Spending time

 Henry seems to be doing OK on the pain meds. He has his good days and bad.  On his bad days, we make sure he is as comfortable as possible.  Sometimes this means rearranging the pillows to give him the ultimate comfort.

On his good days, we try to spend time outside.  Lately, it has either been 100F plus or there have been terrible storms causing power outages and tree damage. So on the rare days we can go outside, we try to enjoy it.

 Henry and Dana have a moment..

 Jason left for Charlotte to continue helping care for his mother but before he left he was able to let Cali romp around and remind us not everyone in our house is ailing.

She even had time to wink at us as she went by..

 And for those of you with only greyhounds..you are missing out on the joy of an undercoat.  I spent an hour brushing Shiloh and got about 5 pounds of undercoat off of her.  And I am betting I could do it again right now.

 We have Petey for a bit..he has definitely started to be more 'dog-like' and less puppy like..which is a good thing.
"Lady...will you get that thing out of my face?"

And I was lucky enough to be able to help with a GUR from Florida to NY recently.  Two dogs with broken hocks were heading to their forever home.  I did the Richmond to Fredericksburg leg.  I hope the rest of their journey went well.

Remember to run

Henry reminds everyone to remember to run and play.  These were taken a few months ago (and previously posted) but Henry was diagnosed with a bone tumor on Monday in his left front leg.  It is either osteosarcoma or metastisized hemangiosarcoma.  So he can no longer run..nor does he really want too.  We are managing his pain (successfully right now) with Tramadol and Rimadyl.  It has been a tough couple of weeks.  Hug your hounds.

What's another cult among friends?

I'm not saying the greyhound world is a cult..actually it is 'cult-like'.  And we drank the Kool-Aid a long time ago.  I mean who could blame us..look at this face!

 Looking adoringly at us with love and loyalty in their eyes..

 Or T-bone..whichever

We proudly pack up everything and form a 'greyhound city' at local events (Cooper Winery's SPCA festival).  20 greyhounds and their people..just relaxing and enjoying the day. 

What could be wrong with that..Shiloh says "Absolutely nothing"

So it is perfectly natural to fall head first into another 'cult like' atmosphere.

Cue ColdPlay's "Paradise"

 We attended our first Porsche Club of America-Shenandoah Region Meet. 

There were new ones

 And old ones

 Our friend Bob had his entered in the 'Concours" competition (who's is the best maintained)

 And Jason just brought his to be among its 'kind'

 

 After a catered lunch, about 40 Porsches hit the back roads to drive to a country club (of course..) for wine and snacks (woot!)  The drive was a lot of fun..the weather was perfect and we even had the police holding traffic for us to get through big intersections. I am sure it was quite the sight to behold. Porsches in front and behind!

 Then we get to some small country club in an area I have never been (second surprise) and we got some free swag and had some raffles while sipping on wine. 

 Photographer's dream!

 There were more events that we didn't participate in, we didn't want to overdose on Kool-aid the first day out.  But all in all we had a lot of fun.
I came home and sat back in middle suburbia and chatted with my hummingbirds.

Grapehounds 2012

Things are moving onward..and a little upward. Jason's mom showed significant improvement after 2 rounds of chemo so they are starting radiation.  My uncle is at home and comfortable.  Henry has recovered from this surgery and seems to be doing OK.  Shiloh is eating today..who knows about tomorrow.  But whatever she'll eat..we are feeding her. 
So on the high note, we packed up all three greyhounds and heading north to Grapehounds-Virginia.  We went up for the day 2 years ago and missed the event last year due to our Italy trip.  So this year we made a weekend of it!! 
We made slow progress on the way up since we stopped at quite a few wineries en route.  Bob with Doc and Dinah and Beth and Mark with Zach and Brett made up the full caravan.
First stop was a very dog friendly winery, Hartwood..I highly recommend.

We stopped at Mediterranean and Pearmund as well, but they didn't allow dogs so they didn't get photos.  :P
We finally arrived at the Grapehounds stomping grounds for Friday night. North Gate winery! Where there tons of greyhounds and people.
We found a patch of earth, spread out our blankets and settled in (you will notice our missing counterparts...they were detained and will join us tomorrow!)

 After a day of traveling, Cali and Jason have a moment

 I thought these were cute of Dana..they kind of catch her personality and her white whiskers!!

 This was Henry's first overnight trip. Cali and Dana are old hats at hotel living and winery hopping. But Henry is new to it.  So he wore out easily!

 The next day we awoke refreshed and were finally joined by our ever faithful winery hopping companions (notice Cali has chosen a new lap to use)!!  AFter some vending and relaxing at Lost Creek, we headed off to hit more wineries with a larger caravan.

 We stopped at Quattro Goomba where they had a great outdoor dining area with pizza.  So we pulled a bunch of tables together and ..well basically same positions, different winery.

 We hit a few more wineries that day and then had a lovely dinner at Lightfoot in Leesburg.  On Sunday, we headed home with three very tired greyhounds.  Henry did well on his first overnight camp.  He was VERY happy to be home however!

Hills and Valleys

Life is full of hills and valleys.  We are currently in a valley but I know it will only be temporary.  Jason is home after a few weeks in Charlotte.  I am happy he is home as we definitely handle the rough patches better together.  They are doing a scan on his mom this coming week to determine how the chemo is working.  She has been through two rounds so hopefully we will know more shortly. 
While he was gone, I watched my mom's Shih Tzu, Truflz.  He is a funny looking dog...

While thinking about this blog post, I came across that photo and it made me laugh.  You take what you can get these days!!
My uncle was diagnosed with multiple myelonoma early February.  But after a long struggle in the hospital he was in rehab and doing relatively well.  Until the Streptococcus infection that hit last week.  The hospital can do nothing more for him and he is moving home in to hospice care.  I hope to be able to get to my parents' house sometime soon to see him. Definitely an example of life being too short.

And if that weren't enough, Shiloh had another attack of pancreatitis and stopped eating again. She is still only nibbling but hopefully we will pull her through this one again.
And Henry's hemangiosarcoma came back last week and one of his tumors burst. Jason found him literally in a pool of blood.  I rushed him to the vet on Friday afternoon and since they can't do full surgery, they cauterized it and put a pressure bandage on it.

I think it looks like he has on Spanx.  But this only lasted about 36 hours, he pulled it off after it bled through.  I re-wrapped it and will take him in on Monday to get it removed.  It is amazing to see how much blood this little tumor can produce..we never photograph it b/c honestly it is traumatic.  Even the vet and techs were astounded as blood pooled while we were trying to stop it.  And it wont' stop ..the cancer cells make sure of that! So we have ot remove it..we just 'hope' they continue to only be cutaneous.
I hope to get back in to the photography mood soon.  I know things will get better and healthier times are ahead. 
The fur kids have definitely been great therapists for me..

sorry for the downer post.  We have a lot of fun stuff ahead..the sun will come out tomorrow!  forever the optimist. ;-)

When the puppies attack

It has been a pretty normal Spring..laying in the sunshine.

Attending local festivals like Easter on Parade in our fancy hats

Driving to wine festivals in a Porsche caravan (fellow greyhound owner Bob travels with us in his Caymen S)

Stopping to smell the flowers at a local Southern States Earth day celebration

And then the puppies arrived..1 year old Petey and 9 month old Sakura were in the same yard for the first time.  True meaning of puppy power.
Petey has enough energy to run a small country alone

 But add Sakura..

 Of course, Cali can't stand dogs having fun without her..so she joins in

 The puppies played for hours..it just made all of us tired watching them!  We are also watching my mom's Shih Tzu, Trufflz.  Luckily, he is 10 years old so prefers to sit back and watch even though he maintains a permanent bed head.

Jason came home briefly but went back to Charlotte this morning to help his mom through the second round of chemo.  He will probably be there about two weeks.  For good or bad, this is a busy time of year for me so I will be able to keep Cali busy while he is gone.