February 19th is a very special day for us.  It is Pippi’s Birthday, she turned 9 this year, and it is also her Gotcha Day!!  She has been part of our family for 5 wonderful years.  Her Birthday fell on a Wednesday this year.  On Wednesday, we gave her lots of extra loving and a special treat with her dinner.  On Saturday, we continued her celebration by taking her to our monthly meet and greet, where she was center of all attention! 

She got lots of loving from many folks who stopped by.  She enjoyed herself very much!  She also did great as our donation dog for the day.  She helped us raise over $59 for Greyhound adoption!!

Her favorite part was lying down on the job and getting some sun bathing time in.

On Sunday, we took a trip out to Stony Point Fashion Park.

We were fortunate to have such beautiful weather for her Birthday weekend.

We took a little stroll through the outdoor mall and then went to pick up Pippi’s Birthday cake at Three Dog Bakery. The pups enjoyed cake several times over the week.  They gave it 12 paws up!

Pippi really enjoyed the toy section.  She picked out a new toy.

She had a little ETS after so much celebrating.

Happy Birthday/Gotcha Day to the best snuggler in the world and one of the sweetest hounds we will ever know!!  We love you so much, Pippi, and are so thankful to have you as part of our family!! We look forward to many more wonderful years with our very special girl!!

Lastly, Ziva continues to amaze me in her recovery.  The Vet says I am more traumatized then she ever was.  She is likely right in that assessment.  🙂  She is doing very well and had an excellent f/u visit at the Vet last Thursday.  She is able to resume all normal activity!  All her sutures were removed and her internal boo boo’s are healing also. 

I have been shooting on Manual mode now for a few months.  I am still practicing and trying to get a handle on how to properly adjust the settings.  Looking forward to learning more in my photography class in May. 🙂  For now, I am sharing my first attempts at shooting photos using the RAW setting on Manual Mode and un-edited.   Editing photos is another skill I need to learn and conquer.  One step at a time.

I don’t like the shadows in this one, but I like that I was able to get the black coat to look black and shiny.  That is improvement from photos I have taken in the past, so I am progressing in my photography skills, which makes me very happy.

Ziva is healing nicely after only a week she is back to her normal bouncy self today.  Such a relief!  We have another three weeks of recovery to go, but so far, so good!!

On Valentines Day, at lunch time while Mitch was providing our pups a day break, Ziva got out of our fenced yard and took off down the street.  The side gate by the carport was not secured.  Mitch realized this a few seconds too late.  Both her and Cueball got out.  He managed to call Cueball back to him at the end of our street.  Then he witnessed something that no one should ever see. Ziva was standing in the road when a Nissan SUV approached and hit her.  The impact sent her into a ditch.  The driver did brake but was unable to stop completely in time because of the icy roadway.  Ziva got up and took off.  Mitch called me panicking at work to let me know Ziva was missing.  He did not tell me she had just been hit by a car.  He did not want to get me worked up.  Mitch tracked her through the woods.  Luckily she was easy to track because of all the snow still on the ground.  Once she got to the roadway, he had no idea which way she went from there.  I rushed home and on my way home started getting the word out.  We are fortunate to have a very compassionate Greyhound Community in our area.  We had several people helping us look for her and spreading the word through FB, email and phone.  A good Samaritan found her wandering up to his second floor apartment which is located in the complex across a main road from our subdivision.  He was able to get a hold of her ID collar and thankfully called me. 

If you do not have an ID or tag collar that stays on your hound for identification purposes 24-7, I highly encourage you to get one. It is because of her ID collar that we got her back so quickly!! We get ours from Luckypet.com.

I was ecstatic that she had been found and found quickly.  I called everyone who was searching to let them know the good news.  Mitch and I drove over to pick her up.  Her legs were scrapped up.  Her back feet looked tore up and painful.  She was walking fine, was shaking but came right up to me.  I gave her a big hug and thanked the good Samaritan profusely.  Mitch got her leash, put it on her and said we have to get her to the vet now.  I agreed that she needed to be seen to get her boo boo’s looked at.  Then Mitch told me he saw her get hit by an SUV.  My heart sank.  Since we both had been driving to search, we decided it would be best if he rushed her to Cary Street Vet and I went home to check on Cueball and Pippi. 

About 40 minutes later, he called me to give me an update.  Her vitals were all good and they gave her an IV pain med immediately.  They were examining her and were going to take x-rays.  Because of the nature of her trauma, the ER Vet kept her overnight to monitor her red blood cell count.  I called several times (about every 3-4 hours) to check on her and get updates.  She was doing well and her values were remaining stable. I did not sleep on Friday night.

We went to visit her on Saturday morning.  She was still progressing and recovering but was not ready to come home yet.  So we left her there where she could be monitored closely.  I went to work for a few hours to pass time and get my mind off of worrying so much. At around 7:00 p.m. last night, we got the call from the vet that Ziva was progressing very nicely and was ready to come home.  We rushed over to pick her up. 

She had a restful night. We started off by letting her sleep on the couch in the living room. This is where she seemed most comfortable. I pulled up a double stacked dog bed and blanket beside the couch and slept there so that I could be close if she needed me. We were instructed to monitor her and rush her back to the ER vet if she had any difficulty breathing, had pale gums or was not acting like herself. They gave us very detailed discharge instructions and were only a phone call and short drive away should we need them. This was a huge comfort, as I was pretty nervous about her being home. I was very happy, don’t get me wrong, but nervous about getting through the next 16 hours. We had been told repeatedly that the first 48 hours were critical.

Even though the other couch was open, as Cueball was resting on the bed with Mitch, Pippi curled up beside me on the dog beds and slept. It was a great comfort for me and reminded me of my last evening with Booyah. The only place I could get him comfortable was on a dog bed in the dining room with his head resting on the cool hardwood floor. Maggie curled up and spooned me and laid her head on my side. She laid there all night with me. She always knew when I needed her support. I think Pippi sensed my need last night too.

Around 1 a.m., Ziva got up and went to the bedroom and slept in the bed laying right next to me with her head on my feet. This was how Maggie used to lay. Since Maggie passed we have not let any hounds sleep in the bed with us. It has just been too painful of a memory, but last night, it was very much welcomed by us both.

We were told by the vet that the first 48 hours are critical and that things could surface that were not present upon her admission on Friday. At 12:30 p.m. today, we surpassed the 48 hour mark. We have a long road ahead of us for her recovery, but she continues to amaze me and is doing very well. Her right lung is bruised and will take about a month for the blood in the lung to dissipate. Her liver enzymes were elevated and we are not sure if she will have any permanent damage to any of her internal organs. We will cross that bridge if and when we come to it.

She was in the best possible care. We are lucky to have an incredible ER vet so close to home. They took very good care of her. Everyone loved her and commented on how sweet she is. Dr. Miller told us that they had moved her to a larger crate yesterday afternoon to give her some more room. When they walked away, Ziva began to Roo. She rushed back over to her crate. Ziva just wanted someone to stay with her and love on her. Dr. Miller got a good chuckle out of this. I was glad to hear that story. She Roo’s every day at our house, sometimes several times a day, so for me this was a very good sign. For now, we are very happy she is still with us. We know how extremely lucky we are that she had no broken bones, neurological damage and no brain damage. So we are enjoying every second we have with her and with Cueball and Pippi too.

Below and the one above are a few pictures I had just taken of her on Thursday night laying in her favorite spot.

Here she is today. You can see some of her injuries. Our main concern now is how she is healing on the inside. We will take it one day at a time. She is definitely enjoying all the extra love and attention. I am smothering her and she thinks that is the best!

Our wish for a healthy start to this new year is not being fulfilled so far, but I am hoping it can only get better from here and not any worse!

Hug your hounds every day, you never know what tomorrow could bring.

So……..this happened 30 minutes after I arrived home from work on Thursday.

Not a scratch on the Diva.

Pippi lost part of her dew claw.

So off to the local ER vet we went. I had to leave Pippi while they sedated her and stapled and sutured up her wounds. I was really concerned about her eye wound. I thought for sure they were going to find some underlying issue once they flipped the eyelid up. I was able to bring Pippi home around 11 p.m. that night. I stayed home with her on Friday. She was still quite loopy from the sedation and I just couldn’t leave her. I am lucky to have a very understanding supervisor. She knows my hounds are my kids. The pics above were taken today. She is healing really well. She isn’t trying to scratch at the wounds so while we are observing her, we don’t make her wear the lovely ecollar. She will have to when I return to work on Monday.

We are not sure what caused the fight. I was in the bathroom and Mitch was fixing dinner when we suddenly heard barking/screaming and both rushed to the noise. The altercation lasted about 15 seconds and took place in the middle of the living room floor. Both girls were on the their hind legs in a full fight. Mitch pulled the girls apart.

We muzzle when we leave the house and the hounds are kept in our den anytime we are gone. We muzzle when we let them outside. We have had Ziva for over six months and we have not had any issues inside. Outside, we have had one altercation between the girls. Pippi is very aggressive when she runs so the altercation seemed at the time to be in response to that. This is one of the main reasons we always muzzle to prevent anyone from getting hurt.
We thought we were taking every precaution to keep the hounds safe.

So, we definitely have an issue. Mitch and I both have never seen Pippi as an alpha female. We know that the Diva is definitely alpha. Now we are unsure if Pippi may be alpha too.

Pippi’s wounds were all superficial, thankfully and she will heal and be back to her normal self in a few weeks.

It could have been a lot worse so we know how lucky we are that these were only minor injuries. We do not want this to happen again so I made an appointment to have both girls evaluated by a dog behaviorist at the end of this month. I am sure there will be things that Mitch and I will need to improve on as well as the girls. We will do whatever it takes to make this a safe and happy home for all our hounds.

Maggie came into our lives at a time in my life when I needed her most. She filled a void that had been missing for a long time. Things always happen for a reason. And, I wonder if Ziva is here to help make me a stronger person.

Cueball says he does not want to see anything like that again. My sensitive boy is scarred for life in a different sense of the term.

We are welcoming 2014 with open arms.  2013 was another rough year for us, so we are looking forward to a happy, healthy, fun and laughter filled 2014.  That is our plan anyway!  And so far, we are accomplishing just that.  Coal was officially adopted on New Years Day, yay!  I have received several updates from his new family.  He is doing great and loving life in his forever home!  That makes me very happy.  I am so glad we met him during our trip to Orlando.  What a special boy he is. Below are a few of the pictures his Mom and Dad have sent me over the last few days.  He looks so happy and content!!

As for my hounds, everyone is happy and healthy!  It has been bitter cold, so we are hibernating inside most days.  It gives me a chance to continue practicing shots on manual mode. 

Ms. McGann came to stay with us over the New Year’s Holiday.  She is a regular boarder for us and settles right in. She and Coal took turns on the orange blanket.

Pippi prefers the couch…. the whole couch.

I have been looking at lenses.  I think I am 99.5% sold on the Canon 50mm lens.  Looks like a great lens for close up shots. I am also looking into external flashes.  I think this will really benefit me for my indoor shots.  Haven’t decided on which one would be best for me yet.

We have almost completed our kitchen remodel.  We are 99% done.  All that is left is painting the ceiling (which we are both dreading).  Walls are one thing and are easy and quick.  Ceilings are painful and it just sucks.  But we will suck it up and get it done.  We have to touch up the walls, paint the laundry room door and install the transition strip for the dining room.  We had our real estate agent come out and take a look yesterday at all we have done to the house in the almost two years we have been here.  I was ecstatic to get her feedback when she ran the numbers last night.  We are definitely on the right track for adding value to our home and if we sold it today, which we have no intention to, but if we did, we could sell for 45-55k more than we purchased the home for!!  It is great news for anyone to hear that, but especially so for DIYers, like ourselves.  We have not invested anywhere close to that increase in value.  So with that news, we know we can continue with other things on our list: convert wood burning fireplace to gas, plumb for gas for stove, install gas stove, remove carpet in den and replace with something else (not sure what yet), replace the rest of the windows (we have already done the kitchen) and remodel the hall bath.  It is a lengthy list, but we hope to tackle most of it this year.

As for the kitchen, we are very proud of our hard work.  Mitch did the majority of the labor.  I helped where I could.  I did designed most of the kitchen. 

The before picture is from the MLS listing and is really small……sorry.  I can’t figure out how to make it any bigger and I don’t have any pictures that show the before this well.  If you click on it, you should be able to get a pretty good idea of what we started with.

After:

We are both very happy with the end result and happy that we did 95% of the work.  We subcontracted out the granite counter top installation and the pot lights installation.

We have some fun things planned for 2014, so stay tuned.  We hope everyone is having a happy and healthy start to 2014!!  This year is going to be a good one! 🙂

Meet Coal (FKA TR Coal Bucket).

We first met this love bug in November when we visited the GPA-GO Kennel in Orlando.  Coal had been waiting for a home for 1 and 1/2 years at the rescue kennel.  Each hound has their own story, but when we heard Coal’s, we knew we had to help. 

Hearing his story brought back memories of when we heard Booyah’s story.  Maybe it was just my emotions carrying me away, with Booyah’s Gotcha Day falling on the week of our visit and the days approaching the one year anniversary of letting him go to Rainbow Bridge, I am not sure, but for whatever reason, I was drawn to Coal.

We got Coal out of the crate at the kennel and were able to socialize with him for a bit in the run.  His tail never stopped wagging.  Great personality, we both thought.  Again, we could not believe this hound had been waiting so long for his home.  We called the President of the adoption group we volunteer with and told her about this special boy.  We thought he might be a good match for a young couple we had recently done a home visit for.  As it turns out, he wasn’t a match.   But she could not get him off of her mind either so VAGA decided to bring him up on the next haul that was scheduled to arrive mid December and we agreed to foster him.

There will always be a soft and special spot in our hearts for the large black male greyhounds.  We have our wonderful Booyah to thank for that.  🙂  We can’t add another to pack.  We have reached our limit at three.  Although we had four hounds for several years, we know we can’t do that again.  But we can do the next best thing……advocate for their adoption.  We do a good bit of volunteer work throughout the year and have been doing so since we adopted Maggie in 2006.  Meet and Greets, conducting phone interviews and home visits of potential adopters, and hosting adoption are all great, but there is something extra special about fostering.  At least I think so. 

It did not take long for the group to find Coal his forever home.  We are still fostering Coal until his new family can take him home on New Year’s Day.  What a great way to start 2014 for Coal and his new family.  He is getting an awesome forever home and will be enjoying the good life.  We will miss him.  It is hard not to form a bond, even with a foster dog, whom you know you will not be adopting, but it feels GREAT to know we played a small part in helping this special boy find his forever home.  It makes it all worth it!

Below are some photos I have taken of Coal since he has been with us.  He is a tail wagging, happy, sweet, friendly, big, love bug and has been a joy to foster!

Coal loves this orange Afghan blanket.  We carry it from room to room for him.  He has slept on it every night. 

How he would prefer to spend all day every day.

He loves that blanket so much, he will work his way on to the bed with that blanket on it until my hounds give up and move to let him have his blanket.  I have a feeling this blanket will be going home with Coal.  🙂

He is 82lbs of pure love and happiness!  We are going miss him tons but are so thrilled that he has finally found his forever home!

We hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!  Coal sure got the best gift of all this year…..a family.  🙂

I have been trying out some night photography.  I bought a Tripod and a Wireless Remote for my Shutter recently.  I took a trip out to Brown’s Island.  I plan to go back in a few weeks now that the entire City is lit up.  🙂

This shot was taken just before it got dark.

The Twin Towers in Richmond just before dark.

Starting to get dark.  I was proud of myself for setting the camera to the correct F Stop so that I could get the star-burst effect with the street lights. 

The sun setting.  I like the light reflection in the water.

This one was my favorite.  The reflections look like little Christmas Trees.

This is the last one I took before heading home.

A week or so later, I took my camera to work and took some pictures of the sky.  I got lucky that the clouds were so “angry-beautiful” looking on that particular day.  This was just after an afternoon storm. These were taken without use of a tripod and from the waiting room window at my office.  Next on my wish list is a filter to reduce reflection from glass.

These were taken a my brother-in-law’s house in Florida during our recent trip to visit family over the Thanksgiving Holiday.

I like the way the flames came out in this shot.  It is like you can feel the fire when you look at the picture.

I liked the color of the water in the pool on this one.  The Rubber Duck was night swimming. Can you find him?

I have not figured out how to get a good shot of the pups at night.  I tried multiple times, but they don’t stay still long enough for the shutter to close.

This was the best I could get of Ziva enjoying being under a blanket next to the fire.  Yes, we brought the cold with us to Florida.  

The temps were in the 30’s a few nights the week we were there. 

Stay tuned, we have some pictures to share of our recent visit to the Greyhound Pets of America Greater Orlando Rescue Kennel.  We met all the kennel cuties!

A few weeks ago, we joined our local greyhound walking group (Around Town Hounds) for a walk in Downtown Richmond along the canal.  The weather was perfect for a walk with temps in the upper 70’s.  The pups were excited to be going somewhere.  They are always excited about riding in the van.

This was Ziva’s first group walk and she was ready for some fun.  We wait for the rest of our group so we can start our walk as the pups look on.

We begin our walk.

Ziva and Cueball stop to enjoy the breeze next to the River.

We saw some neat things on our walk, like this old train.

And this neat bridge.

The leaves on the trees were beautiful mixes of orange, yellow and red.

We stop at the art wall for a group photo. 

There was lots of neat artwork in this section of the walk.  This one below was my favorite.

Of course, we got to socialize with our fellow greyhound friends and their hounds.  They are all so sweet and beautiful!  Below are some of the hounds who attended. 

Sophie hiding behind her mom.

A pretty Japanese Maple tree along our walk.  The stairs that are to the left of the tree in this picture were a challenge for Pippi.  So I carried her down them.  🙂  I think she may have been playing me.  She knows how to do stairs and use to race up and down ours in our first house, but she froze like Eeyore and refused to move.

It was worth making the trip down the stairs to see this.

The water was like glass.

More hounds.

Ziva does not look too happy in this picture, but she actually had a great time.

Roger in for a close up.

And the highlight of our walk was watching Hilo take a break and rest in his dad Myron’s lap.  He is no small hound either.

More pretty trees.  These line the front entrance of the Mead West Vaco office building.

And more hounds.  This was at the end of our walk.  They were all pretty pooped out by then and pretty easy to photograph.

Pawnee Girl.

Rosie.

Roger.  This is my favorite shot from the day.  He sure is a stunning hound.  I like his coat color against the big tire.

But they are all so beautiful.

And were thirsty!

Harvey yawning.

Harvey says: “Now I am ready for my close up.  Don’t I look dignified?”  Yes, yes you do!

Hilo says: “It is time for a nap”.  I agree!

My fellow bloggers, I would really like some feedback on my photos please.  All the photos above were taken using Manual mode on my camera with no editing other than cropping. I just started using the Manual mode function. This setting use to terrify me. 

I am finally off Auto mode, and thrilled, so yay, but I have A LOT left to learn!   I am trying very hard to improve my shots, so any feedback you can give would be GREATLY appreciated!

Lastly, I would like to express my deepest condolences to those who have lost a beloved family member this week.  It is never an easy thing to go through. It is especially hard to lose two so close together, which I myself have gone through twice in the last year. I feel for you and what you are going through.   I was very saddened to hear of the passing of three beloved hounds and a beloved cat over this week. It just sucks, there are no other words…..

I hugged all mine a little tighter.  You never know what tomorrow brings; enjoy and love them everyday.

During the month of October, I took three trips to the mountains. This time of year is the perfect time to visit. The leaves are changing colors, which makes for beautiful landscapes. My first trip was to Roanoke, Virginia for a State Conference for work. This was my fourth trip to Roanoke. It has a very quaint and neat downtown area. I set out to take some night pictures. The Roanoke Star can be seen from all over downtown Roanoke. Whenever I visit, I have to make a trip to the Star. I am sure the locals can easily recognize me as a tourist. 🙂 That’s okay, it is too beautiful and too cool to miss!

These were taken before I bought my tripod, so there is a bit of camera shake, but I am pretty happy with the results I got.

Zooming in for a closer shot.

The moon and night sky.

On the drive home, I pulled into an overlook and took some pictures of the Mountain views.

The following weekend, I took a day trip with a friend and her family to pick apples at Carter Mountain. Her two boys, Hunter and Austin, had a blast picking apples. The apple trees are really pretty.

And the reward for all that walking, reaching and picking is a fresh, juicy apple.

We got photo bombed!

It was quite the workout for me. The terrain is steep and the bags of apples became like little arm weights, but it was fun none the less. 🙂 I picked just enough apples to make an apple pie. Below is looking down the steep hill at all the apple trees.

Two weekends later, I was in the mountains again. This time, Mitch came along. We ventured up to Graves Mountain for their festival. What started out as a weekend festival years ago has grown in popularity and is now a three weekend festival. We took the hounds with us and met our friend Judy at the festival. She brought her three hounds, Sandy, Jackson and Heidi. When we first arrived, we tried walking around for a bit to look at all the arts and crafts but we were only able to make it a few steps before the hounds drew all the attention. We were like a mini walking meet and greet. 🙂 I gave out all the VAGA business cards I had on hand. We met lots of folks and had fun spreading the word about how wonderful greyhounds are. After making it around to see all the vendors, we set up the ex-pen for the hounds. They still continued to draw in the crowds, so we continued to do meeting and greeting.

The pups loved all the attention, but were pretty pooped out after a few hours. Below are Heidi, Jackson and Sandy.

Heidi wanted some time out of the ex-pen with her mom Judy.

My kids were pretty tired too, except for Ziva. At age four, she has never ending energy. 🙂

We received some donations for the hounds also. 🙂

Next year, we will be better prepared and will bring all our meet and greet supplies. All in all it was a great event!

After the festival, we went wine tasting at a nearby winery, DuCard Vineyards. They were dog friendly so the hounds got to tag along. On the drive home, we also stopped at Prince Michel Vineyard and Winery for a tasting. The pups were allowed in to this winery as well. I did not bring my camera in, so no pictures.

It was an awesome day trip! I am way behind on my blog posts and have lots of catching up to do over the next week or so. Hope everyone is having a good fall and had a great Thanksgiving!