Fur Baby Post #3 and obedience update

After days of saying I was going to post another fur baby story I am finally getting around to it!!  Thank you all for your patience with me. 


Andy and Kai's 'mom' is the generous lady who sent Sweetheart her 'Beach Bum' outfit.


I have borrowed heavily from Andy and Kai's mom's own words.  I hope you all enjoy!  Without further ado, I give you Fur Babies Andy and Kai!


Andy, his mom's first greyhound, has been in his forever home for  7 years.  He is now 10.  When she first adopted Andy he had been racing for about 6 months and had gotten hepatitis and was then trampled during a race.  His foster mom called him Ruckus and here is why.  There was no trash can, door, or bin that could not be opened.  In addition to being a trash/door/bin crasher, he seemed to have an affinity for wood.  He ate part of a banister and part of a 300 year old chair. I am sure everyone out there is cringing a little.  Andy's exploits have also earned him a free, well not free for his mom, trip to the doggy ER.  During one of his counter surfing missions, Any stole and proceeded to inhale a stick and a half of butter, 4 squares of unsweetened baking chocolate and 2 cups of kibble, including wrappers (what meal is complete without packaging).  After the contents came back up (not what Andy expected when he was eating them I am sure) the vet techs were rather surprised when he then proceeded to go after their trash while in the exam room.   :)

For most of his life Andy was a very quiet boy who only got the "bouncies" (anyone with greys know what the bouncies are all about) when the leash would make an appearance.  Some people thought he didn't have much personality; didn't wag his tail much, wasn't interested in toys, didn't come up for scritches, but his mom knew that he was a sweetheart.

Three years ago Andy got a GH puppy from rescue. :)  Well, maybe I should say his mom got a puppy because Andy has never really forgiven her for foisting this terror on him (more on Kai the terror below). The amusing thing is that even though Andy avoids Kai like the plague, Andy has started to come out of his shell.  He has also started going to daycare with Kai.  Andy is now smiling more and he loves to play with a few toys.  As Andy's  mom said to me in her email "There is nothing better than seeing an 86 pound hound flinging himself bodily on a toy with such gusto and a twinkle in his eye".  At first when he went to daycare he just sniffed everything and hung out with the handlers.  One day he started to play with other dogs a bit.  He would only play with brindles (snobbish?).   Andy then found his inner zoomy.  Nowadays they have to bring him in by his collar and hold him for awhile until he settles down. Otherwise he comes in "on fire" and gets everyone else whipped up into a running frenzy.  The staff love to tell his mom about his daily exploits: how much he is enjoying himself, who Andy's girlfriends were that day, and just how many times he got the "zoomies" (yep, those of you with greys are nodding your head because you know what zoomies are)!  

Kai, a.k.a Andy's nightmare, was adopted by his mom as a puppy  from GALT- TX.  As many of you who are familiar with greyhound rescue know, greyhound puppies do not come up for adoption very often as most greyhounds are not normally adoptable until AFTER they flunk out of racing or retire from racing (usually between 1.5 to 5 years of age)   Kai's mom said in her email "Kai was just the cutest thing at 8 weeks old; all legs, tail and teeth".  Puppy Kai was in constant motion.  Poor Andy put up with lots of pestering for a while.  Kai has now grown up to be a sweet, gentle hound who always squeaks when he wakes up EARLY at 5 a.m.  He is a regal looking fawn boy with Egyptian eye liner (my Cleo has the same eyeliner, hence the name Cleo, short for Cleopatra).  Kai loves his hugs and full body scritches at the end of the day, and one harsh word will send him into "tears".  He's not totally an angel though (don't all hounds have a little 'bad' in there somewhere)?!  He loves paper, especially toilet paper".  You can only imagine the messes he makes with that!

Below are pictures of Andy and Kai.  Both are gorgeous hounds, don't you agree?

Kai looking quite handsome!

AWWW!  What more needs to be said about
Andy in this pic.

Perhaps I should ask Andy's Mom to send
me that bed, looks comfy.

I hope everyone enjoyed Kai and Andy's story.  I know I did.  Bavarian is my trash hound and if we leave the kitchen trash within his range we will come home to utter destruction so I can definitely sympathize with Andy's mom!

Sweetheart did great in class Monday.  Well, great for her at least.  She wasn't super focused on the other dogs and she actually listened to us when we were working with her!  WOOHOO!  I didn't work with her a lot last week but I think the little I did do with her helped.  I was so jazzed that Sweetheart did well.  

This week we are supposed to work on her walking beside us, waiting at an open door and 'leave it'.  Wish us luck!

A big thank you to Andy and Kai's mom for the fabulous gift.  Les and I just love it.  I hope that you approve of your fur babies blog post!!

Jess and Sweetheart!