Good news, Martini is finally accepting the new addition! He slept on the bed like he used to, and is roaming around the house like usual. How much room does one Pit Bull, one Maine Coon, and one Greyhound take up on the bed?? ALL OF IT!

Disciple hanging on the bed...

As you can see, the new addition has made himself at home! He's doing pretty well and is adjusting nicely. He isn't showing too many more signs of separation anxiety so that's a good thing. The only bad thing about having him is that Martini won't come out of the bathroom sink. If he doesn't start coming out in the next couple days, he might just be too traumatized and I may need to send Disciple back. It'll be a shame, but I can't have a disturbed cat either. After all, he was here first.

Night One With Disciple Was A Doooozy!

Well, I sure hope night two goes better with Disciple then night one did. The poor guy had no idea where he was and whined, barked, and cried the ENTIRE night. Not true, he finally passed out from exhaustion at about 3am and slept until 5am. I did the same! I tried everything to calm him down. I gave him a bed, his crate, and lots of floor space in my bedroom, I gave him the entire bedroom, I tried to lay down on the floor with him, I put him on the bed with Rusty and I, I went into a different room, nothing seemed to calm him down. I'm not sure what finally did the trick but at least we got a couple hours sleep.

This morning wasn't much better either. I made the mistake of taking Rusty for a run and putting Disciple in his crate for an hour. When I got back, he had torn up Rusty's sleeping bag and had gone to the bathroom inside the crate. This is a tell-tale sign of separation anxiety so I called the Greyhound Society to find out what to do. She basically scolded me for taking Rusty away from Disciple so soon. How the hell was I supposed to know how he'd react! Anyways, she was going to take him to her house but I decided to give it a few more days and see what happens. I will be leaving Rusty with him when I'm gone and next weekend I'll try to get Rusty out for another run and see if Disciple still has anxiety. If so, I'll either have to foster a second greyhound to stay with Disciple, or bring him back. Rusty can't be punished and forced to stay home just because Disciple can't handle a bit of time alone. We'll see how things go this week.

On the good side, he learned the dog door in less then an hour and is doing his business outside. He tried to mark a few things when he first got here but hasn't done that today. He knows the word NO really well, and is a pretty good listener over all. I hope he starts to enjoy his new digs soon because he's a pretty good dog.

Wish me luck with my new friend!

Disciple on the way to my house

Rusty & Disciple on day 1. They seem to be getting along just fine, although Rusty keeps trying to "show his dominance"

Disciples Pedigree and Race Info

Disciple was born in June '03 and was 1 of 11 puppies. He ran in 110 races from December '04 to June '07. He won 17 races and came in 2nd 16 times. Most of his 550 yard races were run in just over 30 seconds. http://www.greyhound-data.com/d?i=1044468 in case you want to check it out for yourselves...enjoy!

Kitten Update...

The kittens and mom are doing well. They're getting more and more fun each day! Last night 4 of the 7 decided it was time to venture out of their room and down the hall. They would get about 6-8 feet out and come running back to the room. They thought they were pretty cool. I have gotten 5 of the 7 to eat, including the 2 young ones. I was worried that mom would kick them off her so I kept tempting them with yummy smelling viddles, it worked! Now I just need the last two to start eating and we're all set. It'll be really hard to give them back to the Humane Society, but unlike what people are saying, I'm not going to become the cat lady!! And besides, they're kittens and should be adopted out pretty quickly, at least that's what I'm telling myself every day.

A temporary addition to the family.

Well, I decided to start fostering Greyhounds so I talked with the AZ Adopt a Greyhound Society last week and got accepted. They gave us a tour of the track, history on the breed, and lots of information that I had never heard of before. It was a great time and I look forward to my new adventure. Did you know that the winner of each race is rewarded with a Twinkee?! Neither did I...

I pick up my first dog tonight and I am pretty excited. His name is Disciple (What, a religious dog?! I know, it doesn't suit me!). I don't know much about him except that he's a smaller chocolate colored male. Pretty sure he was a racer too.

As some of you know, I have wanted to adopt a Greyhound for some time now. It wasn't until Rusty picked me that I thought I was ready for a dog at all. The last two and a half years has been awesome with Rusty around and I think we're all ready for an addition to the family. Hopefully Disciple will get along with everyone, he passed his cat test at the Shelter so it should be fine. I guess I'll find out soon enough.

I'll post some pictures after I have him. Wish me luck!

Kona eating.

Rusty bored from just having to watch and not play with the kittens.

Madison enjoying a bit of time alone.

Emily and Janelle having fun with the kittens! The kittens look forward to them visiting again real soon.

Where are those little kittens!

Kitten Update

The kittens got to meet Rusty this week and boy was that fun. Rusty couldn't understand what these little meowing creatures were until they came up to him and hissed and scared him. It's pretty interesting to see a tiny hissing and arched backed kitten push a 80 pound Pit Bull out of the room! The 5 older kittens have started to get used to Rusty now and don't hiss anymore, but the two little ones (Vegas and Sydney) are still a bit ornery with him. They just started venturing out of the kennel and are starting to climb the scratching post ramp and play with toys a bit. Madison is staying out of the kennel more and more so I expect the kittens to start eating soft food pretty soon. They sure have the chompers for solid food! Yes, I've been used as a chew toy a time or two this week. Kona is always the first kitten to run out of the kennel and greet me and climb up on my lap when I enter the room. He's usually followed by Niagara and Diego, then Portland. Victoria is still pretty shy, but once she's out of the kennel she is more social. Portland is my little climber, he was able to scale the blanket that is on the kennel and get to the top. His approach for getting down was to do a belly flop onto the scratching post and roll down the rest of the way. Luckily he didn't get hurt because it's about a 2 foot high kennel. I think Madison needs to teach him the art of landing on his feet soon! Martini and Boona have both come to the room but only Boona has been brave enough to enter. The first time he didn't have a clue that there was a mom and 7 kittens in the kennel. The next time he was greeted by a hissing protective mother cat but that didn't phase him a bit. Martini hasn't stepped foot in the room yet, and that's probably a good thing because he's kind of nasty to newcomers. Enjoy the pics and keep coming back. These guys are growing like weeds and I'll try to post each week.

4 Weeks Old & Playing Hard

Wanna Play ??

I'm a big boy now!

Three Weeks Old & Getting Playful

What is that little thing by my feet!?!

When they gonna stop feeding on me!

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The kittens are growing nicely...

As I have mentioned, I have 7 foster kittens and a mother cat staying with me for a while. Well, it turns out that they are from two litters and 2 of them are at least a week younger then the others. The 5 older kittens are getting big and brave. As soon as I open the spare room door, they are pawing and climbing over the cardboard barricade on their kennel, wonder why they don't do that when I am gone for the day?! Once they are out of their nest, they are cruising all over the place! They learned to run the other day and boy is that a sight to see. Most of the time their back feet run faster then the front and they are tumbling over each other. They are also starting to drink water, use the litter box, and play with kitty toys. Oh yeah, did I mention that they know how to hiss already. Too funny! One of their other favorite things is to climb up my pants and sit on my lap. It's fun having them around, but boy are they going to be lil rascals soon!

Good news...My first foster cat Uno was adopted last night!!! He was the last one adopted from the shelter yesterday and is going to a home with 5 other cats. What a relief!

Now that's a tan line! And to think, we only had 3 days of sun...

Is it time to go home yet? I miss my animals!

Camping after a long day of riding. I ended up riding just over 600 miles in two weeks. It was a great trip and we saw some really neat things.

Taking the little ferry boat around Victoria after our whale watching adventure.

We saw whales! It was a once a year occurence too where all three pod that live near the San Juans come together for mating and such. The young males were showing off and we saw about 20 full body breaches out of the water. SWEET! I didn't capture any of them on film unfortunately, but the trip was complete. Now, back to pedalling that bike I brought up here...

On my way to see Orca. Well, I hope to see them anyways!

I'm cuter in person!

They're starting to leave mom a little bit. Be brave!

Rusty

Boona

Martini

Madison and her 7 kittens. One week old...

When I brought Uno back to the HS, I picked up this mom and her 7 kittens. They said the kittens were a week old, but they were pretty sure that two of them were not from the same litter because they were smaller and didn't have their eyes open. We stuffed mom and kittens into a crate and off I went...

2nd foster cat Madison and some of her 7 kittens

My first foster cat Uno. Uno came to me on August 1st because he had an injury to his side and needed between 2 and 4 weeks of foster care. When I got him, he was scared and timid, but very sweet and lovable. He had 4 stitches and was on antibiotics. After a few days in my house, Uno came down with an upper respiratory infection and needed more medicine. He healed nicely and I had to return him to the Humane Society on August 18th. It was very hard to let him go, but my spare room was quickly filled when I brought home a mother cat and 7 week old kittens. What was I thinking?!