Holiday fun

The holidays mean a lot of travel for us. We load up all 5 dogs and visit both families. This year we started in Southwest Virginia at my parents' house.
Boone gets introduced to the newest technology. I didn't have a problem taking my iPad home with me b/c we gave my mom one for christmas!Then Boone helps us watch the dogs as they play in the miniature horse paddock.Luckily the paddock is very secure b/c there are a lot of critters that draw the curious attention of Miss Calinot exactly sure what happened here, but Cali decided this was the best place to lay.On Christmas morning we awoke to a dusting of snow. It truly was a white christmas! Cali and Henry enjoy romping in the snow.They draw the attention of Sugar
Is it really considered stalking when the 'stalkee' is staring at you??

Of course, Dana wasn't involved in this playing but somehow she managed to slice her toe webbing. so after a quick trip to Walgreens, she spends Christmas day with a cleanly bandaged foot.Kids get the coolest toys..Jason has always liked Gyeong's Five Fingers shoes, so my mom got him a pair! Gorilla feet..Then we packed up everyone and headed south to Charlotte, NC to visit Jason's parents. Dante has an issue with the 'no dogs on the couch' rule at Jason's parents house, so he snuggles with everyone.I bet I will be able to hear the "awwww" with this next photo!The trip home included a slight hiccup..Henry had an upset tummy and we didn't stop quickly enough. yeah, it was a mess. But we tossed the dogs beds, gave everyone a bath when we got home and all was well (my car needs detailing still...)
All in all..everyone had a good time but was very happy to be home.
I hope everyone had a great holiday and a Happy New year!!!!!

When nature attacks

We all remember Petey from the previous post..cute little Petey with the sweet little face...He isn't so cute any longer. ;-) Ok, maybe he is but temporarily his name was mud in my book. And then it snowed and he became cute again.
"I pooped in the snow!"
Then he decided to play with Henry..who loves the snow.
Henry taunts himAnd Petey starts the long run across the yard..takes him quite a bit longer than the greyhounds.Finally..
I will admit I stopped photographing at this point to be 'on guard' while Henry played with the 10 pound dog. But as usual, he was a gentle giant and played quite well with him.
Petey went home and it snowed again. We got about 2 1/2 inches which is less than last year's pre-Christmas snow but it was enough to play around in but not enough to have anyone snowed in. Cali loves the snow and was out by herself before it had even stopped snowing.Then it stopped and everyone joined in.Shiloh again feasted on the snow...I am not sure why she likes to eat snow so much, but she does. She really gets in to it as well..and the fact that she has the fur of a grizzly bear, the snow just laid on top and she stayed warm.

On a more somber note, sometimes nature can attack in a cruel and horrible way. A lot of my friends have lost their beloved greyhounds recently to cancer..a few were my fosters..Run The Table aka Dash a few weeks ago at 7, and Avery a few months ago at 4 1/2 and many were owned by friends, most recently fellow blogger's Macy at 6. Hopefully, nature will settle down and stop taking our fur kids too early. So this holiday season, hug your hounds and keep our friends in your thoughts.

Aye-Chihuahua

Lulu's family adopted a new dog that doesn't quite fit in to our normal 'mold' of boarders. He is less than 10 pounds and to Dana resembled a tasty snack for a little while. Meet Petey-
Petey likes to be on a pillow or lap at all times..He can curl up in to the smallest little fur ball imaginable..
He thinks he is a big dog and plays with the big dogs toys..I call this "YIPPEEE...I pooped outside!"Then he tries to join the big dogs who are trying to chase the bulldozer away next door. Luckily, i snapped these shots and then grabbed the little guy before he got in the middle of a greyhound party.Mostly, we are spoiling him more rotten. He loves to play and since all of my dogs are old, he is forced to play with us. jason likes to wrap him up in a blanket...I don't think he minds.

There will be more photos of him I am sure. We have him for the week.

Senioritis

It is no secret that our pack is aging. We are definitely running the Stumpf Elder Care. But one member seemed invincible. The tough little engine that could. So when Dante started becoming lethargic and drinking excessively, we were all a little shook up. We took him to the vet and after a few rounds of tests, it was determined that he has Cushing's Disease. It is treatable but not curable. He will be on medicine for the rest of his life and have to visit the vet every three months to make sure we have his cortisol in check.
We hope it makes him feel better. Having him be down throws everyone off kilter. But now he is on three prescriptions..so add that to Shiloh's prescriptions..our dogs' medicine cabinet is filling up.
But beyond spending a lot of time in the vet's office, we have been doing other things.
Washing dog beds..
Sleeping


Gazing at the beautiful Fall foilage

And this week we took the greyhounds to Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens to see the holiday lights! Of course, it is hard to capture holiday light photos..unless of course (*blog fades out and "Dream Weaver" begins to play softly in the background*) you own a Canon D50 but (*blog snaps back in and "Back to Life, Back to Reality" blares*) I don't. So..this is all I have. ;-)
Jason and Cali walk down the sidewalkKristen looks out of the gazebo with Stanley, Stella and JaimeBob walks Dinah and Doc around a huge tree!And Cali enjoys the flowers in the heated greenhouse
We will keep everyone posted with Dante's progress. we go in a week to see how well this dosage of the meds are working.
Happy Holidays!