Happy Birthday Puddin

Puddin Pop celebrated her 8th birthday on December 26!  Hard to believe our greys are now 8 and 9 years old!  They each got a meaty, marrow-filled bone to celebrate!  I think you can see a common theme from the last post that Puddin makes up the rules around here now....yes, once again, she stole Buford's bone so she could chew on one while keeping the other one safely tucked up by her!  We had to intervene several times since Buford is too afraid to stand up for himself :)

Merry Christmas Pups

Buford and Puddin had a wonderful Christmas where they enjoyed stockings filled with toys, bully sticks, and knuckle bones and they each got a new LL Bean therapeutic bed! 

 

 

Puddin - the little stinker that she is - immediately tried to swipe all of Buford's treats until we redirected her to her own stocking!

Our Little One Arrived

Meet the newest member of our family....Taylor Nicole was born on December 22, 2012 at 4:09 am.  We got to come home from the hospital on Christmas Eve - amid a beautiful snow fall!  I took this picture as I was packing up in the hospital.

 

We introduced Taylor to her fur siblings and in true greyhound style they came over sniffed her for a minute and then went back to bed!  My guess is that they will hardly even notice that she's here until she starts crawling and gets mobile!

 



Kids With Santa

Lauren recently visited Santa Claus and was very happy to tell him that she wanted "toys" this year! 

The day after Lauren visited Santa, she got to see another version of the jolly ol' fellow when we took the dogs to visit him as a fundraiser for our local SPCA.  We've taken them every year and I've been very happy with the outcome.  Don't get me wrong, it's not easy to get the pups to "pose" in this environment and throwing Lauren into the mix makes adds another level of detail, but we've still managed to come out with some decent shots over the last few years.  In years past, the photographer has been the same man - he had a nice camera, was setup with some equipment like an umbrella, and really tried to get great photos spending plenty of time with us - and he seemed to enjoy his job - all of which made for better quality photographs!  This year, however, was a different story.  There was a woman photographer with a simple point and shoot camera who seemed to have little interest in what she was doing :(  The coloring of the photos is dull, she didn't compose any of the shots well, and just snapped a few pictures and then went back to chatting with some of the helpers.  I know these are all volunteers, but I do donate a hefty sum each year and was very disappointed this time.  Next year, I think I will take my own camera as a backup!

Dewey

So, this is old news...but, as I was putting up Christmas decorations and pulled out the tree skirt I bought at Dewey this year, I thought maybe I should mention on here that I went!  Greyhounds Reach The Beach (often referred to simply as Dewey), is an annual greyhound event that is held in Dewey, DE on Columbus Day weekend in October.  I have wanted to go for the last four years, but the timing just never worked.  It's about a 5 hour drive from my house.  However, this year I had meetings for work in MD on the Monday-Thursday leading up to it.  After work on Thursday, I drove the two hours to Dewey so I could attend the event on Friday.

I hope I don't offend anyone here because I know there are lots of people who love this event, but I was disappointed!  I was only there for the day and I didn't have my dogs with me so maybe I have a different view, but I thought it was waaay too spread out to be much fun.  Vendors are set up pretty much anywhere they can find a spot at a decent price to rent - in condos, hotel rooms, the fire station, etc.  Honestly, I was glad I didn't have my dogs with me as they would have been miserable either having to wait in the car as we drove from place to place or being cramped in tiny hotel rooms with merchandise and a bunch of other people/dogs.  I heard lots of frustrated voices as people tried to navigate in tight spots dragging their poor dogs along.  I think in its hay day Dewey was probably a fabulous event, but in my opinion those days are over - and I also overheard many people with the same sentiments. 

I am still very glad that I went because I've always wanted to check it out and there were a few vendors there that I don't see all the time at other events so I picked up a few neat items like the tree skirt, a garden rock, and a new Linda K. Evans print (pictured below).  Next year, I think I will set my sights on a another event though...I've heard great things are Beach Bound Hounds in SC and Grapehounds NY!

 

 

There are actually 38 "hidden" greyhounds in this print - can you find them all?

Virginia Beach

As if I don't have enough going on right now, we decided to throw in a last minute trip to Virginia Beach!  We took Macy and Buford to the beach about 3 years ago and Buford loved it (while Macy hated it)!  However, we didn't have Puddin at the time and as both of them are starting to show their age I wanted to make sure she got to go to the beach too.  Plus, I know once baby #2 comes, life will be much more difficult for a little while. 

Anyway, we went last weekend...just as hurricane Sandy was slowly moving in.  Friday was actually really nice, it was fairly warm and cloudy - perfect weather for the pups.  We left mid-day on Saturday as the conditions were worsening quickly with lots of rain and wind.  We still had a great time - just as before, the sand sent Buford into a puppy frenzy :)  He was so happy and excited.  Tracy and I would have loved to let him off leash and watch him play and run, but obviously we would never chance it so he could just jump and frolic from the 6' distance of his leash, but he was happy nonetheless!  Puddin seemed to really enjoy it too...she especially liked watching the sea gulls!  They both enjoyed walks along the beach and the boardwalk and must have peed about a hundred times each day with so many new smells! 

There was one spot where they were particularly photogenic.  I actually went in and digitally removed their leashes for these.  I didn't really know what I was doing, but given that it was such an easy background to work with I figured I couldn't mess it up too much.

Greyhound Party

We hosted the annual VAGA picnic at our house again this year.  My daughter had been so excited for weeks talking about what she called our "greyhound party"!  It was originally scheduled for a couple weeks ago, but we had to postpone due to weather.  That was definitely a wise decision because on Sunday, Oct 21, we truly could not have asked for better weather.  It was absolutely beautiful - clear, sunny, about 70 degrees with a light breeze!  There were somewhere around 100 people and 90 dogs in our backyard and I just loved seeing so many hounds all together.  The VAGA store was setup, we had a yummy lunch, I bought Frosty Paws for all the dogs so they could have a treat too, and we borrowed a radar gun from a friend for the "blur of fur".  I did underestimate just how exhausting hosting a party like this would be when you are 7 months pregnant, but it was all worth it in the end!  Here are some pictures:

We had live music performed by one of our members and her lovely greyhound assistant.

 

 

The Park Nail Salon was open for business, much to the dismay of many a hound!  Kristen and Gyeong have a great system worked out...depending on who you ask I suppose :)  Sydney was not impressed!

 

Puddin's face says it all!

 

Maybe if I just close my eyes, it will all be over when I open them back up!

 

 

Buford's hang dog look...he wants to know what he did to get this type of punishment!

 

And here's one more.  This is Ashley...she actually came up on the same haul as our Macy.  We were given the choice of two dogs and Ashley was almost ours!  I couldn't decide of course and told VAGA and GPA to pick so they thought Macy was a better match for us.  She ended up being the perfect match for us, I just wish she was still with us.  It was good to see Ashley again though and after being returned by her first family I think she's got her dad wrapped around her little paw now!

 

I couldn't get everything to fit in one picture, but here's the "finish line" of the blur of fur.

 

 

And here's everyone lining up at the start.

 

I wasn't there for much of it, but there was a time or two I wasn't sure if they were going to put their brakes on in time!  Fortunately, I never got plowed into though :)

 

Puddin was too tired to give it much of an effort, but she was still clocked at 26 mph.  Buford ran the other way back towards the house!  I did get Puddin at 36 and Buford at 32 earlier today in our yard.

 

By the end of the picnic, Buford went inside to rest and although Puddin stayed out with us she was too tired to do anything but look sleepy!  I feel this way at work sometimes!

 

After the picnic was over, these two didn't even lift their heads the rest of the night!

My Handsome Boy