Heart Like a Dog

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

Solve A Reader Problem

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I’m way behind on the tasks at 31 Days to a Better Blog over on Blog Paws.

I started out  balls to the wall and somewhere along the line I lost my steam.   I suppose when you are doing a challenge such as that, you can’t be picking and choosing, you should be doing them all. 

Truthfully I think the group in general slowed down some.  I noticed in the beginning tasks many people were posting their response to the challenge and then slowly but surely over time the comments petered out.

The tasks started out at two per week, then every two-week schedule is much more appealing.  But that still doesn’t mean I will rise to the occasion. 🙁

I think I will still manage to complete the 31 tasks, it just may take me long than normal.  Similar to my performance in K-9 Kamp.  Which by the way, I finally finished yesterday! 🙂   (Just kidding, I really didn’t finish it at all, I just like having the badge in my side bar.)

So the task I struggled with was “Solve a Reader Problem.”  Since most of you don’t write into me with problems I didn’t really know what to solve. 

I thought about it and decided to go with a problem that I as a blogging fan had.  I follow so many awesome blogs, and I normally get an e-mail each time there is a new post. Sometimes I have hundreds of e-mails (and that’s not counting junk) in my inbox.

I thought I could share with you something that helped me manage the blogs I subscribe to.

This may not come a surprise to some of you because many of you are very savvy when it comes to the tools available to bloggers, but it was new to me and has really helped me. 

It is google reader,  www.google.com/reader it’s free and pretty easy to figure out, unlike stumbling which I still haven’t done.

It works like this, you sign up for an account, once you sign in you open another tab (for those of you who may not have the tabs option, you can just open another window.)  Then you go to one of the blogs you read and copy  the address.  Tab over to the google reader page and on the left hand side near the top, you will see a button that says “Subscribe.”  Click that button and paste the blog address in the box and click “Add.”

That’s it.  Easy peasy lemon squeezy. 🙂

You can add as many accounts as you want and they don’t have to be blogs!  For instance say you love reading the NY Times, you can add that. 

Then the next time you sign into Google Reader, it will have a list of your favorites on the left side bottom and it will tell you if there is a new post, or two new posts.   Read all that you want, mark them as read or unread and viola, you’re done!

Then you can go to your trusty inbox and delete all those notices. 🙂

And by the way, feel free to tell me your problems, I’m a pretty good listener. 😉

Foster Homes Needed

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Relax, it’s not Delilah that is in need of a home!  Although I must confess there are days when it crosses my mind. 😉

Most days my dogs and their crazy antics provide me with plenty of blogging material.  I will either have a general idea when I get up in the morning OR the dogs will do something silly and viola  a blog topic.  (Incidentally not having ever taken french in school I actually pronounced this Vee Ola, that is until I was corrected.) 🙂

Today I had nothing.

So I started surfing around the internet looking for inspiration.

I came across a post at Blog Paws, and here is what it said.

The Animal Welfare League of Alexandria is urgently seeking temporary foster homes for dogs while we upgrade the flooring in our dog runs. Construction begins Monday, January 9th and we’re seeking foster homes for dogs who are anxious, sensitive to noise, distracted by lots of activity, or have medical issues.

If you’ve ever considered fostering dogs, this is a great opportunity to share your home for several weeks. Construction is expected to last until the end of January or early February. Expedited training is available.

If you’ve fostered dogs in the past or can help spread the word, we’d greatly appreciate your help. To learn more, click here or contact Diann Hohenthaner, Foster Program Coordinator, at 703-746-5583.  (Her e-mail address is dhohenthaner@alexandriaanimals.org, I don’t know how to add the e-mail link!)

Now you probably know I am NOT in the Alexandria, Virginia area, and quite truthfully, right about now regarding this opportunity I would really LOVE to be.   Because I would LOVE to do a foster and this seems like the perfect situation to me.  Enough of a commitment to get the idea of how fostering would work within our two dog pack but not enough time where we all become really attached and have our hearts broken when the little guy leaves.

With all that being said, I am STILL NOT in the Alexandria, Virginia area so I thought I would throw it out to you and see if you (or your readers) knew anyone that might be able to help out.

Feel free to link back or copy this post. 

Together we CAN make a difference!

Blogville Love

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People get to know each other by sharing. 

Case in point, about 6 weeks ago I met my friend Margaret at a baby shower.  You may remember me speaking about Margaret (and her awesome dog, Chase) in this post. 

When I ran into Margaret she gave me a warm hug and said, “I feel like I know you so much better because I read your blog.” 

No matter how or what we write about, we end up sharing bits of ourself.   What I have learned about the awesome people who share my blogosphere is that they are kind and very generous.

When I wrote my post about the Kreativ Blogger and Liebster Award I also said I had another award to share with you.  I know you have all been on pins and needles waiting for it, so without further ado, I will reveal that I have been given “The Collie’s Choice Award” from my dear blogging friend Misty Shores Chesapeakes.

If you haven’t checked Misty out yet you should pop over and see what she’s up to.  Her sweet Chessie, Riva recently had a litter and Misty decided to keep two of the pups!  I can’t believe it either, I thought housebreaking, training and raising one puppy was tough!

Ok, truthfully Sampson was an easy dog to housebreak and raise.  I can’t complain about HIM. 

Delilah on the other hand, well good lord you can’t imagine the things she’s gotten into these past three days.  I will simply say, we are down to our last half stick of butter and leave it at that.  Actually I do have more to say, but I am saving that for my Follow-Up Friday post, when I update “Death by Chocolate.”

Sooo.. on to the Collie’s Choice Award, you may have noticed the badge in the side-bar, I had never heard of the Collie’s of the Meadow before being bestowed the award.  I just popped over there and read an account of a re-enactment of Custer’s Last Stand; Collie style.  Somehow I think it was fabricated JUST a bit, but I’ll leave that up to you to decide.

The Collie’s Choice award is given to “The Best of the Net.”   If you’ve been given the award you are encouraged to pass it along. 

That’s it.  No other rules.  No sharing of intimate things.  No linking to past posts.  Just pass it along.

I’ve given this a lot of thought and I have decided to pass the award along to Kristine at Rescued Insanity. 

If you’ve been around the blogosphere at all, chances are you read Kristine’s blog or you’ve seen a well thought out comment with her name next to it.

If for some strange reason you’ve never heard of Kristine, well I can truthfully say, you don’t know what you are missing.   Kristine works extensively with her dog Shiva and in MHO they are both serious blog stars.  If you enjoy Delilah’s stories, well you will enjoy Shiva’s just as much.

Thanks once again to Misty Shores.

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