I Can't Believe My Luck

Since my birthday was last Sunday, Mr. Taleteller was nice enough to take me to Chicago for the day yesterday. It was a lot of fun, even though we didn't get to take the girls. We ate at Weber Grill, did some shopping and went to the top of the Willis Building, which is the recently renamed Sears Tower. We took Flat Nigel along with us, but it wasn't the same as having the girls with us.

I was afraid that when we got back, rather late, that not only would there be a mess to clean up, but that I would get a serious case of the cold shoulder.  To my surprise, we did not come home to a mess and Bunny was thrilled beyond words to see me.  She leaned against me for a long time and then curled up on the couch with me.  There's really nothing like coming home!

I count myself lucky every time I come through the door.  Not only do I still have a job that I mostly enjoy doing, I have the best things in the world to come home to.  While I'm very thankful to Mr. Taleteller for taking me on the trip, I'm also grateful to the girls for making it wonderful to come home!

We were recently awarded the Versatile Blogger Award by Bud and Ginger and Dexter and Nora.  The rules of the award state that we must thank those who gave it to us, so thanks Bud, Ginger, Dexter and Nora!  It also says that we need to tell seven things about ourselves and then list seven others to receive the award.  Since Bunny's answers to these things are always better than mine, I'm letting her take over from here.

Bunny here with my list of seven things about me!

1.  I like sleeping in in the morning, the later the better!  I will get up if I have to, but don't count on me to be the alarm clock.  That's Lilac's job!

2.  I can't resist kids, especially little girls.  They are just the right height to pet me and they never seem to get tired of it.  Plus, they always fuss over me a lot while they're petting me.

3.  I love to run at the dog park.  Mom even says I show off a little sometimes when we go there.   But I don't run much in the house unless I get a really bad case of cabin fever.

4.  I like to pretend I'm going to sleep in Blueberry's bed at night when Dad calls us to bed.  It drives Dad and Blueberry crazy!  Blue insists on having her spot and Dad likes Blue to be happy.  I hold out for a little while and then I hop up on the bed with Mom and Dad.

5.  I once caught a baby robin in my mouth, but I let it go.  Mom yelled "Drop it" three times, and I did it every time until it got up on the fence and landed outside the pen.

6.  I enjoy sharing the big dog bed with Lilac when she'll let me.  Sometimes she will share it with me, and sometimes she gets up and leaves when I lay beside her.  I try to be careful with her and let her have what she wants.

7.  Nothing makes me happier than all of us going on an adventure for the day together.  I know Lilac doesn't like riding in the van so much, but I like it when she goes with us and we get to sniff around at the dog park and all spend time together.

Now, we'd like to pass this along to some other bloggers.  If you don't like to participate in awards, that's okay.  There's no pressure.  It's all in fun!  We're also supposed to tell them that they got an award.  I tried to remember who I'd seen get this award already, but I'm sure I missed some somewhere.  We're sorry if you already got it!

1.  Being Ladybug
2.  Who's Driving?
3.  Mygreatdaneisinlovewithme
4.  Greyt Days
5.  The Adventures of Cloud the Wonder Dog
6.  Dennis' Diary of Destruction
7.  Multum In Parvo... With A Cinnabon Tail

Whew!  That was a lot of thinking!  I think I'm going to need a nap after all that.  Hopefully you'll have fun visiting them if you haven't already!

And yes, we're participating in the blog hop this weekend.  It's been a lot of fun and we've seen some great new blogs because of it!  We're glad they decided to start this.

Greyhound Public Relations

Saturday morning found us getting up bright and early to go and help with the first of two volunteer projects that we had for the day.  Both of them involved the dogs and it made for a busy day for us and them. 

Our first stop was at the Wellness Fair for the therapy dog group that we volunteer with.  It got interesting before we even got inside.  Right away, the girls knew there was something interesting up ahead.

Not only was there something interesting to see, there were already people waiting to ask us questions about the dogs.  There were some kids outside who were fascinated with Bunny and Blueberry.  Not to mention some adults.  Mr. Taleteller was kind enough to take Blueberry and say that he needed to get her inside, leaving Bunny and me to fend for ourselves.

Inside there were lots of booths with all kinds of different health related services and products.  The Paw to Paw booth is always busy.  We met lots of our therapy dog friends and even a therapy cat showed up.  Flat Nigel also made an appearance, but I'm not sure what kind of therapy he'd do if he came to the nursing home with us.

I always feel a little guilty when we go to this annual event.  People are always crazy about the greyhounds and ask us a lot of questions.  The crowd the forms around them is like people meeting rock stars at times.  Sometimes I feel like we're taking away from the attention the group needs to get for volunteers to go to the nursing homes.  We get asked all the time when we're out with the girls about where people can adopt greyhounds, and I'm happy to help greyhounds get homes.  I just don't want to overshadow the reason we're there.

After we'd spent some time at the Wellness Fair it was time to pack up and move on.  We grabbed a quick lunch and drove home to drop Blueberry off.  Then we headed to the 4H office to help with our introduction to the new kids who are signing up for dog obedience, which Mr. Taleteller and I help volunteer with.  Bunny has been through obedience and usually does pretty well with it.  Our friend has a German Shepard she's done a lot of obedience with as well, but he's getting older and he was at the Wellness Fair with us in the morning, too. 

Of course, when we arrived, Bunny looked at the long flight of stairs that led up to the room where we were meeting and put on the brakes.  No way was she climbing those stairs.  So, we went to plan B.  That was taking the elevator.  I should mention that this elevator makes the OJ Simpson car chase look like the Indy 500.  I began to fear that by the time we got to the top that the meeting would be over, but we made it.

Bunny did pretty well considering that she'd been the center of a mob scene for several hours in the morning and hasn't practiced her obedience much through the winter.  She did charm the crowd yet again, which I suspect is the most important part of going in her eyes.  I saw that she tried to teach Flat Nigel a thing or two, but he wasn't paying attention.  We brought home one very tired, but happy, puppy.