Beat the Heat

Last week we went from an uncharacteristically cold snap of weather to a beat the heat type of situation.  Therefore on Sunday we decided to have our grey play meet up in the AM.. 9 AM to be precise.  It was also a good opportunity to discover who of our group were left behind after the Rapture.  Not everyone was there.. hmmm.... Much to my dismay I ended up being 15-20 min late... again.  It seems that whenever I am wrapping up what I am doing and head for the door there is always one last detail, question or concern that inevitably delays my departure. It makes me crazy as I prefer to be early but what are you going to do? As Kassa and Ricky and I drove up to the field we saw the other hounds racing around.  I was worried that by the time we got in there, everyone would be all tuckered out.   Luckily they got a second wind a little later, so our boys got to run too.  You have to watch for heat exhaustion with these boys.  I recently learned an interesting statistic: "A greyhound produces around 100Kcals or 100,000 watts of waste heat energy during a 30 second race, sufficient to bring 600mL of tap water to the boil in around 2 minutes."  That's a pretty good indication that you have to make sure these guys can get cooled down quickly when they exert themselves.  Luckily the field has some nicely shaded areas and we keep the water flowing.  I think a wading pool may be in order.  We had 7 dogs (including one beautiful  Shepperd mix who happens to be looking for a home) and no cameras there.  It was a fine time.

That evening as the sun was going down I decided to take them for a walk up the street.  As we approached the end of the lane, the ears went up and the leashes went tight.  Was it the neighbors cat flirting with destiny again?.. No.  There at the end of the driveway a fat little armadillo was venturing into range.  Ricky and Kassa started pulling as they sang "Arrr-madillo Armadillo.. Rock me Armadillo." and then sniffy wildly at the ground where he had been.  The little guy went trotting up the street in the direction of our normal walk.  When we turned to follow my boys couldn't believe it and for the first time ever it took real effort of restraint on my part.  The armadillo was savvy enough to detour onto my neighbors property until the duet-ting duo had past.  Another day gone by where my camera was not where it was supposed to be.