Heart Like a Dog

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

Tales from the ‘Hood

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While this isn’t really a DADO post, I feel like there’s potential in here for some of  those stories in the future.

DADO Capital of Connecticut

I was walking Delilah a week or so ago. We were coming up on the jackal’s house, and I had crossed the street (in avoidance of little Napoleon) when I saw a man approaching with…a puppy.

The puppy was a GSD or a GSD mix of some sort, because he saw Delilah and the little ears went straight up. (SQUEE OMD, he was SO cute!)

As we got closer the man said, “Day one.”

That’s when the puppy barked, and the man said, “That’s the first time I’ve heard him bark.”

Thankfully Delilah was focused on the treat in my hand, and didn’t pay any attention. After she got the treat, the puppy barked some more, and that’s when Delilah’s ears perked up. A quick “Leave it” and another treat and the whole thing was behind us.

This guy had a GSD before, and I do think he’s pretty savvy, but you just never know.

This story, this story I believe has future DADO potential.

Saturday morning I was taking Sampson for his walk, and our neighbor Larry was out walking his dog. Larry and I have chatted before, and I know he has a reactive dog, so when we see each other, we have a set of hand signals to indicate who is going where.

I had planned on taking Sampson one way, but the house on the corner has a dog, and Sampson started jumping around acting like a puppy. Mind it’s 6:30 in the morning, and he wasn’t listening to me, so I quickly turned around, and headed up the hill, and into the woods.

Keep this in mind, while I tell you what comes next.

Saturday evening I’m walking Sampson. (Again! What the hell?) We had crossed the street and made it up about two houses, when I noticed there were two people walking up the hill.

With four dogs.

I knew it wasn’t going to be pretty, and I knew I wouldn’t make it to the woods, or to Miss Karen’s house before we were overtaken by these people/dogs, so I popped into Larry’s yard, and got Sampson far enough in, so he was below the road line and wouldn’t see the dogs/people. I fed him copious amounts of treats to keep him distracted.

We call that bait and switch. What the woof, Mama?

From my spot in Larry’s yard, I could see the dogs. Two of them were small and looked like Cocker Spaniels to me. The other two were larger, I think one was a Golden, and the other a Pointer, but I can’t be certain. The Golden was wearing a gentle leader and one or two (or all) of them, were creating a fuss. I heard one of the people trying to calm the dogs down.

When the people/dogs had moved far enough ahead, we worked our way up to Miss Karen’s house, where he got lots of loving.

Same dogs, different day.

Monday morning I discovered the four dogs live about six houses down, on the opposite side of the street. I found it out when we walked past it at 6:30 am and the dogs went ballistic.

The house had sold recently, but I hadn’t seen anyone about…until Saturday.

I guess we better buckle up, the house next door to that house recently sold as well.

Re-living Memories

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As the dogs have aged, they sleep more. When they sleep more, they do less and therefore, the things that make me laugh or smile, are simple things.

Oh sure, there are days when something happens.

Like Friday when I came home and it looked like the cheap dog bed I bought from my local warehouse had exploded.

WHAT HAPPENED?

The bed has been falling apart for a bit and I just haven’t gotten around to replace it.  Although it’s never looked like THIS.

Truthfully, it could have also been someone thinking it was a giant stuffy that needed de-stuffing. Because yes, I have caught her doing that.

Don’t believe her, she loves to tell tall tales.

Because our lives have quieted down, I find myself going through the 8,000+ photos I’ve taken over the last five years. Partially, I’m deleting some of the duplicates, or the photo of the state driver’s license plate so I can report him to the “How am I driving” number. (Like an old-fucking-lady, that’s how.) But I’m also enjoying some of the more candid photos I’ve found, and re-living memories.

Like this photo. I want to say it was taken a couple of years ago, before Sampson really slowed down. It was a day I had my granddaughter, and she was running through the woods, jumping over rocks and fallen trees.

Sampson headed off the trail, to the rocky outcrop that overlooks our neighborhood, and I happened to snap a photo.

It makes me smile to see this, he is always so happy in the woods and I think it shows in the photo, what do you think?

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

Are Your Dishes Safe To Eat From?

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When I first started seeing a Naturopath, (so many years ago that I cannot remember,) I suddenly became aware of how much toxicity my body is exposed to on any given day.

I became determined to find a way to reduce my exposure to toxicity, and I’m of the mindset, what’s good for the human, is good for the dogs. So I started working on ways to reduce toxins in their lives as well.

If life were ideal, and I was rich beyond imagination, I’d live in a green house, with bamboo floors, and green mattresses. Nothing would be toxic whatsoever. But despite me giving the state my hard earned money every week for that dang-blasted lottery, that dream continues to elude me.

Canglangting elegant bamboo house

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia via Creative Commons

Living cleaner is good for people, it's good for animals, and it's good for the environment, but it can also be very costly. Healthy options don't come cheap. Click To Tweet

This means I have to carefully weigh areas in my life where I can have the most impact for my dollar.

Luckily for me, having a Labrador that puts her mouth on EVERYTHING helped me make a relatively inexpensive change. It happened one day during meal time. I’d fed the dogs and as is the usual course of events, as soon as Delilah inhaled the last bite in her bowl, she rushed to Sampson’s, licked it clean and then licked the outside of the bowl.

Bang! It was like I was hit with a ton of bricks!

The dish soap! How many times did I make a healthy dinner and then serve it on plates washed with chemicals? And lick the bowl myself?

I went immediately to Dr. Google, I found a really lovely website, (too bad I didn’t book mark it,) that recommended ECOS.

I started using it right away.

I’ll be perfectly honest here. (Did you expect less?) The suds don’t last as long as traditional dish soaps, and I seem to use a lot more of it, although that totes could be me. The other thing is, it’s more expensive than say a bottle of Dawn or Palmolive.

Still, in the scope of things, it’s a small increase in my food budget that gives me what I feel is a good return for the money. It also benefits both me and the dogs.

If you want to check the safety of any of your household products, a good place to start is the Environmental Working Group. They list each chemical in the products, and then “grade” the product for safety, breaking down each ingredient with a letter grade of A through F, including areas where the chemicals are sketchy and also where the concerns lie. For example, ECOS has “some” concern for both Asthma/Respiratory as well as Skin Allergies and Irritation, but “low” concern for Developmental & Reproductive Toxicity, Cancer and the Environment.

The overall ‘grade’ for ECOS is “A” as opposed to Palmolive which was graded an”F”.

Because I’m cheap I don’t like to spend a ton of money on cleaners, and I have a Labrador that likes to lick cabinets, I also use my dish detergent for cleaning counters, cabinets, floors and woodwork as well.

Worried about the toxins in your dish detergent? These are the top eight ones you should avoid:

  • Phosphates
  • Triclosan
  • SLS (Sodium Lauryl Sulfate)/SLES (Sodium Laureth sulfate)
  • Fragrance (you want to find a detergent that gets its scent from essential oils)
  • DEA (Diethanolamine), MEA (Monoethanolamine), TEA (Triethanolamine)
  • Chlorine
  • Formaldehyde
  • Ammonia

For me, I try and do the Google and research the products before purchasing. Just because something tells me it’s “Natural” does not mean it’s not toxic. The key is to know what to avoid and do your research.

Do you have any tips for eliminating/limiting toxins in your home/life?

This is the third installment in a series about reducing toxins in your and your dog’s lives.

If you’ve missed the previous installments, or are just tuning in, installment one can be found HERE, and installment two can be found HERE.

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