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.