Say Hello, Willow

Willow on her first day in Georgia

It was tough to decide what topic I wanted to cover on the blog after being gone for so long. After some thought, I thought I should go with something simple.

My parents did a lot of talking about the possibility of getting a second greyhound after Siggy. There was a fair amount of looking through adoptable dogs and back and forth about what sort of dog to get. In the end, Willow was the one who came home.

Siggy, Willow, and Ebon at the big part downtown. The bandage on Willow's leg was from one of the cats deciding he didn't particularly like her. A bit mean of him to come up behind her out of the blue like he did

Willow is only two years old and a tiny little grey, only about 50 pounds when she was pulled from the track. Like Siggy, she was injured some time during her career, but the injury was quite different. Her right rear hock was broken and healed crookedly, so now she doesn't like to bear all of her weight on that side. Also, unfortunately, if she spends too much time running around it starts to hurt and causes her to limp a little.

Ebon and Willow retrieving simultaneously

Despite all of that, Willow is an absolute joy! She's just the happiest little dog. She loves practically everything. Food? Awesome! People? Great! Playtime? The best! Other dogs? Well, only if they don't immediately get in her face when meeting the first time. Amazingly, she even loves playing fetch. Ebon, though at first a little unsure about the whole thing due to his instinctual need to return virtually anything that is thrown, has adapted pretty well to her greater speed. He's pretty okay with her getting to the ball before him. It is kinda of funny to see him pull up short when she goes sprinting away, though. It'as almost like he says, "Nope. Not worth it."

Unlike Siggy, Willow does have a rather high chase drive. It's probably why she loves fetch so much. She learned her name pretty quickly and will come when called within limits. She's the sort of grey I would absolutely love to have when I eventually get one. Not as difficult to tire out as Ebon, but far more energetic than Siggy, who would spend all day sleeping if we let him. He has his moments, especially if other dogs are running around, but golly is he lazy. Willow also doesn't have any of Siggy's quasi-PTSD, so that's always a plus.

I'm pet-sitting everyone this weekend: the two cats and all of the dogs. I might be watching one of the neighbor dogs as well. It should be fun!

Ebon, Ebon, Ebon

So, I haven't really felt like I've had anything interesting to say lately. I drafted a few posts, but they were dry and I hated them, so thus the lack of...anything. I also got angry with my camera because it's making it more difficult for me to upload pictures. That didn't help.

Anyway, I'm going to get back into the swing of things. Here's some recent stuff with Ebon. Forgive me if the images are slow to load. My old uploading method automatically compressed the images down nice and small, but now I would have to compress them manually. So, these are not compressed at all. Hopefully I can work out an easier way of doing this.

Ebom at the fountain in the big park downtown. The last time we were here, the fountain was decorated for Christmas

Ebon enjoying the water

Here, you can see where the spout is

And now for the coolest water fountain I've ever seen. It has three levels: one for adults, one for children, and one that's the perfect height for dogs! It's the only one like this in the park, with all of the others being the standard one- or two-level types. Even though there is only one, I'm glad they have it. The city's pretty dog friendly, and little touches like this make lives much easier for dog owners.

I do wonder, though, if this is kind of a leftover from when the park was even friendlier for dog owners. It used to allow provisional off-leash time, but there's now an ordinance that all dogs must be on lead at all times. I might have to take Ebon's long-line with me one of these days and make use of the huge green space at this park, while still obeying the laws.

After the park, we stopped at a nearby natural food market that's the sole supplier of certain products. Ebon got to drink out of my squeeze bottle while taking a little rest in the shade.

That's it for our park day, but I do still have a few things to share:

I'm skirting the leash laws at the condo by using Ebon's long-line to play fetch. It was actually made for me by my dad out of old clothesline and a couple of strong clasps. It serves its purpose. I wish it was longer, though, and didn't tangle as easily.

I also taught Ebon how to open and close his kennel door a while ago. He learned it super quickly, and now absolutely loves to tug on the toy I tied to the door. Earlier today, I asked him to go and open the door. He then, without any prompting, went inside and closed the door behind him. Then, when I tried to open the door, he kept closing it again.

I love this dog.

More Adventures

Today I went to another park with my parents, along with Ebon and Siggy. It was the "big park," as I'm going to be referring to it. It's the biggest park in the city.

Ebon by the beautiful big fountain in the middle of the park. It was drizzly while we were there.

Of course, we had to get obligatory pictures by the fountain. I felt like such a tourist, but it was one of those situations where we've lived here so long but never got around to going there. So, now there's proof that we finally went. It's quite a nice park, with wide expanses of grass, tennis courts, a playground, a concert pavilion, restaurant, and lots of sidewalk that the local runners love. There is a very broad sidewalk that cuts the park in half long ways, flanked on both sided by live oak trees dripping with Spanish moss. The decorations for Christmas were simple and attractive. The park is constantly getting dressed up for holidays, and they even dye the fountain green for St. Patrick's Day. Dogs must be leashed, but apparently old ordinances allowed dogs to be loose if they would come when called. I was surprised by how many people were ignoring the new leash law. Ebon's very good, but I still don't trust him that close to busy streets (which border the park on all sides) as he has basically no experience with them and I don't know if he would try to run across one.

Ebon in front of the concert pavilion, and another fountain, looking toward Siggy. The playground is to the left.

Siggy by the fountain

We had a nice little time, walking the length of the park and just kind of taking it in. Ebon had a blast, as he always does in new places. Unfortunately, he got a bit foamy today. It was very humid and I couldn't find a source of water available to him for most of the distance, poor fellow. He did okay, though, and was able to get a drink out of a water fountain that actually had a spout clearly meant for dogs, seeing as it was only a foot off the ground. Unfortunately, Siggy didn't have as much fun as Ebon did. He's a bit sensitive to certain noises and he spooked three different times while we were there. My father informed me that he is especially upset by the noises of small children, since they tend to squeal. We walked near the playground and Siggy froze when a child screamed, tucking his tail and doing the exaggerated licking motion that anxious dogs do. My father had to do a lot of coaxing to get him moving again. Clearly, Siggy needs some work to try and get him to be calmer. My father loves to run, and has taken Siggy to several public running events already. As such, Siggy's uncertainty involving certain noises is of concern. With time and cookies, hopefully Siggy's confidence will get a boost.

Ebon by the tennis courts. It was very quiet thanks to the dreary weather. For a size comparison, the pavilion in the distance is about forty feet high or so. The central sidewalk is to the left under the row of trees and beyond that is a green space of approximately the same size as this one. The fountain in the first image is past the pavilion. Of course, Ebon was looking right at me until I hit the shutter. It seems I always end up getting pictures of him getting distracted by something.