't shed

I guess the look says it all.

Honestly, greyhounds hardly ever shed.

Got help?

Sorry boys, we don't always need a man around.

Practice, practice, practice

Here at Greyhound Gardens we are fairly certain that sometime in the next four months, we will celebrate a dog day of summer. You know the ones that are hot and miserable, the kind that leave you longing to just lay in the cool, green grass.

Of course, spring is no where on the horizon. Guess we're just being optimistic.

Silence

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

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

The non-ghostly Barney

I have spent my evening shooting beer, story here. To put BZTraining's mind to rest after yesterdays post, here is Barney in the backyard, happy and lounging around.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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