Heart Like a Dog

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

Follow-Up Friday – August 2, 2013

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Welcome to this week’s edition of Follow-Up Friday, the blog hop that let’s you wrap up your week and leads you right into the weekend.

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Joining me this week as co-hostess is the amazing Pup Fan from I Still Want More Puppies.  Remember the awesome discussion on Wednesday?  That was because of her.  She’s an incredible woman, fur mom to Bella and Tavish, Queen of the Parodies and did I mention the best thing?  She’s my friend.

Many thanks to Pup Fan for co-hosting with me this week.

You Make Me Laugh

JoAnn asked, “Are they enjoying their stay at the ranch? did they roll in poop yet?”

Yes we are enjoying our stay at the ranch.  It’s a really beautiful property and I hope to do an entire post about the farm.  The dogs had a great time and Sampson even got fairly close to a Llama!  And as of the writing of this post, no poop rolling.

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Hello Llama, my name is Stone, Sampson Stone.

2 Brown Dawgs said, “Storm would be happy to see the horses. Horse poop is a delicacy to her!”

LOL and EWWWW but I suspect given the chance, Delilah would feel the same way!

When the Universe Smacks You Upside Your Head

Caren Gittleman said, “I think we ALL can use a good “slapping” every now and then and it is amazing how it is taken care of FOR us.”

Amen sister.  I’m not saying I don’t deserve a good smack upside my head.  🙂  It was just what I needed.

Jen said, “I’m always getting slapped upside my head by the universe and sometimes it slaps my ass too.”

I think I was getting an ass slapping too!

Jessica said, “I think I missed where you are taking this trip?”

We are nestled in the mountains of Eastern Tennessee on a Llama farm!

Before There Was You

Tuesday my sweet, beautiful boy turned nine.  We celebrated his birthday by taking a nice long walk around the llama farm. Thank you all for the birthday wishes I think he enjoyed his day.

Houndstooth said, “It’s funny how the right dog can bring about so many changes in our lives and lead us to where we need to go.”

I agree.  It’s amazing how one dog can make such a positive change.

Free To Good Home

This post generated a LOT of discussion, which I think is a very good thing.  I honestly think I could write many more posts about this topic. For the most part we all agree, AB is an asshat.  Thank you Jodi Chick for spelling it out.  

Because it was a very deep and intense subject, I have responded to all the comments directly on the post.

Here’s the thing, we’ve all made mistakes.  As human beings, as parents and as dog parents.  The key is to learn from our mistakes and not repeat them. Had the writer of the post confessed she was in over her head and had remorse for how her dog was being neglected, it would have been an entirely different post. One does not neglect their dog and then brag about it.  Not it Blogville.

Life on a Llama Farm

Well our time here is coming to an end.  Tomorrow morning we pack up and start the long drive home.  It’s been a very relaxing week.  I didn’t get to do as much hiking as I would have liked but it was wonderful just being out on the porch enjoying nature.

Caren Gittleman said, “there is something about llamas that just makes me laugh. ” Could it be there smiles Caren?

SlimDoggy asked, “Did she get in the water? ”

photo (5) No, we wouldn’t let her.  We are afraid once she gets in, we won’t get her out.

2 Brown Dawgs said, “Even away from home on vacation you have my back.” and “maybe the wonderful time starts around 4pm (judging from some FB pictures)”

We may not always see eye to eye on certain subjects, but I will always have your back. 🙂  And yes, 4:00 is the magic hour for me!

Pamela asked, “Will he be smuggling a llama into his luggage? ”

Absolutely not!  I have my hands full with the two dogs.  Although they might come in useful with the lawn. hehe

Jan K said, “That looks like such a wonderful place to relax. Even on a rainy day, sitting on the porch sounds idyllic. Doesn’t hurt to have a hot tub too!”

It is a wonderful place and if any of you are interested (before I get my post up) drop me a line and I’ll get you the contact information.

That’s it for me, have a great weekend!

This is the Follow-Up Friday Blog Hop, hosted by I Still Want More Puppies and Heart Like a Dog.

Life on a Llama Farm

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Most of our days are spent relaxing on the front deck.  Oh and when the horses come out the dogs run down to the fence to bark, or in Sampson’s case, whine at them.

Since today is This ‘N That Thursday, (many thanks to our host the 2 Brown Dawgs) I thought I’d share a few photos.

  photo (1) Here is Hubby getting cozy with one of the llamas, I think her name is Breezy or is it Rose?  I’m not sure.

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Here I am with the same Llama.  She was the friendliest.

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Here is one of the three donkeys on the farm.  I have a very cute video of the donkey running the fence line and playing with the dogs, which will have to wait until I can upload it.

photo (4) This was on our walk yesterday.  They call them paved, two-lanes roads.  I do not.

photo (5) Delilah is desperate to get into water, any water.  She’s even considering the hot tub.

I have more photos which I’ll work on posting once I get home and get my computer issues resolved.

This morning it is pouring.  So we will stay hunkered down on the porch and hopefully we will get a break in the weather so we can take a walk.

The Dogs of Blogville Calendar Contest

I had every intention of getting this contest going last Monday, but the computer issues have really put a damper on it.  I hope to have it up and going early next week.  Please bear with me.

Co-hosted Follow-Up Friday

My co-hostess for tomorrow is the one and only, Pup Fan from I Still Want More Puppies.

That’s it for me, many thanks to our friends at 2 Brown Dawgs blog.

If the linky code won’t work you can get it here.

Free To Good Home

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Free to good home. We just had a baby and I don’t have time for the dog.

You’ve seen the ads on Craig’s list or the local papers.  And if you’re a dog lover it raises your blood pressure, gets you all kinds of pissed off and spouting lines like, “Are you going to get rid of the first child once you have your second?”

The sad reality is people get rid of their dogs far too frequently when they have children. Or the dog simply becomes a nusiance, just another responsibility in a busy and overwhelming life.

My darling AJ (Pup Fan to you, Thelma to my Louise) sent me a message on Facebook on Monday with a link she’d read that fired her up.  (I don’t wish to provide the link as I don’t want to give this blog any more traffic.  Pup Fan has some awesome quotes and summarizes the post quite well in hers.  Go read that.)  In this post the woman who absolutely adored her dog had children and her poor little Velvel fell by the wayside.  He became somewhat of a thorn in her side.

Pup Fan wrote a beautiful post, “Do you have to choose between having a dog and having kids .”  There is some great discussion on this post and I encourage you to read the post and comments.

Pup Fan asked me to weigh in, as a person who has had a dog and children.  The sad thing is, I could see so much of myself in the post.

Remember yesterday’s post where I said to Sampson, “Before there was you, I wasn’t me”?  Sampson changed me from a dog owner, to a dog lover.  And yes, there really is a difference.

Before I had Sampson I owned dogs.  Now I am owned by dogs.

I’ve had dogs my entire life.  As an adult I’ve had four, Buffy and Roxanne (at different times) and Sampson and Delilah.  And if I could turn back time, I would want do-overs for Buffy and Roxanne.

There is no nice way to say this.  I was a shitty dog owner.

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 The last picture of Roxanne.

Hubby always said she was a stupid dog.  But I say we were the stupid ones.  We had three kids with active lives and we put absolutely no time into Roxanne.  She was loved.  Yes, she was.  But she didn’t have the life she deserved.

And poor Buffy.  We were kids having kids raising a puppy on old school traditions.  I don’t need to say anymore.

After reading the original post my heart broke for Velvel and it broke for Roxanne and for Buffy too. And if it’s any consolation to Pup Fan, some day AB will feel badly too.  Because there are many times I cry for Buffy and Roxanne and for the lives they could have had.

I’m past my child-bearing years now (thank God!) but we do have grandchildren.  And our grandchildren came after Sampson and Delilah.  Our grandchildren are being raised around our dogs and our grandchildren will know Sampson and Delilah are part of our family.  As our grandchildren grow and develop interests and participate in different activities our lives will change.

But not our love for our dogs.

I see Pup Fan’s post as well as the original post as a good thing.  It is encouraging great conversation.  People are thinking.  Adding a dog or a child to your life is a big responsibility.  It is a life long commitment and one that you should have discussion about! How will things change for the child/dog when the dog/child arrives?  Who will assume what responsibilities and for whom?  These are important questions people.

Yes you can have children and dogs, but it requires time and commitment on your behalf.  But I can assure you, it is time and commitment well invested.

Did you read the original post?  Pup Fans?  Is there anything you can add to the conversation?

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