Renaissance Borzoi

Okay, now I understand what Mom’s been getting ready for, and the Greyhounds have been so excited about. It’s called a Renaissance Festival. I spent all day Saturday and Sunday there, and it was a BLAST! There were lots and lots and lots of people who came to pet me, and I got to meet more Greyhounds and go on walks and get my picture taken a bunch of times and - BEST OF ALL - I got to accompany the Queen and her ladies on their afternoon walks!

The Queen and I
(she’s really nice, and very pretty)

Below is a picture of me with Mom talking to me, sitting inside the Greyhounds of Fairhaven booth (BTW, those strange clothes Mom is wearing are what she’s been sewing instead of working on my blog):

And here she is giving me a treat:

On Sunday morning, a guy with a fancy camera stopped by and took pictures of me. He and Mom talked a lot; I think they know each other from other years at the festival (this is Mom’s 13th year working there). Mom says he might bring by prints of the pictures later. She got one of Cooper from him last year. Anyway, they got to talking about me and how I could jump, so I got to go out in front of the booth and jump for pieces of ham that Mom threw into the air.

Whee!

Mom’s “you’re cheating” look is because I finally
decided to just let the ham hit the ground and then
pick it up. Hee-hee.

Here are some pictures of the people who came to pet me and the Greyhounds at the Festival, and learn about sighthound history and adopting Greyhounds:

That’s Aunt Carol holding my leash.

Another person with a fancy camera came by later and Mom made me pose for him. Okay, she didn’t really have to make me pose - I did that by myself - but she did make sure I was looking in the right direction.

At home, we’ve been working on a new trick Mom calls “Look.” If I want a treat that Mom has, I have to look at Mom instead of at the treat. We practiced that a bit after the camera guy left.

Mom says, “Look.” And I do.
And then I get the liver treat she has for me.

A lot of sleeping goes on at the Greyhounds of Fairhaven booth - maybe because the days are so long. We have to get up really early and then ride for an hour to the Festival grounds, and then the humans have to get the booth set up. At 10am there’s a really loud noise (Mom calls it “morning cannon”) and then people start coming to pet us. That goes on until “evening cannon” at 6pm. In between, we hounds get to get pets and do tricks and eat treats and take walks and do a lot of sleeping. Mom likes to say that the Greyhounds (including me, the Russian Greyhound) release sleep spores that the humans breathe in, so they have to sleep, too.

“Who’s that sleeping down there?”

It’s Fox and Uncle Mike!
Except I think someone woke up Fox.

I got tired, too, but I didn’t want to miss anything.
Still, it’s hard to stay awake when you’re on a big
soft sheepskin.

So I moved to the hard floor and used the
railing footer as a pillow.

So, that was my very first weekend at a Renaissance Festival, and I hear there’s a lot more to come! Check back soon.

–Sergei