Heart Like a Dog

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

The Gift Every Dog Walker Needs for Christmas

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There are many things I dislike about winter, but the one that has to rank right up there at the top is walking the dogs in the dark and trying to pick up poop.

Okay, so that was two things.

Picking up poop is hard in the dark.  Sometimes you can see the steam, but other times you can’t.

You try to hold onto your leash, open a poop bag with numb fingers and shine a flashlight on the poop at the same time, then pick it up and tie off the bag.

It’s next to impossible.

What every dog walker needs for Christmas

Besides a professional dog walker?

A cyclops.

No, not the one-eyed mystical giant.

Last year Hubby got me the best gift for walking the dogs at night.

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It’s made by Cyclops and clips onto your hat or visor.

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This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine.

This is me rocking my cyclops hands free light on my ear muff visor.

I love this little light.

As soon as I step out the door I turn on the light.  When a car approaches and we stop to sit, I look down at Delilah and my light shines down on her, making sure the driver knows there is someone there.

When it’s time to bend down to pick up poop, the light shines right where I’m looking, and my hands are free to pick up my temporary hand warmer.

Did I mention the price?  Amazon.com has a five LED cyclops for only $10.99.

Okay, technically it’s a product review, except I didn’t receive any product and I’m not getting paid for it.  You can purchase the light through Amazon but I won’t get any money for it, because I haven’t signed up for their affiliation program yet.

Truthfully I just thought it was a great item and might make a good Christmas gift.

Have you ever received a great gift that you didn’t ask for?

Canvas Art – A Review and Giveaway

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As soon as Thanksgiving is over, most people’s thoughts turn to Christmas.  I don’t know about you, but I try to avoid the mall area as much as possible, which means a lot of my shopping is done online.

Do you ever find yourself struggling to find that perfect gift?  Have you ever considered Canvas Prints?

A few years ago, I took one of my favorite photos of Hubby and Sampson and had it made into a canvas print and gave it to Hubby for Christmas.  (I admit it was probably more for me than it was for him, but he did like it and we hung it on our wall.)

I love this photo, I framed it and hung it on my wall.

 

I’ve wanted to get a Canvas Print of Sampson and Delilah but other things have come up.

Just about a month ago I was contacted by the folks at Princopia.   They offered me a free canvas print in exchange for an honest review.

Let me tell you, the hardest part was choosing the photo.

I finally decided to go with the picture I submitted for the Blogville Calendar contest.  You remember it right?

Sampson and Delilah

 

All told it probably took me 10 minutes to order, but that was only because I was trying to decide if I wanted to wrap the picture around the sides, or go with a solid color.

This was the only area where I wasn’t completely satisfied, each time I changed colors I had to upload the picture again. But it was so easy to do, that this was simply a minor inconvenience.

I finally decided on black sides and placed my order.

I let my contact at Printcopia know I had placed my order and she responded by telling me that she had checked on my photo, it looked great and was expected to be delivered today.

So imagine my surprise when it arrived much sooner than expected!

First I was impressed with the packaging.

Fragile Handle With Care

 

My mail carrier was instructed to handle my package with care.

The photo inside, was safely surrounded by newspaper.

AND IT LOOKS AWESOME!!

It’s actually hanging on a column in my dining area.

 

Doesn’t it look great?

Printcopia has some sister sites as well.  I can’t give them the glowing recommendation I have for Printcopia and their awesome Canvas Prints, but if you are in the market for Car Magnets, Vinyl Banners or Lawn Signs you may want to check them out.

Guess what the best part is?  Printcopia is going to give one of my readers a free Canvas Print too!

I’m not sure how the free Rafflecopter works, so if there are technical problems, don’t despair, I’ll figure it out and just extend the contest.

Do you have a photo in mind you’d like to see as a canvas print?  If so, enter by using the rafflecopter below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Disclaimer, the author of this post was given a free 8 x 10 canvas print, in exchange for an honest review.

Mr. Chewy

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A little over a week ago I agreed to do a review of MrChewy.com.  Mr. Chewy is a website where you can order dog and cat food and treats and have it delivered to your door.

Of course I didn’t agree to do it for nothing.  In exchange for my honest review of the website I get a gift certificate for $50 to use on the website, which I in turn will pass on to you.   We’ll get to the how you can win in a minute because truthfully, I’m still working that out.

I sat down last Saturday to check out the website and then I wanted to kick myself.  I feed raw.  What the heck was I thinking?  I don’t buy bag dog food so how can I review it?

Then I became a little creative.  I called my sister and asked her about the food she feeds her dogs.  Her little Bandit is on a limited ingredient food.  I also  went to Sara’s store and checked out prices of her dog food so I would have some comparisons.

First what I liked.

MrChewy.com has free shipping for orders over $49 and if the order is less than $49, it is a flat shipping fee of $4.95.  All orders are shipped UPS and should be received in 1 to 2 business days.

In my opinion MrChewy offers good quality  foods and treats.  The website makes it very easy to find what you are looking for.  Once you get to the website you can click on Dog Food, you then get a variety of options as to what kind of dog food.  You can search by brand, form, life-stage or speciality.  They carry grain-free, gluten-free, natural and organic dog foods.  It works in the same manner for cat food and treats.

I compared prices for Taste of the Wild, Blue Buffalo and Natural Balance.  In most instances MrChewy was $3 to $4 less per bag in all sizes.  Which can save a significant amount of money if you are qualified for the free shipping.  Even if you don’t qualify for free shipping, depending on where you get your food and how far you travel and factoring in the price of gas, it may still be a good savings to you.

They also sell cat litter and puppy training pads.

The flea and tick area is a little light, as they only sell Frontline, and they have nothing natural in the flea and tick categories.

MrChewy also has a referral program you can sign up for, when any of you order from MrChewy and use this code AUNT9209 you will automatically receive 10% off your first order AND when you sign up for a MrChewy account, MrChewy will donate $10 to Best Friends Animal Society!  How cool is that?

But of course, me being me, there had to be something I didn’t like about MrChewy.com.

Our little cat, Bob had a urinary blockage and can only eat a good quality, non-fish wet food.  Personally I feed him Wellness and I fluctuate between a beef chicken, chicken or turkey.  On MrChewy the Wellness only averages out to be about 15 cents cheaper per can and you have to buy by the case.  I usually buy about 12 cans at a time, but in three different flavors.  So that was a negative for me.

MrChewy has an 800 number with operators available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.  They also have an online chat.

I felt if I was going to give a proper review I should at least check out their customer service, so I clicked online chat.  Within a minute I had someone on the other end.  My question was this, “Is your shipping done by weight or is it a flat rate (in case you don’t qualify for free shipping?)

I waited.  After five minutes I said, Hello (with the person’s name)?  And I waited.  Meanwhile I decided to click the “learn more” link under the free shipping ad and that is where I found the $4.95 flat rate information.  but I left the window up anyway because I wanted to see how long it took.

It took about 10 minutes before the person came back with my answer.  Of course they apologized for the wait and I let them know I had already found the information and that I was simply checking their service for a website review I was doing for my blog.  They apologized again and that as they say, was that.

So there you have my review of MrChewy.

Now for the fun part.  I’m going to give away the $50 gift certificate to one of you.   The contest will be open for one week and will end at midnight on February 8th.   I will choose the winner using random.com.

Here’s how you enter, I’ve told you some of the crazy stories that my dogs (well mostly Delilah) have done over the years.  In the comment section tell me the craziest thing your dog has ever done.  Don’t worry, if your dog has never done anything crazy, you can leave me a comment telling me the sweetest thing your dog has every done, or something your dog does to make you smile.  If you don’t have a dog, then you can feel free to pass the coupon code on to someone you know.  Sound fair?  Fun?

I can’t wait to hear what you all have to say.

Book update is the same, time has been short so I haven’t worked on the book, but I have been mulling things over in my head and I’ve also been doing a little research as well.  I hope to write tomorrow!

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