life's little moments

We've moved.......

2011-06-05T13:24:00.003-04:00

to a new blogging site. www.lovinglifewithhounds.wordpress.com. We hope you continue to follow along!!

Greyhound play date

2011-06-02T04:31:00.034-04:00

A few weekends back we had a small group of friends, whom we have met through our greyhounds, over for a play date. Including our four, we had 11 hounds total. This was our third attempt at picking a date, as the other dates got rained out, and even though it was a bit warm we kept the party scheduled as planned. Above is our stack of dog beds, all washed and ready for our hound guests.

Our intended play date turned into a pool party. Maggie was the first one in. The rest soon followed suit.

It was interesting to watch each hound. Some were content to just stand with their paws in the water while others lay down to enjoy the cool water. This was the first time Cueball actually decided to lay down in the pool. Guess it was either hot enough or he finally figured it out. Either way it was cute and he makes the pool look tiny. ;-) Jazmin keeps a lookout for him. If she had a cartoon bubble above her head, I imagine it would say "I've got your back."

Booyah prefers the cool grass. And lil man Dakota was busy checking it all out.

Rumor takes her turn in the pool.

The youngest greyhound fan, Mayrah.

Left to right dogs Rumor (in the pool), Jazmin, Jade, Pippi (laying down) and Dakota. And people left to right: Tinsley, Nicki, Greg, Mayrah and Kerrie.

We took quite a few breaks from the hot weather. Mitch rewards the hounds for their good behavior with treats.

Another view of Mitch giving treats.

Max, Norman, Pippi and Maggie. Norman is quiet camera shy so his mommy coaxed him in for a photo op.

Sera. She loves people!!

Even though they did not do much during the play date, they were still somehow exhausted.

Cueball taking it easy after a fun day.

Pictures above are a combination of my photos, Kerrie's photos and Nicki's photos. =)

Next post we will share our VAGA annual picnic pictures. Will try to get that post up by Saturday. Over the next few weeks, we will be taking it easy until our vacation to Barkwells! We have been on the go for the last 5 weekends and we and the hounds need a break!!

A decade together

2011-05-28T10:59:00.023-04:00

On May 18th, Mitch and I celebrated our 10 year wedding anniversary. 10 years sure has flown by! It was a great day! I took the day off from work so I could spend the early afternoon and evening with Mitch. This time of year is very busy for a heating/air guy so we knew a mini vacation away from home two weeks in a row would not be feasible. I pulled our wedding album out of a box (we have lots of stuff packed away since we are on the market and have been for 2 years) and looked back through all the pictures of our wonderful day. I unfortunately do not have the photos in digital version and I do not have a scanner so I took a picture of the pictures to share with you. I will share just a few photos of our special day [don't want to bore you too much ;-)] We were married on a Friday evening at 7 p.m. in front of a fountain at beautiful Parker's Ridge in Charles City County, Virginia.

After reminiscing and shedding some happy tears, I drove out to New Kent Winery to buy some of their White Norton wine. This was the first day this wine has been available since 2009. The birds destroyed their crops so they did not have any to harvest last year. We both love this particular wine, so I stocked us up with 1/2 case. They only have 200 cases in production this year. They are so limited that they are not even allowing tasting of this wine. :) The guy at the winery told me the wine is selling quick so to hurry back before it is gone. We plan to!

When I arrived back home, I spent time cleaning up and also polished our silver from our wedding day. These glasses were a beautiful wedding gift from our dear friends Sherry and Franklin. Each glass is inscribed, one for Mitch and one for Me. The pictures here do not do them justice. We used them for our toast on our wedding day and have not used them since. 10 years seemed like the right occasion to break these out again! We have been saving a bottle of the champagne we had on our wedding day for a very special occasion. I was running around trying to get everything looking great and ready for Mitch to get home from work. I also cleaned up our decanter and wine glasses that were also a wedding gift, so we could enjoy our White Norton. My plan was to cook Mitch a lovely dinner since he is always the one cooking in our household. Thought it would be a really nice treat. Unfortunately, storms had a different plan for us. We lost power for the evening and ended up grilling hamburgers/hot dogs. We went with it. Nothing was going to ruin this day for us! We sat on the back deck, drank our champagne then followed that with our wine. We enjoyed our hamburgers and hot dogs. We turned the radio on listened to some John Prine and danced in the rain. A fun, fun time with lots of laughs!

Although my plan for the day did not turn out quite the way I wanted it to, We both had a wonderful day and shared in lots of laughs! Mitch said it has been the best 10 years of his life, so I guess I am doing something right. ;-)

Mitch wanted to do something really nice for me also and he did! He surprised me and had me in tears (good tears) when he sent me on a scavenger hunt through the house. He had hidden poems of clues in several spots in the house. What a sweetie!! Clues lead me to love notes, chocolate and ultimately a new diamond wedding ring. It is a heirloom diamond and has been around since before they starting using lasers to cut diamonds. I love it! Just perfect and suits me very well! I was shocked, happy and very surprised!! He had been planning this for an entire year! I love my Mitch!! He is such a great guy and I am a lucky girl to have him! :)

Just like any couple, we have had our ups and downs, but through it all we have had each other to lean on in good times and bad. It has been a fantastic 10 years! We're going for 10 more! ;-)

Stay tuned Greyhound Play Date and VAGA annual picnic pictures coming soon!

Grapehounds-VA '11 Greyz and Wine.....What else is there?

2011-05-22T19:09:00.040-04:00

Greyhounds and Wine, what is not to love? A great combo and Grapehounds-VA does a great job bringing the two together. We attended the for the second year. We decided to make it a long weekend. Drove up to Leesburg Friday afternoon. We did tasting at 5 of the 7 wineries over three days. Day #1 of Grapehounds kicked off at one of the newest wineries in Virginia, North Gate Vineyard. This winery runs partially on Solar Panels, very cool!! The Friday night crowd was large. The food was excellent and the wines were great!

Back at the hotel for the night, Pippi says "where are guys sleeping?" You can use our dog beds. :) We knew it would be a struggle to get them to sleep on the dog beds on the floor, as they are quite spoiled at home sleeping on furniture, but we got it worked out. ;-)

Day #2 kicked off at Lost Creek Winery, the host winery for the day. I love this Wine tour banner, way cute!The winery was beautiful and again the wines were great! We found so many red wines we enjoyed, which is unusual for us with Virginia reds. My favorite was their Chambourcian.

Lots and lots of barrels. :)

They set up a large Wedding tent for all the vendors. Very nice! Even though the forecast was less than favorable for Saturday, we somehow managed to dodge the rain. It remained overcast all day which was perfect for the hounds and did not start to rain until 5:30 p.m. The event ended for the day at 5 p.m. Yay!!

The VAGA vending tents and sweet Gabby.

Jackson, a new member to the VAGA family. He is very sweet and cute!

Our pups and Judy's pups (Sandy, Allie and Jackson) hung out in the ex-pens for the majority of the day. Booyah is the last man standing. Two ex-pens hooked together made for a great space and allowed for me to help VAGA with clipping nails for donations and still be near my pups. Even though they spent most of the day laying around in the pen, they were exhausted from doing.......well.........nothing.

The Queen in her rightful spot after a long day #2 at Grapehounds.

Pippi, the bundle of energy, was also exhausted from day #2.

Cueball finally got a spot on the other double bed on day #2.

Booyah was the only one who found the dog beds and floor cozy.

At the end of day #2, we rushed to Hidden Brook Winery after helping the VAGA girls pack all the vending items up, take the tents down and load up Debbie's van. It was after 5 p.m., but they still let us taste wine. Luckily, the winery is right next door to Lost Creek, so the drive was easy. =) And since we were right there, we would have kicked ourselves for not making it since we live a good three hours South East of Leesburg. They were only sampling 3 wines. We both liked their Merlot, but did not care for the other two.

Hidden Brook Winery.

Lastly, on day three we had to drag the kids out to Barrel Oak and Three Fox Vineyards to complete our tour. They were slam worn out, so we did not stay long. We arrived at Barrel Oak Winery just as they were opening.

A cutie hanging out inside.

Another cutie waiting by the tasting bar.

Inside Barrel Oak.

Tasting bar at Barrel Oak.

Wish I could have gotten a better picture of this hound. I have never seen a hound this color. Very pretty!!

Cueball wonders when this tour stuff will be over. He was quite tired from all the puparazzi. Several people stopped us to ask if Cueball was Cueball. They recognized him from last year's event. His daddy was quite proud! :)

Pippi could not agree more, time to go home please!

Outside patio area, tasting bar and Mitch walking the boys.

Back of Barrel Oak. The view you can see on Route 66.

The view of the Mountains from Barrel Oak. Exquisite scenery.

Lastly on the tour was Three Fox Vineyards. This is a very quaint winery. Does not look like much from the outside, but the wines were our favorite out of the 5 wineries we visited. We brought home a case of their wine!

The view from Three Fox Vineyards, which is just a short drive from Barrel Oak. We saw a really cool sign at the tasting bar at this winery that read "Wine is bottled poetry." So true!

We sampled 11 wines and one Champagne at this winery. We liked almost all of them! We sampled 8 at Barrel Oak about 1/2 hour before. Neither one us were tipsy, which surprised me. I am usually a light weight.

Guess our tolerance for tasting wine has improved with practice. ;-)

We had a wonderful time!! We look forward to attending next year too! And one year we swear we will make it to Grapehounds-NY!

Stay tuned, we have some pictures from our Greyhound Play Date to share and VAGA's annual picnic is this Saturday!! Lots of pics of hounds to come!!! :)

Love of sunshine

2011-05-01T03:58:00.019-04:00

The pups, Mitch and I had a lovely Easter weekend. We went to the VAGA Richmond Meet and Greet on Saturday (pics at end of post). The fur kids are always excited about going somewhere. They love to travel. =)

Booyah says did someone say Meet and Greet?

Don't you just love his big Yoda like ears? :)

After the Meet and Greet we returned home to enjoy the warmth of sunshine. Cueball and Pippi both love the sun.

The best seat in the house for catching rays is by the kitchen sliding glass door. Sometimes we put a dog bed there for the pups. Cueball, Pippi and Misty are the only ones who like to "bake" themselves in the sun.

If he could speak, I think he would say, "this is the life."

Another strange sleeping position for Pippi.

The following are some shots of nature. I took the camera out to play around a bit in the yard while the pups recuperated from their tiring day of meeting and greeting. ;-)

Loblolly Pines are beautiful in the sun.

Mitch and the pups at the Meet and Greet.

Me and the pups at the Meet and Greet.

Lastly, the Easter bunny at grandma's house was very good to the pups. :)

We hope you had a wonderful Easter weekend too!

Hodgepodge

2011-04-17T14:20:00.012-04:00

This post will be a hodgepodge of what we have been up to in the last few weeks. First up is a picture of our new Wine Cork holder. This was a present for Mitch, as he is the cork dork, errh.....collector in the family and Iwas tired of them consuming space in the kitchen drawer. Instead of tossing them out every time I cleaned the drawer, I decided to give them a place on the counter. It was a win win! ;-)

Next, I came home to this last Wednesday evening. As you can see, the couch was a mess with blankets being "rearranged" and white stuffing every where. It is safe to say they had a pretty fun afternoon in the house. Need to install a doggie cam to capture the action. :)

The victim rests below........

And the culprit......

Pippi tends to sleep in some unique positions. She eventually slid all the way off the couch.

Last weekend we hosted an adoption day for VAGA and then attended the Glen Allen MG. Four hounds made the trip up from Orlando to their forever homes. Meet Zephyr. She landed a great forever home in Norfolk. She was very sweet and bonded quickly with Mitch. She is doing well in her new home.

Lastly, we have been spending as much time as we can outside. We try to have dinner out on the deck every evening (weather permitting, of course). The pups don't mind, they just want to be wherever we are.

We have some greyt things planned in the next month.......New Kent Wine Festival, Grapehounds Virginia, VAGA Annual Picnic and a Greyhound play date. Stay tuned. ;-)

Back to the norm

2011-04-05T18:05:00.011-04:00

As mentioned in my last post, Cueball's face boo boo has healed. His fur has not grown in yet, so the area is still quite pink, but the sutures are out and he healed very nicely. We are very thankful no injury was caused to his eye. =) Things here at the Ridlon abode are back to normal, no more leash walking and no more covering multiple pills in peanut butter twice a day. :) The vet was very pleased with how well he healed. It is always a nice thing to hear!!! Cueball says "The chicks dig me." Spring has finally sprung in Virginia. Each year I try to time it right to get a picture of the Bradford Pear tree with all the white blooms and no green. I failed again. Maybe next year I will capture the beauty. The white blooms are not around for long, but they are spectacular for the short time they are! We have two of these trees in our front yard. We planted them in memory of the loss of Mitch's parents in 2001. I am quite fond of these trees for many reasons.

In our back yard by our patio, we put a small flower bed in last year and planted some bushes. They must have been the wrong type for our climate because this past year's winter killed them. :( So we changed them out for these. I love pansies! They are so pretty. They don't mind the cold!

I have been playing around with different settings on my camera trying to get a better feel for and understanding of which settings work best under which circumstances in hopes my photos will keep getting better and better. My attempts are below.

I am in the market for a new lens. I have researched and know exactly what I want just waiting for the right opportunity to snag one off of e-bay at a good price. I love a bargain and try to avoid paying full price when I can. ;-)

Here is Booyah posing by the Bradford Pear tree.

Cueball, Maggie and Booyah enjoying the beautiful spring weather. I think this shot really shows how small of a greyhound Maggie is. She is my little 54lb bundle of happiness! I love the little stinker dearly!!

Miss Misty enjoying a nap on the back of the couch. Hard to believe that she will be 12 this year. She was a birthday gift for Mitch. He picked her out of the litter of kittens at the SPCA in October of '99. I was hoping for an adult cat, but he really wanted a kitten. She is a daddy's girl, 100%.

Booyah being touchy feely with Pippi. He doesn't mind laying or touching another dog but does not like the favor returned. Silly boy doesn't know what he is missing!!

Don't you love how content they look when they sleep? I do!! I never get tired of looking at them while they are sleeping.

And lastly Cueball enjoying his chair and favorite blue blanket, which happens to be my bonus from work for 2009. I thought it was quite lame when I first got it, but as it turns out it was the perfect gift!! I call this his "bank bank" and he knows exactly what that term is. He will not lay down comfortably without a blanket underneath him and will wait for you to either put one down on a dog bed or in his favorite chair. I think that might be the definition of SPOILED!!!

Now that is pure happiness!!

Double your Meet and Greets, Double your fun

2011-03-20T16:37:00.013-04:00

We have been busy with greyhound volunteer work. In the midst of all of the fun we had a hurt hound. A few weeks ago Cueball got a big boo boo under his eye. He and Pippi were playing in our yard and the play got a little rough. Our fault completely, neither pup was muzzled. Live and learn. Although it was a hard lesson. Luckily it was just a flesh wound with no damage to his eye. The sutures have been removed and he has healed up nicely. He now has a "battle scar" that all the ladies will dig. ;-) We attended the Glen Allen MG in early February and helped spread the word about our beloved greys.

Finley tolerates Pippi's "TSA" style body search.

Sunday looking pretty in purple.

The whole gang (8 hounds). It was a great turnout and we met some new greyhound friends. :)

Then in late February we attended our monthly meet and greet in Richmond. Again, we had a great turnout of hounds and humans along with a record breaking donation amount!

Jazmin looking on. Her first meet and greet and she did great!

Booyah and Pippi greet Max.

Sera was one of our donation dogs. She is super friendly and loves people and attention!

In early February we also attended a Roller Derby game. Richmond has a co-ed team. We both had never been to a Roller Derby game. We can now say that we are fans and are addicted! We had so much fun, once we understood the rules, and one of our good friends is on the Broadstreet Brawlers (local team) team, so it made it extra fun! We already have all the home matches marked on our calendar. :)

This guy from the Carytown Crashers team was leading the jam. He was very fast!

A jam in progress.

Below is a quick video of part of one of the jams.

At each home match, they sponsor a charity. The charity can set up a table and sell raffle tickets for gift cards and other prizes. All proceeds earned go to the charity. A way to give back to local charities, love it!! VAGA was invited to be the charity for the March match (Leprechaun Throw down). It was honor to be selected! So Mitch and I set up table at the RollerDome and held a non-dog meet and greet with information about greyhounds, brochures and business cards. Sold raffle tickets and collected donations while watching the March Roller Derby match. It was such a fun event and we raised over $230.00 for VAGA!!! Very cool!

More fun greyhound events coming soon, so stay tuned! Now that spring has officially sprung we will be out and about a lot more. :)

Pippi is 6 and we get a break in the weather

2011-02-20T19:25:00.020-05:00

Miss Princess Pippi celebrated her 6th birthday and 2nd Gotcha day this weekend. She is quite the foodie so cake seemed fitting for her birthday treat. :)

Here she is checking out the goods while the boys wait patiently for us to cut the cake.

Her meal for the evening on Saturday (which was her actual birthday) and on Sunday.

She lets us know that it is lip smacking good.

And our treat for the evening. Yum, yes it was!!

With all the attention on Pippi for most of the day, Maggie found herself feeling quite jealous.
She is the queen, we must not forget!

The weather this weekend was fabulous for some outdoor fun. Cueball kicks things off by giving the moose a good shake.

Then takes the moose for a romp around the yard.

He tires of this toy and moves onto the pink unstuffed dog. Its head is the only part that remains stuffed.

Pippi gets a turn once Cueball tires out. It did not take long. ;-)

She is a bucking bronco!

After a few minutes of playing with this toy, she loses interest and decides to stalk Maggie. She is a nut. She stands still with her head cocked low like they can't see her.

She starts to make her move closing in on her target.

Then at just the right moment she pounces and gives a loud playful growly bark. Goofy girl!

She has the most personality out of our four and has brought so many laughs to our lives and added so much joy! Happy Birthday and Gotcha Day Pippers, we love you sooooooo much!!!!!!!! :)

Lastly, the jealous queen wants you to know that she is mommy's heart and always will be!

Justa catchin rays and crazy cars around town

2011-02-13T14:44:00.005-05:00

Our sweet girl, Maggie Mae, catching some rays of sunshine during her afternoon nap yesterday.

Just look how content she is. Puts a smile on our face.

On another note, a few months ago on two separate trips to the grocery store we saw some weird vehicles. I will leave it to you to fill in the blanks on this one.

Not sure how many groceries this person thought they could squeeze in this car.

We have some exciting greyhound activities coming up, so stay tuned. :)

Fluffing our nest

2011-02-06T12:07:00.017-05:00

Booyah says GO STEELERS!!! Wahoo!!!

The hubby is a big Steelers fan so that is who we will be rooting for today.

I mentioned in my recent posts that we have been doing quite a bit of work around the house. This post will mainly be about the before and after with little commentary. We will be back to our greyhound outings and activities soon.

It is a great time of year for us to being getting all of this done as it is still really cold here. I am looking forward to spring and summer, it can't get here fast enough!

Anywho, we started our painting projects with the master bedroom. Below is the before (mint green).

And the after (Sand). The pups couch is not pictured, but is still there. :)

In an effort to keep them out of trouble while we painted the living room, they became "jailed" for the day. We took them out multiple times throughout the day when we were on our breaks. They were not quite sure what this was all about but were glad to be out when we were done. We painted this hallway, the foyer and the hallway upstairs last August at the same time we were installing our composite deck and staining the front porch. We are DIYers. :) It is my favorite paint color (Rivera beach) and is what we based our other room paint colors around.

Living room before (Mustard yellow).

Living room after (Soft Camel).

And our last chore, the kitchen. We debated and debated over painting this room. It is a lot of cutting in and by far one of the hardest rooms, besides the utility room; which I tackled painting a year and a half ago; to paint. We wanted to try a new technique to redo our cabinets, but we used polyurethane last Sunday to touch them up a bit and they looked better, so we opted to use our day off on Friday to paint instead. Good thing we did because we received a call for our first showing Friday afternoon for early Saturday morning. We got the painting done and the house ready for the showing. Needless to say, after all that hard work, I have been a couch potato since Saturday afternoon. =) We will save the cabinet project for another day or maybe our new house. :)

Has anyone used the Rustoleum product for kitchen cabinets? This is what we were going to do. We would love your feedback if you have.

Kitchen before (Bright yellow). View 1.

Kitchen after (Antique). View 2.

Kitchen after. View 1.

It was a lot hard work, but we are very happy with the results and hope this will help to sell. Will keep you posted.

Hope everyone has a great week!

Low Key

2011-01-22T08:39:00.007-05:00

Things have been pretty quite and low key for us. Temps outside have remained rather cool so we are hibernating. I planned to post videos of the pups opening their presents on Christmas but the slow internet connection is unfortunately not allowing me to do so. :( They were rather cute about tearing up the wrapping paper though.
Our cat, Misty, has found a new favorite sleeping spot. As you can see below, the hounds don't mind. She has become quite loving. Her personality has changed over the last six months. In September just before we went on our beach vacation she had a blood clot form. She was not able to use her back legs and was dragging herself around with her front legs. It was awful. We had no idea what had happened. She was walking around fine all day and then all of a sudden she started crawling. It was scary. We rushed her to the vet. The vet was able to give her an injection of Heparin to help move the clot and luckily it worked, but she did have loss of use of her back legs for a few days. It was very sad to watch her going through that. :( She has since made a full recovery with movement in her legs. Upon that vet visit, she was diagnosed with Cardiomyopathy and Hyperthyroidism and is currently on daily medication. The meds so far seem to be helping her maintain a good quality of life. Two months after starting the meds, she had follow up visit and blood work which looked good and indicated that she is on the correct dose of medication. She will go back in April for another check up. Fingers are crossed that the medication continues to help. :)

Booyah likes to ball his blankets up and then lay on them. He is a goofy boy.

Cueball prefers to lay on our bed and use a pillow for a head rest.

Maggie was having good dreams. Content and happy.

We will be putting our house on the market next weekend. We are hoping to move closer in to the Richmond area. We have been living out in the country for the last ten years. It has been good, but it is time for a change. We did not have any luck last year with selling. We went on the market in Feb. and took the house of the market in Nov. We had several people who wanted to buy our home, but they had houses to sell and that did not happen. We also had a young couple (jokingly known as "our friends") who submitted three offers to buy our home. Unfortunately, they were all low ball offers and it was a no deal for us. We did counter offer and gave them our bottom line price also. They wanted it all, but did not want to or could not afford to pay the price.

We still feel we have a lot to offer though. We have a 3+ garage with partially finished attic for storage, large storage shed, 6.49 acres of land, a 1988 square foot cap cod (built in 2000 and open concept), refinished deck, large patio, fenced rear yard, etc. The process of selling can be frustrating. We have a good real estate agent, we learned a lot last year through the experience and are hoping for better results this year.

In the meantime, we refinanced to take advantage of the low interest rates and reduced the years on the mortgage. Through the refinance we now have a recent appraisal which indicated that our asking price was reasonable (it was a sigh of relief to know I was not crazy and our price was a good price). The appraised value was $7, 000 above our asking and $11, 000 above assessed value. Although we wanted to move very badly, we were not willing to give it all away, and I am glad we did not. It is a new year and I am staying positive! This will be the year we sell! I will keep the readers of this blog updated on our progress.

Hope everyone is having a great 2011 so far!

We got Bread! Did you?

2010-12-26T15:09:00.019-05:00

Yep, winter storm Bread did not disappoint and came to fruition. For those who may not know, WRVA in Richmond (Jimmy B. and the morning show folks) are naming all the snow storms this winter. Alvin, the first storm (Dec. 19th) died off and was a disappointment, but not true for Bread. In our area we saw the effects of Bread starting around 2:30 p.m. on Christmas day and continuing to snow off and on until 5 p.m. today. Total snow fall for us 7.5 inches. Yay! Hey, I would much prefer white sandy beaches and sun, but if it is going to be this da** cold it may as well snow!

I will apologize in advance, as the pictures are out of order, and blogger won't let me rearrange them. GRRR!!

Pippi was not too sure about the snow at first, but once she figured it out she had a blast.

Booyah knows how much fun the white fluffy stuff can be. This snow, so I have been told, is like a Maine snow. Fine and fluffy.

Below is Pippi surveying the yard before venturing out.

She finds her snow legs and takes a romp.
Cueball loves, loves, loves the snow. He would stay out there all day long playing in it if you let him.

One happy boy. :)

Booyah joins him for some fun.

I so enjoy watching the kids play in the snow. It puts huge smiles on our faces. Such a joy to see them so happy!

Here Booyah is taking a break to enjoy the snowflakes falling on him.

Maggie had a great time playing until she lost her cuz toy in the snow. I searched and searched but couldn't find it. Every spot I thought I had found it turned out to be a pee spot. So Mae is hoping for some sun to melt the snow so she can retrieve her beloved toy. Not sure what toy she will bring to bed in its place. The cuz is her favorite.

This pic below is from Christmas day after the snow had come down for a few hours. She was having a ball with her new cow squeaky toy.

Pippi would like it stated for the record that it is much safer indoors in the confides of a warm, toasty room, laying on a plush dog bed covered with a fleece blanket snuggling with the plushy moose toy.

We will have some Christmas day videos to share and some catching up to do in upcoming posts, so stay tuned. We hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!

Merry Christmas!!!!

2010-12-25T15:30:00.005-05:00

Merry Christmas everyone!! May your Christmas be filled with love and laughter!We are having a very lovely white Christmas here in the Ole Forge of Virginia!

Update Booyah

2010-12-04T10:57:00.002-05:00

I am very happy to report that Booyah had his follow up visit with Dr. Blair on Wednesday. He also celebrated his fourth gotcha day last weekend, which will be saved for another post. :) Dr. Blair was quite pleased with the improvement in Booyah's eye. He does not see any need for surgery at this point, as he feels the eye is not causing Booyah any discomfort or pain. The redness is almost completely gone and he expects this to continue to diminish with time. The area surrounding the eye is no longer swollen or tender. Booyah is off of his pain meds but will continue with his daily eye drops and will follow up in six months to be re-evaluated. Of course if there are any issues before that time, he will see Dr. Blair again immediately.

As mentioned in my last post we will not be going back to our previous primary vet again. So we are changing vets to another greyhound savvy vet who is highly recommended. I should note that our previous primary vet was very greyhound savvy and is a sight hound owner herself. We, like many other greyhound owners passed by several vet's offices on our way to see this vet. Her office was not close to our home and was a 45 minute drive for us. That did not matter to us as we believed our hounds were in good hands. That is why we put our trust in this vet practice, but unfortunately we were mistaken. Anyone who personally knows us, knows that we do everything we can to provide the best care and loving home for all of our furkids. We put a lot of research and thought into choosing our previous vet and are deeply disappointed. We are hopeful that our new vet will provide our hounds with the proper care they so rightfully deserve.

Elizabeth Taylor eye

2010-11-21T13:45:00.006-05:00

We had a rough weekend last weekend. We had nothing planned and were looking forward to having a relaxing weekend at home. All he** decided to break loose instead. In order to understand the story, we must start at the beginning. We adopted Booyah almost four years ago (it will be four years at the end of this week). He is a very sweet boy. He waited and waited at the kennel to find a home because he is a big (83lb) black male with one eye that has a genetic defect. It is blue in color, has a protrusion at its center and a bit sunken in. He also has no sight in this eye. If you look closely you can see the difference in his right eye from a "normal" greyhound eye. None of that mattered to us, we just wanted a good second addition to help Miss Queen with her separation anxiety. He is the perfect fit and cured Maggie's anxiety. All has been well with this eye and his general health for the past almost four years. That is until last Wednesday. Wednesday evening I noticed his eye was a bit red and he was squinting a bit. This has happened before when he has poked himself in the eye when walking by a tree branch. I did not think much of it and decided to check him in the morning and go from there. Thursday morning, the redness had decreased some, there was no drainage, swelling or edema and his natural blue color was present. I thought it must be getting better and opted not to take him to the vet. Things ended up taking a turn for the worse on Friday evening. His eye had changed in color to purple, was swollen and bulging. (this pic below was taken today) We went to see my primary vet early Saturday morning, who diagnosed him with having a Descemetocele, which is a formation of an ulcer that then ruptures. As you can imagine, that would be quite painful. They informed me that he will likely need surgery to either repair the eye (cut the nerve endings to the eye) or remove the eye. I was given a referral to see a specialist.

I should note here that because of this whole incident, Booyah nor will any of my other fur kids, will be returning to this vet for any further care. And here is the reason. Booyah has been seen by this vet practice for four years. The vet he normally sees was off last Saturday, so he saw the other vet. In the four years he has been seen, no one noted that there was a birth defect in this eye and what it looked like. The vet who saw him Saturday also informed me that when they saw him the Saturday prior for a regular 6 month check up and vaccine update they noted at that time that he had an ulcer in his eye. However, no one bothered to inform me of this. They had also noted back in 2009 that he had corneal scarring and an unknown mass/deformity. On 3 separate visits some issue with his eye was noted in his chart but was not discussed with me. As you can imagine, I was quite perturbed and the Vet and her staff received quite the mouthful of ugliness from me.

I am very proactive and heavily involved in the care of our fur kids and I always ask when they are seen if there are any concerns with their health. In the interest of seeking a second opinion, because I no longer trusted anything this vet had to say, I drove Booyah to an emergency vet for their opinion. The vet who saw him concluded the same diagnosis and also referred me to a specialist. Before going to the emergency vet, I did contact two specialist's office, but unfortunately none of the Ophthalmologists in the Richmond nor the Northern Virginia were on call that weekend. As a side note, if you live in the state of Virginia and your fur kid has a true eye emergency, good luck on the weekends. You may end up at Virginia Tech or NC State to receive care.

The ER vet gave us pain meds and eye drops to get us through the weekend and told us to call if the eye worsened. She also informed us that we could go to VT or NC state if he needed emergent surgery.

The whole weekend I was anxious and worried sick about Booyah. We saw the specialist on Monday. After looking at Booyah for just a few seconds and hearing his history, the vet informed me that this was not a Descemetocele. I was quite relived.

Now, it should be noted that I am not bashing the other two vets for a wrong diagnosis, as they are not eye specialists and I don't expect they would be able to properly diagnosis this issue. However, my primary vet office not letting me know about scarring, unknown mass and an ulcer in the eye is ridiculous and I am still outraged over that situation.

The good news is that Booyah is going to be okay and surgery is not needed, at least not yet. It may be needed in the future if we cannot medically manage his pain. Booyah's correct diagnosis is a Congential anomaly/blind; Corneal staphloma; Hyphema suspect retina detachment. So what does all that mean? According to the eye specialist it means this:
"Booyah's right eye has a birth defect and the bulge in the cornea is a weak area but it is not unstable. The hemorrhage inside the eye is likely due to a detachment of the retina. I suspect he had a blunt trauma to the eye and that caused the hemorrhage and sensitivity. If the eye remains painful, removal of the eye may be recommended."

Booyah is on pain meds, anti-inflammatorys and eye drops. His has remained his loving, sweet self and his tail has never stopped wagging through this whole ordeal. He is no longer squinting, so I think there has been an improvement. Only time will tell if surgery will be necessary. We follow up with the specialist on December 1st and will go from there. But for the meantime and the future, we are ans will remain in love with our big, beautiful, black boy even with his Elizabeth Taylor eye.

Just Cuz

2010-11-06T03:47:00.015-04:00

A couple of weeks ago, the girls and I played fetch in the yard with their new cuz toy. This is Maggie's absolute, bar none, favorite toy. It makes an obnoxiously loud squeak, so it remains an outside toy. The boys don't care much for a game of fetch, but the girls love it. They love the competition and play very well together. Maggie is like a "big sister" to Pippi and plays that role very well. :) The girls do everything together and are quite lost when they are apart even though they have the company of the boys. Mitch always walks the boys when we travel and I always walk the girls. It bodes true at home also. The boys are usually always with Mitch whether he is downstairs or upstairs and the girls are with me. Maybe it should not be this way, but it is. Now, that is not to say that Mitch does not spend any time with the girls or loves them any less or that I do not spend any time with the boys or love them any less. It just seems that they have picked "their people". =)

Anywho...here are some pics of our time playing fetch in the backyard.

Pippi is ready to catch the cuz toy.

Maggie watches as Pippi makes her catch.
Then it is Maggie's turn to catch.
The girls both look on for the flying cuz.

Pippi makes her move while Maggie waits.Maggie's technique pays off.
Next throw, Maggie loses site of cuz.

Once she spots it, she makes a 180 degree turn.
Pippi has her eyes on the next throw.

She makes a dive for it and ends up looking like a Kangaroo. I wonder if her tail was balancing her. ;-)This catch sends her flying around the yard. Her victory lap, I guess.The girls had a blast! I am so glad two have to hounds who love to play fetch. We have such a good time watching them. That is about all that we have been up to for the month of October as far as doggie activities are concerned. We have been busy with human activities, which I may post about later. =)

NKC Vineyard visit

2010-10-10T10:22:00.009-04:00

We are fortunate to live less than 15 miles from a very nice winery, New Kent Winery. We frequent there as often as we can. We have done the tour and tasting multiple times and sometimes we just go to sit out on their back patio and enjoy a bottle of wine. I brought the camera along on a recent trip. It was a beautiful day outside. Even when it is not warm out, they have propane heaters on the deck and you stay quite toasty while enjoying your wine. It is the perfect place to visit during all seasons. We even learned on our last trip that our hounds would be welcome, so long as they stayed outside. Our next trip will for sure include our hounds. :)

Mitch enjoys a glass of Meritage.

New Kent Winery was built using almost all reusable material. The bricks, decking, beams, tasting bar etc. all came from older buildings in Virginia, in other states and from other countries. The building itself is beautiful, but to get a full appreciation for how it was designed and built the tour is a must. NKC winery is the largest winery in Virginia. It is situated on 5,000 acres of land. After the owner purchased the land, he made a deal with folks in the community who hunted on the land. They still do hunt on the property (not close to the winery) and for that priviledge in return they come out each year with their families and help harvest the crops. All of their grapes are hand picked! After seeing the process that it takes to make just one barrel of wine, y0u get a true appreciation for their work and the wine. We were so amazed by the process we stood in awe in the wine makers room on the catwalk as they explained the process in great detail.

Below are some of the Cabernet Franc vines. These are located just across from the building. This is a pretty popular wine by Virginia wineries. I enjoy Cabernet Franc, but it is a required taste.

Below are the vines for the Norton grapes. New Kent makes a White Norton wine that is very unique. The Norton grape is another popular grape used in Virginia wines. Unfortunately, last year's crop was destroyed by birds. They have covered the grapes for the future crop. We will be waiting 10-12 months for the White Norton wine to be made. This wine is my favorite from this winery. Next time we go and it is available, I will be stocking up. If you live in Virginia and are a fan of wine, a trip to this winery should be on your to do list. We highly recommend it! Not only is it situated in a beautiful setting, it is also provides a unique experience with some great wine!

A Toyrefic 10th B-day

2010-10-09T13:42:00.009-04:00

Another year has gone by and my little queen is now 10. It is hard to believe how fast time does fly. Maggie has been with us now for four years. I love her more every day. She is my heart and we share a very special bond. Her birthday was on 9-27. We had big plans to go to the park and then to Petsmart. It was going to be just her and I. Kinda of a mommy and me day. The rain had a different idea, so instead we just went to Petsmart and got some new toys and treats, came back to the house and she went to town playing with all her new toys. She eventually let her brothers and sister play too.

She plays with the pink and green Octopus first.

Then moves on to the squirrel. As a side note, this toy looks realistic and scared the crap out of me one evening, as it was laying in the hallway, and for a second I thought it was real. Yes, I screamed and ran like a girl.

As you can see, she keeps all the new toy in her general vicinity. She is a stinker. ;-)
She was quite befuddled as to what to do with this one. Then decided to chew its head. Maybe it was giving her the stink eye. :)30 minutes later she had worn herself out and slept the rest of the afternoon. She had a great birthday. She is a toy girl, so it was very fitting for her. I had a blast watching her. It was great to be home all day with her too. It did not really matter to me what we did so long as we were together!We love our Maggie Mae and we hope for many, many more wonderful years with our little queen!

Life's a beach

2010-09-27T17:12:00.032-04:00

We are back from a great trip at the beach. We had such a good time at Beach Bound Hounds last year, that we decided to make BBH our annual beach vacation. We were not disappointed.

We spent most of our time doing this.

The first day we were there, the weather was nice and the pups got to spend lots of time on the beach with us. Most of the rest of the week was too hot for them to be on the beach for long periods of time. So they spent a lot of time in our hotel room, but we checked on them frequently and took them on the beach as often as we could. Pippi has become so much more comfortable with the water. She played and played in the waves this year, so much so that she sprained one of her toes on her back leg. She is all better now. :)
We went to bed under this sky.
And woke up to this sky.The waves were awesome. The water was warm. We spent hours each day in the ocean riding in the waves. We got to swim with a school of fish. They were like sardine fish and there were millions in the water with us. It was pretty neat. I wish I had a camera I could take in the water. :( We did not get to see a shark, but we saw all the commotion it caused when the lifeguards had to call people out of the ocean two days in a row due to sharks sightings.

Mitch got to ride some good waves in. I did my best, but got knocked on my arse most times. I lost my sunglasses to the ocean floor on Friday when a wave took me out.

Every day we got to enjoy sitting in our beach chairs drinking Sangria's with a cool ocean breeze blowing on us, listening to the sound of waves crashing on the shore and watching Sandpipers scatter all around us. I could get used to being a beach bum very quickly! This is the life!!

Pippi was very intrigued by these little guys.On Friday night we went out to eat at Wild Wing Cafe at Barefoot Landing. They had a great set up with plenty of space for the hounds to stretch out. We were accompanied by 3 more hounds at our table and a packed room of hounds by the middle of our meal. The hounds got lots of attention and the staff loved having all of us. It is awesome to be able to eat at a restaurant with the pups. Quite an experience.

On Friday we got to watch some very special guests demonstrate the important work they do. I did not get any action shots. I was mesmerized by these incredible K9's from the Greensville County Sheriffs department. We watched the demonstration twice on the beach.
We did attend two seminars to hear Dr. James Radcliffe speak. He was amazing. We learned so much about our hounds. Such a valuable experience. He will be back to speak again next year too and we look forward to learning more. :) I will share one interesting tid bit that we did not know. Do you know why greyhounds roach? Because they are comfortable, right? Yes, but why? I never thought about it before, just thought it was something goofy with the breed. But, Dr. Radcliffe explained that it is because when they roach they can expand both lungs with air. When they lay on one side, on of their lungs is not able to be fully expanded. Makes sense! We also participated in the silent auction. I love silent auctions! This year, I won an embroidered greyhound tote bag, greyhound spoon holder and a stained glass running greyhound. Very cool and for a great cause. A win win.

Saturday night we participated in the pizza party. Lots of hounds and people sitting together enjoying good times. =)

Our last day on the beach, we got a group photo taken.

And joined in with our fellow greyhound friends for the blessing of the hounds and beach good byes.The ride home was uneventful. The hounds were worn slam out and slept for most of the ride. We did not even have to stop for a potty break.

We know we are over half way home when we pass this (South of the Border).
We saw lots of pretty wild flowers on the side of the road.
And cotton fields.
The hounds on the ride home did this.
Are we home yet?
BBH 2010 rocked! We can't wait to do it all over again next year!! :) We had a blast but are happy to be back at home and sleeping in our own bed.

Lucky Dog Fundraiser at BOW and Patriotic Hounds

2010-09-19T10:59:00.015-04:00

Our September activities continued this weekend. Yesterday we drove up to Northern VA to Barrel Oak Winery for the Lucky Dog Hot Dawg Fundraiser. The weather was so nice. This was our view as we relaxed with the pups, listened to some tunes and enjoyed fantastic wine. I forgot to pack my DSLR (oopsie) so these pictures were taken with my phone. Virginia countryside is so beautiful. It's no rocky mountains, but pretty all the same.

Happy hounds. Cueball wearing Mitch's hat.

We stayed in the sun for as long as we could, but the hounds were getting too hot, so we did eventually found a place with some shade for the rest of our stay.

Pippi was glad the absent minded mommy did not forget to bring the water bowl and water.
Happy humans and beautiful skies. I woke up yesterday morning sneezing, itchy eyes and a runny nose, but the glasses of wine I had in the afternoon seemed to have "cured" me. Just sayin. ;-)Bow is such an awesome, dog friendly winery! We just wish they were a lot closer to us. We will visit again soon, but would like to visit a lot more often. A 4 hour round trip unfortunately limits our visits. :(

Last Saturday we attended the Glen Allen meet and greet. The hounds wore their flag bandannas in honor of 9/11. Here they are at home waiting for me to finish packing the "dog bag" for our trip.

We also celebrated two Gotcha Days this week. Maggie's 4th Gotcha Day was on the 14th and Cueball's 3rd Gotcha Day was on the 18th. Stay tuned, our September activities continue, and to those heading to SC for the Beach Bound Hounds event, we hope to see you!!

Wild hair

2010-09-11T18:49:00.004-04:00

Cueball must have had a wild hair up his arse Thursday night. We awoke from a deep sleep at 3:30 a.m. to a shrill bark. I jumped out of bed and immediately took him downstairs and out the back door to go potty. He piddled around outside for about 10 minutes sniffing around, but no potty. So back upstairs and back to bed we went. Just as I was about to fall back to sleep, he started zooming around the bedroom. Bowing down, barking and leaving his claw marks in the carpet. The others found this rather annoying, as did I. In the midst of all his running around, he found Maggie's mallard duck toy (she always brings one up with her to bed, but never plays with it, so we allow it) and then proceeded to go wild. This continued for what felt like forever, but in reality was probably only 15 minutes, all the while ignoring our commands to go lay down. He eventually wore himself out did lay down and cock roached. I am sure he had sweet dreams.

Meanwhile I tossed and turned checking the alarm clock every so often and telling my brain I must fall asleep. I finally did fall asleep at 5:30 a.m. and got another hour of sleep. It could not have been a worse night for him to do this, as I had been running all day on fumes from having to get up at 5 a.m. the previous day for an early meeting at work and of course could not go to bed early Wed. night as my body had not adjusted and was running on my usual schedule, so I really needed to get a good night's sleep.

Still not sure what got into him. He always goes to bed when we do. Maggie is the one who usually takes a while to settle in. She has to find just the right spot on our bed, under the drift of the fan, in the most cushy spot of the mattress and on the softest spot of the comforter. We are puzzled by his actions, especially that late at night. He had done his zoomies around the yard that afternoon. This alone usually zonks him out for the night. He somehow got a second wind or new burst of energy or maybe a wild hair up his arse. Not sure. But we are hoping for peaceful sleep from now on.

Any of your fur kids do this in the middle of the night?

A visit to Dorey Park

2010-09-06T18:20:00.010-04:00

Today we took the kids to Dorey Park for nice walk. The park is about 20 minutes from our house. We can get there using back country roads, so it is great for weekend trips since we get to avoid the interstates. It is nice to have a park this close by when you live out in the country. Our road is not suitable for walking. A big drawback of not living in a neighborhood.

It was another beautiful day out today. The kids were very happy to be out and about. They love to travel.

The park was not too crowded. A few people walking, fishing and several picnicking. It was a lovely day for a cookout. We walked the loop that goes around the lake twice. Of course, we got stopped numerous times to answer questions and let the pups get pets. They never get tired of this.

Booyah was very fascinated by the geese. They are so used to people and dogs he did not really phase them.
I don't mess with them. I have heard stories of these geese chasing people to get their food. Getting goosed doesn't sound like too much fun to me. ;-)

After a nice long walk, we hung out in the shade under a willow tree right by the water. So lovely.
Even after being so tired from the walk no one wanted to lay down in the cool grass except Pippi.Maybe they were just too excited by all the smells, sounds and sights. They have napped well all afternoon. We wore them out. Amazing how little activity wears these guys out.
Best for them to get their rest, we have a very busy September planned.

An evening on the deck

2010-09-05T08:50:00.012-04:00

Nothing but blue sky this weekend in Virginia. And after the blazing summer we have had, we virginian's deserve it. =) Mitch and I spent the majority of the day yesterday outside enjoying the lovely weather. We ate dinner at the Cheesecake Factory. On our way there, I snapped this pic with my phone.

Dinner was fabulous. We brought home a 6 inch strawberry cheesecake. I had my second piece this morning for breakfast. Yummy! When we got back home we opened up a bottle of Zin and hung out on the deck with the pups while listening to the UVA v Richmond football game. So happy football is back!

I bought these wine glasses (yep, that is a greyhound on the glass) about a year ago. I love them and they were the perfect choice for last evening.

The rare shot of Mitch and I. He hates his picture being taken, but he amused me long enough to get a good shot.Miss snuggle bunny herself getting some love.

4 hounds hanging out on our new deck. Thanks to the fabulous job Mitch did, we have a beautiful maintenance free deck. =) One of the many DIY projects we have been working on over the last several weeks. They have been couped up all summer because of the heat. It is so nice to be able to sit outside with them.

Cueball says "this is nice."
Pippi says "did you hear that?"Maggie says "I heard it too."
Booyah says "leave me alone bugs!"

It was a nice relaxing Saturday evening. We have another one planned for tonight and a fun trip planned for the pups on Monday. ;-)

In other news, I saw this lovely butterfly in the driveway last weekend. Took the pic with the cell phone. Love the colors.And last but not least, one of my photos made it in to the 2011 Celebrating Greyhounds wall calendar. This was taken last year at the Beach Bound Hounds event.

We are very happy! You can get a copy of the wall and desk calendar here.

We hope you will stay tuned, we have some fun activities lined up for the month of September.

Snuggles

2010-08-29T14:31:00.006-04:00

Out of our four hounds, Pippi is the only snuggler in our pack. We joke that she is a 65lb lap dog. She is most comfortable when she is touching another dog or snuggling with us. It is a process to achieve her ultimate zone of comfort. She usually starts out like this:She tries to snuggle with Booyah. He tolerates her for a little while and then decides enough is enough and he leaves the scene to find his own individual spot to curl up for a nap. This leaves just me and Pippi on the couch. Like a wiggle worm, she slowly inches her way to me until she assumes this position:
She is quite comfortable like this for a while, but she is not done yet. Not satisfied with not being "close enough" she keeps wiggling until she finds her most desired spot:
She is like a little oven. I can only tolerate the extra heat she gives off for an hour or so before I give up and give in to letting her have my spot on the couch.
She is such a ham, but we love her and are glad to have a least one snuggler in the family. :)

Slacker

2010-08-15T17:25:00.003-04:00

Been a bit of a blog slacker lately. I have not been taking many pictures. Not because I don't want to, but because we have been very busy with house chores (painting, staining etc.). Hope to explain more in depth later, if our hard work pays off. :) And I hope to get back in the rhythm again soon. We hope our fall will be settled without so much running around/chores etc. Until our next post, I will leave you with this cute shot of our cat Misty. She finds the most unusual ways to get comfortable. Enjoy!

Real hare causes chaos at greyhound race

2010-07-28T06:41:00.002-04:00

Real hare causes chaos at greyhound race – video - mirror.co.uk
Click the link above to watch the video. I could not figure out how to copy and post the video to blogger. If anyone knows how to do this, please share the tip. =)

Here’s a hare-y moment at a Greyhound race in Australia.

A real-life bunny managed to make its way on to the track at Shepperton Stadium in Victoria, earlier this week, causing chaos.

Outsider Ginny Lou, who was in third place, ignored the mechanical lure and set off after the real deal after spotting the hare as it darted across the track.

After reviewing the official race film stewards declared the event a 'no race', with the $32,000 laid out on the race refunded to punters.

Article and video courtesy of Mirror.co.UK.news

It seems to me Ginny Lou should have been declared the winner. :)

She's a show off

2010-07-25T08:33:00.010-04:00

It has been one heck of a hot summer in VA. Our outside time has become very limited. We did have a few days of "cooler" (cooler being a relative term) temps a few weeks back, so we let the pups enjoy the much needed outdoor play time. Maggie is toy girl. Inside or outside, she plays with toys. Soft, hard, those that squeak and those that do not. She is not picky. She just loves to play and show off her moves. The rest of the pack could really care less about toys. They play occasionally, but not like Maggie. Even at her ripe age of 9 years and 10 months, she still has a lot of spunk.

She has her Octopus toy ready to go out for play time. Just waiting for me to open the gate.

She takes the Octopus by one of his tentacles and romps around the yard.
The Octopus tries to play dead, but he doesn't have her fooled.
She gets bored with him and finds her favorite hard squeaky. I swear she shows off for the camera. Just look at her pose as she goes by me.
It is like she is saying "look at me, look at what I can do."
"Don't you see how cute am I mom? You still have the camera on me, right?" "Make sure you get my good side."

She had a blast for a few minutes and then was ready to go back inside. It is just too hot to be out for too long.

In other news, I got another tattoo a few months ago. It is number 3 for me and will probably be my last one, or so that is what I say now. We shall see as they are rather addicting. :)
I really love the way it turned out. It was just what I was looking for. Does the design look familiar? If so, you are correct. It is one of Sarah Snavely's pendants . No worries, I got her permission to use the artwork before I got it done.

Not much else going on with us or the pups. Just trying to stay cool and beat this unbearable heat. We hope to have some more outside activities to share again soon.

Happy 7th Birthday Boyz

2010-07-11T15:07:00.011-04:00

Our two beautiful boys celebrated their 7th birthdays this weekend. We took a trip to Three Dog Bakery to pick up a cake for this special occasion.

These cakes always look so yummy, and the pups thoroughly enjoy them.

The boys and Pippi give the cake their sniff test before I cut it.

I cut the cake into quarters. I like the way it turned out. These two pieces were perfect for the boys. Cueball, Booyah, Pippi and Maggie all enjoy their piece of cake.

Afterwards the boys relax together on the couch. The are so much like brothers and best friends. They play so well together and are always hanging out with each other when they are outside. Booyah is a follower and Cueball is very independent. Two totally different personalities but they mesh well together. They are like two peas in a pod. =) We are so lucky to have such wonderful boys as part of our family!
Happy Birthday to the two best boys in the world!! We love you both very much!!!!

And, I will leave you with this lovely picture Mitch took of me and the pups sleeping in this morning, which we get to do very rarely.
Have a great week everyone. Stay cool!!!

Hot Times, Summer in the Country

2010-07-05T16:48:00.010-04:00

The temps have been very toasty lately. Today in the sun the thermometer read over 100 degrees. We had a few days of reprieve last week with temps in the 80's but this week we will back in the upper 90's and 100's. It seems that this summer is going to set quite a few records.

That is exactly why I have been spending the majority of my time doing this:

Thank you Mitch for setting up our pool and getting me some floats to chill on. You are the best. =)

On the greyhound front, we hosted another adoption day last weekend. Meet the latest members of the VAGA family.

Kebo Kara, now affectionately known as Kebo because their young son is unable to pronounce Kara yet. Either way she is so cute. :)
And meet Tulip Sunshine. She came up as a foster but after just three days of fostering her foster family could not stand to let her go, so they adopted her. She is now known as Sunday. It did not take them long to get bit by the greyhound love bug. :)And on our hounds have been spending lots of time indoors because of the scorching temps outside. Booyah has found a new place he likes to hang out at. Maybe he likes being the keeper of the stairs?
Pippi in her usual head rush stance.
Cueball is loving all the extra space on the couch.
And Miss Queen had a bath today, which made her not a happy camper with me so she found her happy place with a toy for supreme comfort.

Hope everyone had a wonderful 4th of July. Stay cool and enjoy this summer!

Reuniting Kebo Litter mates

2010-06-20T17:01:00.007-04:00

I have been slacking in the blog arena lately. We have had lots going on. :) I have also been slacking in taking photos too, so you won't find any pics of my kids in this post. We did have an exciting weekend last weekend on the greyhound front though. We had the opportunity to be a small part of reuniting some litter mates last Sunday. It was very heartwarming for us both!

Meet the Kebo litter mates below. From left to right: Kebo Karen, affectionately known as Jazmin, Kebo Kupcake, now affectionately known as Jade and Kebo Kash, affectionately known as Kash.Nice looking family!

Here is their story:

Jazmin retired last year and was adopted in June of last year by a very nice family in the Richmond area. Kash just retired less than two months ago and was adopted to another very nice family in the Richmond area. The families live only about 15 minutes from each other, so the litter mates will get to see each other often. :) The last litter mate to retire was Jade. She just retired this month and was adopted last weekend by the same family who adopted Jazmin. Kash and his mom came over to Jazmin and Jade's house for the reunion. It was all smiles! I love happy stories like these! There were only three pups in the litter and VAGA was able to get all three adopted.

Last Saturday, we also hosted two adoptions at the house for two more families in the Richmond area. The first hound, Jillie, you may recognize from Alex's blog. She was this little girls foster mom and helped her learn the ropes. You can read all about her antics here. =) Love the pictures of her admiring herself! She was only with us for a few hours until her new family could come to pick her up, but she made herself at home like she had lived here her whole life. She is a very happy girl! She gave us our first experience with "happy tail". It freaked me out because at first I could not figure out which dog was truly bleeding, as they all had blood on them somewhere from a happy tail swing. Once I figured it out, I was relieved. We bandaged her up and warned her new family about her happy tail. :)

Later in the day Mitch met up with some volunteers and picked up Jade and BBR Trojan (below), who is now affectionately known as Flash. He is living happily in a home with two young boys who are into superheros, hence the name. :) Jade stayed one night with us and she was already settled in by the morning. It never ceases to amaze me how quickly these dogs adjust to their new lives. Flash went to his forever home on Saturday evening and has been doing well. We will be seeing him at some future meet and greets. :)It was a wonderful greyhound weekend. We will be doing it again this weekend. Two more families around the Richmond area will be welcoming a greyhound home. =) I hope this momentum of finding homes for these wonderful dogs keeps on going.

Wordless Wednesday

2010-06-02T14:15:00.006-04:00

Awards

2010-05-25T20:11:00.009-04:00

We are very honored to have received two awards this week. :)

Below are the rules.

Rule 1. Thank the person who gave you the award.

We would like to send a big Greyhound Roo as a thank you to our new friends at

Sallie from Romance Puppy blog

and Yoda from Barking Out Loud blog.You guys Rock!! If you have not had the opportunity to check out these blogs, I highly recommend that you do!

Rule 2. Post 7 things about yourself. We will let Miss Queen (Maggie) do the typing for this one. ;-)

Hi bloggie friends. This is Maggie. My mum said I could type on the computer and tell 7 things about me and my brothers and sisters. Are you ready? Okay, here we go.

1. The race is over for us. We were lucky enough to find our forever home. We spend our retirement hanging out with our humans; we run when we want to in our big back yard; play with lots of squeaky toys; get lots of treats and bones; lots of love and scritches; and we help our humans when they go to events to promote greyhound adoption. They call us ambassadogs. We don't really know what that means, but we have a good time when we go on these adventures. ;) Sometimes we even get to see old friends from our racing days.

2. We are all related. Yup, isn't that neat? Our humans did not plan it that way, but they think it is pretty cool too. See this post (Good Thing They Are Fixed, 2-11-09) for details.

3. Our humans refer to us as 45mph couch potatoes. We don't mind. After all, we do a pretty good job living up to that name.

4. We have a kitty for a sister. Her name is Misty. At first we did not know what to think about her and our humans were very cautious with us at first. They told us we could not chase her or hurt her. It took us a little bit to understand she is part of the family and not a toy, but now we all live happily together.

5. We enjoy going to the beach. We like laying in the sand and playing in the waves. We also enjoy a good hearty romp around the yard and playing keep away with each other.

6. We believe every plastic bag has something good for us in it, even if it doesn't, we still like to investigate. :)

7. We love cheese. It is our favorite treat!

Well there you have it. I hope you enjoyed learning 7 things about us. Now it is Mum's turn to type.

Rule 3. Pass the award onto bloggers who you think are fantastic. If you have already received this award and have already done your post, just thank me, unless you want to re-post. :)

Aragon Greyhounds
Crafting 4 Greyhounds
Genji's Corner
Halfway Home Hounds
Hope and Greyz
Hound Life
House of Spots
Life With Dogs
My Roo Spot
Nerice's Nook
Never Say Never Greyhounds
Sarah Regan Snavely
Spacial Peepol
The Ridlon Room
Treasure What You Have

Rule 4. Contact blog award winners.

Weekend Getaway With Greys & Wine

2010-05-17T12:33:00.024-04:00

We packed up the minivan and headed to Manassas for the Grapehounds Virginia Event (yes, we bought a minivan about a month ago. Never thought I would own one, but the Subi was not working well for long trips, so we took the plunge). I am so happy this event was held in Virginia this year. We have been trying to make it to the annual event in New York for about three years, but can't seem to get our schedules to work out for that time of year. It was nice to have such a nice event so close to home, there was no way we were going to miss it.

In our van, we had two small suitcases, which contained our belongings, and the rest of the minivan was packed with "dog related " things. Though I am not sure why we bothered bringing four dog beds.
Now, if they only had hotels with three double beds. :)

We started our wine tour off on Friday night at Willowcroft Farm Vineyards. This was our view as we hung out with the pups, tasted some wine, ate some good food and enjoyed conversations with our friends. We made some new friends while we were there and chatted with some old friends. It was a lovely evening. The weather was just perfect.

This was the best shot I could get of all four. Those darn leashes get in the way every time. ;-)

Then on Saturday we visited the next stop on the wine tour, which was Tarara Winery. There were lots of greyhound vendors, music, good food, wine tasting, lots of hounds, good friends and beautiful weather. We spent all day with our hounds just hanging out by the water, drinking wine, listening to music and enjoying another beautiful day.

Our view for the day at Tarara Winery.
The view leaving Tarara Winery. I love tree lined roads. So pretty.
On our way back to our hotel, we saw a family crossing the road.

By Sunday the pups were pooped, but we managed to drag them with us as we continued with the tour with a stop first at Sky Meadow State Park. On our way, we passed this sign. I couldn't resist. Sounds like a pretty interesting place. ;-)At Sky Meadows State Park, we saw this old house on the property behind Mount Bleak House and just thought it was beautiful.
This was the perfect place to take some pictures with the hounds.

If only we could have had one with us and the pups all in one shot. :( Maybe next time.

Another view from Sky Meadows. I am a beach girl, but even I can appreciate that these mountain views are spectacular.
After walking for a bit at the state park, we headed to our final destination on the wine tour. I have not encountered a more dog friendly winery than this one. Barrel Oak Winery (BOW) offered some very tasty wines, beautiful views, yummy food and a very welcoming atmosphere for dogs and their owners. We will definitely visit this winery again in the near future.

It seemed to me that the first Grapehounds Virginia event was a great success. I hope this event becomes an annual one and continues to grow. It was a lovely way to celebrate our 9th anniversary. :)

More of the same

2010-04-25T16:04:00.011-04:00

Nothing exciting happening around the Ridlon abode lately, just enjoying the beautiful weather we have had. I have also been spending a fair amount of time practicing with the camera. The kids are quite used to me stalking them now. =)

As the years go by, Cueball's ticking becomes more and more defined. I guess it is how he ages.Maggie is really starting to get white in her face. Can't believe she will be 10 in a few months.
Pippi trying to sneak up on me.
Hanging out on the deck watching the birds.
Playing with her stuffie.
Booyah prefers the sheep.
He likes to try to bury his toys. He and Pippi dig a hole for the sheep.

He is not successful at it though. He just ends up creating small holes and slings a bunch of dirt around. It doesn't bother us, whatever makes him happy.

Hopefully by our next post will have something more exciting to share, so stay tuned. :)

Easter On Parade

2010-04-04T16:59:00.015-04:00

Easter On Parade is an annual event held in the Fan District of Richmond. Monument Avenue and the streets neighbouring it are filled with beautiful old homes with stunning architecture. Although I have lived in Richmond my entire life, I have never gone to this event before. We had fabulous weather this Easter weekend, so Mitch and I decided to head on out to check it out. We are glad we did! We had a greyt time. Live music, vendors, pets and folks dressed up = fun times. :) The best thing about this parade is it is casual. No lining up etc. You walk wherever you want to.

We stopped to listen to the band for a bit.

Then we stopped by to see some fellow greyhounds.

Yes, I concur; Subi's are very dog friendly vehicles. :)
We walked and walked, had some fresh squeezed lemonade, a couple of hot dogs, and took in all the sights. The kids were on sensory overload. So many dogs to greet, new things to sniff and of course lots of petting. After an hour or so, they were wiped out, so we headed back to the car.
I snapped some pictures on the drive out of the city. I love the beautiful trees that line the streets and the beautiful old buildings.
We had loads of fun. The kids are beyond exhausted. When we got home and let them in the backyard to potty, Cueball walked a few feet and laid down. He did not want to move. Guess we wore them out a bit. That's okay, they will recuperate in a day or so, and may even let us sleep in tomorrow morning. ;-)
Hope everyone had a fabulous Easter surrounded by the ones you love.

More practice shots

2010-03-28T18:20:00.007-04:00

Spring is here! The Bradford Pear trees in our yard are blooming. The weather is warm. The days are longer. It is simply the perfect time of year. After the winter we just had, I am appreciating spring a bit more this year and taking time to actually enjoy it. We have lots going on in our lives right now, but I am taking time to "smell the roses", so to speak.The pups are equally as happy that Spring has Sprung. They have become quiet used to me following them around with my camera. :)
Pippi enjoys the feel of cool grass on a warm, sunny day.
Cueball gets a head start on working on his tan.
Maggie....just looking beautiful.
Sweet Pippi.
The only thing they are missing is a blanket and a picnic basket.
Time for my nap!
Thanks to all those who left comments on my last post with suggestions for photo software. ;-)
Have a greyt week and get out and enjoy the beautiful weather, summer will be here before you know it.

Cotton Candy Clouds, first fire on the deck , chickens and randomness

2010-03-14T17:25:00.017-04:00

A nice relaxing weekend is what we had in store for us this weekend. Saturday was a beautiful day here in Virginia and we just could not help but to take advantage of it. We enjoyed the afternoon and evening on the deck. As the sun started to go down, we had sky views of blue and pink clouds that reminded me of cotton candy.

We decided it was about time we used our chiminea we bought 2 1/2 years ago. :) We watched the sunset while enjoying a nice fire and a steak and veggie dinner with some cold beers. A wonderful way to spend our Saturday evening.Saturday morning, like most mornings, we were greeted by our next door neighbor's chickens. They don't bother us except for when the mess up the mulch in the flower beds. Other than that, we are glad they are around. They reduce the tick, flea and bug population. :)

I have been spending a fair amount of time trying to learn more of the functions of my camera. Below are some random recent practice shots of the pups showing off their cuteness.

Sleepy ETS.
Booyah looking cat like.
Now I just need to get some photo software, so I can crop and adjust the pictures. I would love to hear some suggestions of what you use. ;-)

Sunny fun day

2010-02-27T16:56:00.016-05:00

Finally, we had a reprieve in the cold weather. Last weekend it was sunny and warm. Well at least it was in the 50's and that felt warm to us after being in the 30's and having all that snow for a couple of weeks. It is all relative right? Any who, the hounds were happy to actually be able to run in a yard that had mostly grass. We knew it was going to be a good day when the sun beams were coming through the front windows of the house.Booyah finds his Tiger that has been buried in snow for weeks.
Happy boy with his toy.
Cueball was itching for a good romp.

He ran by himself for a good while until Booyah joined in on the fun.
Catch me if you can!
Meanwhile on the other side of the yard, I am not sure what the girls were up to. I will leave it up to you for the caption. ;-)
And, to understand this expression on Pippi's face, you have to see the before shot below, which did not come out very well, but does explain why she has the "I just got the smack down" look on her face. Miss Queen does not put up with rough play, so she let Miss Personality know that Maggie don't play that!
Cueball says, that's okay Pippi, I will play with you.
They had a ball. Of course it only lasted a few minutes and then they came back in to sleep, but they needed to burn some of the couped up energy they have been gathering for weeks.

I am looking forward to spring, so bring on the fun in the sun!!

Gotcha and Happy Birthday day

2010-02-21T13:36:00.009-05:00

Someone very special recently celebrated her birthday and gotcha day, all in the same day. Seems like it was just yesterday that Pippi joined our family. She has been with us a year now. Over the last year she has really come out of her shell and let her personality shine through. She is one of the most laid back hounds you will ever meet. She is a roacher. And can roach with the best of them.

She loves to travel. She loves laying in the sun. And romping around in the yard. She is smart and a very quick learner. She learned how to sit in a matter of a few days. :) She enjoys being an ambassadog at meet and greets. She will do anything for food. I have not encountered a hound who was more food motivated than she is. She is a lap dog, a great couch snuggler and a wonderful companion. She brings us many laughs and smiles. She completes our family nicely. It took her a couple of bounces, which we still are puzzled by because we think she is perfect, before she landed her forever home, but we are so glad she ended her journey with us. We celebrated her day by giving her lots and lots of treats (by far her favorite thing in the world) and lot and lots of snuggling time on the couch (her second favorite thing in the world). She will be getting a cake too in a few days. :)

So here's to you Miss Pippi! Happy 5th Birthday and Happy 1st Gotcha Day!!! We love you and are so grateful you are part of our family!!!!!!!!

Greyhound Snow Track

2010-02-16T18:35:00.002-05:00

I could not figure out how to copy the video, but if you click on the link below you will see it. It is too cute not to share. I am tired of the snow, but this made me smile. :) Hope you enjoy!!

Greyhound Snow Track

4 feet of snow, 5 days cooped up inside, 2 shovels, and 1 hyper greyhound.? The video shows the result!

Click the following link to view the full article:
http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-409518?ref=email

Our wintery landscape

2010-02-07T18:41:00.012-05:00

We survived round three of winter weather this weekend. It did not accumulate to a lot of snow for our area. We got around 4 inches total, but this storm brought us some beauty on the ground and on the trees. Other parts of the state were not so lucky..ending up with 2 feet or more of snow. Glad I am not a northern Virginian. 1 snowfall a year is enough for me.

I spent this morning taking some pictures of the beauty of nature which surrounds our home. Hope you enjoy!

These two logs sit on the edge of our driveway near the woods. They are quite pretty covered with snow.Below is also a shot of an area on the right side of our driveway.
Icy trees in our backyard.
Another icy tree in our side yard.
And another. I was fascinated by them. They are so beautiful.
A little tree in our side yard. I love the little balls of snow. Reminds me of the balls of snow that were on Lappy, the Lhasa Apso we had when I was growing up. He always looked like a goober when he came back inside after playing in the snow with all the dangling balls of snow hanging off of him.

Holy tree in our backyard. I hate their prickly leaves, but they are pretty covered in snow.
Young Loblolly pine trees.
And just for good measure I will throw in a shot of Cueball having a nice romp in the snow.

Hopefully by the next blog update there will be NO snow!!

More snow and that's all I have to say about that....

2010-01-31T16:00:00.009-05:00

We ended up with about a foot of snow when the storm was done. I will let the pictures do the talking. Enjoy!

Winter Blues

2010-01-10T18:38:00.006-05:00

I have been in a bit of a funk lately. Have not felt up to blogging. I just don't have much to say. Guess it is just winter blues. The temps have been cold for the last several weeks. Although the meteorologists say that it is not a record breaking winter for central Virginia, it seems to be colder than normal to me. The hounds have been going stir crazy with all the time they are spending couped up in the house. But it has been just too brutally cold out, so it is out for potty and back in. :( Hope the warmer weather comes soon. Not much of interest going on in the Ridlon abode as of late, so I will just leave you with some pictures of the latest snowfall we had.

A white Christmas

2009-12-27T11:08:00.021-05:00

Last week we had a little winter storm which brought us a white Christmas. It started last Friday evening and did not stop until late Saturday evening. I can't remember the last time Central Virginia got a significant snow in December. We got about 6 inches total in our area. :) Some parts of VA got a foot or more of snow! I just love the snow. Not crazy about the ice or the mess the snow leaves once it stops falling, but I love watching it come down. The pups have all seen snow and played in it at least once before.

I told them Santa brought them an early present this year since they have been such good boys and girls. Cueball, Pippi and Booyah look outside curiously to see what Santa brought them.
This is their view of the front yard.
I took them out to the back yard to let them do what they do best in the snow. PLAY!!

I think her caption reads Zoom, Zoom Zoom!
Maggie dug her favorite toy out of the snow and had a blast zooming around the yard with it just squeaking away.

Booyah has some fun romping in the snow. Cueball and Pippi in the background are not quite sure what to think about it yet.

Once he figures it out, Cueball goes full speed ahead.Maggie gets Pippi to play.
Later on Pippi gets on Booyah's nerves. She always nibbles on his ears and neck when they run. He gets very annoyed by this. Can't say I blame him. ;-)
Cueball rounding the bend.
Booyah and Pippi are not too far behind him.

They played in the snow multiple times on Saturday and had a blast. By Sunday some of the snow had melted and then refroze. Needless to say they wanted no part of it, so that was the end of fun in the white stuff for the pups. They only wanted to go out to do their business and then back in quickly they came. The snow finally melted yesterday. Since it lingered around for a week we actually had a white Christmas this year. Woot!!

We have not had a boarder in quite some time. With four of our own, it became a little difficult to board, so we stopped all together. We did open our home to Kinga for the holidays though. Her mom and dad could not find a sitter and were going across the country for the holidays so we are gladly watching her for the holidays. She has been with us for a week and will go home on Wednesday evening. We have watched her before and fostered her when she first came up from FL. She is an only dog so this is like camp for her! She is easy going and fits right in with our kids. So it has been no problem. :)
She has a beautiful face and is quite regal.We had a wonderful Christmas! We wanted this year to be all about family and friends and being together since that is what is all about. ;) We spent Christmas Eve at my mom's house. We had a nice meal together and enjoyed each others company. I could not wait for her to open one of her presents. I have been looking forward to seeing the look of excitement on her face for weeks. She did not disappoint! I was ready with my camera to capture the memory. It was a wonderful day!

Mitch and I spent Christmas day at home with the pups. We, sorry I mean Mitch, cooked a lovely meal. We wrapped the pups gifts this year. Maggie understood what to do.
Within a few moments she had her new toy out and was squeaking away.
Booyah figured it out too.
Pippi and Cueball...not so much. We unwrapped the toys for them.
Nevertheless, it put smiles on our face anyway. Yesterday we headed out to visit with our good friends Ernie and Deb. They are like family to us. :) They had a small get together. We had fun playing Wii, visiting with them and listening to Mark play the guitar. Deb's daughter Jody is a huge music fan and a walking music encyclopedia. Mark made her a CD of his songs and signed it for her. She was thrilled! Mark played for a good hour and a half. Jody loved every minute of it. It made us all smile. :) Jody also had us smiling while she played Wii tennis. I did not get any pictures of it, but it was amazing to watch her play. For those who don't know, Jody is blind. Her disability did not keep her from playing Wii tennis though. With a little help from the crowd queuing her when to hit the ball she played some excellent tennis.

Moments like this and others we have had over the last few days have really touched my heart and made me realize even more than I ever did before what Christmas is really all about.

We hope you and yours had a wonderful Christmas and we wish everyone in blog land a happy and healthy new year!

A Doggy Christmas Surprise

2009-12-10T19:02:00.003-05:00

Click here to enjoy this cute doggy christmas video!! It is just too cute not to share. :)

Friendships and a Gotcha Day

2009-12-06T13:02:00.018-05:00

We have had our cat, Misty, for ten years. She was very comfortable with KC, but it took her a while to warm up to the hounds. She recently has become super comfortable with them, especially Cueball. She would always join us in the living room while we relaxed in the evenings, but usually kept her distance from the hounds. Not any more. Her spot over the last couple of nights this week has been on the hassack of the chair.

She even tolerates Cueball laying his paws on her.We are happy to see this! :) When we first brought Cueball home it was questionable if we were going to be able to keep him because he kept chasing after our cat and was just a little too curious about her. Now look at him, I think it is pretty safe to say that they are friends.

Last night we had some friends over just for a fun evening of watching football, (even if though the Gators lost) games, food and wine/beer. We had a great time. We played the Apples to Apples game. It is loads of fun!! Then, it was on to the Wii. ;-) It was Debbie and Ernie's first time playing the Wii and they had a lot of fun!

Mitch's I'm a muscle man pose.
Mitch smiling for the camera and Ernie playing baseball with Deb.

Deb really got into it! As you can see the hounds were sleeping on their beds. They were not phased by all the action. :) Well, except for Booyah, he headed upstairs, he does not do well in loud situations. ;-)

Ernie does a victory dance and Deb is so not impressed. LOL. Ernie had a good night, he won the round we played of Apples to Apples and then won several times while playing Wii Tennis and Baseball. We had such a great time. We love these fun filled nights with good friends, good food and good wine. We have been friends for many years and we will be very sad if E and D move, but will be happy for them and would wish them the very best and of course would be happy to come visit them in Colorado. ;) Our friend and neighbor Pam was not able to come over last night, but did a drive by some time between Friday night and early Saturday morning and left a bag of goodies on our porch. In the bag were a carton of Run Around Ranch Eggs (from her hens), a bottle of wine and a plate of chocolate covered strawberries. You rock Pam!! Thanks a bunch. :)
Today we have been recouping from our late night and chillin around the house with the pups. It has been bitter cold outside, (well bitter cold to me at least, probably not so bitter to others who live in colder climates) so we spent the majority of the day indoors. We opened up the shades in the kitchen to let some sunshine in. Cueball loves the sun.
Pippi loves the sun too. The others....not so much.
And, last but CERTAINLY not least. Booyah's gotcha day was on November 28th. We haven't celebrated yet, but plan to this week. I know, bad mom. His gotcha day always seems to slip my mind, I guess because of the craziness at Thanksgiving. Nevertheless, he will get a celebration this week. In three years, he has come along way. He is still the sweet boy he has always been, but since we adopted Cueball, he has found more confidence. He and his brother Cueball are pretty much inseparable. It is rather cute to watch. He loves to run and play in the yard and he is the most graceful hound I have seen. His gait is so elegant. He has his quirks too, of course. Don't they all? He nests forever until he gets his bed or our bed just right. He has helicopter tail and does a stare down at you when he needs to go potty. His nose is sooo cold! He is okay with you petting him while he is laying down, but if you stop and have any part of your body touching his, he gets growly. He hates a nail trim, but once it is done, he is frisky and playful. He will run in circles and squeak toys.

He looks so peaceful when he sleeps.
He has Yoda ears.
And a lovely neddlenose.
He is a happy boy.

He has been an absolute joy and has brought so much happiness to our lives. Here's to you Booyah, happy Gotcha Day! We love you so much! And mommy is sorry she was such a bum and did not make your cake yet. :(

A little Holiday Humor.....

2009-11-25T20:13:00.002-05:00

Have a happy Thanksgiving everyone!!

Update: Rumor, Bath time & Prettiness

2009-11-22T15:18:00.017-05:00

A little update on our recent foster Rumor. She stayed with us for the week. She passed Kittie Boot camp while she was with us. She was a very easy foster. She is a follower, a leaner, a kisser, quick learner, good listener, friendly, loving, sweet girl. It was a pleasure to keep her for the week. She was officially adopted yesterday. She has a wonderful family and is doing well! Above and below are a few pics from her stay with us. Check out VAGA's blog to see the other lucky hounds who found their forever home this weekend. Spare Key, who is Maggie's litter mate Happiness' pup, came up on this haul and is currently in foster. Mitch got to meet her and said she was super sweet. :)
Playing with toys is one of Rumor's favorite things to do. She emptied all the toy baskets in the house. She bounced around the living room and bedroom playing with toys. My kids just looked at her like she had three heads!
She also enjoyed romping in the yard.

Also this weekend, it was time to give the pups a bath. They were not too happy about it, but they were starting to stink, so it was time. I bathed Pippi first. The best part for her was drying off. She loves wet towels. She loves to rub her entire body on them. Silly girl.
Bath time made Maggie tired. She shows me her big yawn.
I needed Mitch's assistance to bath Boo Boo. He is a bit over my weight lifting capability. He was a good boy for his bath, but glad when it was over. I just love the way the black dogs look after a bath. So shiny.
The bath really brought out Cueball's ticking. He looks so naked without his ID collar.

I spent some time outside today weeding the flower beds. It was long over due. In the 9 years we have lived in our home we have done quite a bit of landscaping. While I was weeding, I could not help but admire these two Leland Cypress trees we planted about eight years ago. It took them a long time to get this big, but they are beautiful and provide privacy from the road. Now we are wishing we had planted about eight more. ;-)
The two Bradford Pear trees were memorial gifts and were planted in our front yard in early 2002, the following spring after the loss of both of Mitch's parents. One in memory of his mom Betty and the other in memory of his dad Carl. They have done so well over the years and are so beautiful when they bloom.
Mitch recently planted this bush in one of our flower beds. I have no idea what it is, but the blooms right now are stunning.
The frogs were a wedding gift. I am a big fan of frogs and have collected many over the years, but these are by far my favorite. In the spring they will be hidden by the blooming Iris' in this flower bed.
The last elephant ear for the season. I am amazed it is still around.
We are looking forward to Thanksgiving! Have a great week everyone. :)

I believe I can fly and I heard a Rumor

2009-11-14T14:48:00.016-05:00

It has been months since we last fostered. Puddin Pop was our last foster. In case you are thinking it, NO we are not going to foster fail! Not this time anyway. We are not ready to move up to 5 hounds. We are fostering Gossip Hound KNA Rumor for a week though. You may have read about her on Alex's blog. I love the spa bath picture of her, just adorable!

Rumor went to meet a family in the Richmond area today and we are hopefull that she may have found her forever home. She is staying with us for the week so we can see how she does with the kitties. :) She is a super sweet, friendly girl. Nothing much phases her. Surprisingly Maggie is fine with her being here and Pippi seems okay with it too. Miss Pippi is a little picky about her friends and Maggie is just Miss alpha bi**h.

We spent most of the afternoon inside testing her with the cat and watching some college football. GO Ole Miss, GO VT and GO Gators!!! Rumor has spent most of her day sacked out on a doggie bed doing what hounds do best. I hope to get some more pictures of her this week. She has very cute ears. They remind me of Puddin Pop's ears. We are happy to have her here with us for the week!

I debated about whether or not I should mention this on the blog, as I did not want it to come across as a brag, but after long thought, I have decided that I would share and hope that no one takes it as a brag, as it is not intended as one, but rather is intended as happy news. So here goes. A few months ago, I took the plunge and bought a new camera. About a year and a half ago, I had a great opportunity to buy Trina's Canon Power Shot, as she was moving up to a DSLR. The camera was in perfect condition and for me it was a wonderful opportunity to learn the basic modes and functions and how to use them. Before the Canon Power Shot, I had owned Fuji and Olympus cameras. They were okay, but after using the Canon for a year and half, I am hooked on this brand and will probably always own a Canon. I researched and researched, read review after review and decided on the Canon T1i. I am very happy with my purchase. I am still learning all of the functions and modes this camera has to offer, but taking pictures is just simply becoming more and more enjoyable. :) I still have the Power Shot and have no intention of getting rid of it, as it is still a good camera. I am not usually the type of person into the latest gadgets, electronics etc., but I love photography and the hounds are such great subjects!
I think I may have created an inner monster. I am already searching, and reviewing telephoto and zoom lenses. :) I hope to get better and better with practice.

Below are some shots of the kids playing in the backyard. I hope you enjoy them. After I took them, downloaded them and viewed them, this old song "I believe I can fly" suddenly came into my head. I don't know why it popped into my head, I have not heard it in years, but it seems fitting for the hounds nonetheless.
Love the curled tail!

Just amazing!! I really think Pippi would enjoy agility. I just need to get off my lazy butt and make it happen!

Her ears are so cute in this picture.
Quite the balancing act she has going on there.
Stealth mode.

And, last but not least. Mitch had to take a quick picture of this. She can sit! She just most times does not want to. Excuse the green alien eyes.
Looking forward to getting better and better with practice! Love having a hobby, it is rewarding to see the results. :) Hope everyone has a greyt weekend!

Fall is here!

2009-11-07T19:19:00.020-05:00

This time of year is by far my favorite. Crisp cool air, sunny skies and beautiful colors on the trees. We have been lucky this year. We had a fairly mild summer. Other than the three weeks of on and off rain, we have had a pretty nice start to the fall season too. I have been enjoying the leaves changing colors over the past couple of weeks. We didn't make it to the mountains this year to see the leaves change. The views there are so picturesque, but the views in central VA have been quite pretty this year too. Below is a tree at the beginning of our driveway. I took this pic on my way to work the other day. I just love the orange leaves. ;) Very pretty. This is the view from my office, from one of the highest elevations in county.Today was beautiful and sunny with highs in the sixties. It did not look like it was going to start out that way though. When I got up with the pups at 5:45 a.m. , it was a balmy 28 degrees and there was frost on the tabletop on the deck. I am just not ready for the cold weather yet. It turned out to be a fabulous day for enjoying the outdoors. The pups have been so couped up with all the rain we have had lately. They needed to get out and stretch their legs.

Booyah and I play catch with the football.

Cueball is not much on playing catch, but he does love to romp.
Pippi just likes to be goofy.

Maggie plays with her favorite toy.
Booyah playing with the yellow duck and Mags with her favorite squeaky. BTW, if you are wondering why we always have plastic chairs and plastic flower pots in various spots in our backyard it is because we have massive holes from moles in our yard, so we use the chairs and pots so the hole gets covered (until we can refill the hole with dirt) and the pups don't hurt their legs by stepping into the deep holes while running. Those moles are pesky little varmints and we can't seem to get rid of them!
I love this shot of Maggie. She is such a pretty girl.
Booyah gives the screamin monkey something to scream about.
This one is a little blurry, but I love how graceful Booyah looks when he runs.
Booyah and the yellow duck. The Zanie toys are becoming my favorite. They make really neat noises and the pups really enjoy them.

We had a great day just hanging out with the pups watching them play. We have been very busy with various things going on lately. Sometimes you just need weekends like this to relax and enjoy time with your family.

Hope everyone has a great week.

Happy Birthday Mitch

2009-10-25T16:51:00.007-04:00

Mitch celebrated his 40 something birthday this past Wednesday. He is such an easy guy to please. All he wanted for his birthday was for me to bake him a cake. :) We had a nice meal together, enjoyed the evening with the pups and then we enjoyed the cake I baked him. It was a double layered chocolate cake with chocolate icing on the bottom half and strawberry icing on the top. It may not have looked too pretty but it was yummy!Happy birthday Mitch! We love you!!!! :)

I have been playing with different modes on my camera. I gave the black and white function a try indoors since the weather has been so crummy lately. I love black and white photos and these didn't turn out half bad.

Miss Pippi.
Maggie Moo.

Boo Boo.
And Pippi again.

Rain drops keep fallin on my head

2009-10-18T13:22:00.008-04:00

The weather in VA lately has been less than desirable. It has been cold and rainy since Wednesday. The pups are starting to go stir crazy and we are experiencing a bit of cabin fever. The rain has not been heavy, but it has been steady. We are wishing for sunny skies and warmer temps. We put our flower bed project on hold and have been spending the majority of our time inside for the last few days, but we did manage to sneak out a few times during brief stopping periods from the rain. I brought the camera along hoping for a few good shots.

Cueball looking studly.
Pippi barking and handsome Booyah.

Back inside, Pippi tries to snuggle with Cueball, but he is not interested. Maybe he is going through the girls have cooties stage. ;-)

And our smiler, Pippi.
Better weather will hopefully bring some fun for the pups in the yard. They desperately need a good hardy run. :)

Rainy day and Pippi Speaks

2009-10-12T19:05:00.007-04:00

Hey girls, what do you see?

Booyah sees it too.
Maggie and Cueball smell it.
A rain storm is rolling in.
A few weeks ago, we enjoyed a nice afternoon on the porch with the pups during a rain storm. There was a nice cool breeze and the entrancing sound of the rain falling down. So peaceful. It is times like this that we are really thankful for our country porch. :) Just a few pictures of that relaxing afternoon.
And one cute little video of Pippi, but to understand the humor in the clip some background info. first. Pippi is a food hound. She will do anything for food. She has learned in the time that she has been with us that everyone gets a treat when they come in from going potty outside. She is always the first one to run back up on the deck and waits for the other pups and I to come inside. She usually greets me with a smile and a bark to let me know she would like her treat now........just in case I forget. ;-)

Have a greyt week everyone!

Another candle 4 the cake & Williamsburg walk

2009-10-03T18:20:00.020-04:00

Last Sunday Maggie celebrated her 9th birthday. I baked her a Peanut Butter Delight birthday cake. I am not much of a cook or a baker, simply because I have no desire to be in the kitchen preparing food. Just not my forte. But I do enjoy baking for the kids. Maybe because they are happy with whatever I make and they don't care what it looks like. ;-) Or maybe it is because they are my kids and I enjoy making them happy. Whatever the reason, I will be doing more of it. But, enough about that and on to the pictures.

The cake. The topping is yogurt and shredded carrots. :)Just a cute close up picture of the birthday girl. For all those who know me well, you know that she is my heart. Sigh......can't believe she is 9.
So what did the queen do for her birthday? She chilled on her new dog bed, attended a meet and greet in Newport News and,
ate some birthday cake.

I think this means she liked it.

Happy Birthday Miss Queen! We love you so much!!! We look forward to many more candles for the cake.

This morning we headed down to Williamsburg for a greyhound group walk. It was a lovely day in Virginia. Blue skies, nice breeze and sunshine.

Cueball enjoys the freedom of the sunroof.
Pippi wonders where we are going.
Mitch with Booyah and Cueball.
Pippi, Ben, hounds and humans. Pippi was very intrigued by the massive piles of horse poop along our walk. Gross! At least she did not try to roll around in it. ;)
More Hounds. :)
Jane took a group picture of Ben, myself and Mitch with the hounds (from left to right: Lola, Pippi, Maggie, Cueball and Booyah) underneath a beautiful old tree. After the walk there was group picture taken and a blessing of the hounds ceremony.
We had a wonderful time! Williamsburg is such a beautiful town. And it was nice to attend an event so close to home.

Everyone slept on the ride home.

And, just a cute picture of Cueball enjoy the stacked dog beds while I vacumn.
More fun to come, so stick around!

Some days you just gotta run

2009-09-26T18:38:00.013-04:00

Pippi is our most active hound by far. She is 4 years old but still has loads of energy. She gets restless in the house sometimes and all she wants to do is run. We should exercise her more often and we are trying to get better about it. It is just hard when you leave for work at 7:40 a.m. and don't arrive back home until 6:00 p.m. I know, I know, excuses, excuses. ;-)

Yesterday she shocked me. We came home from attending a 2 hour meet and greet in Richmond and I thought for sure all our pups were exhausted, as this is usually the case. But not Pippi, she was ready to run. So she and I played catch for awhile outside.

Now, while I was at Beach Bound Hounds, I attended a photography seminar, because I need all the help I can get! Just the basics were discussed, but a lot of what she said made complete sense. I was trying to put one of the basics into use by making sure I was on the dog's level while taking pictures. This ended exactly like it looks like it did. I was run over by a speeding hound! LOL! My rump is a little sore, but it made me laugh out loud, so it was well worth the pain. :)

She just loves squeaky toys and romping around the yard in circles. She does a complete loop from the deck stairs, down around the side yard and then cuts across the patio back to the deck. I need to take a video of this. It is quite amusing to watch her doing this.

Below she is heading towards the side yard.

U-turn in the side yard.

Coming towards the patio.
Heading onto the patio and towards the deck stairs.

Her finish line is the top of the deck stairs. This is where she patiently waits for me to throw the squeaky toy for her again.

And this one is an extra. It is really blurry and not in focus, but it amazed me that she was so low to the ground!
5 minutes later, she was done and ready to go back inside. She just needed that time to run. Hope everyone is having a greyt weekend!

Someone is turning 9 tomorrow, so stay tuned!

BBH 2009. Myrtle Beach, SC

2009-09-20T15:47:00.028-04:00

This is going to be a rather lengthy post. We just got home from our trip to Myrtle Beach, SC a few hours ago. We had such a fabulous time! The weather was absolutely perfect last week. The rain stayed away. We had sunny skies on all days except for Friday. The water was warm and the waves were nice. Greyhound Crossroads did an awesome job putting this event together. 200 families registered for the event. Lots and lots of greyhounds, fun greyhound activities, a silent auction, lots of vendors and of course the beach. We would love to be able to go to this event again, and hopefully we will be able to in the near future.

For those who enjoy spending time in the surf, beach conditions were nice.
We did not bring our swim suits with us, so we spent lots of time enjoying walks on the beach with the pups.
And sunsets on the beach with the pups.

And, lounging time on our beach blanket.
We also spent lots of time loving on the pups at the beach and in our room.
Maggie, Booyah and Cueball are old pros at the beach, but Pippi needing some coaxing. She did not like the water rushing on her at first. By the end of the week, she was happily playing in the water with us. :) Cueball did this a lot. We would walk a little bit and then he would sit down in the water at random spots along our walk.

If Booyah had a thought bubble, I think it would say "If you can't beat them, join them."
Some pups really enjoyed the water and some preferred the sand. You may recognize some familiar faces from the doggie bloggie world below. Dolly and Diego; Dana and Cali; and Stanley and Jaime were all in attendance.
This pretty dark brindle five year old female hound cracked us up. She really loved the water. We watched her family play catch with her. They would throw the football into the water and she would go bouncing into the water to retrieve it. It was pretty neat to see a hound enjoy the water so much and retrieve so well.
Below are a just a few pics of the pups that I think are pretty stinking cute. No captions necessary. ;-)

Pippi made a new friend while we were hanging out at the beach on Friday. Diesel thought Pippi's rump made a nice pillow and she didn't seem to mind or she may have been too exhausted at this point to care.We met Butter, an Afghan hound. She is strikingly pretty. Isn't she? Just beautiful, but lots and lots of maintenance to keep her looking like this.

We did manage to leave the hounds at the hotel for a few hours on Wednesday. We went out to eat lunch at Margaritaville. What a fun restaurant with a great laid back atmosphere! We had a blast. :) We took the pups with us on Friday night to Barefoot Landing took a stroll around and ate dinner at Bully's restaurant. That was a neat experience to be able to eat dinner with the pups. The restaurant was right on the water, very pretty setting.

We did a bit of shopping and bought some nice pieces of artwork, new T-shirts and hats and I won a very cute puppy greyhound clock in the silent auction.

Early this morning we said our goodbyes to the beach. We joined our greyhound family for the Blessing of the Hounds, which I will leave you with. Pretty powerful words.

Blessing

As we let old friends go, let's rejoice in the dear ones that are still with us.

We pray to you, God, our Creator, to bless our dogs with your radiant light and love. May our animal friends have good health and joyful lives and always be protected and safe.

We ask for better understanding as we learn from our dogs' wisdom, their innocence, their loyalty and particularly their seeming ability to not judge human beings unkindly.

Thank you for the pleasures, playfulness, and sometimes the surprising humor of our companions.

Thank you for their friendship - especially during those lonely hours we may experience.

Thank you for our companion's natural ability to teach us to be aware of the present moment.

Thank you for the pure beauty of every dog - their form, color, texture, and motion is all a work of art, and may we appreciate your creation of this masterpiece.

Bless all dogs in harm's way - heal the sick - protect those who are lost, and guide them to safety.

Thank you for your gifts of love. Amen.

God Bless you, Dear Hounds of mine. May my love for you be a constant reminder of God's love for me and all of His creations.

Amen! Be Well!! Be Blessed!!!

-based on a pet blessing written by Rev. Phyllis Ann Min.

2 September Gotcha's

2009-09-13T12:42:00.019-04:00

We are celebrating two Gotcha Days this week. :) First up is Maggie. Her Gotcha Day is tomorrow. Hard to believe it has been 3 years. Whew....where does the time go? I can still remember that radio interview that I heard on 1140 AM that got it all started for me and I will never forget the greyhounds name who they were talking about that day, Charlie Brown.

I knew nothing about the breed. Hey, I mean I was really ignorant when it came to information about greyhounds. I did not even know they were used as racing dogs. I only knew of them from the greyhound buses. Yes, I must have been living under a rock all my life!

I started researching by looking at different sites. Mitch and I discussed it and once he was on board we submitted our application. During the adoption process I read the Dummies book and Cynthia Branigan's book so that I could be as ready as possible for our new family member. I can still remember the day I got the call that we were approved and more distinctly I remember the call I got asking if we would consider adopting a grey that was almost six. Age was no factor for us, so Twisted Stix was put on hold for us. I already had her name selected and to be quite honest I don't know how we could have made her track name work. I certainly was not going to call her Stix. Besides, Maggie suits her pretty well.

She was in heat when she came up and went into foster for a week. We were not prepared, nor did we have any experience with a dog in heat, as all of my pets have always been spayed prior to me adopting them, so we let the experts handle that. We got a couple of pictures of her via email from her foster mom and I was ecstatic! I showed all the girls in the office her picture and told them all about her and greyhounds in general. Looking back on it now, I am sure they thought I was a bit loony, but that's okay. :)

The day finally came for the official adoption and I was nervous and excited. When I saw her for the first time, I knew she was a special girl. She was super sweet, very pretty, petite and very inquisitive. It was hard to focus on the information during the adoption, but we did the best we could. We adopted her on a Thursday and I stayed home from work the next day to help her get acclimated to her new life. KC had no issue with her and gladly shared her bed.The first few days were interesting. She was a nervous nelly about everything and would not go potty or for that matter even go outside. She was scared of the sound that the crickets and frogs made. I slept downstairs in the spare bedroom with her for the first few days. We had her for few days and then had to take her up to Northern, VA to get her vet work done. She was gone for two days and then came back home. When she was dropped off at our house by a volunteer in the Gum Springs area, I was told she lifted her leg and pee-ed on their coffee table. I apologized for her behaviour. The volunteer said "we did not mind that too much, but when she lifted her leg and pee-ed on our male greyhound we were a little upset with her". I remember thinking Oh my, you really are very alpha. Well, three years later, she still lifts her leg to pee and she christens every dog that visits our humble abode. She has overcome her fear of frogs and crickets but still fears fish tanks and anything new. But hey, nobody is perfect, right? She adapted pretty quickly to her new life. She even taught herself stairs. Mitch came home one day on his lunch break to find the baby gate at the bottom of the stairs had been knocked down and Maggie was sitting upstairs in the hallway. She is still very inquisitive and does not like change! If anything in her environment changes: new placement of furniture, trashcan or the like, she barks and has to investigate it by slowly approaching with her shaking body.

Such a goofy girl, but we love her very much! She is my heart!!! I wouldn't have it any other way.

Happy Gotcha Day Maggie! We look forward to many more quirky, memorable, fun, loving years together. :)

Next up is another heart dog, Cueball. His Gotcha day is this Saturday. All of you who personally know Cueball, know that he is 100% daddy's boy and daddy's heart. We adopted him 2 years ago. By that time we had the newbie drill down pat. He was part of the group of 12 greys that came up from Florida. They named that group of greys the Delightful Dozen. It was a special group. A kennel in Florida was closing leaving 20 dogs with no where to go. VAGA and a group from Canada stepped up to help and all 20 were saved. :)

Unlike Maggie, Cueball made himself right at home very quickly and adjusted to home life like he had always been in one. He is a very quick learner. He has a lot of confidence. I think he could have been fine as an only dog. In my experience I can't say this about too many of the males. ;-)He has a lot of character and personality so his name really suits him. Not sure why his racing name was Flying Eightball. We were expecting to find a large black speck of ticking on him somewhere when we we got him, but nada.

He was the first roacher to join our family. He has such a sweet face and the most adorably unique ears. He loves sleeping on blankets. He loves to run and still has huge hammies. He has always been very strong. We can't walk him with a regular leash and collar. We have to use a harness and even with that he still pulls, but is manageable.He loves to romp around the yard with his brother and tease his sisters. No one can catch him in our pack and he knows it.He loves to sunbath and enjoys rolling around in the grass. He is also very photogenic. We think he knows he is a stud! :)We love his goofiness and are so pleased he is part of our family! Happy Gotcha day Cueball! Daddy says you can never leave him and you have to live forever. :)

And finally NFL Football is back. Wahoo.....Sunday Ticket! GO COLTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And, Tuesday we are making the trip down to MB for the Beach Bound Hounds event. =)

Lots of things going on in September, so stick around.

Fun with Toys

2009-08-21T20:05:00.013-04:00

I can remember the excitement at Christmas time as a kid eagerly anticipating opening each present under the tree looking for that one special toy. The one I had been wishing for most of the year. Inspecting each box, shaking them and listening for the sound of what laid inside made, trying to determine which one was the one special gift. The feeling of overwhelming excitement while opening each present, the feeling of a little disappointment after tearing open the box only to find clothes, underwear or socks, and the jump out of your seat excitement felt when that special gift was opened and in my hands. Each year, the special gifts changed, but the excitement was always the same. I was thinking back to those Christmases the other day while I was watching the kids bounce around with their new Duck and Purse squeaky toys, and was imaging that this must be like "Christmas excitement" for them each time they get a new toy. Each time I watch little videos like the one above of the kids playing it makes me smile just thinking about the excitement and joy they must feel when they get a new toy. :) Hope you enjoy.

I had about 4 videos that I took, but for some reason the others will not upload. :( Hopefully, I will be able to share those in the near future.

Ahh....Newbies

2009-08-15T19:09:00.015-04:00

Last weekend we headed out to the Glen Allen MG with Maggie and Pippi. Two of the newest additions to the VAGA family also joined us. They just arrived to VA on August 1st. To the left is Remi with his family and to the right is Wilson with his dad. Both boys are super sweet and very handsome. They both did very well for their first social outing. They are adjusting nicely and are enjoying life in their new homes.The newbies had encouragement and guidance from our MG pros, Baron, Maggie and Pippi. We had lots of folks stop by to dote on the hounds and VAGA has already received an application in. :)
Where else would you expect to see Miss Queen?
Meet Puddin Pop. She came up on the 1st of August too and we had the pleasure of keeping her for one night last night while she is in transistion to her journey to her foster home.
She is very sweet, playful and almost completely home acclimated. Not quite house broken, but she only had one accident and that was by the back door, so she was trying to tell us, we just did not react in time.
=
She is a lovely, petite, 4 1/2 year old girl who smiles, has the cutest floppy ears and loves to bounce around the house playing with toys.
Even though her name is Puddin Pop, I still found myself singing Lollipop Lollipop, oh lolly lollipop.... to her. LOL.
Best of luck to Miss Puddin Pop, we hope you find your forever home very soon! You are welcome to come stay with us anytime. :)

Author's update:

I forgot to include one of the Newbies. Below is Starz Reese. She came up on the August 15th haul. This is not a very good picture of her, but it is the only one I had time to take yesterday. I love the black around her eye, she has very unusual markings. Her mom found a really cute stuffed toy of Resse's for her. LOL!

Maggie's Ritual

2009-08-08T08:41:00.005-04:00

Just a quick post before we head out to today's meet and greet. The above clips are of Maggie and her daily/nightly ritual at feeding time. Notice the sound of everyone else eating in the background. Sigh....she is such a queen!

Kings for a day

2009-08-02T17:36:00.006-04:00

Well at least Kings of the stack of dog beds anyways. They got to enjoy the high life for a couple of hours before I dethrowned them.

Now, if we only had one of those Burger King crown hats. ;-) They always find a way to make me smile, even on laundry day.

And below are just random adorable pictures of miss queen herself.

I love all of our kids, but Maggie is my heart.

We are looking forward to having some more greyhound fun next weekend at the Glen Allen monthly meet and greet. =) We hope to see some peeps there!

Mad Cow , Lap Dog and More Painting

2009-07-25T16:55:00.011-04:00

For the last two afternoons I have come home to this site in the living room. Our hounds normally do not destroy and shred toys, but the last two days they must have gone crazy while we were at work.They must have been saving us from this.....
They did a number on him. This happened on Thursday. By Friday, they had completed the job and now the "mad cow" is resting in peace over the rainbow bridge with his other stuffie friends.
They also took their frustration out on our flip flops. Of course they only chewed one shoe for each pair.
Our pups hardly ever act crazy and chew up toys while we are gone. Most of the time, they are angels with their stuffies. That is why we have more than 50 of them. Well at least, there is no evidence to let us know otherwise. Our shoes on the other hand....well....we have learned if we leave them out, then the above is likely to happen. I just wish they would chew and destroy the stuffies and leave our shoes alone. Maybe we need to buy them shoe stuffies? ;-)

For those who don't know, Pippi is a lap dog. I just have not been able to snap a picture of the proof because she is usually snugling with me. She has been this way since we brought her home in February. She has her moments where she just can't get enough petting and love. She was this way this morning and was being very snugly and kissy. We snuggled for about an hour before we had to head out for a GH meet and greet in Richmond.
And the rare shot of our cat Misty. She will be 10 in a few months. She was on guard at the entry of the foyer last weekend while I painted. She was a good little helper. =)
Below is the before. I know what you are thinking. What is up with that column? Yes, I asked myself the same thing. I used Tatouage about 7 years ago and did this and the flower design around the front door. I don't know what I was thinking. Don't ask. It seemed like a good idea at the time. I guess back then, I was spending too much time watching QVC and HSN.

And the after. I got this done in a few hours. I used the new product by Behr that has the primer and paint all in one. It works folks!! I only had to do 2 coats over the parts of the wall with the tattouage and for cutting in. SWEET!! The paint is a bit hefty in price, but it is worth it in the amount of time you will save.

We are doing a lot of painting around the house. Neutralizing the color of paint in almost every room in the house. That mustard yellow living room and bright yellow hallway will be changing soon too.

In the meantime, we are staying busy with GH events. We are headed to another GH meet and greet tomorrow too. I will try to be better about taking my camera. We always have a good turnout at the Newport News Petsmart. Have a greyt week everyone!

Happy Birthday Booyah and Cueball!

2009-07-13T19:43:00.022-04:00

The boys are both turning six this year. Booyah's birthday was the end of June (6/30) and Cueball's birthday is the middle of July (7/16). We celebrated both this weekend. Cueball went with me to the Glen Allen MG on Saturday. He is such a happy boy and loves to see his friends, meet all the other dogs and get scritches from all the folks. He had a good time! Afterwards, we took a car ride over to drop off some donations to the Goodwill in Mechanicsville and then rode over to shop at the Petsmart in Mechanicsville. The boys got new toys. Here is Cueball with the blue lamb. This is Booyah's favorite toy, but he happily shares with his brother.Booyah had a relaxing day with his sisters at home. Here he is with the football. All the kids love this toy. We had one months ago when we fostered Lion, but he loved that toy so much that I gave it to his new mom to take home with him on adoption day.
All the kids got to enjoy a nice rawhide in the afternoon.

And for the yummies, I baked the kids a Carob Chip Bundt Cake. Here it is fresh out of the oven.
I tried to put icing on the cake. I used plain yogurt and then swirled melted carob chips. Needless to say I should have stopped at the yogurt, as the melted carob became a little messy and a little hard to handle. Ahh well...the kids loved it anyway and don't know the difference.

Since I was baking the kids the cake, Mitch decided we needed a cake too.....just because. ;-)The boys do a taste test.
5 minutes later, no cake was left. I think it was a hit. We may do this for all the kids celebrations. The cake was so simple to make.

The boys had a wonderful birthday weekend! I can't believe they are 6 already. Happy birthday boys, we love you so much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And, some other random pics of our plant life around the home. We did a small in pot garden this year. I used to do a big garden with about 15-20 tomato plants, pepper plants, squash, watermelon, and cucumbers. I gave it up years ago. It takes a lot of time and devotion to care for a large garden and right now in my life....I don't have either. It takes all I have to keep up with weeding the 4 large flower beds we have. :) This year we have 1 bell pepper plant, 2 tomato plants and 1 banana pepper plant.

Our first pickins from the the banana pepper plant and our second pick from the tomato plant. We got two for one deal with this tomato....LOL!
This is the first year we have grown banana peppers. I did not realize they grow straight up. Weird.
Bell peppers. Yum! I pick these, wash them and eat them just as they are.
And we have Basil out the wazoo. Anyone local want any?? We have plenty to share. :)

In case you are wondering, no I did not plant them in the rocks. Here is the story. A couple of years ago a friend of my mom's was moving to Norfolk and gave me a couple of plants she had. One of which was a basil plant in a pot. I placed the pot at the end of the flower bed near our front porch and let it do its thing all summer. I removed the pot at the end of the season and did not think anymore of it until the following year when I was weeding the flower bed and pulled what I thought was a weed but turned out to be basil. Ever since then the basil has come back each year. Now it has spread across the sidewalk and is growing in the rocks.

More basil.
I just love the day lilies when they are blooming. They are so pretty.

I have one little elephant's ear that popped up this year. I hope more come in. They are awesome when they get huge. Their stalks are incredibly strong.
Nature is pretty amazing!

Have a greyt week everyone. =)