Heart Like a Dog

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

A Post About Nothing

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This is a blog post about nothing.  As of right now, I’ve lost my Mojo, so I figured if Seinfield can have a show about nothing, I can do the same thing with a blog post. Here goes.

Rainy Days and Mondays

 The nice warm weather we had last week was replaced Monday with a cold wet rain.  (Thanks a lot for sending your crappy weather my way, Sue.)

Of course the Dastardly Duo want a walk rain or shine.  Monday’s was a cold, raw rain, so I broke out the flannel lined jeans and my boots.  Nothing says spring like marching in the cold wet rain with boots and gloves on.

Since I had the song, “Rainy Days and Mondays” stuck in my head, I took some pictures of the dogs in all their wetness.  

Hanging around, nothing to do but frown, rainy days and wet dogs always get me down.

Golden Lab

Thank DOG she didn’t break out our boots. I’ve had enough humiliation for one week.

 

Chocolate Lab

What are you whining about? You’re wearing a raincoat.

 

Golden Lab

What pray tell is the issue with a wet dog smell?  It smells awesome and makes our fur super soft.

That’s as far as I got.  When I sat down to write the post, the words just wouldn’t come.

I looked to my dogs for inspiration, nothing.

Flipped through some pictures, still nothing.

I decided I’d pass on Rainy Days and Mondays and make a WTF Wednesday post.

You've heard this one right?

WTF?

 I really wanted to skewer the Texas veterinarian who killed the cat with the bow and arrow, but honestly my WTF posts are supposed to be funny and I just couldn’t find any way to put some humor in that situation. 

So I wrote a post about nothing, that has absolutely no humor in it whatsoever.

But I wrote and hopefully my Mojo is not lost, just taking a sabbatical and I’ll find it soon.

What do you do when the words just won’t come?

Paw Patrol

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Disclaimer, the first photo is of Sampson’s cracked dew claw, it’s a tiny bit gross, just in care you’re squeamish.

There are many days when the technology we live in really can flummox me. Trying to keep up with all the social media, ways to watch movies/television shows, electronic mail, can sometimes be over whelming to me.

The flip side is having instant access to people I care about. FaceTime with my grandchildren as they travel to visit their other grandparents in North Carolina or with my niece in Florida is priceless.

Having access to my vet on Sunday?

Amazing.

Yesterday was D-Day, the day Sampson’s bandage came off and we reassessed his dew claw. As soon as the bandage was off I snapped a picture, and called my vet. After chatting a few minutes she gave me her e-mail address and I sent her off the photo.

Cracked Dew Claw

That is one angry dew claw.

Five minutes later she said, I had hoped it would be quieter by now.  Keep him from licking it either by putting a sock on it, or have him wear the cone. Let’s touch base in the morning.

Initially we had to run out, so I put the cone on. When we came home we could see Sampson at the window and I said to Hubby, I want to paint daisies or something on that cone.

Don’t do that! Why would you do that?

I think he’d look cute, with daisies or rays of sunshine on it.

NO.

WHY do you keep singing, "You are my sunshine?" It's not funny Mama.

WHY do you keep singing, “You are my sunshine?” It’s not funny Mama.

Once we got home, I spent the rest of the day trying to come up with creative ways to keep the sock on.  Any of you have any experience with this?  What’s the best type of sock to use? How do you secure it on?  

I thought I had it secured with vet tape, but when we came back from our walk…the sock was gone.  

I always wondered how those random pieces of clothing wound up on the side of the road, and now I know.  

Shortly after I fixed the first sock on Sampson, I bent down to give Delilah some love and noticed she had all kinds of debris on her paw.  She must have stepped in gum on our walk. Nice.

Boy I’d like to find the douche bag that discarded that gum on the road, I’d give them something to chew on.

Without thinking of snapping a picture, I pulled as much of the gum and debris off that I could.

Gum on dog paw

Nothing like spending your Sunday picking gum off your dog’s paw.

Then I sat down with some rubbing alcohol and a paper towel and set to work.  

By picking and gently rubbing I got as much gum as I could off.  There were times when she seemed very uncomfortable with me trying to PULL gum off her foot, so I simply did the best I could.

Between Sampson’s dew claw and Delilah’s gum, it felt like a good part of my day was spent dealing with paws.  How was your Sunday?

Scanning Your Pet at the Vet

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Today is the 15th of April, and you know what that means.

Did you guess the deadline to file your taxes?  Well yes, that is true today is tax day.  Have you done that yet?  (I just barely squeaked in this year causing myself a WHOLE lot of unnecessary stress.)

Chocolate Lab

Taxes? You can eat those right?

The actual event I was referring to though is Blog the Change for Animals, you know, the quarterly blog hop, where we write about our favorite animal-related causes, read posts, leave comments, and share! And in doing so, we help make a difference in the lives of animals or inspire someone else to get involved or make a difference.
Blog the Change

I decided to write about microchipping your pet.  I know you guys are savvy.  You know a pet that is lost and found by someone else has the best chance of being reunited with their owner when the pet is chipped.

But did you know that some towns, and I won’t say where, (CHICAGO) have reduced their stray hold to three days for dogs and zero days for cats?  It’s true. And it’s sad. And the best chance your pet has at being reunited with you if found by someone else, is the information contained on that precious little chip.

We’ve all heard the stories of pets found hundreds, even thousands of miles away that are eventually reunited with their owners, all because of the microchip.

For the most part, the tiny little chips stay exactly where they are implanted, BUT they are foreign objects and there are times when they may shift a little bit, or even move.  My vet told me of one dog that actually stuck out its tongue with the chip on it.

My suggestion is when you go to the vet for your pet’s annual check up, ask them to scan the pet to make sure the chip is in place.  If the chip isn’t where it’s supposed to be, the vet can continue scanning until they find it.

It’s important to note where that chip might be.

If the unthinkable happens, you’ll be able to share, that Fido is chipped, but the chip has moved slightly and you can share the general area of where the chip is located.

True confession.  Delilah came to us via American Lab Rescue, and she was chipped when we got her. But up until Sampson had his dental cleaning in December of 2013…he wasn’t chipped.

Honestly, I couldn’t tell you why we never did it when he was a puppy, but once I started blogging and discovered the importance of chipping, we did talk about it and I was all for it, until I saw that needle.

Holy shit, I can’t believe they actually call it a needle.  To me it looked like a ballpoint pen refill.  I’ve heard people say, it doesn’t hurt and to that I say, “Bullshit. You try shoving a ball point pen shaft into your shoulder and then tell me if it hurts.”

Go ahead tell me. 

It’s still bullshit.

So when Sampson had his dental cleaning and was under anesthesia, I had him chipped.  When I spoke to my vet about it, she agreed under anesthesia was the way to go and actually confessed that she hated when people insisted on chipping their pet without anesthesia.

So now both dogs are chipped, which brings some peace of mind to me.

Although, I’m pretty sure that anyone who found Delilah would quickly realize she was quite the handful and want to find her rightful owner.

Oh come on, you know it’s true.  Not everybody can handle a dog like Delilah.

Shit, most days, I can’t even handle her.

But Sampson, Sampson is such a good boy, it kind of worries me.  So that little bit of extra insurance is something that helps me sleep a little bit better at night.

Oh who the hell am I kidding?  I sleep with two big dogs, or rather, I try to sleep with two big dogs.  Yesterday morning for reasons known only to her, Delilah barked.

One time.

Once.

And that was it for me, I was awake for the day.

But that’s a rant for another day.

Delilah - 9 years old

Someone touched me with their foot. 

Are you participating in Blog the Change?  Want to participate but not sure what to write about?

Here’s a few ideas.

  • Share what you’ve done to Be the Change for Animals
  • Who do you know who acts tirelessly on animals’ behalf?
  • What favorite cause has a special need right now?

When We Blog the Change, We Become the Change.

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