Thoughts on Puppies

I found out that the greyhound adoption group that we got Luna from took in three greyhound puppies over the weekend.  Thankfully, all three were adopted the second they stepped off the trailer.  Otherwise, Mike might have been tempted.  He loves following the updates on greyhound puppy, Maddie (NeverSayNeverGreyhounds).

Anyway, everyone on the Facebook page was talking about how much they wish they had a greyhound puppy until one person posted the following poem:

Puppies,

Lovely to look at,

A joy to hold,

But when it comes to greyhounds,

I'll take mine old.

I think that sums up my feelings on puppies in general.  Who doesn't love a puppy's face and silly antics?  I just love them more when they go home with someone else.

(They're awful cute though.)

No Such Thing as "Spring Break"

Well it's about time I got back on here to do a post.  I hope I didn't upset anyone by not posting for so long. Not to worry, you haven't missed much in regards to Luna's adventures because her life has become pretty dull at the moment.

I know that I keep saying how busy Mike and I are right now, but things have really kicked into high gear.  As we approach summer, my work schedule goes from busy to insane.  Already this month I have coordinated two events with only one week in between to recover and reset.  (Both were very successful and well received by all who attended.)  Grad school is demanding more attention with end-of-semester projects due in the next few weeks and finals scheduled shortly afterwards.  The other big project taking up taking up our time (and our brain cells) is our upcoming wedding.  That's right.  Mike and I will be tying the knot at the end of next month!

Go Team Awesome!

Somewhere in the middle of all of this chaos is Luna.  She has been such a good girl to tolerate our inconsistent schedules, shortened walks, and utter exhaustion at the end of the day when she wants to play.  However, she has definitely been stir crazy over the last few weeks, especially since the change to warmer weather.  The other day she was so pleased to be outside that she started doing her usual zoomies around the yard.  I cringed when I saw her step on an exposed root thinking that it must have hurt at least a little.  She showed no sign of pain, but I later discovered a small trail of blood around the house due to her cut paw.  Thanks, pup.

Bandaged up and forced to WALK.

It looks so pretty again in the neighborhood.

Spring has sprung around the lake.

Luna Inspired Poetry

When I was little I wanted to be a poetry writer.  For several years, I did pretty well at writing many different poems.  During one of my free moments last week I decided to take a stab at writing some poetry based on Luna.  Here is what I came up with.

Luna

Loving

Unusual gait

Notorious snacker

Attention hog

Napping Dog

Fur warmed by sunbeam

With a sigh I close my eyes

Inner peace is found

Anticipation

An open field calls

Heart pounding and eyes sparkling

Deep breath and I run

Luna is a wealth of inspiration.  I will have to find time to write a few more poems.

Happy Sixth Birthday, Luna!

Today is Luna's sixth birthday! 

Mike and I can't believe that she's already hit the big sexy six.  She looks great and is in fantastic spirits.  Unfortunately, today is a very busy day with work and graduate school so we will have to save our celebrating until this weekend.  I'm planning to take her to the pet store for her to pick out a bully stick.  We'll probably stop by the ball field or dog park for a run.  Today will have to be a bit boring, but when I get home I'll be sure to sing "Happy Birthday" and give her the nearly empty peanut butter jar to lick.

Birthday girl being sassy.

Silly Face Contest

Husky's Life is hosting a Silly Face Contest so of course Luna had to enter her most silly picture.  I know Luna is a very beautiful dog and most of the pictures I put online make her look fabulous, but we have captured a few less-than-perfect shots.

Here is our entry:

Fingers crossed that our entry makes it into the competition on April 1st.  Please visit Husky's Life to vote for us. :-)

If you're interested in learning more about the contest or entering be sure to visit before March 28th.

St. Patrick's Day Party

As I mentioned in my last post, we hosted a St. Patrick's Day party over the weekend.  Luna and I came home from the Meet & Greet where Symphony was adopted and immediately went to work cleaning up the house and decorating.  Luna helped by staying out of the way.  I'm sure she was exhausted from the Meet & Greet.

Once guests started to arrive, Luna became playful and was very entertaining to watch.  She happily squeaked her toys and tossed them in the air.  She also enjoyed pouncing on them.  A few times she pounced on a toy that was sitting on her pillow which sent it flying.

Killing the white fox toy.

Yes, I am taking pictures of you being silly.

What are you going to do about it?

Is bark at me your solution to everything?

I was surprised by how many people showed up for our party.  The house went from cozy to tight in just a matter of minutes.  To make more room I put Luna in her crate in the kitchen.  This way, she could stay out of trouble (no chocolate or alcohol for puppies), stay out of our guests personal space (which was limited), and keep an eye on the party.  I felt bad that she was in the crate for most of the evening until Mike admitted to me that he was feeding her treats every time he went into the kitchen.  Now I don't feel so bad.

I think Luna had a good time, even if it was a little too crazy.  Thank goodness we still had the crate up from Symphony because it gave us a safe place to keep her comfortable.

So Long Symphony

Saturday was the big adoption day for Flying Symphony.  I'll admit that I was pretty sad to see her go.  She is not my first foster dog, but she was one of the best ones so it was hard to take her to the Meet & Greet knowing she was not coming home with us.  Her new dad and sister, Flying Lovable, meet us at the farmer's market.  I was so pleased to see Symphony go right up to this new person and dog and wag her tail.  I couldn't stop talking to the new owner about how wonderful Symphony is and sharing some of her funny stories.  He promised that he will be at the next greyhound picnic so we will be able to catch up on how the family is doing.

New family!

Last picture of Luna and Symphony together. 

Once Symphony was on her way home, my attention turned back to Luna (no, I did not forget about the princess).  Luna quickly became the star of the farmer's market as she dazzled the crowd with her plethora of tricks.  One young couple who is considering adopting a greyhound asked how you go about training a greyhound.  I immediately showcased Luna's best trick, dumbbell retrieval.  They were very impressed.  I told them that greyhounds, like all other dogs, need the right training style to be successful.  Greyhounds need tasks broken down to their most basic level, they need to be set up for success every time, and they need a lot of positive reinforcement.  Negativity in attitude, voice commands, and body language will shut a greyhound down and prevent them from learning.

By the end of our short time at the Meet & Greet, Luna was helping a young girl learn how to be a good trainer by attentively following her commands.  Sit, spin, speak, and dumbbell were her favorites, but she was good enough to do our two newest tricks, "through" and "bang".  For "through", Luna weaves between my legs (tricky for a tall dog).  For "bang", Luna plays dead, but boy does she have the slowest death scene.  We'll have to get these new tricks on video soon.

We had a fantastic time at the Meet & Greet, but we had to head home early because we were hosting a St. Patrick's Day party at our house that evening.  More on that next time.  We're so glad that Symphony has a forever home and Luna is thrilled to have all the pillows to herself.