For the Love of

My boy Kassa had a bit if a rough weekend. His run in with Mr Weiner dog left him a little worse for the wear. I was a little concerned because he was moving slowly Wednesday evening but by Friday he was running in the ball park again. Sunday shocked me however because he woke up lame on his scratched up leg. He was very hesitant to put any weight on it. Because I'm fairly new to this game, I was concerned at the sudden change with no apparent incident on Saturday that would have caused re-injury. So what does a concerned papa do when his dog is in jeopardy? He emails his vet. Well I have to say I have the best vet ever. She walked me through some steps to determine if I should get him to emergency services or if it could wait to see her the coming week.
So we babied him Sunday, kept him off his feet and (because I was worried about infection) took his temperature so many times that he was contemplating an order of restraint. He also firmly solidified himself into my heart when he dragged himself and his sore leg up stairs to be near me as I worked to fix a leak in the shower.

This morning he looked good and after work I was greeted by him bouncing happily from foot to foot. I know he had to go out but I think he was happy to see me too. I'm going to give it a few days but I think he will be racing through the field after balls soon enough.

Another Year

I got to cross off another year yesterday and also another decade. I took the day off and worked on the field with Kassa. We had a pretty good day. We gathered up some loose rocks. Repaired some fence that was bent by a fallen tree. And then.. got into a tense moment when the neighbors Dachshund got territorial and came into the yard for a visit. Couple of scrapes but no real harm done. Lessons learned. A) Kassa.. still not small dog safe when off lead. (Kassa .. if it barks it is NOT a rabbit dummy) B) Have to add wire mesh to close off the bottom rails of the fencing. C) I can still move pretty quick when I have to :) Even though the day didn't end as nicely as it began I'm excited about the coming year and the challenges that it will bring.

One Weekend

It was a pretty good weekend all things considered. Kassa had a greyplay date this Sunday. We returned to the dog park this week and had two new hounds join us. We also had some other breeds mixed in which is good for socialization training. I also got some work done on the greyplay field. I repaired the top rails in a section of the fence line. Having some junk to clear can both be a bad thing and a good thing. I found 2 roles of chain link fence in the woods which I extracted by roping them off to the truck and gunning it. I'm going to spread them out next week and see what I have to work with. Hopefully they are in good enough shape to overlay the 4 rail fence near the road. We also got to the Opryland Hotel. It was our first opportunity to see it since the flooding and I think it looks great. Here are a couple of artsy shots from inside the hotel.

Trophies

Now that we have come off of daylight savings time we have about 15 minutes after work before complete and utter darkness. Ok slight exaggeration but it is dark. Of course Kassa and my evening walks have been cautious adventures as we try to ensure the cars can see us on these narrow Tennessee roads. Last night we stepped off to the side as a car went by. Kassa went into his sniffy mode as he so often does.. pauses.. and comes up with something hanging from mouth to pavement. "Thanks dad.. its the roadkill I always wanted!" An unfortunate fuzzy tailed rodent had not survived our foggy mornings and now had become Kassa's prise. I yelled "DROP IT" as I secretly said thanks for the darkness. One really does not want to see maggot covered road kill hanging from the mouth of ones couch companion. Almost surprisingly he did.. drop it that is. It bounced off my boot and we went on our merry way. This morning Kassa got retaliation for the loss of his prise by snookering his mom out of an extra breakfast. "The way he was following me around and looking at me, I thought you hadn't fed him yet." Ahem.. Well those big beautiful eyes don't work so well on me my boy. I've seen road kill hanging from just beneath them. Thats it for today. Aren't you glad I don't have pics :)

Busy boy

Kassa was a busy boy this weekend. On Saturday we loaded up the truck with a weeks (well truthfully two weeks) worth of trash and headed to the convenience center. Now you can't go to the convenience center without visiting the base ball diamond just up the street. Good times! Then after chillen with the misses we loaded up the truck again but this time with a riding lawnmower. Of course if anyone has seen my truck it is on the small side. Although my riding mower is no farm tractor it does have a 42" cutting deck, therefore some disassembly and re-assembly was required. I also don't have a ramp so I ended up backing the truck up to the retaining wall in the backyard to drive the tractor on to it. Then we headed to the grey-play field we have been working on. This is the point were I realized that I didn't really have a well thought out plan for removing the lawn-tractor from the truck. Well I had thought of it but my original plan did not pan out. I finally spotted a old bit of deck and viola.. it was the perfect offloading height. Once the disassembled was re.. Kassa and I went for the field. Kassa quickly discovered that the tractor just wasn't that fast so he raced on ahead and eventually lay down in the middle of the field while I cut around him. All this to say the field was ready for some grey play on Sunday. Sunday came. My wife and I went to the coffee shop. It was a little cold and rainy so the boy stayed home. He was chomping at the bit all morning to get moving. Where was the walk? Where was the field? He has come to expect more then trotting out to the back yard for a quick poop and scoop. Finally 2:30 came. We headed to the dog park first for some play and then everyone formed a caravan and we headed to the field. Was it ever neat to see 5 hounds just galloping up one end of the field to the other. Kassa runs fast at the field by himself but it is something special to see a group of them thunder by. I really wish I had brought my camera but thank you to my friend for providing me with this shot. Well I think that everyone had a good time. We were a little concerned that the four rail fence would be enough for one of the hounds who in the past has proven himself to be somewhat of an escape artist. We also had a border collie with the group and so of course she found a weak point in the fencing. However all that to say, I think everyone had a great time. We have a few fencing issues to resolve but nothing too major. In total I think the first run of the hounds in the grey-play field was a grand success! While we probably won't use this location every weekend (as it is a bit far away for some) I think it will be a good location for some good old greyhound fun. This morning Kassa didn't even want to go for his walk. I guess he had a pretty good weekend.

Operation Grey-Play

Kassa and I have a really good time playing ball in large (yet fenced) fields. We also have enjoyed our meetings with other greyhounds and their people. As the number of hounds in our group grows, the limitations of the size of the dog park we use is becoming more apparent. So Kassa and I have been scoping out different areas to run and we have found an excellent location. It has four rail horse fencing in the front and that area provides about 1.3 acres of run-ability. There is also plenty of room to grow. There has been quite a bit of prep work including getting much of it bushhogged, removing misc junk and picking up rocks etc. There is still quite a lot to do. Now that it has been bushhogged I want to take my lawn tractor to it to even it out a bit. I want to make the running surface as consistent as possible to avoid injuries. A good friend of mine also had a bonfire/birthday party this weekend so I grabbed some pics of the fire. The grey-play property also has a nice area for a fire pit so I am looking forward to getting people together, running the dogs and then getting toasty afterwards (in more ways than one!).