Greyhound Acrobatics

Natalie is our 3-year-old foster greyhound that we have had since September. She is a NUT and is going to be a Greyt dog for someone! Here you see her doing one of her favorite tricks, head on the floor, butt up in the air, scooting her back feet ever so closer to her front feet until she does a somersault. Nutty Natalie! You can see her racing statistics here.
If you would like more information on adopting Natalie, please visit the Royal Hounds web site.

Nutty Natalie in action!

It's Fall!

My Sir Ralph's Stay Will be Short

We picked up My Sir Ralph on Saturday, August 25th to foster until he found his forever home. We got the call yesterday that a woman in Canada is adopting him. She just lost her 5-1/2-year-old "Blue" to osteosarcoma and Ralph will be her healer. Anyone who has had to have a pet euthanized knows what I'm talking about. Some people may think you are callous to get another pet so soon; that you are trying to replace her, but it was the best thing I ever did when I had my BEST cat EVER put to sleep a couple of years ago. I had a new kitten in a week and it worked wonders.

My Canadian friend has been a grey mom for many years and already has a female to keep Ralph (soon to be known as Fangio, or Gio for short) company. She will make a great mom to Ralph.

Oh, and check out his racing statistics. He is hilarious!

Me Ra Koh

Saw a writeup in the News Tribune (business section) on August 3, 2007 about a local photographer. She has an inspiring story and I thought I'd share it.

Me Ra Koh Photography

Makes me think I need to start saving money now to have my kids' senior pictures done!

Bald and Beautiful

Yesterday was a beautiful day, sunny, warm, windows open, you get the picture. Then we heard something we don't often hear. Bill thought Mabel was whining for him and I told him it wasn't Mabel as she was sound asleep. We went outside to discover two Eagles flying overhead. We've seen eagles a couple of times here, but they mostly hang out at Day Island and other places closer to the Sound.

1901 Census, England

I was perusing Ancestry.com and came across a page from the 1901 census done in England. I got the best laugh out of the heading for column 17...check it out and have a chuckle.

A few pictures of the last pedicure social

Here they come!

There they go!

Fast Dogs

Greyhounds are the BEST dogs in the world. Did you know they are couch potatoes? Seriously!

We lost our lab mix, Max, at the end of February. He was 10 and suffered from vomiting, lethargy and bloody diarrhea. It was horrible. His food hasn't been on the recall list, but I'm still watching that.

I've always wanted a greyhound, but for whatever reason, we never got one. Until Max passed. Then I e-mailed Royal Hounds. It was just a whim. Just to ask a few questions. The next thing I know one of the volunteers, Sue, called me and we spent an hour on the phone talking about greyhounds. A new batch of greyhounds were coming out from Colorado the upcoming weekend and if we wanted to get one we would have to be approved and let them know in the next couple of days. A few hours later, another volunteer, Kathy, called me and arranged a home visit. She and another Volunteer, Vicki, came out the following afternoon with two greyhounds, Autumn and Gracie. Bill immediately fell in love and the dogs loved him. They were so happy they chattered their teeth to show him how much they enjoyed his attention.

We gave Kathy our deposit and started waiting impatiently for Saturday to get here and the hounds to arrive. We received a phone call from Sue asking if we would be interested in Mabel, a tripod. I had mentioned in our first phone conversation seeing Mabel on Almost Home for Hounds, a grehyound rescue in Colorado. That comment stuck with Sue and I told her Bill and I would talk it over. Our biggest concern was how the kids would feel about having a 3-legged dog and if they would get upset if other kids made fun of her. Ian and Kaitlin proved us completely wrong. They said they didn't care if she had three legs, she still deserved a good home and they wanted to offer that to her. So we called Sue back and said, yes, we would take Mabel.

Saturday arrived and we were notified that the hounds were late. Heather Weir, the veterinarian from Almost Home for Hounds in Colorado drives the dogs out ALL BY HERSELF. I think she had 30-some dogs, stopping in Utah and California to drop some dogs off. Can you even IMAGINE taking 30 dogs out to relieve themselves??? ALL BY YOURSELF? Not to mention that there were some troubles with the "bus" that had to be fixed along the way.

Saturday afternoon we spent at Kathy's house in our 2-hour greyhound adoption class, meeting other adopters and volunteers. We got our welcome kits and then were sent home to do some more WAITING as the dogs were to arrive Sunday morning.

Sunday morning we headed on back to Kathy's where we met Heather and Mabel. I think it was love at first sight.