Good morning, Dear Readers! If you aren't on Facebook (smart you) or Whippet World, you haven't met the newest member of the Waggle.
So without hesitation, I bring you (drum roll.....)
Tindra!!!
Jabber and his mini me!
Tindra is Jabber's cousin/sister. Now, I am NOT NOT NOT one for the inbreeding that can go in in dogs. No sirree. Genetic suicide, I say. So this is going to be a bit confusing, but here we go.
Swede William is from Sweden (makes sense so far, yes?) and is about as big an outcross as I can get. Lindy Loo and Simmer are litter sisters. Jabber's dad is Swede William, and his mom is Lindy Loo. Tindra's dad is Swede William (so she and the Jabberwonkus are siblings), and her mom is Simmer, (so she and Jibberjabberish are cousins).
That makes her Jabberdude's couster. Sissin? I wanted Laurie to give the puppies Mormon names, since their moms are actual Sister Wives. So the Jabster and Tindra are both outcrosses, but they are very closely related to each other - like almost littermates.
Then again, we live in Kentucky, where when you apply for a marriage license you are asked if/how you are related to your future spouse. No joke.
Poor dear puppy it has rained nonstop practically since the moment she set foot in Paducah. Constant rain, wind, ugliness. She takes it much better than I do. And the Jabberwocky is a saint. Truly. He plays and plays and plays with her as gently as... he's like Shrek. A big striped handsome whippety version of Shrek. Sammy has continued his I-Will-SERIOUSLY-Keel-All-Small-Puppeze ways, so either Tindra is tethered to me (or Bill when I'm working, speaking of saints) or Sammy is in his gated off area with a chewy, 24/7.
And did I mention that Lindy Loo has been in season?
Thanks to advice from Tindra's breeder Laurie, who is the A-MAZE-ING photographer who took all of the above photos, we are managing Sweet Old Dog's incontinence better. He wears a belly band with an EXTRA absorbent Poise Pad overnight, and we put those washable blue pads all over the house at night. MUCH less 'clean up isle four' to deal with. He and Luciano went to see Ol' Poke 'n Stick on Friday. He poked and stuck everything he could and we came up with diagnoses.
They're old.
The good news is that Mama Pajama turned some corner and came out of her Scary Place. She is now happy happy happy all of the time! She does Silly Whippet Spins when she goes out and wags all the time and she thinks the puppy is cool beans. This makes my heart happy.
And Lindy Loo is just about out of season. OH THANK YOU LORD!!!!
Our happy home. Two 14.5 year olds, one of whom is incontinent. Two who will be 12 in March. One puppycidal 9 year old. A five year old bitch in season with two intact males - one five year old Swede William who is in lust, and eleven month old Jabber. Jabber just discovered that wooohoooooooo his mom smelled gooooooood. He would stand there looking utterly bewildered while his end parts independently humped nothing at all, just air, and he'd turn around and look at his back end, like, "why is my end part doing that?"
Then he would turn his face around and look at me. Mortified. "Oh. Dear. Make it stop!!!!"
Air hump, air hump, air hump.
" Make it stoooooooooop!!!!"
Poor little guy. The good news is he and Tindra adore each other in a platonic, sibling/cousin-ly way.
And then there's work. But that's a whole 'nother blog.
That's what's going on with me. What's going on with you? I've missed you all. I've cleaned my plate just a bit, and hey look! Two blog posts in as many days. Could this be a trend? Oh please, Dear Muse.
Please.
hug your hounds, and feed your Muses