Musical Beds

It’s been a while since we’ve had a real foster dog. Trina’s group, James River Greyhounds, was nice enough to bring up a dog for one of our adopters. Her new family hadn’t decided on a name yet, so we called her Brown Dog while she was with us. Brown Dog learns the ramp. Stella has her back.
Parker and Stella break way for the Brown Dog, while Sabrina and Dottie urge her to keep moving.
Stanley and Stella trying to coax the Brown Dog to come down the ramp. In truth, the Brown Dog figured it out in no time by watching everyone else.
A blurry picture of siblings: Dottie, Sanburg, and little Carly. Funny that they are all black and white dogs. The other brother/sister we were watching were Milo and Charlotte who are both dark brindles. Just worked out that way.
I caught Sanburg and Carly behind the bushes. What are you guys doing?
Is that a skateboarder, someone walking a dog, a Harley? Better check it out.
Yeah, Carly is not impressed with the greyhounds and their antics.
Brown Dog played in the yard with everyone, but when it was time to rest, she quickly figured out the dog bed.
Later, she even took a dabble at the stairs.
Sanburg doing his best Nigel Buggers impression.
Kris' dad came over the watch the Hokies play UVa. Beth on her double mini couch bed, Kris’ dad with Murphy, Parker, Sabrina, Stella, Jaime, Stanley, Sanburg, Charlotte, Dottie, Milo, with Lucy next to Kris.
Pee break. Time for Musical Beds. Beth, Kris petting Lucy, with Carly next to the table, Stanley wedged behind Kris, Sabrina, Stella, Jaime, Parker Charlotte, Sanburg, Dottie, Brown Dog, Milo, and Murphy glued to his daddy.

Photo Copyrights

Maybe I’ve been reading too many articles recently about photo copyrights, but I was a bit perturbed to see one of my pictures going around on Facebook without any credit. It was the top shot of 10 dogs that made it onto the back inside cover of the CG 2012 Calendar.

   I read some of the hundreds of comments, and they assumed that because the original FB page had to do with greyhound rescue from across the Pond, the dogs were from there too. Some were interested in knowing the backstory behind the picture. A link to my blog would have answered that. One person even said it is their background screen now. Some said they had seen it on other FB links.
   The person we saw post a link to it had no idea it was local to him. The more I thought about it, I figured this site got it from somewhere else, who may have gotten it from somewhere else, from whomever snagged it from my blog, and any vestige of where it came from was lost along the way.
   Oh well, I will get off my soapbox. I’m all for people enjoying my pictures. That’s why I blog. I have recently started watermarking my pictures after I saw Tales and Tails and Greyhounds Can Sit doing it.
   I am not a professional photographer, so this is not a monetary thing. I recently read on Sarah Reagan Snavely’s blog about someone who had copied her work and actually profited from it. Now that’s just plain wrong.
Editor's Note: I do not have a Facebook account, so I did not post this on Facebook.

Wyatt & Rocky

I recently visited my friends in North Carolina to meet their new English Cocker Spaniel puppy, Wyatt. What a cutie pie. He’s 16 weeks at this point.

Run Wyatt, Run!!!
Rocky, an English Cocker Field Spaniel, is just over a year old and still has all his puppy energy.
Rocky is being trained as a hunting dog for dad.
He is proud of his ‘catch’.
Since this doesn’t work well with mom’s desire for obedience/agility/tracking, cue Wyatt.
Wyatt admires his big brother, and wants to be wherever he is. Watch out Wyatt, I think you’re brother is slowing down.
Too late.
What does Elliott think of the new additions?
Not much.
If the kitty won’t play, guess we’ll just have to play with each other.

Wobbly Butt and Acupuncture

Beth has Hindquarter Weakness, aka Wobbly Butt. This is the way she came to us, but recently, it got a bit worse where she was falling down in the yard multiple times and couldn’t get herself back up. we took her to Caroline Animal Hospital to look at our options. We decided on acupuncture. By the end of the 20 minute session, Beth was actually sleeping. Sorry for the blurry picture from my Blackberry.

She eats around her glucosamine/chrondroitin pills, so I got a mortar and pestle to grind it up, and she seems fine with that.
We also got her herbal biscuits from the vet that are supposed to be good for her condition. I think they make her gassy.
It didn’t help that a tick managed to swell her foot.
Ugly little bugger.
She can’t really get up on her own, but once up, she is pretty steady on her feet. We’re not expecting miracles. Don’t think she’ll be making any moves like this. Hopefully she’ll be steadier with each acupuncture session.
A parting shot of more recent boarders. Beth under the blankie, Kris’ dad with Murphy, Kris with Parker, then Stanley, Stella, Jaime, Billy, Jack, Allie, with Savannah and Sunny in the middle.

M&M Kids

We watched Mitch and Michelle’s kids while they took a little tour of Virginia wine country.

Cueball patiently waiting for me to get all the breakfast bowls together.
Pippi is very interested in breakfast.
With a belly full of food, time for a nap. Too much coffee?
Maggie is much better at the nap thing.
Cueball is a grand master roacher.
Booyah says he’s not impressed. His mommy follows him around with the camera too.
Clockwise from the couch is Pippi, Stanley, Stella, Jaime, Parker, Maggie, Booyah, with Murphy and Beth in the middle. The yard was still sopping wet from the rain, so we put sheets down to try to minimize the muddy feet. Steam cleaning is definitely in the carpet’s near future.
As seen on Trina’s blog, we went to a nearby wine festival held next to the local airport. Skydiving was the entertainment for the day. The plane was ‘pooping’ out skydivers every thirty minutes or so.
Looks like the landing will be between the gyro and crab cakes.

Related to Royalty

As the greyhound blogging community mourns the passing of Queen Lilac, it got me thinking of a comment that Houndstooth made that Lilac and Beth might be related.

A quick search on greyhound database brought up the following results.
Lilac and Beth have both Kunta Kinte and Downing in their lineage. Must be very dominant genes :)

Farm To Table

We recently attended a Farm to Table dinner at Miller Farms five minutes down from our house. Kris actually knows both generations of the family that run the farm. Yep, she’s a local yokel. The chef prepares our appetizers in the field next to the pumpkin patch.

Not surprisingly, we went with Trina and Jason. If there’s good food and wine involved... This time, we brought our own wine. We sat in between the last dairy farmer left in our county and the local pork producer (Papa Weaver’s). We hope we weren’t too loud and obnoxious, as we were about a couple decades younger than everyone else, and also the only ones drinking.
Kris was checking in on the Va Tech vs Univ of Miami football game. But it was okay, as everyone kept asking her for score updates.
The entree was the pork belly with mac ’n cheese. Yum!
Relaxing after dinner with wine and whisky while tapping on our Apple products and watching tv.
Cali snuggling with her daddy.
Of course we had some boarders during this time. Sara and her mom, Harper. Harper has a splint for a broken bone from osteo.
Harper thinks the hedgehog is tasty.
Beth’s disapproving look that someone is playing with her favorite hedgie.
The weather’s been cooling down, so even Beth is getting frisky and romping around the yard. She’s trying to sneak up on her daddy.
Roadie enjoying a bit of warm afternoon sun.
Roadie and Sallie’s daddy was kind enough to make us this stained glass image of the picture I’ve had at the top of my blog since I started it. Thanks so much Bruce. It is now hanging in the landing window where it will catch the most light.
A parting picture of Stella doing a zombie impression. I’m pretty sure she would eat brains.