Typical Morning

Why do you always blame me for tearing up the toys? One of the other dogs MIGHT have done it.




A typical morning with the dogs:
I take my coffee out on the porch in my pajamas to supervise the morning potty. This morning I have pups Miles and Kohle (his littermate), Pinky the Italian Greyhound, Streak my adult male greyhound, and Vanna the foster greyhound.


Things we don't want:

Pups digging in flowerbeds
Pups pooping or peeing on tile porch
Pups peeing or pooping on rock deck around pool
Pups falling into partially drained pool.
Pups eating too much grass and then throwing it up in the house later
Pups dragging trash bags full of poo around - they are conveniently located beside the two grassy potty areas (and need to stay there).
Pups playing in mud or poo.
Pups walking under taller dogs when they are peeing or pooping.
Pups playing instead of going potty.


All we do want:
Pups and foster(s) to pee and poop in one of two grassy potty areas while I enjoy my coffee.
Doesn't seem like that should be so difficult.....


What actually happens:

Foster Vanna immediately squats to pee on tile porch right outside door while the other dogs walk through it tracking it the length of the porch.
Set coffee on outside table and get hose.
While turning on hose notice Kohle starting to squat on rock deck by pool to relieve himself.
Try to get Kohle over to grassy area but succeed only in making a trail of poo across rock deck all the way to the grassy area. He is completely finished by the time he hits the grass.
Go back to turn on hose.
Chase Vanna away from my coffee.
Hose off tile porch while making sure other dogs are going in the correct places.
Get clean up scoop and clean up trail of puppy poop from pool deck.
Chase Vanna away from coffee cup again.
Hose off rock deck.
Still watching and loudly praising other dogs for any potties in the proper spot (Maybe the foster and pups will hear it and it and learn).
Decide that leaving my post to wash hands with soap before returning to my coffee is probably not a good idea. Rationalize that I only touched the scoop handle, not any actual poop.
Rinse hands in cold hose water.
Take a swig of lukewarm coffee being sure to keep my possibly contaminated hand on handle of cup only just in case.
Notice Miles throw his ball into favorite flower bed to dig in - the one with the muddy hole.
Take coffee cup with me this time since Vanna has been eying it and head down to get the ball out before Miles takes the opportunity to get muddy.
Breath a sigh of relief that trouble was avoided.
Toss ball for Miles who does a soccer kick with his front leg that sends the ball flying into the pool.
Try to grab it without spilling coffee into the pool but it is just beyond my reach.
Hurry to pool house to get net while yelling "Leave it, Miles!" so pup doesn't jump in the pool after his toy.
Hurry back carrying long net and coffee, trying not to spill anything.
Realize I will have to set down coffee cup to use the net.
Check to see if it will be safe from Vanna.
She is on the other side of the yard not paying any attention. Its a go!
Set the cup on bricks around raised flowerbed and scoop the ball out of the pool and toss it a safe distance from the pool.
Turn to retrieve the coffee and there is Miles with his face all the way at the bottom of the cup happily getting his first taste of coffee (probably not the last).
Oh well it was cold anyway and how could I be mad at a face like this?

5 Months Old And Smokin!

It has been a big week! Sara (the pups' mom) got adopted by a family in Columbia. Have gotten photos of her and updates and she is doing fantastic and is being very good. It was hard to see her go but I know she got a great home.

Sara in her new home


Sunday, Miles litter mate, Kohle came to stay for a few days while his owner was out of town. Miles didn't even seem to notice that Sara was gone until Kohle went home on Wednesday. I think he missed her some then, more because he didn't have anyone to play with than because she was his mom. He spent a lot more time playing by himself or trying to get me to play with him than he used to with Sara here.

The pups are growing SO fast! Miles weighed 44.3 lbs today when we weighed him so he is nearly the size of a very tiny female. A greyhound person came by yesterday and commented on what a tiny greyhound he was, not realizing that he was a pup. Kind of sad that they grow up so fast. That said, Miles is certainly NOT old enough to get caught smoking!






Of course, it was actually just a white raw hide he was chewing on. It looked so funny though I couldn't resist taking pictures.

Singing with Streak. His "cigarette" is barely visible next to his leg.





Freaky play eyes. A rope toy with two cow hooves tied on it is his favorite toy. His brothers love this toy too.

18 Week Old Roach

Miles has plenty of dog beds, human beds and couches to sleep on but usually chooses to sleep on the wood floor. Maybe it is cooler? He has been practicing his roach since day one and is definitely a professional roacher now with a lot of style. He woke up while I was taking pictures but decided not to get up.

You can see some of his new big boy teeth. Still has puppy canines though. When we were at the vet at 17 weeks she asked how sure we were about their age. Otto had lost quite a few baby teeth and had a lot of adult teeth already. She said he looked like he was closer to 20 weeks. Miles teeth were typical 17 week old teeth though and we do know what days they were born. A few were born on the evening of Jan 5th and the rest were born on the 6th. Miles was born about half way through so he was born on the 6th. January 6th was JD's birthday (the dog I lost to cancer last year).

Proof Puppies Will Eat Anything

Otto and Miles getting so grown up.

It is true puppies will eat anything. I noticed Otto laying on the rock patio just licking and licking the rock for quite awhile. I walked over to see what it was and there was a tiny white spot of bird poop. When he lost interest Miles came over and started licking the same rock. At that point I got the camera. You can see the wet rock between his paws. A few minutes later after he finished I took a picture of the wet rock with the white spot still visible.





Miles is quite the singer now and will join in a roo fest started by humans or dogs.


At their last checkup at the vet at 17 weeks Miles was 35lbs, Otto was 30lbs and their brother Kohle was 23lbs. Otto is about the same height as Miles now just a little narrower. Can you believe how big they are next to their mother Sara? Pinky the Italian Greyhound can now run under the pups. The pups can't run under their mother anymore.


Love Miles new big dog fur so I took a photo of it. No more puppy fuzz.


Doesn't he look way too grown up?

More Renaissance Festival

These photos are from the second weekend of the Georgia Renaissance Festival. Miles and I only went on Sunday because we were at Bark in the Park in Charlotte all day on Saturday. Thanks to Debbie Rater for taking the pictures.

Left to right. Sharon, Debbie and I



Sharon in blue. I am in gold.


With the Queen and King at Court.



Miles did fantastic. I hope someone got some photos of us up on the joust platform. He was much better this weekend. The first weekend he would turn his head or get under the bench when the knights started fighting each other. He was fine as long as they were jousting hay bales or rings but once they started fighting he couldn't watch. This weekend he was better and would watch part of the fights and seemed much more relaxed.

Had a couple of funny things happen. While we were standing back stage waiting to go on stage for the joust the knights rode in and stood near Miles and I. Miles looked at them, sniffed, then took a step toward the biggest knight on the biggest horse and gave him his best scary big dog bark. Everyone laughed at the puppy that bravely challenged the biggest and baddest of the knights. The horse whose head was just above him didn't even act like he noticed. Miles quickly relaxed and went back to searching for horse poop to eat.

The other funny was when Miles and I walked past the skin dealers tent. The skin dealer sells animal skins and wears a big black heavy fur cape that hangs down to the back of his knees and carries a huge knife. He looks like a big black bear from the back with that fuzzy cape on. When we walked by, the skin dealer walked over jokingly eying Miles brindle coat and commented on what a nice pair of boots he would make. We laughed and when he turned to walk away, that cape flipped around a foot or two in front of Miles face. In a split second the greyhound pup did what greyhounds do and had launched himself and was hanging from the cape and pulling for all he worth trying to take down that giant black bunny. I am glad it was so quick that I didn't see it coming, otherwise I would have stopped him. It was a classic moment and the pup got the last word.

Kohle

Since Kohle doesn't have as many photos as the other boys, I took a bunch the last time he came to play. These were taken at 15 weeks old.

Good thing I got photos when I did. Kohle injured his shoulder while playing at home and is on crate rest so hasn't been able to come play this week.





Love this picture of Kohle running even though he is running so fast that he is just a blur. He LOVES to run even more than the other boys. He has only a small yard at home so when he comes here he just runs and runs and runs.