Lulu the dog wants Anthropologie, too

Anthropologie now has a a limited assortment of clothes and accessories for dogs! I'm guessing that Lulu is pretty pumped about this. She does always lie on my clothes and not Matt's clothes. She's got good taste.

How Lulu the dog spends her weekend

.....mostly sleeping. She got tired from playing with her toys then fell asleep. If you're wondering why I usually post pictures of my dog sleeping, that's because she sleeps like 18hrs. a day. F'reals.

I got up today and took a trip to the South Shore Farmers market, stopped too get some coffee and the new People magazine so I could go home and read all about Elin Woods and what's gonna happen to Tiger. Important stuff, people. Had brunch and Centraal and bought a sectional sofa. Productivity!

Have you heard that new Cee Lo Green song yet? It's my weekend jam. I heard it on NPR last week (yes, NPR).

Lulu the dog gets a bath, Sara gets a Latte

I took Lulu to Community Bark the other day for a bath. I decided to do the self-bath--I would do the washing but they would clean up. Dealsies! However, Lulu was not having it. She flipped out once we got to the blow dry portion, tried to jump through the window, and gave herself a big gash on her leg. Good grief. I guess we will just stick to baths in our bathtub and towel drying. She did like lounging around the "Barker Lounge" while I had my coffee. Community Bark has a little coffee shop that you can sit with your dog and drink Alterra coffee. Pretty nice!

Lulu the dog gets a new collar

Mimi Green, classic hound, Nola and Spencer, Nola and Spencer, classic hound, The Mod Dog

Every year Lulu the dog gets a new martingale collar (a cinch collar for hounds with small heads). This year, I had a hard time picking one because I found several cute summer collars, but I finally chose the Classic Hound Botanical Petals one in the bottom left corner. Red is really her color.

Weekend: Laying around

Nothing exciting going on over here. Just planning to lay around most of the weekend. Lulu the dog and her foster friend, Payton, are getting an early start. I will be leaving my relax-fest, to see Alice In Wonderland; anyone else going to see that, too?

Lulu the dog has a new foster friend

I picked up our foster greyhound, Lacy, this morning. We will be introducing her to "home life" for the first time and teaching her new skills like potty-training and how to walk up stairs. So far Lulu approves, but is not wiling to share her bed(s). Once we get Lacy adjusted, she'll be off to meet her new adoptive family.

GPA, a greyhound rescue organization in Wisconsin, has many greyhounds up for adoption on their website. If you want to meet a greyhound, the Humane Animal Welfare Society of Waukesha County (HAWS) has several greyhounds up for adoption. There are also a lot of meet and greets sponsored by GPA, schedule here.

Lulu the dog goes to the Dog Park

It's going to be a pretty laid back weekend: Dog Park, a trip to Sven's for lunch, laundry, New York Times, yard work, and the Packers game.

Lulu the dog is happy Dairyland is probably closing

from: flickr

Over the past week, the Milwaukee media has been forewarning of the probable closing of Dairyland Greyhound Park in Kenosha. My dog, Lulu (aka Get Out of Here) raced at Dairyland for a little over a year and then we adopted her out of Greyhound Pets of America-Wisconsin.

I have mixed feelings about the closing. I'm glad the track is closing. There were a lot of rumors about cutting cost at the track which meant poorer conditions for the dogs (see article below). And why do they need 900 dogs racing every other day, only to force them into retirement after 1-3 years? I'm also a little worried about what the closing will mean for those 900 dogs. Will the adoption agencies be able to handle them? Will enough people want to adopt them? Will some "less desirable dogs" be put down to reduce the total number of greyhounds? That's a lot of dogs that will need a lot of veterinary care, spaying/neutering, vaccinations, and re-socialization.

- I get a lot of questions about her racing life. I DO think that she loved running and being around tons of other greyhounds; that's what greyhounds need. I DON'T think they fed her very well; her teeth were in horrible condition due to lack of nutrition and proper cleaning. I DO think she was mistreated in some way; it took over a year and some Prozac until she stopped being afraid of loud noises, tall men, fast movements. I DO know that's she's afraid of her crate; probably because she was crated in a small wooden crate for the majority of the day at the track. I DO know that she didn't get any of her routine shots or was spayed until after she retired. Other than that, I can only speculate what her life was like for almost 3 years.
- I get a lot of questions about greyhounds as pets, too. THEY ARE EXTRAORDINARY PETS! Lulu sleeps most of the day (16hrs+), rarely makes any noise, sheds only a little, and is very polite with house guests and kids. She is very mild-mannered and only needs one good walk a day. She does chase some things, but her chase-drive has substantially subsided.

So, you should read these Journal Sentinel news stories popping up about Dairyland closing:
October 20: State Probing Death of 6 Dairyland Dogs
October 11: Dog Groups Expect a Glut of Greyhounds
October 10: Dairyland Greyhound Park May Close for Good
Here's a story from the Kenosha News:
October 9: Dairyland Considers Closing in 2010