many things....

First, we had a nice Thanksgiving. Relatively quiet. We visited my parents and ate there. Friday, we had some friends over for Greek food. It was nice. I have started some Christmas decorating. I put lights on the column in the house and hung the stockings.

Next, I want to express my condolences to a friend who lost a very young greyhound yesterday. It's tough to lose one, but I would think tougher so young. No details here, but I will say he will be sorely missed.

We still have Hero. He is doing well. He has been a perfect house guest. He will be a fine greyhound for someone. He has a few quirky traits, as they all do, but overall he is a good boy.

Berry White thinks he has to talk to us all the time now. He has always been vocal, but it seems like the last 2 months or so have lead to him talking more. It seems like he just fusses a lot. He wants out, he wants to be petted, he wants in the room you're in, and so on. He just barks, roos, and whines on. Goofy boy.

Dax is just Dax. He is still funny about certain things, but that's just him. I have not had time to work on training him to do things as I had hoped. Hopefully, after the holidays.

And then there's Anna. She is still giving us a hard time eating. I've explained what she does before, but I'll brief it again. She just walks to her food and walks away. Sometimes, she stands over it and will eat some. Other times, she just eats. She will eat any treat with no issue. We have changed them to another flavor of Nutro, with the plan of switching every couple of bags back and forth between the 3 or 4 available flavors. We changed the first time recently and she ate with no hesitation for about 5 days and then went back to her old habits. Sometimes she tries to eat Berry's food, which has water added. We had done that for Anna before, but then she started her eating issues and was wasting food. Water peaks her interest some but not all of the time, so I won't do it. I am not wasting food. We talked about switching to the Sam's Member's choice I think it is, but we are too far away from any Sam's and would have to make trips out just for that, whereas now we have close access to a small local pet store and Tractor Supply which carry the Nutro. It seems like the Nutro is the best we can afford. We go through so much food, it would be a financial strain to switch to anything more costly. I'd consider doing it just for her food, if she would eat it, but I'm not sure that anything would keep her interest for more than a few days. I also will not add cheese or anything like that to her food. I have done it before but the boredom thing persists after a few days no matter what we have tried. Sometimes, if she does not eat her breakfast, about 20-30 minutes later she will scope out all the bowls like she is looking for food, but I can't just leave her food out, especially since during the week we are on such a tight schedule in the mornings and any unattended food for any amount of time will be eaten by Dax, who is the opposite of Anna, as he is ALWAYS hungry. I am just getting tired of fighting her to eat. Nearly every meal is a battle. I just don't know what to do with her or if anything could be wrong. I'm getting my Mom to bring me a scale today. I'm going to start monitoring her weight..... I may post this on greytalk to seek more advice....

Happy Thanksgiving!

I just wanted to take a moment to wish everyone out there a Happy Thanksgiving! For those of you here in Louisiana with us, I hope you are enjoying our wonderful fall weather. Cold yesterday and now it's wet, balmy, humid, and warm. Ah, South Louisiana weather!



I will also note, that I am trying to get into the holiday spirit, in a way other than all that darn sewing! I updated my greytalk signature today to something more, holiday-y....enjoy! If anybody wants one, just let me know. It may take me a few days, but I'd be happy to do it.

Have a greyt Turkey Day everyone!

Hero & Crafts

First, Hero is doing very well. He has excellent house manners and seems to just go with the flow in our busy house. He is a gentle boy. I think he will end up being a snuggler. He seems to be heading that way. Last night, he got on the couch with me for a few minutes and, between T & I going to bed, he snuck in the bed and slept between us all night. We do not encourage our fosters on to the furniture, but we don't stop them either, unless we know where they are going and that it won't be allowed. Otherwise, they are treated like one of the pack. I also have decided that if he were mine, his name would likely be Mogwai, as in the little creature that Gremlins are before they become Gremlins. Anyway, I think that's what he looks like. It would be that or Mojo. I keep goign back to Mo names since he has a little mohawk. Oh well, not my place, just my opinion.

On to crafts. I just want to say that I have completed all of my first greyhound project and am working on the second one. I will post pics and such after Dec. 6th, which is when the GPA Christmas party is and some of both are for that, so I don't want to spoil anything. Anyway, that's all for now....

The Play Day and Hero!

The Play Day was awesome! We had, at last count, 37 greyhounds out running and playing together! It was awesome! The human company wasn't too bad either :o) Overall it was a greyt day! I think everyone, hound and human alike, had a fantastic time. It was a little cool at times, mostly when the wind was kickin', but it was fun. I have more pictures to upload to my image site and will post the link when I do.


The second happening of the day was us getting a new foster. I came home form the Play Day with one more hound than I came with! Who knew 4 greyhounds would fit in a Scion xb!!!! I NEVER believed it was possible, but 4 tired greyhound will fit! So anyway, I came home with Causey's Hero, AKA "Hero". He is a very calm, quiet and sweet 3 year old white and red boy. He is just so cute! I'm interested to see if he becomes more active and such in our house, but it's cool too if he doesn't. He seems like he will be an easy foster. I sure hope so. No crating. We shall see what tomorrow brings....

Today is Rex Manning Day!

Okay, so I would suspect only a few people would get my Empire Records reference in the title, but today is going to be a good day! Today is the GPA Play Day! I am so excited! The hounds have no idea what today will bring, but they have figured out they are going somewhere (we put martingales on earlier) and are VERY excited about it. It should be a fun day. I'm bringing both the still and video camera. Hopefully they run a bunch. We shall see!

I've been busy....

Okay, so I have started on some of the crafts that I have mentioned before that I wanted to start working on. I will not share what they are here yet because some may be part of some secret Santa or white elephant gifts in the near future. Let's leave it for a surprise....

I will share the little logo I came up with to go with the items I create. Who knows, maybe something could come of it someday.... Anyway, so here is the logo: (click image to enlarge)

So, I think it came out pretty nice. Color could be used in place of the gray sometimes, which could be neat. Maybe I do red and green for Christmas or something.

As for the name, this actually holds a good bit of meaning. First, Bauhaus. I will utilize Wikipedia to get a concise definition for those of you unfamiliar with it. So Wikipedia says, "Bauhaus ("House of Building" or "Building School") is the common term for Staatliches Bauhaus, a school in Germany that combined crafts and the fine arts, and was famous for the approach to design that it publicized and taught. It operated from 1919 to 1933.
The Bauhaus school was founded by Walter Gropius in Weimar. In spite of its name, and the fact that its founder was an architect, the Bauhaus did not have an architecture department during the first years of its existence. The Bauhaus style became one of the most influential currents in Modernist Architecture and modern design. The Bauhaus had a profound influence upon subsequent developments in art, architecture, graphic design, interior design, industrial design, and typography." I have had an interest in and appreciation for this particular realm of design for a while and appreciate the works of many that arose from the school and related movements. This is not a blog about design, so I will NOT go into detail about the movement, who and what I like, etc.

So, in case you also are not aware, T (my husband) and I both work in the field of architecture and I have a degree in Art History as well. Design culture runs deep in my house. I designed our house. When we moved in, T decided it had to have a name. I am not sure how long it took to come up with it (months I think), but we wanted it to reflect us. We eventually came up with Greyhaus, which tied together greyhounds, architecture and a little play on words.

When I came up with the idea to include a little card with my crafts, after a little discussion with T, I decided to carry the Greyhaus name over to this endeavour as well. It seemed appropriate. Greyhounds and creation, craft, design. I think it's cool....

A greyhound in the White House?

The country is a buzz. Obama has won and promised his girls a "puppy" by the spring. Well, one has allergies, so their breeds are limited. Also, Obama has expressed interest in rescuing a dog. As you can imagine, there is now much discussion in the greyhound community about the possibility of a greyhound in the White House and what that would do/cause?

I think there would be positive and negative effects. I must also say that it is a bigger deal because of them getting the dog post election. To be frank, I doubt they will adopt a greyhound. There are too many political connotations and too many people that would be pissed off by it and trying to read something into it. Is he pro-racing, anti-racing, or does he even give a crap? I just think it would be too political. I do have some worry that people who do not need and should not have greyhounds would end up with them in a sort of 101 Dalmations sort of situation. There may be some cases of that, but the fact that many if not most groups require home visits, a lot of that would be prevented with the exception of direct from the track adoptions an such. On a positive note, there would be increased awareness of the breed and how great they are as pets, as well as the plight of many former racers and the like. I could go on more, but I won't. This is a sticky subject. I am torn as to which I would prefer, yes or no...

I would like to wih the Obama's the best in their dog choice. Please rescue. Purebred or mutt does not matter, but NO DESIGNER BREEDS. I just cannot support that at all.

Greyhound Racing banned in Mass.

So, yesterday, the voters of Massachusetts passed a ban on greyhound racing. There are two tracks in that state that will be affected over the next two years. One of the tracks is not currently open and only runs seasonally. The anti-racing people are very excited and hope to move more states to a ban on greyhound racing. I am not anti-racing. I believe that the racing is not the problem. Yes, accidents happen. Dogs are injured and some die on the track or from injuries sustained on the track. It is true. BUT, that is not the problem in my opinion. I am more worried about what happens when their career is over and how they are treated off the track. I think the answer is not to ban racing, but to regulate it more. Make the tracks safer. Hold people responsible for the care of the dogs during their careers and make sure NO greyhound is needlessly put down when their career is over. More oversight.

What would happen to the breed if there were no more racing? How long before there were no more greyhounds that needed to be rescued (or very few at least)? I'm sure there would always be coyote hounds, but what about all the others? What about the breed in general? Would the just become just some other dog breed, because right now I think they are pretty damn special? I pose those questions to the anti-racing people out there. YES, some people are bad. YES, bad things happen to some dogs, BUT many owners are honest, caring, and trustworthy. I have met many owners through Greytalk that do a fantastic job taking care of their hounds throughout their careers and afterward. I like to hope they are the rule rather than the exception.

My three hounds come from varied race backgrounds. Without these race backgrounds, I would not have these wonderful creatures. I am sorry some dogs suffer on the track, and wish that did not happen. I want all greyhounds to have their own couch, BUT I don't think that ending racing is the way to make that happen. Some people will always find a way to do bad things, and through this industry, some accomplish that, BUT I believe racing can be better, safer, and lead to those couches....

.... let's see what the courts say. I'm sure there will be a challenge, since many people stand to lose jobs...