Heart Like a Dog

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

Bloggers Unite For Dog Rescue

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Today is Blog the Change, an event that takes place on the 15th of January, April, July and October.

One day per quarter participating bloggers dedicate their blogs to an animal related cause near and dear to our hearts.  For today’s blog the change, participating bloggers are trying to bring awareness to a special event taking place this month.

On July 23rd, bloggers from all over the world will unite for one day, to shine the focus on dog rescue.

Since rescuing Delilah in 2007, the plight of dogs in shelters has weighed heavily on my mind.

We know little to nothing about Delilah’s past.  What I do know is she came to us via American Lab Rescue on a transport from Tennessee.  Her vet papers indicate she came from Lake Charles, Louisiana.

We do know she was vaccinated by the vet for Rabies, Bordatella, Distemper and Parvo and she was also dewormed.  That’s the only information we received.

When she got off the transport, her teats were swollen.  Never having been around a mother dog before I had no idea she’d already had a litter of puppies.  I just assumed she was a bit chubby.

She also had some very bright reddish pink scars on her feet.

I have no idea what actually happened to her, whether she had been abused or had spent time on her own and gotten stuck.  I suspect she was either a breeding dog that someone threw away, or a breeding dog that escaped, which would explain the scars on her feet.

Delilah is a wonderful dog.

Granted she has not been without her challenges but I’m a person who typically rises to the challenge.

Her original name was supposed to be Delilah Arwen, but it just didn’t ring.  So I named her Delilah Rose.  I call her my second-hand rose and still can’t believe someone actually tossed her away without realizing her full potential.

Having experienced the love and laughter she has brought into my life, I know with certainty that any dogs I have in future will be rescued dogs.

I know rescuing is not for everyone, but there are other ways you can help.  By donating time or money to a shelter or rescue, fostering when you can. One dog pulled from a shelter and placed into foster care means there is space for one more dog in the shelter.

I know not everyone blogs, but I know you are all on either facebook, twitter or pinterest.  Would you please help us spread the word about July 23rd?

SPREAD THE WORD – BLOGGERS UNITE FOR DOG RESCUE – Promote dog adoption on July 23rd! http://bit.ly/pO7dZp #BtC4A

And on July 23rd, please share our blog posts on your social media networks and to help raise awareness.

This is a blog hop, if you are interested in linking up you can get your code here.

2012 Goals – Check Point

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Six months ago I wrote a post titled 2012 Goals, I thought it might be a good time to review those goals and see how I’m doing.

The Blog.

Subscribers. 

I wrote: The last time I published a post WordPress informed me I have 54 WordPress subscribers and 164 Twitter followers.  My goal for 2012 is to double my WordPress subscribers.

Update: I currently have 105 WordPress subscribers, and 187 twitter subscribers.  I’m quite pleased with this, if my subscriptions continue in the fashion I will reach and surpass my goal before the year is up!

Subscribers = A

Author’s Note: For some reason WordPress keeps changing the way they show their statistics, a week or so ago they began combining my facebook followers as subscribers.

When I checked the blog and it said I had 475 followers I almost fell over.  I quickly checked the front page to see if I’d been pressed.

Being freshly pressed = Epic fail.

Posting.

I wrote:  My plan is to continue to post every, single day.  If I make it, that will be two full years of daily blogging.

Update: So far I’ve been able to post every single day, and I don’t at this time see any reason for this to change.

Posting every day = A.

Product Review.

I wrote:  I would like to be able to do a product review on this blog.  Preferably a product I like, so I can write a glowing review.

Update: I’m holding off at the moment because there are certain things you can and cannot do with the free WordPress account, until I can move the blog to self-hosted, I will proceed with caution.

Product review = C.

Twitter.

Tweeting.

I wrote:  My Twitter goal is to learn to tweet.  Seriously.

Update: Yeah, I’ve tweeted some but it’s just not something that comes naturally.  My niece who is a great tweeter, says you just do it.  I haven’t figured it out on my phone and I just can’t sit there with my twitter feed open all day long.

Twitter = D-.

Twitter Followers.

I wrote:  My other Twitter goal is to get Bob Harper to follow me.   I know, it will be tough but I think I’m up for the challenge.

Update:  This has proven harder than I expected.  You’d think with a twitter name like AuntieJodi you could practically shame someone into following you!   Bob Harper, follow your AuntieJodi, I mean really, what must his followers think?  He doesn’t even follow his own aunt. 🙂

Twitter Goal Bob Harper = Epic Fail.

Writing.

Paid Writing.

I wrote:  I’m not going to say I want to get a full-time writing job, but I would like to get paid to write something.  Anything.  I don’t care if someone pays me to write a freakin’ ad on Craig’s list.  I just want to be able to say I made money by writing.

Update: I haven’t really pursued this one either.  I did enter a writing contest, which technically would have counted.

Yes it would.  But I didn’t even place.

Paid Writing = D-.

My Book.

I wrote:  I’m writing a book.  There I said it!  Now you know.  Taking a page from Donna and the Dogs, I will be posting a line at the end of each blog letting you know how many words I currently have.

My goal is to write a little bit for my book each day.  In three days I have slightly over 1.000 words, I need to pick up the pace on that, because I hope to have the book complete (in rough form of course) by the time this blog is two years old.

Update: My book has stalled, it’s not that I don’t want to write it anymore, I just kind of lost steam.  I’m on vacation this week so I hope to get some writing in.  The last time I checked I think I had somewhere around 27,000 words.  So it’s not a total loss, I’ve written 26,000 more words than I had in January.

My book = C.

Sampson and Delilah.

I wrote:  My goal for Sampson and Delilah never changes.  It is to give them the best life I can and enjoy the time I have with them.

Update: I think Sampson and Delilah are doing great, they are happy, fairly well-adjusted dogs.  They require a lot of work, but they are totally worth it.

Sampson and Delilah = A+.

How about you, have you made progress with  any of your goals, either professionally or personally?

Follow-Up Friday

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For those new to the blog, my follow-up Friday provides me with an opportunity to update or revise a post from the previous week.

You know sometimes you post about something and you need an update but it doesn’t warrant a whole blog.  Or sometimes someone made a comment that really resonated with you.  Yup, Follow-Up Friday baby!

If you like this idea of wrapping posts up on your blog, please feel free to use Follow-Up Friday.  I plan on working on a badge that you will be able to use should you choose to participate. (Thanks for the idea, 2BrownDawgs!)

Mock 10 With My Hair On Fire – Author’s Note

Some of you noted I have quite a bit of Springsteen on my playlist, what can I say, I’m a Jersey Girl at heart. 😉

Siriusly, Springsteen’s music really helped me through a hard time and I find myself still turning to the songs that made me feel so good when things were so bad.  So many of his songs still resonate with me.

My Vet’s In A Sling – Update

I think we caught this allergy really early, I noticed Sampson doesn’t seem to be breaking out with any new hives.  The few that are there appear to be drying up.

He finished his third full day of two per day Prednisone today, tomorrow he starts one per day.  I did cut him back on the Benadryl because something seemed to be making him a little uncomfortable.  I noticed he was really clingy on Wednesday night.  Since his last Prednisone was this morning I may just give him two Benadryl tonight and see how that goes.

BTW when we were are the vet’s I mentioned my little cell phone post and she said that’s exactly WHY she doesn’t give her number out.  LOL

WTF Wednesday – Author’s Note

I was heartened to hear Victoria Stillwell is calling for an investigation into the Belfast City Council’s actions.  Whether Lennox was actually euthanized on Wednesday or if he had already passed their actions were cruel and callous, bordering on pure maliciousness.

The stories I am hearing just make me want to cry.  I cannot believe people can treat animals and other human beings so cruelly.

If I were a citizen of Belfast and Ireland in general I would be calling for terminations of positions and I would be letting people know in no uncertain terms exactly what I thought of them.

Lennox may be gone, but he will never be forgotten, as cruel and horrific as this is, I pray it’s an enlightenment for many as to just how unfair and unjust BSL.

Puppy Steps – Author’s Note

Our homework for this week (besides working on the commands we worked on in class) was to start learning the take command.  I saw my opportunity when I walked in the door tonight and Delilah brought me her stuffed toy.

I said, take and held out the treat.  She dropped the toy like she was supposed to but once she knew I had treats, she wouldn’t touch the toy again!

Any thoughts on how to work through that? LOL

That’s it for me, I hope you have a great weekend.

Thanks for reading!

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