Heart Like a Dog

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

So I Shot This Video….

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I know this is a dog blog, but I shot this video and I’ve been trying to figure out a time to share it. It seems I’ve had a lot to write about in the almost two weeks since I shot the video.

I was going to link it up to the Tasty Tuesday blog hop and then I figured well……it wasn’t actually tasteFUL.

Let me set the scene.

I had gone home on my lunch to get a quick walk in with the dogs.  As I was backing out of the driveway I happened to see the neighbor’s cat just a couple of houses up.  The cat appeared to be playing with something.   At first I thought it was a leaf, but I quickly realized it was not.  I thought it might be a mouse.

I’ve never seen a cat CATCH a mouse before, so I was intrigued.  I turned around and started inching my way up the street.

This disturbed the cat, and caused him to stop and regard me suspiciously.  I got as close as as could without scaring the cat off.  Even still, the cat would stop every so often and stare at me.

I pulled my cell phone out of my purse and sat there with it trained on the cat, at this point I still had no idea what the cat was chasing, until it ran directly at my driver’s door and I realized it was a chipmunk.

The little bobble at the end is when I turned around and said, “Oh shit, where’d they go?”  I was afraid they were under the car and I would run over them as I left.  As it turned out, they weren’t.

And yes, the cat did catch the chipmunk.

Sorry for the blurry photo, the camera in my cell phone is supposed to be better than my point and shoot, but I don’t agree.

The Optimism Of Cats And Dogs

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Yesterday I Still Want More Puppies had a very cute video of a cat.

Honestly, I don’t know where some of you find the time to do all the things you do.  If I had about 8 more waking hours in a day, (and the energy to go with it) I might be able to do half of what some of you do.

But I digress.

I changed the comment I was going to leave on that particular post, because I realized the story would be quite lengthy and it would make a good post. “-)

The year was 2005 B. D. (Before Delilah.)

Sampson was about a year and a half at the time, my daughter and her husband had just gotten married, and they moved from FL to CT and were staying with us.  They brought their two cats with them, Percy and Knuckles.

Percy was a big boy, my boy. Even though he was my daughter’s cat, he was very attached to me and Hubby.  Before she moved to Florida she was in her early 20’s working part-time and going to school full-time.  Percy spent a lot of time with us.  Then she moved and took him to Florida and he hated it.

He was very happy to come back home, but not at all happy that Sampson was now living there. Percy spent a lot of time puffed up at this intruder in his home.

Knuckles was rescued from the mean streets of Lakeland, and was still a kitten.  He rode the entire trip from Florida in my son-in-law’s lap.

To accommodate the two cats, Hubby had installed a cat door in my daughter and SIL’s room.  We figured if the dog was antagonizing them, they would at least have a safe place to retreat to.

Knuckles was/is a pretty cool cat.  He had a little foil ball that you could throw and he would run after it, pick it up in his mouth and bring it back.  It was just about the cutest thing I’d ever seen. 🙂

He did like to tease Sampson though and would wait outside my daughter’s door to get Sampson’s attention and then when Sampson was almost upon him, he would dart inside the room via the cat door.

The house has three bedrooms.  Our bedroom was at one end of the hall facing the bathroom and Lisa and Steve’s room (with the cat door) is to the left of the bathroom door.

This was a time in his life when Sampson would eagerly wait at the door, because he knew Knuckles would be out and he would have an opportunity to meet him.   He did this every morning while Knuckles and Percy lived there.

Seriously you’ve got to love a dog’s optimism.

On this particular morning, Lisa was taking a shower when I opened the bedroom door. As usual Sampson tore down the hallway.  Knuckles (as usual) waited until the last possible minute and turned for the cat door.

Seriously, you’ve got to love a cat’s optimism.

Here’s the thing about cat doors.  In order for them to work, they need to be unlocked.  For some reason on this particular morning, it wasn’t.

God how I wish I had this on video.

Knuckles, the little antagonist, turned for the cat door and finding it closed, spun in the air, twisting and turning looking for escape.  He ended up against the bathroom door.

Sampson, sensing victory, charged forward, all 90 pounds of him.

Lisa screamed and tried to cover herself, as Sampson and Knuckles burst through the bathroom door.

Knuckles was air born at the time and spinning, twisting and snarling as only cats can do and in short fashion sought refuge…..under the tub.

Sampson had him pinned under the tub and he knew it.  He bent down in a play bow, tail wagging happily, only to be defeated once again because he was too big to follow Knuck.

After that day,  when Lisa took a shower, the bathroom door was always locked and the cat door was always unlocked.

Vaccinations….Day Three Hundred, Twenty Four

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Our friend over at 2BrownDawgs posed a really great question to me; why don’t I vaccinate against Distemper.

I’m going to try not to climb on one of my favorite soap boxes here, but give you a quick and dirty. 😉

The older I’ve gotten and the more information I digest, I’ve begun to feel that we over-vaccinate in this country. Honestly, if I was having children right now I would be thinking long and hard about what I would vaccinate for. But I digress….

The first set of shots we gave to Sampson left him with a hard lump on his lower back. That was when I seriously started questioning shots.

In CT your dog must be vaccinated for Rabies; that is the only shot they require. Most training centers require your dog to be vaccinated against Bordetella (Kennel Cough) and Distemper.

Sampson has been vaccinated against Bordetella and gotten the virus; three times.  That was when I asked the vet what the point was of vaccinating him if he was going to get it anyway. The best explanation I got was the shot covers two or three of the 12 known strains. Well if it covered all but two or three then I might consider it; but since I don’t board the dogs and they don’t go to dog shows, I pass on the Bordetella.

In the past I have had the dogs Titered  (Tie derd) which is a measuring of antibodies in the blood. That is usually sufficient for daycare.

Each year when I take the dogs for their annual visits, I discuss the shots with the vet to determine which shots they really need. At Delilah’s last visit we talked about Distemper and Parvo and if I remember the conversation correctly, our Dr. feels the shots protection lasts much longer than the manufacturer indicates.  Hubby thinks she said ten years, but the American Animal Hospital recommendation is seven years.  You can read their recommendations for all vaccinations here.

My vet tends to favor the holistic side of medicine, which is why I like her and every visit I say, “Dr. Soutter, what do you vaccinate your dog for?”

Last visit she vaccinated for Rabies and Leptospirosis; and since we spend a lot of time hiking in areas where wild animals live, we decided to vaccinate for Leptos.

Sampson is scheduled for his yearly check up next Friday and I intend on re-visiting the vaccination subject.  I’ll keep you posted. 😉

Thanks again to 2BrownDawgs for the most excellent question.

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