Since we have arrived at the letter ‘S‘ in ABC Wednesday, I think it has to be Sid’s turn to shine, don’t you?  Sid is our fifth greyhound, and such a happy soul.  He is now six years old, sleek and silky and simply beautiful, with a soft coat which, while officially ‘fawn’, is more of a ‘golden’ colour than ‘sandy’.

Sid loves snoozing.

Sleeping seems to be a serious business when you’re a greyhound, and Sid loves his soft beds … and apparently, his Santa toy.  He’s snuggling up to it with his nose!

Talking of Santa, would you like to see Sid sitting pretty with his Santa hat on?  You would?

There. In the snow, too!  It’s a funny thing … many greyhounds don’t like to sit (some people think it’s because of the big muscles in their thighs, and their long, long legs) but Sid quite likes to, and he does it all by himself.  Look!

Sweet Sid sitting in his super soft bed – with the sheepskin liner.

Like most dogs, Sid loves to chew things, and one of the things he loves to chew is his smoked bone.  Smoked bones taste good, and they are hard enough not break into splinters.  That’s most important, so that your dog doesn’t swallow sharp pieces and need surgery to save his life.

If you look closely at this picture of sleepy Sid with his eyes shut, not bothering to suppress his yawns, you may spot the smoked bone just behind the string tail of the alligator toy to the left of the picture.

It’s in this picture, too.

And what else?  Yes, indeed.  One of the few times Sid disgraced himself by chewing the wrong thing – this time one of my favourite sandals – despite the smoked bone being right there.  Still, I think he looks sorry.

Perhaps this collar, which he inherited from The Pirate, gave him ideas?

It has a skull and crossbone design and was clearly made for a dog who loots and pillages.  I wasn’t going to use it for Sid but it looked so good on him, and it wasn’t The Pirate’s favourite skull collar. His favourite was red, black and white, and a little more cartoony.  It suited him well, because he was such a comical little dog – a real clown.

Now, as you may have read, we are going away for a few days, and while we are away, Sid will go back to stay with his trainer, and guess what?  Both her names begin with ‘S‘!

Here’s Sid with some of his adopted siblings on one of his little holidays at the kennels. Naturally, he doesn’t go into the kennel block, but into her own house, where the dogs have many luxuries, included the use of the sofa and squishy chairs.

See how many dogs there are, waiting to go inside?  Six!  Can you spot them all?

As I’m not going to be here, I’m going to be scheduling this post to appear automatically.  I have never tried this before, so I hope it works.  Fingers crossed!  I’m off to enjoy the summer.

OK … I’ve just got home and I see this did NOT post as scheduled. Better late than never!

Yep, that’s where we’re going to be this week!  So in fairness to you all, I’ve decided not to post a Macro Monday puzzle this week in case I can’t get online to give you the answers. I have no idea if we’ll have access to the internet because, let’s face it, many times in the past we’ve been promised a connection and it simply hasn’t happened.  I’m going to try to set a post to appear for ABC Wednesday, and I’ll do my best to visit you all, but I can’t promise anything, sadly.

Speaking of which, I know I’ve been a bit slack lately, but there’s been a lot going on.  I’m going to be doing a craft fair on this coming Bank Holiday Monday, so I’ve been busy making things to sell, and (hopefully) I’ll have some pictures to share with you after that, although I’m due to go in for knee surgery on the 4th May so it’s all happening, as they say.  And I’ve also been trying very hard to learn Italian, which has been fun … mostly!

Anyway.  I may be missing for a while, but I haven’t forgotten you all, and I will most certainly be back.

Oh, and yes, I cheated.  Since I’ve never yet actually been to Venice, that picture up there which looks a bit like Venice was actually taken in Las Vegas.

“Funny,” thought I …

I think I might just about be in time for this week’s Face of the Week – I hope so, because OH found this little fellow in the conservatory last night and called me.

OH: Sweetheart – come quick! There’s a big moth. BIG moth.

Me: Mmmm?

OH: It’s huge!! It’s knocking the leaves off the plants!

Me: Really? OK …

I got out of my comfy place on the sofa and toddled into the conservatory to see.

Me: Doesn’t sound like a moth. Sounds like a beetle.

OH (waving his hands about): It’s on the light. Inside the shade! Yes, I think you’re right – it’s a beetle. BIG beetle!

Me: Yup. It’s a May Bug.

OH: A what?

Me: You remember – we had one in last year.

OH (suspiciously): You said that was a Cockchafer.

There you are. I had to remind him all over again about Cockchafers and how they are also called May Bugs on account of that’s when you see them on the wing .. although ‘on the wing’ is really a bit optimistic for these big, clumsy beetles. They kind of throw themselves up into the air, then plummet and buzz around a bit.

Anyway. I rather thought this one looked as if he was saying –

“I thought there was a door around here somewhere. I thought I flew in it. Now there’s an Invisible Wall!’

And so, of course, there was – one made of glass. But you’ll all be happy to hear I did release him when I was done half-blinding him with the camera flash. He seemed fine, if a little bemused, as I released him among the tulips and periwinkle.

Well, this week is easy for me because I have some pictures all saved up and ready to go!  First of all this week, of course, ‘R‘ is for racing, because if it weren’t for the racing industry, I wouldn’t have been able to adopt my beautiful dogs. 

Now, many people only ever see a greyhound at the track, or racing on TV.  To those people a greyhound is a dog in a numbered coat, being paraded in front of the crowd and then put into a trap to race after an artificial ‘hare’ while the crowd roars encouragement while clutching a betting slip.

But the dogs do have a life after that race, as you’ll know if you read my blog, because my dogs are retired racers.  And this week for ABC Wednesday, I’m going to show you a very special retired racer indeed.  Not my own dog, but a particularly lazy greyhound who has visited these pages before.  Can you guess who it is?

Remember Rizzo? He was Mr February 2009, and before that, had his picture taken being carried like a sack of potatoes across his loving owner’s shoulders.  Last autumn, I had the pleasure of meeting this remarkable little dog and his owners, the DeLellis family.

This is Dewey Beach, home of the annual ‘Greyhounds Reach The Beach‘ event.  What do you mean, you can’t see any greyhounds in that picture? Shall we get a little closer?

If you have good eyes, you’ll see on the back of this lady’s vest ‘Delellis 99’ and underneath that, ‘Rizzo & Kiwi’!  And there he is, relaxing on his own beach blanket, the lovely Rizzo himself!

Rizzo is a red brindle, and he’s such a great little character! See what he’s doing now?

He seems to be trying to bury his friend, the fawn beauty with the red lead draped across her back.  Not that she seems to mind having sand kicked all over her.  Maybe she knows that Rizzo has good reason to be digging in the sand like that?

There. You see?  Rizzo is not daft. He knew that there was damp sand underneath the hot, dry layer on top, and he has dug himself a nice cool hole.     Reading matter at hand, he can rest regally in the shade and cool his belly.

Oh, and don’t worry.  Remember those little tents?

Those are pup tents!  Yep, cool little houses for hot dogs!  And here is Rizzo, having got tired of his sand hole, relaxing in his own beach hut.  Spoiled?  Why would you think that?  It is actually entirely necessary to provide shade and shelter for greyhounds in hot weather, or they can quickly suffer from heat exhaustion.

Of course, all Rizzo knows (pampered and protected dog that he is) is that he has a cool, comfortable spot to relax in.

So, if you’re ever at the track for an evening’s fun, remember Rizzo, and all the other retired racers.  And remember also, that the dogs you see running round the track will be retiring one day soon and will also need someone to take care of them.   You might see a board like this as you leave the stadium.

Just a few of the dogs needing homes that night we were there.  If you can’t adopt one yourself, maybe you would consider making a small donation to the local RGT* in memory of the evening’s entertainment? It will help care for the rejected ones until they find a home.

Let’s finish with a shot of a few more retirees who reached the beach that weekend, shall we?

A rare sight to see so many greyhounds together, but a very, very good one!

* Retired Greyhound Trust