Spooky Cobwebs

This spider has been hanging out by our garage entryway for weeks now. My husband wants to kill it. I prefer to think of her as natural bug repellent and forbid him to knock her down. Besides, I'm just waiting for the day that she writes some incredible message in the web or all of a sudden the Virgin Mary appears in the middle and we get our 15 minutes of fame on the local news. Then again, we'd probably have a lot of people from all over lined up to see the Blessed Virgin in the web, and it might require me to tidy the house. And I don't know if it's really all that appropriate to charge people to see miracles of the sort. So, scratch that. I'll settle for her to just write cool messages to me instead.

I had a couple of e-mails asking about Charlotte's name after I disclosed Seka's name origin in my last post. Charlotte's racing name was Daydreaming. She ran just a couple of schooling races at a track in Kansas, but just never had the drive to run at the track. She is pretty spooky. Maybe that's why her first family named her Cobweb. When we took her to the kennel on the day SEGA took her in, we decided that it might be hard to adopt her out with a name like Cobweb. She really didn't come to it anyway (but really, do any of them). We decided that a sweet name that reminded us of spider webs (or cobwebs) was Charlotte (Charlotte's Web - get it?) and that's where she got her name. She's pictured here with our fat Boo Radley kitty.

As I write this it is the top of the 8th inning and the Red Sox lead the Rockies 4 to 1. GO SOX!

What's In a Name?

We went to eat at one of my favorite burger joints - Steak n Shake - the other night on a whim. We crated the girls with their kongs and off we went for a romantic meal of chili and fries (yum). Well, we got there and a couple of things immediately reminded us of our girls at home.

The waitress' name was Charlotte, although she pronounced it in some other way - like the accent was all in the wrong place. I did check her name tag twice and it was spelled the normal way. I wish I could have recorded the way she said it.

While checking out the on-table advertising, we noticed the use of the word MILKSHAKES spelled backward on a table tent advertising spooky Halloween milkshakes. SEKA-HSKLIM! Ok, so it's a reach. But when you have a dog whose name is never spelled out on the gift store pencils at the museum after a field trip, you develop a keen eye for spotting her name on anything. Even now I wish I had snagged the darn table tent and slipped in in my purse!

I have no idea what Seka's name means. The only reference I can find to the name via Google search is a porn star from the early 1980s named Seka. According to Wikipedia, she was very popular in her day - she even appeared on Oprah in 1986! In her biography it says "She later adopted the screen name Seka from a Serbo-Croatian term of endearment for a little girl, similar to "little sweetheart" or "little darling." That fits our Seka just fine. But I guess since she is a porn dog, it also fits that we're both nude in a calendar!

Check out the girls' new coats! I saw them and had to get them. It's so hard to find Red Sox stuff that fits them. I got them from Amy over at WarmWaggs. They are fantastically made and the price is great. Plus, Amy is SUPER nice. Check out her coats on E-bay and order one for your chilly hound today.

Here's Kevin with both of them celebrating the Red Sox win over the Indians and preparing to cheer them on over the Rockies in the World Series. Go Sox!

Our Very First Yappy Hour

We had a crowd of greyhound lovers and Greymates calendar fans at today's yappy hour/media event at the Five Season's Brewery in Atlanta. Many wanted to have their calendars autographed and pawtographed by the Greymates themselves, (there were 10 of us who were in attendance today). It was a lot of fun and we caused quite a scene. We caused many customers from inside the restaurant to come outside and check out what was going on. I mean, who could resist 20+ well-behaved greyhounds lounging around while their owners eat - well that at posters of naked women plastered around the beer garden?

There were greyhounds of all shapes and sizes there today. Some that were newly adopted and out on their very first SEGA outing with their forever family. Others were there shopping for a forever home. Some were there to get extra pets and love, like this strapping chap that saddled up next to me for most of the afternoon.

Others had the chance to show off their tricks they have been working on like this handsome boy (I'm so bad at names, but I do love that his collar perfectly matches his fawn coloring.). I asked Seka to take some notes (she's hopeless at tricks) but she was much more interested in the treats they had than watching how he earned them.



Seka loved hanging out with other Greymate men, Tuck (in bow tie below), Walter (handsome 13 yo brindle) and Canoe (not pictured). Interesting that she hung out with all the boys today. Maybe it was their bow ties? What a flirt. Beautiful white and fawn Ginger (pictured with Walter below) found her way over to our table to flirt with the boys too. The bow ties made those boys simply irresistible.



As far as two-legged friends go, Seka enjoyed spending time today with her favorite photographer, Starr (thanks for the free babysitting, I'll return the favor someday). And her favorite designer Kimberly.



Back on the home front, Charlotte hung out all day with Dad watching football and cheering on the Patriots to a big win over Dallas today. Seka was worn out after her long day meeting and greeting all her fans. So she joined in all the laziness at the house. And I managed to find room in the chair to grab a 20 minute nap. The girls are still napping as I write this, four hours later. Oh, to be a greyhound!

A Little Naughty

I knit. No, I'm not 75 years old. I just happen to come from a very crafty family. My mother can sew anything. My father was a master wood craftsman. My sister can bake and decorate an incredible cake - not to mention makes the best homemade icing. YUM! And then there's me. I quilt, knit, paint, and try my hand at making any kind of little doo dad I think looks interesting in a craft magazine. My college roommates called me Martha Stewart, before Martha was cool. They also sent me sympathy cards when she went to jail, but I digress.

What does this have to do with greyhounds? This...

Charlotte has yet to figure out how to tell the difference between my yarn and one of her toys. This is the fourth or fifth skein that she has picked out of the project basket and artfully pulled apart. And she's so sneaky and quiet about it, it's amazing. I can't blame her. It looks like a lot of fun to pull apart and decorate the living room with it. Seka has destroyed her share of yarn too in her - some to the point of no return.

Oh and for those of you who knit and are anxiously awaiting your Ravelry invites, mine arrived today after two months of going to the darn invite checker at least twice a week. My screen name is greytblackdog, so find me on there and say hi. In fact, there's a lot of gals who blog about greyhounds and knitting out there. Check out my sidebar if you don't believe me. Enough knitting talk, that's for my other blog.

Born to Run

Just wanted to share the AWESOME photos I just purchased of the two girls running in the Blur of Fur at Greyfest on Saturday. These are a little low in resolution here, but you can see how happy the girls are to be running at full tilt. There were so many great photos of them I had a hard time deciding which ones to get, but these two were my favorite.

Seka at 42 mph


Charlotte at 44 mph

Charlotte - Day 28, I must be dreaming

Charlotte's racing name was Daydreaming. Several times today I believe she looked up and me and asked me to pinch her, just to make she she wasn't dreaming as we attended SEGC/SEGA's annual Greyfest. To say that Charlotte and Seka had the time of their lives today, would be an understatement.

We had an early start for our two-hour drive to Newnan for the festival, which I didn't think would be a problem for Charlotte. She is usually up early and ready and raring to go. A total morning girl, which Seka isn't all that fond of. Maybe it was the fact that mom and dad were up until 2a watching the Red Sox beat the Angles with a walk-off home run by Manny in the bottom of the 9th, but neither of the girls wanted to get up this morning and get going.

Kevin and I were a little concerned about Charlotte being too scared to really enjoy her time at the farm today, but she totally proved us wrong. The ex-pen test we did in the living room earlier in the week scared her to death, but today, she jumped right in like a champ. She and Seka looked so cute in their matching scarves that my mom made for them and by the end of the day, when we walked away from the ex-pen and came back and it looked like we might let them out, they had a happy tail fight they were BOTH so excited to see us.

Greyfest really is an extremely special time each year. The connection the greyhound community has is amazing and the dogs themselves seem to have a special connection - as if they all know each other somehow on the racing circuit and are happy to see each other again, now that they are not competitors that is.

I loved waiting in the Blur of Fur line with both of the girls hearing proud owners talk about how nervous they were to see their dogs run. I have to admit, Kevin and I were as well. I loved manning the sign up sheets for the greyhound contests for the morning, hearing people decide whether or not their dog would have a chance at the longest nose or softest fur. Don't worry, I will not report any stage moms to Dr. Phil. They are our fuzzy children who carry our love and our pride with them at all times.

Speaking of Blur of Fur - Charlotte ran 44 mph and Seka improved on her time from last year and ran 42 mph.

Thanks to those of you who read our blog and found us at Greyfest. It is always cool to know that someone is actually reading what you're putting out there. Seka always loves the extra pats and Charlotte is learning to like the attention (well, tolerate it right now).

Like many other attendees, our car ride home was a quiet one. Our evening has been one of watching both girls rest and dream of their day at the farm. How can we tell? When they both fall asleep with smiles on their faces, where else have they been all day but greyhound paradise!