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A Blog is Born

I've decided to try and birth a blog. The last one ended up being too cumbersome. I tried to go back and cover so much history that it became daunting and needless to say never went very far.

This time, I'm going to try and keep things easy, short and sweet--at least from a historical perspective.

Suffice to say, I have 3 dogs. All three are rescues. My oldest, Rio (Rakestraw's Diamond in the Ruff) is a 5 year old female black lab mix. The DNA test I did on her says she is a mix with Lab, Rottie and Boston Terrier! She came as a 8 week old puppies from a rural shelter than was so overrun that euthanasia was a must.

Rio is the first I have ever trained to do anything more than sit. She's a smart girl and never ceases to amaze me. She's a shy, nervous dog who still manages to keep moving forward. She is cautious but courageous as the same time. Her fears could overtake her, but with family by her side, she manages to work through things and embrace life. Rio competes in agility and rally obedience. Later this year we plan to try our first canine musical freestyle competition. She's also been in training for dock diving but still has not worked up the nerve to jump yet. Someday...I have no doubt.

Blaze (Crone's Blazing Sunshine) is a 2 year old male red fawn Greyhound. He never raced. I got him as an 11 week old puppy from Crone's Creatures Greyhound Adoptions in Ocala, Florida. CCGA worked with the NGA (National Greyhound Assoc) to close down a greyhound farm that was not taking care of their dogs.

Blaze is my first greyhound. I've wanted a greyhound since I was a kid. Back then, the public was told they could not live with cats and small dogs, both of which I had in my family. I didn't think having a greyhound would be possible. Fast forward about 30 years and lo and behold, I got Blaze. He does fine with my cat, my parrot and small dogs. He has a high prey drive, but does not see my cat & parrot as prey but rather his pack. That's not to say he would chase and kill other cats or birds so I am careful with him. As for small dogs, I have no worries. He grew up playing with the little dogs of my family, friends and neighbors. He adores them so no worries there.

Blaze has compete in rally obedience. He's tried some agility, but quite frankly, he's not ready to complete yet. He's in training and I'm hopeful that perhaps this year we can try to serious compete in come agility. Blaze can swim and has done some training for dock diving. He may do it someday and maybe not. Like Rio though, plans do include for him to compete in canine musical freestyle later this year. In fact, for our first competition, we'll be doing a brace which is a routine with 2 dogs and 1 handler. It should be interesting and if nothing else fun!

Dog #3, the final and last one is Cori (BLT's Sweet Corn). Cori is my 2 year old female fawn greyhound. She and Blaze are actually blood cousins. We just joined our family in April. She is a retired racer. She was not a very good racer. She raced 36 time and won one race. Her last race was Feb of 2010. She came through SEGA (Southeastern Greyhound Adoptions)'s program in March. I feel in love with her. I knew I was going to add a 2nd greyhound at some point. I just didn't expect it to be so soon--but hey--when its right it's right. I am however at capacity. No more--three dogs is it :)

Cori is finishing up basic obedience training. She and I are going to pursue pet therapy. I am especially interested in us participating in the READing Paws program. It's a wonderful program where children read to dogs. Cori really seems to like children a lot. She may also eventually compete in some rally obedience and maybe even canine musical freestyle someday. Time will tell.

In our family, besides the 3 dogs, we also have a couple of support players, PJ my 15 year old male Siamese Tabby mix cat and Reggie, my 13 year old male Eclectus parrot.

Then there's me. I guess you could say I am the matriarch of the family :)

My family is complete and all I can say is one dog is a must. Two is even better, but 3 dogs are better than 1!