He went into his life of retirement to a great place: a family where he learned all the obedience commands (He had his Canine Good Citizen Cert), dog agility, and how to teach other greyhounds how to live in a home. He also helped raise a bunch of greyhound puppies over time, keeping them in line and showing them the ropes.

When I first moved to Colorado and thought about adopting a greyhound, I went to a meet and greet and there he was. So handsome, soft and alive. He was the first greyhound I met in colorado and the one that sent me on my way adopting and fostering.

Then, when he was around 5, he came to me. At first he was afraid. He had major seperation anxiety anytime I left the house, but soon he learned that I would ALWAYS come back to him. He became my velcro dog. If I went upstairs, so did he. If I went on a trip, he wanted to go too. Here too he showed foster dogs how to run up stairs, play with stuffed toys and enjoy life. We spent many many many days out at the greyhound booth at the ren faire. Merlin didn’t really care about being there or the people or attention out there, he just wanted to be with me (and later Wendy as he bonded with her too). While at the booth he would hang back and sleep and lay down, not caring too much about people petting him. When we would leave the booth, he would move up front, scanning the crowds until we returned… jumping for joy at our arrival (literally).

He was a champion “roacher” (laying on back with all legs in the air like a dead cockroach):

Last year he was diagnosed with a thymoma in his chest. They didn’t give too good a chance, but we looked in his eyes and saw that he was going to stay with us, so he had a 4+ hour surgery and they removed a double fist sized thymoma from his chest. Amazingly he recovered and got another year to spend with us. He still tossed stuffed toys around and would from time to time run around the yard.

Good bye Merlin. You touched more lives than you can know. I will never forget you.

Merlin is very slowly improving. He can stand up on his own, and sometimes he can lay down on his own too. A few days ago he started eating small amounts (we have been giving him canned puppy food mixed with water), although we are still feeding him through his stomach tube. His poop is almost back to normal as well, which is great news! I’m looking forward to the time we can leave him alone for the night so we can both get some sleep.

He also really really needs to gain weight. He is down to about 50lbs, when he should be upper 60′s or lower 70′s. ;(

1. Winter the kitty: Losing weight. Bloodwork was fine. x-rays fine. We insist on a ultrasound and they find that she has lymphoma. Luckily it’s the “best” kind and means it should hopefully be treatable by a steroid and some low level oral chemo drug. She might well live out her natural span.
2. Legolas (legs) the greyhound. Limping and having trouble getting around. x-rays fine. Bloodwork fine. On to the MRI. This shows that his old racing injury on his spine is pressing on his spinal colum causing problems. Spinal surgery (including 6 days in the hospital recovering). Happily he’s doing well and prognosis is good. Just need to keep him from falling for a few more weeks and then he can do stairs again and go on (short) walks.
3. Merlin the greyhound. Not eating. Vomiting. Really bad D. Bloodwork ok except he was dehydrated. Started on IV fluids and antibiotics. Still not getting any better, refusing all food. More x-rays. Nothing. Finally a ultrasound finds that he has a thymoma thats pressing on his esophogus, causing him to be unable to eat. Currently he’s in the hospital where they are trying to get enough food in him so he gets enough strength back to do a surgery and remove the thymoma. Prognosis is unknown. If he can get enough energy, and the thymoma is well defined they can remove it all and he will be good, but not sure either of those will happen.

So, hug your cats and dogs and be happy when they are healthy.

It was a very nice day out today. All the pups enjoyed their walk.

They know when it’s walk time.

Burner taking a nap.

I recently got a Motorola Droid phone. I am loving it so far. Here’s a pic from the phone camera on today’s dog walk of Nash, posted from the phone. Hopefully this will make it easy to take and share photos for me.

Well, up until this last saturday, I was walking 5 of them every day. Of the 5, 3 of them were as easy as can be… Kurt (10.5yr old), Merlin (9.5yr old) and (until saturday) Prince the foster (6.5).
Of the other two, Legs the greyhound means well, but often gets in the way or doesn’t realize where a leash is and gets tangled. He’s nothing next to the last hound however: Nash (1.5yr old) the puppy. He loves the snow. Jumping and making little Nash snow angels. Still, despite that, it’s sure fun to get out and walk them out on the walk.

All the pups on a walk.

As you may gather, Prince the foster dog got adopted this saturday! Congrats Prince. I hope he’s having a good time in his new home.
Just in time for us to be heading out to fudcon this weekend.

Sometimes after walks, the leashes get a bit tangled.