Got some catching up to do on the blog.  We spent Thanksgiving in Gainesville, Florida with Mitch’s brother and family.  It was warm and sunny!  My kind of weather.  🙂  We arrived on Wednesday early evening and chill for the night after a long drive down.  Since our Thanksgiving feast was scheduled for Friday, we opt to take the pups to a local dog park for a bit of a run on Thanksgiving day.  This was a great treat for the pups, since they were going to be leash walked each time they went out.  Mitch’s brother has an in ground pool, which is fabulous, just off the back sliding glass door with no fencing, so leash walking was a must. Especially after our experience at Barkwell’s in June and Maggie’s attempt to use the pond as her “doggie pool”.

Cueball knew just what he was there for when we arrived at the dog park.

It was a gorgeous day for a romp!!

Our Niece, Katie-Beth, and Cueball play.

Love this one.

 Happy, happy hound.

Sweet Greta!  I think she enjoyed having her big cousin dogs for a visit.

While Greta and Cueball enjoy their run, Pippi enjoys stalking Booyah.

Eyes on the target and then in for the pounce.

She reminds me of a kangaroo when she does this.

Something was very interesting just to the left.

After the kids romp, we took a walk on the trails and then stopped for a family photo-op.  We have very few “family photos” so I treasure everyone we have.  Thanks again Ramona for taking our pic!

After our walk, the kids get some time to play at the playground and swing.

That night, we enjoyed a nice fire outside by the pool.  Greta chased this creature up the tree.  We were amused by this possum hanging on to this small branch for over an hour before finally mustering up the courage to come down and scurry across the fence and into a neighbor’s yard.  Greta was quiet proud of herself for this accomplishment.  We gave her lots of praise!

I have always thought possums were quiet ugly.

Each morning we awoke and stepped out unto to this view.  The morning-glory on the tree to the left was beautiful.  Such a peaceful and relaxing backyard.  🙂  Next time we visit, we are taking a swim in this incredible pool.

Thanks again Ramona, Mike and Katie-Beth and Carl for your hospitality!!  We hope to visit again very soon.  🙂

In other news, we sold our home after 2 years of being on the market.  I guess persistence pays off!  We have found our new home and will be moving in on or before 2-17-12.  Pictures of the new place will be coming soon.  2012 just may be our year!!

Hope everyone had a good Christmas and has a Happy New Year!!

Booyah celebrated his 5th Gotcha Day on November 27th.  Since we were already spending the week of Thanksgiving with family in Gainesville, Florida, we thought it would be nice for the pups to take a trip 2 hours South to the Rescue Kennel we adopted them from.  All four of our pups came from the GPA-GO rescue kennel.  We were very happy to get to meet some of the volunteers and they were very happy to see all of our pups.  Booyah spent 7 months in this kennel until he found his forever home and the girls volunteering at the kennel had become quiet attached to him.  🙂  It was a very nice reunion.

Mitch and I got the tour of the facility.  They have a really nice, new store.  Mitch got a new T-shirt and I got a Gators coat for Booyah.  The picture below was taken at our house last weekend.  Too hot still this time of year to wear a coat in Florida.

Although it did cross my mind to drive up to UF and get a picture of him with his Gators collar and coat on in front of the stadium, but Saturday was a big game day (UF vs. FSU) and the traffic was unreal.  Maybe next time.  🙂

We left the kids to relax in the front with a few other hounds and some of the volunteers while we got a tour of the kennel.  We were shown where Booyah, Maggie and Pippi’s kennels were during their stay.  They also shared stories about the current dogs and their memories of our pups.

We met every dog in the kennel.  They are all sweet and beautiful.  Hard to visit and not leave with an extra, but we managed to make it out of there with only our four.  We know that they are well taken care of at this rescue kennel, but it was still heart wrenching to see this is how they live day in and day out.  It is one thing to be told and try to imagine their lifestyle, it is completely another when you see it with your own two eyes.  Just sad.  I don’t think I will ever want to visit a racing kennel……..my blood may begin to boil.

I did not snap too many pictures, which I regret now, but it is your standard kennel set up with top and bottom crates.  Girls in the top crates and boys in the bottom ones.  The kennel is full!

Below are a few of the dogs we had the opportunity to met and love on.  🙂

Above is Sundae.  She was a doll and so very sweet!  She was heading to her forever home on Sunday.  How very fitting.  🙂

Below is Mr. Bones.  He never raced and has been waiting for his forever home for two years.  His back leg is deformed and he needs a home with no other dogs and where he will receive all the attention.  We hope he finds his forever home very soon.  He is very sweet and has such soulful eyes.  He had a rough life before coming to the kennel and he deserves a loving home where he will be center of attention.

 And lastly, this is Tippie.  She is a super friendly and sweet, beautiful black girl.  She is going to make some lucky family very happy.  Her energy is contagious!

While we were out getting some kennel cutie love, our hounds were chilling in the office up front.

Maggie makes friends with Bob.  🙂

Booyah made himself right at home.

Pippi stands guard at the door.  🙂

And Cueball stays close to his brother.

 It was great visit and a unique way to celebrate 5 years with Booyah!  Happy Gotcha Day Booyah; we love you so much!!!!

Stay tuned……we have more to share about our trip to Gainesville, FL for Thanksgiving coming up in our next post.

A few months back, we were invited to join a local greyhound walking group.  We have been on several greyhound group walks the last two months and have a couple more scheduled before the end of the year.  The boys love to go places and wait patiently for us finish getting ready so they can go on their next adventure.

For our first walk in October, we took a nice stroll around the streets around Monument Avenue in Richmond.  We stop at the Monument for a group picture.  We had a nice turnout….. 23  hounds!

It was a great place to walk.  We had beautiful weather and the architecture of the older homes on Monument and the surrounding streets are fabulous!

The following weekend after our Around The Town Hounds monthly group walk, we joined some greyhound friends for Fetch A Cure’s first annual Mutt Strutt in Bryan Park.  Monies raised from this walk go to help in the fight against cancer.  Such a worthy cause!!

The walk was a day before Halloween, so we saw some interesting doggie costumes.  😛

Some were extreme like above (I felt bad for this dog) and some were cute like below.

This is House.  He is one of the largest greyhounds I have ever met at 95lbs.  His name is well suited for him.

 And Phantom is the smallest greyhound I have ever met at 45lbs.

She sure was cute in her Elephant costume.

We had a Wizard in our Team Greyhound group too.

 This dog was too cute sitting on this log waiting for the walk to begin.

Fetch A Cure had a photographer take group pictures.  Below is team greyhound.

 Our most recent walk was this morning.  We met up the ATH group at Point of Rocks Park in Chester, VA for a lovely walk.  This park is huge!!  A few pictures from today’s walk are below.

I know there is something good down there mom!

And lastly the group photo from today.  22 hounds on today’s walk……fantastic!!

I have not been around to your blogs lately.  😦  I will be stopping by next week to get caught up on what is going on with you, promise!  We are heading to a warm, sunny place for Thanksgiving!  Hope everyone has a fabulous and safe Turkey day!!!!

This is a continuation of our B&B wine weekend (see previous post).  On Saturday after we had a wonderful breakfast and a nice mile walk, we headed out to visit more wineries around Orange, Virginia.  Our first stop was Blenheim Vineyards.  This is Rocker Dave Matthews’ winery.  I just got this email from the daily sip by bottlenotes yesterday and find it suiting to this post and where the title of this post came from.  😉

This winery has spectacular mountain views and a lovely deck off of it’s a frame shape.  It was our favorite of the 7 we visited this trip.

The lovely view from the deck.

Next up was Trump Winery, (yes owned by the Donald Trump) which is just down the road from Blenheim and was formerly Kluge Estate and Vineyards.  Wine tasting is done by flight.  This was something new to both Mitch and I.  Encyclo wine defines:

Tasting flight is a term used by wine tasters to describe a selection of wines, usually between three and eight glasses, but sometimes as many as fifty, presented for the purpose of sampling and comparison.

Glasses used in tasting flights are usually smaller than normal wine glasses, and they are often presented on top of a sheet of paper which identifies each wine and gives some information about each grape or vineyard. This format allows tasters to compare and contrast different wines.

An extended tasting will typically consist of several flights, each with a theme. For example, several wines from the same region and vintage would comprise a flight, or several wines from the same variety but different regions. It is typically the responsibility of the tasting organizer to select flights that offer maximum illumination of similarities and differences, while at the same time making sure the progression of flights is appropriate.

A tasting flight can be compared with wine by the glass, which is intended for drinking.

We sampled only three and the cost was quiet expensive, we thought.  $18 to sample just three!  The wine was okay but not worth the price.

There is a large patio just outside the tasting room (below) with a tasting bar and lots of tables.

Next, we stopped at First Colony.  This winery was super busy.  We managed to squeeze into a spot at the tasting bar.  We liked their whites but did not care much for their reds.

We thought the Groome Transportation van (right side of the pic) was a good idea and one we may use in a future wine trip.  😉

As the day went on taking pictures became……errr……..challenging for me.  Next we visited Jefferson Vineyards.

Info from their home page on their website:

Thomas Jefferson brokered the sale of our land to a Florentine Viticulturilist, Filipo Mazzei, inviting him to become his neighbor and to help in realizing Jefferson’s dream for the native production of wine in Virginia. First plantings of European vinifera varieties were in 1774 – in full view of Monticello. Unfortunately the Revolutionary War interrupted this venture and it was not until 1981 that planting vineyards here again regained favor.

Jefferson Vineyards is one of the first to introduce quality, modern viticulture to Virginia and at long last help realize Thomas Jefferson’s dream. Through thirty years of experience, this modest farm winery offers select wines of superior quality. We produce between 6000 and 8000 cases annually.

Also an interesting tid bit about the most expensive bottle of wine ever sold, which I am currently reading the book about (The Billionaires’ Vinegar).

After tasting wine at 5 wineries, we were wiped out and very hungry.  We grabbed a quick lunch at a local BB&Q before heading back to the B&B for a much needed nap.  🙂

We recently took a weekend get-a-way trip to Orange, VA.  It was a perfect way to celebrate Mitch’s birthday and have a romantic weekend.  This was the first time in 4 years we had traveled without our pups.  We knew our pups were in good hands staying with the Park’s. =) We did miss them very much but it was nice to have a weekend to ourselves.  🙂  We stayed at the Inn on Poplar Hill.  We would highly recommend this B&B to anyone!  Marty and Victoria’s hospitality was above and beyond and Victoria’s cooking was wonderful!  We would definitely stay again.

As part of Mitch’s birthday present, I wanted to take him to as many wineries that I could.  🙂  We are not able to get this far west very often, so we wanted to take advantage of this opportunity.  We had beautiful weather all three days!

We started our wine tour on Friday afternoon stopping at Horton Vineyards first.

The beautiful vineyard.

With over 30 + wines to choose from on their wine list, we found 11 to try for our free tasting.  🙂

Below is just the red wine tasting area.  The whites are done at the bar.

Next up was Barboursville.  A winery I have been wanting to try for years.  🙂  It is not a very pretty winery on the outside, but they do have fantastic mountain views.

I just had to know which wines were sent over for the Royal Wedding.  Mitch just rolled his eyes.  LOL!!  I guess men just don’t get it.  Anyway, I did find out.  These two wines were sent over for the Royal Wedding: Barboursville’s Viognier Reserve 2009 and Barboursville’s Octagon 2007 10th edition.  We both were not very impressed with their wines.  We found only a few we enjoyed, but it was still worth the visit.

There are historic ruins and a nice restaurant also at this winery.

Done with wine tasting for the day, we headed back to the B&B to get freshened up for a nice dinner at Elmwood at Sparks in Orange.  Chef Cooper’s menu changes weekly and he uses ingredients fresh from local farms.

Mitch and I both had the Butternut Squash w/Crab Meat soup to start.

Mitch choose the Filet…..

while I went for the lamb……    😉

For dessert Mitch enjoyed this lovely chocolate dish.  I had the creme Brulee.  Both were yummy!

It was the perfect way to top off the evening!

Stay tunned for part 2 of our weekend trip in our next post.

My last post on Celebrating Cueball’s gotcha day was cut off.  I had another cute pic and more verbage to share, but it some how did not publish……GRRR!! Just noticed this today at work.  I had problems with Blogger with not being able to post and now this is the second time I have had difficulty with losing info. in wordpress.  If this continues, my blogging days may be over.  I simply don’t have the patience for stuff like this, especially with such a slow internet connection at home. It takes twice as long to do anything.

I have gone back in and added the missing info.  Hope our readers will take another look!

Anywho, a few weeks back we hosted a fairly large, that is for us anyway, adoption day for VAGA.  Four hounds were adopted, including a set of littermates.  1 dog made the journey to Fredericksburg for his adoption day.  At the same time we were also hound sitting Sunday and Finley for the weekend.  We don’t hound sit often and these two are always a lot of fun to watch.

Below are a few pics from adoption day of the new families and some of Sunday and Finley’s recent stay with us.

Above is Dash and his new mom.  Below are littermates Livewire and Goodie with their new mom.

And last, but not least UMR Frenchie and his new mom and dad.

All the hounds have settled in nicely and are doing well!  Don’t you just love happy endings?  We sure do!  And, we love being a part of it, albeit a very small part.  🙂

Finley is a bit of an errr…….lap dog.

He did this most of the weekend.

Sunday tried to get Pippi to play with her all weekend.  Pippi was not having any of it.  Sunday did not give up though.

Of course we had lots of treat times during their stay.

Three sits.  🙂

Sunday and Maggie napping.

Sunday did have a comfortable spot resting her head on Pippi’s rump until Pippi decided to roach.  🙂  Poor Sunday.

We had a bit of a scare at around 11 a.m. on Sunday afternoon with Sunday and for the first time we heard the Greyhound Scream of Death.  We have heard others reference this and have read about it on others’ blogs but had never encountered it for ourselves.

Sunday was laying on a dog bed on the living room floor when out of nowhere she started to scream when she tried to stand up.  Mitch and I both went over to her and started to try to figure out what had just happened.  My heart was racing!  She screamed again when she tried to move.  We were really becoming concerned at this point.  She would not stand up at first so we tried to exam her while she was laying down.  We tried to determine if there were any points of pain.  Finally we got her to stand up…..It felt like eternity but it was only a few minutes.  We examined her again.  We could not re-create the scream.  She layed back down and we continued to monitor her.  She seemed to magically be fine.  Her mom and dad picked her up about two hours later.  We told them what had happened and advised to monitor her.

We are happy to report she is doing fine.  Mom/Dad think it may have been just a cramp.  She has not had any reoccurrence, which is great news.  That is definitely not a sound I care to hear any hound make ever again.  I now understand why it is called the Scream of Death.

Next up is our B&B Wine Trip.  So stay tuned!  We have lots more to share.  🙂

I am bit backed up on posts.  🙂  This week I plan to get caught back up.

Back on September 19th we celebrated Cueball’s 4th Gotcha Day.

 He is a dog who loves sunshine.  He lives to lay in the sun!  Probably why he loves our beach trips so much.

He is my most muscular and most active hound.  He romps in the yard daily and still has huge hammies even after 4 years off the track.

We get the most compliments on his ears.  I do think he has the best ears of any hound I have seen.  They are quiet unique. 😉

No hound loves blankets or this chair more than Cueball.

From day one Cueball stole his daddy’s heart!  We are very lucky to have such a fun loving hound to share our lives with.  We hope for many more wonderful years together!!

Recently we celebrated three big days in September.  I will share two of them in this post.  Stay tuned for the third big day in a later post.  🙂  September 14th marked Maggie’s 5th Gotcha Day and September 27th Maggie turned 11.  Hard to believe our little Monkey is eleven years old.  Time sure has flown by way too quickly!

I thought it would be neat to step back in time and share some of the photos some of you may not have seen before.  It was fun for me looking back through these old photos and a great way to celebrate the Queen!  🙂

Below is our adoption day picture (9-14-06).  We had no idea how much our lives were about to change!

Maggie getting settled in and getting the royal treatment.  Her first week in her forever home. Poor girl came up from the rescue kennel in Florida in heat so they could not spay her until her cycle had ended.  She was in a foster home for a week then came to our house for a couple of days then to the vet then to another foster home for an overnight.  She had a whirlwind first couple of weeks.

The only toy that has survived through the years is the frog who is laying flat in the above picture.  She brought a tear to me eyes when she started playing with this toy on her 5 gotcha day.  🙂

About 6 months with us.  Look how black her face was!

About 1 year with us.  Not only has she long ago stolen my heart, but now she starts stealing my seat on the couch!  She is quiet clever about going about getting a seat on the couch.  She will bark for no apparent reason to get the other hounds up off the couch and down the hall investigating her recent barks.  While they are busy she picks her prime spot on the couch.  She also is a drink thief.  She will drink right out of my water glass.  While I get up to get a new glass of water, she swoops in and steals my seat on the couch.  She has out smarted all of us a time or two.  🙂

About 2 years with us.  Starting to show more white in the face.

About 3 years with us.  Still spunky, still sweet, still inquisitive.  🙂

And at about four years with us.  The tribute post to her would not be complete without a picture of her with her favorite toy……Cuz.

It is no secret that Maggie is my favorite.  She is my heart dog.  I do love all our pups, but Maggie and I share a very special bond that is hard to put into words.  So you may be wondering just how this special girl spent her two special days.  She did what she loves to do the most.  She played with toys lots!  She also got lots of extra attention/love, and treats throughout the day.

We are hoping for many more wonderful years together!  We love our queen dog Miss Maggie Mae.  🙂

We made our annual trip down for Beach Bound Hounds a week ago.  This is by far one of our favorite Greyhound events.  Grapehounds is our other favorite event.  This year we spent the majority of time just hanging out on the beach with the pups.  The weather this year was cooler than last year so the pups got to spend lots of time with us on the beach.  I managed to finish two books on this trip, yay!!  Mitch kept his daily exercise routine with morning walks on the beach and did sets of stairs too.  🙂  Above and below are just some of the cute pics of the pups enjoying their time on the beach.  We rented chairs on Friday so we would not have to lug our’s around and so we would have an umbrella.  Well worth the cost!!

Our view from our 6th floor beachfront balcony.

With an airport so close by, we saw lots of planes.

The fur kids made theirselves right at home while in the hotel room.

Although our forecast looked horrid, the weather held out for us for most of our week.  We have a few T-storms, but they did not last long.  Nothing quiet like sitting out on your balcony on the beach watching a storm roll in.  Mitch took these shots while I was in the shower.

Of course after the storm, the beautiful rainbow appears.  Look closely, it is there, although it is a little hard to decifer.

The sun was soon back out again.

We did a little bit of shopping on this trip.  Mac, the greyhound, was too cute to pass up (below) and besides the pups needed a toy since I failed to pack one.  😉  His collar has “We Remember 9/11” on it.  We also got two new collars.  We are working on getting NFL and College collars for our pups.  So far we have Colts, Patriots and Steelers.  On this trip we picked up a Florida Gators collar and an Ole Miss collar.  The Ole Miss collar was a lucky find!  I have been looking for over a year for someone who has made or would make an Ole Miss collar.  When we walked over to look at what the vendors had on Saturday, I wasn’t expecting to walk out with an Ole Miss collar, it was a pleasant surprise.  We stopped by the Happy Hounds Design booth saw the Gators collar and a few other college/NFL teams.  The two ladies at the booth had their sewing machines set up and were working on making bandannas.  They both asked if we were looking for something in particular.  Mitch said, “Do you have any Ole Miss collars.”  Lynne said no, but I have the fabric and can make one.  At this point, we were both thinking we would be getting the collar by mail.  Nope, she showed us the fabric and said she would work on making the collar and to come back in a few hours to pick it up.  Awesome!!!  When we went back over to pick up the collar, Lynne told us that last year a woman came by her booth with a friend.  Her friend purchased three University of Georgia collars.  Lynne asked the woman if there was a collar she was interested in and the woman said yes, but you won’t have it.  Lynne was intrigued and asked what team it was and said if she could get the fabric, she would make it and could mail it to her.  So Pippi’s new collar is only the 2nd one she has ever made.  Kind of cool!  Oh and her collars are priced fantastically.  $15 for one or $25 for two.  So long as she can find the fabric, she will make whatever collar you want.  🙂

Pippi’s new collar.  Go Ole Miss Rebels!!!!!!

We spent most nights with friends drinking wine/beer on the big patio and hanging out with the hounds.  Below is Trina’s Cali on Auntie Kristen’s lap, which I understand is one of Cali’s favorite places to be is in someone’s lap.  🙂  More pics of BBH can be seen at Trina’s blog (just click on Cali’s name above for the link).

Back on the beach, Maggie uses Booyah as a head rest.  Beach life is so good!!

So many of our friends attended BBH this year.  Newcomers to the event were Matt and Mindy with their hounds below.

Meet Norman.

Max.

And Sera (she is the one buried in the sand).  Talk about Beach Bums!!

Of course another great thing about the beach are the lovely sunrises we enjoyed from our balcony each morning.

It is always so hard to say goodbye to the beach!  I have said it before, but I really am a beach girl!  I could live the beach life every day!!  Until next year, BBH!!  We hope old and new friends will join us at BBH 2012.  If you haven’t been to this event, we highly recommend it!!

Stay tuned, Maggie’s 5th gotcha day and 11th Birthday post coming soon.

er…… okay it wasn’t really literally a rock and a hard place, but Cueball had an interesting night Friday.

First you will need some background info. to understand our bed time routine.  Once the fur kids are done with their final potty break each night, between 9:30 and 10:00 p.m., we head upstairs for bed.  Cueball is usually the first one to rush upstairs so that he can get his favorite spot on our old couch, which is covered with soft fleece blankets to hide its ugliness. 🙂  Cueball loves his bankies!

Friday night he was the first hound upstairs, but decided to lay on the double stacked dog beds by my side of the bed, which are positioned like this……

I thought it unusual, but did not try to get him to move.  Booyah took the couch spot since Cueball had decided on another spot to lay.  Maggie sleeps on the bed with us and Pippi sleeps on double stacked dog beds on the floor on Mitch’s side of the bed.

It was a quiet night.  We all slept well, or so I thought.  We were awakened by Booyah and his cold nose in our face.  🙂  I got up turned on the hall light and called the pups out for potty.  Booyah, Maggie and Pippi were accounted for.  No Cueball.  I scanned the bedroom and hall and did not see him.  We sleep with our bedroom door closed, so I knew he had to be somewhere in the room.  I started to panic.  Where could he be?  I called his name again.

Then out of the corner of my eye, I saw his legs and part of his nose from under our bed.  I yelled for Mitch to get up and help me to push the bed.  Cueball was stuck!  His legs were moving back and forth, like he was trying to attempt to get up.  Below is the spot where he was laying.

We got the bed moved so that he could stand up.  He seemed a bit sore, but okay.  We are not sure how he managed to wiggle himself underneath the bed.  We are puzzled at why he did not yelp or bark to let us know.  Who knows how long he was laying like that.  😦  He is usually a very vocal dog and will let you know when he wants or needs something.

I don’t have any pictures of him underneath the bed.  I was too concerned at the time with just getting him out.  Afterwards, I measured the space between the floor and the wood slat on my side of our sleigh bed.  It is 7 inches.  Underneath the bed between the floor and the bottom of the box spring is 9 inches.  I also noticed the beds he was laying on were pushed towards the couch (see below).

Yesterday he yelped a few times when he changed position in the way he was laying.  He must still be sore was my initial thought.  This morning for the after breakfast potty break he was given a dog biscuit for his treat.  While chewing a piece broke off.  He was unable to bend down to pick up part of his biscuit he was chewing.  He instead was trying to use his paw to move it closer to him.

So now I am a bit worried and feel a vet visit is in order.  Mitch and I both witnessed this and we both tried to do an exam on him to see if he had any painful spots.  We did not get any painful or negative reaction during our examination.  I gave him half of a Rimadyl and he is now resting.

Hoping he is going to be okay.  Maybe he is just still sore or lame from laying on one side all night and not being able to lift or move his body much?  i am hoping that this is all that it is and it is not something more serious.  Just not sure.  I have never experienced this before with any of my dogs.  Does anyone have any advice or suggestions?