It's that time of year...

You can't help but love this time of the year.  Despite the temperatures dropping, there are just so many great things about it.  Getting to spend time with family who you may not get to see very often, decorating the house, and all the good eats. But the best part?? ...Tormenting the dogs for our annual Christmas cards!!!

Left to right: Tiny, Cody, and Callie



I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas filled with joy, laughter, family, and friends!

Pinups, chipmunks & greyhounds... OH MY

Pinups:
THEY'RE HERE!  I'm SO excited that the PlayGrey calendars are finally here!  If you're a dog person (not just a greyhound person), I really think you'll enjoy this calendar!  Both my Cody and Callie are featured as pin-ups for your pups.  You can order calendars at http://www.playgrey.org/ and ALL proceeds support Second Chance Greyhounds, a 501(c)(3) non-profit.  Please help us spread the word!

Chipmunks:
Cody doesn't realize he's a sighthound and not a bloodhound.  He's the most sniffing-est dog I've met.  If you're a visitor in our home, expect to leave with nose prints all over you because that's how Cody inspects people.  While in the backyard today, he was tracking our chipmunks.  He came across the hole to their lair and immediately stuck his nose into it.  You'll have to turn up the sound for this one, but I was trying so hard not to laugh as over and over again, Cody snorted into the chipmunk hole trying to get a deep whiff.  :)



Greyhounds:
You can't mistake the smile on Tiny's face. She LOVES to run!

Comical dogs

I've really enjoyed the greyhound comics that appear on Shades of Greyhounds and Life With Dogs.  When I snapped the below photo, I thought it'd be a cute one to create my own comic from.  This is such a typical scene in my household and I'm pretty sure it accurately conveys Callie & Tiny's thoughts.  :)

Our whippet friend

A few weeks ago, I went Florida to visit my grandparents.  We had a great time just relaxing with no real agenda.  It's always wonderful to spend time with them!  While there, we stopped by for a visit with Frank, Nancy, and their whippet, Kodi.

Kodi is such a cute little guy!  You may remember that we first met him during our December trip to Florida and Tiny was quite taken with him.

While we were there, Kodi was talking up a storm!  I think he was jealous that Frank was petting my greyhound Cody, and he was showing his displeasure, but it sure was cute!! Frank and Nancy also gave me a beautiful bronze greyhound statue that I have in our display case now.

Don't forget to purchase your PlayGrey calendars (a pin-up calendar for you pups)!! We will start shipping them next Saturday and you don't want to miss out on this funny, unique 2011 calendar! http://www.playgrey.org/

Finally, I have a new favorite photo of the dogs, and this one happens to be my 9-year old brindle girl, Tiny.

Funniest greyhound calendar...ever!

I have been very lucky to be a large part of a fun project!  In the beginning of the year, I proposed the idea of creating a 'pin-up' calendar featuring the hounds of SCG to our president.  She ran it past the board and everyone agreed it would be a great fundraiser. 

With Patti as my trusty greyhound wrangler, and numerous others helping along the way, we have managed to put together one of the cutest and funniest calendars featuring both male AND female former racing greyhounds. This has been a labor of love!!

Pre-order yours today!  They will be shipped beginning October 2010.  For more information, visit the calendar website at http://www.playgrey.org/.

BLOGGERS: Please cross-post...we need help getting the word out and every cent supports greyhound adoption!

Geez, another picture?!

In preparation for a photo shoot this weekend with a couple of greyhounds, I pulled out my camera, dusted it off, and subjected Cody and Callie to a few minutes of picture-snapping.  Tiny was smart enough to run away when she saw me pull out the camera bag.  ;)  I did, however, manage to get one of the three of them together this morning...their "better" side.  :P

Hope you enjoy...

Spastic dog

Look Ma'...a New Trick!

I have been entirely too neglectful on continuing to train Cody.  Between work and more work, there just isn't enough time in the day!  Yesterday, I took 20 minutes for a break and thought I'd try to teach Cody a new trick.  He so enjoys clicker training and you can see how excited he gets trying to learn something new.  Within the 20 minutes, we had a new trick!!



Finally, here are a couple of cute/funny photos. If you follow me on Twitter, you've probably seen these already, but my blog posts just don't feel 'complete' without at least one goofy photo, so here's my silly boy.

And we can't forget sweet Callie girl who just celebrated her "Gotcha Day" on July 9th!  It's been a wonderful 4 years and counting, but I want my pillow back!  ;)

Fourth of July

Happy 4th everybody!! Many people think of picnics, cooking out, and enjoying the outdoors during the fourth of July.  Unfortunately, this holiday also brings *FiReWoRkS*!  The scariest thing known to my greyhounds, next to thunder of course.  :( 

Since Callie & Tiny will be spending the evening hiding in my closet, we at least spent some time today outdoors enjoying the weather.  I realized it has been far too long since I picked up my camera, so I straped on my 50mm lens and snapped away at Tiny (who was the only one standing still). ;)  She was really enjoying the weather...you can see the happiness written across her face.

For a couple more photos, visit my Flickr account.

And just so Cody and Callie don't feel left out, here are a couple of them as well.  I love Cody's puppy-dog eyes.  He really looks like he's done something wrong, but if he has, I haven't found it yet.  ;)

Toys, toys, everywhere!

On previous blog posts, you've probably seen how toy-crazy Cody is...and he certainly has his fair share of them!!  We can thank my mother and mother-in-law for that.  ;)  He rapidly goes from toy to toy, pulling them each out of the basket and moving on to the next.  In 5 minutes flat, he will have emptied the toy basket.

Yesterday, I was at a meet and greet for Second Chance Greyhounds and I got Cody a new toy.  Here's his first couple minutes of playing with it.

Neglect...

Where have April, May, and June gone?!  I now see how easy it is to neglect the fun stuff when you're buried in work.  Here are a couple of videos to get this blog up and going again!



This one is from awhile ago, but I love when Cody gets quizzical and in this video, he first noticed the ceiling fan:

April Happenings

So far, April has turned out to be an exciting month.  Not only did Cody turn 3 on April Fool's Day, he was also selected as 'Dog of the Month' by In the Company of Dogs!  They haven't updated their website yet, but if you receive their catalog, look on the inside cover.  If you're interested in seeing the actual photo, click here.  It is by far my favorite photo of him and was taken while we were still fostering...you can see why we failed.  ;)

We have also started Rally class as of last week.  Cody isn't too sure about it yet because he's the only greyhound and all those other breeds bark.  He was pretty stressed out during his first class and unfortunately, we're only one of 3 beginners (everyone else has been doing Rally for awhile).  We'll see how it goes.

Callie, Tiny, and Cody tested out their Jedi mind tricks in an attempt to get the door to open.  I wish I could get them all together like this when I had my REAL camera!  Luckily, I'm an iPhone addict so it's always on me. 

Tiny had a dental last Friday and her breath is SOOOO much better, which is great because she's been giving me kisses in the morning to wake me up recently.  :P  

And now for the funny pic...Cody has evidently taken up yoga.  It's not quite a "Downward Dog" position, but something close perhaps?  ;)

Wacky weather & Greyhound doodles

We're all anxiously awaiting Spring.  On Saturday, we got a taste of it with temperatures in the mid-70's.  Unfortunately, as quickly as it came, it went away and today (Monday), we actually had snow flurries.  Mother Nature is really throwing us for a loop!

If you follow me on Twitter, you have no doubt seen me mention the Doodle Swap.  For those of you who aren't familiar with this concept, it's a group of artists, designers, and people who just love to doodle from all over the country and even Canada.  They all create mini works of art in trading card size and send one to everybody in their group.  In return, you get doodles back from everyone else.  It's such a neat concept and I've really enjoyed getting back into illustrating. 

Last week, I received my first set of doodles.  This artist was a friend of a friend so she was given my blog and actually drew a doodle for each of my pups!!  How cool is that?!  I now feel like a slacker as I've barely started, and she's already creating multiples. :P

I quickly began my first set of doodles and gave Camille (a fellow greyhound owner), her doodle this weekend.  I've really been wanting to try water color with a pen & ink drawing and finally got the chance with this project.  BTW, the theme is "Hand lettering", so lettering must be prominent in your art.  If any other neat ones come across, I'll share them. 

Finally, it wouldn't be a blog post without a silly photo of one of my goofy crew.  Here's Cody doing an upside down, deep stretch!  Oh to be a dog!!

Three's not a crowd

Three is never a crowd at our house,
unless of course you're expecting to sit on the couch!

(From left to right: Callie, Tiny, and Cody)

CGC and more

I told Jen (our clicker trainer) that she is not allowed to laugh while reading this blog, because as a proud greyhound mom, I'm about to brag on my boy.  ;)  Yesterday was the last day of clicker training, which was sad, because Cody and I have really enjoyed it!  As part of the last class, the hounds were tested for the AKC Canine Good Citizen program.  Cody passed with flying colors!!  Jen even suggested that I compete with him in obedience or rally...something I had never even considered, but am seriously thinking about now.  He really does seem to enjoy doing the commands.  I'm not sure if it's because he wants to please me, or if it's because he gets treats as a reward.  lol

The girls, who spend much of their day cozying up on the guest bed upstairs, have learned to come downstairs when they hear the clicker because Cody is getting food and they might be able to guilt me into giving them treats as well.  In one instance, as I held the treats behind my back while practicing with Cody, Callie came around behind me and STOLE MY TREATS!  Silly girl...she's a smart one!  See how Tiny has her arm draped over Callie?  They are ALWAYS snuggling with each other.  Too sweet.

Yesterday was a beautiful day and the gang decided to take in the nice weather.  Let's play a game of 'Where's Waldo?' although, this would need to be 'Where's Tiny?'. 

Do you see her???  If you guessed that she's laying underneath Cody in order to get some shade, you were right!  Get yourself a prize. =)  You may be wondering why Cody is muzzled.  You probably remember from a previous post that Cody had to be rushed to the vet only to find that his belly was full of rocks.  His muzzle now has a poop guard to prevent him from eating the birdseed, rocks, and dirt.

And last, but not least, I thought you guys would enjoy seeing my alarm clock.  It's rather annoying, but it gets the job done!  Hope everyone is having a great weekend!!

Suicidal squirrel

This morning, I did my quick squirrel check and then opened up the back door for Cody to go out.  Just as he was walking into the back yard, a squirrel jumped down from a tree onto the ground in front of him.  The next thing I saw was a blaze or fur going this way and that! 

First, they rounded the bin towards the fence.  I guess the squirrel couldn't jump that high, so he immediately turned and headed back the other way.  Cody, not being quite as nimble, managed to crash into the fence before turning around.  Next was the bushes...the squirrel, trying to seek refuge, ran into the tangle of leaves and branches.  This too proved no match for Cody as he made his way into the brush.  The squirrel finely managed to get to the top of the fence and into a tree where Cody couldn't reach.  They were both panting, hearts beating wildly as they stared each other down for several minutes.  I'm sure Mr. Squirrel will think twice before coming into OUR yard again!  No squirrels or greyhounds were harmed in the writing of this blog. =)

Callie in acrylic

Despite having some artistic skill, I cannot paint!  I came across an artist on Etsy that does custom dog portraits and the first thing that caught my attention were the textures and the amount of detail she puts into her paintings.  I love the fact that you can see every brush stroke as well as the canvas texture and how she uses that to add to the details and color.  I immediately contacted her to do a painting of Callie.  I sent over one of my favorite photos of her and the results are just amazing!

Original photo:

And now Callie is famous!  You can purchase prints of my beautiful Callie-girl or commission a portrait of your own by visiting L.A. Shephard's Etsy shop: 'The Dog Lover'.  =)  I can hardly wait to get the next one started!

Observations

First, I have to start with the fact that I am a bad dog-mom.  :(  Tiny's 'Gotcha Day' was on Feb. 3 and she's been with us for three years!  I neglected to mention it or celebrate, so I will be making it up to her this weekend...Promise!

Greyt Black Dog talked about 'Going Gray' in a recent blog post.  This is something I too am noticing with my girls. The brindle around Callie's eyes has turned white.  Also, I noticed this summer that there is still a rim of the brindle around her black 'eyeliner'; however, her eyelashes have turned white!  Tiny is just starting to get some gray on her eyebrows, but still looks young because she hasn't grayed out all over.

Tiny (who is 9 by the way and doesn't act it at all), was running towards me in the backyard when I caught this picture of her.  I swear she looks like she's in one of those "Muscle Man" competitions!  Arnold Schwarzenegger, watch out...here comes Tiny!!  She really is a funny looking dog.  I love her dearly, but she has a little bitty head, her ears are always pinned back, and she looks perpetually freaked out.  :P  Probably because she IS freaked out.  She's the most neurotic dog I've ever met, but she's MY neurotic dog!  We love you Tiny and hope to have many more 'gotcha days' that we won't forget to celebrate.

Callie - a Photo Study

Callie was our first greyhound and has been with us for 3.5 years, so she is no stranger to being photographed.  Here are some photos of my sweet Callie-girl. 

And my favorite...her "what the heck was that?!" look.

Snow in the Southland

Let me start by asking that those north of me NOT laugh at our piddly 4" of snow. :-P  Honestly, this is the most I've seen in these parts in 20 years and I was elated that it was the fluffy kind and not the sloppy, wet stuff we normally get!  Of course Cody absolutely LOVED it.  He constantly had it on his nose from sniffing the ground.  Tiny really enjoyed romping around as well.  Callie was the only one that wasn't too sure about it and was ready to go inside within minutes.  She did finally realize that running in the snow was a lot of fun and I caught her mid-stride with her tail straight up in the air!  Here are some photos of everyone enjoying the accumulation.

Cody's first romp:

Results of sniffing the snow:

Tiny enjoys a romp:


Callie finally tests it out:

For other 'artsy' snow pictures that do not include the hounds, please check out my Flickr page. 

Sitting pretty

Over the past few months, I have tried everything I could think of to get Cody to sit.  During clicker training last Saturday, I watched as dog after dog "got it"... you could almost see the little light bulbs go off over their heads as they rocked back on their haunches and their butts hit the floor.  Not MY dog!  Jen gave us some advice about using a steep hill to help him learn, so on Sunday, I took Cody into the backyard and after a several awkward minutes of straining his neck back to get the treats, his butt hit the ground.  I was ecstatic! We tried this a few more times and he seemed to get it, so I put him up on the level grass.  Once again, he got into a sit position.  I just couldn't believe it!  Upon trying it in the house though, he kept laying down, so I was a bit discouraged.  Last night I took him back outside to try to 'reconnect the dots' for him.  He immediately sat, so I brought him in the house and tried in various rooms, on various surfaces...he didn't disappoint!  =) 

In case you're wondering why he's practicing in his PJs, there was a bit I left out about his vet visit in my earlier post.  When he came out from under the sedative they gave him for the x-rays, he immediately came too and thrashed and wriggled out of the vet tech's arms while being scooped off the table. He banged his left back-knee and scrapped it pretty bad.  He won't leave it alone and I don't want him sleeping in a 'cone of shame', so I put on his PJs...out of sight, out of mind!  It seems to be working.

Callie scores a point for silliness.  While cooking dinner on Sunday, I heard Lyle laughing.  I turned around to see what was going on and saw Callie in this position.  I guess she decided she needed a rest before making the final leap onto the couch because she was laying like this with no attempt to get all the way up on the couch.  :P  After a couple minutes, she finally brought her other leg up and settled into her little ball.  They do keep us laughing.  =)

Photo time!

It's been a few weeks since I picked up my camera...far too long for me.  I figured I could practice Cody's clicker traning while getting some shots of him.  I put him in a down position and snapped away (both the camera and the clicker).  The following are my two favorite shots.  He looks so darn sweet and angelic in the second photo...obviously, he has us all fooled.  ;)

On a side note... Those of you who frequent meet and greets have no doubt heard someone say, "I'd love to adopt a greyhound, but I have a cat."  Of course we all know this is a misconception.  I'm not saying there aren't greyhounds with high prey drives that can't live with cats, but most of the hounds I've met are living life with cats, kids, small dogs, even turtles. =)  For this reason, I created the 'Greyt Friends' design.  You can order it here: http://www.cafepress.com/2CG.  ALL proceeds benefit greyhound adoption.

Just call me 'Quasimodo'

On Tuesday I had quite a scare.  Cody begin throwing up at 11:00am and didn't stop until around 4:00pm.  He was not able to hold down any water or food.  The vet got me in that afternoon and all signs pointed to an obstruction.  Unfortunately, it was late in the day and they couldn't do x-rays until the next morning.  He was given an anti-nauseau shot and they pumped him full of fluids.  I've never experienced animals receiving fluids other than through iv's. 

Evidently, animals are able to absorb fluids that are injected just underneath the skin (unlike humans that need them directly in their veins).  The process takes awhile depending on how dehydrated the animal is and the result is a large hump where the fluid is injected.  Poor Cody definitely looked like Quasimodo. :(  The x-rays showed no signs of obstruction...thank goodness!  However, it did show a build up of minerals and rocks in his belly.  Over the past two weeks, Cody has been dining on the bird seed that falls from the feeder onto the rocks and dirt.  No doubt he picked up some extras along the way.  This is evidently quite common for young dogs and it should pass on it's own.  The only bad news we received is that his spleen is rather enlarged.  At this point, there is no telling why that is and it could be any number of things.  We have a follow-up in two weeks.  He seems to be back to his normal self and is currently 'roaching' on the couch.

On a side note, the past couple times I have walked into the guest room, I have found Callie & Tiny 'spooning'.  It's very sweet!  They sure do love each other.  :)