Hot spots

The house has been a hot spot recently..100F+ temperatures. Sucks. But Shiloh has also been suffering from her own hot spot. The combination of old skin, aging joints, thick undercoat and hot temps..led to one nasty hot spot.
She is also very limber and can get around a Cone of shame easily and can get around the bite not collar..BUT she can't get around them both at one time. ;-) Of course, she was absolutely miserable while in this get up..but it healed.We have had a ton of dogs go through the house recently too. I don't have the cool overhead area to take photos, but this is the best I can do. Henry, Beau, Cali, Belle, Dana, Baxter and Pete lounge in the AC (missing is Yuki, Shiloh and Dante).Before the 100+ temps started, we played outside a bit. Yuki loves to run!
Baxter was occupied by a little orange butterfly. Look closely..NO butterflies were harmed in the making of these photosDana and Cali watch with boredom..The hummingbirds don't really care how many dogs we have in the yard. I am trying desperately to get 'that shot' but the heat has prevented me from trying a lot.Then the heat hit and we stayed inside a lot. the first group of boarders left and VEsta, Petey and Lulu came in. Petey loves this vantage point while Jason is cooking.Vesta chillsDana really wants the help of Nigel in this endeavor..We still have a few boarders, but the carpet showed the wear of the last few weeks. so a full steam clean day was in order. Dante thinks beds should be on recliners every day!
Hopefully, it will cool off at some point. Lots of birthdays and special days coming up next month!

Cruisin'

I have always been lucky to have friends who enjoyed the same things I did. A few weeks ago, a friend of mine emailed a simple question.."Do you have any leave?" My immediate response was..not really..I just got back from a 2 week vacation! But about 3 seconds later, my curiosity won and I replied with a 2nd email "why?"
AND..that is how we planned a quick cruise vacation for fun. i have never cruised before and i will be honest in that I am not sold on it at this point. But, nevertheless..we had fun. It was definitely a different vacation then I am used too!

We started in Miami. Our first 10 dollar fruity beverage in a 'collectible glass'.We say farewell to Miami, and i say farewell to sure footing. I am prone to motion sickness. The first night, was a bit rough and I became a bit green. BUT a few ginger pills and some 'sea band bruises' later..I was doing OK.Our first stop was Key West. I love Key West!We rent an electric car and visit all the cool sights.And pet the 6 toed cats at Hemingway's house.They were everywhere!Then we visited the Butterfly house which was absolutely magical! Highly recommend!!!!this guy was easily 6 inches across.We left Key West and headed for Cozumel which gave us some time to explore the boat. It wasn't a huge boat..but it was still sparkly. I don't really remember there being this many floors..I do remember this area well, b/c the casino was directly behind it. we spent every free moment there. The dealers were really nice and it was by far the best area of the boat (aka- no children, less crowded)Then we made it to Cozumel. I have been to Riviera maya before so I was prepared for how beautiful the water is..We started by doing a Sea Trek with the big helmet on full of oxygen. It was a neat experience even if the coral was non-existent. I enjoyed the experience.
Susan and IThe unaware hermit crab
The uncooperative rayAfter changing, we hit the area for shopping and good food (read: the boat food was sub par at best..inedible at times) And we found the best Guacamole! (sorry gyeong!!)Then we were at sea for a day. I will be honest..it was crowded, loud and crowded. I was happy to have the balcony to sit in quiet and read.The other problem is that nothing on a boat is free...from bottled water to drinks..you pay. Even when they say come do a martini tasting..you pay 17 bucks. But they were pretty..I had a great time with Susan, had a great time on shore and had a great time in the casino. BUT I do not anticipate going on a Carnival cruise again. But I cant' complain but so much..it was last minute, for the heck of it and a new experience! We have a few more vacations/trips left this year..but the next few weeks we are packed with greyhounds!

Energizer bunnies

We spent a great weekend with lots of great photo opportunities..but I forgot my camera. So to see what we did, check out gyeong's blog.
BUT We are happy to report, that everyone seems to have recovered from their ailments/we have found the perfect concoction of medicine.
Henry is back to himself..eating. playing and just being a good boy!He and Dana enjoy some sunshine.We watched Katie (fawn) , Beau and Belle for a while. Everyone really played well and it was great to see Henry play again!
Belle used Dante as a pillow..smelly pillow.We have Petey and Lulu for a bit now. Petey wants Henry to play with him more..Nerice and Debbie came over with Dolly, Diego and Brady for some fun..which ended up being a bunch of greyhounds sleeping while we gabbed. But Petey made his rounds.
Happy Fourth of July! And I leave on a another quick vacation in 2 days, so prepare for photos of Key West, Cozumel and a big boat. ;-)

health updates

It happens..we get old and start falling apart. I am running a senior dog community at this point, so it is going to happen more often.
Since returning from Italy, we have had a few 'health scares'.
I detailed all of Dante's illnesses prior to leaving. Kristen and Gyeong took excellent care of him and we are definitely showing improvement. He is now on pancreatic enzyme supplements which have drastically improved his bowel function and his Cushing's meds are regulated. So we have significant progress with him. He seems to be gaining weight, is feisty and stubborn again..so he must be feeling well.Right after we returned, Shiloh (who will be 14 in August), had a small seizure. It definitely took me longer to get over than it did her...but she checked out OK at the vet. She seems healthy and happy now. apparently..they just happen sometimes. I would prefer if it didn't happen again..i don't think my emotional well being will fair well.Oh Henry..
Henry, who will be 12 in August, stopped eating completely a few weeks ago. Nothing stirred his appetite..tuna, chicken, turkey, rice, yogurt, baby food, oatmeal..you name it..we tried it. he was sad, depressed. So we went the vet on day 3. Everything looked normal so we tried some anti-nausea meds. On day 6 of not eating, we went back. After numerous blood tests, fluids and Xrays, everything looked normal. So we went to an internal medicine specialist who did an ultrasound. his lymph nodes were enlarged. This is typically due to Inflammatory Bowel disease or Lymphoma. They did a needle aspirate of his spleen.
The aspirate showed some 'unhappy' cells meaning his immune system was out of whack for some reason. We started him on antibiotics and took him home. Either diagnosis would improve with antibiotics, for a short time.
He has improved. On day 10 of his fast, he started to eat small amounts. he is now eating regular meals (of chicken and rice only) and seems to be a bit perkier. We are just watching him for now..this may continue..it may not. We didn't want to put him under anesthesia to do a biopsy which would have given us a definitive diagnosis. It would be for our benefit, not his.So for now..we are keeping the old man happy and hoping he has time ahead of him.
So we are moving forward hoping everyone continues to improve.
We have been getting fresh local produce from Dominion Harvest delivered to us..this past week it had Hanover Honey..
I call this "heaven on a plastic cutting sheet" Local goat cheese and honey with an Italian white wine..And for the first time in a long time, we have a true foster. Dancer is 2 and kind feeling like the kid who gets dropped off at grandma's retirement home for the weekend. Shuffleboard and Bingo are not her bag.
I will have a photo filled post soon. We have a pretty cool weekend planned with the Park pack.

Back to what we do best..festivals!

I hope you enjoyed my Italy journal (one, two, three, four and five ). Now we are back to our normal spring/summer ways!
after all that great Italian food, we needed a little change. So we met my childhood friend for sushi in charlottesville. It was really great..we may have to go back.Mandi and I..we were friends in kindergarten..who knew we would be meeting for sushi so many years later.We watched Petey for a bit..I didn't get many photos of him. But this one reminded me of E.T.My parents came to visit so we could go to the Cooper SPCA festival. Now, normally..I would not post of a photo of my mother like this..BUT it is a bit of revenge for what is to come.


We head to Cooper Vineyards for the annual SPCA festival with all the greyhounds. Kristen, Gyeong, Bob and my parents came along as well. We corralled the greyhounds on their new tasting deck. it made it really easy b/c we didn't have to hold leashes. The deck was enclosed so they weren't able to get anywhere.And then my mom takes my camera. She isn't accustomed to the shutter speed on the 7D and just did the paparazzi thing and fired at will. I decided since we had a million photos from her, I would post some of them no matter how degrading they may be for me.She liked to zoom in and just fire off..without really waiting for us to prepare...
After about 25 photos, I had to get stern..of course she kept snapping!I wasn't really mad..I couldn't that gig for long..But we had a nice picnic of cheese, meats, crackers and Cooper wine.The dogs watched people milling about down below. And the old ladies conversed.Of course, no real surprise as to where Cali ended up..Then my mom took the camera again..and I have a million of these..So Gyeong turned tried retaliationAnd this is what I call "And then the wheels fell off"

The next weekend, Richmond had its Beer, Bourbon and BBQ festival..which is always a fun, if not unusual time. The crowd is definitely different from what we are used too at the wine festivals! Gyeong and Jason are the Bourbon drinkers..so we did a lot of watching.You never know what you will see if you are observant..And they brought 9 dogs with them and we had 7 already..so it made for a very doggie evening!
We have a few more fun things planned before it gets blistering hot...