Heart Like a Dog

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

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One Word

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Love, loyalty, courage, kindness, forgiveness.  These are just a few of the words that pop into my head when I think about the qualities I see in the hearts of my canine companions.

When I chose the name of this blog, my intention was to learn from my furry pals.  Learn to live more in the now and less in the past.

To embrace and enjoy the simple things in life, and not to worry about something that may or may not happen.

To be enthusiastic about learning new things, and exploring new opportunities.

To not let obstacles deter me from the path I’ve chosen.

To be thankful for the gifts in my life and not worry about what others around me have or are doing.

IMG_0019 To not worry about what others might think of me and allow myself to enjoy the things I enjoy.

There’s a saying that goes something along the lines of, Help me to be the person my dog thinks I am.

In other words, I want to learn to live my life with a heart like a dog.

When I first read about the one word project on Gizmo’s blog, I knew immediately what my word should be.

This week I contacted Melanie from Only a Breath, she’s agreed to make free buttons for anyone participating in the One Word project.

It took me a while, but I finally figured out how to add the button to my side bar.  You’ll see it about half-way down the page.

My word is:

OneWord2013_Heart150

And that means that I intend to put my Heart into everything I attempt this year, to be loving, loyal, courageous, kind and forgiving.

To think with my heart and not with my head, even if that means I get hurt along the way. To live up to the name of this blog.

I’d love it if you took this journey with me, but I understand if you choose not to.

Either way, I’m living this year with my heart, how will you choose to live?

What would your one word be?  What kind of traits do you see in your furry pals that you’d like to emulate?

I Like Sticks

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When my kids were little, there were times when they’d put something in their mouths that was totally non-food related.

Like matches.

My mother always said, they only do that because they’re lacking something.

Okay, I’d buy that if they’re eating salt or drinking milk, but matches?

My mother said, they must need the sulfur. (So what was Lisa lacking when she drank that wine?  Yeast?)

I bring this up today because Hubby and I just had this conversation last night.

About Sampson.

Yesterday morning about 3:15, I was awoken by the jingle of dog tags.  Sampson was not on the bed, he was by the bedroom door.

When he has to potty, he gets off the bed and puts his face THUNK on the mattress in front of me.  He doesn’t go and wait by the door.

He only heads to the door when he’s going to vomit.

I got up and when I got to the bedroom door, even in the murky darkness, I could see the spot on the floor.

This isn’t infrequent. Without keeping track I’d say he vomits at least once per month.  Typically I’m a light sleeper and the sound of retching will shoot me straight up out of bed, but I didn’t hear him.

Poor little guy, he had to clean up after himself.

Had I had the opportunity to clean it up, (Yes, I really did just refer to cleaning up vomit as an opportunity.) I can almost guarantee you there were sticks in it.

Why?

Because Sampson likes to eat sticks.  And they always make him throw up.

Hubby and I always joke when we catch him eating a stick and say in a doofy voice, “I like sticks.”

I opened the bedroom door, found a flashlight and finished cleaning the mess.  Meanwhile, Sampson went and lay just outside the door.  I offered him the option of going outside.

He declined.

I headed back to bed and he went with me, jumped up and curled into my side, he wanted comforting.  So as I lay there for the next hour or so, comforting my dog these questions chased themselves around in mind.

Does he eat the sticks because he likes the taste but they make him sick or does his tummy bother him and he eats the sticks because he knows he will throw up and feel better?

And in the dark, quiet of the night I wonder, is it something more? Is there an underlying reason why he vomits frequently?

Did your mom abandon you for NaNoWriMo?

I just like sticks.

Delilah Stick Here you go Sampson, I’ve got a stick for you.

Hubby says, maybe he’s lacking something in his diet.

I don’t know about you, but sometimes those nefarious thoughts that fester in the dark on a sleepless night will stick with me long into the daylight.

As always, your thoughts and comments are appreciated.

What’s Yours Is Mine

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A few weeks back we had quite a discussion about using photos from the internet as well as from fellow bloggers.

I’ll be the first one to tell you that I don’t make the extra effort to protect my photos with a copyright mark.  I have a copyright caveat at the bottom of the blog and that’s as far as it goes.

This isn’t a hugely popular blog with tens of thousands of readers so I don’t worry too much about someone stealing my work.

Besides, how easy is it to take a photo and cut a copyright out?

20120108-freighter-1 No, this isn’t Delilah, this is Freighter from the 2 Brown Dawgs blog. The blog information was in the grass just below Freighter’s feet.  I cut it out.  (This photo was used with permission from 2 Brown Dawgs.)

The whole copyright issue dawned on me this past Follow-Up Friday when Beth said, “So if I understand, what you did was just add the copyright line in text on the photo? I get that…in fact, I’ve figured out how to do it with Pixlr, which i think is similar to PicMonkey…So I should just add text to any photos I post on the blog and that will deter unauthorized borrowing.”

Except that I’ve just shown you how easy that is to get around, right?

I think what you need to do to protect your photos, is to add a watermark to it.

Dictionary.com defines watermark as “A figure or design impressed in some paper during manufacture, visible when the paper is held to the light.”

The obvious solution is to add your text to your photo in a place where it can’t be cropped out.

S9 Copyright Nobody would want to gank this photo, would they?  But it does take the cuteness factor down.

Copyright S9 If we manipulate the text, we can add it, but make it so faint, it’s hardly discernible.  Can you see the mark? Hint: it’s right across the top of Sampson’s head, between his ears.  (I could probably have gone a bit darker.)

Now the question becomes, is it really necessary to take this type of precaution with our photos?

And to go a step farther, what about our words?

During that discussion many weeks back the term “Creative Commons” was mentioned by Lexy from Gone For a Walk and Pamela at Something Wagging This Way Comes.

If you don’t know what Creative Commons is, quite simply it’s your permission for how others can use your work.  I took some time yesterday and added a Creative Commons button to my side-bar.

My Creative Commons says any of my photos or words can be used Non-Commercially as long as you give me credit.

Is it too easy?  Or am I too trusting?  What types of precautions do you take with your precious work?

 

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