Welcome to this week’s edition of Follow-Up Friday, the blog hop that let’s you “wrap up your week, and leads you right into the weekend!”

Follow-Up Friday Blog Hop

I’m excited to welcome the delightful Emma from My GBGV Life.  Right.  I had no idea what a GBGV was either.

Well GBGV is short for “Grand Basset Griffon Vendeén”   Um…Okay.  I don’t know about you, but I got Grand and Basset out of that.

So in Emma’s own words, ” the Grand refers to our size in the whole group of BGV hounds, Basset refers to our shorter legs, Griffon to our coat, and Vendeén is the area of France where the breed originated – basically a French Scent Hound.”

Ah, that explains why her book is titled “Tales of a French Scent Hound.”

Anyhow, Emma is a fun-loving little dog and she shares her life with her mom, her big sister Katie (a Kuvasz) and her newly adopted little sister, Bailie (who is also a GBGV.)

Emma shares her exploits and adventures on her blog along with a whole lot of great information.  If you don’t know Emma, I highly encourage you to go over and introduce yourself.  You won’t regret it.

Thanks so much for taking the plunge and agreeing to co-host Emma, I hope I made it super easy for you.

Reminder if YOU are interested in seeing your name up here next week, leave me a message in the comments or drop me an e-mail at stone.jodi@ymail.com

You Make Me Smile – November 3, 2013

Jen said, “Leroy spits treats at me! Good times.”

Well this just made me laugh.  Sampson used to be super picky with treats.  Milk Bones.  NO. THANK. YOU.  Once the drive-thru teller gave him one and he politely took it.  I found it in my purse a short time later.   What a picky boy.

But his tastes have changed, because our vet’s office has those very same Milk Bones and he would gobble up the whole thing if we let him.

Good times indeed!

Emma said, “I concentrate on chewing really hard. I have to always be careful that no one steals my stuff.”

Delilah is the same way.  She LOVES her some treats.  If you approach her, her tail wags a mile a minute and her jaw keeps up.

I’m a Lepto Maniac

I was so please to read how many of you actually space your dog’s vaccines weeks apart.  Besides giving your dog’s immune system proper time to do its job, IF your dog were to have a reaction, you should be able to tell which vaccine was the culprit.

Callie, Shadow and Ducky’s Mom asked, “Is Sampson a black belt in karate now? Just curious as to what the black belt around his midsection is for.”

That is his leash.  It somehow got wrapped around him.

Jackie asked, “Ticks are not too bad here either, as long as you don’t go off-trail when hiking. (What is the natural treatment you use for that?)”

I’ve been experimenting with various natural flea and tick sprays for the last few months.  The key to using a natural spray is you have to do this every day.  Which is not a problem for me, I just add it to my getting ready to walk routine.  I had a pretty good spray that I used over the summer but its base was rubbing alcohol, which I thought might be contributing to Sampson’s itchies.

I found a natural flea and tick spray at my local pet store.  It is comprised of a bunch of different essential oils but the base is water, which I thought would be far better, if it touched their skin.

So I publish the Lepto Maniac post and sure enough I pull four ticks off of Sampson in a 24-hour period, and one off Delilah.

Back to the drawing board.

Besides the spray, I also keep the dogs on a low dose of Bug Off Garlic.  I really should increase it during April/May and September/October but I worry about gas.

The garlic makes my dogs very gassy.  And I worry because we do close our bedroom door at night.

They’re All Urgent

Jan said, “I’m trying to get back into the Tuesday blog hop, but all the shelter Chihuahuas in
CA just breaks my heart as well as their being used for celebrity photo ops.”

I agree Jan, I really do.  I love Tuesday’s Tails blog hop.  But it’s hard for me to look at all the dogs in my area and know that some of them are not getting out.   And as of yesterday, she hadn’t been pulled.  I pray she made it.

Maybe if my shelters were no-kill it would be easier.

It’s Not a Toomah

Jackie shared, “One “bad” sign the vet shared with us is if the bump on your dog changes size suddenly. Bailey’s cancerous lumps would sometimes be small one day, and then big the next. Then they’d go back to being small again. If you’ve got something like that on your dog, get it checked right away! It could be nuthin, but it could be a toomah.”

Good to know Jackie, thank you for sharing!

Frankie and Ernie said, “Ernie had a BUMP that had to be removed… when his Boy Baubbles were.. The bump was caused by is INFANT shots… That is ANOTHER reason that OUR mom won’t let us have Multiple Shots in a day.”

Okay, first I’m glad that Ernie is okay, BUTT “Boy Baubbles” made me laugh.  Just like when my sister refers to her “Hey Nonner Nonner” as “Girly bits.”

And yes, Sampson had a lump that was caused by HIS infant shots.  Which is why I try and limit vaccines to the really essential ones.

Jan K said, “I believe that vaccines contributed to my golden’s death from cancer….I do not think they caused it but I suspect they accelerated it.”

It wouldn’t surprise me Jan.  I work next door to a pediatrician’s office and the office manager keeps telling me there are all kinds of things in the vaccines that have no business being there.

Slimdoggy said, “Labs notoriously have a lot of fatty lumps. Sally had so many that I had to draw a little outline of her body and mark where the were so we could keep track.”

Wow, what a great idea.  So if you had the lump checked did you identify it on the drawing?

Lauranne said, “However my favourite of all his fatty lumps are the first two he grew… you see he had the op as a young pup however it would seem that now he is a man of senior years he has decided he would quite like them back and so has grown his own pair.”

OH. MY. DOG. I’m sorry to laugh, but I did.  Holy smoly, he grew his own nuticles. BOL

Blogville ROCKS This ‘N That Thursday

Frankie and Ernie’s mom said,”…Each month we will see a New Pic of one of our Friends.”

That is the great part!! I look forward to turning the page so I can see which of my friends is next.

April – Susie “Sweet Petunia” – The Mad Scots

Friends like Susie!

That’s it for me, many thanks to my friend Emma for agreeing to co-host!!