Finally..a picnic!

This past weekend we went to Cooper Winery for their SPCA event. The Park kids and Sallie and Roadie also came along for a picnic at the winery!

There were a lot of vendors

We set up chairs and blankets

And opened up our picnic 'baskets'..aka wine totes with plates and stuff!

And enjoyed some wine!

Oh..you knew this would happen..

Dana and Stella enjoy people watching..

Then we moved the party a few miles down the road to Grayhaven Winery for their Blues festival!

More wine and dogs in laps..

Then..the hounds were exhausted for a few days. We used the foster/boarder free time to revamp the stuffies and bone supply. The kids LOVE when we buy new bones!

New stuffies are on the UPS truck! woohoo!

So..Cali gets rev'ed up and goes for some serious Zoomies!!Dana joins in the funAnd..after a good zoomie..a good shake. Who says Greyhounds don't drool..

More festivals this weekend..I love this time of year!

Small world

Today's blog starts with a story. I have told you all about my long time love of greyhounds and how Stella brought Jason to the dark side. But i have never told you about Cruiser..
Kristen and Gyeong started fostering. After Jason and I bought our house, they came down to help us with some things. They were fostering a brindle male named Cruiser so he came down with them. Now the house/fence had been the final stage to 'operation greyhound adoption' in our life, so we were starting to think about our new greyhound-to-be. We both fell hard for this boy. He was just the coolest dog! But alas, he was already spoken for by a family in Richmond. They were naming him Dash. We tried to convince Kristen to leave him with us..but it wasn't meant to be.
Here is Cruiser in our house almost 3 years ago..we hadn't been moved in long (notice the cardboard box in the background being used as a doormat). And Dante didn't have any gray!! (and ...does he resemble anyone familiar?)

Now fast forward three years, 2 greyhound adoptions and countless fosters.
We are fostering Sawyer. We both admit if we had the room..he is the perfect boy for us but alas..it isn't meant to be
I start working on an application who is interested in Sawyer, they have a grey from a now dissolved group in the city. After talking with him a bit, I find out..he is GREAT friends with Dash's owners! He adopts Sawyer and names him Leopold (his other grey is Kate). And of course, I shared this story with him and he sent me photos of Leo playing with Dash. It's a small world after all...Too cool! Good luck Sawyer!
This week, being a holiday weekend, meant we had 9 dogs all week. Sawyer was adopted out mid-week but that same day we got Lonnie, a 2 year old brindle female, so I could take her on a home visit this weekend. She got adopted about 1 hour ago! This is from the left Hemi, Lonnie, Bella, Dana, Cali, Harry, Rusty and Dante on the chaise (just missing shiloh)
Before Sawyer left, we had 10 for the day. So i took some photos in the yard.
Greyhounds are color-ists.
The fawns huddle for a quick meetingThe brindles camouflage themselves against the fence so they can eavesdrop on the fawns' meetingRusty and Bella relax in the sunshineObviously Sawyer's breath smells horrible!And after all the talk of Jason having another woman..I was able to have an affair of my own this week. Rusty was my snuggle boy. He is big, goofy and loving. He became quite fond of crawling (literally..he is a big boy) onto the chaise with me at night. And usually after a few hours, he would have crawled in to my lap so he was stretched on top of me..sound asleep.
He has been a good boy. He goes home tomorrow..
Happy Memorial day! Tomorrow we are taking the kids on a picnic with Kristen and Gyeong. We are going to Cooper Vineyard and Grayhaven winery. It should be a fun day!!

Fairs and parties

Another greyhound weekend under the belt! On Saturday we participated in the Bank of America Environmental Fair. It is always a nice event and a great time to catch up with Vashti and Logan.

Dolly has a moment with one boy

Diego wonders why he gets dragged to all these greyhound events!

Sawyer gets some loving while taking a break from playing donation dog all morning.

Harvey gives his momma a kiss while Jackson enjoys momma's lap!

Karen posed with Hemi and Bella (ever try to photograph the energizer bunny?)

Ally and Cali use Dana as a resting post Kristen and Gyeong had a great party on Saturday afternoon. He grilled a pork butt (which was massively yummy!) and they had all sorts of people and greyhounds in attendance (more pictures can be found on Gyeong's blog and Ridlon tails). Thanks guys as always! Jason was on call so we had to leave early on Sunday morning, but we had a great night chilling by the chimnea drinking sangria!

Since there is a holiday weekend coming up, Casa de la Stumpf is full! I hope the weather stays nice so I can get out and photograph the huge pack I will have in a few days!

Back to life...Back to Reality...

Jamaica was wonderful...what else can I say? ;-) We arrived and they took the 'liberty' of upgrading our room. We had booked a beachfront walk out room..we ended up getting upgraded to a river suite beachfront room with a butler!! Denata and Darrion were our butlers for the week. They made all our reservations, reserved our chairs on the beach early in the morning complete with towels, mats and a cooler full of Red Stripe and Coke Light, got us to our snorkeling boat and met us upon return with fruity drinks on a platter. Seriously! ARe you kidding me?

So if I wasn't drinking Red Stripe on my reserved chaise on the beach staring at crystal blue water

I was laying on the chaise on my patio which happened to be a swim up pool right outside my room with a glass of champagne staring at the crystal blue water

And if I wasn't posing by the sunset

I was admiring it..

And the rest of the time..I was looking under the crystal clear water at all the colorful coral and fishes!!

Enjoy my photos at this website (click to view slideshow). There are lots of Jamaica photos (we went to Appleton Rum Estates!) and underwater photography (we snorkeled 6 times at 4 different reefs)

The kids survived our absence. Apparently Cali digressed throughout the week and became a depressed lump. When we got home..after the power came back on..she threw a mega tantrum to show us that we should know leave her again. She forgot the whole 'housetrained' concept, as well as the her food is in her bowl..my food is on a plate idea. And let's not forget the
"if I bounce around and grab at your hand incessently with my mouth..maybe you will pay attention to me and feed me wayyy too early" concept she picked up.

Tart. Dana missed me terribly and showed true gratitude at our return, Shiloh acts like she is going to the SPCA tomorrow forever, Sawyer picked up a few bad habits as well, and Dante wishes we would leave again!

We had a wonderful time...I wish we were back there!

No problem, Mon!

I thought I would post before leaving for Jamaica. We have a new foster, his name is Sawyer and he was returned because people are stupid. ;-) He is a very sweet and handsome boy. He is one of those boys that just grabs your heart..if only we had more room and a bigger car!
The kids enjoyed some time outside this week too. I was so excited to have all 4 dogs lined up outside..but alas..there has to be one who spoils the moment..
But they had a good time running
We had our annual spring picnic this past weekend. I was glad to have it underway..we have been working our butts off lately to get this pulled off..but it was a greyt success! We had it at a volunteer's home who had 10 acres fenced with 2 smaller fenced areas within the larger fence. And the weather could NOT have been more perfect
Houndstown collars was there with some great martingales
And since Dana has 2 Houndstown collars..Cali had to get a new wardrobe too!Jason hangs with Sawyer and Flying Incubus who was with us overnight after the haul on Saturday. The all had a good time running in the free run area. The black dog in the foreground is Logan! The Clarke's came ...it was great to see them and Logan!Dana, Cali and SawyerCali enjoys a head restand you didn't think this wouldn't happen, Did you???

It was a lot of fun..and we are all exhausted!!! But today is packing and getting ready for fun in the sun! You can see more pictures of the picnic at GPA's blog.

I will post photos when I return!