Boo, Cue & Moo

I found these pictures on the Fuji camera Wednesday night. I had forgotten all about them when I got the Canon. These were taken in April and were the last pictures I ever took with that camera. :)

Here's Boo Boo.And Cue.
And her majesty Maggie Moo.

The boys don't seem to like the pool very much. They walk in it and dig at the bottom of it, but never lay down. But, the Queen knows how to relax in it and enjoys the pool very much. Just look at her face, does it not say relaxed?

Proud Mama

Maggie moo loves outside squeaky toys. She loves chasing them on the ground or catching them in the air. She is very good at this and has a blast playing. She still has a lot of spunk in her. The boys often times can't keep up. Yesterday evening Mags and I played catch in the yard. Below are a couple of pics of her.Contrary to what Mitch thinks, NO Mags is not going poop in this pic.
I love this picture of Moo Moo!
This green squeaky is her favorite because its squeaker is super LOUD!!
She is intent on catching that toy and look at her hammies!! Not bad for 3 years off the track. :)



I am such a proud mama! She is my heart!! Moo Moo means the world to me. I love all my kids, but Maggie is something extra special. Her personality is so similar to mine. They could not have made a more perfect match.

Winston

Winston came to stay with us while his family went to VA Beach. This was the first time we have watched another breed. Variety is nice.

Winston is 12. He is very laid back, so he fit in with our kids wonderfully. He reminded me a little of my sweet K.C. And, he didn't seem to be bothered by the big kids. :)
He is a good boy and pretty easy to care for, so it wasn't too much extra work for us, which was nice! He loves the outdoors and is not use to being inside all day, so we let him out as often as we could.
He was picked up this afternoon. His family missed him very much!

Wine and Greys

We finally got to go to another wine festival last weekend. It is so hard to make it to these festivals when Mitch works every other weekend. But, alas he was off and Grayhaven was having their annual South African Food and Wine Festival. :) This was the first time we had been to Grayhaven. We will definitely visit again! Since we had the MG on Saturday, we decided to go to the festival on Sunday. We had a great time! No pictures from the festival, but the food was scrumptious!! And, the wine was very good! We brought a couple of bottles home to enjoy. These were two of our favorites. I never thought I would like Pinotage, but this one was very good. It has a kick to it and goes great with red meats!! We also enjoyed the South African wines, but we didn't buy any. Maybe next year.
One of the great things about going to these festivals is getting two more wine glasses. We have quite a collection now, which is great for when we entertain. And, we plan to do more entertaining once the patio is complete. :)



Now back to the Greys. We are still hound sitting Zola. Our kids play rough together and I am always terrified that someone is going to get hurt, so I muzzle everyone. It gives me piece of mind.

I love it when Maggie gets the boys going. She likes to tease them with toys. She is a smart girl she knows what she is doing.

Cueball tries to take the toy from Mags. Good luck Cueball! She may be small, but she is definitely very FIESTY! That is probably what made her such a good racer. She has determination, for sure. :)

As always, she ends of with the toy in the end.

Booyah starts to chase Cueball. Pretty soon everyone is joining the fun.
Play time doesn't last long. It is over in a matter of a few moments.

Excuse the poor quality action shots. I have got to get better with focusing!!! I hope to get some more practice as the weather gets cooler.

Screwball is turning five

Cueball's birthday is this Wednesday. I am not one for parties during the middle of the week, unless of course I am on vacation, so we opted to celebrate on Saturday. We started the day by going to the VAGA meet and greet. We had an awesome turnout! 10 hounds in attendance. It was too hot outside, so we opted for the AC! We had a good number of folks stop by. Paws crossed for applications!! I did not bring the camera with me. Handling 4 hounds and setting everything up was enough to carry. Hounds in attendance were: Booker, Brady, Tallie, Power, Iggy, Julie, Zola, Cueball, Maggie and Booyah. Oh and the Great Danes Merlin and Stryder came to visit the hounds. Merlin loves the greyhounds. :) This was Zola's first meet and greet and she did really well. She did not completely understand what was going on, but seemed to enjoy all the attention nonetheless. After the meet and greet, two tired humans and 4 EXHAUSTED pups headed out to Stony Point to pick up Cueball's cake and take a quick stroll. We saw a puppy Mastiff and his family on our stroll. His paws were huge!! I thought our pups were large. They are nothing in size compared to the Danes and the Mastiff. Do they make a big enough couch for a great dane?? I think we would have to get a bigger house if we had one. And, how do you control countersurfing?

After our nice stroll, talking with the folks about the hounds and getting the cake, we headed back home for some birthday celebration.


Someone must have said something funny! Cueball gets the festivities started. He is one happy pup!Maggie is sharing in the fun.
Booyah makes a goofy face.
Zola has no clue what is going on or why she is wearing this stupid lei, but she plays along for good humor.
What's taking so long for cake? I was promised cake. We are wearing these silly leis. We demand cake!!
Cueball's cake is the same kind as Booyah's. He does like the carrot flavored cake. He tried a piece at Three Dog Bakery, but Mitch wanted to stick with what we have tried before. Sorry Cueball, but you are a daddy's boy.
Mitch cuts the cake into smaller pieces for the pups. Cueball and Booyah wait anxiously for their num-num.
Cueball inhales his cake.
And, even cleans the floor. No scrap shall be left.
Happy Birthday Cueball!!! We have toys coming for you on Wednesday. You are such a daddy's boy, but I love you anyway! :)

Daddy and Mommy love you very much!!! We hope you have many more birthdays to celebrate. :)

Pup pics and updates

The kids have been enjoying the peace and serenity this week. We have just been being lazy at home all week. This week at work for me was CRAZY busy. I guess because of the holiday last week. I wish every week was a 4 day week. We are getting excited about our upcoming trip to Dewey in October and our family vacation with the kids in December. It seems like a long way off, but it will be here before we know it. :)


I just had to put this picture in. Booyah is sound asleep with his head up Maggie's ____. You can fill in the blank. I can't believe she is becoming so tolerable of being touched by other greys. Don't get me wrong...it's great, but it soooo unlike the Queen! Maybe she is getting too old to care? Or maybe she let out a stinky and is laughing on the inside. Sweet revenge. :)Now on to some updates. Remember miss Ria? She is now in her forever home and is doing great! Her mommy loves her very much and she is already spoiled rotten!!!!
And miss Kinga is also in her forever home and she is also doing wonderfully! She is as sweet as sugar. She reminded me a lot of Iggy (M's Foxy Susie).
The patio. There has been significant progress on the patio since my last update. The bottom portion of stone has all been put in place. It looks complete, but it is not, there is still work to be done. We still have the pergola and bar to build and we have some more stones to fix on the top portion. We should be done by the 1st weekend in August and we will be planning a little celebration get together towards the end of August. And when I say we, I mean Mitch. As all I am doing is supervising the project. I am not good when it comes to projects like these. Give me some paint and a paint brush and I will paint any room. I actually find it fun. I know it is sick, but true. Outside work.....I think I'll pass. :)

It should be really nice when it is all done. BTW....yes we do have cushions for the furniture. They are being stored in the garage temporarily. I just had to put the love seat out there to get an idea of what it is going to be like when it is done.
The two foot rests are where the pergola is going to start. It will cover most of the bottom portion of the patio. We also bought a fire pit, which will be in the center and the chimenea will be off to the side. I am getting excited about seeing the final result!! And, of course I am looking forward to enjoying quality time outside.

And then there were 4

Whew...the chaos at the Ridlon house has finally settled. 7 hounds in the house at one time I must admit was way too many. I can't believe those words just came out of my mouth! Our living space in our house is just too small. I hate to admit, but our max is probably 5 hounds. Mitch and I are exhausted. We are enjoying the much needed break! The hounds are exhausted from all the company too. These pictures were taken before the chaos began, but I think they sum up pretty well how the kids are felling now.

Booyah takes advantage of being the only one in the living room. He has the entire couch to his self and any number of dog beds to choose from.

Zola takes it easy on a plushy dog bed. She was dropped off on the 3rd and will be with us for the whole month of July while her mom is away on a business trip to Sri Lanka. She has stayed with us so much over the last couple of months, she knows the routine and is super easy to care for. This is like her second home. :)
Cueball's think bubble says "Things are finally back to normal. now it's time for a nap."

And, how did the queen take all the excitement?
Well......she gave me the evil stinkeye several times during the course of the week, snubbed me a few times when I asked for kisses and chewed on my shoes to express her frustration.


But alas, she is back to her princess like self now.Mitch and I are back to our normal routine and feeding 4 seems like a piece of cake after feeding 6 for a week. We are conserving our energy for a busy upcoming weekend....meet and greet, Cueball's birthday celebration and the South African food and wine festival. This weekend should be loads of fun! :)

Copious Greyhounds

On Sunday VAGA volunteers met in Ashland, VA to welcome 5 lucky greyhounds from Orlando, FL to VA. All the greys on this haul were brindles. All of them were beautiful and sweet! It was another great group of hounds! More pictures of the haul can be seen here.



And, good news for Tigress. Her foster mom dropped her off so that she could get a ride with Kristen and Debbie up to Northern, VA to her forever home. She had a hard time saying goodbye to this sweet, good girl. I can't imagine fostering for 2 months and then having to say goodbye. :( I get very attached after only a few days. Hopefully, Tigress has found a place to settle and will be there forever. Below is Debbie with Tigress. Best of luck sweet girl!!

3 of the hounds went to Northern, VA to meet their families, 1 (Mesa Coronet) went to a family in the Ladysmith area, and we took 2 fosters home. We are fostering for the week, we are still watching Lola until Friday and Zola was dropped off yesterday. So we had 7 hounds for a day. We are on greyhound overload!! Mg's Diana, now known as Kinga, went on a home visit yesterday and is now being fostered by her soon to be forever family. Her official adoption will be on Saturday. Ria's official adoption will be on Sunday. Both girls are doing great and are adjusting well!

Kinga.

Ria.