Heart Like a Dog

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

Fall Foliage

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I sat at this computer last night struggling to 1) finish my Michael Vick post 2) come up with a different post.  I couldn’t do either.

I’m a little under the weather right now, nothing major, just a cold but it’s making me feel pretty yucky.  I’m a big germ-a-phobe and am very careful about cleaning my hands after touching anything.  The office I work in shares a lobby with a Pediatrician’s office so you can imagine there are always sick kids running in and out of there.

The bathroom is in the lobby and I’m extremely careful about using a paper towel to open and close doors on my way back from the bathroom.

I have hand sanitizer in my car, my purse and a big ole industrial size, wall-mounted beast close to my desk.

I take germ fighting seriously.

My boss came in on Monday with a cold.  I remember saying to him, stop touching everything, you’re sick!  But when you work closely with someone I guess it’s inevitable, I must have missed a key sanitization moment, because here I sit, whining about a cold.

Pre-cold symptoms I did spend some time this past week taking pictures of the beautiful area I live in, I shared some of those photos yesterday but thought I might take an opportunity to put some more up here today.

All of these pictures within a couple of miles of our home.  Pre Delilah we walked here a lot, post Delilah, not so much.  I do hope we can get back to walking in some of these areas again.

I’m using the Gallery feature that 2 Brown Dawgs turned me on to, so I can fit the pictures here.  Hopefully this is more convenient than getting tendonitis in your finger from scrolling too much.

The Gallery option for inserting photos will only allow me to install one gallery, so while these are four different locations, unfortunately they are all lumped together.

A quick index.

Valley Falls (indicated with a (VF) in the descriptions) is a park which Sampson, Delilah and I can access from the trails in our woods.  There is a pond used for swimming in the summer (no dogs allowed) and a beautiful trail system.

Risley Dam (RD in the photo descriptions) is actually a reservoir (no dogs swimming) about a two miles from our house.  The photos I shared yesterday were taken just before sunset on Wednesday evening, while these photos were taken from the other end of the pond on Thursday afternoon.

The Tankerhoosen (Tank in photo descriptions) is a couple of bodies of water that pool in one area, turn to running water and pool in other areas as well.  I guess you could say it’s a series of small bodies of water.  We’ve taken the dogs swimming here last year, but there was too much goose poop and I had a hell of a time keeping Delilah out of it.

Finally Bell Sanctuary (BS in photo descriptions) is another series of walking trails not far from us.  We have yet to thoroughly check this area out, although Sampson, Delilah and I have explored it a bit.

That’s it for me, hope you have a great weekend.  Let me know when you want to bring your dogs for a walk, okay?

Another Vet Visit

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Sampson and his issues.

Well it seems like my poor little Punkin just can’t catch a break with his health issues.  First he had the soft tissue injury for which he went on anti-inflammatory medication (he took the last dose last night.)

Then we were at the vet two week’s ago for a bacterial skin infection.  The vet prescribed an antibiotic (Cephalexin) and a follow-up visit to discuss his Leptos vaccine.

Saturday night I noticed his right ear was extremely hot and red, Hubby and I suspected a yeast infection.

I spoke to the vet’s office and was told to use a warm wash cloth with a mild soap to clean his ear. They didn’t want it too clean, just in case she needed to do a scraping. 🙁  The warm cloth also seemed to help his ear feel better as he did not protest at all, and actually leaned his ear into the cloth.

It’s hard to get a great shot, but his ear red and hot.

 

Last night once again found us at the vet for our third time in less than a month.

Dr. Soutter said, it has the look of a yeast infection, and smells a bit like a yeast infection, but let’s swab it and take a look at it.

Whatcha brewin in there Sampson?

 

She swabbed it and set it to brew.

I  pointed out he has a few bumps on his head, like little welts or bites.

She looked at his tummy and said, his skin infection is better, but not gone.

Then she went out to check on his culture.

When she came back she said, It’s a bacterial infection.

To which I replied, Well that concerns me, he’s had a bacterial skin infection and now a bacterial ear infection, what’s causing this?

She suspects it’s allergy related. 🙁 Something airborne that he is breathing in. We came home with ear drops for the ear infection and an additional week’s dose of antibiotics.

She’s interested to see what happens when we have a good hard frost.

She also said she thought it was okay to give him his Leptos vaccine, I told her I preferred to wait.  She agreed.

Recheck in two weeks.

 

He was so happy to see everyone.

 

I did ask if there was anything we could do to prevent this from happening again.

Dr. Soutter said that some dogs react well to an antihistamine and others do not.  We can certainly try him on one and see if it helps. If that does not work than we can do some testing and see if we can determine what exactly he is allergic to.

When we exited our exam room and went to check out there was a woman there checking out and waiting for her cat.  I decided it was best to put Sampson in the car.

I brought him out and moved the car so I could see him from the window.

 

Are you done yet?

 

It was about 5:40 pm by this time, and a very cool day, still I’m never, ever comfortable leaving them in the car, so I moved it close to the door in order to keep an eye on him and I quickly paid my tab.

There was a squirrel running up and down the tree behind the car, but Sampson kept looking toward where I was.  Must have been Mr. Squirrel’s lucky day.

Has your dog ever missed an opportunity to torture bark at a small animal because they were too focused on something else to notice?

WTF/Whoo Hoo Wednesday

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Please note this post is not meant to make light of the deeds described here, only to make fun of, ridicule, bully and just plain beat the shit out of the idiots who commit these stupid acts.

Kelly Ripa – Open Mouth, Insert Foot, NYC, NY

I didn’t hear it nor did I see it, I just heard about it.  Apparently Kelly made a comment about Pit Bulls being the dogs of gangsters, which put Pit Bull owners and dog lovers in general up in arms.

Will Wheaton, Pit Bull owner and advocate had this to say.

Twitter (damn, I still haven’t mastered that social tool) was atwitter with people skewering Kelly for her ignorance.

Personally I like Kelly Ripa, I met her and her smoking hot husband many years ago when they were both still on All My Children, when in fact All My Children was still on the air.

I was tickled when she got the co-hosting gig with Regis and even more thrilled that she remained in that seat when he retired.

First I’m going to say, “Shame on you Kelly for buying into the media bias, public witch hunt about Pit Bulls.” Especially because it seems like one of your personal friends, Kaley Cuoco appears to know truth vs fiction.”

Right now though, I have to be the devil’s advocate, because Kelly is actually getting her information from the mainstream media.  Honestly, I can’t tell you how many stories about pit bulls, hurting, biting, mauling and killing that come across my desk.

The mainstream media focuses on the negative, and they have for as long as I can remember.

The troubling thing is, that unlike you or I who do our research to get to the truth, many people take these stories as gospel.  Which apparently Kelly did.

And really people, think about this.  Thugs have tough dogs.  That’s not something that’s made up, it’s the truth.  When some thug in Hartford goes to shake somebody down he doesn’t bring his Shorkie with him, he brings a Pit Bull.

Until a certain demographic of the population stops fighting these dogs and using them to make themselves feel tough, people like Kelly Ripa will continue to have this ill-conceived idea of what Pit Bulls really are.

The loving and loyal dogs that you and I know.

That being said, here’s where I get pissed off.  Since this happened approximately a week ago, there has been nothing from Kelly’s camp regarding her faux pas. (I followed her on Twitter yesterday, went back through for a week and read her posts, then I unfollowed her. [What? You’d have done the same thing.])

No retraction, no clarification, no public apology.  Nothing.

I think a Pit Bull rescue group would be wise to reach out to Kelly and use this opportunity to educate.

Word to the wise Kelly, don’t piss off the dog folks.

Whoo Hoo

Marines carry boy across finish line after his prosthetic leg breaks during triathlon, Pensacola Beach, FL.

Well you know I love me some military, maybe I’m just an emotional mess, but this story made me cry.

An 11-year-old boy who had his leg partially amputated from bone cancer at age 6 was participating in a triathlon.  He completed the swim and the bike ride, half-way through the one mile run a screw came out of his prosthetic leg and it broke.

As his mother waited, wondering at the finish line an announcement was made requesting for people to observe what was happening on the course.

One of the Marines who was monitoring the course, had picked young Ben Baltz up, put him on his back and ran him across the finish line.

Photo courtesy of CNN.

 

Semper Fi PFC Matthew Morgan, Semper Fi.

That’s if for me, what left you shaking your head this week?

What?  Oh you think I forgot about Michael Vick?  No, no my dears that’s a full post on its own.  Although, you might just be surprised by what I have to say.

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