So very sorry it's been so very long...

Wow, it was way too long between posts, but at least I have a reason for it this time..

First, to follow up on the kamikaze cat issue. When my in-laws came for Christmas, our two cats moved back to Mississippi with them. So, now we are a 3 dog, no cat household and things have been much calmer. We don't get to cat test anymore, but we can take any foster.

Now, for the reason behind my long delay. We started a new greyhound rescue group. You read that right. My very good friend Lesley and I left GPA-LA/MS and started a new group. This happened in January after their were some policy changes that we did not agree with. This was not just a whim, but had been heading in this direction for a while. There was a point right after Christmas where it looked like everything would be settled, but it all fell apart and we moved on.

So, now I am the Vice President of It's a Grey Area Greyhound Adoption, Inc. We are incorporated in Louisiana and are filing for 501(3)c status. Pretty cool, huh? I am very excited. It has been a wild busy ride, but so worth it! We got 4 dogs and have placed 2 already. We took in an older dog from another program after the passing of his owner and we have a young girl coming. Everything has been moving so fast and we have accomplished so much in such a short time. I built the group a website (http://www.itsagreyarea.com). As a part of that I designed our logo and we have t-shirts of our logo and a fleur de lis version for sale online (http://www.zazzle.com/itsagreyarea*). I just registered us for Petfinder. I don't have the link for that yet, but it's coming soon.

Now you can see why it has been a while :) Our hounds are fine. Berry White seems to be showing some signs of arthritis, but we are dealing with it. Anna is just herself, but we have apparently solved her eating issues. Apparently, it's fine if we have the same dry kibble all the time as long as I wet it and give her a spoonful of wet food that we change every can. We just started Dax on melatonin, in an attempt to grow some hair on him and see if it makes a difference attitude wise.

That is where we are now and life is good! Oh, I almost forgot, it snowed today! Berry White LOVES the snow! I'll put some pictures up here to go with this...(our house; Anna; Scarlet; Dax; Berry White; Berry White)

a quick post...

I just wanted to make a quick post to say that we had a relatively uneventful holiday weekend, as far as the dogs are concerned. The fireworks were very limited, as they should be since they are illegal in our city AND we are under a statewide burn-ban. So, there were only one or two times where Dax looked up or anything like that in reactions to the sounds.

Dax had a knitting fest on Hudson (cat) yesterday morning. Hudson was standing at the foot of our bed and Dax was pacing around, as we were all in the process of getting up, and he just decided to knit the cat. We have to watch him, as he is quite pushy about this. He was basically holding the cat down and knitting his back at first, then he moved to his side and was done. It only lasted about a minute. The cat doesn't seem to care. It's kinda funny. We just watch them carefully.

The only other thing that happened was Berry White stepping on Hudson's tail and making him cry. It was quite funny. The cat was fine. He shouldn't have been begging by the bathroom door and he wouldn't have gotten stepped on :)

That's all for now. I have a few more blog posts lined up. I just have to find the time to write some of them out. I hope everyone had a happy and safe 4th of July!

The pictures are in!!!

These are the pics we had taken, by Sisters Pet Pics, for the 2010 GPA-LA/MS Calendar. It's not all the shots we took, just the ones we chose to purchase. If you haven't scheduled a shoot for your hound(s), you should! Enjoy!

Oh, be sure to check out the Sisters blog and subscribe. They have lots of greyt pet pics, including more greyhounds, as well as lots of good photography advice and insight. There blog can be found in my "Greyt Reads" list to the right or here.

Without further ado... here are the pictures!

Some fun stuff.....

So, once again, I delay posting for a while. I mean the best, life just gets in the way of blogging. It happens....

Well, foster #9 has come and gone. We only had little miss Savy for 4 days I believe. She has moved on to what will hopefully be her forever home. She had been in a home for almost 2 years, and was returned because of a change in the family. She is currently be fostered with a family that adopted her sister. Last I heard, all was well, so let's keep our fingers and paws crossed that they decide to adopt her!


As for my hounds, they are all doing well. I was on a training kick for a little bit and actually managed to teach Anna to lie down on command, at least to a sphinx position. That works for me. She is even getting to where she will even do it if she is excited. The boys haven't learned much yet. Anna kind of already had the idea about down, so I just brought it up more and she caught on. I would love to teach them all more commands, I just have to make the time.

I bought a big rabbit stuffie from the sale bin at Petsmart last weekend. It's about 32 inches long. The hounds, particularly Dax, love it. He has tried twice to bring it outside with him in the morning. It's quite cute. He stands there waiting for me to put on muzzles and open the door and he just holds it in his mouth. The first time, he dropped it when I got his muzzle ready. The second time, I had to put the other two out and take it from him. Silly boy.

Berry White got a new toy as well. Berry loves his soccer ball, but we have seen these things called a "Jolly Ball." It's actually a horse toy. They make some small ones for dogs too. Anyhow, when we went to tractor supply last night (Anna came along) we picked up their food and bought a medium horse Jolly Ball for Berry. It's just a blue rubber ball with a handle on it. It's not inflated, so he can't pop it. It's just a heavier rubber ball so it's stays round without air in it. He loves it. I will have to try to get some video of him playing with it this weekend. He loves playing with the balls outside. He throws them around, chews on them, chases them when we kick or throw them, and so on. He just loves to play!

One last note is that we have scheduled our photo shoot for the GPA-LA/MS 2010 calendar. I hope we can make it in again this year. Not only that, but come up with something as cool as last year - the hinie shot! It was the December photo and everyone loved it! Their butts were famous in the group! I have a few ideas and the photo ladies are on board, so we will see what we can come up with!

WAY BEHIND!

I am so sorry it has been so long since my last post. Just been busy and haven't spent much time on front of the computer. Oh well, I'll fill in the gaps.

On Jan. 11th, we were brought foster #7, Be Ending, who goes by Bender. He is a tiny, shy black boy. He has done well. We crated him while we weren't home. He actually seems to like the crate. He feels safe there and I can't blame him, since he is so shy. We've had him a few weeks now and he has improved dramatically since we got him. The last 3 days he has even started to venture into our bed for what verge on snuggles. He will only come in the morning when we are waking up, but it's a step in the right direction. He has not tried to get on any other furniture. He comes up for loves. He is a sweet, sweet boy, just shy. He does get excited, hop and bark when it's time to eat. He's happy, just not confident. He'll do well in a quiet home with a patient owner who does not expect immediate affection. He is starting to bond with me, so it's time to move him. It's hard to say that, but he's getting too attached and he can't stay here. He needs to get a home ASAP. The right one just hasn't come yet. He may be moving to a new foster home this evening, but we are waiting on arrangements to be made. If we do pass Bender on, we are getting Dax's brother Andrew! I'll get into that if it happens. To foster a sibling would be such a cool thing!

Berry White has been doing well. No issues since the last episode and he even played VERY hard Friday night with some friends and his soccer ball and he was just fine the next day.

We, for the most part, solved Anna's eating issues. We switched foods to Beneful Healthy Radiance, which all hounds now approve of and we started giving Anna a little milk with her food. After gaining 10 pounds in a month, we are cutting the milk back. She is eating regualrly, except when schedules get screwy on the weekends. Then she gives us some trouble sometimes.

I talked about everyone else, so I'll say Dax is doing just fine as usual. He's just Dax. My big, blue, snuggle boy.

Yesterday was the LSU Vet School Open house. We went. We brought Bender and Anna. Bender, adn two other greyhounds, were meeting a potential owner there. We think he will adopt one of the girls, but we won't find out until later today probably. Hopefully, someone will get a home out of this. We had a good time though. We participated in the Parade of Breeds, which wasn't much, but we got to show off the hounds to quite a crowd, so that was good.

I think that's all for now. If I forgot anything, I'll post it next time, which will hopefully be sooner rather than so much later. Sorry again for the big delay. I'll try to be better.

Berry's on the up-swing

Berry seems to be feeling better again. No meds since Saturday. Kudos on that. Let's hope it stays this way for a while....

Berry White, the saga continues

Berry White seemed to do well on the Rimadyl yesterday, but by last night, the pain had returned and he woke us up with yelps several times in the night. We gave him another dose of Rimadyl this morning, and that seems to have helped again. If this goes on all week, he'll see the vet next weekend, as she suggested several days of pain in a row prompt further investigation. Some reading and advice from Greytalk leaves me a little more paranoid of other potential problems, but I'd rather know what I should be looking for and worry about it than be blind and have no clue what to look out for.

When I spoke to our Vet she said we would start where we are and just deal with flare-ups and if the flare-ups became consistent, we would do some more investigating and add meds. Yeah, meds. I don't like the idea of a med regiment, but we will do what we have to do. She also mentioned the potential of sending him to LSU for an MRI and more tests, and this is where a big problem would come up. I LOVE my dogs and would do everything I can for any of them, but it will cost over $1000 to have tests done at LSU. I'm not going to have this internal debate outloud and I don't want to think about it.... or the choices we sometimes have to make for them.... not yet....

To end on a good note, he had a nice bow about 15 minutes ago, which usually means he is in less pain, so the Rimadyl must be working at the moment. Yeah for the small victories!

Berry White - Round 2

So Berry White had another neck/pain episode this morning. He seemed fine when I let him out and fed him. T put them all back in the bedroom with me when he left for work (I have one more day off) and then when I got up I noticed Berry seemed to be holding his neck funny like he had before - just outstretched forward. I had trouble getting him to look up at me and he would not jump up on me, which he usually readily does. I sat down with him and he put his head in my lap and I decided to try and turn his head as the vet had done to see if he reacted, and a turn to the right yielded a scream. So, we had some Rimadyl I had gotten from the vet before Christmas for Dax's reoccurring limp on his broken hock leg, so I gave him one and then went and talked to the vet. I was already going there to get more Heartguard, so I just talked to her then. She said just give him the Rimadyl as needed for now and if he has several bad days in a row we may move towards a daily regiment and add other medications as necessary. So, right now he, as well as Anna and Dax, is sleeping on the floor with me in the office. I hope the medication works and that he is fine tomorrow. Everyone keep their fingers crossed for the goof-ball. I know this is something we are likely to continue to face with him, but I just hope that we don't have to put him on a daily medication anytime soon.

Another quickie

1-GPA Christmas party was a blast. We came away with a coffee cup and a martingale.

2-We brought Hero to the party and he went home with another family who are fostering with intent. We should know this weekend if their intentions are true.

3-We got Anna to eat consistently with water in her food. Whatever works.

4-Berry White started giving us trouble, turning his nose up at his food. He would eat bread and such we put in his food as well as sour cream and peanut butter mixed in. He got to the point where he would remove the liquid and leave the kibble. At the advice of L, we decided to try Beneful Healthy Radiance. Berry White loves it! This morning he even picked it out and left the Nutro (we are mixing the food for now). Anna likes it too. Dax has not tried it yet, as he gives us no trouble eating and will eat just about anything! I am just glad Berry White is eating normally again.

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....

Berry White update

Berry has been taking his Medicam since the vet visit yesterday, and I am happy to say that he is back to normal. He is eating, not that he stopped, playing, rooing, jumping up and so on. We are still making him go out alone to limit his running, but he seems to be back to himself. The Medicam is for 10 days, so let's hope that he is still feeling good AFTER he is done with the meds.

a scare...

So, yesterday afternoon, we let Berry White spend some time by himself playing in the yard with the soccer ball. He LOVES this. He does not do it often, but he seemed interested, so we let him go. That was about 5:30 p.m. We went out to dinner with friends and then came hound a little before 10 p.m. When we got home, Berry did not seem himself. He had his head hung low and let out a GSOD (greyhound scream of death) when bumped. We let them out, brought them back in and watched tv for a bit then headed for bed. Berry could not get settled and when he would lay down, if he shifted around, he would let out a GSOD again. He woke us up throughtout the night. He just could not settle and he was in pain.

Fearing the worst, I called the vet to see if we could get in this morning. We did, but not with our normal vet, which was okay. We brought him in and the vet was able to find two things that bothered Berry: turning his head towards the right a bunch and a spot on his humerous where the tendon meets the bone. Xrays were called for. So, we went back to the room, while they x-rayed Berry. Luckily our vet uses the newest digital xrays, so he did not have to be sedated.

The vet entered the room without Berry and closed the door - my heart sank, but the news was not as bad as it could have been. The point on the humerous where Berry reacted seemed fine on the x-ray. His leg bones actually looked very good. No arthritus or anything. When x-raying the leg and shoulder, he noticed a spot on his spine. He then did an x-ray of that. He said Berry has one fusion and another poor looking vertibrae. He thinks the pain today was from the tendon though, but said we should watch for any neuroloical changes, as the spine issue seems to be nothing now, but could be bigger later. So, we were sent home with Medicam and instructions to limit his activity for the next week or so. So, something is wrong, but it's not the BIG C as I feared it might be. I had already shed some tears, thankfully, it was for naught.

He is resting now and has had his meds. I think they are finally starting to work and he is relaxing. He just seems unsettled and is still keeping his head low, well he was last time he was up. I know he hurts. Hopefully the meds will help. If not, we see the vet again....

Happy Birthday Berry White (written a few days late)

Just a quick note. July 31st was Berry White's 8th Birthday. July 29th was also Berry White's 2nd Gotcha Day. He turned 6 just two days after we brought him home. He was our first greyhound and his presence has forever changed our lives. We love you Berry White, Berry, Mr. White, and the many other names you take. You are the sweet kissy, lover-boy of the house. You are Daddy's heart-dog. We can't imagine our lives without you. You will be the first of many. You got treats on your Gotcha Day and new toys on your Birthday. Enjoy big guy! We hope for MANY more years to come!

I don't really have much to say, but Anna is cockroaching on the couch and has her face in Berry White's butt. Now that's funny I don't care who you are!

Actually, I will say things are well with the hounds. Anna has also, in the last 3 days, decided that she wants to sit with us in the recliner. Berry White is Berry White. Dax's left ear has been sore for about a week now. He had a red spot on the inside that I noticed this weekend. I am pretty sure it is from him rubbing his head on the wall outside with his muzzle on and he squishes his ear and pinches it. He has a vet appointment next week, so I will have the vet look at it then, just to be sure.

No fosters in a while. That's cool. We thought we were going to have one last weekend, but everyone found homes, which is greyt! Maybe next time. No big deal either way. Not much else to say. No news is good news I suppose, not that anyone reads this anyhow. ...