Heart Like a Dog

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

It’s Not Just the Rain

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We had one of the wettest June’s on record, I think it ranked in the top five with whoever it is that keeps those records.  It seems like we get rain at least once a day.

How much rain have we had?

We’ve had so much rain that some of our paths still have water on them.

This has dried up some since I took this photo.

This has dried up some since I took this photo.

 

We’ve had so much rain that those paths without standing water are paths of muck.

Makes for slippery walking.

Makes for slippery walking.

 

We’ve had so much rain our little field suddenly sprouted a multitude of mushroom villages, seemingly overnight.

There are hundreds of these little settlements throughout the field.

There are hundreds of these little settlements throughout the field.

 

We’ve had so much rain, leaves pushed into piles by the force of rushing water, are still damp, making walking treacherous at times.

Random piles of leaves populate the walking paths.

Random piles of leaves populate the walking paths.

 

And when it’s not the rain, it’s the humidity.

How humid is it?

Towels used to dry the dogs that normally dry overnight on the screen porch, are still damp 24 hours later.

Walking the dogs for even half an hour results in rivulets of sweat streaming off my body.

You feel like you need a shower after your shower.

I guess it could be worse, I hear they’re getting scorched in the western part of the country.

How’s the weather in your neck of the woods?  Any tips for helping us cope?

Bon Jodi

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Here’s a little Bon Jodi to start your week off.  It’s sung to the tune of Livin’ On A Prayer by Bon Jovi.

Once upon a time
Not so long ago…..
 
Delilah loves to walk in the woods
The bugs are bad this year
We’re gettin’ eaten up…it’s not good, not good
Mama searched the web all day
Looking for a way to help keep the bugs at bay,
At bay
 
She says we gotta hang in, we must prevail
If it gets tough we’ve got to wag our tails
They can’t beat us because we’re tough as nails
We’ll switch to DEET if all else fails
 
CHORUS
Whooah, we will get there
Oh oh, we’re one tough pair
Grab the leash and we’ll make it I swear
Oh oh, we’re one tough pair
 

 We’re being eaten alive

We had a rainy, humid June and the bugs are out of control.  Despite spraying the dogs and myself every walk, we still get swarmed by the little……er..buggers.

Last Thursday after our walk I looked at Delilah and said, “WTF is on your face, do you have a tick?”

Sorry for the blurry photo, it's hard to hold her head and still take a photo.

Sorry for the blurry photo, it’s hard to hold her head and take a photo.

 

For those of you keeping score at home, she did not answer me.

Instead upon closer inspection I realized she’d been bitten by some kind of bug right in the corner of her eye.  I immediately text Jenny Juggs and asked what to do.  She suggested Benadryl which I gave to Delilah and within an hour or so you couldn’t see it anymore.

On Friday I made sure to pay special attention to the area on her face and she still came home with bites.  I gave her more Benadryl.

I thought maybe the bugs wouldn’t be so bad if we went earlier in the day.  Saturday morning instead of using the spray I use, I used bug lotion.  I thought I have better control with applying lotion, as opposed to spraying something near her eyes.

Still hard to get a photo.

Still hard to get a photo.

 

The bites were smaller this time, but she still had them and I noticed a few more on her nose.

Know Your Adversary

When talking with one of my friends she mentioned no-see-ums.  They are also known as midges and they are apparently resistant to most insect sprays.

I spent a lot of time this past weekend reading up on this nasty little pests.  Apparently certain people and animals have a chemical make-up that attracts these bugs.  Based upon our experiences in our woods, Delilah and I would fall into this category.

I also discovered these little biting bastards are similar to mosquitoes as they love the damp, wet, marshy areas, and when they find a feeding source, they send out a call to their comrades, “dinner’s here.” Because of all the rain we had, some of the lower areas in our woods have bits of standing water and mud.  Coincidentally these are the trails where we normally walk.

There have actually been times where Delilah has stopped and used her paw to scrape something bothering her.  I felt bad, here I am walking my dog (something she truly enjoys) and yet I’m exposing her to biting bugs and pumping her full of Benadryl when we get home.  I set out to change this.

Yesterday I used the bug repellant lotion, Skin so Soft (Avon) and I changed our route.  We avoided the low-lying areas where we normally walk and stuck to the field and the trails where there was no water.

Yesterday was the first time in four days where I didn’t have to give her Benadryl when we got home.  I couldn’t see any bites on her face. AT ALL.

The problem is, I’m not sure what worked.

So today, we’ll stick to the same trail schedule and I’ll use my bug spray/lotion and see what happens.  Fingers crossed we stay bite free today too.

Do you have a problem with bugs where you walk?  Are there any natural products you use to help repel the bugs?

This ‘N That Thursday – June 27, 2013

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Today we join our friends at the 2 Brown Dawgs blog for This ‘N That Thursday.  You know, This ‘N That Thursday, A little of this and a little of that and everything in between…

Courtesy of 2 Brown Dawgs Blog

 

Courtesy of 2 Brown Dawgs Blog

Many thanks to our friends at the 2 Brown Dawgs Blog.

Super Sweet Blogging Award

Last week our friends at All Things Collie presented us with the Super Sweet Blogging award.  Sampson and Delilah did a post about this very award last December, so I thought I’d say thank you very much to All Things Collie and let you read their answers here.

Weather

With the warmer weather comes the added chance of thunderstorms.  We’ve had our fair share of them of late and they always seem to be right around the time we’re taking our walk.

The flash always makes it seem darker.

The flash always makes it seem darker.

 

I love walking and truth be told I actually enjoy walking in a light to moderate rain. While it can be slightly uncomfortable walking in wet clothes, rain does help keep the bugs away.  But when the thunder rolls in like waves upon the shore, I draw the line.

And the thunder rolls.

And the thunder rolls.

 

I usually let the dogs choose our path and simply follow them wherever they go.  I have been encouraging them to use one particular path on our way out of the park.  When we hit this path I say, “Let’s go home.”

When we reach the intersection we can turn right and head back towards the field or turn left and head towards our car.  I usually try and plan our walks so we hit this path right around the 25 minute mark and it takes us about five minutes to walk it, so in my mind it’s a win-win.

Last night Delilah wanted to hit our ‘home’ path early so I thought, no biggie, we’ll turn right into the field instead of left.  Silly me.  I’m not sure it was the heat, or the fact that we’ve cut our walks short a couple of times but we hit the end of that trail and the dogs turned towards the car.

Rut row.

Don’t think I slacked off because we just finished K-9 Kamp, we didn’t get the “Walking Warriors” award because we’re wimps.  No siree Bob.  I urged them the other way and we finished our half hour walk.

Thank you to Kol's Notes and Peggy's Pet Place for hosting K-9 Kamp.

Thank you to Kol’s Notes and Peggy’s Pet Place for hosting K-9 Kamp.

Bones

My dogs love their bones.  I currently have the Jones Natural Chews center bones and I fill them every day and freeze them, they are the nightly treat in our house.

These bones are well loved.  Don’t believe me?  Have a look.

Broken Bone Care to hazard a guess as to who loved this bone to pieces?

If you guessed Delilah, you’d be wrong.  Oh Delilah loves these bones, there’s no doubt about it, but she is not the extreme chewer with them like Sampson is.

2 Bones The bone on the left is Delilah’s.

For whatever reason, Sampson chews these bones a lot harder than Delilah.  Of course, I threw this one out which means I need to replace it. 🙂

Follow-Up Friday

Join us tomorrow for Follow-Up Friday, the blog hop that let’s you wrap up your week and leads you right into the weekend.  My co-hostess for this week is JoAnn Stancer from Sand Spring Chesapeakes.

Many thanks to our friends at 2 Brown Dawgs for the This ‘N That Thursday blog hop.  See you tomorrow.

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