Just Relaxing

Scamp's Journey loves to relax on the bed. We have no problem getting comfortable on this bed. Such a sweet boy, with perfect manners.

Scamp's Journey and his foster sister

Scamp's Journey is getting along fine with his foster sister. They are both in the kitchen watching all the baking that is going on for the holiday. Scamp's Journey is so good about sitting on the bed while in the kitchen and not begging. Sometime's he is even better than his foster sister. At least he looks like he's napping!

Journey's First Chanukkah

Scamp's Journey has his first Chanukkah with his foster family. We had a party and he was so sweet, always wagging his tail and ready to meet new folks. He would be a great addition to any family, and he especially loves company.

Journey Having a ball

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lf3OVUeeEes

We are the new foster family who is looking after Journey. He is wonderful entertainment for our own Greyhound who we have had for over a year now. They play well together and keep each other company. Here is a video of Journey having a ball in the back yard. He is a active fellow who just wants to have fun and is looking for his forever home.

Passing the Torch, Part Two

Well, I hosed up the movie attachments to the last post, uploading one twice and leaving one out completely (sigh). Here is the missing one. Journey's greatest challenge at our house was the uncarpeted stairs up to the bedrooms. He found them slippery and scary! For weeks we covered them with painting tarps and then eventually weaned him off those. He did triumph in the end, although he never seemed to take them for granted. Each morning he would make a few "avoidance" trots around the upstairs foyer before turning to face the stairs. He reminded me of the little engine that could - I imagined him chanting, "I think I can, I think I can" to himself as he descended. For those of you who have read the book, "Room", by Emma Donoghue, Journey is one scave* little chap. We are better for having been his foster family.

*This book is narrated by a five-year-old boy who lives with his mom under extremely adverse conditions. They make up "word sandwiches". "Scave" is an adjective to describe being very brave when you actually feel scared.

Passing the Torch

Our family had to say farewell to Journey yesterday and take him to his new foster family (due to a travel conflict). It was sad to say good-bye, but we are excited for him too! His new foster family has a female greyhound who is really looking for someone to play with - that should be awesome for Journey. We have a few final videos to share. Happy Trails, Journey! We loved having you with our family!

Happy Halloween, Journey

We couldn't help ourselves! Journey was Shrek for his first Halloween in retirement. He looks SO cute - but don't worry. He only had the costume on as long as it took to take a few photos. Now that the mornings are getting so chilly, we've been putting a coat and snood on him for his early morning turn out. This morning he woke up ready to play! We took some video of him playing with the horse before going outside.



Journey and Finn continue to get along well. We've been finding them sharing the same bed (apparently the "primo" bed that they both prefer). Journey would still like for Finn to cut-up with him more. But, Finn remains reserved in that regard.

Journey works the crowd

Some scenes from an upcoming Ben Stiller movie are being filmed in our neighborhood this week, so last night on our walk we (Journey, Finn, my son and me) headed on over to the "set". The film crew had a group of about 20 neighbors huddled together on a driveway from where we could watch Ben Stiller and Vince Vaughn film an outside scene. There was a LOT of waiting in-between takes and long periods of "quiet on the set". Journey was amazing in this setting. He was totally calm and just meandered through the group of people, introducing himself and familiarizing himself with all the sights and smells. Journey and Finn received lots of affection and stroking and never tired of the attention. People really liked Journey and wanted to know if he was a rescue from the tracks. Many people commented on how sweet and calm he was. I heard more than one person say, "I thought they [racing greyhounds] would be hyper." This is probably a fairly common misconception. We spent nearly an hour in this group of people, before we continued on our walk, without incident. I think Journey is going to make a great family dog.

If you read yesterday's post, thought you might like to see Journey enjoying his kong in his crate. This was an afternoon treat while I needed him to be in his crate so I could be free to do house cleaning.



This next video was taken just after Finn and Journey had some outside time and were playing in the front room while I typed this nearby. Journey really wants Finn to play with him!

Getting some freedom in the house

We've been experimenting with giving Journey off-lead, supervised time in the house. He is curious and interested in checking out everything in a room, and is surprisingly good about not mouthing or chewing on things. We have a toy basket filled with stuffies for Journey and Finn and he seems to understand that these are the acceptable things to play with. When he occasionally does grab a "no-no", he responds very well and quickly to correction. He likes to play with stuffies, especially the ones that make noise. Finn has a bunny that is HIS, and Journey has been very good about respecting that. Journey's favorites seem to be the horse and duck. We've been introducing him to stuffed kongs in his crate and it only took him a couple of days to be able to nearly clean out his kong each time! I love this way of giving a treat and helping to alleviate boredom. I just finished stuffing some kongs with cream of celery soup, yogurt, and mashed up meatballs. They should be ready for Journey and Finn this afternoon : )

Here are a couple of videos of Journey playing with horse and just learning to relax on a bed in the family room. "Learning to relax on a bed", might seem pretty intuitive, but remember, just a few short weeks ago, all he knew was track life and living in a crate surrounded by lots and lots of other greyhounds. Everything is still so NEW.

Our first week with Journey

Our first week as Journey's foster family has been fun and interesting. We first had to teach him all about stairs! At first, we literally had to place each paw in position, one at a time (that's four paw moves per stair!). But Journey is a brave boy and he is now a pro at going up and down the deck and carpeted stairs to the basement. The hardwood stairs up to the bedrooms are still a challenge, but he is getting it and gets better all the time. Journey was also leery of the hardwood flooring in the house at first, but once he figured out that going slowly was better than trying to run (presumably to get off the scary floor faster) he is conquering that fear too. Our greyhound, Finn, and Journey are getting along fine. Journey would love for Finn to play with him and he has shown us a really silly and fun side of his personality, trying to get Finn to be silly too. Today is Journey's first day to be off-lead in the fenced backyard (now he's all healed up from his neutering last week). He loves to be outside and seems fascinated by every sight, sound and smell! Here are two videos we took today; one shows how well he is doing on the deck stairs.