Heart Like a Dog

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

Community Challenge – Week Five

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Week Five in Kathleen Gage’s challenge to post about community.

The last four weeks, I’ve been writing about the community of BlogPaws. Most of those posts have been centered around the sponsors of BlogPaws and the programs they support. But there is another aspect of blogging that truly needs to be mentioned, and that is the community of blogging itself. That community is made up of the bloggers, as well as you, the readers.

Specifically, I’m writing about the generosity of others, and their kindness and thoughtfulness.

Whether it’s helping a fellow blogger out with technical issues, tips to help make blogging easier, ideas and tools that work for them, or passing along a resource or product they can’t use. I have specific incidences of all of these, but today I want to mention two of my fellow bloggers.

In both cases, the blogger had just lost a beloved family member, but knowing how Sampson was struggling with his CCL issues, both reached out to offer products their pets had been using.

The first was Joy from My GBGV Life, Joy kindly sent me Katie’s Dr. Buzzby’s Toe grips. For those of you unfamiliar with Dr. Buzby, toe grips look like Perler Beads, except toe grips are a wee bit longer and fit over the toe nail, to help a dog with mobility issues have better footing.

When a dog’s legs are unsteady, it can make walking challenging. The toe grips can really help give them a feeling of stability, and give them the confidence they need.

It was so kind of Joy to send these to me, and I’m not sure I ever thanked her properly, so Joy, thank you very much.

Then there is Ms. Bunny Allen.

A while back, Bunny put a post on Facebook about some socks she was using on Carma Poodale to help her with her arthritis.

Naturally I was intrigued, so when I had the opportunity to visit with Bunny and Carma in Myrtle Beach, I took it. Bunny told me all her tricks and was convinced that Carma felt better wearing the socks. Sadly, a short time after BlogPaws, Carma went to the Bridge, and in the midst of her grief, Bunny remembered that I was interested in the socks, and reached out, asking if I wanted Carma’s socks for Sampson. Bunny assured me that Carma would want Sampson to have them, as she was such a loving and giving girl.

So, for the last week or so, Sampson has been wearing Carma’s socks on his front legs.

I’ll probably do another post about the socks, but I want him to wear them for a while before I do.

Until then, I just want my friends to know how much we appreciate them, and thank them for their kindness. They truly help make Blogville a wonderful community!

When the Words Won’t Come

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By now you should all know that I will be speaking at the BlogPaws Conference in Nashville at the end of this month. My topic is Engaging Your Reader.

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I was a little nervous when I heard they were opening sessions for people to sign up. What if no-one signed up for me? But I’m happy to report, my session is full. For those of you who get into my session, don’t worry. I’m at conference from Thursday until Monday morning, if you see me there, grab me chat me up. If you aren’t attending, don’t worry, I’ll be writing a post recapping my topic. 

Last Thursday to give peeps a little taste of my topic, I participated in a Google Hangout with Jessica Willams from You Did What With Your Wiener (who will be doing one on one sessions about increasing your Facebook interactions) and Carol Byrant, Marketing Manager of BlogPaws and blogger at Fidose of Reality.

You can watch the chat here or you can go directly to Youtube. (Honestly, could that picture be any more unflattering?)

I’m telling you up front, I fidgeted a lot and had a real problem keeping my eyes looking at the camera on my computer. I kept looking at Carol and Jessica on the bottom part of my screen. And I think I got off track once, but Carol was all cool about it. After the chat Jessica and I hung out a bit and answered a couple of questions.

One of the things Carol and I talked about was what to do when you experience writer’s block. 

There are a number of things I do when the words just won’t come.

  • I have a bunch of posts in draft form in my dashboard. I go through those and look to see if something catches my eye, (although some of them are outdated now).
  • I will also flip through pictures in my computer and see if any of them inspire me come up with a post.
  • I am also sometimes inspired by some of your blog posts, or one of your posts reminds me of a story and I’ll jot some ideas down.

These are some of the ideas I use when I’m at a loss for words, what methods do you use when the words just won’t come?

And just because who the hell wants to see my picture on the blog, here is a cute picture of my puppy on his solo walk this past weekend.

Golden Lab

If you’re happy and you know it, lift your paw.

&

This ‘N That Thursday ~ May 30, 2013

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Today we join our friends at the 2 Brown Dawgs blog for This ‘N That Thursday.

Courtesy of 2 Brown Dawgs Blog

Courtesy of 2 Brown Dawgs Blog

“This ‘N That Thursday A little of this and a little of that and everything in between…

First things first, Follow-up Friday will be a tiny bit different this week. (Only for me!)

I have a very special post planned for tomorrow so my Follow-up Friday will actually take place on Saturday.  No worries for you die-hard FUF hoppers, the blog hop will be available on my co-hostess’ blog.  I will have a link to her blog at the bottom of tomorrow’s post, but if it’s easier for you, you can go directly to her blog tomorrow to link up.

My co-hostess for this week is Misty Shores Chesapeakes!

The dogs at BlogPaws.

Life has been super busy since I came back from BlogPaws and I haven’t had the opportunity to sit down and write some more BlogPaws posts.  Before it gets too far away from it all, I’d like to showcase a couple of the dogs I met at BlogPaws and tell you a little about the pets that were present.

I don’t have any of the finesse that Pamela at Something Wagging has, so I’m just gonna put it out there.  There were some perfectly nice dogs at BlogPaws and then there were some dogs that just weren’t comfortable in the situation.  Which isn’t to say they weren’t perfectly nice dogs, I’m just saying they may have been more comfortable at home or in their rooms.

I sat in a session where there was so much growling going on behind me I thought a fight was going to break out.  There was also the woman in the elevator who said her little dog just wasn’t used to the elevator yet, as she gave him a little tug in.  The poor thing was shaking so bad, if he’d been any bigger I’d have been worried he’d shake the elevator loose from the cable.

Don’t get me started on the woman who sat with us and told us her dog was in her room because she was a butt face for barking at another dog.

I bit my tongue. A LOT.

But I did meet some incredibly well-adjusted dogs, with savvy owners.

Prizes from BlogPaws

The folks at BlogPaws had some awesome sponsors and prizes.  It started with an amazing bag from Jones Natural Chews filled with swag! (BTW Jones, this is the Best. Bag. Ever.)

On Friday night in a random drawing I won a Chromebook!

IMG_5061 If you’re unfamiliar with these, the closest I can figure is it is Google trying to compete with iPad.  You can add apps, but you have the convenience of the ‘laptop’ style.

Then on Saturday the awesome folks at the PetSafe booth gifted me with a dog’s water fountain.

Thank you PetSafe!!

Thank you PetSafe!!

 

Except my dogs won’t drink out of it, so I have a small bowl of water sitting next to it, while they acclimate themselves. 🙂

This is a blog hop, hosted by our friends at 2 Brown Dawgs blog.

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