Heart Like a Dog

The Good, the Bad, and the Oh My God of living with dogs!

Test The Waters

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When our daughter got married in 2005 she was living in Florida.  To make it easier on us, we rented a house on a canal for two weeks.  The house was lovely with a master suite and bath and it also had an in ground pool.  I made sure dogs were allowed in the pool before I rented it.

The drive down took less time than we expected so we arrived mid-afternoon on Saturday.  The first thing I did after dropping my luggage in the bedroom was to open the slider and jump in the pool.

Sampson was about 15 months old at the time and had never been in a pool.  He had only been exposed to ponds and streams.

Poor baby, he stepped into the pool expecting that there would be earth underneath him and there wasn’t.   He was panicked but luckily we were both there and helped him to the stairs.

It took more than a few days to coax him back in, which my brother-in-law eventually did.  At first he only wanted to be in the pool when one of us was with him.

You won’t let anything bad happen to me, right Dad?

But by the end of the two weeks, he would go in the pool by himself, swim around and climb back out.

The only pool Delilah has been exposed to is my sister’s above ground pool.  It is accessed by a deck attached to the back of their house.  We were there for the 4th of July a few years back and the dogs had a fine time swimming for toys.

Our walking buddy has an in ground pool that the dogs can swim in.  She recently had a major landscaping overhaul done to her back yard and invited us up to see it during one of our walks.

Sampson jumped right in the pool and swam around.

I love a refreshing dip after a nice walk.

I was quite surprised that Delilah refused to go in.  She stood on the edge of the pool but she just couldn’t bring herself to do it.

Come on in Delilah, the water’s great!

I tried to show her where the steps were but I was in full hiking gear and couldn’t get in the pool.  She ran around and around the edge of the pool but couldn’t bring herself to jump in.

Have you seen the video of the dog pawing the water for the toy, because it wants the toy but is afraid to jump in?

She was doing the same thing.

It made me feel sad, because Delilah is the bravest dog I know and I’ve never seen fear hold her back.

I want to, I’m just afraid.

But at the same time, I think a little fear can be a good thing.  It might stop you from jumping in feet first and finding out there is no earth under your feet.

Don’t let your fear hold you back, stick your toe in and test the waters, BEFORE you jump in. 🙂

Just Be The Dog.

Follow-Up Friday

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For those new to the blog, my follow-up Friday provides me with an opportunity to update or revise a post from the previous week.

You know sometimes you post about something and you need an update but it doesn’t warrant a whole blog.  Or sometimes someone made a comment that really resonated with you.  Yup, Follow-Up Friday baby!

Why My Vet Shouldn’t Give Me Her Cell Phone Number – Author’s Note

This was a really fun post to write, even funnier because well…..I could actually see it happening.  Like I said, I like to have direct access to people who are important to me, but sometimes I can be a little obsessive.

I know you’re shocked.  It’s ok.  Sometimes it takes me by surprise too.

What’s Right For Your Dog? – Author’s Note

I firmly believe that all dogs, like all children and husbands, (Ok Big Al!) and all wives are different.  Dogs have unique and individual personalities just like people do.

Not everyone likes step-aerobics, right? So why should all dogs like agility?

Don’t feel guilty about how much exercise your dog is getting.  Just enjoy your dog and enjoy doing things with him/her.

WTF Wednesday – Author’s note

I signed the petition and shared it here and on my facebook page.  I wrote to every e-mail on that list as well as to the two Senators from Indiana.

The last time I checked they were 443 votes away from meeting their goal of 20,000 signatures.  I googled the event to try to find out if any action had been taken to stop the event.

I found more than one site that was dedicated to eradicating this horrific event.  Apparently opposition was very close to stopping this event last year.

Won’t you please do your part by sharing and signing?

As for Kingston, well I have no answers there.  You can talk until you are blue in the face to some people and you just can’t get through.  I feel sad for this dog because they are not doing him any favors and are really putting him at risk for injury or worse.

Thwarted Again – Update

I thank you all for hanging in here and helping me through this process.  When it comes to writing I can be somewhat creative, but coming up with witty names just isn’t my forte.  Notice the ingenuity regarding the name of this blog.

I have to confess, I really got a case of the giggles when I came up with “Doindoggiestyle.com”  and I still think it would be funny, but it’s just not a great name for googling, you know what I mean? 😉

I did have two FABULOUS ideas from two different commenters.

Al said, Jodi, how about barksandbytes.com

Then Peggy said,  I’ve seen it done like writerjodistone or jodistonewrites.

I like both of these ideas and they are both available.

Since I wanted to include my name in the title I am currently leaning towards jodistonewrites.com.

I’m still considering calling the woman who owns, ‘Be the Dog’ and perhaps collaborating with her on a tee-shirt.

Anyone interested in a tee-shirt?

Thwarted Again

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Well there’s good news and bad news.

Whenever anyone says to me, there’s good news and there’s bad news, what do you want first?  I always choose the bad news.

I figure, let’s get this over with.

Today I’ve got good news and bad news.  What do you want first?

Too late, I’m making the decision for you.  You’re getting the bad news.

I heard back from my attorney friend today.  His legal opinion is that adding “Just” to an already trademarked “Be The Dog” could be considered trademark infringement.

Poop, thwarted again.

The way I see it I have two options.  I can contact someone at the Be The Dog website and see about working on a collaboration or I can do my own thing.

I’m a do my own thing kind of girl….BUT….I really like Just Be The Dog. (Decisions, decisions.)

I’ve gotten some great advice from many of you.  Not the least being choosing a blog name should be well thought out.

I have put  a lot of thought into this and I feel strongly that the blog should somehow be associated with my name.

I sort of feel like an egomaniac saying that, but if I use my name, then I can write about whatever I want.   I’m not pinned down to writing strictly about my life with Sampson and Delilah.

And then I discovered there’s another Jodi Stone who’s also a writer.  No, no, it’s not the lady bug Jodi Stone, it’s a another one!  Yes by golly, there’s three of us….all writers.  This Jodi Stone has a facebook page and writes stories about princesses.

That all kind of sounds like bad news, but I wanted to give you that information so I could share some good news.

Here are two Jodi Stone names I’ve been considering:

thisisjodistone.com

youvereachedjodistone.com

I also thought I could stick with:

lifewithsampsonanddelilah.com

And then I kind of got a bit creative and thought of these two:

doinitdoggiestyle.com

whatsthebark.com

It’s a pretty major decision and I want to make sure it’s the right one for me.

When I started this blog I had no idea what I was doing, they said I needed a name and so I used mine.  I didn’t use my imagination because I wasn’t sure what I wanted to blog about.

As it turns out, using my own name with the Life with Sampson and Delilah tagline, worked out pretty well.  Because what I’ve come to realize is I’m selling myself as a writer, a speaker and I hope someday….a leader.

I’ve always said I’m technologically challenged, but if I’m reading all of your comments correctly, my blog will stay the same, it will just move over to the new website.  When you go to this blog site, it will just be hosted somewhere else.

So what do you think?  Did you like any of the names?  Should I have a name the website contest?

Oh and speaking of contests, have you seen the Something Wagging Match Game?  It’s pretty darn cool and yours truly is participating.  If you haven’t checked it out, well what are you doing now?  Head on over, Pamela’s giving away some awfully good swag. 🙂

 

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