Hound-o-ween Party

Laurie, Toby, and Lady Flame
Special thanks to Auntie Pat for her fancy Hound-o-ween hat creations.
(Click on any photo for a larger view.)

Drew and I hosted a Hound-o-ween Party for our Greyhound friends. We basically hung out, let the hounds run around, took portraits, ate great food, and had greyt fellowship. (Thanks, Veronica for coining the term, "Hound-o-ween.")

Cast of Characters: Love, Toby, Sugaree, Lady Flame, Skyy, Bettina
Blue, Trouble, Gabby, Jester, Melissa, and Stari

First, the running around! With 12 pups all together in the backyard, we need to let them get accustomed to each other. Some had never met before. We always muzzle the hounds in case they get too rambunctious. Greyhounds have very little body fat and very thin skin, so any small nick can lead to large skin tears.

Then, the milling around with costumes. The hounds looked greyt!

Upper Left-Veronica with Taco and Hot Dog
Upper Center -Jedi Bille with The Red Squadron Leader
Upper Right - Shannon & Billy with The Viking and his Hound-o-queen
Bottom Left - Rick & Pat with Antony & Cleopatra
Bottom Right - Carol with Eric the Red, Her Royal Highness & Princess Love

Here are the portraits that we took of our Greyt friends in their Hound-o-ween attire.

Finally, we communed in the basement for munchies, chatting, and snoozing. 

All the pups were exhausted from the day's excitement. Toby slept the night away with his new squeaky toy (thanks, Auntie Veronica).

Lady Flame admiring the pond

Does this panorama make my butt look big?

Just chillaxing on a dreary autumn day

Toby is an expert napper, and he enjoys being covered by a blankie whilst resting his weary head on my pillow. Now, I know where all the drool spots came from;-)

Walter - 50% Pitbull/50% Huntin' Dawg/100% Adoggable

Rob and Walter

Walter is the newest member of our circle of puppy friends. He is our friend, Rob's, newest lovable pup. Walter is approximately 1 year old, and weighs in at around 70 lbs of solid pitbull/hunting dog cuteness.

(Click on the photo set for a larger view.)

It is too bad that Walter lives in New Hampshire, a 3 hour drive away. We miss him already! We can't wait to have him visit and run around with the hounds.

Fear Induced Sofa Sharing

Lady jumps on the sofa growling her fool head off.
(By the way, Lady Flame is muzzled to keep her from "worrying" a wound
on her tail. One more week to go, and she can be muzzle-free.)

Fear can make even the worst enemies share a moment once in awhile. There happened to be a lot of gun fire outside, or maybe it was fireworks. Anyway, Lady became extremely nervous. We were upstairs when we heard lots of growling and a bark from downstairs. I ran down to investigate, because Toby was on the sofa in a drug-induced nap (hung-over from his vet visit,) and I couldn't figure out what the ruckus was about. I saw Lady Flame get onto the sofa next to Toby, as her fear of fireworks overtook her loathing of her little brother. Since she doesn't like anyone near her when she is in panic-mode (or otherwise), and she wanted the sofa to herself, she growled her fool head off. I gave her a warning to stop growling because Toby was there first.

Lady Flame gingerly lays down next to Toby still growling.

Lady decided to lay down, but she was none too happy about her company on the sofa. As you can see, Toby was still out of it.

Lady cannot relax because her "brother" is way too close.

Lady eventually started to settle down, but you'll notice that her eyes are wide open, and she is avoiding eye contact.

Even though she is settling down, Lady Flame is still on the alert.

Even when settling down, Lady has to be peeking out of her semi-closed eyes. There might be some catastrophe that might befall her, and she has to be on the alert all the time. I feel so badly for our sweet pup.

If only Lady Flame could relax, even for a few moments, like her brother,
life would be so much happier for her.

Lady is such an uptight girl, and she has so much fear, 24/7. Try as we might, we cannot seem to help dispel her mistrust of the world. I wish that she could realize that we will always, always, always keep her safe.

Toby's vet visit - aka The Horker strikes again

Toby waits for the vet to see him.

Well, I was awakened to the Horker hacking up bile again at 4:30 am. We decided to take Toby to the vet to see if they could figure out if the plastic bag (containing quinoa muffins) that he ate last week was still in his stomach. The vet suggested an x-ray (which seemed pointless because plastic does not show up on x-rays), yet we agreed to have it done. The vet saw a tiny anomaly in the x-ray (which may not have been anything), and she decided to induce Toby to vomit. Low, and behold, up came three decent sized shards of hard plastic (all with pointy edges.) Ummm... that is not what we were expecting to arise from The Horker's stomach. I immediately thought that it was from the Feta cheese container that Toby ate last year, but Drew pointed out that the plastic has a reddish tint to it, and that it must have come from something else that Toby has ingested. Geeezzzzzzz.... How much plastic is in our pup's gut? And, now we have to be on watch to see if he has symptoms of an impacted gut (not wanting to eat or drink and not passing stool) in case the offending plastic bag plugs up the works further down the line.

Lady taunts Toby with an imitation of his horking motion.

So far, so good. As soon as we arrived home from the vet, Toby enticed Lady Flame to race around the yard. Our big guy was feeling much better, thank you very much. Then, he slept for the rest of the day as there was a sedative in the medication used to make him vomit. We have to give him pepcid ac for the next two weeks to sooth his irritated stomach. Hopefully, he is done throwing up...

A little meet-and-greet at the vet office

All was not a loss as far as going to the vet was concerned. We got to meet some cute pups while we were waiting for Toby's appointment.

There was a Great Pyrenees (who lived up to its breed's reputation by weighing in at 140 pounds (almost 2x as much as Toby weighs;-) This pup was as friendly as could be. We also enjoyed a terrier-lab mix who looked a lot like a wire-haired pointer, and who reminded us of our first dog, Kasha.

Waste not - Want not

Auughhhh.... Toby threw up again, this morning, but by the time Drew could get to him, he had eaten the pile-o-bile, so Drew couldn't see if there was any plastic in it. Geeezzzzzzzz.......

Trick or Treat!

Happy Halloween from Devil Dog Flame & the Dread Pirate Toby!

Okay, we are a bit early for Halloween, but Toby and Lady Flame are so excited about their upcoming Halloweenie Pup Party, that they are trying on their costumes early. One can never be sure what they'll actually wear. Maybe Toby will dress up as a Great Dane, and Lady Flame will be a Chiwennie! Ha!  To create a cartoon of your own pet, go to cartoonizemypet.com.

P.S. Thanks, Veronica, for the introducing us to the cartoon pet site. Fun!
P.P.S. Thanks to Auntie Pat for creating hats for Toby and Lady Flame!

Early morning excitement from "Hork" The Wonder Dog

Gee...you think you can sleep all night long? Well, don't come to our house, because you will experience sleepus-interruptus on a regular basis.

This morning, I was awakened by "HORK" The Wonder Dog. Drew had just caught Toby in the act of throwing up part of the plastic bag, that had been filled with quinoa balls, that I had mistakenly put on a counter during Sunday's play date. Well, Toby threw up twice this morning. The first hurl was cleverly caught by Drew as he swiftly held a bowl under Toby's mouth. The second hurl was on the kitchen floor (after Drew had dragged Toby in that direction as he was making suspicious "Horking" sounds. Toby was in the process of re-chewing the plastic in his mouth, so Drew reached in and pulled it out. It was the zipper portion of the ziplock bag.

Now, we know the origin of all the mysterious light brown stains on our carpet. We'll bet that the dogs have been throwing up regularly and then licking it up. Our pups don't waste any food, vomit or otherwise! GROSS!!!

Toby Turns Four Today!

Happy Birthday, Bubba Boo! We love you!

First Play Date of Fall

Brisk weather = energetic pups. And, note that this video is in real time. It is not sped up!

Lady Unleashed

Every once in awhile we give Lady Flame a bit of freedom. 

We unleash her as she walks on the dock. 

We leash her up as she returns. 

She doesn't know that anything has changed, but we do.

Play Date Sunday (1/6)

We invited all of our friends to come over for a play date and had a greyt time! Blue, Bettina, and Skyy showed up and frolicked around for 3 hours;-) The weather was perfect...not too hot, and not too cold.

Party Pooper Flame (2/6)

Pttttthhhhhh....says Lady Flame 

And, here is what Lady Flame thought of the play date. She was a party pooper because her "partner in crime" / "Clyde (to her Bonnie)" / "her bestest buddy in all the world" wasn't present for her to play with...That was the "Trouble" with this play date, so says Lady Flame!

Royal Blue Jay (aka Blue) (3/6)

Blue is my all time favorite Greyhound (psst...don't tell Toby or Lady Flame.) He is the royal king of our play group, and I love photographing him. (Click on any photo set for a larger view.)

He came over with Veronica and Bettina to play today. And, here he is in all his glory!

Almost 12-year-old Blue and Drew

Bettina and Blue get lots of pets from Bille

Everybody wants a piece of the Royal Blue Jay action. Drew and Bille are big fans. They adore Blue! Heck, we all adore Blue;-)

Bettina...Princess Extraordinaire (4/6)

Thanks for being my pillow, Skyy... I need to be adored by Drew!

Ahhh...Bettina... It's difficult being the "sister" of Blue (he who everyone adores.) She strives for attention, attention, attention...and the princess gets it, wherever and whenever she can;-)

The princess' 7th birthday was Oct. 8th and she is still celebrating!

Veronica "worships" her sweet princess! Why? Because it has been decreed, silly! (And, truthfully, what's not to love???)

Bettina is the first to get a cookie, and it is the biggest, Duh!

When it comes to treats, look who gets the biggest cookie of them all! Why, Princess Bettina, of course;-)

Oooohhh...Thanks for giving me an ear rub, Bille! Being a princess is hard work and I need some TLC every few minutes...

Skyy (5/6)

Skyy is a super sweet hound who spends a lot of her time as an ambassador for Greyhound adoption. She and Bille work tirelessly to raise awareness, but even Skyy needs time to unwind! So, she willingly agreed to attend our play date.

Skyy loves a good romp with Toby...

 ...followed by biscuits and treats provided by Bille and Veronica!

Here she is licking her chops after biscuit munching;-)

Toby (6/6)

Toby is our current heart dog. He is super sweet, clumsy, stubborn, a total goofball, and is almost blind. 

He gets along with all dogs, but most dogs don't tolerate him very well because he just plain cannot see them when he bumps into them and steps on them. 

He doesn't have many manners (our fault), and he mounts dogs when they are least expecting it. He is a total pain in the rear end at most play dates.

But, when playing with Skyy, she actually seems to kinda, sorta like him, although we never let those two play sans muzzles due to the ummm...mounting thing...ummm...Skyy does get rather annoyed...

Lady Flame has very little tolerance for Toby, and tries to show him who's boss on a daily basis, even during play dates. Toby's reaction to this is, "Blahhh, What Ever, Dude...."

Daddy's Little Helper

 Every year Toby gets excited to "help" Drew rake leaves. Toby seems to be channeling our former GSP, Kasha, in this endeavor.

First, Toby lays on the tarp to anchor it down!

Then, he naps for awhile in his new bed of leaves.

He buries his nose for maximum scent overload.

And then, he strikes his GQ pose.

After awhile, he gets bored and wanders off. Only then can Drew finish the job.

Autumn Sun

Toby loves sunning himself on the front deck. From here, he can watch the world go by as he gradually gets covered by falling leaves.

Riverside Park

The pups alongside the Androscoggin River in Topsham. They are so photogenic!