Things Aren’t Always What They Seem to Be

May 29, 2014 By Jodi

Just about 10 years ago, Hubby and I made a trip to Florida to help friends of ours celebrate their 20th wedding anniversary. As sometimes happens other friends of ours were out of town and needed someone to care for their dog, Woody. Hubby and I were arriving late and agreed to watch Woody, in exchange for a place to stay. Woody was a Golden Retriever, and at that stage I’d had no real experience with caring for a large dog.

Our friends lived on a canal and as often happens in Florida especially for those who live around water, you get the occasional ‘gator. I’m the type of person who doesn’t care for confrontations, but when they are inevitable, I prefer to meet them head on and get it over with quickly. Unless of course, I’m dealing with a wild animal that has the potential to be deadly. Then I’m full on chicken, turning tail and running.

It was late one night and quite dark and I took Woody out for his last potty break of the night. I felt like walking so Woody and I headed down the road. We got about four houses away from where Woody lived, when I noticed something very still on the front lawn of a dark house. I stopped and stared trying to determine what it was in the dark. From where I stood it looked like a fairly large ‘gator and so I turned around and began walking quickly but carefully back towards the house. I knew that ‘gators have the ability to move very quickly when they spot prey, so while I was hustling my ass out of there, I kept looking behind me to see if it was following us and to make sure that my ass remained behind me and not is some ‘gator’s mouth.

If I recall correctly, Woody was taking his sweet Golden time and I could feel the panic rising, but somehow, miraculously Woody and I made it safely back to the house, both of us with our asses intact.

In the bright sunshine of the next day, I realized the ‘gator I’d seen the previous night, was nothing more than a palm frond that had either been cut or had fallen from a tree. Being human I felt very foolish at my flight from the night before.

Dogs on the other hand, don’t feel foolish, I’m sure it didn’t phase Woody one bit that I dragged him away from a palm frond.

I was reminded of this story last week when Sampson dragged me across the street to inspect, what I thought and I’m fairly certain he thought was a lizard.

What is that?

But as the title indicates, and the gator story proves, things aren’t always what they seem to be.

Hmpf, it’s just a piece of bark.

And this is Thursday’s Barks and Bytes Blog hop, hosted by 2 Brown Dawgs and Heart Like a Dog. Grab the badge (you can copy the text in my sidebar) and join the fun.

For new blog hoppers, a blog hop is a linky list that is shared on multiple blogs. In order to be fair to all participants we ask you to please display the linky list or link back to your hosts.

Let It Go

May 22, 2014 By Jodi

Delilah’s on board

For the longest time I was leaving Delilah with Hubby while I took Sampson for his morning walk, but last week Hubby had to leave early for some blood work. I felt bad leaving her sweet little face and I was feeling my oats or something and figured what the heck? I hooked her up and took her with us.

I have to say, she’s on board with the morning walk. She is SO good (most days) just walking slowly along. It’s like she understands that Sampson cannot move quickly, most morning she just walks sedately along beside him.

Look at them, you’d think they were perfect dogs.

Sampson’s a Dillwad

So I mentioned before that Sampson is on a harness to help with his pulling. It works fine, until he sees someone or something he loves and then nothing will hold him back.

One of our neighbors across the street is an older woman with MS. She absolutely adores the dogs and when she sees me out with them and she’s out, she calls us over.

Sunday night I was taking Sampson for his walk and I heard her call me and then she said, “Hi Sampson!” Well that was it, he was a dog on a mission and dragged me over, jumping and lunging in his quest to get to her.

Since then he’s been a little gimpy on his leg. ERRR!!!

Healing a leg is like fine wine Mama, it takes time.

Let it Go

Sampson was scheduled for his last therapy appointment last night. I called yesterday morning and confirmed the appointment. In order to arrive on time I needed to leave work at 3:45. I cleared it with my boss.

At 4:30 I looked at the clock and about lost my mind. I flew out the door calling the vet on my way home. My appointment was for 5:00 and they were closing at 6:00. I had my choice of arriving late and only getting a partial therapy appointment or canceling my existing appointment and rescheduling. Once I found out there was no penalty for canceling I determined it wasn’t worth risking my life or Sampson’s to try and get there during rush hour.

I was beating myself up pretty badly when I got home, telling Sampson what a horrible dog Mama I was. I had received a delivery essential oils so I took out some Abundance, rubbed it on my wrists and took a couple really good sniffs. I stopped crying and decided my missing the appointment was either the Universe’s or my brain’s way of telling me either Sampson or I or both of us, needed the break. I took Delilah for a walk.

The Sweetest Thing

I saw this posted yesterday of the Lab Rescue page I belong to. It was written by a little girl who was picking up her dog.

Is that not the sweetest thing ever?

This is Thursday’s Barks and Bytes Blog hop, the blog hop for all bloggers. Hosted by 2 Brown Dawgs and Heart Like a Dog, grab a badge and join the fun!

Spam be Damned!

May 15, 2014 By Jodi

Spam be Damned!

Remember that problem I had with spam? I’m not joking when I say I would typically get about 200 spam comments every 24 hours. I was using Askimet which caught most of the spam and put it in my spam folder, but it was still a giant pain in the rump, because every day or so, I’d have to go through and empty the spam folder after checking to see if any real comments were inadvertently sent to spam.

Emma had her mom send me an e-mail sharing a post about Disqus helping to cut down on spam and I meant to read it, I really did. But I didn’t. Part of the reason is I comment on blogs that use Disqus and for me (and speaking only for me) I can sometimes find it a pain in butt. I have to sign in using Google, or Twitter or something and sometimes I just want to leave a quick comment and Disqus is just one more step I need to take.

Some of you have that little box that says “check here to prove your human” I don’t mind that one in the least and I also like the little picture ones where you have to drag some coins to the piggy bank or something similar. What can I say? I like simple.

Maggie from Oh My Dog! shared a plug in she was using for security purposes to help prevent hacking and cut down on spam. I find it so sad that people will actually try and hack a site of someone they don’t even know just to share their ugly propaganda, but it happens. Anyway, Maggie shared that she used this plug in for WordPress called “Wordfence.” I immediately went to my dashboard and looked it up and it got five full stars! It’s a free plug in (of course you can upgrade to paid) and it not only stops security hacks, but it also prevents spam. So I figured what the hell? I emptied my spam folder and installed the plug in.

Guess what?

That was 9 days ago and yesterday I had my first ‘spam’ and it was actually a reader’s comment that accidentally was put in the folder!

After two days of using Wordfence I went in and deactivated Askimet. The only thing I don’t like about Wordfence is I get an e-mail every time I sign in BUT I also got an e-mail on Monday that someone tried to hack my site! But Wordfence prevented it! Woot, woot!!

Imagine clicking over for you dose of Heart Like a Dog and finding out that someone with a potty mouth had taken over? ‘-) I know, the horrors!

Delilah and the ‘puppy.’

Delilah and I have continued our walks around the neighborhood. Luckily for us, our neighborhood leaves us lots of options, so we don’t need to take the same walk every night.

The other day on our walk Delilah encountered something she had never seen before. Her reaction was so cute, I just had to take and share some photos.

Mama? Do you see what I see?

I’m not sure what it is. I think I need a closer look.

Dear Dog Mama! I think the Chamber of Secrets has been opened. This puppy has been turned to stone!

We have to help it!

It’s okay Delilah, it’s not a real puppy, it’s just a lawn ornament put there for enjoyment, and curious labradors!

This is my contribution to Thursday’s Barks and Bytes Blog Hop the blog hop for ALL Bloggers, hosted by 2 Brown Dawgs and Heart Like a Dog. Grab a badge, link up and make some new friends!

Heart Like a Dog

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

Things Aren’t Always What They Seem to Be