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.

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.

a quick note on Anna

Well, it is the usual up and down with her. Breakfast was drawn out, but eaten this morning. This evening, she just stood there for a while. When Berry finished, I added water to her food and she ate it all. Kudos to her for that. So, I guess, at least at dinner for now, we will try water. I looked her teeth and everything looked fine. Someone suggested picky-ness could be a sign of a kidney problem. Not sure what to make of that. For now, we will just battle on.... take it a day at a time....

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 Birthday Anna!

I just wanted to make a short post to say Happy Birthday to my baby girl Anna! She turns 4 today and will soon celebrate the beginning of our third year together. We adopted Anna in late August of 2006. I don't know the exact date, because it didn't seem like such a huge deal then,but now i know how important a hounds "Gotcha Day" is. I appologize to Anna for not having an exact day for her (or Berry either). Anywho, Happy Birthday sweetie. We love you!

She passed, Anna eats, we have a new couch

So, Lacy passed her cat test. This does not mean I would leave her alone in a room full of cats, but she is definately not in immediate kill mode. She perked her ears up when she saw the kitties and then walked over and shoved her nose in their face/butt/side whatever she could get to and sniffed. Then she would walk away. Even when one of the cats ran, she perked her ears up and followed sniffing. I would suggest a muzzle and lots of supervision for a few weeks, but she should be fine in the long run. She reminded me a lot of how Dax was at first. This was in drastic contrast to Tails, her current housemate. We were not cat testing him but he was there. Wow, he wanted the cats. Ears perked, body tense, barking, the whole nine yards for the most part. he is somewhat correctable, as in he does not like to be fussed at and would generally stop, but he was a little too focused and overly interested. I would not put him in a home with a cat. MAYBE with an experienced grey owner and a cat that would defend him or herself, but even then it would be touchy. It doesn't matter though. They have no cats and never will, especially after that little show he put on at our house! No cat was ever in danger. Safety first with us. ALL the greys were muzzled both for safety during their introductions and time in the yard as well for the cats safety in the house.

On a side note, we have won the battle with Anna. We had a minor setback for a few days over a week ago, but now she knows we have won. We are in charge. She even eats her food straight dry, no water, now. It's nice. She may have had a little bug or was just showing her butt. We will never know, but she is eating now. We were out of town Friday night to Saturday afternoon, so my mom did two feedings. Friday dinner Anna tried to push her, refused to eat and mom gave her a little cheese. Sucker. Saturday morning she gave her no trouble. She gave us no trouble at dinner Saturday or at all since. Good girl.

Our trip was to visit T's grandmother, two friends, JT & Batman, and go to IKEA! We came back with a new couch, new chair, bookcase and some small stuff. The greys did not care for the living room reorganization, even though it included a new couch. We ended up putting a blanket on the couch and slowly they began to approve. How they dislike change.

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. ...