ABC Wednesday has reached the letter ‘H‘ this week! Well, H is for Hound, of course, so I’m onto a winner there, aren’t I? Because greyhounds are members of the hound group of breeds. This means that they are independent, due to thousands of years of selective breeding to allow them to work on their own, and because of this trait, they can be stubborn.

Some think they’re extremely hard to train, but this is not so. All you have to do is find what motivates them, and you’re halfway there! So far, Sid has learned to go to his bed when told, to lie down, to wait, to stop doing what he’s doing when I say ‘uh-uh!’, to ’speak’, to touch a box with his nose, and to make eye contact (the ‘look at me’ command). He will also come to me, but isn’t terribly reliable at this one just yet. However, he does love his training sessions, and has been known to request one by stretching his head up to the kitchen dresser and looking from the clicker to me and back again.

So, until one has a greyhound properly trained to come when called in pretty much all situations, one has to be sensible as to when and where to allow them off lead. Now, for some people and some greyhounds, this will be ‘never’ (unless in an enclosed area) and I respect the views of those who differ with me, but we’ve been pretty lucky, and out of the four dogs we’ve had previously, three have had the luxury of daily off lead walks in the country and never got themselves into any trouble, because they did have good recalls. However, in a situation where there are numerous other dogs running about, some of them not very well behaved at all, we found it wise to keep them on leads*. In their later years, this meant harnesses for both Renie and Jack.

They loved being out and about, but in the summer we had to be a little bit careful, because greyhounds are prone to overheating. Here is Renie demonstrating how hot she would get in the sun.

She didn’t want to go indoors by herself, you see, even though she’d have liked to. Her Royal Highness was always much happier hogging the sofa. With her tongue hanging out!

Sid gets hot too. Here he is on a trip to a country park last summer, having an ice cream.

I had to hold it for him, of course. Greyhounds are pretty smart dogs, but there is the whole opposable thumb thing .. or lack of one.

Of course, when the weather is cold, Sid loves warmth, and will seek it out. So why is he in the conservatory, lying on this uncomfortably flat bed?

The answer is simple. The conservatory has a heated floor! Look at that expression of bliss! Greyhounds are the most hedonistic of dogs!

They love being hugged, too. This was Sid’s first day with us, when quite a lot of dogs might be expected to hang back a little and be shy. Not Sid.

And here he is at a show last summer, being hugged by a sweet little chap in a hat!

That’s one of my favourite pictures of Sid.

Of course, the weather isn’t always kind, and then greyhounds feel the cold, too. Here’s Renie, too lazy to move to a warmer room. Looks like she’s hiding herself, doesn’t it?

Whereas actually, she’s warming her nose.

Oh yes, we do have to take good care of our hounds. And one thing we have to do is take care of their teeth by giving them plenty of hard things to chew.

See how hard he’s working on that! I think it’s a pig ear, but he has the smoked bone for later.

Now, how about I leave you with a short video of Sid? As you know, he’s a tripod, and that means he has to hop his back end along when he walks. I’m sure some of you think that sounds a bit awkward for him, so I thought you might like to see him in action.

Hops along just fine, doesn’t he? And he looks happy, too!

Oh, and by the way – the picture right at the top was taken on our holiday to Dewey Beach last year.

*Extending leads are NOT recommended for use with greyhounds for various reasons, the most important being that they can go from 0-30mph in a few strides if they see something they want to chase. If you drop the lead it can seriously spook them so that they panic and run faster, and blindly, and can get injured. If you don’t drop the lead, you could theoretically break their necks. However, we knew our dogs. Neither had a tendency to take off after anything while being walked: Jack was too elderly, and Renie too lazy, and both had been thoroughly trained to walk nicely. However, I would still say to anyone who asked, don’t do it.

Well, I tried. I tried to make this week’s Macro Monday puzzle a little easier for you, and I thought I’d done quite well, but when I showed it to OH he was … puzzled! And then when I told him what it was, he told me I was cruel! Oh dear.

But since it’s all I have for you this week, I suppose you’ll have to just do your best, won’t you? Tee hee!

Now this object is found in pretty much every household in some form or other. The shape varies a little, the size can vary a lot and the colour varies too, but this is a nice, average example. Common as muck here in the UK, in Europe, and in the USA, I feel confident in saying that this is something you’ll find in pretty much every corner of the civilised world – in the sense that ‘civilised’ means ‘a society having a high degree of development, both social and technological’, though for all I know, you might find these things in a grass hut in the back of beyond, too.

Pretty, isn’t it? But these are not usually purely decorative (though they can be), because they do have an important function, too.

What is it?

You can check back here tomorrow evening (UK time) to find the correct answer in a picture link, and also later in the comments when I answer you all, but I don’t answer very quickly on this one. I like to give everyone a chance to guess without giving it away.

Over to you – prove OH wrong, and give me some correct guesses. I know you can!

Alrighty then – here we are on Tuesday evening and I suppose you all want the answer? Here it is! Surprised? Some of you won’t be – congratulations to Mr Moon, to Colleen, Icy BC, Dutchbaby, Babs Beetle, Christina, Jientje, Rebecca, Jama, Shelle and Sistertex! Seems I did alright after all, in my attempts to make this week’s puzzle a little easier!

Well, well, here we are at ABC Wednesday’s letter ‘G‘, and here I am, doing greyhounds as my theme! Seems all I have to do is post lots of pictures for you! But if you’ve been here before, you’ll know I never take the easy route, so this post will be greyhounds, alright, but also something else to do with the letter ‘G‘ for each picture.

For instance, did you know that I had decided that when I was ready to adopt another greyhound after losing the Princess and the Pirate so tragically, I wanted a small one? A dainty girl, perhaps? And what did I get? A great gallumphing giant of a dog – the biggest we’d ever owned!

Here he is in the garden with Son No. 1’s girlfriend. the lovely T.

Sid, as you know, is a gentle giant, but even with a leg missing he weighs in at just over seventy pounds. A hefty 32kg, or to put it another way, 32,000 grams. Not exactly a featherweight!

The picture at the top was taken at 2008’s Great Greyhound Gathering, held at Nottingham’s racecourse. As you see, there were greyhounds everywhere, along with their guys and gals, and it was just the same in 2009. Same groups of perfect strangers standing around talking about their gorgeous dogs.

Happy dogs, just hanging out. Maybe going to buy gourmet treats or other goodies.

Or just gregariously reclining in the shade of all the green canvas. Greyhounds can be terribly fashion conscious, but green goes with everything, don’t you find?

Talking of happy (which I’m sure we were) my Princess Renie was a happy girl. And to prove it, she was a champion grinner. At her happiest reclining gracefully on the sofa, she would often roll over, stretch her neck out comfortably and … grin!

And grin.

And you couldn’t help but grin back and give her a scritch. She was a very well-bred girl. Her grandsire was a dog called Greenpark Fox.

Sid has given me a very tentative grin once or twice, but he’s not the smiler that the Princess was, bless him. Still he is a good dog, and he does do extremely well at Meet & Greets. Here he is promoting the Lincolnshire Greyhound Trust at a recent event. You can see a few of the goods we have on sale on the top of that table!

And here he is at another Meet & Greet at a garden centre.

My golden boy is very good at eliciting sympathy and helping to garner the donations!

I could go on, but I’m sure you will all be grateful if I stop here. After all, there are a great number of contributions to ABC Wednesday every week, with so many wonderful posts from our gifted participants that I’m sure you’re eager to go and check them all out!

Don’t let me stop you – I’m going to be doing the same myself, very soon!

Johnny Depp in in London today for the Royal Premiere of Alice in Wonderland, his new movie. Tim Burton will be there too, no doubt, and I have a lot of time for Tim, too. He gave me a beaming smile, once, you know!

And I won’t be there.

*Sigh*

Why not? Well, with all my current health problems and worries, I really didn’t feel able to make the journey and weather the trench warfare all by myself, and I had no-one to go with for support, protection, and those all-important ‘I’ll keep your place by the barrier while you go to the loo’ occasions.

Just the thought of carrying a bag containing the necessary stuff (camera, water, lunch, phone, handwipes, gift for the man, should I be fortunate enough to get close enough, folding stool, wet weather gear etc etc) was daunting. I’m still waiting for an MRI, a gastroscopy and a second shoulder repair, and what with the fibromyalgia, and the fact that I’m not sleeping well and my back is killing me, well… I stayed home.

I will be going down to London with OH and a good friend to see the movie on IMAX, but for the first time in years, I won’t be at the premiere of a new Johnny Depp movie.

Sorry to whine, but … Fuck it. And not in a good way.

The picture up there is one I took at the premiere of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest.