Now wash your hands

It's been a busy old few days here....and it doesn't show signs of slowing down any time soon.

Now, on top of everything else, the Lady Of The House's mum and dad have nipped off on holiday for a few days and so the LOTH is dashing between our house and their house to keep an eye on their cat Mickey - who's nearly 20.

Mickey obviously wants to stay in his own home at his advanced age and that suits me too.

I love Mickey because he's family. But he's still a cat and I'm a greyhound with years of hunting instincts topped off with the genes of racing champions and several years of my own racing career under my belt.....it wouldn't end well if we had more than a virtual relationship.

Here's a picture the LOTH brought back of Mickey after her visit tonight. He's looking good for an oldster, don't you think?

But I was a bit disgusted by the LOTH's behaviour. She had clearly been fussing and stroking him and she didn't have the decency to wash her hands before she came home.

I gave her a look that would have curdled milk and she nipped off to wash them pretty darn fast after that.

You HAVE to let them know who's boss, you see.

Wordless Wednesday - trying on my new PINK collar

What a nice start to the week

What a lovely surprise when I was catching up on the news from my namesake - The Other Winnie Cooper - last night and found that she had very generously passed on to me the Awesome Blog award.

I felt very privileged and proud.

If you've not met the other Winnie yet - she's a Shih Tzu and very very cute and clever. So do stop by and say hello to her.

As is the way with these awards I now have to tell you a few things about myself that you might not know. Hhhmmm! Let me think.

1. My dad was an Australian greyhound called Hahn Bale who came over to the UK to sire puppies. I look a lot like him going by the picture on Greyhound-Data.com

2. His dad - my grandad - was Head Honcho who died in 2001 was one of the inaugural inductees in to the Victorian Greyhound Racing Hall Of Fame in 2009.

2. I love sharing Sunday roast dinner with the family - well they save some for me to eat after them - but it does mean some rather bad smells coming from the direction of my bottom on a Sunday evening which I pretend are nothing to do with me.

3. I like having my teeth brushed with chicken-flavoured toothpaste.

4. If we see people jogging on our walks I act like I want to join in (you can take the greyhound of out of the stadium but you can't stop her wanting to run).

5. My favourite toy at the moment is a squeaky plush reindeer that I had for Christmas - but that will change again soon.

Now for the blogs that I would like to honour by passing on the awesome award. This is really hard because I LOVE all my virtual friends who I follow. But here's who I have decided to recommend to you this time.

Presley the Lurcher (also known on Facebook as 'King Presley') - A Lurcher from Scotland with a lovely accent

A Scratch Behind the Ears - Always makes the LOTH feel peaceful and smile

Dogs for the Paws - Inspiring stories of rescue dogs

Finn's Dog Blog - He's a handsome bulldog

Granted Wishes Greyhounds - Greyhound rescue and training experiences

Hope you find some new blogs there that you perhaps didn't know about.

Have a lovely week. It's school half-term here so I may get busy helping the LOTH look after the BOTH (he's not only on holiday from school but he's got a nasty cold too) so if I go a bit quiet you will know why.

Tired out after playtime

Sometimes when a girl has played and played there's nothing for it but to make yourself a pillow and flop down among your toys, give a big contented sigh and watch the rest of the house go by.

That's what I think anyway.

Today I am again joining the Saturday Pet Blog Hop hosted by Life With Dogs, Two Little Cavaliers and Confessions of the Plume. 

If you'd like to join in and make new friends, please follow your three hosts, add your blog to the Linky and copy and paste the html code into the html editor of your blog. 

Thanks again to our hosts for putting on the hop! If you follow a new blog after finding them in the blog hop - please let them know that you found them on the Saturday Pet Blog Hop.

Have a wonderful weekend with your loved ones.

Wordless Wednesday - It's mine and I'm afraid I'm not sharing

Grey and proud

Makes me proud to be a greyhound when I see stories like this one in the Birmingham Mail about a greyhound called Chicken who is brightening the lives of older folk in a care home.

No-one knows why he's called Chicken apparently, but like me he looked very sad as he waited in kennels at the Blue Cross animal adoption centre in Bromsgrove for a new home.

But now that he's out and about he's a happy chap and making others smile too.

Home manager Margaret Hook told the Birmingham Mail that his presence is highly therapeutic for the 60 residents.

"He will just sit there and they make a fuss over him and they love it. Some of the residents remember their own pets and they start talking about their lives. It helps bring them out of themselves."

The Girl Of The House is having a lovely birthday and asked me to say thank you for all your kind wishes. She would send you all some cake if she could but perhaps you can enjoy it virtually instead. I'll just get the Man Of The House to cut you a slice........

Pet memories

It felt odd to have a weekend off. The Lady Of The House had a weekend off from the computer too (and is still catching up on emails as a result!).

Thank you for your good wishes for the Girl Of The House's 21st. The ACTUAL day is tomorrow but we seem to be having a four-day celebration.

Anyway, as my little early birthday gift to her (and because we have no baby pictures of me) I thought I'd post some pictures of the GOTH with other pets the family had before me.

Hope you have a lovely Valentine's Day with those you love whether they have two legs or four legs.

The day the GOTH came home from hospital she got a cuddle from big brother Chris and a curious look from Fred the cat

Corky the cat thought it was odd that small humans had their own cages



Always good pals with her grandparents dog Jenna

Jenna and the little GOTH always liked to know what was going on

Growing up with Jenna

Dozing on the sofa wth Lucy rabbit

Playing with little Chloe in her outside run

Frankie came to call

Frankie came to visit today - with the Lady Of The House's friend Alyson.

Frankie can be rather hyper, but a lot of the time these days she is calming down and being a good girl.

She made herself at home straight away today - which was nice.

Frankie is a cross-breed, but we are not sure what dogs are in Frankie's family tree. Alyson gave her a forever home when she was a puppy at the RSPCA.

Frankie is very, very tough on toys and can destroy anything is a matter of minutes. She has lots and lots of energy and she is very clever and can be obedient when she wants to be - but sometimes she just won't do what she's told and she can very very excited.

Anyone got any thoughts what kind of dogs might be in her make-up?

Hope you have fun with your friends and family this weekend. I will be having a weekend off from blogging as the Girl Of The House comes home tonight for four days and it's her 21st birthday on Tuesday. So we've got lots of fun things to do. See you next week.

Today's walk - in pictures

I'm a day late for Wordless Wednesday - but I thought this sequence of pictures tells it's own story well enough without me burbling on. Besides which I'm tired and the Lady Of The House wants the computer.

Twiggy shows some greyhound love

Disappointing news from the Retired Greyhound Trust that in 2010 they re-homed 500 LESS greyhounds in the UK than the previous year.

Lots of people work really hard to find just the right forever families for dogs that have finished their racing careers - but the work never stops.

There are nearly 1,000 dogs right now in RGT kennels across the UK waiting for new homes and lots and lots more waiting just for a place in the kennels.

Last year the RGT did find homes for 4,200 greyhounds (including me - yay!!) but they really need to find more.

Now the RGT has got a famous face spreading the word for them that greyhounds make great pets - the famous model Twiggy. The Lady Of The House says Twiggy is a great animal lover. (The LOTH also says it's most unfair that Twiggy never seems to look a day older, but we're not going to hold that against her).

There's this lovely picture of Twiggy and two friends on the RGT website today.

Twiggy said: "I am devastated to hear about the Retired Greyhound Trust's struggle with homing figures. I would urge anyone who is considering a dog to think greyhounds. 

"The sooner the charity can find good homes for those in kennels then the sooner they can free up space for the many more who are on the waiting list." 

I'm crossing my paws that more people come forward in the UK to offer homes to greyhounds - after finding out that we're not really lots of hard work like some people think.

We can't really share our home with another greyhound because I'm afraid I wouldn't like it. But many many greyhounds get on really well with other pets (including cats).

Anyway, since we can't re-home another greyhound, the LOTH has been on the phone to the RGT today (she thought I was asleep but I was listening really) and she and her friend are planning an RGT fund-raiser for later in the year - which I'm sure she'll get me to tell you about some time in the future.

Helping hand for the hounds

Morning everyone.

Hope you are having a lovely weekend with your friends and family.

The Lady Of The House met a great lady called Dawn in the course of covering that court case we mentioned last time.

Dawn runs a living with pet bereavement forum and is also a huge greyhound lover (what great taste she has!) and recently ran an online auction to raise money for the RoyalHeart Greyhound Rescue in Scotland.

So I thought I'd give their website a big shout-out today - and NOT just because they have a very handsome greyhound who looks a lot like me and my friend Bunny on the header of it. Although you will see that they have.

RoyalHeart is run by Rachel Anderson and Eddie Cassie.

Their work, and their website, is dedicated to Hero, a greyhound that Rachel and Eddie fostered and then adopted who died suddenly in 2009. He is the greyhound pictured in the website header.

They have included a lovely quote about Hero on their website: ''Our Golden Ray Of Sunshine Has Gone Behind A Cloud, But Not For Long, He Shines On In Our Hearts''.

Anyway, the online auction will hopefully have raised £600 when all the money is in - and much to the Lady Of The House's surprise we did actually win a few items which are being posted down to us. I'll let you know when they arrive as the LOTH is keeping it as a surprise from me what we have won!!

Now for the Saturday Pet Blog Hop.

We are again taking part in this Saturday's Pet Blog Hop, hosted by Life With Dogs, Two Little Cavaliers and Confessions of the Plume.  If you'd like to join in and make new friends, please follow your three hosts, add your blog to the Linky and copy and paste the html code into your html editor.  Thanks again to our hosts for putting on the hop! If you follow a new blog after finding them in the blog hop - please let them know that you found them on the Saturday Pet Blog Hop.

Quick court case update

Hi there

Just a quick update for you today - on behalf of the Lady Of The House - on that court case about the woman who dumped pet's bodies instead of cremating them which we mentioned last month.

The LOTH was in court yesterday covering the case for her website Lost & Fond. The woman was sent to prison for eight months.

The full story is here if you want to read it.

Wordless Wednesday - One Man And His Dog

Spring is coming - honestly

I'm glad we've not got the deep, deep snow that some pet owners are having to deal with in other parts of the world, but it's still bloomin' cold.

Yesterday the canal was frozen and the ducks had got their own little pool in the middle that some were swimming on while others stood round and watched.

But this morning there were a few signs that spring is on the way.

There was a certain smell in the hedgerow.....

....and then I saw some little buds breaking through on the trees....

Hooray!!!!