Heart Like a Dog

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

Halloween Pet Safety

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Hi, Sampson here.  I’m filling in for mom today, with an important message for you and your pets in preparation for Halloween.

A lot of people get all caught up in the hype and excitement of Halloween and forget about their furry friends.

Personally I love Halloween, I love, love, love when people come to our house. The only problem is mom and dad won’t let us greet everyone at the door.  They make us watch from behind a gate. They say it’s for our own safety, to make sure we don’t accidentally get outside in all the excitement.

The gate is really for Delilah, she can’t control herself. 

 

I consider myself to be a pretty lucky dog, because mom rarely if ever dresses me up, don’t get me wrong, she’s tried a couple of times but I really hate it, so I just put my head down and refuse to pose.

She gets the hint pretty quick and that’s without using the clicker.

Mom says there are lots of people who dress their dogs for Halloween.  If you’re one of them, please make sure the costume fits properly.  A too tight costume will restrict movement and if the costume is too loose your pet can become tangled, which could have disastrous results.

Make sure your pets are secured when the door is opened for trick or treaters, some pets who aren’t as well-behaved as I am might take advantage of the open door policy.

Keep all candy out of your pet’s reach.  I would NEVER think of eating something that mom or dad didn’t give me, but there’s a certain chocolate lab who doesn’t follow the rules.

Be sure to monitor your pets when they go outside, no-one likes to think about it, but there are some people in this world who do bad things to pets, especially on Halloween.

Some people like to take their dogs with their kids while they’re trick or treating.   It’s a great idea if you have a well-behaved dog that can handle crowds and walks well on leash.  If your dog doesn’t like crowds it’s probably best to leave them home in their crate with a nice stuffed Kong.

If you do take your dogs out walking with you it’s a good idea to have some kind of light reflecting vest.  Dad picked these up for us at Cabela’s last year for less than $20 each.

Does this vest make my fur look fluffy?

 

Those are the Halloween rules at our house.  What kind of Halloween rules do you have?

Riding the Storm Out

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Last year we had Snowtober this year it’s Frankenstorm.

While thankfully there is no snow predicted, we are in for some heavy winds.  We also have a lot of trees around us, trees that were weakened or still have broken branches from last year’s storm.

Two weeks ago one of those branches came down with some wind.  Luckily for us, it landed on our gate, and wedged itself between the chimney and the side wall of the house.  Miraculously, there was no permanent damage.  I told Hubby, the Lord just keeps providing us with wood to burn.

Hey big branch! Yeah I’m talking to you. Get off my fence!

 

It looks like it’s touching, but really there is about six inches between the end of the branch and the house.

 

If it were just Hubby and I, there would be no problem. Since we have pets, we need to make sure they remain safe.

The first thing we did was tie down everything that can’t go inside.

Ghetto Grill

 

The storm is expected to last through Tuesday. The dogs will have to go outside to potty, that last thing we want is for something left out in the yard, flying through the air and striking one of the dogs.

On the off-chance that happens, we have hydrogen peroxide, EMT gel and vet tape handy.

It’s important to have plenty of food on hand for your pets.  We feed raw and I currently have five days worth of dinners and about three weeks worth of breakfast.  If need be, we will use the breakfast supply for dinner.

Luckily for us we have city water, but should contamination occur, I have six gallons of bottled water handy.

We also stuck some empty soda bottles in the freezer to use for ice if we need it, or defrost it and use for cooking or washing as the case may be.

Since we live on the side of a hill, it’s highly unlikely we will need to evacuate from flooding, but if we need to evacuate for another reason, the dog’s medications, their medical records, food bowls and going outside collars are all within 15 feet of each other and their leashes are hung by the front door.

Bob is on canned food, which is in very close proximity to the dogs items.

The important thing in any natural disaster is to have a plan, know what items you need to take with you and where they are.  If possible practice a dry run.   Having a plan of action in place for emergencies gives you peace of mind that nothing else can.

If we have to leave in an emergency I feel very comfortable saying we can be out within half an hour…..forty five minutes tops.

Where we’ll go, I’m not really sure, but I did hear on the news that the shelters are taking dogs. 🙂

What types of weather related issues do you need to be prepared for where you live?   Do you have a plan in place to evacuate your pets?  What if the situation springs up suddenly, have you and your family discussed who will get the pets?

What Was I Thinking?

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I’m freaking out a little bit as well as second guessing myself.

Have you heard of National Novel Writing Month?  Those in the know, refer to it as NaNoWriMo and their motto is, “November 1st-30th Thirty days and nights of literary abandon.”

My friend Donna, from Donna and the Dogs Just Toby asked me if I’d participate with her.  And in a moment of folly, I agreed.

The challenge is to write the rough draft of a novel, (50,000 words) in a month.

The month of November. You know the month that’s currently four days away.

The same November which includes the last 30 days in my personal challenge of writing a blog post every day for two consecutive years.

Now I’m sitting here saying, what was I thinking?

  • I’m 33 days away from completing my two-year challenge.
  • I’m in the beginnings of hosting a fund-raising calendar event.
  • I just started a Co-Hosted Follow-Up Friday Blog Hop.
  • I’m helping throw a baby shower in three weeks.
  • I’m going to visit my sister for three days over Thanksgiving.
  • Delilah and I are signed up to start a tricks class on the 13th.

Just where the hell am I going to find the time to write 50,000 words?

You may remember the success I had with my previous novel.  Yeah, you know, the one that’s stalled at about 27,000 words.  27,000 words that took me MONTHS (that’s a plural right there) to write.  The same novel I haven’t touched in months.  Now I’m no mathematician but I know damn well 27,000 is way less than 50,000 and 90 days is way more than a month.

I have to tell you, I’m kind of stalled with the first novel and the second novel is rolling around in my head, in fact it’s been rolling around for months, which I think is exactly why I haven’t been working on the first one.

Donna messaged me Friday night and asked if I still wanted to do it.

I’m pretty sure I do.  I’m also pretty sure I won’t get 50,000, but I won’t know unless I try. 🙂

In order for this to work, something’s got to give.

You guys know I love comments right?  I love your comments and I love responding to your comments.  It can however be very time consuming sometimes.

It pains me to say this but, I may have to stop replying to every single comment.  I may have to lump them all into one single comment or (HORRORS) not reply at all. 🙁

That’s my plan for the moment. If it changes, I’ll let you know.

By the end of November I’ll probably look like this.

Permanent expression after NaNoWriMo? I sure hope not.

 

What is that saying?  If you want something done, give it to a busy person. 🙂

Any tips, thoughts or suggestions?  I could use the assist. 🙂

 

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