anniek

Happy Birthday "Flex" can't believe he's three

frozen motion - it's all in the tongue action

Week 21 of Cowboy "I smell roast chicken"

Week 21 of Greyhounds these beautiful regal statueque creatures can look soooo pathetic when waiting for their dinner

OK well my usual daily challenge is to freeze greyhound motion - so here's my first attempt at panning for blur do you want the excuses before or after the pics? ok then 1. I had trouble with exposure due to sun / shade 2. the tide was too far in for big zoomie circles 3. the only predictable thing about a zooming greyhound is that it is unpredictable so here they are

Week 20 of Greyhounds this is our Phoebe - taken on the back deck which is quite dark, but with the sun on her face. I used spot metering to get rid of the crap in the background.

Once a week maybe twice, mine get a whole tongue cut in half lengthways for dinner. It is a very good "chew" and lasts them longer than most bones. I pay around $2 - $2.50 each.

A balanced "complete" kibble has a % mark whereby once you replace more that the % with other food you are disturbing the balance. For example if SD has a factor of 20%, if you replace 30% of the kibble with raw meat, then you have unbalanced the whole balance of the meal - does that make any sense? and hey - I just heard it somewhere but it does sort of ring true doesn't it?

thanks for all of your positive comments about my big boy I was just feeling sooky about him last week, especially when a woman came up to me on the beach and "kindly" told me that my dog was lame and making him excercise was cruel So here he is for Week 20 - being a cuddlebum this morning.

If you want cheap human grade (not much more expensive than pet grade) Food Works at Parkmore are great. They have a fantastic selection of pork bones, ribs and tails, huge chunks of stewing steak - 2kg for $11, whole ox tongues, hearts etc.

Turkey drumsticks are a big help - they have to tear the meat off. Basically unless they are tearing at a whole animal there isn't much you can do other than brush daily.

Week 19 of Greyhounds this is China - now Preston. He's a gorgeous almost black brindle - looks like a chocolate swirl! I took him to his forever home a couple of days ago - here he is playbowing and barking at his new mum

Week 19 of Cowboy I'm feeling a bit emotional about my old soldier this week. He has had a sore wrist and intermittent limping for nearly a year now which is getting worse. He has an xray very couple of months, and on Monday our X-ray showed that the area of inflammation and degenerative arthritis had significantly increased from 2 months ago! He is my "baby" - my good boy. Always happy and never demanding. His greatest love is the beach. I haven't been able to take him on long walks for months, walking on hard surfaces is out. He usually gets a 10 minute snuffle at the local oval each morning, and now only once a week at the beach. I have decided not to keep him in cotton wool, as he loves the beach too much to not let him have his zoomies and a paddle. I should be grateful that it isn't bone cancer, which I am, but still it just doesn't seem fair. Sorry to go OT but I know my 52W friends are pretty familiar with my boy. Here he is at the beach yesterday - see the happy face? Thanks for listening Annie

It is reasonably common in racing greyhounds - could be due to overstressed systems in their case. Removal is usually preferable (for the greys) as it tends to keep occuring.

Week 18 of greyhounds I try to do a different geyhound each week but I have failed. A quick snap from this morning - foster Gracie (again) roaching on the outside couch in her nightie

We decided together that we wanted a greyhound - a no fuss easy first time owners "clayton" type adult dog. So we got a male, seeing as how if you're going to get a dog it should be a big one Then the second one arrived - just temporarily - she stuck like glue to hubby, that was 6 years ago and I never asked if we could keep her. Two is our limit, but there is usually a third grey hanging around - a foster - he just mumbles about them. But they are such easy dogs the third doesn't have any impact.

week 18 of Cowboy nothing too exciting this week as his ongoing wrist problem has stopped him from having any interesting activities

ha ha ha - thank you I have seen the photographers one - they are fantastic

It really depends - the cat friendly ones do their mandatory three weeks in foster care then off to their forever homes as we have a waiting list - just need to find out who matches who best. The big black males (of any age) can be around for months. Probably average around 6 - 10 weeks - but they all stay in foster care as inside dogs - not kennels. Dear Gracie even though she is 8, she already has a home lined up and she has only been here a week. Annie

There has actually been some "cough" research on this in the UK looky here!

I really love the 5th one - love the colours and composition!

Nope - the black ones stand out in the dark, it's the brindle ones that completely vanish!

I actually love photographing back dogs - their coats are amazing and I find them the easiest to take pics of. just a ramdom pic from this morning as an example

Week 17 of Cowboy - today is a lovely day for a paddle

Absolutely - the black males are the hardest to adopt. Not only are they bigger than the females, but "black dogs look vicious". Black females are the next hardest to find homes for. And of course there are more black greyhounds born than any other colour which make it even more difficult!