See more Ben the Cat vids on his Catster page.

Beckett was a frisky bunny with his new stuffed animal bunny, but this is exactly why you should fix your bunnies! HRC spays and neuters every rabbit before we adopt them out.

Marlene did most of the talking. I was trying to keep Beckett from misbehaving too much, and changing the rating of Better Connecticut from G to XXX!

Bunnies are cute, but they’re long-term commitments. They make great pets, but they require lots of care and devotion on the part of their humans.

Please don’t get a bunny unless you’ve done the research necessary. And please consider adopting a bunny, not buying one!

Read Best Friends’ article on the subject, while you’re at it!

Highlights of the schedule (in addition to all the vendors slated to display) are ghost tours at night, a singing and dancing music and comedy greyhound review, greyhound costume contests, parades, a greyt speed run, a fun run for greys, and a blessing of the hounds. Check out the pix of years past!

We can’t wait to meet new friends, buy a nice springtime martingale collar, and play with other greyhound lovers and their pups! We’ll post pictures after the event.

And try not to think of the actual stories that prompted lawmakers in these towns to develop these laws to begin with!

One of the unexpected joys of having a greyhound is having him sing to me. Sometimes it turns into barking, but it’s mainly singing. And I think it’s lovely!

Paul and I had Jacoby going today and I just had to shoot some video on my Moto Droid. Enjoy the symphony!

Fonya, John Boy and Jacoby take a break

Jacoby, on the other hand, had a very busy day with me. First, we went to our first Greyt Fun meetup. I thought that maybe it would just be he and I walking in Callahan State Park, as Jini had told me she may not be able to come with Fonya (who I deemed Jacoby’s Valentine). But it turns out that Karen and Mitch showed up unexpectedly (LOVE when that happens!), so Jacoby met their John Boy and it turned out to be a party! John Boy had run 100 races (won 15 of them) and just retired in November ‘09, so he’s a newbie to the spoiled rotten lifestyle, but apparently taking to it very well.

So we walked in Callahan for about an hour and we talked about our greyhounds, which was a lot of fun. John Boy and Jacoby, both being boys, had a peeing contest to see who could pee on the most things. I’m not sure who won, but they had fun competing!

After our walk, it was off to some pet stores in Framingham/Natick to post some flyers advertising our new playgroup. PetSmart actually didn’t have any Community Bulletin board, but PetCo and Pet World both did and were very nice about me pinning a bunch of flyers up.

So that was a lot of jumping in and out of the back of my Highlander. But also a lot of opportunities for Jacoby to pee on things right outside the store, where countless other dogs have peed before. So that was fun for him.

Then we were going to go home, but on the way we passed right by Butter Worth Park, where Paul had placed a geocache. I thought it was a great opportunity to check on the dryness/winter steadfastness of said cache, so we parked and headed across the park to the trees, Moto Droid in hand, GPSr and camera hanging from my belt loops. I was so geeked out; Steve Ballmer would have been impressed.

We’re almost to the trees when an unleashed black lab comes running at full tilt up to Jacoby (unhindered by the weak “come back here” by his people) and slams on the brakes a few feet away. Jacoby freezes, trying to instill calm in this frantic dog. So sniff sniff happens. Labby gets all up in my boy’s junk, but Jacoby’s okay with that. Then out of nowhere, the lab decides to (are you sitting down?) mount Jacoby, which is frankly tough, because the lab isn’t a huge dog and Jacoby kinda is. The instant this happens, my marshmallow of a 76-pound dog turns surprisingly fierce and I don’t even have time to get in the way before Jacoby’s growled and warning-snapped his way out of trouble. This is the second time I’ve ever heard Jacoby growl (I got a growl from him once for taking his Greenie away in mid-chew, but I body blocked him and cut that right out) and first I’ve seen him snap at anything.

I was all tuckered out after my big day!

I was so proud of my boy. He really handled it beautifully. He was nice until it was clear Labby wasn’t going to be, then he wouldn’t take any guff, dog-style. Needless to say, Labby ran back to his family. I praised Jacoby all the way to the cache, which was probably another 25 yards or so. Jacoby certainly kept an eye on where that dog was the whole time we were in the park. Labby actually ran at us again when we were on our way to the car, but I positioned myself between the two dogs, and Labby decided about 20 feet away to make a circle and run back to safety. I bet he was thinking, “If the dog is that mean and the person praises him, how mean must the person be?!”

So good dog owners and bad, Jacoby had seen them all on Sunday. And he had enough excitement for a whole week. “Home” sounded like a really good destination when we got back in the car. Alas, he is a dog. So the next time I get my keys and tell him he’s going somewhere with me, he’ll be just as excited. God love canines and their endless sense of adventure!

We knew Jacoby (born as M’s Goodstuff) never ran a race.

So we learned today that Jacoby is a Florida boy. And it looks like his littermates didn’t really race too well either,despite having pretty successful parents. His dad dad, Big Boy Baggio, ran 133 races and won 85 times. Quite impressive, and then it’s no mystery why he was chosen to sire 137 puppies! (That’s not a typo.)

Jacoby’s mom, Flying Limon, ran 66 races and won 6 times. Then had only 14 puppies in 2 litters, Jacoby’s on November 29, 2004, and a more successful racing litter on January 19, 2006.

Of Jacoby’s three brothers and two sisters, only two of them ever raced. His brother M’s Whole Hog, ran 7 races and came in 2nd only once (never won). His sister M’s Gravy Train ran 4 races and never did too well.

However, Flying Limon can be proud of her second litter in the athletic arena — three of the eight pups she had with M’s Lucky Scott ran more than 10 races. (Scott himself won 26 races of the 134 he ran. And produced 44 puppies.) In fact, Jacoby’s half brother, M’s Big Buddy, won 8 of the 133 races he ran. Buddy’s sister, M’s Luckylouella, has won 8 out of 59 races she’s been in. M’s Ready Freddy, another brother of this litter, won 8 out of the 31 races he ran.

Thanks to the Internet and some incredibly-kept records, we can find out all about our beloved greys. But all I need to know about Jacoby doesn’t come from a stat site. It all comes from the way he wakes from a nap, stretches, and heads over to me to nuzzle his huge head in my lap.