Welcome to this week’s edition of Follow-Up Friday, the post where I highlight reader’s comments, answer questions and generally just wrap up my week.

Before we begin, just a reminder that tomorrow is the Pet Blogger Linky Showcase. I will be highlighting three posts (sharing the linky love) and will post the link for this week’s party.

You Make Me Laugh – July 10, 2016

Callie, Shadow and Ducky’s Mom said, “When Callie had her first ACL surgery a few years ago, I bought one of those orthopedic crate pads to put on the cement driveway for her to rest on while she, Shadow, and I hung out in the back yard. What did she do? She got up and went over to the grass and laid down in it instead.”

Aren’t they funny? You can do your absolute best to give them a comfy spot and they’ll choose something else.

Emma said, “We like to do the same thing to our Mom. She buys a fancy new expensive bed, we sleep next to it on the floor.”

LOL I bought a nice new bed for the dogs and the minute I brought it into the house, Delilah tried to destuff it. Thankfully, she got past that.

Jan K said, “Sheba especially likes to lie on the hard floor, though she will occasionally use the beds. Luke prefers the furniture if it’s available, but Cricket likes to lie in the beds a lot. Right now she’s in one of the beds and her head is hanging off the side though!”

OMG that stuff makes me laugh. I took a picture of Sampson like that, head hanging off the bed, passed out cold.

Jan said, “The Poodles would never sleep on a floor. Read “The Princess and the Pea.””

The Poodles are smart!

Jen Gabbard said, “The only place Laika will lay on her bed (that we’ve found thus far) is when it’s pushed up next to the couch. If it’s 3 inches away forget it. I don’t know why, and for awhile I was pretty sure she just hated the bed. But nope, she uses it all the time now that it’s in the proper place according to her.”

It’s funny, they each have their own little personality quirks, just like humans.

Hawk a.k.a. Brown Dawg said, “BOL! I sleep on the floor if I’m too warm…but I definitely prefer my big fat comfy beds!”

Sampson will go to the floor if he’s too warm too, except in the winter. But I think he’d agree with you, fluffy beds are best.

What the Hell Was That?

Well ya’ll were so much smarter than I was, because a firefly never crossed my mind for one minute. (I’m going to blame it on the fact that I was half asleep.) 🙂 We used to catch fireflies when we were kids, but I hadn’t seen one in SO long, I actually had to consult the Google to see if it was a firefly.

I did catch it and set it outside, so I hope it found it’s way home.

I numbered the correct comments and random.org says the winner is number 3, so Genevieve I will be getting a bag of treats out to you and Cupcake!

Some of my favorite comments from this post:

Blueberry’s Human, “I don’t know what it was…but note to self: don’t read post titled like yours nor keep on reading it when the post cautions you are not going to reveal the answer until days later – ESPECIALLY RIGHT BEFORE GOING TO BED!…I am blaming you for what I know will be a sleepless night full of me hearing and seeing things real or imagined and the poor performance at work tomorrow that results.”

LOL you should know better than that by now. 🙂

Zelda was the first one to guess correctly, “Mom sez it might be a lightning bug. Do those taste good?”

I don’t know Zelda, I didn’t taste it, not even a lick!

Taryn said, “You didn’t say what color the flash was, and certainly a lightening bug has a slower, more yellowish pulse than a camera’s pre-flash, but since it moved, I’m sticking with bug!…You tell a great story!”

THAT was the weirdest bit of it, to me, when it was flashing, it looked white. Which is why I never thought Firefly, because I remembered them to have a warm yellowish light. And thank you, I’m glad you like the way I tell a story.

Jan K said, “Every detail of this post cracked me up, because I act the exact same way if my hubby leaves town! I haven’t done the tea kettle thing, but that’s a darn good idea. You were so brave to open the curtain, I probably wouldn’t have been that brave. 🙂”

Thank you, I thought it was a good idea too. Sometimes I wedge chairs under the door handle, something I stack boxes in front of it, this time I had a tea kettle. It worked and made me feel comfortable enough to sleep. Honestly, I try NOT to look out windows, but I had to know that that flash was!

Emma said, “Mom isn’t usually scared at night but at camp up north last fall, she saw a flashlight in the woods in the middle of the night going down the road but no other campers saw it, and no one admitted to being out. It did scare us.”

Um…that would scare me too Emma. Very freaky.

DogDaz said, “I had as much fun reading the comments, as I did your spooky tale. At first I too was thinking lightning bug, which is plausible. Maybe it was a click beetle? Or maybe you left something on the porch that was reflecting the moonlight (or streetlight) and then flashing in the wind. If the dog does not stir, I do not worry. BE safe.”

I absolutely have THE best commenters on the internet, and I enjoy reading them as well. Good advice about the dogs not stirring, I never even thought of that!

Monty, Harlow and Ramble said, “I have no idea what it might have been, but I need to tell you – I am the exact same way at night, especially when I’m alone. I don’t look out windows, I can’t sleep – are we related? LOL!”

It’s weird, when Hubby is home I can go to bed and not think twice about whether I locked a door or not. BUT when he’s gone? I’m locked up tighter than Fort Knox and I lock everything behind me! As for being related, do you want to be? 😉

Maybe It’s Me

If he only knew he could probably jump that gate.

Again, I have THE most awesome readers. You all left some really amazing comments. There were so many, that instead of highlighting them here, I’ll respond to them directly.

After calming down some and spewing it all out in this blog post, I’ve realized there probably wasn’t much else I could have done. I still feel bad that I didn’t protect Delilah, but a couple of you mentioned shooting that pepper blaster and going forward, it is going to be my first reaction, instead of my last one.

I thought about the situation good and long and discussed it with a couple of friends. After those conversations I decided to call Animal Control. I explained what happened and told him it was more for protecting my dog than for getting the other dog in trouble. My concern would be if the dog had gotten bit, the owner could try and blame it on Delilah.  I also told Animal Control that the town crew was up there and he was going to take a ride and see if he could find someone who had seen the altercation.

I will never feel good about any way I handle a situation with an aggressive dog, but I think I will go for the pepper blaster first. I also had a nice suggestion from Dachshund Nola to carry a walking stick. This has been something that’s been on my radar for a while, so I think I’ll try and check into that.

My biggest concern of course, is Delilah. Many was the walk where she looked for a fight and I’ve worked SO hard with her and we were finally at the point that I could get her past just about anything, even the lunging GSD that we occasionally run into on our morning walk. My hope is that this one encounter hasn’t set her back.

Again, I thank you all so much for being there for me and being such an awesome and supportive community. I hope you know that any of you can share anything here that you want to. You will find a warm, welcoming and caring community who are very willing to help.

Have a wonderful and amazing weekend.

Jodi 

Welcome to this week’s edition of Follow-Up Friday, the post where I highlight reader’s comments, answer questions and generally just wrap up my week.

You Make Me Laugh – July 3, 2016

Meagan Maher said, “Ahh labs or slabs as they’re sometimes known when they overeat. They seem to have stomachs with bottomless pits.”

LOL I’ve never heard them referred to as ‘slabs’, but I do agree, she is a bottomless pit!

Emma said, “She sounds like my cat bro Bert. He never stops searching for food either.”

I’ve accepted that is who she is, but I still get sad thinking in might be what she went through before coming to us. Then again, she’s my first full-blooded lab, so I have no idea if it’s ‘normal’ or not!

Sue said, “LOL I’d take that as a sign she’s feeling better!”

She IS definitely feeling better. It was weird, she really had no signs until THAT morning when she peed then kept trying to pee. It came on SO fast.

Jan said, “She sounds like my little rescue Chihuahua who must have had some hungry days in her past and like Scarlet O’Hara vowed, “Ah will nevah be hungry again.””

Bah ha ha, yes, just yesterday I found her wearing the drapes…

Jan K said, “Too funny, but I love that it means she is not nervous at the vet’s office.”

She is NOT. She may pant a bit at times, but for the most part, she loves my vet, even when they draw blood or stick their finger in her bum. 

Cupcake said, “Purses are where moms hide GUM. I found some once, but Mom said the word, “Sorry Charlie. Dream on.””

I bet that was disappointing but gum can be very bad for dogs Cupcake. Mom was only thinking of you. 😉

2 Brown Dawgs said, “Hey that is a good thing. Can’t be too sick if thinking about food. 🙂”

She apparently wasn’t. LOL  It was definitely strange, but then again, that’s my Delilah. 🙂

Peyton said, “They do think about food a lot. When my wife rattles the cat bowls you need to get out of the way.”

So cats do it too? Delilah jumps backwards when I’m carrying her dish to her spot. Twice this week she’s knocked Sampson down. 🙁

Ding Dong the Walk is Done

Two houses is barely enough time for a guy to do his business.

Emma said, “Humans do so many things that we dogs pick up on! We learned to sit when Mom’s phone rings on a walk, all on our own. We read you humans so well, but you humans don’t read us very well. We don’t mind. We know who the smarter ones are 😉”

You guys really are smart! You’ve got us trained to walk and feed you. 😉

Taryn said, “We have a nice home theater down in the basement. The boys love going down there because they always get a chew to enjoy at the start of a movie. Then they go to sleep for the duration. So now when we show them the Redbox DVD they head down the basement stairs quick as can be!”

See how smart they are? 

2 Brown Dawgs asked, “Dogs are amazing. I wonder what would happen if you changed to ring again? Would he still know to turn around or is it the chime that tells him it is time?”

I’ve been watching him since that happened and I think it has more to do with me talking to him, then the chime, BUT I’ll keep watching and then I will change the tone to see what happens.

Lori said, “Good job, Sampson! Now YOU ring a bell to make Mommy bring you dinner!”

He doesn’t have to ring a bell. 🙂

Throwback Thursday – Lessons Learned

Siriusly, who doesn’t love a dog in an eye mask?

Jen Gabbard said, “Some things are worth burning your tongue for indeed. We don’t have those remade oven pizzas very often, but when we do I burn my tongue every single time because apparently I can’t wait a couple minutes for it to cool down… You’d think we’d learn after the 7th time or so, but no, not me.”

Ha ha ha, I never learned those lessons either! 

Jan K said, ” I imagine that was the last time you stayed in your sister’s bedroom?…We have allowed company to sleep in our bed in the past, and the dogs are usually happy staying with us wherever we are. Though we always closed them in the room we were sleeping in so they didn’t really have a choice!…It is fun to look back at those old posts and finding things we’ve completely forgotten about!”

It WAS the last time. LOL My dogs are like yours, usually very content to be wherever we are. I’m not sure if it was actually us being in that room, or the fact that the dogs were in there that was the issue. But two of her dogs were not very happy about it. 

Throwback Thursday seems to be a hit. Here’s what some of you said.

Sue said, “LOL Love those photos of Delilah and Sampson catching up on their beauty sleep! And I love that you re-posted this.”

Thank you. I admit, some of the earlier stuff is just dribble, but there are some good ones too!

Taryn said, “I like TBT because I am a late-comer to your blog and missed the early ones. Please keep up the reminiscing!”

You got it!

Alexa88 said, “ditto what Taryn said.”

Thank you.

Monika and Sam said, “Since I’ve been only blogging for a couple years, seeing your early stuff makes me realize how much I missed out on from one of my favorite bloggers! Keep the oldies a-coming, Jodi-we love ’em, you and your pups! ”

Oh thank you, that is SO sweet. (I’m actually quite fond of you all as well.) 😉

Well that’s it for me folks, have a great weekend!