Many moons have passed since my last blog entry. But I am missing blogging as a writing outlet so I take up my keyboard after a long break. Inspired in part by a off handed comment made by Doug, the recent adopter of Serious Fire Power. I guess I get thinking that I am just rambling along keeping a blog and no one is reading it. But when he told me he enjoyed it and then today another friend commented on it I realized maybe....just maybe I am not just talking to myself.

The past few months have been some what routine with foster dogs coming and going, students with dogs, seminars and dog shows. What wasn't routine was the passing of my Aussie boy Dusk on May 19th. Some of you may remember that some time ago he was diagnosed with a tumor of unknown quantity in his chest. Almost a year and a half ago my vet warned me the Dusk was a short-timer. He beat the odds for a long time but even so the loss was overwhelming....is overwhelming. I still flounder at moments to find my balance without him. More on that later...gulp...

At the moment I have a single foster dog. Helen is black, beautiful and smart as a whip. She is lots of fun and likes to be right in the middle of the action. When I let her loose in the paddock, in my mind I hear that charge bugle they play in old war movies. She does everything with zeal and with all her heart. Frankly she can stay as long as she wants. She makes me laugh out loud almost every day. Her perfect home would be active and longing for a soul mate. She would happily race you to the "M" or hang out watching reruns. She likes everyone and all dogs. I need to cat test her again because she failed to react to the cat both times I tested her...which I find hard to believe. I will test her on Sigh my black cat who may get a different response than the blondie Malarkey. I took Malarkey to cat test all the new foster greyhounds at Tripps about a month ago. We put Malarkey in one of the big wire greyhound crates and brought the greyhounds in one at a time. Malarkey, the big dummy, lolled on the bed, rolling this way and that. He stretched his feet out, purring loudly and was having the best time ever. It was if the scent of greyhounds was his catnip. Not a single dog reacted to him. I think my cat is a failure as a test cat. But Sigh the black cat is different, he is cagey and suspicious. So I will test Helen again with him and see if she reacts to him. In the meantime Helen's coat which was ratty and thin when she arrived has turned glossy. She was chosen for Montana in part because she has flea allergies. Our flea free mountain home is already changing her quality of life.

Seems like there is so many things to catch up on but I will save those for fodder for another blog day. Time for me to head out and tuck in some dogs. Its getting dark and this year someone in my usually quiet neighborhood has been testing out fireworks.

Hurray it won't be long before a haul is headed our way. We only ordered one extra this time. I ordered a foster dog. A-Come-Helen she is a black 5 year old girl. Something about her face reminded me of my girl Run. The clincher for me was that she has flea allergies and I love the idea of bringing her north where fleas are few and far in between. I can't wait to see her and hope I actually get to foster her a little while before she is snatched up.

The winter here has already seemed very long. We have had lots of everything...rain, cold, ice and snow. I have been busy the last week or so with craft projects. Its been years since I just set down and enjoyed doing something with my hands with no time line hanging over me. Of course there are things I need to be doing which I am neglecting but for now it is enough to putter. One of my goals this upcoming year is to show Run in at least rally obedience. She is so smart and likes to puzzle solve which makes training her a lot of fun. But for tonight I will have to be content with listening to the wind blowing around the corners of the house and dreaming of meeting Helen and training Run.

Seems like a million miles have been covered since I last made an entry in my blog. But alas the new year is upon us and time to get caught up. Updates from the dog family....
Yahtzee the last pup from the summer rescue litter was adopted by my dog-nanny. She admitted that from the moment she first saw Yahtzee in a online video she was smitten with her. Its been a perfect match for both. The rest of my dog family has been fairly well. Dusk is over all doing well with bouts of feeling rough that last about a week followed by several weeks of feeling well. It was nearly a year ago that we first discovered the mass in his chest. At that time we really though he was a short-timer but he has proved us wrong. My puppy Tilly is now a year old, she is every bit of a princess. Darrin seems to adore her and I am SHOCKED that he snuggles with her and even lets her sleep on the bed...between us. But Tilly is a very sweet princess not the spoiled kind. Brink earned an obedience title in Sept. Showing Brink was in a word...challenging. He got to worrying in the ring and couldn't even think, but we managed to hold it together and earned his Companion Dog title. Pixie earned a Rally Advanced title. After much consideration I decided to go ahead and have her spayed. I am not really that interested in conformation and decided I would just rather be able to show her in the upper levels of obedience without the added complication of heat cycles. I would have enjoyed letting her raise a litter of pups but that alone is not reason to do it. Ivy my old lady Aussie is still as prim and quirky as ever....maybe a little more so but at 14 she can pretty much do whatever she likes. This fall through a horse trading deal made by a friend I ended up with another Aussie pup. A red tri boy which I named Jose. He fit right into the pack like he had always been here so what was meant to be temporary became permanent.

On the sight hound scene my 6 hounds are all well. Jonah just turned 10 years. I started Katy in Open obedience to hopefully show her this upcoming year. But Katy has other plans and they do not include dumbbell work. She thinks retrieving is completely beneath her. So we will work on higher levels of rally instead. The greyhound girls are all as lovely and easy to live with as ever. One thing about greyhounds they are such companionable dogs they are easy to take for granted then one day you catch a glimpse of them curled up sleeping or trotting in that elastic trot down the hall and it takes your breath away. They are not only easy to live with they are living art. So beautiful!!

Into 2011 with all the promise of the best year ever!!

Summer has swept by us and left us many warm early fall days. Reports from people who should know assure me winter is on the way and will be a doozey. With leaves on the trees and green grass still under foot the idea of a snow day is appealing. Before we get to snow days there are pickles to make, dogs to show and hay to finish getting in.

On the rescue pup scene I had kennel cough hit my kennel. It has delayed the departure of momma dog to her new home and one of the pups. Currently there are 3 pups and momma still here. I am beginning to wonder if they wille ver leave. The two boy pups are spoken for and in an unexpected turn of events, the only female Yahtzee still waiting for the perfect match. She is a doll and thinks she will grow up to be queen. Despite the temptation to keep her for myself the part of "queen" is already being played by Tilly.

Iris woke me up last night. She was blazing hot and miserable. I took her temp and it was over 105 (normal is 101.5) I gave her some rymadyl and waited half an hour. Her temp continued to creep up. Another half an hour and still creeping up, now at 105.8. As a last measure before I called the vet at 5:30 AM I gave her some antibiotics and began to ice her. Iris who is a hot house flower was sleeping on a ice bag with another ice pack tucked into her flank. Half an hour later it dropped to 105.2 and hour later it finally broke and started to drop. By 9 AM she was at 102.6. With 3 hours of sleep behind me I had her at the vet at noon. Iris presented normal in every respect. She is exhausted but seems fine. WEIRD! I will be watching her like a hawk.

Tonight Carol called so we could discuss ordering an extra dog. I forgot how much fun it was to be in the phone picking out dogs we like. As we hung up her next call was to the haul coordinator. My last words were "God Speed" calling that haul coordinator is dangerous. She has a way of taking us from 2 dogs to 6 and then to 10. Good luck Carol!!

The dog days of summer are upon us. After several hot hot days we now have thunder storms and some much welcome rain. This is a picture of the pups I took one hot day after they ate. I just loved how they were sprinkled like confetti napping all over the lawn.

We just posted a new video of the pups check it out at

www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXuOkLMvFUo

The first pup leaves in the morning. It will be a little hard to see the first one leave. They still seem like such babies...but now is the perfect time for them to leave. They have had their first shot and a round of wormer. They have been weaned for the past several days. Summer has flown by...I hope the dog days last a little longer.

The pups are growing like summer weeds and have learned to use the dog door most of the time. They can start to leave home in a couple of weeks so I am starting to search for the right homes for them.

I have both foster boys at the moment...Yako and Juan. They are a irresistible pair of clowns. Deuce has moved to his forever home with Barb and Kerry in Billings. Deuce and Courtney, their greyhound pup (now 2 years) were fast friends and play a lot.

Included is a picture of Gable in his hero cape. Gable is a blood donor and has given life to several dogs now. One of the gals at the vet clinic made him this cape. He wears it well!! Henderson's have every right to be super proud of their boy!

I have been busy getting pictures of the pups posted on my facebook page and even a video on YouTube thanks to Mr. Muir....be sure to check it out at

www.youtube.com/user/darrinmuir#p/u

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The pups are starting to eat real food now. They don't have teeth yet so they just get a porridge of good holistic canned dog food and water. As you will see on the video they love it!! I have moved them into a inside kennel with a outside run for mom, but tomorrow we will work on getting all the mowers and other stuff out of the shed and turn that into a nursery. They already need more elbow room. The mower shed is covered and protected so should work nicely during the day. I can put down some shavings to soak up the "stuff" and the whole kennel will smell better with the pups outside part time.

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The greyhound picnic was a success and I am happy to report that I kept the commitment I made to myself to enjoy it. I spent way to much at the auction scoring some great things and then I caved to temptation and bought a couple of new collars from Collar Crazy....all with minimum guilt. When everyone left my niece Aubree and I hopped in the huge stock tank to cool off. Pretty soon we were introducing the dogs to the joys of stock tank dipping. We had a great time playing...yes I was doing what I love and loving what I was doing...promise kept.

Anyone who knows me at all knows I am going to tip that raft over...except Aubree. Ah the hazard of innocence!