Wednesday, May 28

Greyhounds and Wine

What is it about greyhounds and wine? This past Memorial Day weekend, we took the kids to a couple of wineries for a picnic and sippin’ some wine. The weather was unseasonably cool for this time of year. Last year when we did this, it was quite hot and humid. We met up with Trina & Jason and their kids. We ‘convinced’ Roadie & Sallie to bring their parents along Please check Trina’s and Bruce’s blogs for more pictures of the events.
We went to Cooper Vineyard’s annual SPCA event. Since Parker is our ‘Black SPCA Special’, we like to do what we can to support his peeps. It was quite nice in the shade.
The kids love to hit the vendors at these events. Never know when someone might be selling home-made doggie treats.
We spent latter part of the afternoon at Grayhaven Winery’s Blue Festival. It was like deja vu for the kids. Blankets out, sitting in the shade, drinking wine, just a different winery.
We were babysitting Topsail for the weekend. He enjoyed his first winery experience. Not sure about the horses at Grayhaven. This is the closest he would get.
Roadie on the other hand was fearless. Maybe it’s just a greyhound on steroids.

Monday, May 19

Bella, a BooBoo, and a Party

Bella, our new foster, was returned after almost a year. She’s a very pretty black girl. Very confident. She will have to settle for being second in charge. Stella is a benevolent queen, but won’t toleration a coup.

Bella is a bit smaller than Jaime, and with more white on her feet. That’s Bella on the left, looking like Jaime’s twin.

She was an only dog, and we’ve been trying to socialize her a bit. She’s gotten used to our guys. She will the share the couch and bed with no issues. She will even share it with me. Hey mister, did you just toot!

Stanley managed to fracture a toe while chasing a squirrel. His passion for his favorite pastime has not diminished any. Still always on the lookout for those darn squirrels. Doesn’t he look pitiful?
Bella felt sorry for him, and decided to help him heal via the greyhound mind-meld.

Bella did get a bit grumpy at a Meet ‘n Greet. Nothing like being swarmed by a gaggle of greyhounds. So what did we do? We threw a greyhound party. Last count was around 40 dogs and 50 people. Guess the immersion method worked. She was fine at the Meet ‘n Greet the following day. Lotsa food, drink, people and dogs. Hopefully everyone had a good time. I know my guys were pooped after the party. Speaking of poop, I did poopie patrol the day after the party, and it would take my guys an entire week to do that.

Some greys needed to take a rest from all that running around. Whyda decided to take a break in a mound of stuffies.

Thursday, May 8

The Kids Visit Aunt Susan

We took the kids down to Winston-Salem, NC this past weekend to see our friend Susan. The weather cooperated, and we were able to take the kids to visit a couple of the local parks. All the new smells.
Susan has two English Cocker Spaniels, Lily and Sandy. Sandy loves to run through the grass. She’s in her element. Maybe she’s sniffing out some quail.

Lily is a bit more exuberant about her romp through the grass. Maybe she’s flushing them out.

Kris with the kids. They are wondering why they can’t run off leash. This is at Tanglewood Park where they used to run horse races. The kids looked longingly at the race track.
Hey guys, wait for me. Daddy is trying to take pictures and slowing me down.
Aw, come on guys. Can’t keep up?
Jaime really enjoyed the plushness of the beanbag beds. That sure does look comfortable.

We took the kids to Salem Lake for a walk on the trails. It’s a 7 mile loop, but we only did about 3 miles of it. We need to find something like this near home. The kids loved it.
Lily decided that getting into one of the feeder creeks was a great idea. Parker dipped a toe in. The greys thought it was too close to taking a bath and kept their distance.

Stella’s ears perked up when she saw that we had returned back to the parking lot. Trail walking is fun, but she was looking forward to getting back and laying on a beanbag bed in the A/C.
We went to a nearby agility event. Kris had never been to one. Susan and I had done agility with Lily and Sandy over 10 years ago. Not sure if the greys are up for jumping through hoops and crawling through tunnels