ADVENTURES AT DOG-N-JOG, by Nicky the Greyhound

Mom took me with her to Dog-n-Jog again this year, and I have to say that I had a pretty good time.  We were at the REGAP booth, and I was one of the ambassadogs.  Some of the other ones there were Bhric, Felicity, and Flynn.  Of course, I was the most handsome of all, but I'm modest enough that I prefer not to make a big point of it.

Now, before I tell you more about Dog-n-Jog, I have to tell you about my boo-boo.  On Friday morning, I was outside in the back yard, and I skinned up my right hind leg, down by the foot.  It really hurt, and it was bleeding.  Mom brought me in the house because she had to take Mel to the vet to get some blood tests and x-rays and stuff like that, and he wasn't supposed to eat before he went.  So none of us got to eat before Mom took Mel over there.

Anyway, Mom didn't notice my boo-boo until she came home and saw blood on some of the rugs in the kitchen.  Right away, Mom suspected I was the dog who was bleeding, because I have very thin, greyhound skin, and it seems like I am always hurting myself somehow.  So she started checking me over, and she found the scraped place on my leg.  Then she had to bandage it, so that meant we had to wait even longer for our breakfast.  The other dogs were kind of annoyed with me, but there wasn't much I could do about the situation, after all.

So I've been wearing this bandage around ever since then, except of course Mom changes it every other day.  My wound is not so oozy and seepy now, but it isn't scabbed over either.  After I got used to the bandage, I found out I could walk and run pretty much like a normal dog, which was a relief to know.

Friday's bandaged boo-boo and the new boo-boos
that happened yesterday on my left leg.

But getting back to Dog-n-Jog, we had to get up early yesterday morning, and we all had breakfast, and then Mom took me out to the car, and I jumped into the back end.  Except that I didn't do it right, and I fell out of the car, and it really scared me, and it hurt, too!  Mom looked to see if I had more boo-boos, and sure enough, I had a couple of them on the other hind leg.  But they weren't too terrible, and they didn't bleed very much.  What was mainly injured was my pride and my sense of confidence, which meant I did not want to try jumping into the car again.  Mom did her best to talk me into it, but I told her she was crazy.  So finally she lifted up my front end and put my front legs in the car, and then she lifted up my back end, and she kind of shoved me into the car.

When we got to the Plaza, we parked, and then we went to find the REGAP booth.  We stayed there some of the time, and other times we walked around.  There were lots and lots of dogs at Dog-n-Jog, and they were all different sizes.  Here I am meeting a Great Dane.

And here's a view of the whole street with all the dogs and people in it.

Mom got me a little cone of Sheridan's frozen custard, but I was too nervous to eat it, so she was forced to eat it herself.  I like the cow design they have on their truck.

Some dogs were wearing costumes, like this little sheltie in pink feathers.  That other dog is saying "What the heck is that?"

And here's a dachshund who was dressed as a pirate.  Luckily, Mom did not make me wear a costume, because I don't think I would like it.

When the dogs got hot, they drank from the doggy pool.  And some dogs just plopped down right in the middle of the water.

Some people spent time just hanging out with their dogs, which is always a good thing to do.

At the registration tent, there were tons of t-shirts.

This is Aunt Jo, who works at the shelter.  She was writing people's names on raffle tickets.  Meanwhile, I am leaning against that guy there, because he had been petting me.

Back at the REGAP booth, we sat around with some of the other greys and their foster parents.  That's Bhric in front.  His name is Irish, and I think it's kind of strange.  Maybe it means something important, but maybe not.  That man in the white shirt is Uncle Ted, who is Bhric's foster dad.  The other greyhound is Felicity.  She lives with Aunt Robyn and Uncle Pete, who are fostering her.

After we had been waiting around for a while, and the weather started getting pretty hot, it was finally time for the 1-mile or 2-mile walk.  Mom was afraid I wouldn't want to walk very far because of my boo-boo, and because I fell out of the car when I tried to jump in, and also because I don't like hot weather.  So we just went around once, which was 1/2 mile.  We walked with Nurse Debby, from Doctor Patricia's office, and her dog Jessie.  They walked farther than we did, even though Jessie is 11.5 years old, which is almost as old as Mel.

That's Aunt Debbie, in the blue shirt.  We caught up with them
right after Mom took this picture.

When we had finished walking, we went back to the REGAP booth, and I lay down in the shade and panted for a while.

Mom took another picture of my new boo-boo, which shows that I had some little wounds on the back side of my leg, too.

The most unusual dog we saw was an Ibizan Hound.  A lot of people in REGAP thought the dog was a Pharaoh Hound, but Mom knows about these things, and she told those people that it was an Ibizan  Hound.

The Ibizan is the brown-and-white dog.
Mom didn't get a very good picture of him.

These same people also had a Borzoi.  I guess they like unusual breeds!

After Dog-n-Jog was over, everybody packed up and went home.  I was glad to get home, where I could just sleep all afternoon in our nice, air-conditioned house.  I felt all kind of stiff and sore, especially in the back end, so it was hard for me to get up after I had been lying down.  This might be because of my fall yesterday and also because my back hurts sometimes anyway.  Mom didn't give me any breakfast this morning because she decided she should take me to get some x-rays, which she's been meaning to do for a while.  The radiologist comes to Dr. Patricia's office every Monday, and she will already be looking at Mel's x-rays and Charlie's x-rays, which got taken last week.  And now she can look at mine, too!