the chicken

Post Op Care Greyhound style

The general advice is that the dog may be a bit dopey and subdued. Problem with that is with a greyhound, how can you tell?

I have no worries with the quiet bit. I did have a bit of a stress today though. Phoebs went in to be desexed and have her dental. All went well and the nurse said she was good to come home. So we picked her up, very quiet.... got home, coaxed her out of the car. She unsteadily made it to her bed and stayed there, didn't even want to come inside. Unusual.

I took Patch for her walk, got home to check on Phoebs and went in crisis mode. Here is a little white dog with suspicious looking red stuff all over her muzzle. On closer inspection realised she was bleeding from the mouth. Always a comforting sight, especially for me..

A few panicky Ph calls later and I discovered the cause of the bleeding was the 4 extractions they did whilst doing her dental. Being that nobody had mentioned that little bit of info I didn't even think before stressing that she was bleeding to death.

You would think that was the end of it, and I wish it had been. Sadly I am HOPELESS with blood, needles etc.... Once it was established that she was ok I promptly keeled over in the laundry and came to with a very confused Phoebe trying to work out what on earth I was doing through her anesthesia fog. It's all in the mind, it's all in the mind... Bollocks, I have no control over this, it's not like I enjoy it!

Came upstairs to have a cup of tea, a bex and a good lie down. No such luck. The Chicken is on the rampage...

Aerial Assault!

Must go and run interference....

HELP ME.... PLEEEASE

Deer trapped in headlights? May as well have been.

Poor Phoebs. The Chicken senses weakness. He then preys upon it.

I was out for most of the day today. Get a PH call from new flatmate. This always worries me as in the past ex-flatmates only rang me to say things designed to give me heart failure, such as,

"Um, we can't find The Chicken anywhere" (he is a strictly indoors cat)

"The Chicken is throwing up everywhere" (that doesn't upset me as much as it does them as I can pretty much be sure it is due to him having eaten ribbon, shoe laces or rubber bands)

And the best one? "Um, how many dogs are there and where are they meant to be?"

Well, todays call was to ask me what to do about a shaky freaked out greyhound, Phoebs. Not sure why this was the case I asked what had happened recently and where Chicken might be. Would seem that he was playing with Phoebe's delicate head.

Coming up the bar stairs there is an ultra useful light box with a red bulb built into the corner of the steps. Useful for what I am not quite sure! Anyway, Chicken managed to perch his fat butt on it, that in itself is quite a feat given the ample size of my darling cat. In doing this he could then stretch his neck up at random intervals to scare the bejesus out of Phoebe. Just when she had settled he would pop up again. He is not actually silly enough to attack or put himself in any danger when I am not there. He must think that I will intervene. (OF COURSE I WOULD! Chicken is irreplaceable) New flatmate wasn't sure what to do.

KICK CHICKEN'S BUTT is what I would have done. Asked him to quietly remove the offending cat by offering him food. He has a strong desire to inflict physical and mental torture on my dogs but can always be bribed with food.....

Australia Day

Ah, the sun, the sand, the surf and of course the beer. I personally detest sand and am not overly fond of sun or beer. How unAustralian am I? (Pretty, I am a KIWI!) Shouldn't really admit that today of all days.

We did the done thing, crawled up the highway with everyone else, headed for the beach. Dogs in the back, essential supplies in the boot.

Taking the dogs to the beach might sound fun in theory, is not as much in practice. Being greyhounds you can't just tie them to the nearest tree nor can you let go of their leashes for even a minute. They are also choosy about where they will sit and you have to watch they don't get too hot.

Patch is an easy dog, she has no standards, she plonked herself down in the sand quite happily (after digging in in for a while)

Phoebs was a little more work. Did not sit down once, didn't think much of the water, though we did get better as I took them wading to cool down regularly.

It was a really hot day, despite latherings of sun screen I have nasty sunburn to attest to that. Possibly should have left puppies at home in the cool, I think they liked the day out though.

Chicken on the other hand had it made at home.Having no opposable thumbs doesn't stop him from operating remotes. He has the TV and the air-con at his disposal.

He has such a tough life.

I must say that Queensland does have some lovely beaches, and I shall leave you with a postcard photo of Phoebs.

A fine welcome

Our household is ever-changing. New dogs, new people. We got a new people on Wednesday. He hails from Texas and the charming Miss Phoebe did her best to make him feel at home. How did she achieve this you ask? Well, she is quite the attentive dog. She heard the stories he was telling of hunting back home and the Coyotes......

We were then treated to an excellent rendition of a Coyote howling.

Aren't we spoiled?

Not only did we get just the one performance, she spent the morning perfecting it for us. The neighbors loved it too.

To give you an idea of the size (or lack thereof) of Phoebs, the barrier she is standing behind is a whopping 2ft tall, note that you cant see her body at all. She is also a very fine little thing with an unusual ridge on her nose where the hair grows two different ways. All in all she is a cutie. Just needs to put a bit of weight on. Was pleased that she didn't turn her nose up as expected at normal dog food today, in fact she couldn't get enough which is a good sign.

Have yet to hear her actually bark but she can carry a tune! Sounds quite eerie as she tends to be under the house when she does it. (She lived as a pet under her trainers house for 4 years so feels comfortable there)

Did I mention that Phoebs is ....shall we say, unsure, of new things. They tend to scare her.

The Chicken for example, then there's inanimate objects like the reindeer, plushy toys (only the one that glows in the dark, the rest seem to be ok) etc.

I may go to hell in a hand basket for this (and a good many other things!) For some very good and perfectly logical reason we have a rubber horse head, usually resides in the all classy bar.

Well, Phoebs will never look sideways at Chicken and I think the same can be said for any equines she may meet in the future! I should have filmed it. Poor Phoebs..... must go cackle to myself now.

Hide and .... hide?

Not how it's meant to go. Phoebs is a shy little thing. In the mornings she is "afraid" of Pete. She isn't really scared, she just likes to elude him. Is funny to watch.

She is very good with Chicken. Totally ignores him. She is basically just so quiet and good that there have been no events of interest since she arrived. Oh, thats a slight lie. She got out of the gate at the dog park this afternoon. Had that been Banjo there would have been hell breaking loose. Phoebs being the darling she is just stood there looking confused until I came and got her. She just innocently wandered out the gate in all the confusion of a new dog coming in. I nearly punched the person who let her get out. Really, you are a dog person, I know, I'll let the GREYHOUND out! Clever.

So she is safely home and trying to get on the couch. She took to the inside thing really well, luckily she is tiny so I can literally pick her up when she needs to go outside as she refuses to go on her own.

We also had a major break through today. Food is good! Has taken her a few days to realise this and she has eaten very little. I guess the chicken necks and treats did the trick, she will probably turn her delicate little nose up at regular old dog food tomorrow!

Being little and cute is tiring!

We said good-bye to Banjo on Sunday. He will be missed, he was such a character.

We also said Hello to Phoebe. She is a pretend greyhound. Reminds me alot of Dory and Peach. So little and delicate. Her face is similar to Dory and so far I have called her Doors, Jess (she looks nothing like Jess, it's the last girl foster we had and I'd only just remembered her name when she left!) and very occasionally Phoebe.

She is a very shy little girl. She is petrified of toads... She freaked when the fish swam toward her, nearly jumped out of her skin at the ferocious paper maiche reindeer. As you can clearly see it is an evil reindeer that lays in wait for unsuspecting greyhounds to happen upon it... then it pounces! (not really, but the way Phoebs reacted you would think so)

Having had all these little scares you can only begin to imagine what happened when she met the infamous Chicken.

Sensing weakness Chicken decided to do away with careful introductions and testing the waters. He waltzed straight under her nose. This might sound foolhardy on his part. Not so. Phoebs was standing at the top of the stairs down to the bar, I was sitting on the floor. She is cornered on three sides. He plonks himself under her, next to me. She looks at him with alarm, looks away, realises she is up against the couch, he has the stairs covered and she can't back up as I am there.

Panic sets in. She shakes. She looks any which way but at the cat. She shakes some more. Finally Chicken decides to take pity on her and go down the stairs. She looks relieved, until he stops two steps down, turns around and stares at her. She buries her head in my lap. Hasn't been game to approach Chicken since.

Went to the dog park today. She did me proud. She turned tail and RAN away from a maltese terrier smaller than  Chicken. The owners were a little astonished.

Patch ran like a dog possessed, I thought I would have to perform CPR. Had to let her lie flat out for a good half hour before she could manage the walk to the car. Phoebs put in a good effort too, not nearly as crazy a run as Patch but enough to exhaust her. They have not moved since we got home.