Dawnnziggy

Our female loves to swim! She scared me to death as she walked in our friend's pond. She took off swimming and was out there smiling. Our big male leaped in to be with her. He was scared and I was ready to jump in to save him but all of a sudden he was swimming too. He swam to her but then looked at me. I called him to me and he swam over, got out, and shook like crazy. I had to watch Myrtle like a hawk cause she kept wanting to swim! I realize all hounds can't swim so I would put up a fence if I had one!

I have been having an awful time with IAMS lately. I buy the green bag when the lamb and rice doesn't work. I sort of wonder if that had anything to do with all the sickness my greys have had.

I have been through this lately too! I am so sorry! Your girl was beautiful. I am glad you have such awesome memories. They are truly awesome companions! They truly leave a hole in our hearts when they leave.

I just had to add something about our boy. He was a big boy until the last few years. He had an unreal fear of insects. One summer day while I was walking them, a grasshopper hopped up onto Ziggy's back. He went ballistic! He was jumping around trying to get it off. It had left him almost right away, but it couldn't have happened soon enough! I laughed and laughed. It is an awesome memory. Another wonderful memory is weird. Ziggy loved birds and mice. Yes, I said mice. He picked up 2 baby birds in his mouth in the 11 years we had him. We were so lucky the mama bird was not around. He never hurt them either. He just gently picked them up in his mouth. As I panicked, I would yell "drop it!" and he would. They would hop away just fine. One night as we were walking he started sniffing in some tall grass where he never had before. I realized he had picked something up again and told him to drop it. Out popped a baby mouse about the size of a half dollar. I was creeped out that time, but the mouse was just fine and so was Ziggy. He was quite a character. He is buried in our backyard next to Dawn. I am going to plant some flowers above them to make a beautiful memory place. Thank you all for the words of encouragement. It was very healing to put that all down. I appreciate all of you!

I have had to have an eye removed due to glaucoma. The diagnosis kept changing. At first they told us it was pannus. His eye looked different, like there was a film on his eye so then we were told it was now episcleritis. We went back to our vet every 6 weeks for a while. He kept checking his pressure. We used so many different medications, but the one that worked the best had become so expensive we couldn't afford it. It was $100 for only a month. We used at least 5 different meds. He ended up with glaucoma. We went to a ophthalmologist at The Ohio State University Veterinary School. He was awesome! His recommendation was that Ziggy's right eye be taken out. We couldn't afford to do it at OSU but our vet did it for less than half of what OSU wanted. He had been able to see shadows so it was a bit difficult for him at first. After that period, he was like a puppy again! The vet said he was in a lot of pain, like he'd had a migraine all that time! He adjusted great, but he still had one eye. Good luck to you!

It has been a rough week. We had to say goodbye to our sweet old man. He was 14 and his death was a shock. Just 5 days ago he was playing diggity-diggity and pouncing at his pal Dawson. He got sick on Sunday and by Monday we had to make that awful decision to say goodbye to our friend, our baby. He came home on a cool September day. I was totally shocked when my DH wanted to adopt him on the spot at our greyhound reunion. He was huge compared to our girl and as sweet as ever. I slept in the living room with him for a couple of nights. On the second morning I woke up and I couldn't find him. I caught movement out of the corner of my eye and was surprised to see him laying on the sofa! Our female would never dream of getting on the furniture. From that day on, he was a sofa dog. We even bought a day bed for him. LOL He would have been a better runner on the track if there had been a comfy bed at the end. He was our second grey. We were a little worried about bringing him home because she was so aloof and we were worried that she would not accept him. He came in the house like he had always been there. We had two dog beds at that time. One was in the front of the living room and the other was in the back. We put that one in there because our female wouldn't come up in the front. He claimed the front bed. She watched him and learned how to be a house pet. She decided she wanted some of the attention and began to claim the bed in the front. It didn't matter to him, he just laid on the sofa. We took them to our local baseball field to let them run together. It was so funny! She was really fast! As big as he was we thought he would blow her away. WRONG! She flew like we had never seen her run. He would cheat and run across the center of the baseball field to try to catch up with her. He did that always. I told him to look for her in heaven and he could run zoomies and cheat again without any pain. Soon after we got him, we came home and found the crate clear across our living room floor! I had given him a treat to get him to go into the crate and he didn't eat it. Our girl, Dawn who only weighed 50 pounds, had been trying to get the bone out by pulling on the afghan he was laying on. She never did get it but he was very upset. We never put him back in the crate after that. Nor did we ever use it again. Another time when we got home, he was all bruised up. Dawn had side swiped him while playing. She was a terror on wheels. She loved to play and the rougher the better. He had tried to play with her but after that, he rarely did. He would pounce at her but he NEVER played with her. He suffered from separation anxiety. He chewed up almost all of our wooden furniture. We bought that sour lemon stuff to try to dissuade him from the chewing but to no avail. After we would put the fresh stuff on it, he would go lick it off! When I got home from school one day, I found that he had pulled the back off of our love seat. I don't know how he did not get hurt as it was on with like a million staples. I got out a hammer and hammered them back in. He did do it one more time, but never like the first. All of that changed the day we brought hound #3 home from the greyhound reunion when Zig was 6. He didn't do anything destructive after that. We kind of wondered if he thought we were trying to get rid of him or something. He had a lot of trouble with his eye. We were told he had pannus and we treated it for years! I realized it wasn't getting better and took him back to the vet. He said that it seemed like episcleritis. We used different medicine for a while and took him back every 3 months for the vet to recheck it and realized that he really had glaucoma. He referred us to the vet hospital at Ohio State. They recommended that his eye come out. For them to do the surgery was astronomical. Our vet did it much cheaper and he came through the surgery like a trooper. He was so much better after they eye was removed! He was the happy go lucky dog we had at the beginning. Our other male dog, Dawson, always walked on his left after that so he could see him. He loved to be with his family. He liked riding in the car, McDonald's french fries, and ICE CREAM! I would have loved to have gotten him an ice cream cone before we took him to the vet, but he would not eat anything. He enjoyed going camping with us. We actually bought a camper so we could all go together. When Dawn died he realized that Dawson wasn't so bad. He never played with him, but they slept together every night. Dawson would get him when it was time to go outside. Dawson told him when it was okay to let people pet him. He took his cues from Dawson. They were buddies. They did everything together. Then came Myrtle. Myrtle wasn't even 2 when we got her. He was 10 when we got her, our little spitfire. She was ornery and full of life! She looked at Ziggy as her rival we thought. Now we know better, she looked at him like her Papa. She has morned like you wouldn't believe. She refused to come into the living room for the first 2 days. She always peed on his pee. She searches for him outside. It has been awful to watch her. She acted like he was in the living room, and maybe he was. Who am I to say that he wasn't. I know he was happy here so maybe he did come back. I would be happy if he did. That night, Dawson kept staring at the back of the living room too. He was a great friend and smart as could be. Because of him, we had to spell lots of things. T-R-E-A-T, W-A-L-K, R-I-D-E, S-U-P-P-E-R, G-O, G-R-A-N-D-M-A, and there were many more but I can't think of them right now. I always held his paw. I called it holding hands. I held his hand as they put him to sleep, whispering how much I loved him in his ear. He loved to be whispered to. I am sorry for such a long post, but 11 years worth of memories takes a long time. If you made it to the end, I thank you. If you didn't, I understand. I owed this to my precious friend. I will always love you my friend. It's so hard to say goodbye!

I am going through the same thing right now. First my female got it. Now she seems to be doing better and our old guy has it! He refuses to eat anything. I will be calling the vet in the morning. He's 14 and can't afford to lose any more weight! My prayers are with you!

Ziggy does this all the time when we go outside. Occasionally he does it in the house. He is 14 years old and the vet told me she thinks it is just old age. He has done this for 2 years now. He also does it when it is cooler too.

I am so sorry to hear this!

I am so sorry!

Our boy Dawson does this sometimes. I think his is a bit of depth perception. It happens when the bowl is a little lower than usual. I may be all wrong, but that was my thought. Daws doesn't do it all the time, just every so often.

I am thinking of you today and wondering how she is. I hope she is eating for you! Chicken and rice helped my hounds when they are sick. I put plain yogurt in the bowl with the chicken and rice. It helps the tummy. Good luck and good thoughts are with you both!

I am so sorry!

I would take her to the vet ASAP. She may be feeling bad, as in sick, or hurt. This doesn't sound like a grudge to me.

I am so sorry!

Ziggy had glaucoma and we tried everything, all kinds of meds but nothing helped. We took him to a vet ophthalmologist at OSU, they said if they had seen him sooner they could have done a different surgery but as it was, he had to have the eye removed. That was the best thing we ever did for him! He is his old happy funny self! He gets a lot of attention because of the missing eye. Everyone oohs and aahs over him. Don't beat yourself up. Is his eye swollen? If not, you probably caught it early enough. Really though, for your boys sake, take him to an eye specialist! If you need someone to talk to, let me know. I have btdt!

I am so sorry!

I don't know. Dawson and Myrtle are related. Dawson's dad is her grandpa. They are very similar in personality and both are a hoot to be around. They love to play together and lay together. The walk side by side on walks. She is black with a little white. He is white with black spots. Their personalities are just so much alike! Sounds like you have the same thing at your house. You know, there is a thing called foster failure! That is why we don't foster!

When we got our first grey, Dawn, I expected her to not want to be around our almost 7 year old son. I had tried to get him ready for her to not want anything to do with him. She walked up to him and licked his face! He was her person. She would lay beside his bed if it was bad weather. She slept in his room on her doggy bed, but if the weather was bad, she was literally right beside his bed! She was his protector. So, not all greys want to stay away from kids. She didn't want to be around any other kids but he was hers. That made her passing very hard for my DS. Tell your adoption group what you want from your pup and they will help you get what you want.

Right now, if its not too hot, Dawson would walk with you most of the day. He loves to be with his people. Ziggy prefers to take short walkies, but since he is 13 years old, we understand. Dawn, who is an angel now, would walk until she had walked enough and then would put her long grey legs out and would not move. She would not have been a candidate but you would have missed out on a great dog! Even if they cannot go hiking all day, most would go hiking for an hour.

Oh my goodness, that was beautiful! I sat here and cried. I so totally see how much you loved her, and she you.

I would love a fanny pack style too!

I am so sorry!

Myrtle does this too! When I run to check on her, her back leg was as hard as a rock! She also cramps, but only at night. I give her a nightly body rub before bed and very seldom do we have another incident. Good Luck! I think I would get another opinion from another vet. Could he be having a seizure?

Our first grey was a horder. She didn't usually tear up my shoes, but it was always mine. One day I was in a hurry and had to look in her bed for my other shoe and I was out the door. I was standing in front of my second graders when one of them asked me what was wrong with my shoe. She had chewed all of the tassels off of the shoe she had in her bed. My students thought it was hilarious! That was the only time she chewed them up.