November 2006 Archives

Its not that I don't want to keep him. He's fitting in perfectly here. He and Maddie are getting along great, he likes to go for long walks, he's quiet and calm.

Its just that there is a LOT that is going to happen in the next several months that is sort of up in the air.

I was really going back and forth yesterday .. "should I just admit it? I failed fostering!" ... really torn about the whole thing. And then I remembered the job situation. I have no idea where we will be living next year. If I get to stay at my current job (which, as you know, is what I really want), we will be buying a house in KC and the dog will not be a problem at all. BUT if I don't get that job, who knows where I will end up. I've applied for positions in DC (not because I especially want to live in DC, but because the jobs sound amazing) ... I can't imagine it is easy to find an affordable apartment in DC that will take ONE big dog, let alone two. And there is no way around the fact that he is a really big dog (someone asked yesterday if he was a dane!). At 55 pounds Maddie is small for a lab and can easily be placed in the "medium" size category. Coin is just BIG.

This doesn't mean we are not getting him. I don't know how long I will be fostering him, but I'm certainly in no rush to send him away. He is doing really great here and seems so much happier and healthier than when I brought him home. And he and Maddie seem to really be starting to bond. They still don't play together that much but they seem to be getting along great. Yesterday on our walk we stopped and had a long conversation with a lady who was asking all kinds of questions about the greyhound. While we were talking i looked down and Coin's head was resting comfortably on Maddie's back (apparently when they're standing she's at perfect head resting height). This morning we woke up and the dogs were sandwiched in between us and Maddie was resting HER head on Coin's butt. They're totally becoming pals.

So, he's here for now, but not permanently. We'll see how things play out in the future.

He really is awfully cute tho isn't he?

... even with his bendy nose ...

I almost cried today. The bad kind of crying, not the good kind of crying.

I saw a side of my sweet little princess of a girlydog that I had never seen before. I always tell people "oh, she doesn't have an aggressive bone in her body". But apparently, she has a territorial bone. She was on the couch this afternoon and Coin walked up and Maddie snarled at him. Not just a little growl, didn't just show a little tooth ... it was an actual snarl.

I almost cried.

My sweet little beautiful baby ... growling at another dog?! Never! But the truth is, in her only dog-ness, we have let her become a little spoiled. I promptly kicked her off the couch. Its not her couch to rule and if she thinks it is, she's not going to get to lay on it.

Twenty minutes later, for the first time, they PLAYED together. Coin's playful side is really starting to come out. I threw a toy, he picked it up and next thing I knew they were romping around the living room sharing the toy. My heart melted. Talk about a roller coaster.

So, aside from the snarl, I'd say things are going well. He is an absolute trip to have around. GiraffeDog is so tall that I'm having to learn to push stuff back from the edge of the counter ... and I mean WAY back. He can rest his nose on the kitchen counter without even trying. Tonight I tried to eat leftover thanksgiving dinner on the couch ... that wasn't going to happen because he and I were at the same eye level and I felt like he was about to take the food right out of my mouth. So I decided to eat at the kitchen table. Only problem is that the kitchen table is at the perfect height for him to rest his head on!

They say that retired greyhounds, at least in the first months after retirement are like little kids, and they're right. Normal dogs are raised in houses and apartments and learn the sounds and sights of a home as they're growing up. Everything is new to this guy and its so cute when he discovers something new.

The night we brought him home I turned on the tv and he went and stood right in front of it, clearly watching. He went and sniffed around behind the tv, trying to figure out where what he was seeing was coming from, and just couldn't figure it out.

I have one of those alarm clocks that makes nature sounds (altho they don't sound like anything I've ever heard in nature). Yesterday morning the alarm went off and I woke up and looked at Coin who was laying in bed with his head up, tilting it from side to side, listening to the frog sounds trying to figure out where in the heck they were coming from.

The cutest, tho, was tonight on our walk, when we walked past a house with blinking Christmas lights. He stopped in his tracks the driveway, cocked his head from side to side and just stared with wonderment at the lights. He looked like a little kid discovering the wonders of Christmas decorations for the first time. So so sweet.

He's making it very hard to send him back.

We made it through the night with no problems whatsoever. When it was bed time Josh, Maddie and I slept in the bed and Coin slept curled up on some blankets on the floor. Not a peep from him all night.

True to form he's spent most of the day sleeping. I took the two dogs for a walk this afternoon with only minimal trouble and got several "VERY pretty greyhound!" comments. I'm not gonna lie, it felt kinda cool.

He's so good and so quiet and we're starting to see a little more doggyness coming out of him. He's becoming more interested in toys ... he hasn't actually played with them yet but perks up when you throw something seems to be interested in squeeakers.

The funniest thing about the two dogs together is that Maddie has decided that when Coin is in her way she can just walk right underneath him (did I mention that he's REALLY tall?!). She fits in the space right in front of his back legs and barely even has to duck. And he lets her. Its hilarious. Her favorite trick is "crawl" and tonight we were getting her to crawl under him ... too funny. I've gotta get a picture of that somehow.

All is quiet now. The mutt is curled up on the couch and the hound is sacked out in the sleeping bag. Fostering is fun.

After work this afternoon I picked up the greyhound, Coin, who is my foster baby for the week. When I first saw him my initial thought was "wow ... he's much cuter than his pictures!". He has a very very sweet face and is so unbelievably graceful. He's a dark red brindle with a white blaze on his chest and white on the tips of his feet. And he's BIG. He's a bit underweight, but once they fatten him up a bit this guy is gonna be HUGE. He's really really tall ... I don't even have to bend over to pet him when we are standing up! He makes Maddie look like a dwarf dog.

So anyway, we made the hour long drive (bloody rush hour) back to Looneyville and introduced Coin and Maddie out in the parking lot of my apartment. They seemed to have no problem so we decided to take them for a walk before we brought him inside for the first time (Caesar would be proud). The two of them were hilarious walking together. This ridiculously tall greyhound and a teeny tiny little lab. And they kept crashing into eachother ... too freakin' funny.

After our walk we brought the dogs inside. Coin sniffed around and drank a ton of water and promptly threw up all over the carpet. This was a massive pile of doggy puke ... mostly water and undigested food. Yuck. I don't think all the excitement of the car ride and new place agreed with his stomach much.

Anyway, the dogs are totally passed out. One on the bed and one on the floor, both snoring away.

Ah! I'm so excited!!

We were just helping out at a greyhound meet and greet that was here in town. People bring out their dogs and sit in a pet store and tell everyone how wonderful they are. These are important because when most people think of greyhounds they picture them looking all lean and mean and muzzled. In reality they're big babies and at meet and greets people get to see that.

Anyway, the woman who is the volunteer coordinator is desperately looking for someone to dogsit one of their adoptables over Thanksgiving weekend. One of the local doggie resort type places is generous enough to donate one of their kennels to the group, so we always have at least one adoptable kennelled out there. Apparently they get kicked out tho on busy holiday weekends because the kennel needs the room for customers who actually pay, so this guy needs a place to go for a few days! FUN!

I just checked him out on the website and he's a pretty dark brindle boy. What the chick failed to mention is that he is HUGE! I pick him up on Tuesday after work and he will stay until Monay! I am going to spoil him rotten! :)

Saturday was a beautiful day and the boyfriend and I hit the trails. We celebrated with sushi and went home to watch some basketball. An hour later I felt a little strange. Two hours later a night of hell began.

Without going into all the gory details, lets just say that I spent the better part of Saturday night sleeping on the floor in the bathroom. Even with my sleeping bag, blankets, and towels piled on top of me, I was still shivering like crazy. You will all be happy to know that my 15+ year no-puke streak didn't end, but I did dry heave several times. It was NOT pretty and it was NOT fun. Especially for this emetophobe.

I was finally able to crawl into bed and fall asleep sometime during the night. Sunday is a blur. At some point Sunday night I was transported to my parents' house. I was actually awake most of the day Monday. I felt better than Saturday ... but then again, anything would have been better than how I felt Saturday. I made a valiant effort to go to work yesterday but failed miserably. I drove 45 minutes to work, put in three hours of only semi-productive labor, and turned around and drove home. And then slept for 5 hours.

Now its Wednesday and I'm going on 4 days of being pretty much useless. And it stinks. I feel a little better everyday, but my stomach still ain't great and I generally feel like I have been hit by a truck. I have one class this afternoon that I absolutely have to go to, and I'm saving up my energy for that. And then it will be back to bed for my sorry butt.

I haven't eaten anything other than toast and 'nilla wafers and the occaisonal banana since Saturday. Nothing sounds good, and part of me is still a little afraid of upsetting the stomach again. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to lose a few pounds ... but not this way. I just feel weak and pathetic.

BUT the good news is that the UPS man delivered to my door today my brand spankin new Sierra Designs Down Booties so my feet couldn't be happier. It was a little bright spot in my otherwise dismal (at the moment) existence.

Ok, enough self-pitying for now. Time for more toast.

There is no better time to be a mountain biker in this part of the midwest than October and November. Sure there are some really great winter days, and the first signs of spring are always exciting, but you can't beat riding through fallen (but still colorful) leaves and crisp, cool temperatures.

Yesterday the boyfriend and I hit the trails for a little 8 mile loop. As (I think) I have said before, we have two sets of trails within ten minutes of my apartment. One is easy, non-technical, fast, very flowy, and very rollercoasterlike. The other is way way more technical and kicks my ass, both physically and mentally every time I go out there.

The problem with the easy trail here is that there are a few things that, a long long time ago, I got in my head that I couldn't ride. And overcoming that thought has been a constant battle out there for me. There's this little section at the very beginning ... its just three little drops followed by short climbs ... one is off-canter ... nothing too serious. A few rides ago I cleared the first one for the first time, yesterday I cleared both the first and the second (and then used that as an excuse to bail out and walk the third) - hopefully next time I can nail them all which will mean I can ride that whole trail without putting my feet down. That'd make me pretty happy.

Part of why I was able to ride it yesterday was because the boyfriend stayed behind me, barking at me ... Ride it! Ride it! RIDE IT!!. And with the exception of the last one, I did ride them all. It felt great.

Usually he drops me on these three stupid little climbs which come very early in the ride and then I don't see him again. This time he stayed with me and pushed me which meant I was riding faster than usual. And I am SORE today. Mountain biking uses all kinds of core muscles that I apparently don't have (yet) and I'm hurting ... but its a good hurt.

On the way to get barbeque after our ride the boyfriend said to me "Yanno, you're a much better mountain biker than you give yourself credit for ... I could tell that riding behind you. You KNOW how to do this, you just don't have the confidence." And thats totally true. I'm working on overcoming the fears that keep me from making the progress I should make ... and I'm getting better. I had an epiphany about all of this on top of a mountain in Colorado that I keep meaning to tell you about, but just haven't had the time ... remind me.

Yesterday was the most confident I've felt on my MTB in a long time. And it felt SO good. I'm not sure that there is a more perfect sport than mountain biking. The folks who are good at it have an enviable mix of speed and stength and skill and nerve. I'm hoping to be there someday ...