the lesley osborn blog

My mom and I were running errands, likely for dog food. A pet shop with a puppy in an exercise pen caught our attention. It was summer, and there was no cover for shade. This was in the 1990s. We stopped, walked inside, and spoke to the owner. Here's how that brief exchange between my mom and this man went… “Why is this puppy sitting outside in the blazing sun? We are taking him home! How much?” His reply: "$80 and he's yours. Every minute he's here, he's costing me money!" He got his $80, and our plans abruptly changed. We knew nothing about him other than he was a Dachshund about six months old. Nothing else mattered except getting this puppy home. The name Casey came to mind, and by the time we were home, he had one! He settled into his forever home quickly, and my mom wasted no time in reporting this pet shop to the proper authorities. The authorities shut this shop down within a week. Casey was now a member of our GREYSETT family, enjoying a happy ...

When a female puppy resembling an English Setter arrived at a local Humane Society, someone who knew my mother called. Since we had AKC English Setters, naturally, we wasted no time driving down to meet her. She looked like a lightly ticked tri-color orange Belton. English Setter pups have short coats—yep, if it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, then it must be a duck: words that came to mind. Boy, were we mistaken. She was far from a purebred English Setter. She looked like a pointer setter cross. We named her Sophie but affectionately thought of her as our Poinsettia. After all, she joined our family around the holidays and the name felt appropriate. We were so curious as to what in the world we had adopted that we had her veterinarian do a DNA test. When those results came back, everyone was surprised! No one knew what she was, genetically speaking. She was a mixture of a little bit of this, that, and everything else all rolled into one sweet Sophie! “I wish they'd st...

When Arwen joined our GREYSETT family, Gala was the only dog here. I’ve never had a dog who needed a groomer. With time and patience, Arwen trusted me with scissors to trim the long hair on her paws and muzzle with a snip here and there when needed while sitting in my lap. Trimming her nails is another thing. No way this will happen. Many dogs don't like their nails cut, and I respect this. Many of the dogs in our GREYSETT home have been fine with nail trims over the decades. One, two, three, DONE! Different dogs and different personalities make the lives of dog parents interesting. My mom trimmed the English Setters in our family. In the 1950s, she had an adjustable grooming table and the proper grooming equipment required to maintain them in show trim. Those not being exhibited still needed routine trims to prevent matting. Their grooming experiences began as puppies. Once I was a teenager, my mom taught me. Anyone with long-coated canines should understand the importance...

A friend of my mom’s had an AKC blue belton English Setter about to whelp but didn’t want to handle this herself. She called my mother asking for help. Since my mom had her whelping box, and it wasn’t being used, the answer was yes! The date: circa the 1960s. This female arrived shortly before her delivery date, and my mother helped deliver her puppies. Finally, I was old enough to watch and assist. This Setter delivered 13 puppies in rapid succession. My mom sat with a towel, passing several to me to rub and help them take their first breath when needed. Yep, this was a two-person job. Once all her puppies were delivered, this new mom surveyed the situation and decided this wasn’t for her! She delivered them but had no intention of caring for them. My mother was also surveying this situation, knowing she needed to find a solution quickly. Our second English Setter came to mind, Ch. Blue Mist of Stone Gables (Misty). She had two litters of her own and was a wonderful mother. I ...

Much of my inspiration for creative storytelling comes from music, movies, and words. I’m a fan of Tom Selleck, Steve Guttenberg, and Ted Danson. Here’s how this story came to be↓ I’ve watched the movie Three Men and a Baby with Arwen countless times. Tom Selleck and Steve Guttenberg discover a baby (Mary) left outside their apartment door, snuggled in a baby basket and asleep. Neither wants to pick up her basket and bring it inside. They don’t know what to do; their conversation awakens her, and she does what babies do—cry.  When Arwen hears this, she becomes upset. She is very sensitive, and I’m reassuring her that this baby is fine and this is a movie. Enter Ted Danson. As the movie progresses, the baby continues doing what babies do: cry, but Arwen appears less upset. Her reactions are consistent each time we watch this movie. —The inspiration for this story comes from the following portion of the lyrics ↓ "Waiting for a star to fall   And carry your heart into my ar...

Sometime in 2004, a big black male Greyhound suddenly appeared at the gates of a greyhound sanctuary on the west coast of Florida. He appeared to be a stray; they took him in and kept him safe, hoping to find him a forever home. They expected that this wouldn’t be easy.  Black greyhounds are not popular. The black dog syndrome many talk about today is something I’ll never understand. But a bigger obstacle to his placement was his size. He was almost as large as a Great Dane and topped the scales at 105 pounds! He remained at the rescue with little hope of finding him a forever home. They named him Thunder and moved him back to their South Florida location. He appeared to be at least 10 years old.  Mom and I relocated from South Florida to Ocala, Florida, with our canine menagerie in 2005. Oh, this also included our birds! Can you imagine sporting dogs and birds in travel cages in the same car for seven hours? What a drive this was! All our Greyhounds were adopted from this res...

Sometime in August 2010, I was contacted by a friend vacationing out of town. She was notified about a ten-year-old greyhound that had been dropped off at a veterinarian’s office by his owners with the sole intent of having him euthanized. The reason: "We don't want him any longer.” Mom and I had been saving seniors, special-needs, and unadoptable greyhounds for decades. My friend was kind enough to provide Rocky’s rescue information and promised to follow up with me. She was a retired vet tech for the veterinarian that Rocky found himself at. Rocky had an angel watching over him that day! He was scanned for a microchip and identified. The rescue group he was adopted from was called while his owners waited in the lobby. The veterinarian refused to honor their wishes and asked them to sign a release, leaving Rocky in his care. They signed the form and left—without him! Rocky needed a forever home as soon as possible. He was in poor condition and extremely traumatized. The ...