Living with Greyhounds

For as long I can remember my family has celebrated Christmas Eve with a big pot of oyster stew, lutefisk, and, sometimes, lefse. These past couple of years this tradition has not been enforced celebrated because we haven’t celebrated Christmas as much as we used to due to family circumstances.

I don’t miss the lutefisk. Or the oyster stew, but especially the lutefisk.

Here I was thinking “the holidays are over. Whew, No Lutefisk.” Alas, not so hasty, missy!

Today, my SO prepared his annual holiday lutefisk and lefse dinner.

Maybe I should back up — does everybody know what lutefisk is? Simply put it is whitefish soaked in lye. Reminds me of fish jello. And it has a peculiar smell…

And so, as he finished the preparations for his meal, the dogs began to hover around him. “They won’t eat that!” I declared as I warned the dogs away.

But Sage begged under the table.

And Annie too.

Even Winchester — the dog who will spit out ground beef - began to beg.

“They’ll eat it. See they want some” he said.

But I believe in my dogs. I know what they like and dislike. Not a chance.

NO! Sage!

And they all ate the lutefisk.

Traitors.

Annie and Sage received some wonderful gifts for Christmas from their breeder — pretty new collars with their names embroidered on them.

Aren’t they cute? I’ve been trying to get a photo of each of the dogs wearing their collars to send to Tess, but, try as I might, the photos end up looking like this:

Or this:

Or this:

See, the weather (cold) means we haven’t been to the dog park as much as usual. Even backyard running has been cut short too. I know anyone who’s had a Greyhound under, say, the age of 2 years, will understand… but we’re going a little stir crazy here.

When the pups SEE a collar and leash they know, “WE ARE GETTING OUT!”

And craziness ensues.

So even though I’m getting photos that look like this:

The puppies love their new collars! Thank you, Tess!

Often I’ve been asked if the scars on my Greyhounds are from their “racing days.” The follow up questions usually involve the word abuse.

So I thought I’d post a photo of Annie’s racing injuries.

Of course these are from racing around the yard with her littermate, Sage. No professional racetrack in sight.

Mixed up a nice big batch of dog slop today. What’s in it?

I cook up a bag of rice — this time I used white, but sometimes I use brown. Then I add browned, ground turkey. To that I add leftover vegetables — mostly broccoli, carrots, or whatever else that is leftover or unwanted by the human inhabitants of this house. This batch had baked sweet potatoes which the pups love, a bag of mixed vegetables that had lived in the freezer a bit past its prime, leftover pasta, chicken stock, chicken gizzards, and some leftover turkey.

I leave out anything with onions or raisins. Things that are hot/spicy don’t make the dog slop either.

Three days cooped up in the house is too much for Sage. Today we braved the cold temps and headed to the dog park.

You’d think -4 degrees is too cold for a greyhound — very little body fat and even less hair. Not so much.

He was a maniac. He ran with the poodle, then with Winchester. Every time he ran near a human, he’d bounce past them — sailing past at their shoulder height. Bounce, bounce, bounce. Attempt to steal gloves, scarves, whatever he could. Then RUN….

It is so hard to try to teach him manners when I’m laughing so hard I nearly fall over.

This is the bottom of the fence which surrounds the dog park. Here’s a closer look:

See those little twisty bits on the bottom of the fence? See how the fence is about… 2 to 5 inches above the ground? Here’s what happens when one Greyhound pup pushes another Greyhound pup into the fence and that pup pulls his leg against those pointy twisted fence parts:

Not good.

Now I’ve run Greyhounds in this park many, many times. This is the first time with pups. And the pups play differently than my previous adult Greyhounds.

Here’s the part that makes me sick. Sage has injure himself once (see photo above). Annie has been injured twice. Once on each paw/wrist.

I really, really don’t want them to injure themselves again.

So… do I

• Quit running them? (No! They are Greyhounds and need to run!)
• Quit running them together? (And option, but awfully boring for pups…)
• Find a different place to run? (Illegal or unfenced)
• Try to control their wild playing? (HAHAHAHAHAHAH!)
• Figure out a way to fix the fence? (Now that sounds a bit better).

The simplest way would be to bring dirt in and bury the fence. Otherwise, maybe tubing of some sort to cushion the twisty wires? Or bend the twisty wires away from the interior of the park?

Any ideas out there?

Today, at the dog park, Sage ran his little butt off.

Okay, so he still has his little butt.

Sage doesn’t want me talking about his butt.

Sorry, Sage.

Today, at the dog park, Winchester cornered like a barrel-racer.

And then stood for his photo shoot. Winchester enjoys having his photo taken.

Today, at the dog park, Annie got a major case of the zoomies.

Annie loves to run.

Especially in the sandy portion of the dog park.

She has her own version of cornering.

Run, Annie, Run!

Good dogs.

Why does Winchester lick the couch?

Of course we live in a Greyhound home which means dogs are “allowed” access on the furniture. The couch in the basement TV room is one of Winchester’s favorite places. And one of his favorite places to lick.

This isn’t something where he is licking his foot, and… misses.

He is licking the couch.

It is micro suede. Maybe it feels good on his tongue?

I go on binges where suddenly I am all concerned about where.where.how people find my website and blog. And then the urge passes and I don’t look again for months and months. Today I looked.

There were all the usual links: adoption group links (thank you!), Greytalk, StumbleUpon, and many, many search engines.

Here are some recent Keyword searches that have lead people to this site.

“Pidgeon toes in Whippets”

Never had a Whippet - but I did have a Greyhound with a terrible front shoulders and, later, arthritic toes. This is Apollo and he was the only Greyhound I’ve ever seen who was what I think is described when someone says “out at the shoulders.” His elbows pointed out from his chest.

I tried to find a photo showing Apollo’s funky pigeon-toed stance but I don’t think I have a good one. So here is Apollo in his younger days while we still lived in Minnesota. If you want to read more about Apollo’s feet, here it is.

“Deerhounds in Art”

This is an easy one… though I wish I had more Deerhound work. The searcher probably found one of my tiles:

I’m sure this particular tile is long ago sold, but I can make others. And while we are on the subject of Deerhounds, I have some friends who would love to have an adult Deerhound grace their home - no puppies, please.  Deerhounds are rare creatures and, luckily, rescue Deerhounds are rarer still. But this is an a-plus sighthound home. So if anybody knows of a Deerhound in need of a home….

“rifle shops in bowman north dakota”

hum. Okay… my guess… this is due to my significant other who sometimes does this:

That is - long range target shooting (except I couldn’t find a photo of him shooting…). They are shooting at metal targets at varying distances. The photo above was taken at “The Quigley” - a HUGE long range shoot in Forsyth, Montana.

Here’s a photo of my honey.

“hurt puppy”

Darn it. I hate it when puppies get hurt. We’ve had a few hurt puppies around here.

Here is Annie’s hurt paw. All I can say is stock up on Neosporin.

“oops puppies greyhounds”

This one I find a little scary. I hope that it is someone looking for a pup from an acccidental litter… not someone WITH an oops litter.

And if you’re worried about Sage’s cut — it’s all healed now. Scar but healed.

No more hurt or oops puppies!