What Would You Do For Your Pet?

April 9, 2013 By Jodi

I had a totally different post planned for today and then I came upon this article on Yahoo, and the title caught my eye, Experts: Don’t attempt to save swept-away pets.

You can read the article for yourself AFTER you finish this post (apparently I have to be concerned with something called bouncing.)

I’ll give you the down and dirty. Apparently five people have died in California in the last five months trying to rescue a dog being swept away.

The article says that most dogs are better swimmers than humans and by using their fight or flight instincts will work with the currents and find their way to shore. Of course it might be a bit farther away than where they started so microchips and collar tags are highly recommended.

We all know that certain dogs are better in the water than others. Labradors, German Shepards and Pit Bulls are designed for swimming. Their strong bodies, heads that stay above water, thick/and or waterproof coats not to mention the four feet vs two for humans, (with some of them being webbed) give them the advantage over two footers who can experience hypothermia due to the cold ocean water.

Animals have far better stamina than most humans and are capable of keeping themselves alive in the water by remaining calm and focusing on the task at hand vs humans who tend to panic and become confused.

And what if your pet manages to stay alive, turning up two or three miles down shore and you have died, where does that leave him/her?

Logistically this all makes sense to me, but the reality of seeing your dog struggling and being swept away is far different. I can’t imagine the guilt I’d feel standing helplessly by. And God knows I have enough guilt I carry right now.

How could I let either one of those sweet faces just drift away without trying to help? What do you think? What would YOU do?

Lessons of Love

March 20, 2013 By Jodi

My little grandchildren were over on Sunday for our traditional St. Patrick’s day dinner. My grandson is five and my granddaughter is two.

They’re both a little shy with the dogs when they first come in and truthfully I can’t blame them. I mean to put it into their perspective the dogs look to them like a bull or horse look to us.

And if I saw a bull or horse running full at me, I’d whimper a little bit too, even if my Daddy were holding me and telling me I was okay.

But once the dogs settle down, the kids are very comfortable around them.

Which doesn’t mean I don’t watch them, I’m constantly watching and educating them.

Watch out for the dog.

Don’t do that to the dog.

She doesn’t want you to pet her right now!

The last one was after my grandson decided he wanted to pet Delilah. Which is in and of itself a good thing. I was in the kitchen doing something (now here’s a surprise, I can’t remember what) when he made the announcement, “I’m going to pet her.”

The assumption is if I’m in the kitchen and both dogs are with me, I’m probably working with food. Delilah can get a little snarky around food, so my eyes were focused on the interaction.

He proceeded to stroke his hand down her back and then back up, moving her fur in a way she is only accustomed to when she is being toweled.

Delilah shifted slightly to her right. He moved with her and continued his stroking.

Delilah moved again, again he moved with her.

Delilah barked and walked away.

At which point I said, “She doesn’t want you to pet her right now.”

He decided he would then pet Sampson.

I took the opportunity to explain to him that dogs cannot speak to us and tell us that they do not like something, instead they might bark at us like Delilah did.

I also showed him Sampson’s teeth and said, do you see these big teeth? If you continue to do something a dog doesn’t like, the dog might bite you. And that would really hurt. Then I showed him a scar I have from a dog bite and explained that I didn’t get it from either Sampson or Delilah, but we should still be respectful about what dogs need and how they speak to us.

A few moments later my grandson had taken off the door-sized magnet of Sampson that I have on my refrigerator and was showing it to Sampson.

I heard him say, “This was when you went to the beach in North Carolina Sampson when you had little teeth.”

It was a cute ending to our lesson of love.

It’s not just a lesson of love to prevent my grandchildren from being bitten, it’s also a lesson of love for my pets. To be their voice and not put them in a position where they are forced to speak for themselves.

What types of lessons of love do you teach your little friends?

Longer Days

March 6, 2013 By Jodi

I am loving the longer days! If I hurry home from work we can squeeze a wood walk in before dinner.

Which is exactly what we did last night.

We’re not the only ones taking advantage of the longer days. Last night we ran into a woman and her three dogs. I’ve met this woman before and I actually wrote about her, but I couldn’t find that particular post. She’s one of the people who wander the woods with her dogs and lets them wander wherever they want.

Hubby and I heard the woman before we saw her and her dogs. We turned around to head away from them, but not before her dogs came charging up to Delilah. Of course I dropped the leash and I was super proud of the way Delilah handled herself.

Despite one of the dogs barking in her face.

Yes, it’s true her hackles were up, but she retained her self-control and returned to me when I called her.

We looped around so we’d end up following the same path they took, except Sampson decided at the last-minute to head another way and guess who came running up to us again?

Her dogs were acting like they hadn’t been out all winter. One of the dogs, a large white one really wanted to play, he actually jumped on Sampson’s back. When he tried to play with Delilah she let him know in no uncertain terms that she didn’t want to play.

I was so busy worrying about Delilah and trying to prevent an altercation that I didn’t get any pictures of the other dogs.

But it was another beautiful sunset and I did get some photos of that.

I tried to capture the orange of the sunset and finally got these by using the flash.