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)

Kamikaze cat

The tale of the Kamikaze Cat. We live with a kamikaze cat. My black cat, Enzo, is an 8 year old male with an apparent death wish. For the past few months, we have had trouble with him and Anna, but just at night. We have never been able to figure out exactly what is going on, but we have had several instances where the cat was in our bedroom at night and Anna goes after him. I think that most issues, at least in the beginning, we started by the cat. Now, the dog has the mindset that if that cat comes in the bedroom at night, she must get it. She generally leaves the other cat alone. We got to the point where we were putting up two stacked baby-gates at night, instead of the normal one, just to keep both cats out of our room at night. This has also helped with some cat-iffy fosters we have recently had. Well, a few days ago, before we went to bed, the cat jumped both gates. We put him back out and shut the door slightly. You may ask why we don't just close the door. Well, ask yourself how hot your bedroom would get with a closed door, two people and three or four large dogs? The answer is much hotter than we can handle.

So, we had become aware Enzo could, if he wanted to, clear both gates. I did not think about this when I went to bed last night. I'd like to not that Tim is out of town, so it's me, two cats and 4 greyhounds home alone. So, I go through my normal bed routine and put up both gates. I laid down in bed, with Berry White and Dax and watched TV as I dozed off. I talked to Tim once on the phone and then we half awake, waiting for him to call again, and that's when it happened. I see Anna stalking across the room. There were a few toys in the room, so I thought she might have just decided to play. I could not see the floor by the bedroom door. Apparently, Enzo had jumped the gate, without making a sound, and was sitting on the floor by the door, and Anna saw him. By the time I sat up and could see the cat, she lunged. By the time I could make my way over there, Anna and Jupiter (who happened to be muzzled because she kept trying to chew on our cable line coming from the wall) had the cat pinned with their feet and were barking madly. I pulled the girls back and the cat seemed okay, but he wouldn't leave. Then Berry White comes off the bed and wants to join in. So, here I am, Anna & Jupiter behind my left arm, barking, Berry White behind my right arm, trying to get at the cat, and the cat in front of my just sitting there. So, I push Berry White back and grab the cat with my right arm, while holding the girls back, and chuck him over the baby-gates. Once he is over, I can let the hounds go and turn on the light to the living room to take a look at the cat who appears to be fine. I close our door some, so he can't get another clear jump in and go back to bed. This cat is killing me, well trying to kill himself technically, but you get the point.

Anyone want a slightly suicidal, 8 year old, neutered, male, inside cat? I'm open to all offers :)