Give me an "F"

I think the letter for this coming weekend is "F".
No, not as in Fail. (I hope)
F as in Foster- There is a good chance we will be getting a new foster dog Saturday. YAY!
F as in Football (Mark's Pee Wee football team has a game Saturday morning)
F as in Fall
AND
F as in Fredericksburg and Festival-
Fredericksburg is holding their annual Dog Festival Sunday, and we hope very much to be able to attend.
One of the potential fosters for our group (VAGA) is this adorable Fawn brindle named Gossip Hound. But Miss Gossip was found to have a bump on her nose which needed to be removed and biopsied before she is allowed to take the trip north.
Please join me in sending healing thoughts her way, with hopes that she will join her Fellow hounds on their Foray (ok- so, that one was stretch :).
I do hope "Fine" and "Fixed" and "Fortunate" will be added to our list of F words.

PS- Lisa did you get my email?
If you e-mail me the address where you would like me to send Connor's portrait, I'll be glad to drop it in the mail.

Open to Interpretation

First, I want to share with you a verification word that I had to type, in order to leave a comment on one of the other "hound" blogs that I follow.


Trust me, you do not type "peeless" without noting it.
While I guess technically it is a adjective, those of you who know Hero will understand why it struck me more as a command, request, or helpful suggestion- pee less!

More random thoughts-
I believe the fact that Vincent Van Gogh was an artistic genius is pretty much undisputed.
And while I do NOT count myself among the well educated on the subject of art and art history, I still do appreciate the raw emotion and power contained in his paintings.
This being said,
Am I wrong in wondering if this young lady (and her parents) considered this portrait flattering?


Why do I ask?
Well, I mentioned that Lisa sent me the following lovely photographs of her greyhound Connor:

(well, here is my interpretation)- Alaina called it "scary".
While evoking emotion is what every artist hopes for, fear was definitely NOT what I was going for.

Perhaps you will prefer this one

Lisa, let me know if you actually would like to have one of these pictures.

~
It also happens to be our friend Theresa's birthday tomorrow, so I thought I would draw her dog, Isis, as one of her gifts.

Alaina tried SOOO hard to get a good photograph of Isis but she appears to be REALLY camera shy-

Anyway- here's what I came up with.

Two Wrongs do NOT make a Right

Two wrongs do Not make a right, but three lefts certainly do...
I am infamous around these parts for my terrible sense of direction. I take my fair share of ribbing for being completely at the mercy of my Garmin whenever I travel more than 15 miles from home. That's ok, because this is one of those rare subjects where I engage in absolutely no denial or self-deception. Yes ladies, I am the reason our fair sex has the reputation it does when it comes to directions- but at least I have no trouble asking for directions (or help), (even from a GPS that will randomly shout "recalculating" or "make a u-turn", regardless of the fact that I have been following it's directions exactly. But yes, I do draw the line at "turning right" when I am in the middle of a bridge.)
Well, this sheep mentality almost got me in trouble last night.
You are all familiar with that little gadget on the right side of my blog that identifies me as a member of "Mutts of Manassas". We are simply a group of local dog owners who try to think up interesting/ scenic walks to do together. It encourages us to do more than the customary, boring , walk around the block- alone with our dogs. And gives both owners and dogs the opportunity to socialize.
We have been doing a "group" walk at James S. Long Park in Haymarket, VA for months now. Our regular route has always been to simply circle the park around all the ball fields, (see all those green rectangles above) about 1 1/2 mile or so I believe. Of course with the start of school, all those fields have been crawling with kids belonging to assorted sports teams (especially at 6:45 PM- our usual walk time).
I am not exactly sure how to make this long story short (and it is a LONG story) -but after passing the first path that leads into the woods, and coming upon the second- we decided to veer off our normal "perimeter" path and walk a bit in the woods away from the crowds. We planned to simply turn left and return via the first path we had passed. (Seemed logical enough). But 45 minutes later, (as it was getting dark), it was rather apparent that those of our group who claimed to have a "good" sense of direction where not helping our situation. Poor Alaina ,who had seen markers for the local cross country team (and HAD suggested we follow them at the time), wanted to retrace our steps to try to find and follow the markers. But luckily right about this time we saw a pond, and then the backs of some houses.
Well my Momma didn't raise no fool-it was seriously getting dark at this point - I was determined to go towards the light (streetlight/ porch lights, that is) and no one was getting me back into those woods. After cutting through the yards of a couple multi-million dollar homes we had found an unfamiliar gravel road, and were still totally lost. Thus, it was time to knock on a random door and ask for directions. We were told we were on Lightner Road, approximately 3 miles from the park (and still going in the opposite direction from that first path we were trying to reach by the way).



This lovely gentleman (upon whose door we knocked) offered to pile all of us (dogs included) into the back of his truck and bring us back to the park. Normally I would be STRONGLY against taking a ride from a stranger, but in this case it was preferable to wandering around in the dark.
From now on I will be sticking to my neighborhood, the park "perimeter", and places where I can use my Garmin.

Happy Tuesday

A short post today.
Just something, so that the ol' blog doesn't continue to wish you "Happy Labor Day" into October :)
We attended VAGA's Warrenton Meet and Greet this past Sunday. I forgot my camera, but you can read all about it over at Treasure What You Have.
We were thrilled to get the chance to meet Puddin' Pop; and yes, she is everything that Angela says she is !- (why, I might go as far as to say that she is AS charming as Hero- well, as long as Hero was out of ear shot that is :)
The kids also had their first Sunday School class of the year. I am guessing that the religious education director is not a football fan because Sunday school is scheduled for 4:00- 5:30 (on Sundays?!), thank goodness for DVR.
Finally, a shout out to Lisa, my first victim...err, volunteer, to send me photos of her gorgeous hunk of a hound, Connor to paint. I love that he is confident enough in his masculinity to be cuddled up with a pink blanket :)
Stay tuned to see what I have come up with...

Hope you're Having a Greyt Labor Day Weekend

I know, I know-
Two weeks without a post- shameful
Not posting on Hero's 4th birthday/1 year gotcha day anniversary- unforgivable!
But not to worry his special days did not go uncelebrated.
He got a trip to the park, a stop at PetCo for a new bone (no, no cake- but please refrain from hate mail/ flaming me :) My furless children consider themselves lucky to get a cake.
1st the good news-
The following weekend we went to Keepstone Farm's Dog Days celebration.
Hero PASSED his TDI (Therapy Dog International) testing.
Now we just await the processing of the paperwork (so more on this later).
There were also games-
This highly unflattering picture, shows Alaina (with borrowed dog- Sky) Hero and I doing the egg race.

Yes, we won- prizes all around: a floppy Frisbee and bandanna for Sky, a yogurt bone and bandanna for Hero

Now the less good news:
Our trip to the vet found that Hero's latest bout with diarrhea has left him slightly dehydrated (they thought it bad enough to require some IV fluids). His blood work was normal (except for the levels effected by the dehydration), he is totally negative for parasites (including the lyme's titer), but a week on rice/bland diet and even liquid Pepto-Bismol has done nothing to help.
He is now back on Metronidazole (fingers crossed- but we are not out of the woods yet). Our vet felt it serious enough to forgo the Canine flu shot which I was really hoping to get Hero, since there have been several cases reported in Fairfax, Virginia. Three cases have been confirmed at our vet's practice alone. But I really do appreciate her being cautious, (she felt that since it is a relatively new vaccine that we could not be sure if it would put an additional strain on his system).
All this while the kids are returning to school. 3 back to school/ meet the teacher nights at 3 different schools, plus Genevieve's Band instrument rental night (she was assigned the trombone :)- more on this later too, I'm sure.
and... Mark's little league football with practice 3 nights a week (we were told that it would be 2 nights a week once the school year started, but after 2 crushing defeats the coaches decided they need the extra night).
Lastly
For my friends at Genji's Corner.
Perhaps you recognize these hounds, (perhaps you don't)
Since it is not an accurate representation of how sweet Stella and Stanley looked in your photo, and I had to change the background color (after a failed attempt at a pinkish beige), but let me know if you want it anyway.


And to all the rest of my dear readers if you have a greyt (close up) picture that you would like me to attempt- pass it along to my e-mail.