Heart Like a Dog

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

Sweet Grass, Sweet Tea for Dogs

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When my kids lived in Florida for a couple of years, they developed a taste for something known as sweet tea. If you are not familiar with this drink, it’s basically iced tea with sugar in it. It’s way to sweet for me, but hey, to each his own.

This time of year, you’ll find a lot of dogs eating grass. My vet says this is because the grass is sweet time of year, which is why I’m calling this, the sweet tea for dogs.

FTR I do have a dog, that loves the sweet grass. This time of year, Delilah becomes an eater of grass. She’s particular about WHICH grass she eats, carefully checking out the taller grass, which is typically found around the mailboxes.

The funny thing is, despite the fact that she WANTS to eat the grass, she makes the funniest faces while she’s doing it.

It’s tasty, but it tickles my tongue.

Unfortunately, it’s difficult to catch on camera, but if I had to describe it, the best I can do is she wrinkles her nose.

I can’t help but laugh.

You make me laugh (or smile.) The sweet, funny, loving things my dogs do that make me laugh or smile.

What did your pet do that made you laugh or smile.

The Patience of a Dog

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In my neck of the woods, winter hung on far longer than most people wanted it to. Me, I didn’t mind the cooler weather, because I actually prefer it.

Sampson does too.

While he won’t turn down a chance to let himself ‘melt’ in the sun, most days he gets too warm, too quick.

Soaking up the sun.

Monday our temperatures were in the mid 60’s. Tuesday they moved up to the mid 70’s. Wednesday the temperature climbed into the low 90’s.

Our weather folks can’t seem to get it right. While I’d known it was going to be in the 80’s, where we live, it’s usually a titch cooler than other areas.  I had left some windows open, as well as the door to the little balcony on the front of the house. It’s nice for the dogs to get out and get some fresh air when I’m not home, plus I figured it would help keep them cooler.

I was wrong.

By the time I got home at 5 o’clock, both dogs were already panting. I quickly turned on some ceiling fans, and an oscillating fan I had. I knew they’d want walks, and even though Sampson was hesitant to do so, I coaxed him up with a promise of shortening his walk. He really only gets outside two times per day, and it’s so important that we try and keep his joints moving, so….off we went.

We’ve made friends with a neighbor up the street. Technically, she is only five houses away, but the lots are over-sized, and it’s uphill, so it generally takes us between 5 to 7 minutes to get there. I told Sampson we could turn around at “Miss Karen’s” House.

Sampson loves Miss Karen, and she loves him. He first started his friendship with her a couple of years back. She’d be outside working in her yard, and he would always ‘talk’ to her when we’d walk past, and try to get her attention.

He’s a smooth operator, because that’s how it starts out.  Just a little talking.

He talks to you, and inevitably, you WILL talk to him. Because he WILL wear you down.

Once he has you talking back to him, the tail wagging commences, and the head tilts. Before you know it, you’ve stopped to pet him. Once you’ve done that, you’ve sealed your fate. You will ALWAYS have to pet him when you see him, and he remembers where you live and he looks for you.

That’s what happened with Miss Karen.

Miss Karen is out a lot in warmer months, and not so much in the cooler months. But that doesn’t matter to Sampson, he stops each, and every time we walk past her house. (Even on those days where we stopped on the way up, he will try and stop on the way back.)

I can usually tell when the odds are good of Miss Karen being outside, because the garage door will be open. If it’s closed, I know she’s not out. But Sampson doesn’t read those signs, he still maintains that we are at Miss Karen’s house, and she should be outside. (As an aside, he’s now made friends with Miss Karen’s husband, as well as her daughter and son-in-law, who also live there.)

So he stops. And waits. Sometimes that patience pays off, and sometimes it does not.

Now you’re up to speed, and I can tell you what happened on Wednesday.

When we got to Miss Karen’s the garage doors were closed, but her car was in the drive way, and it was running. Sampson slowed down as we walked past the driveway, but I told him, “She’s not out, Buddy.”

So he walked past the driveway, past the bushes in front, and started heading towards the area of the house where we’d last seen her. He took about four steps, and laid down.

I couldn’t get him to budge.

I can will them out of the house.

He laid in the grass, staring at the front door, as if he could will her to come out.

After about five minutes, Miss Liz (Miss Karen’s daughter) came out, and naturally came right up to Sampson to show him some love. Shortly after that, Miss Liz’s husband, (Thibault)  came out, and he also came up to Sampson to share the love.  They were leaving for a walk, so after a couple of minutes, they said their goodbyes, which apparently was enough for Sampson, as he popped up and was ready to head home.

That’s when he hit the mother lode.

As we made to pass the driveway, Miss Karen and Mr. Ray got out of the car. (It’s a new car to them, and they were trying to figure a couple of things out.)

Sampson was thrilled (of course) and hurried over to greet her. I shared the story with her of how he refused to budge, and showed her the picture, as well as making sure it was okay to share it here.

She said something along the lines of “Sampson waiting for two of his favorite Q-tips.” 🙂 And we both had a good laugh.

The patience of a dog when (s)he really wants something is amazing. 

You make me laugh (or smile), the sweet, funny, loving things dogs do that make us laugh or smile.

What did your pet do this week that made you laugh or smile? What does your pet have patience for?

Change is Inevitable

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I think I’ve mentioned before, the past couple of years, I’ve really struggled with the writing of this blog.

I’m struggling to get this dish full. Can you help a dog out?

In part, I think it was a depression of what was going on in my life.

  • I was in an incredibly toxic job. Initially they just cut my hours down, and six months later they cut my hours again, but this time they wrote me up. If I’m being honest, I could have been putting in more effort, but the bulk of what I was written up for was bogus. That was when I saw the writing on the wall and knew I’d need to find another job, before they chose to fire me. (FTR, I did and now have the nicest boss!)
  • Things aren’t great at home. I won’t go into details here, but will just say, sometimes people drift apart. People grow, people change and sometimes there are real struggles with that. I’m not sure how it will resolve, but eventually we’ll figure it out.
  • The dogs are aging, and with that comes health challenges and decisions, and the reality of facing some hard and painful events.
  • With the aging of the dogs, they do less. Sampson is limited physically, so they don’t get to play much together. They do make me smile or laugh every day and I do try to capture that for a post. Thankfully, I do have the DADO’s in my neighborhood to help, when the dogs aren’t doing their job. 🙂

Truthfully, there were times when I just wanted to quit. Stop blogging all together, but something just wouldn’t let me. (It’s true, it could have been Jan, she forbids me to stop.)

Honestly, I think it’s the community that revolves around this blog that kept me going. All of you reading, and commenting, helped keep this blog alive.

I want you to take a moment and really let that sink in. YOU kept me going. YOU made a difference for me, and I’d like to thank you from the bottom of my heart for being the reason this blog still is active today.

Things change.  All the time.

The pet bloggers are seeing that right now with BlogPaws. BlogPaws has been acquired by a larger company, and with the exception of one, all the people we know and love, who have mentored us over the last ten years, have either been let go, or chosen to move on. Whether this is a good move or a bad move for the community is yet to be seen.

The purpose of this blog has changed. Originally it started out to garner an online presence. (Mission accomplished, I think.) 🙂

Then it became something so much more to me. It was a place to connect with people like me, people who loved their dogs like crazy and totally ‘got’ that I had to skip happy hour to hurry home from work, because…dogs.

A place where I had friends, where I didn’t feel so alone or lonely.

Delilah’s training was at times extremely challenging. I was struggling trying to find what worked for her, so I knew others must be too. I wanted to give those people hope. I wanted to find the humor in and share the struggles I had with training a crazy chocolate lab. I wanted to let people know that even when it felt hopeless, find the humor, pause and laugh, then carry on. Some dogs just need more time than others to find their happily ever after, but the struggle is SO worth it when it pays off, and it WILL pay off.

We faced medical issues. Sampson with his CCL’s, heart issues, adrenal issues, and those little hormones that keep rearing their little heads. Delilah with elevated liver levels. I like to approach these as holistically as I can. I thought maybe others might too, or perhaps something we did would help another person deal with the same issue. So, I wrote about those.

At various times over the years, people have reached out and thanked me for a particular post, as it gave them an option for their dog that they weren’t aware of, or hadn’t considered.

Helping became important to me. Whether it was a supplement, or a training tip, or making you laugh or smile, or just making you feel like you weren’t alone with whatever you were facing. If I touched your life in some way, I’m truly grateful for being able to do so.

I think that’s where I’m at right now. I want this blog to be somewhere you come to, for help, encouragement, inspiration, humor, or just to sit down and not feel like you are alone in whatever you are dealing with.

Change as they say (there THEY are again, who ARE they?) is inevitable, but it doesn’t have to be bad, right?

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