Kevin's musings

Well, got back from CSU a bit ago from taking Twyla up there for a checkup.
They did an X-Ray and it showed that the cancer has spread and grown quite a bit. There is one of the nodules that is pretty large and looks like it might be putting some fluid out around her lung. On the plus side she’s still happy and friendly and in no pain.
They gave me the option of enrolling her in a clinical trial:
go Here and look for the study titled:
“Canine osteosarcoma patients with lung metastasis”.

I am leaning toward not doing it at this point. It would mean she would get put under a lot (for CAT scan, for biopsy’s, for radation treatment). As much as I would like to help other hounds down the road, I don’t think its too fair to her to have all that happen instead of
just being happy until the end.

Just took these two pictures…

Merlin curling into a little ball:

And Twyla is becoming one with the dog bed:

Here are some pics from this weekend at the boulder creek festival.
Twyla had such a lovely time. It was hot and crowded, but she was getting attention.
She didn’t lay down until probibly the last 30min or so we were there…

Kurt getting in on the petting:

Twyla going for max petting in the crowd:

Merlin had no problems laying down:

A fair number of other hounds there:

This banner says it all… the group is desperate for foster homes. We pushed them a lot talking to people.

Look at this happy face:

Kurt and Merlin don’t mind sharing a pillow:

Finally Twyla realized she could lay down and STILL get people to come pet her:

Pretty nice long weekend overall.

Friday: went out for beers at southern sun and then did some stuff around the house.
Saturday: more stuff around the house and spent the (hot) afternoon at the boulder creek festival (pictures coming soon).
Sunday: more house cleaning and such, and then a delightfull BBQ/games night. Really nice turnout and a interesting mix of people and dogs.
Monday: Up far far far too early handling a client issue, then out at the faire site all day. Managed to get all kinds of good stuff done to the booth out there.

Pictures of Saturday coming soon when I have the energy. Now it’s time to pass out.

Today was the Colorado Greyhound Companions annual picnic.
I was worried that it would be super hot and nasty out today, but while warm it wasn’t as bad as it could have been, wince there was cloud cover and some nice wind.

I saw at least 3 dogs that had been fosters of mine in the past. It’s always cool to see them again, nice and happy… they all remembered me too, which is cool. They really have good memories of that kind of thing.

They reserved a baseball field so we could do some ‘fun runs’. They lined up dogs being held on one side and then released them to go to their owners. Merlin managed to win his age group (7-9) at 11seconds and then won the all around (in that case he “interfered” with some of the other dogs and his time was’t that great… but he had fun at least).

Merlin was glad to see people he knew…

Dublin, a former foster of mine looking cool in his doggles (he has pannus):

Distant shot of the ‘fun run’. I think this was the 1-3yr old group running:

And there off!

Merlin won a stylish flower and lei…

Pat Jones was retiring from being president and driving force for the group for the last 13 years.
They presented her with a picture of her first greyhound with the names of all the greyhounds that found homes while she was running the group. She’s really a wonderfull person, and I hope she enjoys retirement.

A pic of tiny. The smallest greyhound there… 39lbs and 10.5 years old. Hope to see you out there more tiny!

Colorado Greyhound Adoption was running a booth out at Thorntonfest this year, and I thought it would be a nice chance to get Twyla out and soak up some loving.

We managed to get there a few minutes late (We were supposed to be there at 10am) and after a quick stop at the Recycled Racers booth to chat and visit we managed to find the CGA booth. There didn’t seem to be anyone there, although everything was setup, so we dived right in. Luckily more folks showed up in quick order. It was a mini-reunion for the folks that work out at the Ren Faire.

S and T with Dazzle and Sabrina working the crowd:

At some points we had a pretty good pile of hounds all cramming into the shade (it was hot!):

Happy hound:

My god, it’s full of brindles!

Isn’t Dazzle just the cutest hound?

Kurt really likes Dazzle. She was giving him kisses.

Merlin is looking fine…

Twyla found that you could lay under the table, and there was shade and no one stepping on you…

…and if someone walked by there you could jump up and get petting:

Up later tonight: Pics from the CGC picnic up in fort collins.

Some more pictures from the last few days…

Merlin relaxing:

But Twyla really knows how to relax:

Close up of Twyla’s spotted tummy:

Merlin out standing in his field:

Kurt out in the yard. I’m amazed at how grey his face has gotten. He’s almost 9 now. I have had him for 5 years now.

There was this weird pile of ants in the yard today. They seem to do this kind of thing every once in a while.
I sure hate ants.

Twyla looking coy and Merlin looking away:

I picked up this dog bed off ebay. It was made by Victoria Peak. I have another one that is pretty much the favorate bed of all the dogs. This one was a “blemished” one and at about 1/2 cost. It’s in great shape thought.
It’s pretty impressive how they pack these:

Bed unpacked next to the box:

And in use:

Decided for whatever reason to play around with themes tonght.
There was one I found that I really like, but I couldn’t get it to deal with the way I post pictures.
Oh well, the current one will do for now…

Not a bad weekend…The spankers show on friday night was great. Nice mix of folks and a amusing setlist. The audience was a bit on the dead side, but I guess you can’t have everything. saturday had a few folks drop by for movie night. Shown were: The Matrix (we had to test the setup), The Aristocrats (had some very amusing parts, but dragged on way too long),
and Hellboy (Great fun!).

Sunday was the dog training class. I took my projector out and got that setup no problem, but the DVD they were going to use wouldn’t play in either my laptop or another laptop there. Or rather it would start to play, but wouldn’t let you choose chapters. ;( The class was good. Lots of good info there…

And now to catch up on pictures from the last week:

Merlin decided to go out and hang out in the yard. Pretty odd, mostly they go out and wander around for a few and play and then want right back in.

The day must have been so nice Merlin thought he should hang out outside for a while:

Someone knows that the vents are where the nice cool (or hot when it’s cold) air comes out:

Sweet Princess Twyla out on a walk:

Kurt on the same walk (note the sock on his back paw… he gets his stiches out of his toe friday):

And Merlin for completeness:

It’s SO SIMPLE! Why haven’t more people signed up!!?!?!?!

Twyla still does the tounge thing… now more often in fact:

And she loves to grin:

Kurt has been on the lookout for thunderstorms. The storm defender cape I got him has seemed to really help so far.
Most of the storms haven’t had much thunder tho. Time will tell this summer.

A shot of all 3 pups relaxing after the walk today:

FYI, anyone in the area who is interested, I will be showing movies and playing video games saturday night at my house on the projector.
It’s a pretty nice setup. Anyone interested in dropping by for a low key evening, drop me an email.

Also, everyone should go see the Asylum Street spankers up at Trilogy in boulder tonight. I should be there.