Dima (Dee Dee to her friends) loped over the rainbow bridge Christmas morning. She was one of a trio of dogs we re-rescued in Oct, 2005. That seems like so long ago...but it really was only 3 short years. Dima was lucky enough to land in the home of Jan and Tony and their merry pack. She thrived there and was much loved by her greyhound sister Foxy. This past year brought problems with her kidneys. Her attentive family had gotten it under control and Dima was pain free and doing well until the last few hours. She is greatly missed already. And yes Jan, I am sure Dee Dee can still hear you singing "her songs" to her.

This month we also bid a sad farewell to Gracie who succumbed to seizures just a few days before Christmas. Gracie leaves a greyhound size hole in the hearts of her family, Mark and Amanda. She was settling into her home about the same time Dima was in the fall of 2005, after being brought up from CO to retire. She charmed the socks off all who knew her and was the easiest dog to love.

I speak for the entire greyhound community when I say our hearts are with yours while you make this adjustment in your lives. May you find love and peace again soon.

I have been making an effort to clean my home with basic cleaners. You know things like soda, white vinegar and elbow grease. Today I had the chance to try out homemade carpet cleaner. One of my friends raised a litter of pups in her spare room. This seemed like the perfect place to put the carpet cleaning solution to the TEST. As you can guess raising pups is pretty hard on carpets and between the pups learning housebreaking and the wet muddy paws the carpets were past stinky and into the realm of lets just rip it out entirely. A hour of Darrin's hard work and a steam cleaner borrowed from Tripps the carpets are clean...they smell fresh, dried quickly and there was no sticky residue. I will never buying carpet cleaning solution again. For under $2 I had a whole gallon of good cleaner! Here is the recipe....

Joni's Magic Carpet Cleaner
1 pint 91% isopropyl alcohol (this is strong rubbing alcohol)
1 TBSP Ammonia
2 TBSP White Distilled Vinegar
1 tsp Dawn dish soap

Mix ingredients and add enough water to make a gallon.
For very soiled areas use a spray bottle to dampen the carpet and let sit for 15-30 minutes before cleaning with steamer. Keep a spray bottle of this handy for spot cleaning.

Gretta, Sunny and Popsicle

The new gang arrived last week and are now recovering from vetting and preparing to settle into new homes. Except, Popsicle, who already headed to his waiting home. That leaves us with 3 wonderful mature girls to find homes for.
Most newsworthy lately has been the intense cold. It is pretty tough to let dogs out to play when temps are below zero and windchill sends it into -26 degrees. Heck it is pretty hard to even convince some of them to go out long enough to potty. Today was almost warm with the lack of wind and the incoming storm stalled in Kalispell dumping boat loads of snow on them. The weather men are saying a storm is rolling in tonight bringing snow then chased by bitter temps and winds. But today was a nice break and the pups loved being outside for more than 15 minutes. The boarding dogs are starting to come in for the holidays and it is promising to be busy...that is if people can actually travel this week. The holidays have been booked solid for over two weeks. I have a back kennel room I only use during the summer months because it is not well heated. It really is the domain of Sigh, our greyhound test kitty. He is set up with a nice heating pad and a heat lamp. When the temps dropped last week and the wind seemed to be blowing from every direction I moved the goats into the back kennels. Sigh seems to be enjoying the company of the goat girls. The goats are happy with four walls around them and I sleep better knowing everyone is comfortable.

Woo Hoo....the Bozeman crew, headed by Barb and Dana visited the Christmas Stroll in Bozeman. The dogs donned on donation vests and brought in a healthy donations from passersby. Dana reported that the relaxed atmosphere and perfect weather helped make it the perfect day for being out and showing off the hounds. Billings also had their Christmas Stroll and a hound-party at McVittie's (the greyhound) house...we will get a update from one of them. Coming up next week end is photos with Santa in Billings.

We have two greyhounds who are headed our way this week. Kind of short notice but the opportunity arose and we grabbed it!! We have spoken for JT Sun Vallie, a 7 year young dark brindle beauty (see picture below). We are also getting another senior female but I don't have the exact details yet. If you are itching to add to your family please let us know NOW...we might be able to squeeze one more in.

The greyhound foster scene has been pretty slow. Tildy is still in the kennel at Tripps and Jack is still being fostered by Bek...but there is a home that is firming up for him. There is a possibility of a greyhound being given up by someone who recently moved to our state. First order of business is to make sure it really is a greyhound.
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Over the years I have learned never to commit to a dog sight unseen. There was the time I was transporting a dog for another rescue. It was supposed to be an Aussie. I was picking it up in Missoula and taking it to Portland where it would meet up with someone who had agreed to foster him and find him a new home. When I first laid eyes on the dog I thought "No way!!" This dog was huge! Average Aussie boys weighs 50-60 pounds and this boy was easily 90+. In a time before cell phones I really didn't have a way to call the person in Portland and my husband was chomping at the bit to begin our 15 hour drive to the southern Oregon coast where we lived at the time. So we crammed BIG DOG Baxter in the back seat and took off. He was a really good boy. Traveled well, walked perfectly, sweet and really no problem other than he was obviously NOT a purebred Aussie...likely not an Aussie at all. In ten or so hours we pulled up to the home of the Aussie foster mom. One look at this BIG DOG and she pretty much refused to take him. She was furious at the sender for sending a dog so clearly not an Aussie...I felt awful for the dog. You could see the confusion on this big lunk of a dog's face. It never occurred to any of us he would be met with anger and rejection. Predictably, I loaded him up and he came home with us. In time I found a fantastic home for him. He spent time training as a Search And Rescue dog. They proved to be a gifted team. He sailed through his basic training and was on to very advanced skills within the year. In fact one of the last times I heard from his owner they were getting ready for a big test and would be required to jump out of a plane and repel from a helicopter. My immediate thought was they would probably both be killed trying this. My memory was of this BIG BIG DOG in our tiny back seat. Once in shape he tipped the scales at only 70+ pounds. Seventy pounds still seems huge to strap to you and jump out of a plane. You know I don't remember hearing from them after that....you don't suppose?....NAH I would have heard if a dog had died sky diving.

Thanks to Vicki K. in Missoula one of the lab pups went home today. Sad to say all those great homes we thought we had turned out not to be so solid. The new home was pleased to pick the active girl since they may want to try to hunt a little with her. I, as a foster home, was happy to be left with the bit lazier boy.

We have been having a yard sale of sorts here. One of my friends had a cute little dress shop in Stevensville which she recently closed so we are selling much of her inventory and a few other odds and ends. The danger of having a yard sale with your friend is that there is a certain amount of trading junk that goes on.
Friend 1 - "OOOOO you are selling that? I gotta have it! How much do you want for it?"
Friend 2 - "That? You want that? You can have that!"
Friend 1 - "No no no....I want to pay for it what do you want for it?"
Friend 2 - "One penny."
Friend 1 - "Well then I am not going to buy it"
A FEW MINUTES LATER
Friend 2 - "Oh my gosh why are you selling that? You should keep it"
Friend 1 - "No I am sick of it...I am definitely selling it."
Friend 2 - "Oh I will trade you this for that."
And so it goes until we each have a little corner filled with stuff that is no longer for sale.

Monday night my friend Pam called me in a panic. She had been hiking and found two lab pups at the trail head. In talking to everyone she could at the site she learned that these pups had been there all day and had tagged along on some hikes but no one claimed them. It was nearly dark and a storm was rolling in so what else could she do? She loaded them up and called me for help. Fortunately I had room for them in the kennel. They were pretty tired when they crawled into a warm dry crate together. They shared a bowl of kibble and sacked out. I actually had to wake them up for a potty break. The days have rolled by and the ads we ran and the fliers we plastered all over have gone unanswered. It is looking like these two were dumped. Fortunately the vet where they were taken for scanning had some leads on homes for us. We have 3-4 really good spots for them. It looks certain that good lab-lovin' homes will be ready for them soon...WHEW!! Pam brought me lunch on Tuesday. I couldn't tell if it was the guilt of dumping the pups on me or just the desire to play with the pups that brought her out bearing food. We picnicked on my porch. It was cold but the dogs didn't mind. I had bought these fancy dog cookies and this seemed like the perfect day to break them out. They come in a package like Oreos and are sandwich cookies like Oreos but they are peanut butter and cream. They are stamped with this really cute doggie paw print and they smell great. Total junk food for dogs but they loooove them. Later that evening I was wandering through the kitchen and I noticed Darrin was snacking. I saw his eyes widen and he stopped chewing. Through his crumb filled mouth he said "Are these DOG cookies?" He had spotted the paw print on his cookie. I nodded and he ran to the garbage can spitting and gagging. You would have thought he was poisoned. I had a good laugh but the best was yet to come. After he rinsed out his mouth, drank some water and regained his composure he said "You know the first two were pretty good!" He said when he knew they were dog cookies he just couldn't swallow. That innocent paw print saved the dog's cookies. The dogs are happy to know they won't have to share with him....at least not very often.