A visit from the Northern Lands and Strut reaches the beach!

My best friend from high school came down to visit with her two kids to get away from the icy cold and to catch some of the nice South Florida sunshine.   The hounds did pretty good with all the commotion in our normally quite house.  Even though Sandy tried to keep her head buried till it was all over...

Miami has an incredible zoo.  If you ever come to Miami, you have to check out the Miami Metro Zoo.   It is one of the best Zoo's in the country.  You can get so close to the animals and the new Amazon and Beyond Exhibit is VERY cool. 

 SO... we went to the zoo and we saw....

A sad,  red elephant....

 Alligators swim in the water...

Something with 6ft long curly horns...

A gorilla butt....

The Miami Zoo is very interactive.  One of the highlights is being able to pet and feed the Giraffes.  Very cool.

Then we tried to pawn the kids off as baby birds, but momma bird was not fooled and alas we had to take them back.

The next day we headed over to Key Biscayne to Bill Bags State Park.  This was a great park with an awesome lighthouse and a great beach.

Then this raccoon showed up and tried to get in the garbage.  

One thing I love so much about greyhounds is their gentle nature and obedience.  How many other breed of large dogs would walk calmly by the side of a 4 year old?

On their last day here, we headed down to the Keys for some fun on the beach.  Marathon Key is dog friendly so I brought Strut along for his first trip to the beach!  He loved the water and got his first lesson on salt water!

We had a great day at the beach!  Strut is a very trusting dog and will go anywhere I go!

My visitors also enjoyed their day in the Keys!

And while all of you Northerners were enjoying this:

(that's my nephew in the pic)

We were enjoying this! 

Merry Christmas from Miami!

Here is one more catch up and then we are rolling on with LIVE TV!   I've had several people ask about  how my Christmas was so (after my MAC being in the shop for a few days due to some bad RAM issues) here it goes.... 

It was about 80 degrees on Christmas Day.  It was a little weird not to have a cold Christmas but at the same time it was nice to be wearing shorts and chillin' by the pool on a day off from work!

Just like in the cold climates, people down here also decorate their houses with Christmas lights galore.  You still see snowmen, icicles, snow globes, Santa and all the other traditional Christmas lights, however, we add our own local flare to the season.  Here is the oasis in front of my house that I decorated.  I meant to take pictures of other lights in the neighborhood but never got around to it.  

 I didn't do an all out house decorating.  Instead, I just decorated the breakfast bar in the kitchen with a small tree, stockings and a few other items.

Christmas morning came and the dogs dug into their stockings.

 Strut pushed past the stuffie and went straight to the good stuff

Sandy took hers up onto the couch so she wouldn't be bothered. And like Strut, she ditched the stuffie for the goodies in the bottom.

Jasmine however, went straight for the new skunk stuffie!

This was by far their favorite toy of Christmas....  they killed the squeaker shortly after this pic was taken so I had to operate. 

 so that was my quiet little Christmas.   

Life..... fast forwarded...

OK, so we are still alive and have had A LOT of life changes over the past 4 months. So, without further ado... here it is... life, fast forwarded...

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Got a new job in Miami, WOOHOO!!

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Husband had to go back to Iraq (for a year), BOOHOO!!

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So when the time came, I loaded up the dogs and moved from the Great Commonwealth of Virginia to SUNNY FLORIDA!!!

My little sister helped me make the move since my husband was unavailable. We took 3 days to drive down and of course had to stop at all the cool places...

and saw some cool (strange) things...

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Moved into the new house (which is NOT a sailboat)

The hounds got used to soaking up the Florida sun real quick.

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Went to the beach...

Had Thanksgiving on the patio by the pool......

since it was 82 degrees and all...

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Got a MAC!

(so I could get back to blogging!)

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....Found a new greyhound group and kennel to volunteer at...

Friends of Greyhounds

AND THEN.........

AND THEN.........

AND THEN.........

Got another greyhound!!!!!!!

Hi! My name is Strut!!

Strut is a 7 yr old brindle male. He raced for 4 years, was a kennel pet for

1 yr until the racing kennel was shut down, Then he came over to Friends of Greyhounds where he has been the last 2 years. He is a large, old male that is not cat friendly so he has been hard to place.

I say he has just been waiting for me!

We even share the same birthday!

He moved right into the pack like had been there all along. Luke accepted him without any issues and Sandy just loves him!

Our pack is complete.

and that is the past 4 months.