Gummy bear in the making

Maisie here,  it was my turn to go to the vet this week and my humans got to see a bit more of my personality and how I cope without my husband. When it was time to go,  Mac thought he was coming for a walk but soon calned down when he was given a Dentastick. I think I win points for loyalty,  I sat by the gate until he returned and he probably just went back to sleep when I left.

The thing I love about car journeys is there's so much to see. There's no time to fall asleep because I like to take in everything that's going on around me. I also like to stick my head next to the driver and act as co-pilot but this usually causes trouble when we brake suddenly (I haven't quite mastered roundabouts yet).

Once we got out the car I was still looking around and taking everything in. New places always require lots of investigation. When we were called into the examination room I took a sneaky detour into the room next door and pretended I was lost. The humans saw right through my guise though.

The vet checked me over and said everything was okay.....except my teeth. All my bottom front teeth need to be removed because they're very sore and unclean. I have exactly one month with my teeth before I become a gummy bear with no way to keep in my tongue. At least I'll feel better after the operation.

Oh and our daddy has come a long way in his training. Last week I managed to persuade him that I could provide the indispensable service of yoghurt pot licker. This week he's started eating two yoghurts so Mac can assist too! We're so proud of his progress.

Time to catch up on the all important napping, I'll leave you with the adorable Saturday morning snuggle photos our humans took this morning.

Maisie x

A family reunion, 3 courgettes and an awesome definitely not camp collar

Mac here,  if you've read the title you'll know I have a lot to cover today. So without further ado, I'll begin.

As Maisie explained in our last blog, we joined Missy and Pancho on their walk today. When their humans, Mary and Adam, came over to say hello,  I rushed over to say hello to Missy and Pancho like they were old friends. We went for a lovely walk and Mary taught our humans how we could feel more secure around other dogs when we're out walking. We're both absolutely exhausted now,  I've politely requested that no one disturbs me until my dinner is ready.

Anyway,  the humans were talking about our former lives as racers and our family history. It turns out that Pancho isn't just Pancho,  but Cousin Pancho! Trust us to sniff out a close family relative and organise a reunion.

As we were getting into the car, our pack leader was approached by a man we didn't know. He asked if she liked courgettes and when she said "yes", hey presto! He gave us some courgettes. He owns a plot on an allotment and had loads of them. What a lovely thing to do.

And to finish today's post I'd like to ask for the opinions of my friends. My mum got me a beautiful new collar yesterday and I was OUTRAGED to hear it described as "camp". My new pride and joy, I look like royalty in this thing,  how dare they describe it as camp?! Anyway,  I await your feedback, apologies for the slightly sulky look on my face in the pictures.

Mac

Where did you go, Mac?

Hello folks,  Maisie here. For those of you who don't know me,  I'm described by my owners as very affectionate. I love being around humans and my husband Mac too of course. A little problem I have though is I get anxious when the people I love aren't around. I don't know where they've gone and if they'll be back,  I worry that I didn't give them enough kisses and now they've maybe forgotten me. I'm getting better now though because I know if Mac isn't concerned,  I don't need to be either.

Well this morning our pack leader came in and took Mac away!  She tried to explain to me that he was going to the vets but I don't know what that word means. I thought maybe if I started howling my silly family would realise they'd forgotten to take me and come back. After a few minutes it became clear to me that I wasn't invited on this trip and I howled some more because I don't like being left behind all by myself. It turns out though I wasn't alone,  the rest of my family were just sleeping! Kate gave up on trying to sleep when she heard me singing the blues downstairs to myself and joined me for breakfast. She looked a little tired,  I wonder why? Anyway it made me feel better to have someone around who'd been left behind too.

Our pack leader then went to the Greyhound Summer Fete in the afternoon and brought us back lots of presents. Mac and I now have beautiful new collars, some new toys and a couple of jackets for when the weather is unpleasant. Humans don't appreciate a good chew toy so she also brought back some tasty home baking for everyone else.

Tomorrow we'll be meeting some new friends. Their names are Missy and Pancho and they came from the same rescue as us! Their human has kindly offered to help our human take us on walks we can enjoy without getting worried about the other animals and people in the area. Hopefully we'll get along okay.

It's been a busy day,  I'd better catch up on my sleep now.

Maisie

P.S: I've finally learned how to lie on my back without falling over!

A stressful day

Mac here and you're probably wondering what could be so stressful about my day. My 3 main activities in the day are the 3 things I love to do the most - sleep, eat and go for walks. One thing I don't enjoy much though is other dogs. I just don't understand how some of the things I see walked on leads are dogs. Where's the long muscular body and the pointy snout? They're not dogs at all, they're rabbits in disguise!

Anyway,  I digress. These exteme views mean that I am often misunderstood. I'm trying to be better so maybe one day I can go to the dog show and take a look around or at least walk down the street without causing terror.

My family are all working with me to help me get more socialised but yesterday as we left the house for the morning walk we came across a problem.  You see, my family are very good friends with a couple down the road who own a pair of springer spaniels.

Of course all the humans wanted to stop and chat and adore me and Maisie as only humans can. These neighbours stank of spaniel and I was shaking when they came to pet me. I love humans but those. ..things sitting in my front garden on my favourite spot to do my first poo of the morning were testing my patience. It was taking all my strength to hold in my barks. I gave a few quick barks when I really couldn't hold back anymore and although I got told off I was praised for being extra tolerant at a trying time.

After that my walk was a breeze. I saw dogs of all shapes and sizes but while they made me a little tense, I knew at least they weren't sitting on my front lawn.

Oh, it's a hard life being a good dog. Our hedgehog pal Spike also appeared at our front door for our planned reunion last night but our owners mistook our enthusiasm at seeing him and thought we were trying to attack him! We got dragged away before I could pick him up for another ride, our reunion will have to wait until all the humans are away.

Until next time,  I'm off to sleep in my favourite spot.

Mac

We interrupt this dog blog for a special announcement. ..

Our new friend the hedgehog is today's special guest with his Hog Blog, translated from Hedgehogese with the help of our Master;

"Hey dudes, Spike here. Feed me, feed me, feed me! There I was in the garden chewing on a diet slug the other night when all of a sudden I heard 2 greyhound noses sniffing around in the dark. I did a little poop to help them find me quicker and we all said hi and decided to play a game. But what?  I don't like Rakes and Ladders and Balloon games are definitely not my cup of tea.

Then I realised that the Master of my pals was also in the garden. But do you know what?  The silly human had forgotten to put Mac and Maisie's muzzles on! We.  couldn't let him get away with that.  As he shouted "No, Mac!", I had a very quick idea to roll up like a ball.

Mac quickly picked me up in his mouth very gently as his Master grabbed at his collar to stop us having fun. But guess what dudes? Unbeknown to his Master,  Mac had already managed to get his collar off all by himself in the dark. When the Master grabbed for his collar, it wasn't there and we all ran away laughing.

Then the fun got even better. The Master started chasing us around the garden,  but me, Mac and Maisie just ran faster and soon we were all running 40 miles per hour circles in the dark. What a laugh we had.  The Master was stressing out  and I was laughing so much that I did an accidental wee in Mac's mouth and he had to drop me. Mac got into trouble with his Master and both hounds have been grounded from playing with me.

Oh well,  it was fun while it lasted.  Mac and Maisie still Facebook me and we've plans for a reunion soon. The Guinness book of records have also been in touch because apparently I'm now the World's Fastest Hedgehog. The fame! The glory!  Sex, slugs and rock n roll! Feed me, feed me, feed me!

Bye dudes,

Spike"

Master was so shocked by the events of that night that he also grounded himself for forgetting to use the muzzles. Rumour has it that he also had to buy himself a stress ball, but he was last seen chasing it around the garden at 40 mph in Mac's mouth.

Where'd that monkey come from?

Maisie here,  before you get excited there has not been a resurrection of our dear friend Monkey (may he rest in peace).

Daddy is watching a programme on London Zoo at the moment and although I'm pretending to be asleep I'm watching it too. Mac, on the other hand, is fast asleep. Now the problem with the TV is it makes some interesting noises.  When Daddy watches the sports news,  we hear football fans. When Mummy watches the music channel,  we hear music. When we watch a programme about London Zoo we hear all sorts of zoo animals.  Mac keeps on jumping up to see what's going on, Mr Lazybones has never moved as fast as when he heard a monkey call 10 minutes ago on the TV. He was very confused when after a short search and sniff, the monkey trail ran cold. Silly pup.

It's now been a whole week in our new home  and we're a lot more comfortable. For Mac this means he now feels comfortable enough to sleep in some weird positions;

 

We've also both discovered that cats know a thing or two about sleeping positions ;

Speaking of which, I really should get back to sleep. Cheerio folks!

Maisie x

A death in the family

Mac here with the sad news of a passing. Our beloved monkey went to Rainbow Bridge earlier today.  For those humans that are going "Rainbow Bridge isn't for stuffed animals" you are sadly mistaken. They wait for us at Rainbow Bridge and we are reunited with them upon our death and we play with them while we wait for our humans to arrive.

Monkey lived a short but fulfilling life as a faithful companion to Maisie and I. When we were sad, Monkey was there. When we were scared,  Monkey was there. When we needed something to fight over,  Monkey was there.

Goodbye dear friend,  you will not be forgotten.

Mac & Maisie xxx

Here we are as a family during happier times; 

The circumstances surrounding his death are pending investigation. 

Hello Trouble

Maisie here, I do apologise if you have been waiting for my latest entry. I've been laying low for a couple of days because I committed a terrible crime on Saturday. You see, the pack leader was just about to take Mac and I out for a walk and I got very excited. I got so excited that I had a bit of an accident on the carpet. I was really upset with myself because I know that I shouldn't poo in the house but luckily my owners knew that it was an accident and they didn't shout at me. I've been especially good though just in case they're thinking of sending me back.

Mac on the other hand has been marking his territory in the house and our owners definitely do not approve of that. Once I'd finished eating yesterday he decided to mark my food bowl as his own. His marvellous aim meant that most of his urine was collected in the bowl but our family were not impressed and are continuing to teach him the difference between marking indoors and marking outdoors (where he can pee on every lamppost he desires).

On Saturday night two more humans arrived home from their holiday and we greeted them like any good dog would - waggy tails and lots of affection. Both of them were amazed by our presence because they've never had dogs in the house and we looked very at home. Our daddy adores us and didn't even mind about the stain on the carpet (which has almost gone now).

On Sunday we went on a walk around Loch Leven but I was more excited for the car journey. It's still a bit of a novelty every time my car harness is put on me and I know it's a sign that we're going somewhere exciting. We also found out that our old kennel has been occupied by a brother and sister called Ikey and Iris. They adore each other and don't like to be separated. Hopefully they'll find their forever home soon and won't be in there as long as we were.

After a weekend of good behaviour I decided I would promote myself in the pack to a member who could sleep on the sofa. I was soon removed and reminded that my bed is on the floor. Hopefully I'm not back in the doghouse again for that!

Maisie

Hello territory

Mac here,  Day 3 in our new home and we our beginning to get a little more comfortable. Maisie is beginning to accept that our humans do need some time to themselves occasionally and that they even have to leave the house without us sometimes but they do come back eventually.

On that note,  we were very excited to discover that Kate works on a fish counter and comes home stinking of smoked haddock. She doesn't seem to appreciate our enthusiasm for her wonderful aroma though,  humans can be such funny creatures.

Our pack leader threatened to trade me in for a cat the other day and although I'm fairly certain she was joking I'm trying to be a good pet and show her that I love being a part of the family. I get a bit agitated when I see small animals during our walks but I try very hard to ignore them. I even managed to walk past a pussycat yesterday!

Our uncle Jimmy told our humans that Maisie and I are  a married couple. With this in mind I decided it was time to take charge as the male and hog the bed. Maisie, as any wife would be, was not impressed;

Maisie wags her tail in her sleep though so i guess we all have to put up with some little niggles.

Overall I'm really enjoying my new home and there's rumour of two more humans coming home tomorrow! Our coats are shiny in preparation for the big introduction.

Mac

This sleeping arrangement made our humans go "aww". 

...and proof that Maisie sometimes hogs the beds too!

Hello new sights, sounds, smells and people

Maisie here, since our post yesterday we've been settling into our new home. Mac and I have now realised that we are meant to have one bed each but sometimes we choose to spread out on the floor instead.

Today we've spent a lot of time sleeping and in Mac's case, farting. I've been downwind of that dog for over a year now so it's nice to finally not have to suffer alone. Our pack leader has a blocked nose but her daughter is receiving a full blast of his aroma.

I'm still a little scared that my new family is going to leave me forever every time they leave the room without me and I will sometimes follow them around to make sure they remember I'm there. Hopefully I'll get more confident as time goes by because I really love my new family.

Love

Maisie

Hello World

We thought it was about time we introduced ourselves to the world of the Internet. My name is Mac and along with my pal Maisie and we are both retired greyhounds. Earlier today we adopted a family of humans and we are just back from our very first walk of the neighbourhood. Our new family have very kindly provided two memory foam beds for me but nothing for Maisie! Although the carpet is much nicer than the floor of our old kennel so Maisie is happy to curl up on the floor.

We are still very excited to be in our new home and have discovered a great new invention called television. I'm not too bothered by it myself but Maisie informs me that Peter Andre has a very lickable face.

All of the excitement today has put us behind on our work as professional couch potatoes so we'd better go and catch up on some serious relaxation.

Until next time here are some photos of our adventures today. Do excuse our lack of skills with posting our pictures in a chronological order,  this is our first post and we're still trying to figure out how everything works.

Mac & Maisie

I have 2 really comfortable memory foam beds to sleep on, I feel like I've died and gone to doggy heaven.

 Maisie on the other hand has to lie on the floor,  I wonder what happened to her bed?

 The thought of finally finding our forever home makes us smile a lot

 And going for a walk in a new place always makes us happy

 The car journey was very exciting,  so many sights and smells to take in.

Although we'll miss all the dogs and humans at Greyhound Rescue Fife we know that today was the start of a new adventure and we can't wait to see what happens next.