Beaglefest

Yesterday, we attended Howloween Beaglefest, an annual event put on by the volunteers of the Seattle Beagle Rescue. The event raised almost $550 to go to helping homeless Beagles in the Northwest be placed in loving forever homes.

Loren Johnson with Top Dog Pet Photography, a professional pet photographer, was on site taking Holiday photos of people and/or their hounds, so we dressed ourselves up in our Christmas finery and brought all six canines along for the event. It really is a miracle when you can suck it all up into a tight space and look (more or less directly) at the camera, sit or stand pretty for precisely 1/1000th of a second -- no licking, coughing, hacking, giving dirty looks at your neighbor because they shouldn't be that close, and why is their nose THERE?? And, what is it DOING??? Oh, and that was just the humans. Here's our photo:



Beagles are very different creatures from sighthounds. They can be incredibly LOUD for one thing. Our four sighthounds did not quite know what to think of so many beagles in once place (even though they live with two of them), and they don't understand their form of play (what, no one wants to be the rabbit??). As the afternoon went by we could allow Rowan off leash with them in the enclosed area for short periods, but Catherine could only think about how much fun they would all be to chase, and therefore remained tethered to us or took a nap in the car the whole time.

To see a video on YouTube of Beaglefest, Click here.

All in all it was a great day with all of our hounds. Honcho and Jewel were great ambassadors for the Silken breed, making friends with everyone and anyone who had a treat and a pet or two or forty. The Borzois were regal and happy just hanging out with us all day, and the Beagles thoroughly enjoyed their event - sniffing and exploring the grounds, especially hanging out in close proximity to the treat tables for potential droppings. After all, one just never knows what manna may fall from heaven if you watch (sniff) out for it.

Butter Up

I love peanut butter cookies. The big, chewy, homemade kind made with real butter. LOVE them, they are the perfect snack any time of day. Since they are sooooo good, I don't make them very often because they never last very long around here.

As it's been several months since I made a batch, I've been meaning to make some for some time. Over the last month, I've taken two sticks of butter out of the freezer and put it on top of the microwave to thaw, three or four times. Later in the day, when I get around to thinking about making cookies, I find Rich has put it back into the refrigerator or freezer. Odd, I think in the back of my head, but he's usually at work and I don't get around to asking him why.

This morning, again I take out two sticks of butter from the freezer. Put on top of microwave to thaw, then go about my day. See photo.

This afternoon......I'm walking through our bedroom and notice first of all that our bed is messed up. Second, there's something on it........something, like a dog would have left........hmmmmmm

Evidence!.
Evidence close up.

Of course EVERYONE is innocent and no one is confessing who is guilty. I have good reason to suspect that it was a borzoi who is responsible for the thievery, but the bounty may have been shared by several. And, the light bulb clicks on in my head where all those many previously missing sticks of butter have gone over the last month or so.

Borzoi meets Blackberry

It's been several weeks since any of the hounds destroyed anything in the house. No recent shoe destruction, teeth marks on furniture, clothes ripped apart, shampoo bottles chewed up -- NOTHING. A small part of me began to celebrate, quietly and internally, that finally the destructive puppy stages were over.

Your habits get lax real fast when things run the way they are supposed to.

Late this afternoon, I left to run to the bank and stop by the grocery store. The hounds have been so good that I oblivously left them all in the house unattended with stuff laying around. This was obviously a huge mistake on my part.

Apparently the borzois got lonely and tried to call or text message their friends on my Blackberry. Or, maybe they thought they could surf the internet? Search for online dates? Search for a Myspace page for that cute male borzoi they met at the show last weekend? The possibilities are endless.

Here are photos of what a Borzoi can do to a Blackberry:

Those girls are SO grounded from the phone!!

AKC Show Success - Catherine takes RWB

A couple of years ago, when we purchased our first Silken Windhound Honcho, we were introduced to the wide world of dog showing. Silken Windhounds are a rare breed that are not yet recognized by the American Kennel Club (AKC), and are not shown in AKC venues. These rare breed show venues are usually rather informal, relaxed and quite sociable events. There are also as many as six separate shows in a single weekend. We've known dogs in these venues to start their show career and finish as a Champion the same weekend, if not the same day. True story!

It's with this short history of relative dog show success that we forayed into the world of AKC dog shows this year when we began showing our two new Borzoi girls, Rowan and Catherine. What a world of difference! Showing dogs in AKC is the hardest thing I have ever attempted to do. Which, makes any success that we achieve just that much sweeter. As new handlers, we are learning as we go also.

Today, we drove over 150 miles one way to show in the AKC all breed show in Ridgefield, Washington. Although it was a practice day for Rowan, Catherine at 1 year + 4 days of age and her fifth AKC show, took Reserve Winners Bitch with five bitch entries. We are very proud of her as she calmed down significantly (no bouncing, skipping and kissing Mom in the show ring TODAY...) and she moved smoothly and effortlessly.

Although we didn't earn any points toward either of the borzoi's championships, we are thrilled with Catie's first AKC Reserve Winners Bitch (where there was more than one other entry) and are looking forward to the next show in November.

The Blog -- Resistance is Futile!

It seems in this day and age, you just have to have a blog. Everyone's got one kind or another.....you must assimilate, resistance is futile! So, we're joining the 21st century with our blog about a life with our beloved canine companions as we venture to various places and events.

Currently we have two each of three different breeds: Borzois, Silken Windhounds, and Beagles, all of whom you can see on our website, http://winterfellwindhounds.com/.

Thanks for visiting, we welcome email - drop us a note and let us know what you think and how you like our blog as we go along.