Cindy_Hanson

I wonder how much of the increasing availability of blue greyhounds to adopters is due to breedings sired by Trent Lee. He's been among the top greyhound sires for many years now, and he's well known for throwing black and blue pups exclusively. He's been a stud since 2006, and he's sired about 2500 pups.

Yup. The acid in the urine burns right through the aluminum fins and will also damage the copper tubing. Rain--even acid rain--would not have the same effect, apparently. This makes sense to me--I would feel a lot more, uh, damaged by a golden shower than a rain shower. I am REALLY glad to hear this. Thanks! Guess I'll leave the cone in place after the new fence is up.

Yesterday afternoon I had somebody come out to service my air conditioning unit. (I had small duct, high-velocity air conditioning installed in my house in 2008. It was not cheap, but it was worth EVERY financed penny.) The technician told me that the condenser unit is damaged because the boys have been lifting their leg on it. At this point, I'm hoping the unit will make it through the end of the season before I have to drop a couple grand (at least?) on its replacement. In the meantime, I'm wondering what I should do to get the boys to stop peeing on it. I figure the solution has two parts: (1) Prevent them from gaining access to the condenser; (2) Entice them to pee somewhere else. To get at (1), I put up some of that cheap garden picket fence--for now. I also bought a 3' traffic cone and put it in the middle of the yard in the hope of addressing (2). Does anybody have recommendations of a more permanent solution for fencing off the condenser unit? I'm having my chain link fence replaced with a red cedar privacy fence within the next couple of weeks . . . I could talk to the fencing crew about adding a small fence around the condenser. Would that work? (I don't think the garden picket is a long-term solution, and I think that plastic fencing looks, well, sort of junky.) Has anybody had success with getting their boys to pee on a pylon? Or have you installed another monument to urination in your back yard?? I don't want the boys to pee on my condenser unit . . . and once the nice fence is installed, I'm hoping I can keep the urine damage on that to a minimum, too (although I know I have no control over neighborhood dogs whose owners may let them pee on my nice new fence, so I'm resigned to that). Suggestions welcome.

I bought a 4.5 quart crockpot yesterday for just this purpose. I threw in four small packages of fresh chicken thighs and about two cups of water, and set the temperature to high. After 10 hours, I went through and pulled out all the thigh bones because it just didn't seem to me that those were going to turn to mush . . . they were still really hard. Fortunately, the meat fell right off and finding the bones was really easy. I threw in about two cups of rice, cooked it on high for another hour, then moved everything to a large mixing bowl that I'm keeping in the refrigerator. The finicky eaters were really excited about it this morning. I'd love to not have to go through and pick out the bones . . . but I don't want the whole mess to turn into total slurry, either. If any of you who use chicken thighs have any suggestions about length of cooking time, temperature, etc. that make it possible to use the bones, I'd love to hear them!

My new boy, Jerry, is one rude dog. He would eat food out of the other dogs' mouths if I let him (I don't--I feed him in his crate). Today the three greyhounds and I took a very long walk, after which I stopped at a nearby bakery with a sign out front that said "WOOF! Dog treats!" I bought two chicken cookies for each dog. When we got home, I gave a cookie to Jerry, then Pearl, then Jethro. With the second cookie, I distracted Jerry long enough so that Jethro could eat his cookie without interruption. Pearl is a much slower eater, though, so when Jerry saw that half of her cookie was laying on the ground in front of her, he swooped in and snapped it right up. I couldn't let that go without comment, so I lightly smacked Jerry with the flat of my hand on the top of his butt and said (in the Voice of God) "HEY! Knock that off RIGHT NOW! That's NOT YOURS." Jerry immediately backed away from Pearl, turned around, hung his head, and proceeded to puke up Pearl's cookie, his cookie, and part of his breakfast. Then he raised his head and looked at me as if to say "Is this what you wanted?" I gave him permission to re-consume both cookies. Sigh. (Meanwhile, Pearl got her second cookie AND Jerry's second cookie.)

I agree. If these other techniques don't work and your dog is particularly hesitant, have a friend bring over another greyhound with home experience. Once your dog sees the other dog navigating the stairs with ease, it's likely they will go up and down with no problems. I only had to teach stairs to my first greyhound. Every other new greyhound had at least one other greyhound to learn from, and they all picked up stairs on the first day after watching one of the others do it. And after Jethro figured it out, he spent his first day at home running up and down the stairs AGAIN and AGAIN and AGAIN and AGAIN! He's easily amused, that one.

In 15+ years of living with greyhounds, I've been bitten once. And yes, it was my fault.

Hi from St. Paul!

100% cotton balls soaked in half-and-half will work: DogAteChickenBone.com

Give yourself time. The first few days are the worst. Eventually, the despair that you feel and the images you have of his last few days will recede into proper perspective. You will still remember these things, but you will also be able to look back on all the good times you had with Otis and the wonderful memories that are currently being crowded out by your grief. At the same time, you might consider bundling up and going for a walk. It's cold, but the sun is shining . . . bundle up, stick a handkerchief in your pocket, and just go for a walk around the neighborhood or the lakes or something. Getting up and moving about is a good way to take care of yourself when you're grieving. Most of all, remind yourself that it WILL get better. Grief is something that you can't go around . . . you have to move through it. And you will. Good luck.

There was a very good, very detailed article by Carla Trottier in the Summer 2005 issue of Celebrating Greyhounds Magazine about the experience of her greyhound, Major. It was called "Surviving a Stroke." Every adoption group gets two free copies of every issue of the magazine--ask your group if they can lend you that issue.

Oh dear . . . Barbara, is that you? Is this THE Cinnamon? If so, please e-mail me.

Laura Tidwell, an active greyhound volunteer in the San Antonio area and one of Celebrating Greyhounds Magazine's copy editors, passed away on Sunday. She was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in September. She resigned from our staff as we were putting together the Fall issue, anticipating that she would have until about the end of the year to "get her house in order and spend time with Joe and the kids." Laura was a sharp editor and always raised great questions--particularly on the medical articles, which were her favorite. She was fun to work with, too; she had a great sense of humor, and she loved her dogs. Last year, I traveled to San Antonio on business and got to spend some time with Laura in her stomping grounds. She drove me around all the seedy parts of town while we caught up on greyhound news, and then we had dinner at a terrific Mexican restaurant. A young woman with a basketful of souvenirs for sale approached our table. "Oh, you should have something to remember this," said Laura. She pulled a flashing wand out of the basket and handed it to me. I still have that wand, sitting on my desk here at work. After Laura told me of her diagnosis, sometimes I'd look at that wand, wishing it were magic. As a reminder of a colleague and friend whose absence is keenly felt, I suppose it is.

They mentioned the adoption fee in the obituary?

Many GTers have mentioned meeting EJ's Douglas, a Greyhound Hall of Fame inductee who has also been a resident at the HOF for the past few years. I received a note today from Kathy at the HOF, who reports that Douglas has passed away, at age 13+, after a brief illness. He leaves behind many memories.