Welcome to this week’s edition of Follow-Up Friday, the post where I highlight reader’s comments, answer questions and generally just wrap up my week.

You Make Me Smile – November 29, 2015

 

Meagan and Merlin said, “So cute. Merlin is really excitable so when kids approach him, he sits down for them. We never taught him that, he does it himself.”

That’s great! Sampson doesn’t typically sit to be pet, but after a short time he usually lays down. He just can’t stand like he used to.

Off to the Mountains

Anonymous (which I actually think is my sister) said, “They have toe grips?! You mean I could get rid of all theses crazy mismatched runners!? ”

Yes they do! They are called Dr. Busby’s toe grips and they come in four sizes. You should check them out.

Callie, Shadow and Ducky’s Mom said, “I’m not sure I’d have allowed my girls off leash if I knew there had been a mountain lion in the driveway! Maybe on an extra-long leash, but not completely off leash. ”

I did bring the long leash with me and I did have her on it for a bit. The mountain lion was seen at 7:00 pm so I made sure we did our walking well before then!

Jan said, “If I had a view like that I would get nothing done all day.”

Right? It’s so easy to do, just sit on the deck and stare out. It’s so beautiful.

Emma said,”That sounds super fun. It is always fun to visit places in the middle of nowhere, but we couldn’t live that far out. Mom likes modern convenience too much. Glad no one was eaten by a lion…I could see you running into one. What a post that would make and I bet the photo of the kitty would be blurry too as you would be running!”

OR I might have tried to stand still and get a picture. LOL One time we were checking out some property and my sister screamed, “Bear, there’s a bear! Get in the car!!” Her, my husband and my brother-in-law all made tracks for the car and I said, “Where? Where is it? I want to see it!” And then someone grabbed me and made me get in the car. 🙂

Julie said, “I always loved letting Daisy off leash to run and walk with me but I can’t do it with Cocoa yet. That looks like a beautiful place to explore and it’s good the dogs all got along. 5 is lots of pups!!”

I love letting Delilah run, but I have to be SO careful, because she will run off. So lots of callbacks and lots of treats for her. Yes, five dogs is a lot, but for the most part they basically ignore each other.

Jan K said, “I love Littleton, it’s such a pretty town.”

It really is! Here’s a photo I took a couple of years back.

Taryn said, “Really didn’t do too much, but amazing as it seems, lunch on Friday was eaten OUTDOORS at a restaurant.”

Wow! That’s awesome. It was a pretty mild day for us also.

What’s Left to Say? – Barks and Bytes

Thank you all for the great comments.

We’ll touch on the SEO comments first…

Lauren Miller says, “Hopefully I figure out SEO one day.. Haha!”

Jan K said, “I still barely know what SEO is and still don’t use it all the time. It took me at least 2 years to figure out a lot of this stuff…and there are new bloggers out there that know so much more and do so much better than I do…. I often feel the way you do…like stopping because I just can’t keep up with it all and feel like I’ll never be good as the others. But wouldn’t the followers we do have, even if they’re not in the numbers others do, miss us so much? Also, like you, the thought of NOT having the blog just leaves me feeling kind of bereft – if that word is not too dramatic to describe it?

Julie says, “I have no idea about SEO and I need to do Pinterest and Instagram and yikes…. I would love to make some money from doing it to help me keep doing it but we’ll see. I would have to devote lots more time and learn SO much more.”

Well I know what SEO stands for, does that count? LOL But how it works and what I should be doing with it, I still have not. one. clue. And Jan, no, bereft is not too dramatic.  Julie, I can’t do them all, so what I do is focus on one thing. I am usually more active with Facebook and I use Triberr for tweeting (are you on Triberr?) I’ve been trying to get better at Instagram and post a photo once every couple of days. To be able to do EVERYTHING really feels like it’s a full-time job to me.

Steven said, “I’ll drink to your next 5 years with a beer tonight – I’m thirsty after licking the photo of the Apple-Pecan pie.”

Well I thank you kindly sir. But have to advise against licking the screen. You know how contagious those computer viruses can be. 😉

Dawn said, “Sometimes I think about how nice it would be to live like a normal nonblogging person.”

I agree. I had a taste of it this past weekend. I scheduled my Friday and Sunday posts on Thursday, and truthfully, I didn’t look at a blog until Sunday night. It was actually kind of nice, but I’m still freaked about not blogging at all.

Thanks to Hawk for letting me know that the damn linky tool wasn’t working. Honestly it got worse as the day went on. At one point, the list wasn’t even showing up on the blog and Linda told me she had taken the code of out hers and I did the same. I hope it gets straightened out soon.

Callie, Shadow and Ducky’s Mom said, “I totally get the “what’s left to say?” as this is my fifth year of blogging, too.”

Well congratulations Sue! Job well-done my friend.

Sue said, ” What’s left to say? You’re kidding, right? With Sampson and Delilah as “fodder” and your own creative mind, I’m thinking you’ll have plenty to say for a long time to come.”

Tell that to Delilah! She’s not producing much content lately, she’s starting to freak me out. 😉

Monika said, “You’re kidding, right? With your two sweet pups and sense of humor, there’ll always be something to say! Big time congrats on the blogiversary. That’s more than pretty impressive. I can’t imagine not hearing about your adventures so please file that notion with the gluten and “fur-getaboutit” ok? We love you, Jodi! Here’s looking forward to the next 5 where you could teach some of us how to do it right and laugh along the way. I mean, what’s a SEO anyway? ”

Thank you, that’s very sweet. As for teaching you something though, I’m pretty sure I’m not qualified.  Like I said above…I KNOW what SEO STANDS for. LOL

Emma said, “When we are down on the blog, we always look at those first posts to remind us of how far we have come, but we still have a long, long, long way to go! ”

It is good to look back at that. I remember when I first started I kept asking my two readers, “how do you get more readers?”

Blueberry’s Human said, “I guess I am a big loser because I basically use my blog to chronicle my life with Blueberry. Before I started her blog, I thought that was the goal of all bloggers – just to have a public diary of sorts. Seems like it’s changed though and there are more bloggers like yourself that strive for something more and actually get paid to do this! I think it’s great – but I am not sure I could take the pressure. I kind of prefer the fact that I have just a handful of faithful commenters on my blog – they feel like friends to me (you are included, of course). ”

SHUT UP. You are NOT a loser. People get into blogging for SO many reasons, if you are happy with journaling your life with Blueberry THAT is what is important. And I agree, I really feel like you all are my friends.

Mary said, “I’m right there with you sister. Five years for me in January, and no being big and famous over here either. I decided that I’ll blog if I want to, even if no one is reading.”

It’s a great attitude Mary! But remember, you are famous to me. I’ll never forget the first time you tweeted at me. I thought “Holy shit, I made the big time, Roxy the Traveling Dog just tweeted at me.”

DZ Dogs said, “I’ve hit a winter doldrums right now, I have all these ideas to blog about but haven’t had the energy to actually write them so instead I have a long list of drafts…
I finally got one up today about being thankful – as a reminder to myself that my life isn’t as bad or as hard as I sometimes feel it is….You keep writing though and we’ll keep reading! 🙂 Sometimes a photo is the perfect post for a day where you don’t feel like posting. And WOW does that look good, any chance of a recipe? Or maybe you could just deliver one to my house. LoL”

Good advice, I always forget about posting photos. You know I thought of a couple of posts today, I have to start using my editorial calendar again!  And wow, if this is the winter doldrums, what the hell will February look like? LOL We’ve only just begun!

As for the recipe, you can find it on THIS POST. I’d have added it, but this post is REALLY long.

Elaine said, “I say, keep blogging as long as you enjoy it and remember that for every person that leaves a comment there are many, many more that visit your blog and smile or laugh at your stories. It makes their day a little brighter and that’s pretty good motivation to keep writing and entertaining all of us.”

Thank you Elaine, sometimes I lose focus and need to be reminded of that.

Hailey and Zaphod said, “Congrats on 5 years! We just celebrated that too.”

Wow that’s so awesome, I didn’t realize how many of us started blogging around the same time!

Jackie Bouchard said, “Huh. You made me curious so I looked and I missed my 5 yr blogoversary, which would have been Oct. 28 this year.”

Well congratulations!! 

Alexa88 said, “I’m a nonblogger who came across your blog by way of another blog.
I’m a newcomer to your blog. having a large furry bed hog myself ( her name is lily and she is a Hovawart). i enjoy reading about your dogs, enjoy the photos of them but i continue to read your blog because you pull your life into your blog as well. your way of writing your voice if you will engages the reader. I’m not saying this very well but your blog is like getting a phone call from friend that you really enjoy hearing from. the old days type of calls where just calling to say hello ends up being a long chat.”

Wow Alexa, that’s such a nice thing to say. Thank you so much for taking the time to share that and I’m glad my writing can touch someone in that way. Welcome to Heart Like a Dog, I hope you’ll stick around. And maybe some day you’ll share a picture of Lily with me. 🙂

That’s it for me! I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!