In Memorial: Lion Crosses Rainbow Bridge

In memory of my heart dog, 

Lion

 aka

 B's Cowardly Lion. 

November 25, 2002- August 22, 2013

Life as my pet. 

Adopt a Greyhound

Run free beautiful boy!

Greyhound Runners Turn Runway Fashion Models

Ask any greyhound owner to talk about their rescued greyhound and they will all have remarkable stories to share. When you take an athletic racer off the track to live in your home, you might expect that they need a lot of exercise. Not true. These former race dogs would prefer the couch and a couple of walks a day.  Proceed with caution....you'll have to hold on to the leash tight- especially when they see something of interest: moving car, squirrel, bird, plastic bag. I have a fenced 6' pen for those times when the chill in the air turns a midnight walk into a nightmare. 

I do confess they all have coats and pajamas or cozy blankets.  It's not to be cute really, they no fat layer and are all muscle with a very thin skin and short hair. Greyhounds are easily chilled and will overheat quickly in the summer. 

My current pack of three, B's Cowardly Lion (Lion), Red Bud Diablo (Wizard), and Full of Beans (Vincent Van Beans...or just Beans) love to go for walks. Beans,a former foster dog, is a young two year old. He is now officially part of my three-pack.  When I came across this You Tube video of adorable greys sporting fashionable knitted sweaters....I just had to share. 


I hope to knit one or two...oops, I guess now it'll have to be three. 

Check it out!


                                Greyhound Runners Turn Runway Fashion Models

This You Tube video came from a fun and informative website called Greyhounds4me. 


© [Wisteria Leigh] and [Bookworm's Dinner], [2008-2013].

Wordless Wednesday, August 11, 2010

A Sighthound on Duty
Lion with Wizard behind, a more peaceful walk on the green today.

Sunday Salon, August 8, 2010

Happy Weekend to everyone! Yesterday was beautiful in Connecticut and I decided to take my fur babies to the downtown green for a walk. Lion has a hard time walking on pavement, so recently I have been taking them to our famous quintessential New England green for a dog walk. The mistake I made yesterday was not getting there earlier. I normally take them 9:00AM, but today I was lazy and so were they. We didn't get downtown till close to 11:00. Everyone loves my guys, and when three greyhounds walk together it is a spectacular and often unique site for many. People are really curious about greyhounds and their past life as racers. They are always surprised at how docile and calm they are. Ordinarily, I would totally agree.

I saw trouble coming toward me when a small dog darted out of nowhere on the end of a retractable lease. I am not a fan of retractable leases and personally believe they are an accident waiting to happen. They are so dangerous and unnecessary. So as this tiny dog charges toward my greyhounds, running behind them are small children. People don't always think when approaching other peoples dogs with children and other animals to proceed slowly and cautiously. I sensed Mystery's sudden fear and the tension in her lease.

I am a rather small female, not even quite 5' tall, so when my three fur kids decide to move together, I have my hands full. The combined force of all three is over 200 pounds pulling on my wrist. Mystery, is my alpha baby and if she says, "Go, it's a bunny." They all listen!

So here I am with three salivating greyhounds, surrounded by the Saturday downtown crowd, one puppy who looks like a bunny and me trying to control the situation. I won, or at least I maintained my position as the alpha and all three stayed close to me. Mystery is awfully cute, but she is also the most bold and protective of all three. You would never know it to look at her.

Needless to say, my quiet, happy, quality time with my greyhounds didn't quite work out the way I wanted. Fortunately, as soon as the owners of the "bunny" puppy saw that my dogs didn't want to make friends today, they quickly changed direction. I decided to go home and spend the rest of the day reading.

Today, with threats of rain and thundershowers, I plan to stay indoors reading. I started Shiver, by Maggie Stiefvater last night, and I can't wait to get back to it. So many of you told me how good this series is, and I would have to agree.

Yesterday, I finished The Good Daughters, by Joyce Maynard. I was given this book from Library Thing, an Early Reviewer book. This is an enjoyable and quick story, somewhat predictable, but nevertheless well written. This week I finished reading several books and each one seemed sadder then the previous one. I also finished All That is Beautiful, by Roxan Tepfer Stanford and The Gift of Ran by Tan Twan Eng. I was crying so much, I had to take a break. Fortunately, The Witchy Worries of Abbie Adams, by Rhonda Hayter ushered in a period of light reading and laughter.

Whether I was crying or laughing, this was an emotionally satisfying week of reading. I enjoyed and would recommend all these books. What about you? How did your books touch your emotions this week?



© [Wisteria Leigh] and [Bookworm's Dinner], [2010].

Saturday Snapshot-The Couch Potatoes

I was visiting At Home With Books and saw Alyce has an adorable pic of her kitten posted today. I didn't really have anything bookish to say today and when I looked up from my laptop this is what my living room floor looked like. So, borrowing her idea I took a pic of my hounds. Now mind you, they just woke up about an hour ago, ate breakfast and are now are back in their beds. Can you believe they can actually run up to 45MPH? Well, maybe not after living a couch potato lifestyle. We do go for walks down on the village green and around the neighborhood, but fortunately, racing is in the past. Hopefully, they will never get loose. Hang on to those leases!!

PS...Well as far as bookish...you can see one of my 10 bookshelves that are scattered around the house. LOL

Happy Saturday! It's beautiful in Connecticut.




© [Wisteria Leigh] and [Bookworm's Dinner], [2010].

Weekend Cooking for the Greyhounds

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, fabulous quotations, photographs. Thanks to Beth Fish Reads for hosting this event.

This is my first post for Weekend Cooking. I am the kind of cook that experiments often. I don't write things down and change a lot of my recipes from time to time, so this will be a challenge for me to share some of my cooking with you. Watch out...no just kidding.

I decided to pass on a recipe I got from my friend Donna's mom. She would make this recipe for her dog Rusty and she kept telling me how much he loved it. Well, having three greyhounds, who normally have very sensitive stomachs, I was reluctant to try this recipe for Frosty Paws. I have seen similar recipes online, so I don't know where this originally came from. Here is the recipe..it is sooooo easy.

1-32 ounce container of plain yogurt
1-banana-ripe is better
2-T peanut butter
2-T honey

Combine all the above ingredients in a blender and mix until it is blended like a smoothie.

When done you have to freeze this in cups or something for your dogs. At first, I thought of using ice cube trays. This works ok, but when I gave them these they gobbled them up in two bites. So I began to think about alternatives. I remembered my recycling bin where I had plastic cups left over from prepared pudding. I save these to root plants and plant seeds in, but I had so many saved. After rewashing them, and using a 12 cup muffin pan for support, I placed a plastic cup into each spot. This makes it easy to fill, freeze and serve.

I was so excited the first time I gave them these in the plastic cups. They were so happy as they caressed their cups and went to town licking their yummy treats. Now of course, every time I go to the freezer they think it is Frozen Yogurt treat-time. This is Lion with his treat, who sometimes thinks the cup is to be eaten as well.





© [Wisteria Leigh] and [Bookworm's Dinner], [2010].

Wordless Wednesday, February 10, 2010

B's Cowardly Lion aka..... LION, enjoying his new bed!!!

Wordless Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Webster & Lion

Wordless Wednesday, January 20, 2010

My four greyhounds came from this Greyhound Rescue and Rehabilitation. Check it out!!

Snow Day in New England

I was lucky to get an early morning text wake-up call that schools were closed due to snow. I really didn't think as I fell asleep last night that I would be off today. What a welcome surprise this icy mixed bag of precep this is. Snow Days are always fun even when you are the teacher. We love them just as much as our students. We listen to all their superstitious methods of ensuring that snow does fall, in copious amounts, or at least enough to cancel school.




Lion, Wizard



Lion, Mystery



Webster



Now how did that snow dance go again, I tried to remember the steps. They did say to turn my pajamas inside out. In any event, whatever they did last night worked, as I reaped the benefits by sleeping late. I am enjoying the day catching up on some reading surrounded by four lazy couch potato sleeping greyhounds, and two black cats purring in a synchronized purring duet.

This is the second snow in Connecticut, as Saturday we had a winter wonderland snowfall in the style of Dr. Zhivago. This snowstorm is the messy kind, and probably won't be around long. Its a cold, raw, icy, gloomy day but I'm all smiles because for now time has slowed down, a restful break in the hectic holiday pace is a gift to be grateful for.

I hope everyone has sometime to slowdown this holiday season and enjoy the simple things life has to give you. It really makes a big difference in restoring the body's energy balance. Peace to all.

Happy 4th of July from 4 Greyhounds with Liberty

WEBSTER
MYSTERY
LION
WIZARD

Sunday Salon Taking a Break

Wisteria is taking a break this week, so we are taking over for her. I'm Mystery, the leader of Wisteria's pack. I have three brothers, Lion, Webster and Wizard. I'm the cute greyhound on the right next to my brother Lion in the picture above. He's a little older, and I'm the cute Alpha Princess.

You know it is hard to type with paws? It's those darn nails, they get me every time. We really hate to have our nails done, you know sometimes she gets a little too close. It's okay though because she'll give us cookies and hug us a lot to make us feel better. It gets her every time. WOL (Woofing out loud).



Anyway, we thought we would take this time to show you how we spend our retirement now that we don't race each other at the track. It is so much better than those wire kennels we used to stay in 24/7. Couches are so comfy when you have more bone than fat. I guess that's why Wisteria is always calling us her 45mph couch potatoes. It doesn't get much better than this.




It's hard keeping Wisteria off this laptop. We did manage to needle nose her out the front door to do some gardening today. After a while we started whining though....it was time for dinner. She said to say hi, and she'll be back in a few days. I hope you like our pictures.



PS....Don't forget to leave a comment for the "History of Now" book giveaway.