Glorious Greyhounds

The other day I was talking with a couple of friends about greyhounds and how utterly magnificent they are. There's nothing quite so regal as a long and lean greyhound mincing along (or better still: running like the wind). Years ago, when Griffin was young, we looked into adopting a retired racing greyhound but for reasons I can no longer remember, and despite meeting several lovely canine candidates, we never did adopt one. There's a brindle female who lives in my neighborhood who I secretly covet and there's a pair of tiny silver Italian greyhounds who live on the other side of town that I also am wildly smitten with. I watch for them every time I find myself driving in their area. Were those two ever seen being walked by a tiny, decrepit and very weak-looking old lady, I would be out of my car in a flash and knocking her butt to the sidewalk while I made off with those little darlings. Unfortunately, their owner happens to be one very buff, very burly gym rat who looks like he eats girls my size for a midday snack. Alas, my love of this breed will remain (for now) from afar.

Portrait of Cody courtesy of kimw_01 on flickr.

Photo of Nell at the beach courtesy of bredlo on flickr.

Teasing

Bram is the world's greatest tease and Edison is his usual target of choice (though the poor cat isn't very far behind). The other evening I was working in my office and the boys were snuggled sweetly in their brand new cat beds amongst the piles of wrapped artwork. They looked so adorable that I just had to grab my camera and get some shots of them. My timing proved to be perfect though, as seconds later, the formerly snoozy Bram woke up and began to terrorize poor Edison. The entire sequence of shots is 21 frames which begin with two sleeping chihuahuas and progress through Bram waking up and briefly watching me, Bram discovering Edison sleeping quietly in the bed next to him, Bram poking Edison in the head repeatedly until Edison exploded in a fit of rage and then continuing the teasing until Edison finally (and with a very audible sigh) gave up and allowed Bram to chew his head, wash his ears and slap him in the face five or six times. It was at this point that Bram, once again, sadly realized that there isn't any fun in teasing if the tease-ee just gives up and so he, along with Edison, went back to sleep, each in their own little beds. And while the entire series of shots is a riot when viewed sequentially, I have winnowed it down to three sweet photos of my two boys doing what they do best: amusing the hell out of me no matter what they're doing.

Two Chihuahua Portraits

Two small portraits. The top fellow is Oliver, a cream and tan chihuahua who, in his young life, has been quite the world traveler. This is a very tiny portrait at just 4x6 inches. The bottom boy is Enrique Caruso, otherwise known as Neekie Pete. Neekie is a little tri-color guy who lives in (the often very frigid) upstate New York. This is a fairly recent portrait and at 7x10 inches, slightly larger than Ollie's rendering.

Head Study of Oliver, graphite on paper, 2009

Face Portrait of Neekie Pete, graphite on paper, 2010