September 26, 1997
Vito

October 1, 1997
Bo

November 24, 1997
Vito

November 27, 1997
Vito

A security officer saw my long tail near that escalator. He thought I was a rat and got out his mace. When he got a little closer, he saw that I was a puppy, and a shivering one. He picked me up and read my pet store tag -- Bonanzaah, it said. He called his supervisor, and they also called the manager of the pet store. Since it was Thanksgiving, it was decided that I could stay locked in the mall security office until the mall opened on Friday morning. But the nice security officer took another look at the shivering little puppy in his arms and knew he couldn't leave me there.

He brought me home to Thanksgiving dinner. His sister Angela was there and it took about two seconds for her to fall in love with me. Not only was I beautiful, but I was so grateful for a warm blanket, some food, and some hugs, and I became her hero when she found out how I escaped from that awful pet store. She wanted to adopt me right away.

But then there was Little. Little was a 13-year-old Terrier mix who was very sick with inoperable cancer and heart problems. She was a real fighter and was taking medicine to keep her comfortable, but she was also very set in her ways, and she didn't need a playful new puppy around at that stage of her life. I stayed downstairs that night, and Little spent the whole night at the top of the stairs, looking down as if she was having a bad dream. Heartbroken, Angela realized that I had to go back to the pet store the next day.

Angela spent the next several weeks distracted, looking at the pictures she had taken of me on Thanksgiving and worrying about what would happen to this little puppy who stole her heart so quickly. She called the pet store at least twice a week asking if anyone had adopted me yet. They hadn't.

December 22, 1997
Vito

One day Hugo told Angela that I wasn't in my cage anymore and I must have been adopted! She called the pet store to ask if I got a good home, but the news wasn't so good. I was still there but I had been moved to a cage in the back of the store, which Angela later found out the employees called "the dungeon." The store was asking $900 for me, so nobody was buying me, and I was starting to grow -- they wanted the new, smaller, cuter puppies in the front cages. Second, I had a few problems -- I had caught kennel cough and was a cryptorchid. They wouldn't sell me at a lower price so that they wouldn't bring down the value of any future Italian Greyhounds in the store. So they moved me to the back, and who knows what was going to happen to me...

On December 22, Angela became my mom. Little shared her Christmas gifts with me, and the last few months of her life suddenly became much more interesting! Mom kept us separated as much as possible, since I was just too playful for Little, but after a couple of months I could tell that she grudgingly started to like me!

December 27, 1997
Vito

February 28, 1998
Vito

June 15, 1998
Vito

September 26, 1998
Vito

November 1998
Vito

Even though I spend a lot of time with my mom and all of my people friends, I get so excited when I get to be around other puppies, like when I go for walks at the park! Mom asked me if I would like a brother or sister, and I said WOOF! (Actually, since I don't usually bark, I just kind of looked at her in that curious way that I do, like I'm really trying hard to understand.) We found out about a great group of people called Italian Greyhound Rescue and submitted an adoption application. Our rescue rep, Niki, came out for a home check and brought one of her IGs, Runner, to see if I would accept another one in my house. I accepted him so much that I wanted to play him to death! Niki started looking for a brother for me right away and gave us descriptions of a few IGs that could be good matches for me. Mom wanted to adopt them all!

So on December 12, I'm going to meet Bo, a rescue IG about my same age who is being fostered in Buffalo. We're meeting halfway at a dog show in Cleveland, and as long as Bo and I hit it off, he's coming home with us!

December 12, 1998
Vito

Last night, mom kept saying to me, "Ready to meet your new brother tomorrow?" What's a new brother, I wondered? Well today, boy, I found out what a new brother is! It's about 20 pounds of black Italian Greyhound, and no offense, but I'm not sure he's playing with a full bag of treats if you know what I mean! He's a nut, he has even more energy than me and I didn't think that was possible! And he actually listens to mom -- now he's going to mess everything up when I had her all trained! On the way home from Cleveland, he just slept on Elaine's lap the whole time, not at all curious or nervous about where he was going. Then when we got home, first he started to eat out of my food dish, and then, for the final insult, he stole my sleeping spot on the very first night, snuggled up next to mom's tummy! Can you believe the nerve of this guy?!

But he plays with me, and keeps me company, and then sometimes he makes a pretty good pillow. Okay, okay, I guess he'll do.

December 12, 1998
Bo

The first family who had me kept me in a crate for 20 hours a day (I think maybe it would be better if they got a stuffed animal next time).  One day when they let me out I was SO excited and I didn't know WHAT to do with myself so I ran to the bed and went shredSHREDshred and then the bedspread was ALL GONE.  Oops.  Little did they know that I always knew what my destiny was, so to meet my mom and new brother, I had to wind up in IG Rescue and this was all part of the plan. They played right into my paws!!

I met my new family in Cleveland today, just before Christmas. Can you believe that somebody would give up a face like this? I was very nervous -- I had a couple little accidents at the dog show we went to! -- and then I was just so exhausted that I slept the whole way on the drive back to Pittsburgh. My new mom couldn't believe how trusting I was, how I didn't seem to wonder one bit where we were going.

I needed to gain a few pounds -- you could see the bumps of my spine -- but whenever anyone would try to feed me, I would get sick because my stomach wasn't used to being fed too much. Within a few weeks, I will put on weight and become an even more beautiful boy, but I'm still trying to make up for all the food I missed out on!

January 1999
Vito

January 1999
Bo

Because of my past, I've been getting scared whenever my mom leaves.  I don't want to be abandoned for almost a whole day at a time ever again!  Mom promises that won't happen but it's going to take me a little while to learn to trust, so I still tend to go shredSHREDshred to anything in my path when she leaves me. And I get really upset in a crate because I had such a bad experience.  So mom is taking me to a special doctor to help me feel better; he said I have separation anxiety, whatever that is.  I have my own special little doggy-proofed room whenever I'm alone for now, and I'm doing a lot better.  I am working with an obedience trainer too!

Despite my rough start in life, mom says that I am the most affectionate dog in the world!! I love to give kisses and I claimed my sleeping spot, snuggled up to mom's tummy, from the very first night in my new home (sorry Vito, but I'm bigger!). I'm really funny too; I have this really sneaky move where I lay on my stomach and just slither along towards my unsuspecting target. Usually that's Vito, who is still delicately eating his treat while I have already devoured mine! I don't feel guilty, though, because even though Vito might act like the innocent one, he's always provoking me when I'm trying to be good!  My other sneaky move is to bark at Vito to distract him so I can take treats and toys away. Unfortunately, mom and my big brother are catching on to my cleverness. I'll just have to think up some new tricks to outsmart them!

February 15, 1999
Vito

This picture pretty effectively conveys how badly Santa spoiled us this year! And here we are with a couple of our favorite presents after they've been opened!

Want to know more about our new pet? Cat now has a webpage of her very own!

He said he has done some research and finally figured out what is wrong with me. I have a sort of autoimmune disorder, which causes my body to hyper-react to foreign organisms. When I get any kind of foreign organism in my eyes, like bacteria or even dust, my immune system goes crazy trying to fight it off, which makes my eyes irritated, red, swollen, and finally protruding. The drops I have to take are called Cyclosporine, which humans also use as an anti-rejection drug. After a few weeks, I can start taking the drops only one time each day... the doctor says I should be able to use them for the rest of my life without becoming immune to them, and with no side effects. Mom says that she knows now that we are going to have a long and happy life together... c'mon, mom, I always knew that!

The vet came back into the room and said that the needle biopsy looked good, but she still didn't want to promise that everything was okay until she removed the lump. She told mom to bring me back the next morning for surgery. So I spent that day in the hospital alongside my pet, Cat.

When mom came to pick me up, I looked and felt pathetic! I had an Elizabethan collar on so I wouldn't bother my stitches, and green bandages wrapped around my paw like a cast. But I was so glad to go home and sleep in my own bed that night... except that mom kept squeezing me like there was no tomorrow! It took three loooong days for the vet to get the results of my biopsy back... and for us to get the WONDERFUL news that my lump was a histiocytoma after all. I think I've had my quota of close calls for a while now, don't you think? I'm wishing for a year free of vet visits -- except for my regular checkups -- in 2001!

The Great Duck Caper included prizes for things like the first dog to de-quack the duck, de-wing the duck, or shred the duck, so mom specifically bought the duck to enter Vito (a.k.a. the master de-stuffer) in the contest. How many times I've gotten a  new stuffed animal, made it my "baby," and Vito gets to it and tears it limb from limb while I watch with the saddest face...

But this morning, I decided that I wasn't going to take it anymore! Grandma gave us our Duckie, and I immediately took the new baby, tucked him possessively under me, and eventually drifted off to sleep with him. This earned me the title of First Dog to Take a Nap With the Duck! And here is the incredibly cute picture frame I won as my prize!

Unfortunately, my victory was short-lived. The first moment that I let my guard down, Vito took my baby, and very methodically tore at a seam until the thread came loose. By the time I came in, it was too late to do anything but survey the damage. Oh, the horror!

Looking quite troubled, I took my injured Duckie back on the couch with me... notice his flat, de-stuffed head! How depressing, that my baby had fallen into Vito's evil paws! Mom did surgery on Duckie a couple of times to repair his various injuries, but eventually, after about a month, there was no hope and we had to part ways with poor Duckie. Please mom, get me another duck, SOON!

But in the meantime, you can check out our pictures! What typical expressions from both of us... Vito is giving what the family calls "the black eye look" (who, me?! says Vito) and Bo is looking like his usual, sweet self.

What were we, you ask? Vito, who's always instigating, was perfect as an inmate, complete with a number placard, ball and chain, and the most hilarious headpiece that mom said reminded her of a babushka. Bo, who's always trying to be good, was a natural choice to be a policeman... another officer in the family! He had handcuffs, a police hat, and the most adorable little tie. Here's another photo of us together; Vito's placard got straightened out for this one but poor Bo's hat slipped around his neck in the windy day. And here's the traditional shot of the two of us on the ride home, pooped from all the excitement of the day!

Did we mention that we were selected as one of the winners of the contest?! Those judges sure do have good taste! We won a gift certificate to a local restaurant and two passes to the Pittsburgh Zoo... neither, of course, which we are allowed to visit ourselves, not even as a reward for all of our torture! Hmpf! We're sure we'll get a doggy bag out of the deal, though <g>.

Today, I -- the dog who shredded a couch and a waterbed before finally working through my separation anxiety -- was one of only TWO dogs, out of a group of about 20, who passed EVERY skill needed for my Basic Obedience Level 1 class! Mom and I have been attending the class for the past eight weeks, and today I did all of the following in front of the class to receive my blue ribbon:

1) Sit on hand and/or voice signal
2) Down on hand and/or voice signal
3) Sit-Maintain for 60 seconds while making eye contact with mom
4) Down-Maintain for 60 seconds while making eye contact
5) Come when my name is called, while being distracted
6) Walk on a loose lead
7) Down-Restrain, with my legs stretched away from mom while she gently restrained my body and head

We got involved in the class when we first went to meet with the trainer about getting me into Agility class. Mom says that I'm so strong and energetic that she knew I would be terrific at it. I had recently completed a "just for fun" agility/obstacle course at the Animal Friends Bark in the Park this summer, and I regularly fly over the living room divider in our house without thinking twice! The trainer asked how I was on my basic commands, and mom said I was great on them... but when put to the test, it turned out that I was only great at home, without an audience or other dogs around <g>.

Now that I have passed Basic 1 with flying colors, we have decided to proceed next with Basic Obedience 2, which is Canine Good Citizen certification class. And after that, we'll start Agility! Basic 2 looks to be just a little tougher than Basic 1... for starters, one of the skills required to pass the CGC test is that I, the friendliest dog on earth, have to approach another dog with only a "passing interest." Ha! In any case, mom says that we'll try our best and she is very proud of me. I'm proud of me, too!

So today, mom finally found the nerve to take me for my first dental... this will probably come as a surprise to everybody reading this, but she's a little bit of a wreck whenever I have to go under anesthesia. Last night, we went to Petco, just me and mom, and I got to pick out a special toy. When we got to the vet, it seemed to be sighthound day as there were two beautiful greyhounds checking in for dentals along with me.

The vet promised that she would call mom the moment that I was done, and at 10:50 a.m., she called to say that I was wide awake and looking at her. Not a single tooth had to come out, but there was a lot of etching on my enamel and so they polished and polished. The wonderful staff at the hospital took wonderful care of me, as always... how could they not, with my incredibly cute little mug?

At 5 p.m., mom came to pick me up, expecting a half-drugged little guy, but I came bolting out, anxious to get home! I gave mom a little bit of the cold shoulder, deliberating facing away from her on the car ride home, and then acted morally wounded, walking around on three legs until she finally took off the bandage from where my IV was. But I was back to my old self pretty much right away, and by the time we went to sleep tonight, I snuggled up to mom in my usual spot, so I think I forgive her <g>.

7) Come when called -- The handler will walk 10 feet from the dog, turn to face the dog, and call the dog.

8) Reaction to distractions -- Demonstrate that the dog is confident at all times when faced with common distracting situations. Our evaluator selected the following two distractions: dropping a large book about 10 feet from the dog, and running past the dog while waving and calling, "hold that bus!" I sat adorably by mom's side the whole time, looking right into her eyes for guidance and praise :-).

The two we did not attempt after failing to pass step 6 were:

9) Reaction to another dog -- Two handlers and their dogs approach each other from 10 yards, stop, shake hands, and continue on. The dogs should show no more than a casual interest in each other. (No other dog in the class passed this one.)

10) Supervised separation -- Evaluators say something like, "Would you like me to watch your dog?" and take hold of the dog's leash while the owner goes out of sight for three minutes. The dog should show nothing stronger than mild agitation or nervousness.

I am certain that I can do supervised separation just fine, as I am a wonderful "people person," and I absolutely have staying in place mastered (except for tonight!). So we'll just do a little more work on reaction to another dog (where I certainly would've shown more than a casual interest in the other dog and failed <g>), then try to take the CGC test again and get me that official title. But as for now, what matters is that we passed the class, achieving what felt until last night like an impossible goal. And better still, we are all signed up for our AGILITY class which starts in April. I (and Vito, too!) tried a test run on some of the agility equipment
last weekend and did a great job, so we are really looking forward to that!

Mom is positively giddy. This class was harder than she ever imagined, and she is so thrilled with her little Canine Good Citizen!

I am in week 6 of my Introduction to Agility class. The class is basically about introducing me to the obstacles, to get a sense for whether I'll enjoy it and want to do more with it down the road.

The teeter (the small one, we haven't progressed to that huge one just yet) was introduced in week 2. I gave it a try, was startled by the movement and the sound, and immediately decided that I didn't like that game one bit. Mom made a very small version of it at home to get me used to the movement, and I was doing fine on that... then we went back to class, I went over that teeter, and I got so upset that I refused to do anything for the remainder of that class. A couple of weekends ago, we rented the agility building for the afternoon for some extra practice. Mom tried to get me on the teeter and offered lots of reinforcement, but I was still very unhappy, to the point that I was finding hiding places in the tunnels to avoid having to do the teeter again.

Last week at class, we worked on tunnels (my very favorite thing), the A-Frame (my second favorite) and the Pause table, and managed to avoid the teeter. Mom made a bigger teeter at home and we have been working on it, but I was still 50/50 on whether or not I would do it. Then last night at class, our instructor informed us that our focus would be on jumps and the teeter... ugh. I stood there, digging my four feet into the floor, refusing to budge. The instructor advised mom to pick me up, put me in the center of the teeter and give lots of reinforcement, and then let me walk off... that didn't help. She asked if I would do the Dog Walk, which I do very well... mom said yes, so she told us to do that for a while on our own. We did the Dog Walk 6-8 times in a row, and then she said to give the teeter another try. To mom's complete amazement, I walked right over the teeter, and she gave me tons of reinforcement while I was on the contact zone. We repeated this 4-5 times in a row, and I did it every time without acting the least bit startled or trying to jump off before the contact zone. It was like a little light bulb went off in my head, "okay, I can do this!!" Mom was very proud, and I am, too!

Mom thought that my eyes were starting to look funny, and then by Monday night, they were protruding as badly as they ever have, and I was in serious discomfort. I was writhing around, trying to rub my eyes on the carpet, and acting highly agitated. Mom called the ophthalmologist first thing the next morning and he had us come in.

After checking out everything, he concluded that this was the same problem, "our old friend" as he put it. Mom asked him, after all this time, why now? He said that was bothering him,
too, and started to ask questions. Finally, he asked, has Vito had any vaccinations lately? Yes, I had... parvo, distemper, and rabies, all about a month ago. Of course this would be an aggravating factor... by the very nature of what a vaccination is, it figures that a dog
with autoimmune disease would have serious problems. He advised that I should no longer receive any vaccinations at all. Since the rabies vaccination is required by law, the vet had a letter typed on hospital stationery, which he signed, indicating that it was his recommendation for me to have no further vaccinations due to an autoimmune disorder. I am on antibiotics and prednisone for the next 14 days to calm this current reaction, but after that we will go back to my drops as usual.

Mom did a lot of good research and didn't feel completely comfortable with eliminating all vaccinations, especially since it could wind up severely limiting what I could do, where I could go, and my ability to interact with other dogs, which I utterly live for. So she ran it by our regular vet, and has decided to titer test me every year. She will get the exact levels back in the reports, and when my levels are too low for anything, we will try giving me just that one vaccination at that time. If I need more than one, I'll get them separately, spaced out as much as possible to minimize the impact on my system; I will never have a combo vaccine again. So, we will see how this goes! Because mom's research has convinced her that my autoimmune problem likely resulted from being overvaccinated in the first place, she is going to proceed with this same plan for Bo, and is also considering what she feels most comfortable with for Cat.

When I came around, I was a real velcro dog, sticking close to grandma's side. This definitely seemed to be a seizure, but since it's the first one anyone has seen from me, the vet advised mom to keep an eye on me and bring me in for bloodwork if there were any future occurrences.

As usual, we celebrated our birthdays together over the weekend, and our mom and grandma took us on a special shopping spree to PetSmart. We're a little spoiled, perhaps, but we spoil our people with unconditional love in return!

We are now at a new agility club, Golden Triangle, which is only five minutes from our house. Our old club was nearly an hour's drive each way, so this is much easier for us to get to... which means that I get to take more classes! I have been working hard, and today I amazed my mom by doing a sequence of nine obstacles at the last class, including jumps, tire, weave poles, dogwalk and table. She was so proud of me! We start our third beginner-level class in a few weeks, and then hopefully we will be ready to move on to the intermediate level!

I am a really great agility dog, except for one problem -- my occasional "zooming," defined by some wise people on mom's IG list as:

Zooming - v. The sudden act of running uncontrollably, with great
abandon, and a look of utter joy. Effective to avoid any unpleasant or
uninteresting situations and/or "just because." Effective when used in
agility.

I like to use my zooming to run crazily to the other end of the warehouse after completing a sequence of obstacles, in order to visit with the other group of dogs working at that end. I don't know why mom seems to be so utterly mortified when I do this! But we have started to take steps to rectify the problem. First, I need to get a little exercise before going to class, to stretch out and also to spend a little of my stored-up energy after mom gets home from work! When the weather is nice, we go for a little walk around the neighborhood before class, and when it's not, we run around the house for 20 minutes or so.

Also, mom has learned that if I don't visit with any of the other dogs before or during the class, this helps me to remember that I'm there to "work" and keeps my focus on my job -- agility! Then, after class, I am allowed to visit with all of the dogs I want. This is working much better for us, and mom says she has no doubt that we will be ready to enter a competition soon!

A good number of non-greys also attend the event, and mom thought it might be fun to take us. She was a bit wary about whether this would be a good idea, as not all greys are small-dog friendly, but after doing a lot of careful research and making plans for which events to attend and which to avoid in order to keep us safe, we decided to give it a try and had a wonderful time. We walked along the beach, attended the Blessing of the Hounds, "roo"ed right alongside the greys, ate at a real restaurant, had a Reiki healing session, attended a costume ball, and more!

We've made a special webpage to document our adventures at Dewey. Check it out here!

The lump is about the size of a marble and is very movable under my skin. The vet did a quick needle aspiration -- ouch! -- and was able to assure mom very quickly that it was just a benign, fatty lipoma. We will keep an eye on it, just in case it becomes much bigger and starts to become uncomfortable for me, but for now there is no reason to remove it or worry about it. What a relief!

2003

For the last class of the session, there is always a longer sequence of obstacles so that the dogs and handlers can really demonstrate the skills learned in the class. The sequence was Tire, Jump, Dogwalk, Jump, A-Frame, Tunnel, Jump, Tire.

So we started... Tire, Jump, up the Dogwalk... then I was on the highest point of the Dogwalk, walking quickly along the narrow beam, and I don't know what came over me. Mom thinks it might have been her fault, that maybe I thought she had treats in her hand and something about her positioning made me want to come to her. But whatever the reason, I bailed right off... about a five-foot drop... and I fell in a heap.

I laid there, not crying, not moving, not doing anything. Mom and the instructor ran to me, sat with me, tried to evaluate me... the way I was holding my neck had mom terrified. After about five minutes and determining that nothing appeared to be broken, mom was going to lift me, and the instructor said to see if I would try to walk instead. I kept alternating lifting up my front legs, and I was still holding my neck and head in that horrible way that made mom think something was wrong with my neck or spine. She took me to a chair and began to massage my legs, shoulders, neck and back to see if anything seemed to be hurting worse, and although I was shaking like a leaf, I didn't yelp when she touched anything. She kept massaging me and we just observed the rest of the class.

By the end of the class, I was walking normally, trying to get the other dogs to play with me, and seemed to be doing all right. Mom didn't want me to fear the Dogwalk forever, so she asked the instructor if we could give it a try. Mom took me on-lead this time, and I went right up the ramp with no hesitation, across the beam and down the other ramp as if nothing ever happened. She was so proud of me! She let me go through the tunnel -- my favorite thing -- one time so we would end on a positive note. Then we went home and she spent the rest of the night holding heating pads on me and gave me some baby aspirin, hoping to ward off the inevitable soreness the next day. Anyway, I think we are both feeling better now!

On days like this, both of us are happy that we have an alternate indoor potty spot, on newspapers in our laundry room, because the snow was much taller than us. Mom tried to shovel a path, but it kept getting snowed under again. Eventually, Vito -- the braver of the two of us when it comes to going out in inclement weather -- decided that squirrel hunting could no longer wait, and tunneled a path right through!