Howlidays was a few weeks ago....

So we went to Howlidays oh, 3 weekends ago. Friday and half of Saturday were quite rainy. The pups handled it quite well. On Saturday, there were a few things going on at the hotel, including a greyhound scavenger hunt, easter egg hunt, dinner, fashion show, raffle and auction. Out hounds behaved so very well in the hotel.

On Sunday, we traveled to Ebro Greyhound Park. There were tons of vendors. Anna was able to do a fun run. They only let them run down part of one straight. Anna was clocked at 35 mph, but we are sure she could have gone faster if she could run further and was actually chasing something.

Overall, it was a greyt weekend. We hung out with some greyt people, met some new greyt people and hounds, and had tons of fun. Who could ask for more.

Pictures of the weekend can be found at:http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2487072&id=23410393&l=f374483ac8

A video of Anna's run is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXecb3bwzW0

As for home life, things have been quite calm. I'm working on a descent sized greyhound painting. I'll post about it once I am done, which should be this week. The hounds have been doing well. Everyone is eating and we don't have a foster right now. This weekend is a GPA Play Day. It should be fun. We had 37 hounds last time, so I'm hoping for a repeat.

I'm also hoping to maybe change my blog a little. I'm kinda of jealous because I really like the style Tim's blog is written in. I just need to take more time and mine could be better...

Andrew was adopted and Howlidays is coming!

Once again, too long since the last post, but things are calming down in the next few weeks, so I should get to being more regular again.

On March 7th, Andrew was adopted. A wonderful family with two kids adopted him and he is doing so well. He did just fine with their cats and plays well with the kids. Another cool thing is that they should see his brother Bud at some events around New Orleans. I hope they do. When we handed Andy over, we did so at the Meet & Greet in Denham Springs. I knew right away that they would be fine for Andy. They even let him choose his own first toy at the store! It was so cute!

Other recent news, the hounds spent 8 days at Lesley's. We picked them up yesterday. Overall, they did well. Berry White chose to sleep in an open kennel every night and even jumped into an upper kennel once! Anna slept with Lesley in the bed most of the week. Dax, well, he's Dax. He couldn't figure it out the first night, so she crated him, then he cried. She brought him back to her room again, and then he was okay and slept on a dog bed there the rest of the week. Everyone ate well and behaved well. It was a good first experience leaving them somewhere. Thanks again Lesley!

Now for this weekend.... it is the Howliday event at Ebro, Florida. The event is being held by the GPA-EC group, which is where most of GPA-LA/MS's hounds come from. Event info can be found at http://www.gpaec.com/howliday/. I'll take plenty of pictures and share them here.

Our latest foster, ANDREW!!!

First I'll mention that Bender is still looking for his forever home. On February 14th, he moved to a temporary foster home on his way back to Lesley's house. He took a little time to readjust, but I am told he is doing well and that someone was coming to look at him and Ima Dave Too this week sometime.

That said, On February 16th, Andrew (Lago Andrew) arrived at our house. Linda brought him over. He is Dax's littermate. It has been up and down since he came to the group whether we would get to foster him or not. First it was yes. Then, he was getting adopted, then he was coming, then he had a sleepover and then he came here! He is such a good boy. He shares many traits with his brothers. We know this because there are now 4 Lago boys in the area. The first 3, Dax, Bud & Fox, have all been shy, skittish and overall squirrely upon arrival. The level of adaptation varies from boy to boy. Dax, Fox and Andrew have the same physical traits other than color. Bud has a different face and may not be quite as tall. All 4 boys are stocky. They all do a head-turn thing when happy. Dax and Andrew both grin, showing their teeth. Dax and Fox both do this one ear up thing we call a "pirate ear". Andrew does it too, but differently. Bud and Andrew are the same color (white and blue fawn) and they both have floppy ears that sit on their heads. Fox is black. Dax is blue. They are all greyt boys.

Andrew is quite amusing. He is just a funny boy. Very outgoing and friendly. He seems to not be running from us so much, just a Lago boy thing. He does not have the chow-hound issues of the other 3. He has greyt house manners. He loves toys and loves to play. He barks when he plays outside. He is a bit of a theif, but it's managable. He does like food, and will take what he can reach. He crates VERY well and does well while we are at work. He sleeps most of the night and is quiet at night. He does not get on the couches, but will get in the bed with us sometimes. He is such a fantastic boy. If we jsut had 2, he would not leave. I just want to see him go to a good home, and I am sure he will. He is actually doing a sleepover this weekend with a great family who has another hound. We hope it works out, because we would get to see him quite a bit.

I took Dax and Andrew to go and play with Fox last Sunday. It went okay. Dax and Andrew do fine with eachother, but Fox was being a little bossy and Andrew didn't like it, so they scuffled a few times. They had muzzles on, so it was not big deal. I corrected them. We played for bit, then we went home. Here are the boys, left to right: Fox, Dax & Andrew.

I really have enjoyed having Andrew around. Andrew, Hero & Clyde have been my favorite fosters so for. Okay, I am just partial to the boys. And Andy is Dax's brother, so it makes it easy to love him, but he really is a fantastic boy. Chloe was pretty good too, but she wan't here very long. I liked Gus, but he was a little too clingy for me. Gus was special. I have loved all 8 we have had so far. I like fostering. It's fun. We're taking a little break after Andrew until after we get back from vacation and Howlidays.

The rest of our hounds are doing well. Berry White seems to be healthy and I think we have Anna's eating under control. Things are going well. We'll just have to see how they are after almost a week at Lesley's and then a family weekend in Florida!

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.