Sara

We lost Miles mother Sara (racing name Sarandon) just before Christmas. My thoughts and prayers are with her family. She was their only greyhound and their best friend.

She went very fast. She went down on a short walk and was not able to be revived 10 minutes later when she got to the vet. Waiting on the necropsy results. She was so young and in such great shape. She ran at a dog park nearly every day and was one of the most active greyhounds for her age I have ever seen. Not many greyhound moms can play all day with their pups. She seemed to be in such good health.

We were planning to get the family together again this fall but couldn't find a time that was good for her and all her pups. So sad that weren't able to do that one last time.

Here are some photos of her that I took during the 5 months she lived at my house with her pups. She was a fantastic mom as you can see from her pictures. She loved playing with her pups and never forgot them. We will all miss you beautiful girl!

More Photos of the Boys at 11 months

Weighed Miles, and he is holding steady around 75lbs. Might have even lost just a little weight. He gets as much as he wants to eat and gets 2 - 3 meals a day depending on how much he ate for breakfast. If he ate a big breakfast he usually skips lunch. His hipbones show a little more than they did when he was younger and as you can see from the photos his muscle is developing so he should be gaining weight. I think it may just be impossible to keep weight on the pups with the amount they run and cold weather burns calories too.

I have increased the amount of fat Miles gets. He is on mainly raw beef and bone with less deer and chicken now since they are leaner meats. He also gets plenty of organ meats, along with some veggies and fruits. He rarely gets grains unless I forget to thaw his raw food and he ends up having to eat some dog food. When he gets dog food I put it in toys. He has what looks like a giant hamster ball that has holes in it. He rolls it around so the dog food falls out of it. He has a similar toy that looks like a flashlight. It has a dog food sized hole on one side of the handle. It used to take him about an hour of carrying it, rolling it and dropping it to shake the dog food out of that one tiny hole. He has figured out how to unscrew the top now so when he gets tired of playing with it he just unscrews it and gets all the food out at once. Great toys that keep a pup busy!!! Pinky the IG follows Miles around and grabs bites of food too.

Miles is wearing the red collar and Otto is wearing the green.



Miles still smiles but this is not a smile. He was trying to keep Otto from taking the toy. They sound and look SO vicious when they are playing but never hurt each other. Just like children, they fuss over every toy. If one has it, the other wants it. They only play with one toy at a time no matter how many are laying around. They will pick up a toy and prance past the other pup trying to get it to give chase.

Miles prey drive is very intense. Even with the socializing we did with cats early on he is not safe with them at all now. With pups short memory it seems they need to see something at least once a month or they will forget the rules associated with it. We skipped a couple of months working with cats and they became prey again. Will definitely do more work with all small animals. I don't have cats but want him to ignore any kind of small animal if I tell him to indoors or outdoors. My other two greyhounds could be called off of strange cats and even raccoons in the yard. It took a lot of work but it can be done.

A couple of days ago he got another bird in the yard. Have never had a greyhound that was such a good hunter before. Miles can snag birds out of bushes and out of the air. I was out scooping poop and didn't see him get the bird but noticed him throwing it up and catching it after he had killed it. Does this look like the face of a serial killer?


Wanted to get a photo showing how Miles has gone white on his hind end and on the inside of his legs. Doesn't really show how white it is because of the shadows. Also wanted a photo of his hind end before it gets bald. My greyhounds all run enough when lure coursing that they keep their bald racing booty. I am sure Miles will be no exception and will lose his hair as he gets older. JD finally grew his fur in at 11 years old after he got bone cancer and was forced to stop running around. Streak never did and came in second in the bald butt contest at Beach Bound Hounds in September just a month and a half before he died. Streak has won first place every year he has entered the contest except for this one. My first greyhound without a bald booty - Miles.

Greyt Brindle Sharks

The pool has been filled for awhile now. Our first pool party was over the 4th of July. The pups were not happy about the new level of the water. The only place they can touch bottom now is on the steps that go across one end of the pool. They played on the steps but wouldn't go out any farther.

We gave them swimming lessons that they weren't thrilled with. There was some shaking, yelping and running away. In the end it was just too hot to play outside and not get in the water. When I was swimming Miles would run around the edge of the pool thinking about jumping in. He really wanted to be with the people in the pool. We made sure we had tons of fun playing with his toys in the deep water. He finally leaped in and swam to us. Then we had to teach him not to nip us and claw us when he was in the water. A day later he was leaping in off the side of the pool and we had to teach him not to leap ON us. It is amazing to watch the prey drive at work even with someone swimming in the pool. Like a shark, the splashing and fast movement draws a greyhound puppy.

Otto was more afraid to swim at first and only had access to the pool 3 times a week so it took longer for him to get used to it. Even though Miles was swimming, Otto stuck with the safe steps. Miles taunted him by swimming around with toys just out of his reach.

Miles jumping in while Otto watches from the steps.


Miles proving that greyhounds can run on water.


After being teased by Miles for a week or two, Otto started swimming. Miles is wearing the black collar with pink, green and yellow balls. Otto is wearing a white collar with colored footprints. You can see that Otto is getting even with Miles for all the taunting.


Has anyone heard of greyt brindle sharks?

Miles dropped a large stuffed monkey into the pool. It sank to the bottom. He and Otto spent a lot of time with their faces under water looking at the monkey. Miles finally got him.


The boys love swimming after balls. They have figured out that they can stand up in the shallow end if they stand up tall on their hind legs. It is funny to see them walking on their hind legs having wrestling matches and launching themselves off the bottom to leap on each other like a couple of kangaroos.


Miles accidentally became a water rescue dog. When we were playing in the pool he would come up and grab our hand or clothes and pull us back to the shallow end and the steps. He did this so often we decided to make it a game and have him do it on command. Now we go to the deep end and say "Help!" He dives in and swims to us and grabs a rope (better than a hand) and drags us back to the steps. He loves the game and dragging a person through the water over and over is a great way to tire out a pup. It is a cute trick too.

Interesting Guest

The pool ended up needing a lot of work so is still empty. Miles found a vole in the pool that had climbed in and couldn't get out. He wasn't sure what to make of it. When it would run he would chase it but then wasn't sure what to do with it. The tiny vole would face him and stand up on his hind legs and nip Miles nose if he got it too close. Miles would snort, shake his head and back away but couldn't resist going back in for another sniff. Miles finally figured out that he could use his paws at which point I ended the game not wanting him to injure the little guy.




Miles showing off all his grown up teeth.


Pups playing in the back yard.





The pups love Streak but Streak puts up with the pups. We found out accidentally just how tolerant of the pups Streak can be in spite of his growls and showing of teeth. We left last night to run some errands and put Miles in a crate. Streak and Pinky are usually left out since they aren't likely to cause any trouble. My husband opened the enclosed plastic crate and told Miles to "kennel up" and Miles minded. The enclosed crate is a pale tan color and had a pale tan blanket in it about the color of Streak. When I got home I saw Streak in standing in the enclosed crate and thought, "What is Streak doing in the crate? I could have sworn Roy put Miles in that crate". I guess Streak had been sleeping in the crate. Since he was the same color Roy hadn't noticed when he told Miles to go in. So giant Streak and Miles had both been locked in one crate for over an hour together. There is barely room for big Streak in there to lay down. There was no gash or any blood so they had treated each other well in spite of the very cramped quarters. Streak probably wondered what horrible thing he did to deserve being locked up for an hour with a puppy.

Streak getting puppy kisses

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.