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...

Happy Halloween!

Just wanted to wish everyone out there a Happy Halloween and share my greyhound pumpkin!

Yes - I carved it. I found a picture online, printed it, use a spiked-wheel tool to punch the pattern onto the pumpkin, traced the dots, and cut and carved my way to a greyhound head. Enjoy!

Dax has hurt himself, again....

Last night, we come in from handing out candy and take the dogs out back. They ran around a little bit, but nothing too crazy. We come back in and all 5 of us head into the office. We hang out in there for 30-45 minutes. Dax gets up to leave the room and he is limping on his back right leg, holding it up. That is his broken hock leg. I figured he just maybe twisted it playing. So, I get him to lay back down in the office and he is licking his foot pretty good. When he finally lets me see, I notice it's bleeding and it looks like it is between his toes. So, I pull his toes apart a little and he has totally split the webbing between the two middle toes! This is the second foot he has done this on! 6-8 months ago he did this on his front left foot between the inside and next toe. And he split is all the way too! Nothing left between the toes! We have no tree in our yard, or any of the neighbors for that matter, so there are no sticks or anything that he could be stepping on. Neither of the other two have had any foot problems in our yard. I just don't know what to make of it and it just seems too ironic that he has done this twice!

So, I put some neosporin on some gauze, put it between his toes, vet wrapped his foot, then put a sock over it and vet wrapped that to his leg. He slept muzzled because he would not leave it alone. This morning, I put neosporin between his toes and re-wrapped the foot. No sock this time. Poor baby....

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....