The Pack

I mentioned the hounds in the last post but readers are asking how they are. During the summer the heat is bad for the muscular, greyhound-derived lurcher---tests by John Burchard have found that after a run in an outdoor temperature of 60 degrees F., the internal temperatures of greyhounds are in the dangerous range, as opposed to that of dogs in the saluki/tazi group (incidentally I prefer the more Cyrillicly phonetic "tasy" but I think I have lost the battle).

Basically you must throw such a dog in a pool to avoid death or damage, and my Plummer is too (pick one) valiant/dumb not to run. Lily the dachshund also overheats as she is small, close too the ground, and shaggy.

The tazis are not bothered. But the jacks in the summer are full of subcutaneous botflies and have enough problems without having to escape dogs. So I try to keep my hounds sane with once-or-twice-a-week runs early in the morning, up in th Pinon- Juniper woodland where the "quarry" is mostly cottontails that quickly go down holes without over-exerting themselves or the dogs.

Now is the time when we begin to get out and get in shape again---all of us. This is a photo of the pack last Sunday: spotted lurcher Plummer, red tazis Kyran and Ataika, brindle tazi Lashyn, and miniscule dachs Diamond Lil. And me, of course.