Sunday, January 01, 2006

Nice Kitty!



What do you get as a Christmas present for someone who already has everything? Why not a baby tiger? OK, so we didn't really "get" the tiger, but we got to spend 15 minutes playing, petting and holding it. I was the mainly the photographer, but got to pet as well. Debbie was the guest of honor spending the whole time playing. Hmmm, what to get next year...

Wednesday, December 28, 2005

Visitors from Austin, TX!



Our friends Shayna and Jenny are visiting us from Austin this week. We've been out exploring a bit...here's a photo taken at the Grand Canyon yesterday evening. Photo is (L to R) Debbie, Shayna, Jenny. I'm the smart one...hiding behind the camera!

Thursday, December 01, 2005

Gentle Greyhounds?!?



We think of Greyhounds as gentle dogs...until they demonstrate what they are capable of doing! We made the tactical error of leaving the pizza screen in the sink to cool off after a reheat of leftover pizza. A little cheese was stuck to the screen...Miss Bella decided she needed more cheese in her diet and grabbed the screen while we were out.

When we returned home we found the remains of the screen...torn like it was paper! And Miss Bella has the most ghetto fabulous silver-coated front teeth!

Monday, November 21, 2005

The New "Classic" Look



I wanted to work on replicating the style of vintage postcards so that I could recreate the look and feel using some modern digital photographs that I have taken. Above is my first attempt of the "old" look. I photographed the Clarkdale Classic gas station this past weekend. The station has been around since the early part of the 1900s. The overall look hasn't changed much, but the trained eye will see that the gas pumps are too new, and other items are of the wrong time period. Still, an interesting effect I think. Post your feedback!

Thursday, November 10, 2005

Tarantula!



By request, here's one of our friendly tarantulas that sometimes come to the house. This one was at the back patio door and wandered around for awhile and then left. They are really not as scary as they look, they aren't aggressive and you can let them walk onto your hand and pick them up. It takes a bit of provoking to get one to try to bite. And as large as they are, you aren't going to find one in your shoe...like a scorpion. (Shoe shaking is a standard procedure here, just in case!)

Saturday, November 05, 2005

Hey, I Like it Here!



Well, Kingman has been here for over a month now. He has done a great job of adapting to the home environment. He loves to play with his stuffed toys and is quite the companion. We can see why he washed out of the race circuit early...he has no prey drive! He doesn't want to chase rabbits when we're on a walk (unlike Miss Bella!), and is content to just walk alongside at whatever pace we keep. Though for his safety he is always on a leash when we are on walks, he shows no inclination to wander off and prefers to be right next to his people.

We have to get a good photo of Kingman and Bella together because we won a silent auction recently to have an oil painting done of two animals by a local artist. Bella and Kingman will be the subjects, as Boris and Tasha are already in family portraits.

Watch for more soon!

Thursday, September 29, 2005

Welcome Kingman!


One greyhound is not enough! After adopting Bella and seeing what wonderful dogs greyhounds are, we decided we could take on another. So we asked Jim and Leah if they could find us a young male who was docile and fun loving. Shortly afterwards we got the word that some new dogs had come up from Phoenix and we had a possible match.

We went to the ranch and met Kingman (aka XI Express Mail). He is an 18 month old male who washed out racing because he had no drive. Perfect, he doesn't want to chase things! He is a red brindle who is very handsome. He was pulled from the track 9/19, neutered on 9/21, and went home with us on 9/23. In his first week he has done very well adapting to household living, and had no problems with glass doors, mirrors, or steps. He continues to blossom and we will report more later.