Scooter Is A Loud Layer

I don't know how many times now Scooter startles me with this. But he gets me nearly every time! There is laying on dog beds, and then there is laying on the floor. Scooter does both a lot more than the other hounds, most of them stick to the beds. Scooter will have a nap attack when he just walks across the floor and finds a bit of sunshine and then Boom - he's down. He gets part of the way down and then just throws all 80 pounds of himself on his side in one large movement that can be heard and felt from another room. I run in to see who fell and there is Scooter laying all spread out on his side in the sun. At first I'd run over to see if he was okay...he'd crack his eyes open and kind of squint at me like, 'and the problem is...?' Now I just run in to make sure the loud thump I just heard was Scooter and not something else. You would think that it would hurt to lay down like that, but I'm pretty sure that Scooter wouldn't do anything that hurt considering the way he is when we try to trim his nails.

Monty and Vinni Keep Me Under Control

Monty and Vinni must feel that my hands and arms are over active. They can hardly wait for me to get into a position where they can climb onto my hand and/or arm and lock it down into a mode where only my fingers can move. This would be the 'typing on laptop while sitting on couch' postition prefered by my cats. And though I spend a lot of time typing this way without a thought, there are times when it get a little irritating to have one cat laying across my left wrist while the other has control of the right wrist. Occasionally I shake one or the other off, but in less than a minute I am again afflicted with purring arm weights on both arms. I have been asked how I can do anything with cats laying across my arms and hands like that, how do I stand it. To be honest I am not really sure, first it takes me a while to realize what has happened. I think I am so used to it that it doesn't occure to me until I want to scratch my nose or something that I can't move my arms. I also believe that some sort of mutation has taken place where my fingers can now type with heavy objects laying on them. There are times when I could swear I have grown extra fingers and then realize it is just a paw adding a few key strokes of its own. I believe the cats consider this biological evolution at its finest.

Snowy Reactions

I love a fresh snow in the winter time, it makes the potty area of our yard look nice and new. White, not icy yellow spots all over. The hounds run out and 'OH...What's This?' and sniff all around like they have never seen it before. There is some vigorous romping for a minute or two, followed by serious business, then more vigorous romping. Fun to watch even at 5:30 in the morning. Then they all run in wagging and looking up at me like 'did you see that!!These hounds can make fun out of anything.

Back To School and Renner Is Glad

Renner is the man when it comes to destroying Books, Papers and what have you. I am in school again, none the less it is just the 3rd day and I am still in semi-panic mode trying to get it all organized and fit in to my schedule. Feel like I am losing my mind half of the time and Renner thinks I should just 'relax'...chew on a good book, rip out a page or two. Words are better digested through the intestines than the mind. He is always kind enough though to rip up the parts that I have already digested mentally. So far so good there. Not sure how he knows which thing I haven't read yet and leaves it in tact. But I really do appreicate his thoughfulness in that area. Meanwhile, I do believe he has giving the term 'bookworm' a whole new definition.

Nothing much else going on here today, the temp is above freezing which is a change. Looking at 7 degrees right now. The day started with water all over the counter and under the sink, so I pulled everything out and cleaned it up. I guess we are having issues with the reverse osmosis. So I'm guessing we will be looking at dealing with that as a weekend project. Meanwhile Monty (kitty) was bugging me about 'food' 'food' 'food'. This sort of thing always helps when you are stuck under a kitchen cabinet trying to clean up a large mess. Then of course that pretty well marked the start of how this day was going to go. Yep...right on target. One frustration after another. Got the dog nails done though, I'm sure the pooches are real happy I found time for that, and also their teeth brushed, another thing they are always thrilled with. But right now everyone is cooling it for them, the worst part of the day is over. I have just finished cleaning up the large poop bag's spillage when I tried to change it and it developed a hole, spilling frozen poop all over the garage floor as I tried to move it through the garage. Hey - wait, the day is only half over, the clock says NOON. :)

Today Comes Action!

On Tuesdays I babysit my Grandson all day, instead of him going to day care. The dogs hit the family room in the morning and see the toys are in place for a little visitor. I think if they could speak they'd say 'OH Noooo'. But they stop and look at the toys then look back at me. Slowly go lay down. They know that their otherwise quiet day is going to be filled with hoots and hollars, and just general chaos.

I figure it breaks the monotony for them, but I bet they would tell me differently.

(Grandson is napping now)
Burrr...in the deep freeze again today, right now I am getting a reading of -3 on the thermometer. The sun is brightly shinning in and Scooter has the sunniest place in the house right now. Even Vinni is sitting there staring at him waiting for his chance to take over Scooter's spot. Scooter does look pretty comfortable all spread out over his big dog bed, sun bathing his entire body. Very relaxed. hummm..maybe I should go lay down there and join him. zzzzzz

Let The Craziness Begin!

Today I am back at school. That statement alone should be all anyone needs to understand exactly where I am coming from. I really hate it when a new session begins because I am all stressed feeling awaiting what all the Professors have in store for me this session. Each time I am afraid I won't be able to handle it all. Even my dogs and cats pick up on it and very quietly go lay down...like 'well...Mom needs her space today.' My cats are kind enough not to lay on my hands as I try to type, I really appreciate it that. I know that in just a week or so I will be 'in the groove' again and will mellow out, but right now I am just way too wound up. It is the type of thing where you just feel like you have so much to do that it paralizes you and you get to the point where you just get nothing done. So - time to step back, sit down...make a list, and then do it one thing at a time. No looking at the big picture for that is too scarey right now, just step by step get through everything that needed to be done and before you know it, it is all under control. I really think that is a plus for animals, they live their days one moment at a time and don't worry about the 'big picture'. Now if I can just focus on things the way they all do, I will do all right!

Good Memory For Bad Things.

One thing I have noted with my animals is that I can try to teach them a trick, or train them in some way, using positive reinforcement and so on, and sometimes the effort seems to take forever for them to finally catch on. But if you screw up just once and something bad is the result, they remember it and act accordingly from that moment on. Renner is a prime example of this. I worked with him quite a while to get him to bow on command. Now he does is very well and will even do it in tandom with the other dogs. I am not sure how long that took to teach him but it was more than 5 minutes I can assure you.We also have a media cabinet in our family room and there is a dog bed in front of it. Renner enjoys laying on that bed and 95% of the time there is no issue with that. However, he is a retired racing Greyhound and is quite tall, so we always make sure we shut the door to the cabinet so that when he stands up he won't hit himself on it.One night my OH was doing something in that cabinet and left for a moment to get something. He didn't close the door. Coincidentally Renner got up (and Ren never gets up slowly, he usually bolt up off his bed to go do whatever...) and hit the edge of the door quite hard with his back. This freaked him out just a bit because he couldn't figure out what happened and what hurt him. It didn't break the skin or anything, but from experience, I know how it hurts to bang into something and still not bleed from it. We were concerned about him, but physically he was just fine. However, the incident stuck with him and now any time someone walks over to the media center and even looks like they are going to open the door he takes off and you find him clear into the kitchen laying down on the rug out there. It went from weeks of training him to do something we wanted him to do, to just taking a second to learn that if that cabinet door is open it could hurt him.We try to even more careful with it now and usually,if we are going to open the door, we move the bed first. Still it is amazing how there was such a different in 'learning times' when one situation is getting continual 'goodies' until you do it right, then the goodies are reduced to just one if you do the trick correctly and a second of real pain. Of course this is not just true for animals, but I still leave the kitchen cabinet open and then turn around and bang my head on it. Which, I guess, would make Renner quite a bit smarter than I am huh....

Dogs Are Down.

The hounds have the blues this morning. They are laying here on their beds, chins down between their paws staring at me like, 'Don't just sit there....Do something!' This of course, would be because the thermometer is showing -14 right now. It is back...and just when they were thinking 'party outside' everyday again! The potty area has turned into kind of a strange colored ice rink with...actually it probably would resemble the surface on the moon as we see it from the earth, a surface will little pock marks...well at least something melts this ice when it hits the surface. ;) There is no fowl smell, it will come in the spring, but when temps are this cold...nothing has a chance to stink. (Except the weather of course). So I go out and spread sand all over the area so no one falls. Then it is good to go again until the next snow fall covers the area and then we start all over, mucking it up as it all freezes. Sanding it when it starts getting slippery...eeewwwww why am I thinking about this first thing on Sunday morning? Because I have had a large multi animal home for most of my life and discussing how many poops everyone did today has been a topic of conversation over the evening meal for many years now. As normal as talking about who you saw today and what you did, the ins and outs of your dogs and cats working digestive system is quite often the track your discussions take at any point in your day. No shame at all. When we are out to dinner there has been only a couple occasions where all the sudden it has occured to me there could be people now sitting over their dinners quietly, listening to the conversations of people around them, who were hungry until they tuned in to what we were talking about...and now just want to get their check quickly and leave

Keeping Your Head Warm

Speaking of cold.....On days that the house seems a bit chilly in the evening my OH walks around with a stocking cap on his head to keep his head warm (due to the fact his hair is becoming rather scant on the top of his head). That would be far too mundane a thing for me though, I have my own head cat. Yes, Monty likes to sit on my head. He does it just about every night. See photo.

Here We Go Again.

Back into the deep freeze here, right now -11, and a wind chill advisory (I think that was between -30 and -40. Tough days on the hounds when the temps are that cold. They just don't get to stay out long. It leads to more trips outside due to not being able to get all their business done without freezing their vital parts. ;pThe dogs always seem a little mopey on days like this and so am I.

Camping With Greyhounds

It is just that time of year when you begin to think of vacations (especially in Minnesota) and warm, sunny times. I start looking at photos from last year's camping trips and think, just gotta' get out there again. Well...camping season in Minnesota really doesn't start until May so we have a while to wait (and sometimes we get a head start in April depending on if it is still snowing or not). When the season starts we go a lot. It is some work, so in the last couple of years we have gotten an RV for our greyhounds. ;)They adjusted to it really well. Matter of fact, Scooter just doesn't want to lay around outside, he wants to stay inside unless we are hiking (do a lot of that too). I actually have a video on YouTube I made about our Camping With Greyhounds. So instead I will put a link here in case anyone wants to see it. Better yet, instead of the YouTube link I will provide a link to my website and if you want to take a look at where we have camped (photos and all) feel free to. Last year's camping pages are not complete...but I WILL get around to it.

http://www.sistertex.com

The 'Camping With Retired Racing Greyhounds' video is the second one down on the page if you'd like to view it. By the way, Renner is the Greyhound who is currently gracing (not racing) the top of the main page. He is laying in the back of our HHR which we tow behind our RV.

Blew Again

He was doing pretty good yesterday, but when the other dogs were turned out to run and play, I had him go inside. He was fine with that. He is eating well, but is still having diarrhea off and on. Morning loose by the evening okay. However, the disturbing thing with him yesterday occured last night on the way to bed. Our stairs to the upper floor is a rounded staircase with a landing half way up. He just got stuck and could not do the last section of stairs, so my OH ended up carrying him up the last few stairs. He hasn't been indicating pain though...gets up and down fine, doesn't cry with movement. He is kind of a baby when it comes to pain, so maybe it could just be that he pulled a muscle in the back, and is sore...or something. No yelping though.He really isn't due for his 6 month check yet, but something happened to him a couple of days ago. I am a bit puzzled at this point and will be taking him in for an exam early next week.Meanwhile I will be watching him closely to see if anything else is going on, but other than these few strange things he has been doing, he was was pretty much his happy old self yesterday, wagging and eating...so on and so forth.

Blew

Blew had an episode yesterday that upset me just a bit, I was worried that he had a stroke, or some sort of a seizure. He just suddenly got up, and went into the kitchen and just squatted and pottied. Out of the blue....he is 11 now and he sure knows how to get people up around here to go outside, but I was sitting right next to him and he didn't even acknowledge me, just got up and did his business.I yelled at him, which usually gets his attention and makes him stop what he is doing, but it had no affect on him this time. I led him outside and then went back in and cleaned up the mess. Usually he will be standing back by the door to come in, but he wasn't he was just standing outside...I called him in and as he walked to the door I grabbed his collar and lead him into the house and onto a bed where I told him to 'drop', and I finished cleaning the floor. Mean while he kept getting up, unhappy, unable to get comfortable and turning around and around. Then he would lay there and make a groaning sound - which is his noise for wanting something he isn't getting. This went on for a while, several beds and another trip outside, trying to get a feel for what was wrong with him. Inside he laid down again and I just sat next to him petting him, telling him what nice boy he was...things like that. It was maybe a couple hours later (and more turning around and around not being comfortable) that we went outside to play. Scooter and Renner went out and had a blast while Blew just stood next to me, I was reluctant to turn him out considering the prior events. Then he got a little bit more excited to go - so I let him. He went out and instead of running like he normally does at first he just stood around looking back at me. The other dogs came in...I was chipping poopcycles out of the ice...the dogs went out again and this time he went with them and ran like normal. Time to go in. Inside he was tentative again about doing things normally. He kept turning to the left...which is why I was thinking stoke or seizure possibilites. He didn't cry when getting up or laying down, he does have a weakening of the rear end, but it didn't seem to be bothering him. A couple hours later, after dinner, he was just fine, back to normal. Today - ever better. So I don't know what the deal was with him yesterday, but I will be keeping an eye on him for a while to come to see if it happens again. I will also be mentioning it to the vet when we go in again....might be related to something going on with his chemistry. He's good to go right now though and that is a relief.