Guess Who's Visiting

Siggy!

I'm dogsitting Siggy for the next couple of weeks. For those who don't already know, Siggy is my dad's retired racing greyhound who raced as CTW Insignia. He ran in sixty-six races and his career resulted in an amputated toe and some scars. My parents are up in New England for a while and my brother's already been gone for the summer for over a month. So, all told, I'm currently taking care of my own dog, my brother's two cats, my father's dog, and my mother's two cats. Wow. At least I don't have all six of them in this little condo. My mom's cats are at the house with everything they need and I'll be checking in on them every couple of days. Albus doesn't exactly like other male cats very much and Ginny's semi-feral, so it really wouldn't be a good idea to try to bring the two of them here anyway.

The boys

Siggy's so chill most of the time, but he's already had a bit of a freak out thanks to a thunderstorm. Plus, after the storm passed I needed to take him out for a bathroom break and he froze two feet from the door like "NO IT MADE NOISE THERE." It took about twenty minutes of coaxing and showing Ebon going out the door a couple of times before he finally decided going outside didn't sound like such a bad idea.

It was kind of odd picking up his gear. For example, I have his muzzle (it's greeeen) and I have never used a muzzle before. It's nice to have it just in case, though. I'm going to need to cut his nails while he's here so I'll probably be making use of it at least once since he doesn't like having his paws messed with. I know it's a good idea to have a muzzle for your dog just in case, but I don't know...I've never felt the need with Ebon. I've been through a fair amount with him, including the whole seizure thing, but he's not a biter. He doesn't even nip. If he gets upset he do this startled look, but doesn't even try to bite. Anyway, it's easy to make a temporary muzzle out of a leash in a pinch so I'm not that worried about it.

I would really love to get a greyhound when I can (namely when I'm in a place with a fenced yard so the dog can run), so this is almost like a sort of trial run. It's such a contrast, especially when it comes to things like Siggy's counter surfing. If I tell Ebon no, he'll leave stuff alone. Siggy has to be pushed away before he'll consider leaving it. Pretty normal for retired racers, though. 

Tomorrow, weather permitting, I plan to take the dogs to a park. We'll see how that goes.