Heart Like a Dog

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

Meet EMMA

By

Hubby refuses to have a facebook page.  It’s all good, facebook isn’t for everyone.   Except he has a tendency to look over my shoulder and ask, “What’s that?”

The other day someone had posted a photo of their dog and he asked, “What happened to that dog?”

I said, “He’s missing an eye, that’s what our next dog is going to be.”

“A dog with one eye?”

“Not necessarily a dog with one eye, but the dog will be black and will either be a Senior or a Special Needs dog; or a Beagle rescued from lab testing.”

“I don’t want a Beagle.”

(I’ll tell you what Hubby always told the kids about “want” but I’ll save that for Friday’s post.)

I tell you all this because today I’m once again participating with Dogs N Pawz for the Tuesday’s Tails Blog Hop and I’m once again focusing my efforts on a Senior.

EMMA 5-14-13 This photo is courtesy of Petfinder.

Meet Emma.  Emma is a ten- to twelve- year-old, fifty pound black Labrador Retriever looking for her forever home.  She’s a very laid back, yet sweet and loving girl who loves the company of people and other dogs. She’s house- and crate-trained, walks well on leash, loves to go for rides in the car, and generally does anything she can to please her people.  She’s looking for a loving home where a senior dog that walks a little slower, and enjoys her naps can have the love and companionship she desires.

Emma is currently being fostered in CT and is one of the Labs being sponsored by Labs 4 Rescue. All Labs 4 Rescue pups are altered, up to date on their shots and have been temperament tested.

For additional information about Emma #22 please email Susan Ekaireb at susanekaireb@gmail.com.

I’m not normally one for asking people to share my posts (of course if you love them and want to that’s totally your choice) BUT when it comes to helping dogs find a loving home to spend the rest of their days.  Well let’s just say, I’m not above begging.

Please share where you can.  Together we really can make a difference!!  This is Tuesday’s Tails Blog Hop.

Dogs N Pawz

 

This Dog Will Be the Death of Me

By

If she doesn’t kill me on the trail, she’ll frighten me to death.

Let me start by saying as far as I can tell, Delilah is okay.

If you’re my friend on facebook, you already know what happened.  If you’re not, what are you waiting for?

I came home after a four hour break yesterday to find a shredded plastic bag on the floor.

Nothing new.  I picked up the remnants and looked at the bag thinking, what the hell was in that?

IMG_4694

I looked around, couldn’t figure it out and went about the rest of my day.

When Hubby came home I said, do you know what the hell was in this bag?

Nope.

He looked around and exclaimed, Packing Peanuts!

Holy shit. Are you kidding me? (I lied, I actually cussed a lot more than that.  What can I say?  I could make a sailor blush.)

We searched every room in the house but not a trace of packing peanuts did we find.  Hubby went out to the trash, no peanuts.

There’s only one conclusion.

Delilah ate about three to four cups of packing peanuts.

I about lost my shit.  I im’d Jodi Chick who said, Keep an eye on her. If she stops eating/pooping or if she vomits, you need to worry.  Hopefully, you’ll see a whole lot of packing peanuts come out the other end, but if you don’t? Worry.

I called the vet’s office to get the number for the emergency vet and thankfully the vets in my office are available by phone before 9:00 pm.  As luck would have it, I pulled my vet who called me back within two minutes.

She felt it was probably cornstarch peanuts and that Delilah would be okay, but recommended no food.

Well that’s not going to go over well I said.

Then just give her a small handful, if she vomits during the night you need to bring her to the emergency vet, but if she doesn’t then she can resume regular meals tomorrow.

Then I sent a text to Jenny Jugs, who assured me she’d probably be fine, but to watch her.

Do you see how I roll?

Flash forward an hour, we’re sitting watch TV and Hubby says, what if it was him?  What if he’s been doing it all along and we’ve been blaming her?

So neither dog got a full dinner.

IMG_4613 You’re such a drama queen, it was just a little bag of peanuts. Before you were allergic to them, you loved them too.

Thanks Delilah and my gray hair and shortened lifespan thanks you too.

Update:  Despite not having a full meal, both dogs did very well last night.  After waiting a couple of minutes for the second course they both went and settled down.  I held off on their filled bone snack until almost 10:00 pm.  They went out for the night but she didn’t poop.

I’m exhausted, when I slept it was with one eye and one ear open, but both dogs (and Hubby) slept comfortably through the night.

This morning she had a tiny movement which looked okay to me.  They had their normal breakfast although I refrained from giving them their garlic tablets as I was afraid it might make her gassy.  I plan on going home at lunch for our walk and have asked my mom to check in on them if she hears anything unusual.

Delilah seemed her normal self this morning, scrounging around for food and I even caught her grazing at wood chips.

What doesn’t kill us makes us stronger right?

This is the Monday Mischief Blog hop hosted by Alfie’s Blog, Snoopy’s Dog Blog and My Brown Newfies.

 

What Would You Do For Your Pet?

By

I had a totally different post planned for today and then I came upon this article on Yahoo, and the title caught my eye, Experts: Don’t attempt to save swept-away pets.

You can read the article for yourself AFTER you finish this post (apparently I have to be concerned with something called bouncing.)

I’ll give you the down and dirty.  Apparently five people have died in California in the last five months trying to rescue a dog being swept away.

The article says that most dogs are better swimmers than humans and by using their fight or flight instincts will work with the currents and find their way to shore.  Of course it might be a bit farther away than where they started so microchips and collar tags are highly recommended.

We all know that certain dogs are better in the water than others.  Labradors, German Shepards and Pit Bulls are designed for swimming. Their strong bodies, heads that stay above water, thick/and or waterproof coats not to mention the four feet vs two for humans, (with some of them being webbed) give them the advantage over two footers who can experience hypothermia due to the cold ocean water.

Animals have far better stamina than most humans and are capable of keeping themselves alive in the water by remaining calm and focusing on the task at hand vs humans who tend to panic and become confused.

And what if your pet manages to stay alive, turning up two or three miles down shore and you have died, where does that leave him/her?

Logistically this all makes sense to me, but the reality of seeing your dog struggling and being swept away is far different.  I can’t imagine the guilt I’d feel standing helplessly by.   And God knows I have enough guilt I carry right now.

Delilah-1

Sampson-1

How could I let either one of those sweet faces just drift away without trying to help?  What do you think?  What would YOU do?

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...