The Luckiest Day

Six years ago on March 17, St. Patrick's Day, this little guy came into my life.  He was 10 weeks old.  Definitely one of the luckiest and happiest days of my life.  To celebrate I thought I would share some pictures from Zephyr's puppyhood. 

Zephyr was the happiest puppy from the first day.  It's really hard to believe that he has been with me for six years.  Time goes by too fast.

 He still loves his tennis balls.

Zephyr was my first puppy and my first dog in over 20 years.  Oh the mistakes I made when raising him that I wish I could go back and redo.  That's how all first time parents feel, right?  ;-)

 But, he made it through.  Zephyr was a really good puppy.  I hear that some people think greyhound puppies are a handful.  I guess I don't have anything to compare to, but I don't really agree.  Zephyr never destroyed anything that wasn't paper.  He was, and is, well read.  I do remember being very tired with midnight outings and making sure he got plenty of exercise and play, but it seems like all puppies need that.

 Right now this big puppy is sleeping upside down on the couch leaning on me.  I'm so lucky!

 Two years ago on March 17, St. Patrick's Day, I checked Zephyr into the Veterinary Neurology Center in Phoenix and found out he had immune mediated encephalitis.  It was not a happy day at all and what transpired after that was horrible.  But, I do consider it a very lucky day because if I wouldn't have got him to the Neurology Center he wouldn't be here today.  It kind of feels like it was his second gotcha day and like somebody was saying, "Oh wait, this is a mistake, it's not this one's time yet."

 Zephyr finished his chemotherapy treatment for the encephalitis last January and stopped taking prednisone last summer.  I don't know what caused the encephalitis, his neurologist once said that she thought he probably came in contact with something, but who knows what.  I still worry about it just about every day, but luckily he's shown no signs of the encephalitis and is super healthy. 

 Since our big snow storm one week ago we've had above normal temperatures and most of the snow has melted.  This has made for some nice hikes in the forest.  To prevent more injuries I've been keeping Zephyr and Astro mostly on leash.

 Yesterday I let them off leash one at a time so they could stretch their legs without running completely full out and crazy together.

They ended up very happy muddy puppies.

After three rounds each of being off leash I was brave enough to let them off at the same time.  We had a nice calm wander through the forest on the way home.  Once again I was feeling very lucky.  Wishing you all lots of luck and happiness this St. Patrick's Day!