Happy Birthday Spike!

Today is the day we somewhat arbitrarily assigned as Spike's birthday (having been a rescue we don't know his exact birthday). Hard to believe he's two years old! For your entertainment I'm recycling a couple of early pix:

Love of My Life

For those who don't know, when I first started this blog I started using the acronym "LoML" to refer to my dear, sweet husband....it's short for "love of my life." And he is. We recently celebrated our 19th anniversary.

He went to my favorite local gift shop and got me these lovely garden stakes...special-ordering the greyhound :D

Made in USA. Nice.

I'm so grateful to have been blessed to find and marry my best friend. Love you LoML!

Happy Birthday Willow, 2014

I'm cheating this morning. I'm re-posting. I don't think I've ever done this before...and to be fair to myself, at least I'm adding a few notes here to update things. Anyway, today is Willow's birthday. She's *14*! Hard to believe. Seems like just the other day she was so tiny!!! I was going to do a post with some kitten pix...then remembered that I did one last year...and it has all the pix I'd want to show you...again!

I will update you a little. Since last year's birthday (as you know) we've added Spike to the household. And he's been a blessing for Willow....because it gives Xander someone closer to his own age to play with! There's much less jumping on Willow...and she appreciates that.

She's started having thyroid issues. As good as she always was at letting me give her insulin shots (still not needing those!), she's not very good about taking oral meds. She won't eat a pill hidden in any kind of food or treat, and she foams out liquid meds (a remarkable phenomenon wherein cats can produce 34 times more foam to come out than medicine going in when they don't like the taste!) My vet friend (she who brings us kittehs) told us about giving the thyroid medicine as a transdermal "gel" (more like a cream) that's placed inside the ear and absorbed through the skin. It's pretty cool that they can do that...and much less traumatic for all concerned.

Wil' also seems to have a little arthritis-type stuff going on...but who doesn't? All-in-all, she seems pretty healthy and content and we're so grateful to celebrate another birthday with her! HAPPY BIRTHDAY WILLOW!

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Our sweet Willow turns 13 today!! She and her dear brother Oz, who died in July, came to live with us when they were six weeks old. They were so adorable :D

Willow on left, Oz on right

Oz! You got somethin beside you! Don't worry, I'll get it!!!

I bitez your head!

This next one was taken the night we brought them home, or the next day. The two of them together barely covered LoML's elbow! They were virtually indistinguishable but for the dark patches on their heads. Oz's was dark grey and made a "V", while Willow's was dark brown and was a "slash" mark. Over the years, the marks faded away completely....

Teenagers:

Oz in front..

Oz in front..

Willow's our diabetic girl...well, at least she was diabetic...it's in remission right now (though I'm not sure that's the correct medical terminology). She was diagnosed when she was 2 years old. She was insulin dependent for the next 10 years, requiring shots twice daily. Sometime this past year...after we lost Oz maybe...her metabolism changed (?) and she no longer needs insulin! I continue to monitor her glucose levels and my vet tells me that there may come a time when we'll have to start it again, but so far, so good.

I believe Willow misses her dear, sweet brother...as we do....but Xander, a/k/a The Orange Menace, has kept her quite busy! :D He's ruthless as kittens can be, and takes every opportunity to leap on her, pin her down, and bite her neck (unless it's one of those times when he thinks he should lick her...which she never seems to appreciate since he does it while pinning her down). She's lost weight as she's now getting much more exercise than she was there for awhile. While she channels her evil alter ego when she has to go the vet's (can you blame her since her early experiences consisted of having to have blood draws every couple of hours?) she is one of the sweetest cats I've ever known. Another interesting fact is that she's decided it's time now to move to daylight savings time. :D She's my furry alarm clock. While she will progress to more attention-demanding tactics if I don't respond, she always starts out just by sitting by my head and purring. Loudly. :D

Happy Birthday girl!!!

Wedding Reception Decorations

Honored to have been a bridesmaid in my friends' wedding this past weekend...tell you all about it later...

National Dog Day

Hi. And welcome to National Dog Day. As I am running seriously behind schedule this a.m. this post will be continued later on tonight....for now, I leave you with a preview:

That's right! It involves turtles!!!

One Year Old!

Today is Xander's birthday! At least, that's what we've decided. You know, with a rescue baby at some point you just have to declare a day to be their day :D And today is his. He's come a long way from being a tiny, sick, underweight little guy that a concerned citizen who found him didn't think would make it. He's now gone from being behind the curve....to *way* ahead of it! He now weighs roughly 13 pounds! The days of formula and kitten chow are over.

 

This is what he was up to today:

 

Quite a bit different from this little guy:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY XANDER!!!

Happy New Year!

This is what was going on around the house yesterday afternoon:

You'd think we'd had a wild and crazy New Year's Eve party that wore everyone out! But no. Just the normal (preferred) quiet start to a new year....trying to stay awake to see the ball drop on tv...acknowledging once again that there's NO way I would ever want to be in that crowd...sharing a smooch before trundling off to bed. It's all good. No, they weren't kept up too late...they just wanted to be sure to start 2013 off on a good note. Doing what they do. Keeping up on the beauty rest!

The Fox and The Hound...

...or, The Best Christmas a Hound Ever Had!

Gwyn here at the keyboard. Just wanted to report that it was the best Christmas ever around here! Mom didn't realize that even though Santa barely slowed down when he went by on Saturday (see Mom's Christmas Eve post) that I had time to tell him what I wanted. And boy, did he deliver! First, here I am, admiring the tree, being good, and hoping Santa won't forget me!

 My lil' kitteh, Xander, got him a sparkly mouse:

 He likes to pounce it.

 And then drag it backwards towards his lair:

 Here's the moment! Mom's handing me my new bestest toy ever....a fox!

 Xander also got a catnip toy (since Wil' got some treats she likes)...but Wil' decided she might like the catnip toy for herself!

 Me & my fox :D

 I have to keep checkin' on him to be sure he's okay.

 Meanwhile, the Orange Menace looked particularly cute in his pile'o'papers. He thought that was the bestest part of the whole Christmas morning deal. He thinks Mom & Dad should keep the papers out the whole year round.

 I tired myself out, but didn't let Mr. Fox get far.

 But here's the great thing...not only did I get a fox, I got a treat maker!!!!

 I had to supervise Mom to make sure she knew what she was doing.

 Fifteen minutes is a long time to expect a greyhound to wait for a peanut butter cookie! Even worse was when Mom found that this particular recipe did better cooking 20 minutes!!!

 I about gave up..(Mom thinks this shot with my back leg sticking out is funny for some unknown reason!)

 Me & Mr. Fox...watching the world go by....wondering if we'll ever get to try peanut butter cookies.

 Mom wants everybody to know that Dogs Rule! She & Dad got me this t-shirt at Westminster Dog Show one year (well, maybe they got it for my great-uncle Phil, but it fits me better!)

 After an epoch or so, they were done:

 Ah, mana from heaven!

 Nom nom nom nom nom...

 I didn't get to see her, but Mom thought her bro'n'law's little Yorkie, Zoe, was over-the-top cute in what she & her other SIL decided was a kilt!

 Mom says even though we really enjoyed all our goodies, that this Christmas was nice because we got to spend time with the people, hounds, cats and horses that we love and reflect on the true meaning of Christmas. (*And* eat peanut butter cookies with Mr. Fox!)
Love, Gwyneth

The Horror!

Bad enough that my blog has "dog" in the title, and generally has something to do with dogs in one way or another...but today is a momentous day...that's right: It's Oz & Willow's 12th birthday!!! And who (whom?) should be pictured bright and early this morning??? Gwyn! That blog hog! We are not amused!

We look all cute & cuddly, but actually you caught us in the middle of plotting to take over the world. We would have already done it if only we had opposable thumbs!

We weren't sleeping!

Did you at least bring home birthday noms?