Saturday, September 27, 2008

I'm gonna' harden my heart.....


Ugghhh. I can't get this girl out of my mind. She is "Go the Extramile"....a beautiful little girl at the kennel (Southeastern Greyhounds). She is petite...balanced....friendly.....she is underweight and has horrible skin, as many of the dogs do that come in off the track...

I foster sometimes. And I was asked to foster again, as new hounds are on their way. Knowing the dogs at the kennel, b/c I also do "kennel duty", I asked if I could foster this one....but didn't ask my DH....they said yes....he said No. We got in a little tiff....

I have to admit, that when a new dog comes to our house, it causes an upheaval...Victor obsesses about the dog (but doesn't do squat with helping)....Ava has bad behavior....and Martin gets mad because I sleep downstairs with the new dog until I can teach her how to climb stairs...our dogs are well mannered, for the most part, and of course there is a learning curve for a dog coming from a kennel into a home for the first time. To be fair, I also have to admit that pee pee accidents are not on my list of favorites, and having to leash walk the dog outside to pee at 6AM can be challenging. But sigh........can I tell you good it feels to ACCOMPLISH something? To have a direct correlation between effort expended and results? These dogs give it to me all the time.

A foster looks to me for direction, and when I give it, they respond. They are so grateful for anything I do.....I get to watch them blossom in a very short period of time...and yep, that does feel good.

This little girl has a Daddy that was born in Ireland. She started racing in Tampa, then was shipped to Kansas, and then back to Florida and then to our kennel. That's a lot. I don't know if you can see the white tip of her tail, but in person, it goes back and forth as she has a nice easy steady wag....sweet brown eyes.

But yet, I do live with three other people...and two other dogs. I just wish sometimes that I could say yes freely and also be a hero at home.

Monday, September 15, 2008

Hoofbeats in my Heart



This weekend I got to be a "jump judge" at a lovely event. So the reason all the angles are the same is because I was at jump #1 all day!

I was the girl who always wanted a horse. My parents were kind enough to allow me lessons in an effort to satisfy the longing in my heart...but their pocketbooks (and perhaps, sensibilities) didn't stretch as far as our big back yard. So, I had many girlfriends who had horses. And on Saturdays, you could find me mucking stalls and hopefully riding and giggling with Beth, or Vanessa....breathing in that wonderful horsey perfume and trying to figure out how in the hell you are supposed to keep your heels down and toes in.

Now, as an adult, I've ridden sporadically...you know, those "beach rides" on vacation, where you can't do more than a walk, and usually in a western saddle....I celebrated my 40th birthday in Montana at a horse ranch...and I actually started taking lessons again (a few years back) and wondered what happened to my leg muscles.

The cabash happened when I was posting around the ring, and Victor and the instructor's kids came running out of the nearby office, slamming the screen door, and I was thrown. While it WAS a bit thrilling to find myself face down in the dirt (how many times do you really fall in midlife????) The next day I was SO SORE.

Long story...but the ending is, GREYHOUNDS actually satisfy my need to have a horse....and going to events like this one!

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Tastes like Chicken

Yes, Halloween is so right around the corner! NOT....
We got this leg last year...Victor could not resist it. After Halloween, I put it in the linen closet and just about scared myself everytime I went to put away towels! It is very realistic looking.

This year, Victor has already talked me into buying a severed arm...but the dogs chewed the fingers off...(that's what he gets for leaving it laying around). My goal is to sneak this in my uber conservative husband's car...hanging out the passenger side door...and see what happens. LOL! It won't be pretty.


What do you think Rover is saying in this picture?

Sunday, September 7, 2008

Lemmings


Yep, they follow me everywhere....the major breakthrough is that they didn't all join me in the bathroom like usual. Must've known I was faking it!
When I was a teenager, this song was MAJOR to me...sweet pictures of my beloved....who knew that they were GREYHOUNDS?????

It can be really annoying...but sometimes it reminds me to "set fer a spell".
PS. Yes, yes...I am "rewarding" the bad behavior and therefore encouraging it in this video. Geez.

Friday, September 5, 2008

A NEW CAREER????


Well, I have applied and have been accepted into Chattahoochee Tech's Surgical Technologist Program. I am really excited! My husband is asking "why?", since my gig has always been communication, video production, script writing....Perhaps it is another sign of an impending mid life crisis! LOL. But really, I have ALWAYS been keenly interested in the medical field. I am one of those people who has no problem sitting down with a roaster chicken while watching the Discovery Health Channel.

This semester I will be taking Human Anatomy and Physiology and Medical Terminology. I am eager to get back in the classroom and flex the grey matter. If nothing else, it feels good to not only "talk" about something, but to actually DO something to achieve it. This may not be all I imagine it to be, but that's ok...it feels good to take action!!!! Woo-hoo!

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Pussycat, Pussycat, where have you been?




If curiousity really did kill the cat, Putin better watch it! He is an explorer, a braveheart, a warrior all in a small 9 lb. body!

He's a snuggler too!

Very scary!

Ghost Dogs in Kennesaw

As a prolific photographer of my dogs, their eyes are always a challenge! I loved this one, though...untouched. I am still trying to figure out how to photoshop the flash reflection in normal indoor photos. Does anyone have any tricks?

And then there were three......
Back to spaghetti leash syndrome, as our gorgeous foster, Red Rover, has returned. Martin and I are getting the hang of it...
The comments are so funny now..."gee, do you need another one?","wow, you have your hands full", "are they ALL yours?", "oh, they are better behaved than most children!". I walk the dogs two to my left (Canoe and June) and Rover to the right. They too are getting used to the whole thing and I can easily take them anywhere. Ok, so the only problem I have is when Canoe wants to mark...then the spaghetti leash thing. I walk tall with three gorgeous dogs! (after I jump rope out of the spaghetti!)