It seems whenever I visit the forums, I spend a good amount of time crying.  Sometimes tears of joy, sometimes tears of grief, but always lots of tears.  I have mentioned that losing Nixon has not felt like I was being robbed like I felt when I lost my poodle at 6 to lymphoma or my Scottie to HSA at 10.  But I do miss him.  The morning rituals are gone.  Just gone.  No one cares when I wake up .  Cookie is happy when I'm awake and want to do something with her but just my eyes opening doesn't make her happy.  Nixon, even living on a different floor than me, knew me so well that as soon as I was awake, he'd run to the stairs and shake his collar to call me.  I'd come down the stairs first thing and he'd give me as deep a stretch as he could and a huge wagging tail and something of a kiss.  then we'd dash for the back door to potty and sniff.  And then hug on the back porch and do our morning weight shifting exercises.  He would not go inside until we finished his exercises (unless it was raining).  Then we'd go inside and have a cookie and I'd get to run to the bathroom.

The past month, I have felt more connected to my three greyhounds waiting at the bridge (Kitty, Toughie, and Nixon) than I have in a long time. Sally, they have never sent me pennies but do visit me in my dreams sometimes.  They have plotted against me and sent me Tex. My female hounds have been great dogs straight off the track.  Almost perfect.  The boys...well they have all been bounce backs who did something to make their people get rid of them.  Unlike Nixon or Toughie, Tex has been in two homes.  His resource guarding isn't the worst thing about him.  We can manage that and are working on extinguishing the behavior. The problem is he is so insecure and acts like he's never lived in a house before. Ever see an adult dog have seperation anxiety in front of other people?  I leave the house to do yard work and he comes unglued, screaming, barking, peeing/pooping, and destroying things.  He's gotten better when I get in the car and leave but the first week, my husband got little sleep since I leave at 6 and Tex would wake him up at 6:10.  He'll be six on 8/8.  Also a sign of infinity He is 32 inches at the shoulder.  Imagine a dog that big with no manners.  Yeah, our first week together was a learning experience.  I'm learning to put things away.  he's learning self-control.

Cookie is warming up to him.  They like to sleep near each other most of the time.  She has her moments when she needs "me" time and sometimes Mommy or Daddy time, but most of the time, she's happy sharing her life with him.  For Cookie's 9th birthday, we gave her a trip to the physical therapist and we found out she was in a LOT of pain probably for the past year.  Poor girl has just been living like this but we should have realized that when her personality dulled, it wasn't just because of weight gain. It has been amazing watching her bounce back physically and emotionally.  She's lost almost 10 lbs and is her happy, bubbly self again.  She also likes her acupuncture.  We always thought she would be the type to run from it.  She objects to some areas but she's actually doing really well.