the chicken

Amoeba Dogs...

Greyhounds at our house seem to divide and multiply.... We have a new addition.

Patch, meet Coochie.

Coochie, meet Patch.

Norm, having already met Coochie, is off to pee all over the yard, as dominant males do.

The three of them only spent a little time together as I had to take Norm to a new foster home. Turns out he wasn't Chicken safe. He is a lovely dog, some can live happily with a cat, he is just not one of them.

So I went for a drive to Walloon to get Coochie. Sadly enough I am familiar with Walloon as I have on occasion been known to go to the Walloon Saloon. Thats about all there is in Walloon, oh, and White Rose Boarding Kennels.

We had a group outing to the dog park before Norm went. Excuse the over exposure of the photo..

Patch and Cooch chasing Pete. Norm was off somewhere, peeing, just for a change!

What a day. All my agonizing over Patch v Norm was totally in vain. Should have just trusted my instincts. So we are keeping Patch and continuing to foster.

Coochie waltzed into the kitchen, straight into Chicken. Oops, Chicken had a hiss, Cooch continued sniffing as there were good food smells and totally ignored a slightly miffed Chicken.

Poor Chicken. Yesterday he got barked and snarled at, today he has no effect whatsoever. This is a good thing. Am now looking forward to the GAP Christmas Party on Sunday. Patch will be sporting her lovely clown costume and I am off to dream something up for Cooch....

Oh the indignity!

I am not a clown! I may be obsessive compulsive and have to have all my toys in the right place, but I am not a clown!

Oh well, silly outfits aren't going to stop me from playing! I stole a sock and I intend to enjoy it until Pete gets home...

Patch is funny. If you move her carefully collected toys when she isn't looking she mentally takes stock, then sets out to find the missing ones. Hours of amusement...

She has suckered me, I have been back and forth as to what I am going to do.... this face decided it for me

How could I not keep her....

She is also the dog that Chicken has been most tolerant of. He and Norm are having some issues at the moment, so Chicken has turned to comfort food.

After eating all the ribbon out of the very small box he attempted to have a nap.

He really does think he is alot smaller than he actually is. Poor deluded Chicken.

He usually tells me when a dog is cat-safe. Yep, he is a MAGIC CHICKEN... No, not really, he just starts to hang out in the lounge and look down at said dog from the arm of the couch. He tried that with Norm and got barked at. This has not happened before. Greyhounds are generally very quiet. Norm is not noisy by any means, he just knows he has a voice and uses it. Sometimes this is a good thing, kind of, like at 3am when he wants to go to the toilet. Not good cause it's 3am! Good because he asked to go out rather than peeing inside. I respect that. Not good when he barks at The Chicken. Will have to work on that....

What's a girl to do?

Firstly I will post a photo of Patch and Norm..

After looking at this you may begin to understand my dilemma. I applied to GAP to adopt a forever dog after our foster Blaze went. I was devastated when he went, so made the decision to adopt and continue fostering. I reasoned that it would make it a tiny bit easier to surrender the fosters if I knew that I had one I didn't have to part with. Fairly straight forward... No, not really, now I am faced with deciding which dog to adopt. CeeJay auditioned for the part, but he got huffy with the sharing thing so went to an only dog home.

This is my current problem. Look how gorgeous this boy is, and then try and decide if :

A/ we keep Norm

B/ we keep Patch

C/ we keep both of them

All these options have their up and down sides.

A/ means I have to give my little Patch up. This will be heart-breaking.

B/ means we will have to give Norm up, and he is the first dog that Pete has openly said he would like to keep.

C/ means we won't be able to foster anymore. Well, technically it doesn't totally rule it out but I can't see Pete and Chicken being ok with 3 dogs all the time.

I am torn. I don't know what to do.

Patch is my little girl, and Norm is Pete's new best friend. I still want to foster....Aaaargh, tough decisions to be made...

Survival of the Fluffiest

Off Leash dog parks are a great place to take greyhounds, basically the only place they can run free and be safe. I am learning to ignore the skeptical looks from owners of small white fluffies when I take my greyhound (usually 2, sometimes 3!) to these parks. Our local one is now aquainted with the greys and most of the regulars that go there know they are well behaved. Patch is a crowd favourite because she is so friendly and playful, her favourite playmate is Axle, a little staffie pup. Norm is new to the concept of a bunch of strange dogs chasing balls and sticks and sniffing etc. He is incredibly well behaved for a dog that raced last week!

Today we had "Attack of the Fluffies" Had I had my camera I wouldn't have managed to capture it as I was too busy rescuing my sweet greyhounds from two baying westies. They tag teamed Norm, one would dance and bark in front of him while the other tried to bite his back legs. Norm was totally lost. He was literally springing off the ground in an attempt to get away from them. Managed to extricate a slightly scared looking Norm from this only to have them go after Patch. She loves everyone, dogs and people. She wanted to say hi, they wanted to eat her. She tucked her tail so far between her legs her bum was nearly on the ground and leapfrogged her way over to me to be protected.

To help make up for their traumatic walk I gave them bones when we got home. Thankfully I learnt from Katy that when there are bones involved there must also be gates. Miss Patch looks all sweetness and light but she is very possessive over toys and bones and things. So seperated puppies happily chomped bones and they are now contentedly lying on beds in the lounge.

Not just any beds, proper people beds. I went to the RSPCA thrift shop today. I purchased an inner-spring cot mattress, a double bed woolen underlay and a quilt cover. All for $26 (bargain!) When the sales assistant inquired if I would like the cot pillows and sheet set I informed her that the dogs probably wouldn't be able to tuck themselves in! She was a bit stunned that they were for the dogs, surprisingly, since the shop supports the RSPCA. Ah well, only the best for our dogs.

Check out these ears!!

I love Norm's ears. They are so expressive.

He is making it hard for me to get a picture with them seriously pointed. He gets this intense look on his face and the angle of the ears tells you how much attention he is paying. They almost cross over each other when he is really excited.

Patch and Norm made a new friend today. Nelly the cattle dog. She is ball crazy and wags her little bum like mad when she wants you to throw toys for her..

Patch loves to play, she was having a great time chasing Nelly. Norm is  fresh off the track, he has never been in this situation before. He is very curious and very gentle.

He really is a very pretty dog. Such a delicate face and long elegant neck.

I think he is part giraffe. When he stretches out he is over 2m from head to bum, not including tail! His lovely neck accounts for much of that.

His individual body parts are odd, but put them all together and you get one sexy dog, who also happens to feel like velvet.

No wonder Patch is in love. He does however treat her properly, she is kept up on a pedestal (or armchair for those who like things literal) and adored in return. Lucky for me it is Patch on the chair because damned if I could spot Norm up there!

As a rule foster dogs are not allowed on the furniture. Patch is an exception because the day she arrived she stole my heart and I think she will be my forever dog...

And it's really funny when she waits until Pete gets up to jump in his chair. She is quite comfy on her bed, she is just cheeky and I support her sense of humour. Especially when not only does she steal his chair she takes all his things (sunglasses, wallet, mail etc) and carries them away then goes back to the chair.

Where'd I put that dog?

Losing a greyhound is not an easy task. By losing I mean looking around a room and not being able to see it. Yes, they are capable of curling into small balls, but really, they are usually still visible. Not Norm. We have a predominantly white/neutral coloured lounge room. Excellent camouflage for a giant dog to seemingly disappear...

I'd be having real trouble if it weren't for the black dot on his head. You would also think his nose would give it away. No, sadly this is well covered by the white plastic cat-safe muzzle. Really helpful...

So we are playing "spot the big white dog"  He still hasn't figured out that the best policy as far as The Chicken is concerned is to leave him alone. Despite a few random attacks from a disgruntled Chicken he persists in his attempts to sniff him up close and personal. It may take some time for it to sink in that this is just not going to happen.

Patch on the other hand is in doggy heaven. Either that or she is a tart. She is totally smitten with Norm, it's almost disturbing. He returns the sentiment, laying pathetically at her feet (while she is on the bed) and following her wherever she may go. Handy for me in that respect as Patch has learnt that that is her name, Norm is still oblivious to the whole name thing.

She astounded me today. She is a toy hoarder, actually, an anything she can steal hoarder, anyway, her most treasured toy found its way over to Norm. I advised Pete to baton down the hatches as I imagined it would be on for young and old... Nope, she just gazed adoringly at him as he squeaked her plushy.. 

As far as peace in the household goes this is all very good. The only spats I have to mediate involve The Chicken and he is easily placated with food.

Also makes fitting a giant dog and Patch into my very average car alot easier. Norm takes up three quarters of the seat and allows Patch to lie on him so they are both comfortable. Ah, doggy love...

I just hope that slick older Norm doesn't break little innocent Patch's heart. She is only young and they always fall so hard the first time...

What Olive Branch...?

So when I got home today instead of a Mr CeeJay and a Miss Patch waiting at the gate I had Miss Patch and Norm. He is not at all what I was expecting. We have had a run of black boys, I expected him to be a big black dog. Nope.

Much excitement ensued as Patch did her normal "I'm so cute and playful, watch me run and jump around the yard!" Norm wasn't sure what to make of this, he wanted to say hello to me, to chase her, to pee, some more.(There are lots of doggy smells in our yard, he felt the need to cover all of these!)

After removing the chewing gum from Norms coat and giving him a much needed bath we went for a walk to dry off. Thank god for health insurance. 2 very excited dogs and little me is a recipe for dislocated shoulders. Patch has a little Staffy puppy she loves at the dog park. She and Axle love to play, Norm being straight off the track started out confused. Then he decided it was fun, running, peeing and sniffing, what more could a boy want? He was very well behaved and a bit sooky.

He has never been inside a house. Never met a Chicken. Hmmm, Chickens peace policy is well and truly out the window. This is what happened when I let the dogs in today...

Norm senses something in the kitchen, approaches cautiously. Notice Patch in the background, ready to play. C'mon! Play with me, CeeJay is gone and you look like fun, PLEASE PLAY WITH ME!!!. Norm is fixated on Chicken, gets a little closer...

What you can't hear is the demonic growling emanating from The Chicken, it is other worldly... I think he is possessed!

This next photo was taken a fraction of a second too early..

As the Chicken popped his head around the corner both dogs went skywards. Was so funny to see such a big dog leap completely off the floor and fall over backwards. What power The Chicken wields...

Not that he lets it go to his head, Yeah, sure he doesn't!