LIsa!

If you are there after the first week of September, you are welcome to come and meet Booker and Tula.

And us as well....

I talked about Baby before. It's Tula's toy, although Booker will play with occasionally.

It is a little stuffed Zebra that used to belong to our friend Graham who lived with us when Booker and Tula moved in. She found it one day not long after, has loved it ever since and carries it with her everywhere. Here is a series of pics (13) where she is playing with Baby.

Our balcony sits right on top of the garage door in to the building. The other day a woman and her family was standing outside, just below the railing.

Booker and Tula likes to go out and look at whats going on. Especially when there are dogs involved.

In this case the woman had a Westie on her arm and of course Booker and Tula had their heads as far as they get it through the lowest bar on the railing, stretching down below the edge of the balcony.

They are soooo cute when they do this and couldn't possibly harm a fly... Just like a polar bear...

The woman decided to let them meet and lifted her dog up over her head so they could all smell each other and become friends...

Luckily I was out on the balcony as well...

What is it about other dog owners??
They seem to think everyone wants to be friends with their ''cute wee dogs''
Lucy is so friendly with humans, doesn't even mind cats, but is terrified of wee dogs.
Owners see Lucy, think she is gorgeous (she is of course!) and bring their wee dogs over to meet and greet. Lucy jumps back and hides behind John!! They are lucky she doesn't want to bloomin eat them.....

I always miss my family when I am away. This time I am gone for two weeks.

But I am looking forward to sight greeting me when I pull up below the balcony again in two weeks. Then 3 weeks off.



Greg tels me that when they hear the van, they jump up and Booker run out to the Balcony and Tula runs in to the bedroom and get "Baby" and then to the Balcony.

I worked with Tula and Booker when they were in kennels and knew them very well. We shared many walks to the beach and through the woods. Its so refreshing to see what a brilliant home C & J found for them. The photos are lovely.

I remember we were surprised by how well they behaved and walked with us when we first visited the Kennels.

After a few days we realised that this was not quite that easy... Booker even bit us a few times, or nipped is probably more correct, but that is still a bite.

You will remember from previous posts that at times I wondered if we had taken on too much.

No such concerns now though. There are no more nipping episodes. Booker even tries to roll on his back for us, but he is just too big. He has fully accepted his place as part of the family. Tula as well, but she was always more submissive.

Celia new what she did when she decided that we were having those two...

To think that I did not initially want dogs and Greg wanted a smaller dog that would fit on his lap (Whippet) and a Volvo...

Clearly Celia and Jimmy new that we were both wrong...

In fact I would love to take in another dog now, but we can't at this stage...

I would be a bit concerned about the height of that lower rail on the balcony. If Baby went over the edge one of the dogs might try to follow, and it looks from the picture that they could squeeze under.

Greg told me that on the evening walk last night, Booker suddenly dived in to some bushes and came out with a large sandwich still in it's wrapper. It was crawling with ants.

He was not happy and growled when Greg tried to take it away from him. Greg gave him a poke and made him lay down and he then let go of the sandwich, his heard and mouth now craw king with ants...

He had ants up his nose and mouth before and definitively don't like it. Greg brushed them all off his head before continuing the walk.

It's great to be back home after two weeks away. The greetings from the "kids" is as always overwhelming. It's funny isn't it? It does not matter if you have been away for two weeks or two days, the excitement is still the same when you come home.

Tula run in and grabbed Baby while Booker run around in circles. They eventually calmed down and after a while I took them for a walk.

We have had a few relatively hot days here and their fur is really hot. We carry with us a water squirt bottle and eke them moist in order to cool them down. It seems to work well and they seem to like the soothing cooling effect it has.

Today I dumped a large (Pint) cup of water on them and really soaked them down.

We do keep their walks shorter. After sunset they get a longer walk and also if they get up early it is still cool enough to take a longer walk.

Time is growing closer for our move to Barcelona. Only 5 weeks to go. Booker and Tula are turning in to nomads...

And of course Tula assumes the position and expect her tummy to rubbed for most of the day...

And they call them selves Greyhounds???...

Last night as it was getting dark we decided to take Booker and Tula to the beach. They have not been for a while as it is off limits to dogs in the summer. We thought they would use the opportunity to run a little. Not so...

They just did not seem that interested. When Greg and I stood some distance apart and called the to run between us, they would half heartedly run half the the way and then just walk the rest. After a short while they just laid down... Sorry excuse for two Greyhounds...

I guess they were just tired after a long day of hard rest... Also only two hours since they ate.

They staid well clear of the water. Unlike Steve's Kell with his award winning coat...

This time it was Tula. Right in front of us in the living room. By the door on a Peace Lilly sitting by the balcony door.

Guess she had to go...

Of course I jumped up making some loud noises. Two minutes later as we were putting their leads on, she acted as if she had done something good, looking very happy with herself....

A while back Tula ended up getting a whipping on her thigh, and she managed it all by herself.

The has been a lot of plantlings planted that will grow up to be a tree. At the moment they are little flexible stems sticking up from a plastic tube.

When Tula conducts her business tasks, she lifts her leg up and twists her body in a strange shape before firing.

In this case she as she moved her leg in to [position, she pressed down on one of these tree platlings. It bent down further and further, almost to the ground, before it slipped up from under her paw and smacked her on the buttock. She yelped and jumped, but never new what hit her...

Poor thing...

Last night when I was going to bed, I noticed that my pillow was missing. I thought that their days of collecting things and take to their bed was over. I found my pillow right in the middle of their beds and on top of it; Baby, as if she had been nicely laid to sleep on a soft bed prepared by mother....

And to top it off:
Greg told me that when he came in to the bedroom today, all the covers and pillows except one pillow, was in a pile on the floor and Tula was on the bed, on her back with legs up Greyhound style, with her head tilted sideways on the remaining pillow...

Queen of Sheba...

And yes, I am away working the next two weeks...

Yesterday Greg told me that Booker caught the neighbours cat. It all happened very fast as he was taking them out. It happened in the stairwell of the building.

The family upstairs had just come back from holiday with their cat. Their little girls decided to open the cat cage and let the cat out on the stairs right next to where Booker and Tula were standing. It was within easy reach of the lead and Booker immediately turned around the corner and reappeared with the cat... He shook it a couple of times and slung it away when Greg corrected him rather firmly.

The little girl was screaming and the mother came running down the stairs. There were some blood, but as it turned out, it was Bookers. He now has a little bruise on his nose. Greg said to let hime know if they needed to take the cat to the vet, but they said the cat appeared to be fine and that their daughter should not have let it out next to the dogs.

Cat fur everywhere, but luckily all involved are fine. It could have gone so much worse...

Ah well, no harm done and the little girl (hopefully) learnt a valuable life lesson. At least your neighbours have been sensible and realistic about the incident.

True.

I think Booker learnt a lesson as well. That scratch on his nose must have hurt a little, even if he pretends not to notice it...

This morning as I was walking to the airport bus in Barcelona, I saw a Greyhound, or Galgo, stretched out under the window to a coffee shop. I stopped and looked at it and it did not take long before the owner, a young German man named Jascha came out. We engaged in a lengthy and interesting conversation and I showed them many pics of Booker and Tula.

Him and his friends are engaged in a series of events called "Running for a Dream".

It is a great initiative where they organise charity runs with their Galgo's in order to raise awareness of the faith of many of them and also show off what great family members they make. The website is mostly in Spanish, but there is a little bit in english and some good pics as well.

Here is the link: http://runningforadream.wordpress.com/

It is worth having a look at. I gave them the link to GRF and I just got an email where they praised the website and said they would put the link up on their site. Maybe GRF could do the same?

I think we will be in touch with them again after we move there next month. Only 9 days to go...

While we were standing there talking about our respective prides and joys another guy walked up to us with this 4 month old Galgo Puppy:




That is a loooong tail...

Hello Greg & Nicolai,

I love the little stories and pictures you post :)
I had a look at the Running for a Dream page, and I thought it was fab. I love jogging with my greyhound, or rather he loves taking me for a run! He's 10 now (time flies!) and fit as a fiddle.
I'll be going to Castelldefels in September too (only 20 mins from your Stiges), so perhaps I'll run in to you! :)

When I'm in BCN I'll also be taking a flight to Valladolid, to attend a wedding there...only 50 mins or so away from Scooby Medina (http://www.scoobymedina.org/), I'm super keen on visiting them, it's going to be difficult to resist coming home with a galgo!!

After two weeks away and a long night, I finally got home at 07:00 this morning. Greg complained that he got trampled on as they jumped out of the bed as son as they heard the key. They were clearly deep asleep as they were a lot slower than normally when I get home.

I took them for a walk so we could get a long sleep as well. They were not that interested, so I took them in as son as they had done their things.

I had a look at Bookers nose. He has a small scratch on the back of the nose and a little swelling under the eye. Too close for comfort. I dread to think how badly that cat encounter could have gone. The scratch is healing nicely and the swelling has also gone down.

I did notice today that when took them out, Booker now have a look around the corner and up the stairs, both when go out and when we come back.

Tomorrow morning we start the final rush to get everything packed before moving on Friday.

So this is it. We are all well on our way to Sitges. As I write we are circling Madrid. About half an hour a goo we passed Santa O la la... (Santa Olalla)

Booker and Tula are doing well. Maybe a little restless. but mostly sleeping. They were getting fairly restless before we left, and then exited when we took them out or a "walk" never to return... We did a lnormal walk before we all entered the van and off we went. we stopped after about two hours. All new territory to be investigated and marked before we again drove off never to return...

They are not nervous this time. we have stopped three times so far and they seem happy enough. Drinking and taking the treats. we will stop again soon for another stretch and breakfast.

I wonder if I can convince them to come in to the pool when we get there...

Good luck in your new home in lovely Sitges.

What an exciting and glamorous life these dogs lead!

Well, we made it. After almost 15 hours in the van we are now in our new home just outside Sitges.

Booker and Tula did very well through out.

AFter we got here we took them for a walk around the area, and then we walked them around the house.

We had left the van open. After had done all that they jumped back in to the van and laid down. They wanted to go home... Tula refused to come back out...

She eventually gave up and came out and we quickly closed the car up... It took them a little time to settle. We did not want to leave them alone right away, so we took them with us shopping.

During the night they were fairly restless. constantly getting up and walking around, reacting to every new sound. Finally in the morning Tula jumped up in to our bed and collapsed. We had a couple of hours before Booker started to make noise. Usually the one thats not in our bed makes the noise first... If we can get them both in, great, but not today.

They have been exploring the property today as well. We still keep them supervised as it is all new to them. They seem to like the extra space. They look a lot smaller in this living room.

Even if it is not cold yet, we decided to light our new fire place. Booker did not like it at all. When the burning wood crackled he got up and left the room, then stood in the door and looked in. He came in when called and even all the way up to the fire place when I called him over to me, but he still did not like it. I guess he will get used to it.

We did a really long walk up a trail today. they were knocked out when we got back. I suspect they might also still feel the effect of the long journey.

We have settled in to exactly the same routine as before and they seems already to have settled in their new home. They are still getting used to the stair case. This afternoon we went out for a few hours and left them here. They were in the couch when we left. They had not moved when we came back 4 hours later. We thought they might have gone upstairs and in to our bed, but not so. The stair case might be a good thing...

We tried the pool this evening. They did not quite know what to make of it and kept running around the pool as we were in it. As soon as we got to the edge, they would be right there and lick our head and face.

Here are the first pics. I will eventually get some more and better ones.


It was a long journey...



Finally a pit stop. Last of many.


The next pics are from this evening around the pool.

Tula ceasing the moment...



Tula overlooking us.




Family pose.



Booker ceasing the moment

Good to hear from you - I hope you all settle in quickly to your new home.