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.

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.

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.

Observatory Hill Dog Park

There is a new off-leash dog park about a 5 minute drive from our house. We discovered it a few weeks ago and have made several trips.

The nice things about this park are:
- it is a fenced in location so we can let Rio off the lead. He tends to have selective hearing when off lead. We are under strict orders to never let him off lead unless he is in a fenced in area as greyhounds can take off after something and end up getting hit by a car or lost;
- it is in a beautiful location just next to the old observatory
- it is not well known so often we have the place to ourselves.

Today we met up with three other greyhounds which was very exciting for Rio. Lots of sniffs and petting all around.