Tuesday, October 31, 2006

Jacey

You know how in cartoons there'll be someone sleeping, with their lips pressed together, and every time they exhale their lips flutter and vibrate?

Jacey's doing that right now, and it's all I can do to not laugh out loud at her.

Dogs. Nature's stress-relievers...

Saturday, October 28, 2006

This week

I’m home on the sofa, watching King Kong, and I am absolutely beat. (Oh, dear, Kong’s stamping on natives. Would you believe I’ve never seen this movie before? It’s the Fay Wray version.)

Today was Greyfest, the big greyhound festival. I did $145 worth of nail trims and ear cleanings to raise money for SEGA. There was only one dog who wanted to bite; he was fine for his nails, but wanted to take my hand off when I tried to clean his ears. His name was Mr Spock. I’m willing to concede that Vulcans might be fussy about their ears, but logic should preclude biting as a solution. (Oh, dear, Kong’s grabbed Ann out the high-rise window and is taking a stroll through New York…and about to disrupt the subway…)

Anyway, the crocheted greyhound brought SEGA $100 in the silent auction. I didn’t spend much money—just bought the new SEGA cookbook (people-food recipes and dog-treat recipes). In the “Blur of Fur” competition they clocked running greyhounds with a radar gun. The fastest dog today was doing 45 mph…and that wasn’t a particularly young dog: just one who loves to run. (It’s Kong against the airplanes, now, and I think we know how that turns out.) Sam and Jacey didn’t go to Greyfest; I can’t look after them, keep Sam out of trouble, and do nail trims at the same time, so the dogs just had a quiet day at home.

On the way home from Greyfest, I stopped at Costco and spent a fortune: two dog throws, one new dog bed, and a ton of vitamins/supplements: Cranberry pills (Jacey), glucosamine (all of us), flax seed oil (Jacey and Sam), calcium (me), fish oil pills (Jacey and Sam).

(Oh, no. It was beauty killed the beast.)

Edited to add: The Blur of Fur winner was Venus, formerly RC Desert Secret. I just looked her up on the greyhound database. She was born 17 November 2001--which was the day I adopted Oreo: Nice coincidence...

Friday, October 6, 2006

Happy Gotcha Day

I ordered a pattern to make sweaters for the dogs. The pattern comes from the same woman who created the crocheted greyhound pattern. I ordered the yarn, too: "Aran" colored yarn for Sam's, "Cherry Red" for Jacey's. (I get free shipping from Joanns through December 31. That made ordering from Joann's cheaper than ordering from anywhere else.) I also ordered a needlepoint kit to make a Christmas stocking. I made stockings for both my nephews when they were little, and my sister Santa still stuffs the stockings with candy every Christmas. Well, elder nephew (he's twenty-three) has a girlfriend who'll be spending her third Christmas with our family. There's no announced engagement, but that could come any time. (She's in vet school at the University of Georgia, and he is living and working there in Athens to be near her.) So I'm going to make Ashley a stocking...hope I can get it done in time.

Sam celebrated Gotcha Day (on 5 October) by clearing off the kitchen counter. Again. The bread was safely on top of the refrigerator. The bag of potatoes was not. Of course, Sam's muzzled, so he couldn't do anything with the potatoes beyond opening the bag and rolling the potatoes around on the kitchen floor. But he did that very well.

Tuesday, October 3, 2006

The Militant Greyhound

Check out the militant greyhound. (I know, the first sentence of the write-up says Cleopatra was an American. I've resisted my editor's itch and not sent the guy an e-mail about it.) Other breeds are available, but I'm quite sure the greyhound will reign supreme after the revolution.

If he can bother to get off the sofa.

The dogs pretty much are fine. The vet adjusted Sam's thyroid meds two weeks ago and started Jacey on some new stuff for the bladder issues. I'm not happy with the results in either case, although it may just take longer to see the results for Sam. For Jacey, I'm seeing results, and it's not pretty. (You probably don't want to give a dog with separation anxiety something that "might make her a bit excitable.") So I've cut her dose to 25 percent of the original dose, and we'll see what happens now.