Heart Like a Dog

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

I Know You’re a Lab

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Thank you all for the suggestions you left in the comments regarding how to handle the situation with the dogs (mostly Sampson) and the new puppy.  Besides asking for your thoughts, I reached out to a fellow blogger experienced in fostering and introducing new dogs.  I will write more about this in my Follow-Up Friday post, but I will tell you we are managing with crates and gates. 🙂

Back before Delilah joined our pack, Hubby, Sampson and I hiked together every weekend.  One of our favorite spots was the local reservoir.  You may remember I posted some beautiful foliage pictures from it back in October.

Our local reservoir.

Our local reservoir.

 

To take the dog’s minds off the puppy invading their territory, Hubby and I decided to take them to the reservoir as there are some really nice hiking trails over there.

I had Delilah on the long leash to start, as the reservoir is bordered on the front side by a very busy road.  There are also some houses along one side and I wanted to make sure we were past a trouble spot before I turned her loose.

Delilah hadn’t been down to this spot in years so she was pulling me like crazy.  Once we reached the spot where we had to cross a stream I knew it was time to let her off.

I didn't feel like starting the walk with a dip in the water.

I didn’t feel like starting the walk with a dip in the water.

 

The pond was off to our left and it was protected by some downed trees and some shrubs, I didn’t think she could manage to get in although as soon as she SAW the pond she did try.  Hubby and I kept walking though and called her to us and she came a running.

Back when it was just the three of us, I managed to snag one of my favorite pictures of Sampson.  He had run ahead of us on the trail and when we rounded the corner, there he was.

One of my favorite photos of Sampson.

Already posing.

 

We kept our eyes peeled for the rock and thought we’d stage a little reenactment.

Delilah wasn't quite as comfortable posing on the rock as Sampson was.

Delilah wasn’t quite as comfortable posing on the rock as Sampson was.

 

There was a tree that had fallen across the path, it had two branches that were about 1 1/2 to 2 feet high and about 3 to 5 feet apart.

The dogs were running ahead and my jaw dropped as Delilah cleared the tree.  Notice that Sampson jumps, landing between the two branches but Delilah doesn’t.

We hiked in about twenty minutes or so before turning around.

The dogs were having a blast, at one point they found a small puddle and got their zoomies on, so they were both muddy.

Delilah was off-leash for almost the entire walk, she ran back and was treated so often, that I ran out of treats.

I was leery about the pond on the way out, I knew she wanted in, so as soon as it came into my sight, I leashed her up.  Truthfully she probably could have stayed off-leash for a couple of minutes longer, but I wanted to err on the side of caution.

I forgot about crossing the stream though, as soon as I unclipped her….she found her way into the pond

She’s a Lab, through and through.

A Day of Thanks

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Today is Thanksgiving here, in a few short hours we will gather family and friends together and sit down to enjoy a meal together.

I’ve many things to be thankful for, not just this year but every year.  I have family and friends who love me, a wonderful blog family, a roof over my head, a decent home, a job, not to mention two wonderful dogs who I love dearly.

Throw in an (almost) five-year old grandson who still thinks going to Mimi’s house is the greatest gift in the world and an (almost) two-year old granddaughter who can now say, “I ol you Mimi” and it doesn’t get much better.

Yes, those are all wonderful things to be thankful for, and I am grateful for them every single day.

I thought today, it’d be nice to share something other than the traditional things that one normally is grateful for.

I wanted to write a beautiful piece about all the unsung heroes who get taken for granted every day, with little to no thanks.

  • People like our soldiers who sacrifice personal lives to protect our freedoms and uphold the motto, “Land of the free and home of the brave.
  • Firefighters and policemen and emergency personnel who work regardless of holidays to keep us safe.
  • Doctors and nurses working tirelessly in the hospitals to save lives.
  • Animal rescue workers who are out on the front line, experiencing the horrors that I myself can’t handle, helping those that can’t help themselves escape from the cruelty of man.

And all of those, I can’t think of.

Yes, I wanted to write a beautiful piece but somehow the words wouldn’t come, instead I offer this, a simple yet heartfelt thanks, and wish you all a safe and Happy Thanksgiving.

Happy Thanksgiving from all of us at Heart Like a Dog!

 

Are there any unsung heroes, that you can think of?

Close Encounters of the White Kind

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Just about the only benefit (as far as I’m concerned) to not having any leaves on the trees is visibility. Normally speaking I can clearly see the trail ahead of me at this time of year.

Last weekend as the dogs and I headed up to the woods, I saw Sampson stiffen, which is normally what he does when he sees somebody.

I was still a ways back but could just make out the white in the field, but I couldn’t tell what it was.

Who is it?

 

At first I asked him to wait, but as I got a bit closer I could see who it was, so I gave them free rein.

I watched them as I got closer, Sampson approached cautiously.

What is IT?

 

It looks like a big pile of I don’t know what.

 

Once he was close enough to discover what it was, he was fine.

Delilah (no surprises here) charged right up to it.

Snap, it’s only snow. I thought it was the Stay Puft Marshmallow man.

 

For a second I thought he was going to pee on it, but that passed. Phew!  Imagine poor Frosty with a big old yellow tie.

Of course, this weekend it was all gone, nothing left but a photo to even show it was there.

Has your dog ever encountered something like a snowman?  What was his/her reaction?

The Dogs of Blogville Calendar

I’d like to apologize for all of you having problems with the voting.  I’ve checked the settings on the poll and don’t understand why some people are having problems voting.

Misaki said, “Weirdly the poll didn’t seem to work on firefox, thankfully I still have IE still installed.”  As of now that is my only suggestion.  Try a different browser.  There are certain blogs I follow that for some reason don’t work in Firefox but they work just fine on Internet Explorer.  I’m sorry I can’t be of any more help with this.

I would suggest keep trying or trying shutting your browser off and trying again.  This morning when I was promoting on facebook my friends were telling me how the voting was going, but I couldn’t see it.

This is my first time using the WP Polls and I admit I don’t know a lot about it.

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