Playing catch up here

Wow, I just realized how little I've been posting. I need to play catch up here. Lemme see... during the week nothing fantastic ever really happens. Boys were over on Thursday for dinner. Friday went out to dinner with Beth and Ken at Gino's East. We had a great time. They really are a blast to hang out with. We even went out without the kiddies! Saturday we watched the ND game at home with the boys. ND won but I was in quite a bit of pain most of the day so I couldn't have given a shit less what they did. I don't know what I did but I had pissed my shoulder off in my sleep and woke up in pain. The pain got worse throughout the day. I wanted to take something but I knew I'd be drinking later and had always been told not to mix the two. I was quite drunk after the game but still in enough pain to bring tears to my eyes so I decided to take a walk on the wild side (that or go to the ER completed blitzed) and took a tramadol. Two hours later, no pain relief so I took another one. That finally did the trick and I was in my happy place. The pain never returned after that point. After everyone left and went to bed, my tummy decided that it was not a fan of the mix of alcohol and drugs. I didn't puke but it was a tough battle. And now we come to my favorite part. Monday morning. I had been feeling like there was a cold coming on but nothing really happening for days. And then I was getting ready for bed. I kept feeling pressure building in my ear but hoped it would drain. No such luck. By 4am Monday, I was ready to pop the damn eardrum. I just wanted relief from the pain. Took a vicodin, nothing. Tried a hot pack as hot as I could possibly stand it on my ear, nothing. I looked up remedies online. None of which I had the ingredients to make. I gave in and took another vicodin. I don't know if that finally killed the pain or if I was so exhausted by then that I just passed out. I woke up still feeling iffy but only needed one vicodin through the day. Today I see the doctor for my psoriasis and I'll definitely be bringing up my ear. Now if the ringing would go away, I could sleep.

Random Shit Monday (small and late)

I don't wear perfume. It irritates my asthma.



My husband still does. Therefore, he irritates me.



I would walk barefoot all year round if my feet didn't get all cold and shit on snow.



I really do love fostering dogs and cats, even though I bitch about it constantly.



I can open doors with only my toes. I can also pick up just about any object that my feet are strong enough to hold, with my toes.



I don't snore often but when I do, I guess I can wake the dead.



My boobs are the same size as Scarlett Johansson. The difference? I wear a bra that fits, not one that shoves them up to my throat for all the world to see. Although I wish I knew where she brought her regular bras. It's a bitch to find a 32F. Apparently, the size I've been wearing for quite some time (34DD) wasn't right.


The filter between my brain and mouth is occasionally broken. I say things or ask questions that to most people are inappropriate. I forget that not everyone is as open about their life as I am.

Food is good. Sex is good. Mix the two and it totally freaks me out.

I have no title for today - I'm lazy

I'm not really sure what the eff is up with my back. It's been bothering me since I was pregnant with Evan. (who, btw is nine months old today) Before it seemed to be a vertebrae in my back. My doctor gave me stretching exercises to do and it has helped. There are no more stabbing pains going through that area when I lay down or sit up from laying down. Now I have a constant dull ache on the lower left hand side of my back. This is to the point where calling it an ache probably isn't accurate but as I've said before, I don't view pain the same way as some others might. I took a vicodin last night and today with it only taking off the worst of it. There's still pain and I'm still thinking every time I move that I should "probably" go to the doctor. But then I think, I'll just take care of it whenever I make an appointment for my flu shot and psoriasis. (which I've been saying I'll do for weeks) I wonder if it's not related to my IUD. And then if it is, do I continue to deal with it or have it removed?

We bought Jasmine and Evan's Halloween costume's. Omigod is that ridiculously expensive for something that is intended for ONE day. She is going as supergirl. She tried on the little mermaid, an angel and a fairy as well but the cape on the supergirl costume sold her. She stood in the tiny dressing room jumping and watching it float down behind her in the mirror. Shawn picked out Evan's costume and he is going as my least favorite character ever, Yoda. However, the costume is adorable, even has the little ears. Why don't I like Yoda? Have you heard him speak? It's like nails on a chalkboard to me.

Random Shit Monday will return. I was just too wore out this week after all the alcohol-ness I put my body through. And it may make a return this weekend. Depends if we all decide to watch the game together.

Weekend hoopla

I think I'm a little dehydrated. I haven't drank much in the last, let's see, three days except alcohol and my fingers are all tingly. That whole drink gatorade thing went out the window with the first Jello shot. I didn't get as many from each box of Jello as I expected. Next time I'm going to get twice as much and per the boys request just fill the damn cups to the top rather than halving them. We had an absolute blast today even though Notre Dame lost. Jasmine had a lot of fun too even though there were no little kids around or kid toys. However, there was a cat and a medium sized snake. They kept her busy for about two full hours. I only convinced her to hold the snake once... then it licked her face and she freaked. He's probably one of the tamest snakes I have ever handled. I was quite impressed considering he was found outside someones house. (and no he isn't native to this area... he would've died this winter if someone hadn't found him)

Tomorrow I can safely say will be alcohol free as will the next, probably, week. We're going to my mom's for dinner tomorrow and then for the rest of the week, we don't have plans. We don't drink unless someone is over or we go somewhere. Ok, that's a small lie. Once in a great while I will have Bailey's mixed with milk after a more than stressful day. For now, I'm just going to drink anything that will hydrate me that isn't H2O. (it's not sitting well with my tummy after all that drinking)

Did you say relax? Why thank you, I think I'll do that.

Had a fantastically awesome day. :) Went out to dinner with my friend Abby. We've been best friends since we were kids and nothing seems able to break our friendship yet. Neither one of us gets out much without the kids or husband so this was quite the treat. We ate and talked for three hours before she had to get back home as her husband had to leave for work. I hope we get to do it more often. Although some of our talk may not be... restaurant appropriate at times. Or so I gathered by some of the glances from maternally types. *shrugs* Birth control happens people, deal. :)



Afterwards, we came home to find the boys at my house. They hadn't eaten yet so we went out and got some Mexican food. Ok, so they ate, I drank some more. It was a lot of fun even if I did get intoxicated enough to get scolded by my husband. *double shrug* Come to find out, I had not offended anyone with my comments and the person they were aimed at thought they were funny. So phhhhhhbt. :) Tomorrow is more of the same. We're getting up early and getting the kids' their Halloween costumes. I'm going to grab something bread-ie to eat. Then it's off to one of the boys apartments for the ND vs USC game, Jello shots (I even made some virgin ones for Jasmine, although they're more Jello cups), drinking and then pizza. Who says life ends after kids??

Go to the Lair

For Frank... and a little for Beth. :) Need a calendar? You can get an awesome one at Wild Cats Lair. (click photo above) He's also having a contest to win a free one. We actually went the entire 2009 without a calendar. Let me tell you folks, it's brutal. What day is it? Well I think it's one of those fall months since it's getting colder and my burning bush is well, burning. And it must be the end of the week because there's talk of this weekend thing. *shrugs* I'm sure the doctor's office will call after I miss that appointment and I'll know.

Weekend O' fun or not

I have a feeling at some point, I may end up puking this weekend. Friday night, I'm going out with my best friend from high school. Her main objective in all of this is to get drunk. (she has four kids and a worthless husband, cut the girl some slack) I, however, will be driving and don't handle my alcohol well. I will have a drink or two when we first get there but nothing afterwards. Right now on Saturday the plan is to go to man-whore's apartment and watch the ND vs USC game. I was thinking of making Jello shots to take with us. (I have all the stuff here already so why not?) I'm still not positive we'll be going over there as I need to get Jasmine's Halloween costume and Evan's too for that matter. However, I'll feel like a real bitch if I make my husband miss this game or watch the kids so we can get costumes. We can always go Sunday but Sunday is MY football day. I suppose we could get an early start on Saturday, get the costumes, rush back home and pick up the shots. Or I could drop off the shots on the way there and then we wouldn't have to go back and forth. (castle point Beth/Ken) I'm fairly bad with Jello shots. They taste good so they can't possibly be liquid poison, right? After a couple, I forget how many I've had and have a few more. I've consumed large amounts of alcohol this way without realizing it. The drunkest I've EVER been was from Jello shots. It's the only time I actually felt like I was in a fun house and the walls were all tilty. I'd better take some Gatorade with me to drink while I'm drinking or it's not going to end well at Gino's later that night.

Pizza is oh so goooood

Saturday we tried the new pizza place here in town. We only live a few hours from Chicago, so naturally, we have a new Chicago pizzeria. And omigod is it good. I have become absolutely obsessed with Gino's East pizza. We plan on going again this weekend at least once. Man-whore friend invited us out there for dinner, even canceling man-whoring to go. And I'd like to get my mom up there one night to try it. I haven't done the deep dish yet. I honestly don't know how much I would like it for the simple fact that for me, it's all about the cheese and the sauce comes second. We actually plan on several Chicago trips in the next few months now. It was just going to be for the Cirque show, but now we also want Chicago pizza and to roam the city.

The day after my post about Cricket and my concern for her, she p.l.a.y.e.d. This was a major turning point for her. She doesn't understand play. How to play with people or other animals. She had been outside for an hour or two so when she came in, she was fired up and happy to see us. She would run up to me and slam on the doggy brakes, I would stomp my foot and she'd run around the living room and slam on the doggy brakes again, waiting for me to stomp. It was great and she got lots of loving after she calmed down. I can't even put into words how huge of a leap that was from the day I got her. She still hates cats but she's able to be in the same room with them without doing the Elvis. Unless she's in a crate and they're out and about, then she just goes batshit crazy. (no, really)

Dinner went very well tonight. As I've said before, man-whore makes quite the nice buffer between me and the antagonizor. It helped that I had a Bailey's and milk (or two) before and with dinner. The boys both left full with what was probably man-whore's first homemade meal in who knows how long. Now I have a killer headache from the Bailey's. This never happened when I was younger. Damn you aging process! Damn you!

The Mare's Tales Giveaway

Jennifer is doing a Halloween giveaway on her blog. She'll will be giving away one of her gorgeous hand painted pendants. If you win, it's going to be super difficult to choose one!

http://gypsymare.blogspot.com/

Crazy, weird and grumpy

I'm really not sure what to do with Cricket. I need to do some research and ask around to see where to go from here. I have her crate in the kitchen. We weren't crating her at all but she has a mild case of kennel cough therefore, she can't sleep in the bedroom with us. (too close with on of our other dogs and wakes up me and the kids with her hacking) Now that she's crated at night, it's nearly impossible to get her to come out of the thing. A normal dog would fly out of there the second you open the door in the morning. Cricket wags her tail fast enough to take flight but she doesn't come out. I have to snap a leash on her to get her out and then take her outside. (she won't go outside unless she has a leash on either) If I leave the crate door open, she will go back in it and sleep all day long. If she feels safe there, I feel like I should leave the door open. On the other hand, she needs to learn how to live in a house, not hang out in a crate. I feel like I should be doing something to get her to the point that she can be adopted without the adopters having a nightmare of a time getting her to interact with them. But I have no idea what to do. She is also extremely bad with cats. I have no doubt that she would eat them if I was not in the room to stop her. She acts as if they were mean to her at one point and time and now she wants payback. It doesn't appear that she enjoys it either. Most dogs when they chase a cat or bark at them have a happy look in their eyes. A kind of wooooohooooo this is gonna be fun! But Cricket just looks crazed and angry. After doing a small amount of research while writing this, I've found that most of the stuff I'm doing is the right thing to do but it's so tedious and feels like I'm not doing enough for her. At least I know I haven't been further damaging her.

I mentioned the other day that there's been some weirdness. I have recently and surprisingly, become friends with one of my husband's male friends. It's surprising because I have not been his biggest fan since the second I met him. He looks at most women as if they are his prey. That still bothers me but at least I feel that I can call him out on it. He also has a habit of flirting with anything female. No matter who they are married to, myself included. He's getting better, at least with me. The thing I didn't expect from him is he wants to change. He doesn't want to spend the rest of his life hopping from bed to bed. I originally started talking to him (facebook go figure) because, well, I find his life to be sad. I thought maybe he could use a female influence in his life that has no plans of ever sleeping with him. He also works as a nice buffer between me and my husband's other friend who I constantly bump heads with. He who thinks women are beneath men, is racist, homophobic and just everything I feel strongly against. I don't think he used to having a woman voice her opinion and then stick by it no matter how much he talks. I tend to have my husband invite them both if he's going to invite that one. The whole situation with the man whore just came out of no where. At first I told my husband he was getting a little out of line with some of the things he had been saying to me but that I would handle it if it happened again. It hasn't thankfully. I'm cooking for both of them on Wednesday actually. I'd rather it was only the man whore but the man whore wasn't comfortable not inviting the instigator since we all became friends through the instigator.

My kittens are doing fantastic. Shocking since they were so dirty and grimy. They were brought to me almost straight from the shelter and looked like they had been picked up off the side of the road. So far, no issues as far as health. Momma cat has a great deal of dislike for anything canine. I'm going to work with her a bit but I don't think she's ever going to change her opinion. Her kittens don't seem to mind them so I'll keep them socialized with the dogs. I'll probably add their pictures on here tomorrow. I just don't have the motivation to do it right now.

Quick Entry

My cat, Isaiah had his follow-up appointment on Saturday. He has the lesser of the two evils, which is immune mediated hemolytic anemia. For now he is on 15mg of Prednisone a day. (wow) His levels haven't improved very much, however, they haven't gotten any worse since being on the medication. His white blood cells were slightly elevated so they gave him some antibiotics to be on the safe side. Prednisone can lower your ability to fight off infections so we have to be careful. He goes back in sixty days for another cbc. It'll be a little cheaper appointment since they no longer have to do a chem panel on top of it all. We're going to try and go back to the pill form of the Prednisone as the the liquid has become... difficult. I thought it would be easier to just stick a syringe in his mouth but he hates this stuff and foams at the mouth after I give it to him. He's been quite violent (unlike him) when it comes time to give him the medication. If his levels start to get worse at some point, we will have to add another medication. It costs close to a hundred a month so hopefully that won't happen.

Random shit Monday

I hate bra manufacturer's. They seem to think boobs only go to a C. A DD is unheard of in their world.
I always think I'm a year younger than I actually am. I can't tell you how many surveys I've filled out asking for my age and put that I was younger. And no, my age doesn't bother me, which is why it's even weirder.
I don't like white rooms. Give me color any day.
I never sleep on my stomach - ever.
I have no idea how to use potpourri but I want to have some and keep it around like a little old lady.
I own more underwear than anyone I've ever met. I can go weeks without washing any and not run out.
When I was a kid, I fell out of a tree. Onto a broken toilet. I still have a good sized scar from it as a result of not getting stitches. Thanks dad.
I have no idea how to correctly apply make-up and basically just wing it every single day.
I am the queen of random bits of knowledge. I know a little about everything but not everything about one thing.
I plan to do this every week until I can't think of anymore random shit.

Poor baby

My little man has not slept well at all tonight. Why? About an hour and a half before bedtime, he fell head first out of his high chair onto the floor. I've had to put him back in bed five times now. I gave him some Tylenol but after a thump like that, you're bound to have one hell of a headache. And no, I'm not too terribly worried about it being anything severe. He cried for maybe three minutes, saw something on the floor (I was sitting with him on my lap), became interested in it and forgot he just tried to break his brain. He has quite the ugly bruise on his head though. And yes, I feel like shit that I didn't strap him into the seat. I was cleaning out a bottle for him at the sink and had the high chair about a foot and a half away from me. I thought I'd see if he was moving around and be able to sit him back down. I haven't the slightest as to exactly how it happened. I just heard the awful, awful noise of him hitting the floor. It really is the worst noise I have ever heard in my life. Worse even than rolling the truck. And it keeps replaying in my head to the point that it makes me want to go throw up. At least my kids have a high pain tolerance. I think most kids would've hollered for quite a while after that. He scooted on the floor for a while, bothered his sister and then played with some toys. As well as getting very annoyed with me as I continually checked his pupils and his response to me talking to him. I was given the look of death more than a few times for getting in his line of sight of shiny things. :) It's been a long and strange night. (more on the strange part later, I need me some sleepssss)

My best friends' little girl has an appointment with oncology. She is a year younger than Jasmine. They don't really know anything yet. The only reason she knows that her white blood cell count was very low was because her best friend works at the hospital and was able to look at the file. I absolutely feel sick for them. I know if it was one of mine, I would feel panicked until I knew exactly what was going on and that it's not cancer. I want to throw my kids in the car and head to Texas to be with them. That's obviously not a possibility.

Crazy Cricket

When we first brought her in the house... she just cowered. She would move through the house and then suddenly cower. If there was a loud noise or one of us spoke too loudly, she hit the floor. I eventually coaxed her into our bedroom, put down some food and just kind of hung out for a while. I'd only had two hours of sleep so I wasn't really in the mood to run around the house with a strange dog. It wasn't long before she learned that the bed is far more comfortable than the floor. She hasn't had an accident in the house yet. Did I mention she's never been in a house? She's believed to be between 2 and 3 years old, although it can be harder to tell with puppy mill dogs. She has scars on her face and her entire left ear is scarred and has hair missing. We don't know if this was from getting beat up by other dogs or from trying to get out of the cage. If it was from fighting, I can tell you right now, Cricket didn't go looking for it. We're hanging out on the bed and she's panting like she's going through menopause so I turn the ceiling fan on. No big deal, right? I forgot the dog had never been in a house before. To her, the ceiling fan was coming to attack her, possibly chopping off her head in the process. I honestly think if I hadn't turned it off when I did, she would've tried to go through my walls. It took a while for her to recover. Once my husband got home, we had to leave as we had a showing for the house today. Oh, I didn't mention that? Yeah, that's because I didn't know till about six hours before the people were set to show up. We load up the car with Cricket and one of my foster kittens since I had to go drop him off at Petsmart anyway. (oh and we threw the kids in the trunk... can't leave 'em behind, it's the law) We come home and no one is in the driveway so we're free and clear. The phone rings before I even have a chance to sit down. It's our realtor and the people suddenly can't come and will have to reschedule. Gee, thanks for all the warnings in advance. We convinced Cricket to go outside for a while with my husband. When she came back in, it was time for us to eat dinner so we left her in the backroom. (we found out very quickly earlier in the day that she will go to extremes to get human food) When we brought her back in, it was like starting all over again with her. She was scared, had to get used to us moving around all over. She's been better the last two hours though. I was told she didn't seem to have much of a prey drive. I'm finding that's not really true. She goes on the defensive with any and all animals. If the cat walks past her, she gives him the Elvis lip. If he hesitates (just like hey doggy what's up? Not, dude I will scratch that look right off your face) at all, she's snipping at them. And if they run, she's running and snipping at them. It was the only time she's actually been yelled at because I was afraid she was going to get my daughter's cat. She hasn't met all of our dogs yet. I didn't want to overwhelm her. I saved the two most dominate dogs for later. She's been outside with all the herding breeds that we have though. It went well other than her frequent giving of the Elvis lip. They don't really seem to know what to make of her. They're very 'you sniff my butt, I sniff your butt, then we play' kind of dogs. She's more 'get the hell away from my ass and let me wander about by myself.' Hopefully she'll learn to play with others in the coming weeks. I would hate for her to be an only animal as it's much harder to adopt out any animal, whether it be a dog or cat, that has to be the only pet. Now, I think I'll try to get some sleep. Hopefully nothing weird happens in the middle of the night and freaks her out. I don't want to wake up to that.

I feel all right now

We're all sitting around watching The Big Bang Theory last night. Penny stays the night at Leonard's apartment. She's in their kitchen, making breakfast. She has the radio on and is dancing around wildly. Right about then, my husband says incredulously "Do people actually DO that?" I looked at him with a kind of half embarrassed but really not smile and said "You mean when they're making chocolate chip cookies in the middle of the night?" Jasmine has seen me dance in ways that no one else probably ever will, freely with complete abandon. It's almost always while I'm baking or cleaning. After all, cleaning is a great deal more enjoyable with the radio on so why not dance as well? We danced last night to a ton of cheesy 80's music. ("Mony, Mony" being one we heard on a few stations during the course of two hours, however it was the 60's version, not Billy Idol's we were listening to) I think I burned two days worth of calories as well. My favorite music to dance to is the cheesy stuff though. It's fun to sing to, fun to listen to and it gets stuck in your head.

I probably won't be getting much, if any sleep today. One of the women with the rescue is bringing over some fosters for me. Yes as in plural. The plan was to get the border collie sometime this week. However, this foster also has a (gorgeous) cat that had kittens. Only one has survived so far and to be honest, she's not great with kittens so she asked if I wanted to take them. Orange will be going to Petsmart tomorrow for however long we're there so I'll be losing one and gaining two. (as far as cats go) Sounds like the momma is a so/so momma therefore, she will have to be caged with her baby. I would prefer not to bottle feed anyone but I will if she turns into a bad momma.

Random shit monday

I love rock music.
I hate Metallica. (that noise you just heard, was my brother's head exploding)
Our bed is what my husband likes to call a hillbilly queen. We took a queen box spring, turned it sideways and put two twins on top next to each other. We can't afford a new mattress and the other one was k.i.l.l.i.n.g. my back.
I can't stand people who live their lives as if they're checking things off the list.
My second toe is much longer than my "big" toe.
I can bend my fingers in unusual positions that make people think "Ow"
I can touch my tongue to my nose.
I don't have a favorite color.
Which means, I don't have a least favorite color.
It annoys me when people type LiKe ThIs.
I frequently give my time to others.
I only like to drink water if it is almost frozen.
I hate the taste of cranberries and raspberries.
I don't typically use the word hate.
I am violent when you wake me up... and I never remember it.
My favorite holiday is Thanksgiving.
I'm not sure what color my eyes are.
My body is not made for cold weather and I bitch constantly if I'm chilled.
I love sledding. :)
It annoys me that I don't try harder to use my large vocabulary.
I prefer to get up at 10am.
This rarely, if ever, happens.

Around and about

My husband is going to have a CT scan done of his sinuses. He goes to the doctor for sinus infections more than anything else. And it wasn't even his doctor that made this decision, it was the nurse practitioner. He only saw her because his doctor didn't have any time available to see him. (he went back because the antibiotics weren't working at all) She argued with the other doctor about sending him to get the scan but held her ground and eventually he gave in. I don't see any reason for them not to send him to get the scan, other than they keep raking in money by having him sick all the time. We have awesome insurance so it's not like anyone is going to get stuck with an unpaid bill. I really don't care for the doctor he sees. My kids and I go to a doctor at a completely different practice and I absolutely love him.

Evan is very close to crawling now. He can army crawl across the floor pretty fast when he sees something he knows he's not allowed to have. Or when he wants to annoy his sister. He also pulled himself up to a standing position tonight by himself, using his Within Arm's Reach bed. (I don't know what else to call it, it's not a bassinet but it's not a play yard either so I just use the name it goes by) I think by the end of the month I'll have to move him to a crib. I was hoping that I could just keep using this thing for quite some time but now that he's really getting good at pulling himself to a sitting position, I just don't see it as a safe option. I want to get bumper's but I haven't decided yet what is the best option as far as that goes. They're readily available and yet you're told not to put anything soft and squishy in the baby's bed with them because of SIDS. However, if I don't put anything in a crib with him, he's going to get his arm's and leg's stuck in the thing a thousand times a night. This is a kid who likes to sleep with his face pressed against the side of his current bed, no way am I going to get away with not putting anything in a crib. It's a large part of the reason that Jasmine never used a crib. I was terrified of the risk of SIDS and the bumpers but without them, she was constantly hurting herself and waking up screaming. Eventually, you give in, let them sleep with you or else you lose your mind from lack of sleep. I'm currently looking for soft soled shoes for him as well. I feel strongly that children who cannot walk confidently, should not be in shoes. Therefore, I am looking for something that will keep his feet warm, stay on his feet and is very soft and bendable so as not to cause any problems walking. I was lucky with Jasmine, when she started walking, it was summer. The only person in this family that frequently wears shoes in the summer, is my husband. The rest of us prefer our feet to be free.

I'm sure by now I've started to drive the other foster crazy who has the border collie. I was hoping to get her sometime this weekend but it's been a busy weekend for the rescue as far as events go. The first night I was thinking, 'I'm not totally sure I want to do this' but after that I've just been getting more and more excited about having her. Especially after hearing more about her. She is apparently slightly cross eyed. I've never even had a cat that was cross eyed and I've had several siameses. She sounds very sweet and well mannered. I'm not sure the condition of her teeth. Many of the dogs that came from this puppy mill were kept in crates constantly. This is one of the worst things you can do to a border collie. It will literally make them crazy. They are extremely intelligent and need a goal, something to do or they become destructive. Most of the border collies in puppy mills end up with corroded teeth from chewing obsessively at the bars and many have scars on their face from trying to chew out. It's really awful. One of the dogs we received from TN is going to need extensive dental work before she can be adopted out. I believe the one I'm getting and the other that needs the work both have urine burns from laying in their own feces. And yet, these dogs come out of it all and seem almost like they lived normal dog lives. I know from working with retired greyhounds that there is always a characteristic you can pick out from certain breeds to just kind of know they didn't live a privileged life. Typically, with retired greyhounds, you will rarely see their ears perked up. They are almost always back against their heads and they carry themselves a little differently. It's not so much something I can explain as something you have to see and be around to really get. I'm just looking forward to showing Cricket that her life is about to do a huge change. She will have a life that she never dreamed possible while living in those cages. She will sleep on human beds and run through a yard with other dogs. She will sleep in silence instead of listening to dozens of barking, restless dogs.