Up Buena Vista, Again

Seeing as the weather had warmed up considerably, Rio and I decided to take advantage of it and go for another long walk.

We went up Buena Vista again. You can read about our first trip here.

It was a bit easier this time because we had no snow and ice to slip on.

Looking down Buena Vista about half way:


Looking up the street:


We stopped by Joy's place to see her cats but she wasn't home. :-(

So we went to see Gwen and Henry, who invited us in for a glass of water. Sadly I didn't think to take their picture until after we had left.

We stopped by Fineview lookout to check the fine view of Pittsburgh.



You can actually see our house in this picture if you know where to look.



Allegheny General Hospital is in the foreground.



This cute cottage is for sale. It comes with a historical marker and a fine view.





Google maps says we walked 3 miles in 1 hr and 50 minutes. It fails to mention elevation changes!


Map:
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Why Am I Out In This Weather?

It was a cold, snowy day.

So why was I out?



Oh yeah. Love.

File Under: It's a Small World

Rio and I were exploring more of our neighborhood this week. We went up a street where there is a caterer. A woman coming out of the door exclaimed that Rio looked just like her neighbor's greyhound, Smokin Dixie.

I said that Smokin Dixie is Rio's brother.

Small world.

Discoverd on Walks: Ice Sculpting

We saw a bunch of guys hanging out in front of the Children's Museum early on a cold Saturday morning. What could they be up to?



Ice sculpting!



We went back later in the day but they must have moved the pieces inside the museum. All that was left were the cast off ice scrapings.

This Time a Trot

I thought I did a bone head thing by tilting the camera, but Picasa saved my bacon.

Run Rio (and Grant)

Limping Bad/Good News

Rio started limping very badly on Feb. 14. It was obvious that he was in pain. He wasn't really into taking long walks. He had no energy. No pep. On our walk Tuesday afternoon I had had enough of watching him limp so I made an appointment to see the vet the next day.

Greyhounds are prone to bone cancer and I was afraid this limp was really bad news. We had seen a PBS show on "Why We Love Cats and Dogs" and one part was about a couple whose german shepherd had a leg removed due to cancer. So cancer was on my mind.

Rio and I went to the vet, who is about a 45 minute drive northwest of here in Beaver, PA. Dr. Doug examined Rio's left front leg to see if he could determine what was hurting Rio. Rio reacted when Dr. Doug pressed his left shoulder. So they took him in to get an x-ray.

Dr. Doug came in and said the good news was that the x-ray didn't show anything. The bad news was that the x-ray didn't show anything. So, while Rio doesn't have cancer, or a torn ligament, or broken bone, we still don't know why he is in pain.

Dr. Doug is a holistic vet. He recommended we start with a homeopathic remedy for three days and, if that didn't work, we would go to traditional pain meds for him.

We gave Rio his first dose of 6 tiny grains that look like sand on Wednesday night. Amazingly by Friday morning he was so full of energy he was dragging me around the park on our morning walk. I worked up a huge sweat in 17F weather. It made a believer out of me.

So far Rio's back to his perky self with the tiniest of limps.

A side story is just as we were finishing up the vet appointment I heard a commotion in the hallway. It turns out that just outside of the clinic a woman traveling 65 MPH in a 35 MPH zone clipped the back end of a car, cut a telephone pole in half, went through a chain link fence, down a small hill and flipped on the roof of the car. Amazingly the woman and her passenger walked out of the accident due to the fact they were wearing seat belts.

Good news all around.

Just after the accident. You can see the car just above the picture of the dog.



Moving the telephone pole.



The car.

Leash's End

Like an attendant
Holding a bride's train and veil
I'm the leash's end

Aniken Skywalker

For a few weeks now we've been asked, "Have you met Aniken yet?" Apparently there is a new greyhound in the neighborhood.



We finally met up with Aniken and his owner, Jasmine, on Monday. It turns out Aniken is a few months older than Rio and also raced in Daytona Beach. When Grant checked the greyhound racing database, it seems that they may have raced on the same days a few times.

Aniken is a big fellow, with lovely long, skinny legs. It will be fun meeting up with him in the future.

Walking Buddies

This picture is from guest photographer, Esther Garland, who was driving by as Rio and I went for our walk. Don't we look charming?

Rio's True Love

Rio and I decided to go to the off-leash park Saturday afternoon to stretch our legs. Just as we got there another couple with two greyhounds showed up. One greyhound is Winston, who is in their foster care until he can be adopted. The other is Elsie, a dark brindle former brood mama who captured Rio's heart.



Rio was twitter-pated, infatuated, completely besotted. He wouldn't leave Elsie alone. Elsie, on the other hand, was entirely uninterested. Her attitude was, "Dude! What part of NO do you not understand?" Rio, thickly, kept on persisting in his attentions despite the fact that both of them are missing the parts that make puppies.



We were joined by Daphne, Casey and Indigo. Poor Daphne and Casey. They were the afternoon's wallflowers, unnoticed by the guys.



So what do greyhounds do when they get together? They race, sniff, poop and pee, lean against legs for ear skritches. And in Rio's case feel the pain of rejection by the fair Elsie.

Hobbit 'tude

We meet up with the neighborhood dogs on our walks. One we met recently is a tiny dog named Frodo. He was in such a hurry to get to Paula, the treat dispensing crossing guard that he was racing ahead of Rio who was just trying to get a sniff or two in.



Any treats falling from Rio's mouth got snatched up by the closer to the ground Frodo.



If this little guy is Frodo I figured out that Rio is Legolas, the elf from Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings.

Rachel Carson Bridge

We had unseasonably high weather last week. It got up to a beautiful 65 degrees. So we went for a walk into town.

Observatory Deer

We took a quick walk around the Observatory to work off some of the mud. We turned the bend and saw two deer grazing by the Observatory.





They decided we were too threatening so they moved across the road.



It was after they moved that I saw the other three deer on the other side of us, making five total.

Then when I saw the picture of the deer running I noticed that the gait was similar to that of a running greyhound.

Mud Pitt

With the warmer weather upon us I thought it would be a good idea to take Rio up to the off-leash area. It seemed like a good idea at the time.

It turned out to be a huge mud pit. We started out alone.



Then we were joined by 3 other greyhounds.

Indigo


Daphne


Her sister, Casey, is shyer and I didn't get a good picture of her.

Then we were joined by two boisterous huskys. The younger decided to jump all over me thus transferring the mud to me. You see I had brought some treats with me to the park and was feeding the greyhounds when the huskys showed up. Greyhounds are much more mannerly than other dogs.

This little fellow just wouldn't leave me a lone. He climbed between my legs to get my attentions. Cute, isn't he?



This was what Rio's feet looked like. Multiply that by all of the dogs at the park and it was one muddy day.



Rio started to get really barky when another dog showed up, so we decided it was time to move on.




Needless to say my cloths went straight into the washing machine. My boots haven't recovered.

Kong Kontortions

One of the things we do to keep Rio occupied while we are gone is to give him a Kong filled with tasty treats. As previously noted, peanut butter is a big hit. I snapped this just before we went out the door. He's one flexible dog.

Neighborhood Greyhound: Zuma

On one of our walks this weekend I caught a glimpse out of the corner of my eye of what I thought was a greyhound. We doubled back and sure enough we met Zuma with his owner, Chuck.



Zuma is 12 years old and has lived with Chuck for almost 10 years. Zuma wheezes a bit when he walks, and is very, very skinny. He makes Rio look rolly polly.

It was interesting to watch Rio interact with Zuma. Usually Rio is the oldest around, but Zuma has 4 years on Rio. Zuma pretty much ignored Rio while Rio did all of the moves I've seen other dogs do to Rio - sniff where Zuma sniffed, pee where Zuma peed, things like that.

Zuma lives at the other end of the Mexican War Streets. I hope we can meet again.

Observatory Hill Moon

We took advantage of the warmer weather to go to the off leash park near us. Cabin fever has really been setting in.

We met some other greyhounds who also live in the area, a male and two female sisters. Unfortunately I forgot to take their picture. Next time. Rio and Indigo (the male) really got on well together. It is interesting how much greyhounds enjoy the company of other greyhounds.

After romping in the park we took a short stroll around the observatory. Grant and Rio do a little trot in the snow.



Dramatically walking into the sunset.

The observatory and the moon, which was waxing gibbous.

Near the Ohio River

Rio's vet is in Beaver, PA, about 45 minutes drive from our house. Beaver is north, west of downtown Pittsburgh, and lies along the Ohio River. After the vet visits we usually walk two blocks to a little parklet that is next to the river.

Sadly our visit in February was cut short because of the snow. We tried climbing up on the snow but it was melting and giving way. Hopefully next time we can walk along the Ohio.

Just a note about the picture, the bridge in the distance is the highway we take to get to Beaver.

Another Vet Visit

Rio had a vet visit last week, his first in a month. We are really pleased how well the acupuncture and chiropractic treatments are going. We've begun to wean him off of his gabapentin. We'll see how he does without it. Hopefully he won't need it anymore. However, if he still does at least we gave it a shot with a different approach.

How did Rio feel after his appointment? See for yourself.

Peanut Butter

Rio loves peanut butter. We give it to him when we go out. Usually we spread a little inside a kong and add a few treats to give him something to do when we are gone.

With peanut butter he doesn't even acknowlege we are leaving. His entire focus is on the peanut butter. It makes getting out of the house easier knowing he's happy for the moment.

One time I made the mistake of giving him an open faced piece of bread with peanut butter. Needless to say he got it stuck on the roof of his mouth. Poor fellow. Grant had to help him out. What can I say, I never eat the stuff.

I've found a peanut butter that is just peanuts, no salt or sugar. It is made in Canada, so hopefully it is salmonella free. Rio would miss it if he had to give it up.

The Cold is Getting Old

One of the anchors on The Weather Channel said on Thursday, "The cold is getting old." I couldn't agree more. Rio would like to get out more often, but it is really too cold to do much. It was one degree when we went for our morning business walk.

The great news is that we had no cold, lifted paws this morning, which means his Pawz boots are working well. My cheeks and legs were cold, but his were fine.

We had a few walks down to the river earlier in the week, but we've had no trips up to the dog park. That will be a muddy visit once things start warming up.

The weather is due to warm up soon. Come on spring!

Super Snooze XLIII

Super Bowl XLIII has come and gone with the hometown favorites, the Pittsburgh Steelers, bringing home the Vince Lombardi trophy. What was Rio's take on all of the excitement?

Frankly he was oblivious to the game and the post game activities. The game day chicken wings were a bit interesting, though.

All he cares about is when is his next meal/walk/belly rub/nap.

It's a rough life.

It's Hockey Afternoon in Pittsburgh

This is the first time I've seen anyone play hockey on Lake Elizabeth. I wish that the city would make the lake into a legit skating rink. Until then people will make their own fun.

Snow Hearts

I spotted these tire tracks on an early morning walk. Cars often turn into this alley to turn around. This car left his heart behind.