Heart Like a Dog

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

8th Annual Pet Blogger Challenge

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For the last seven years, Amy, at Go Pet Friendly has been hosting an annual Pet Blogger Challenge Blog Hop. It works like this: Amy posts a set of questions, and participants answer them and add their posts to the link. It’s a wonderful community building event, and the best part is, you have the ear of the best of the blogosphere to help with any issues or questions you might have.

Photo courtesy of Go Pet Friendly.

We have been participating for 6 of the 7 years, I like it because it gives me an opportunity to reflect on the previous year, what worked and what didn’t.

So let’s get to it, shall we?

Question 1) For those who may be visiting your blog for the first time, how long have you been blogging and what is your main topic?

My first post was December 1, 2010. At that point, I had no direction with the blog, I was just writing to garner an ‘online presence.’ Within the first six months, I had begun writing about the dogs. The blog has evolved over time to what it is today. A humorous look at life with dogs, with side focuses on health, training and animal welfare.

Question 2) What was your proudest blogging moment of 2017?

While I really love inserting humor into my posts, I think the posts I wrote about UTI’s, Cushing’s Disease and Endothelial Decompensation turned out pretty well. I felt almost like a real writer.

Question 3) Which of your blog posts was your favorite this year and why? (Please include a link.)

My Dog Has Morning Wood, What Your Male Dog’s Erection Might Mean. I love writing humorous posts, and if I can share some knowledge in the process, that’s a BONERus for me.

Question 4) In terms of your blog, how do you measure success?

This is really where I personally struggle. I compare myself to others, and for me, that’s a very bad thing. In my opinion, I’m never good enough, and I see others having success and that reinforces my failures in my mind.

Question 5) In what ways has your blog changed during 2017?

The biggest change has probably been my lack of blogging. Although thanks to Jodi Chick from Kol’s Notes, I think I have pinpointed the direction I WANT my blog to go in. Now I just need to find the motivation to make it happen.

Question 6) What was the biggest blogging challenge you overcame in 2017, and what did you learn that could help other bloggers?

My biggest challenge has been to keep blogging, and I’ve only done that by forcing myself to post at least once per week. Some weeks it’s way harder than others.

Question 7) When things get hard, what keeps you blogging? (Question submitted by Pamela Douglas Webster of Something Wagging This Way Comes)

It’s Jan, from The Poodle (and Dog) blog God-damn it. She says I cannot quit without getting her permission and I’m too afraid to ask.

Question 8: Looking forward to 2018, what are you hoping to accomplish on your blog this year?

I really want to try and dig myself out of this hopeless feeling I have, and start writing again, and start visiting blogs again. I’m in a pretty lonely place right now, and you all helped me with that when I first started blogging. I need to feel that community again.

Question 9) In addition to what you’d like to accomplish, is there one specific skill you’d like to improve or master this year? (Question submitted by Jodi Chick of Kol’s Notes)

I’d like to learn how to make Text/Images. Like this one.

Question 10) Now it’s your turn! You have the attention of the pet blogging community – is there a question you’d like answered, or an aspect of your blog that you’d like input on? Share it here, and we’ll answer you in the comments!

I’m sort of torn right now. As I said, I’ve tackled some of the health issues that the dogs have had this past year, and I think they were well written, and fairly well received, but I also like writing the humorous posts too, (although sometimes I think a lot of people don’t ‘get’ my humor).  So my question is, can I do both? Is there a way to hit that happy medium on the blog? What types of posts do you like to see here? Do you like the humor, the serious or a combination?

Many thanks to Amy for hosting this blog hop!

The DADO’s Fight It Out On Facebook

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One-day in October, a neighbor up the street from me hurried out of her car intent on speaking with me. It was unusual in the way that typically we are just like ships passing in the night. Calling out a “Hello, how are you?” as we wrestle our dogs past each other. As it turned out, her intent was quite sweet. She wanted to warn me there was a loose dog in the area and she wasn’t sure if the pit bull was friendly or not. She went on to tell me that they suspected someone had left it on one of the trails. *Sigh*

I filed this bit of information in the back of my mind and forgot completely about it, until the day I was walking up the hill and saw the dog round the corner of one of the houses. Of course, I had Sampson, the dog with the bad legs, who shouldn’t get excited and bounce around like he’s two. I’m not sure if the dog would have approached us or not, but as he got to the edge of the yard I said, “Stop puppy.” He looked at me, and moved on to the next yard.

Then the door of the house burst open, and the owner came out, dog treat in one hand, leash in the other, “Where’d he go?” She starts looking about, “Who wants a cookie?” I refrained from saying, “I do.” I mean, I saw the cookie, so it really wasn’t all THAT hard. She then tells me that Animal Control (that useless lump) has been looking for the dog for weeks. She tells me they’ve been ‘tracking’ the dog on Animal Control’s Facebook page. I oblige by calling Animal Control and leaving the useless lump a message, indicating the time and location where the dog was seen.

I happened to mention this to my next-door neighbor and told her I’d seen the dog and I didn’t think it was a stray. He looked to me to be in very good condition. His coat was clean, and he had a fed look about him. Not the look of a dog that’d been living on his own for three weeks.

He looks a little hot, but not like a dog on his own.

When I got home I checked out Animal Control’s Facebook page and found his picture.  (See above. I shamelessly screen shot it.)

The next time I saw my next-door neighbor, she told me that the peeps on the page were fighting over the dog. Turns out the DADO’s were having a brawl on Facebook. I couldn’t help myself…it was like a train wreck. The thread went on and on. There were hundreds of comments.

Hundreds. Here’s just a couple. Click on the image to enlarge so you can read it.  These two women went back and forth for about 20 comments. Each one kept trying to dismiss the other one.  It was SO amazing.

 

The first volley.

It was like watching a tennis match!

 

The last lob.

Animal Control admonished them a couple of times, and threatened to ban them, each one kept thanking Animal Control and then they’d turn on the other again.

I can’t tell you how many times I hit the comment button and started typing a response, but seriously…you know my success rate with DADO’s.

You just cannot argue with them. 

You Make Me Smile – December 31, 2017

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Before I get to your smile post, I’d like to thank Beth Patterson at The Daily Dog Tag, for messaging me yesterday that my site was down. Apparently my hosting ran out, and I missed it. Thanks to Beth, the situation was quickly fixed.

Many times when I’m sharing my smile post with you, I don’t have an actual picture of whatever the dogs did that made me smile, and that is also the case today.

Last year, my bedroom was arranged so the side of my bed was against the wall. At that time, me and both dogs would somehow fit on this ‘full-size’ futon I use as my bed. Then at some point last year, we re-arranged the room so now only the headboard rests against the wall. And now, for some reason, the three of us no longer ‘fit’ on the bed.

We’ve also reached a point where the doors to the bedrooms say open and the dog has complete freedom, and can sleep wherever they choose.

Some nights, I have both dogs in the room with me, and other nights just one, and still other nights I have both of them. Since we no longer all ‘fit’ on the bed, it’s usually a competition to see who will get onto the bed first.  There are rare occasions where both dogs ARE on the bed, but then usually after an hour or so, one of them gets down off the bed.

Some nights, I start off with one dog, and when I wake up, it’s the other dog that’s on the bed. AND THAT makes me smile.

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

What did your dog do the made you laugh or smile this week.

 

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