Heart Like a Dog

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

This ‘N That Thursday

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Today we’re joining 2 Brown Dawgs blog for This ‘N That Thursday.

This ‘N That Thursday is for those times when you want to post about unrelated topics or each topic isn’t quite long enough to make up a whole post.  It can be anything you want, so feel free to grab the button and join us!

Dogs are opportunists.

Just ask anyone who has ever left the door to their garbage cabinet open, only to return and find garbage strewn hither and yon.

I’m trying to live this year with a heart like a dog.  No, that doesn’t mean I’m playing in garbage.

It means when the combination of getting home a few minutes early, coupled with the later sunsets provided an opportunity to hit the trails, Sampson, Delilah and I jumped at it.

The dogs were excited to be out sniffing and exploring.

Sam I know there are deer around here somewhere.

Delilah Yup, I smell them too.

We had rain here a couple of days ago and then a cold spell, which means the snow froze.  Walking on frozen snow is just as challenging as walking on fresh snow.  On the well-worn paths, the trail was a bit uneven, but it held our weight.  When we deviated from the path, our feet sank.

Click on any of the pictures to enlarge them.

 We had thirty-five glorious minutes taking in the sights, smells and serenity of the woods.  I can honestly say we all returned home, with joy in our hearts and appreciation for the beauty that surrounds us.

Heart Like A Dog Lesson:  Don’t let a good opportunity pass you by.

Facebook

Yup, the time suck is at it again, but this time I thought I’d share it with you.  It’s totally non-dog related (but involves our military which in my book is fair game) and it definitely put a smile on my face.

That’s it for this edition of This ‘N That Thursday.  Many thanks to our friends at the 2 Brown Dawgs blog for allowing us to join them.

One Word

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Love, loyalty, courage, kindness, forgiveness.  These are just a few of the words that pop into my head when I think about the qualities I see in the hearts of my canine companions.

When I chose the name of this blog, my intention was to learn from my furry pals.  Learn to live more in the now and less in the past.

To embrace and enjoy the simple things in life, and not to worry about something that may or may not happen.

To be enthusiastic about learning new things, and exploring new opportunities.

To not let obstacles deter me from the path I’ve chosen.

To be thankful for the gifts in my life and not worry about what others around me have or are doing.

IMG_0019 To not worry about what others might think of me and allow myself to enjoy the things I enjoy.

There’s a saying that goes something along the lines of, Help me to be the person my dog thinks I am.

In other words, I want to learn to live my life with a heart like a dog.

When I first read about the one word project on Gizmo’s blog, I knew immediately what my word should be.

This week I contacted Melanie from Only a Breath, she’s agreed to make free buttons for anyone participating in the One Word project.

It took me a while, but I finally figured out how to add the button to my side bar.  You’ll see it about half-way down the page.

My word is:

OneWord2013_Heart150

And that means that I intend to put my Heart into everything I attempt this year, to be loving, loyal, courageous, kind and forgiving.

To think with my heart and not with my head, even if that means I get hurt along the way. To live up to the name of this blog.

I’d love it if you took this journey with me, but I understand if you choose not to.

Either way, I’m living this year with my heart, how will you choose to live?

What would your one word be?  What kind of traits do you see in your furry pals that you’d like to emulate?

What’s Yours Is Mine

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A few weeks back we had quite a discussion about using photos from the internet as well as from fellow bloggers.

I’ll be the first one to tell you that I don’t make the extra effort to protect my photos with a copyright mark.  I have a copyright caveat at the bottom of the blog and that’s as far as it goes.

This isn’t a hugely popular blog with tens of thousands of readers so I don’t worry too much about someone stealing my work.

Besides, how easy is it to take a photo and cut a copyright out?

20120108-freighter-1 No, this isn’t Delilah, this is Freighter from the 2 Brown Dawgs blog. The blog information was in the grass just below Freighter’s feet.  I cut it out.  (This photo was used with permission from 2 Brown Dawgs.)

The whole copyright issue dawned on me this past Follow-Up Friday when Beth said, “So if I understand, what you did was just add the copyright line in text on the photo? I get that…in fact, I’ve figured out how to do it with Pixlr, which i think is similar to PicMonkey…So I should just add text to any photos I post on the blog and that will deter unauthorized borrowing.”

Except that I’ve just shown you how easy that is to get around, right?

I think what you need to do to protect your photos, is to add a watermark to it.

Dictionary.com defines watermark as “A figure or design impressed in some paper during manufacture, visible when the paper is held to the light.”

The obvious solution is to add your text to your photo in a place where it can’t be cropped out.

S9 Copyright Nobody would want to gank this photo, would they?  But it does take the cuteness factor down.

Copyright S9 If we manipulate the text, we can add it, but make it so faint, it’s hardly discernible.  Can you see the mark? Hint: it’s right across the top of Sampson’s head, between his ears.  (I could probably have gone a bit darker.)

Now the question becomes, is it really necessary to take this type of precaution with our photos?

And to go a step farther, what about our words?

During that discussion many weeks back the term “Creative Commons” was mentioned by Lexy from Gone For a Walk and Pamela at Something Wagging This Way Comes.

If you don’t know what Creative Commons is, quite simply it’s your permission for how others can use your work.  I took some time yesterday and added a Creative Commons button to my side-bar.

My Creative Commons says any of my photos or words can be used Non-Commercially as long as you give me credit.

Is it too easy?  Or am I too trusting?  What types of precautions do you take with your precious work?

 

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