Heart Like a Dog

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

It’s Picture Day – Barks and Bytes

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I love photos. Siriusly. I have one of those digital photo frames where you upload your photos and they are presented in a little slide show. Pictures of my family, all the kids, grandkids, dogs, landscape, etc.. I could watch that thing like it was a TV, all day long. And each time I say, “Oh I love that picture!”

Because I’m typically the only one taking the photos in this house, pictures of the dogs are usually candids on the go (unless I try and stage a shoot, which rarely works.)  I don’t know about you, but I take lots of pictures. I might take five different photos and not use any of them, or I might find one I really like and use it more than once, changing the captions.

Typically, I’m just snapping away with no real thought as to how I will use the photo, until the time comes where I’m looking for a photo to use in a post, and I start scrolling through mine to see which one fits my criteria.

My camera is a little point and shoot, it’s a step up from the first one I had, but I really haven’t taken the time to learn how to use it.

Even so, despite the fact that I am not a professional photographer, I still love snapping what I think are unique photos

Here are a few.

Sunrise over the field

This picture is one I took of the sun coming up over the field.  I love the way the clouds are colored with pink and the sky looks like a pale purple, I captured just the tips of the trees.

Sunrise over house

I took this one without the flash early one morning. It’s also the sunrise, but this particular section of the neighborhood doesn’t have a lot of streetlights, nor does it have telephone/electric lines. I love how it’s sort of off balance, like the world is tilting.

Moon in the trees Again, early morning. The moon was still visible along with a planet. This area has telephone/electric lines so I zoomed in in order to cut out the lines.

Moon and planet

This photo was also taken on that dark street. Since I get up at the butt crack of ass now to walk the dogs, it’s always dark. This was the moon and two planets and they were in such a cool line, that I had to attempt a photo.

Woods

Of course, I’m constantly taking photos in the woods. I love how the light shines down and some areas appear to be greener than others, while some lay in shadows. Then there are the times when the entire woods seem to be bathed in green.  I’m not sure if I changed a setting on the camera or I just got lucky, but I love the way this photo sort of looks magical.

Which one of these was your favorite?

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.



Meatless Monday – Be the Change 4 Animals #BtC4A

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She looks cute, right?

If I worked on certain farms, I need blinders for my eyes to keep from seeing awful stuff.

When I think of the factory farming that goes on in this world and the way animals are raised and treated, it makes me sick. So, whenever possible I buy humanely raised, humanely handled meat, preferably from a local farm. If that’s not possible, I go for free range. I refuse to eat pork and won’t purchase farm raised fish.

I really like the idea of becoming a vegetarian, but to date I haven’t been able to pull it off, which is why I participate in Meatless Monday. Basically, I’m going meatless for almost 48 hours. Because I don’t eat meat for breakfast, and my lunch is usually what I had for dinner the night before I manage to go from tenish on Sunday night until dinnertime on Tuesday without eating any meat. Roughly that’s about 44 hours. 

When I first started Meatless Monday I was only skipping my nighttime meal with meat. I was still having meat at lunch and cold meat at snack, but I realized I wasn’t ‘meatless’. So I stopped eating meat altogether on Mondays.

In the summer it’s super easy because I make salads for lunch and dinner and in the cooler months, I love homemade veggie soups or I stir fry some veggies and put it over rice, pasta or Quinoa.

If every one of us did just one meal differently, imagine what we could do.

It’s not the end game, but it’s a start.

When I look at all the things I want changed in the animal world it can be so very overwhelming, but if we each do a small part, we can really be the change. Blog the Change is a quarterly event where bloggers from all over write about our favorite animal welfare causes.

Together WE CAN BE THE CHANGE.

Thank you to our hosts, Kim from Cindy Lu’s Muse and Sue from Talking Dogs for this awesome blog hop. 

House Trained – Barks and Bytes

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I’m a big fan of Jackie Bouchard (Award-winning and USA bestselling author) and her books. (And Rita’s pretty sweet too, that’s her dog in case you didn’t know. And really, if you don’t know Jackie and Rita head on over to Pooch Smooches and start following her. I’ll wait.)

Jackie Bouchard and her beautiful dog, Rita.

Two beauties….Jackie Bouchard and Rita.

Jackie’s one of those super cool chicks. You know the one you want to sit down with and slam back a couple of Margaritas. I think Jackie and I have a similar sense of humor and it’s fairly likely we could get into a good bit of trouble if we could actually hang out. (Putting that one on my bucket list!)

I’ve read both of Jackie’s previous books and loved them both. Her characters are intense, and they have issues, which means they are human and they are all uniquely different.

So when I heard Jackie had a new book being released I was super excited. I tried to be all sneaky about it…”Um….Jackie…do you need any help promoting your new book?”

Truthfully I think she was on to me, but she humored me anyway.

“I was just going to ask you if you would be willing to review it.”

SCORE!!

It came in the mail a few days later.

“Guess what I have waiting for me upstairs?” I teased my mom. “Jackie Bouchard’s new book.”

“Hurry up and read it.” My mother spat at me. Okay, so she didn’t like spit, like a llama or anything, (she’s not that kind of mama!) But she sort of demand it.

I can’t blame her though. Dude let me tell you. This book grabbed me from the first sentence.

THE. FIRST. SENTENCE. And it didn’t let go until the last. It was that freaking good.

If you like books that make you laugh. This is the book.

If you like books that make you cry (just a tiny bit). This is the book.

If you like books with a bit of suspense. This is the book.

If you like books that make you think about yourself and your own actions. This is the book.

Okay. Like basically what I’m telling you is this is the next book you need to read.

Whenever I’m reading one of Jackie’s books, I feel like she’s writing me. You know what I mean? She captures the realness of a person and puts it into a character. Now, I’m not going to give a lot of this book away but I will give you this.

Two DINK’s (Double Income No Kids, for those that don’t know) that didn’t really want kids, and were quite content in their perfect little house, with their perfect dog, (Marie) discover that one of them has a child from a previous relationship. (Okay, it’s the husband because really…most women KNOW they’ve had a kid) and the kid HAS a kid!

I don’t know about you, but if my husband’s adult child showed up on my doorstep with a little baby….there’d be some serious adjustments (and maybe a little bit of slapping).  She didn’t bitch slap him though, just so you know.

Sometimes I sabotage myself. You know what I mean? I offer to do something, not really thinking of the consequences and work it will entail for me. And so that like happens in the book. The main character, Alex trying to be a good supportive wife sort of bites off a little more than she’s ready for when she invites the kid and the KID to stay with them temporarily.  Alex is a perfectionist and a neat freak, which most of you that have had kids know, it’s hard to mesh the two.

So they going from just the three of them to five and all the complications that go along with it.

And that’s it, that’s all I’m going to tell you with the exception of this. House Trained will be in select Walmarts nationwide starting next Tuesday! You can pre-order it on Amazon (available in Kindle, Paperback AND Audio!) (If you do order through Amazon, there’s a small chance I might get a commission on it, because I’m working on affiliate links, but I’m not sure if I did it right or not).  You can also order the paperback or Audiobook from Barnes and Noble (which we will NOT get a commission on).

Oh and just in case you’re wondering…this is what it looks like.

Available Tuesday, October 20, 2015!!

Available Tuesday, October 20, 2015!!

 

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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