Introducing..

The newest addition to our family:


The very big, beautiful, sweet-natured Mr. Hyde. We met him yesterday, when we drove out to the kennel to give him a walk.



I look a little bit of a mess here, mostly because Deb woke me up ten minutes before we were supposed to leave. (Us theater people aren't so good with mornings...)


Look at these two cutie-pies!

Hyde is quite young, and a little skinny. We were told that we had to put some meat on his bones-- no problemo! (Have you seen our cat??) He is very sweet, and behaved himself quite well on our walk. His strength and speed are quite obvious, so he is going to require diligent training on our part, including learning how not to pull on his leash and the "sit" command. But he was very eager to please us, and by the end of the walk we had successfully taught him the "wait" and "okay" commands at crosswalks.

He was very responsive to both Deb and my commands, and even seemed to get a little attached! At the very end of the walk we got separated by cars parked on the sidewalk-- Deb with Hyde on one side, me on the other. He anxiously checked in with me between each car to make sure that I was still there. Very sweet.

The kennel itself is a really cool place-- we met lots of other beautiful greyhounds and watched them horsing around with each other in their outdoor run. They even board adopted greyhounds there when owners are on vacation! We met some very sweet boarders and noted the huge difference between the dogs waiting for adoption and the ones that have been living in a home for a while. The racing dogs have quite an adjustment to make, but their sweet temperaments and high intelligence make it a task worth doing.

We plan to walk Hyde several more times before we officially pick him up and bring him home on Monday. It's been really great getting to know him on neutral ground. We are going to want to socialize Hyde as much as possible, especially in the beginning, so let me know if you have some free time next week and want to hang out!

And on a totally unrelated note, I must add that last night was a hell of a night to be working backstage. Ho-ly crap. It's interesting, though, observing people in their highest moments of stress. True colors really come out. And boy did they last night. Huge kudos to my Deborah and Tim Markus, the coolest cats under pressure I've seen in a very long time. You guys rocked it out.