Heart Like a Dog

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

How Lazy is Too Lazy – Barks and Bytes

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I have a ramp for Sampson to use getting in and out of the car. I got it last year after his ACL surgery. When we first got it, I used it diligently and then I got lazy.

Solvit Telescoping Ramps to help pets get in cars

It was too much work setting it up.

It was bulky, awkward.

I had limited places to store it when the dogs were in the car.

It’s just as easy to have him put his front paws up and lift him.

These are some of the excuses I used to convince myself not to use the ramp.

Well flash back to last Saturday when I was going to pick up donuts (their Gluten Free, don’t judge) and decided to take Sampson with me.

He put his front paws up on the back of the car and I lifted him in like always. I made to close the hatch when he yipped.

My heart caught in my throat when I realized he’d gotten his toe stuck in the female part of the latch.

In all the years I’ve had that car, and all the times he’s jumped in that car, or been helped into the car, neither of the dogs have ever gotten anything stuck in that latch.

After I helped him get his toe out, I took a look at his foot and couldn’t see anything. So we headed out to the bakery. Sampson laid right down in the car, which isn’t all that unusual as he doesn’t stand as often as he used to.

When we got back home and Sampson went to get out of the car, I looked again and his toe was bleeding.

We took him inside and checked it out, I couldn’t really tell where the bleeding was coming from, it looked (to Hubby and my eyes) that he had cracked another nail, but width wise this time. You know how nails bleed, so it was hard to get a good look in there.

I called the vet and asked what they thought and they said I could put some Bacitracin on it and keep a sock on it to keep him from bothering it. They said to keep an eye on it and if I thought it needed to be seen over the weekend to take him to the emergency vet.

I cleaned it as best I could, put some Bacitracin on it and put his sock back on.

Dogs in socks

Not the correct foot, not the right sock, but you get the idea.

It didn’t really seem to bother him, although we did catch him licking at it a few times (he had the sock off in less than an hour) and told him to leave it, which he did.

His annual vet appointment was yesterday (more on that in a future post) and his injury had calmed down enough so Dr. Soutter could get a good look at it. Thankfully he didn’t crack the nail, but he did scrape the nail bed, which is what caused all the bleeding.

Lesson learned by me. Back to the ramp we go.

And as you can see, I’m currently too lazy to make new pictures for this post, I recycled old ones.

So really, how lazy is too lazy?

 

Heart Like a Dog

This is the Thursday Barks and Bytes Blog Hop hosted by 2 Brown Dawgs and Heart Like a Dog. Grab the badge and the linky code and join us! Please only link up blog posts and as a courtesy to the other hoppers, please add the linky to your post and/or link back to the hosts’ blogs.



Autumn Is My Favorite Color – Barks and Bytes

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I saw that meme on Facebook last month. Actually I think it said, “October is my favorite color”, but seeing as we are already into November, I’m going with Autumn.

Autumn is my favorite color and also my favorite time of year.

The days are sunny and warm without being hot. The bugs (except for the ticks…ugh) have pretty well gone away. You can walk the dogs in the woods without need of a jacket and you aren’t bombarded by bugs.

The nights are cool and crisp. No need for an air conditioner. You can open your windows and let the night air wash over you. You can light a fire in the fireplace, snuggle up with a blanket and a dog and enjoy a hot chocolate or hot apple cider.

But what has to be my favorite about Autumn is the colors. Yes it’s true winter is beautiful with its blanket of white and stark coldness. And Spring has all the pale, beauty of nature in its rebirth. Summer brings the bright blue skies and haze of humidity, but Autumn, Autumn has a vibrancy all its own.

We have a time frame called, “Peak Season.” It’s when all the leaf peepers as we call them, hurry to the north woods to enjoy the colors that only come with Autumn.

I think it’s called “Peak” because the colors are at their height or peak of vibrancy. Leaves will be bright and bold one day and the next, they have the dried, brittle look of having gone past their prime.

Since Winter with its cold sterility follows Autumn, I’ve been diligently snapping photos to keep my heart and hopes warm and alive as we wait out the long, tediousness that can come with Winter.

I’ve weeded through and here are some of my favorites.

Here's some fucking leaves

This house is on my street, you can see there’s a bit of green, yellow and red here. The day was overcast and made it seem like I was looking through rose colored glasses.

 

rocks

This house is the on the backside of mine. There are huge boulders on this property and the landscaping is so beautiful.

 

Japanese Maples

I think these trees are called Japanese Maples, these are on someone’s lawn and look so pretty. The bigger trees on this street are mostly towards the backs of the yards, so this bit of color just draws your eyes in.

 

End of the street

This was early one morning just as dawn was breaking. I love the slight pink in the sky.

 

Some of my favorite colors are the ones where the leaf has more than one color.

Some of my favorite leaf colors are the multi-colored ones.

 

This little plant is in my yard. I'm not sure what these berries are, but they look cool.

This little plant is in my yard. I’m not sure what these berries are, but they look cool.

 

This is on our way home from the woods, there is a break between some trees and you can just see bits of sky.

This is on our way home from the woods, there is a break between some trees and you can just see bits of sky. The horizon you see at the bottom of the frame is actually our state capitol, but you can’t really tell because it’s so far away.

 

This is the entrance to our park.

This is the entrance to our park. In this photo, the leaves have gone beyond peak. But still the gold is beautiful.

 

The other day on our walk I noticed the ground cover had changed color too.

The other day on our walk I noticed the ground cover had changed color too. I stepped into the woods and was awed by the red color.

 

One day I mentioned the acorns....there are tons of acorns this year.

I really feel like the squirrels aren’t doing their jobs this year. We have WAY too many acorns.

 

The bright blue sky peopling through the leaves into the woods.

I love looking up at the sky through the trees. This is in our woods.

 

This is the day after peak. One day it's vibrant, the next day it all seems to have faded.

This is the day after peak. One day it’s vibrant, the next day it all seems to have faded.

 

I just love the way the sunlight makes the woods seem to glow.

Of course I have to share the woods…I just love the way the sunlight makes the woods seem to glow.

 

I thought this one was just cool the way the shadows and sunlight played on the tree trunks.

I thought this one was just cool the way the shadows and sunlight played on the tree trunks.

Of course the dogs are enjoying Autumn too, there are so many smells as many animals are readying themselves for the long winter.

What are the colors of Autumn in your area?

Heart Like a Dog

This is the Thursday Barks and Bytes Blog Hop hosted by 2 Brown Dawgs and Heart Like a Dog. Grab the badge and the linky code and join us! Please only link up blog posts and as a courtesy to the other hoppers, please add the linky to your post and/or link back to the hosts’ blogs.



Let Loose the Sailor – Barks and Bytes

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First off, I want to announce the winner’s of our Rocky’s Rollers Rock Our World giveaway.

You may recall we shared that post a couple of weeks back and told you we would give away (actually it’s Jones Natural Chews who is giving it away) three bags of Rocky’s Rollers. I told you all I would announce the winners today, and low and behold I remembered to have the drawing. 🙂

So without further ado… I started with the first comment (via Facebook Plug IN) and asked for three numbers between 1 and 21. I was given 13, 16 and 21 and those winners are: Molly Pitcher, Sandy Weinstein and 2 Brown Dawgs! Congratulations, I’ll be contacting you via e-mail and will forward you information to the folks at Jones Natural Chews!

Thanks to all of you who entered.

Warning, she's preparing to loose her inner sailor.

Warning, she’s preparing to let loose her inner sailor.

Warning…rant and bad words ahead.

Siriusly WTF…

Really today’s post could have been a what the fuck post. My head is about to explode.

It started out with the photo on Facebook of a Great Dane “dressed up” as a horse, with a small child in costume on his back.

HIS BACK!

From the snap shot I felt the dog was uncomfortable and I shared it on my Facebook page with this caption, “This is wrong on so many levels. That someone thinks it’s okay to do this to their dog, that someone thinks it’s cute enough to share it. And when the dog bites the kid, the dog is the one at fault. Wake the fuck up people.”

I can’t share the picture here because the Facebook or Google police will get pissed off, but you can see it on my Facebook page.

Upon venturing to the original picture to read the comments (Why, oh why do I do that? Bangs head on desk) it only pissed me off more. The people who spoke up against it were told to “get a grip” “the kid only weighs 20 pounds” “It’s probably a staged photo, the kid didn’t actually RIDE the dog”.  So it may be that the photo was staged and no-one actually RODE the dog, STILL some fucking ignoramus will think it’s okay and do the same thing with horrific results.

I’m stating it right here and right now, if anyone tries to ride one of my dogs, I will knock them so hard in the mouth, they will give new meaning to the term, “Talking out your ass.”

How to introduce your kitten to your dogs.

Next, one of my friends shared this on Facebook.

To put this message in context, the question posed initially was how do I introduce my new kitten to my two Huskies?

How NOT to raise a kitten

You’ll notice I’ve added icons to cover the names as I wouldn’t want my friend to have someone pissed off at her. Mind you my friend is represented by the sweet little tiger icon.

Notice the lovely advice my friend gave? To supervise the interactions so the dog doesn’t get too rough.

See the response from the dragon lady. Yes, I gave her a fucking dragon for an icon because 1) that’s medieval advice and 2) what kind of evil woman lets her children do this to a kitten? What kind of sociopathic children will she have? And one day when her kid does something heinous, she will go, I wonder what happened? AND what did she do to her children to prepare THEM for the evils of this world?

No, it doesn’t get any better. We were hoping someone had schooled her on how horrible the idea was, but this was the next exchange.

How NOT to raise a kitten
Notice she’s still a dragon and notice the original poster has a “BAM” covering her name. That’s me, smacking her upside her stupid head for thinking this is a good idea.

Did you see that last bit? Yeah, she has a puppy now. God only knows what the dragon lady is doing to that sweet puppy.

Had enough? I had, but then….another friend shared a video on Facebook of a baby that looked to be about 12 to 15 months old sitting in front of a clearly pissed off cat. Queue the video, the baby takes its hand and smacks the cat upside its head and the cat, launches itself at the baby, knocking it over.

Now I ask you, what kind of fucking idiot sets their baby up for something like that? And the cat.?Now the baby is afraid of the cat and will do Dog only knows what and the cat is afraid of the baby.

One of my friends, friends wrote under the video “That’s so funny! I literally laughed out loud!” And I wrote back, “THAT isn’t funny at all. That’s horrible! WTF is wrong with people?” To which my friend acknowledged that while he thought it was funny, “Their parenting skills needed work.”

Dear Facebook, If you don’t stop showing me stuff from stupid people, I’m going to have to unfriend you.

End Rant.

Run Fast, Run Free Jeffie.

Our hearts are heavy and we send our love and sympathies to Sue and the crew over at The Talking Dogs Blog who are grieving over the loss of their precious Jeffie.

Heart Like a Dog

 

This is the Thursday Barks and Bytes Blog Hop hosted by 2 Brown Dawgs and Heart Like a Dog. Grab the badge and the linky code and join us! Please only link up blog posts and as a courtesy to the other hoppers, please add the linky to your post and/or link back to the hosts’ blogs.



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