Jaime Enjoys The Holiday Season

Jaime is enjoying this Holiday Season. She’s been spending a lot of it snuggling with her siblings. First with Stanley’s rump.Then with Stella’s rump.Jaime is a touchy-feely kinda girl.She is also enjoying the extra Holiday Treats. Jaime, wanta treat?
Smile for mommy! Smile!

Tis The Season For A Full House

Our house is usually pretty full this time of year. Between fosters and boarders, feeding time is definitely a two person job. Our shortest foster was Tina who stayed for only a few hours. I picked her up on Friday morning, she rested a few hours here, then was on her way to her forever home that same afternoon. Sounds like she is settling in just fine with her new family.We are still fostering Pippi through this weekend. For boarders we have brother and sister, Milo and Charlotte, who are a couple of dark brindles. Dora and Zoey who are two fawn sisters. Sometimes it’s just easier to muzzle everyone when they go out to play. A new butt to sniff. ‘Hey girls, this way. I think we missed one’.With so many trampling the grass in her yard, Stella declares ‘Martial Law’, and proclaims herself the ‘Fun Police’. No gatherings of more than three greyhounds without prior written authorization.Everyone supervises Kris while she cross-stitches. Clockwise it is Pippi, Dora, Parker (under the blanket), Zoey, Stanley, Stella, Jaime, Milo, and Charlotte.With no space left on the couch, Kris plays some Wii golf. Clockwise it is Dora, Jaime, Zoey, Parker, Stanley, Stella, Pippi, Milo, and Charlotte.I was watching Dr. Zhivago on tv, and during one scene, wolves started howling. I think they must have said that wolves howl better greyhounds. We’ll show ‘em.‘Hey wait for me’. Milo who had been sleeping upstairs came running downstairs to join in.

Roadtrip to Richmond

We took the kids down to Richmond this past Saturday for a whirlwind tour. They were a little restless in the car on the way down. They didn’t make a peep on the way back home.
First we stopped off at the PetSmart Meet ‘n Greet. Santa came by to take a pic with the hounds. This is the best we could do to get everyone to face forward.They rested for a few minutes in the car while we headed for the monthly walk at the dog-friendly Stony Point Fashion Mall. It was quite chilly, so everyone had their coats on. After the walk, some people headed home, some to the Three Dog Bakery shop, and of course we headed to the Bella Vino wine shop for a wine tasting and a few bottles to take back to Trina’s.Back at Trina’s, I worked on getting pictures of Ally. You can read more about Ally on Trina’s blog. Daddy. Why doesn’t anyone want to play with me? Because you’re the ‘Fun Police’. I wanted to get a nice picture of Ally with her sister, Dolly. Stanley wanted to know what I was taking a picture of. After running around with a stuffie, Stanley needed to catch his breath and dropped the stuffie.Before the stuffie even hits the ground, Cali and Dolly are in for the kill. Uh, where did my stuffie go? Anyone seen my stuffie? Stanley stood there for a few minutes stunned.All the girls are huddled around the stuffie laughing at the poor Stanley. Girls can be so mean!One of the main reasons we went down to Richmond was to meet Stella’s full littermate Max. Max did both Meet ‘n Greets and came back to Trina’s so I could get some pictures. Can you see the resemblance? Me neither. Stella is long and sleek. Max is tall and built. Wonder if they recognized each other. All right, everyone look to your left. No the other left. Much better.

Fredericksburg Christmas Parade

We had quite the turnout this year for the annual Fredericksburg Christmas Parade. We had 40+ hounds attend this year with a handful of non-grey siblings. Parker would have been sad if he missed out. He had to rest up if he was going to keep up with the greys.
We still had Elsa and Pippi with us. Hard to get a shot of the kids when they are so excited to be in the parade. We put their coats on in the parking garage, but saved their hats and antlers for later.
Not sure who this is, but she makes a cute reindeer. Author's note 12/14: Found out this cute girl is Gracie.
Allie and Sandy are all lit up. They had just made a cross country trip, but made it back in time for the parade.
Stanley does his best caribou impression.
Doing impressions is hard work. Even though it was lightly snowing, Stanley thought he better grab a cat nap in the staging area of the parade. Maybe we should’ve just put him in the wagon behind him.
A shot from the back of the parade. I had Stanley, and he wanted to be up at the front. Usually, I’m holding on to mulitple dogs, but we had lots of extra hands this year, so even though we came with 6 kids between the two of us, we only had one dog each.
VAGA representin’ at the parade.
Even though the snow was changing to rain, the kids were happy to be out since the crowds were cheering them on.

Stanley the Chicken Wing & Pippi Makes Three

Stanley sometimes looks like an eel out of water when he roaches. Just wriggling around. Maybe he’s scratching his back. To me, he ends up looking like a chicken wing.
Time to change sides. Loads of fun when he does this under the covers at night. That’s why I need a nap the next day.
After switching sides he notices something is missing? Daddy, what happened to my tube sock?
Meanwhile, over on couch, Jaime poops out a MiniMe.
Time to man the giftwrapping station at our local Borders. Tempest was our Therapy dog for the morning session. My guys would have loved to have gone, but none are therapy dog-certified yet. While the women discuss how cute Tempest looks in her donation jacket, Ted is already looking for things to giftwrap.
What is better than having two fosters? How about three. Pippi is a return through no fault of her’s. She a very sweet girl. She’s on the skinny side and needs to be fattened up.
Elsa and Pippi practicing their tag team hunting tactic.
Parker is on alert. He heard there are stalkers around.

Elsa Comes To Play

Edie went to meet her new family last week. Her new brother, Murphy (German Shepherd mix), was ecstatic to see her. He looked quite sad when we left. Because of the hectic schedules around the Thanksgiving Holiday, she will stay with us for another week. What’s better than having one foster? Two of course.
Elsa is a bounce-back. She is a little wild child who just turned 3 this month, so maybe she is just busy celebrating. Edie’s level of activity made our guys look like slugs. Elsa makes Edie look like a slug. Elsa takes a break from eviscerating some stuffies.She loves doing zoomies in the yard. She definitely needs a home with a fence. Not sure she can be tired out by just walking. Just look at the mischievousness in her eyes. There’s a whirling dervish hidden in there.
Kris went to the Tech vs. UVa football game on Saturday. Arch rivals. Tech won the game and goes on to the ACC championship game next week. Her dad dropped off Murphy. Elsa couldn’t get enough. Finally a dog that could keep up with her. They went at it for 30 minutes nonstop while the rest of the gang just watched in awe at their stamina. Like watching gladiator fighting at the Colosseum. Stanley played the referee and did a 10 count. Elsa was down, and Murphy is declared the victor. Murphy might not be as fast a greyhound, but he’s a little terrierist and can go all day long.Just a cute pic of Jaime and Stanley sharing a pillow.

5 Year Anniversary

Boy how time flies when your having fun :) This past weekend was our 5th anniversary. We had Meagan come stay with the kids while we went to D.C. to visit some of the newer monuments and museums we hadn’t seen yet. The weather was a bit wet and dreary, but at least it wasn’t pouring the rain.
We first visited Arlington National Cemetery before actually crossing into DC. Stopped to see the eternal flame at JFK’s gravesite, and made our way to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
Once in downtown DC, we were kindly reminded why we don’t visit often. Traffic was bumper to bumper, confusing one way streets, policemen blocking off roads for various reasons which caused my GPS to perform ‘recalculating route’ a lot. We checked into the hotel, then walked to the National Mall to see the new World War II Memorial. Kris admires the memorial, with the Pacific side on the left, and the Atlantic side on the right. The Lincoln Memorial is at the far end.
Doing a 180 turn from there shows the Washington Monument. Stayed pretty foggy all day.
We spent most of our time in the Holocaust Memorial Museum. We couldn’t take any pictures inside, not that I really wanted to. We spent about 4 hours walking through the three levels. Kinda crazy to see what people are capable of.
We had a nice dinner at Old Ebbitt Grill. We had eaten there once before, and man, do they have great oysters! After dinner and a nice bottle of wine, we hit a bar on the way back and had a bottle of champagne. We stumbled back to the hotel only to hit the bar there, where the bartender kept giving free refills on our drinks when he found out it was our anniversary. We slept in late and barely made it out by checkout time the next morning.
We had big plans for our Saturday in DC. The Newseum, Spy Museum, and Crime and Punishment Museum. We went to the Crime and Punishment Museum first. After 4 hours, we didn’t have time to hit the others. Kris is being punished for spending too much time in one museum.

Helping to keep the city clean.
When we got back, everyone was very happy to see us. But then they went back to their usual spots in a few minutes.
Edie giving me the stinkeye! Like I want that nasty old Loofa dog.
I have added two new greyhound blog links. Please check them out. Beau and Belle and Treasure What You Have.