Tag Archives: Dogs

News from Sweetie

Dogs & Other Animals, Rescue Happenings, ,

Dog-Sweetie

News from a previous foster dog of ours! Sweetie was our foster last year. She came before the foster dog we have right now, Kammie. Sweetie was a joy, even if she was a bit challenging.  After all challenging describes our kind of dog.

Her new family adores her. They say they can’t imagine life without her and she goes many places with them. One thing she does with the family is camping.

Dog-Sheltie-Sweetie

Here she is sticking out of the tent. She is definitely a much loved part of her new family. This is what we hope for when we let someone adopt a dog that we have  taken into our homes and loved. It is hard to let them go. But when we get reports like this, we know that we have done the right thing. And we know that this is what it takes to be able to help the next dog that comes along. And there is always a next dog. We have fostered over 40 dogs so far.

The greatest hope of all people who work in animal rescue is that we will one day be put out of business. That there will be no more need for our services. We want to become a thing of the past. But until that day, stories like Sweetie’s keep us going.

All Good Things Must Come to an End 

Dogs & Other Animals, Thoughts On Life, ,

I’m not sure why all good things must come to an end but my five days off work end tomorrow. 

My employer has this silly policy whereby they expect me to report to work every so often in order to continue receiving my paycheck. I am not sure who came up with this plan but alas I will be back at my desk and working in the lab tomorrow. 

(In reality, I like my job just fine, but there are no dogs there. All things are better with dogs! )

An Accidental Gift

Country Life, Dogs & Other Animals,

Dogs-Baxter

Here you see one of the greatest gifts we have ever received. This is our dog Baxter. Also known as Baxter Pup, Baxter McWaxter, and Wiggle Butt. He is one of our greatest joys.

Baxter was dumped off in our yard when he was but a wee pup. He was in good health. We like to think that he came from a loving home that cared about him. We wonder if perhaps they were not able to provide for him but knew of the Crazy Dog People that lived on the corner. If we drop him off there, surely he will find a loving home. How right they were. We did briefly put him in a crate by the road thinking someone lost him. That lasted all of about 20 minutes before we brought him in the house.

He has been a wonderful dog from day one. He didn’t get into things. He didn’t cause any trouble. I did start training him right away. As a pup he looked like a Rottweiler. I wanted to make sure I had such a large dog, of a powerful breed, under control. So every evening I took him for a walk across the street to the cemetery and we worked on obedience. Baxter never did grow into the Rottweiler that I anticipated. He stayed slender and topped out around 60 lbs. He also remained a marshmallow. We still have to be careful not to yell at home or he will roll over and piddle. If we raise a voice at him he will slink into another room and hide. He is seven years old now. I don’t see him outgrowing that anytime soon.

Dgos-Baxter and Shelby

He gets along with all other dogs and cats, and I imagine all animals. He is a peace loving soul. Our greyhound Phoebe took to him from that first day. She seemed to think that he was her pup and treated him as such throughout her life. Above he pauses on a walk with his “sister” Shelby. He loves to play Frisbee while Shelby runs behind him barking. Baxter listens so well that I can walk with him off leash and if we encounter other walkers or bicyclists, I can point to a spot beside me and say “right here” and he will stay beside me until I release him with an “ok”. This is without formal training of the action. He just wants to please and is easy to communicate with. He has always had the ability to listen and understand.

Great as they are, I do not see his good behavior and obedience as his greatest traits. His best feature is his disposition. He is a happy dog and everybody that meets him is taken with him. He smiles at people. If you are feeling down, he acts silly. He will bring you a toy. A room seems to light up and become a happier place when he enters. Handsome as he is, he is a relatively non-descript looking dog. It’s his personality and presence that make him special.

Dog-Baxter

So to whoever left him at our house, we thank you. Because of your actions our lives have been forever changed for the better.

Tribute to a Dog

Dogs & Other Animals, Rescue Happenings, ,

Dog-Phoebe with Bunny

Phoebe has been gone from us a week now. Her loss came suddenly and was a huge shock. One minute she was running around being her silly self. The next minute she was crying out in pain. Her femur had fractured. We briefly considered amputation. But upon seeing the x-rays we discovered that it broke because of weakening from a bone tumor. And with further x-rays we learned that there were questionable  spots on a rib and her heart didn’t look quite right. Then the vet told us that by this point the cancer had usually spread and even with treatment her average life expectancy would be six months. Phoebe was already 10 1/2 years old. Although we struggled with the choice, there wasn’t really much of a choice. We didn’t want her to suffer a surgery and what would follow. We loved her enough to let her go.

Dogs-Phoebe and Baxter

I cried almost all of the first day. The second day I was greatly improved. I only cried for half of the day. As time goes by I cry less. The good memories take up more space. There is definitely a large void in our home and our pack of dogs. Although Phoebe was a lazy hound, she had a big presence. Her favorite thing was car rides. You can see how happy she is that she and Baxter were loaded up in the car to head out for a hike. Phoebe demanded car rides. She got depressed if more than a few days went by without her getting one. Particularly if any of the other dogs got a ride and she didn’t. She would stand staring at the door waiting for us to get the hint. So she was often my passenger on the way to pick up an order of Chinese take out, or a run to the store to buy more dog food. She liked the ride to Tractor Supply for the dog food best. She was allowed to accompany me into the store to get the dog food. She was not above jumping into the cars of guests when they left their car doors open. After all any car ride is a good car ride, right?

Dog-Phoebe

Phoebe was a retired racer that we got from Greyhound Adoption of Ohio. She was nearly two years old when we got her which is fairly young for a rescue dog. Although we are sad that she is gone, as the tech from our vet’s office said, we were able to give her 8 1/2 really happy years.  That is a life well lived.

Therapy Dog Helpers

Dogs & Other Animals,

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A big shout out to Paws N Claws Academy of Streetsboro, Ohio! They were very gracious and allowed me to conduct therapy dog testing there this past weekend.  As a result, three new dog and handler teams are certified to provide visits, and thus spread joy in our area. Above is my certified therapy dog, Shelby, who helped with testing by performing the part of the neutral dog. Good girl!

Hollie, the owner, even provided me with assistance before, during, and after testing. What a nice lady! It is a pleasure to test there. Thank you Hollie!

Hollie provides training of all kinds for dogs. Everything from group classes like agility to training that helps overly reactive dogs.

Also, a big thank you to my daughter Olivia, who is a joy to work with!

Dogs and Peonies!

Dogs & Other Animals, Gardens, Rescue Happenings, ,

Shelby and Peonies   Baxter and Peonies

Dogs and peonies. It doesn’t get any better than that. Shelby and Baxter thought it was a great honor to get to go outside with mom, one on one while the other dogs stayed in the house. It’s not often they get mom’s attention all to themselves without another dog around. And they really appreciate it.

Nikki and Peonies   Phoebe and Peonies

The other dogs, not so much. Nikki and Phoebe were puzzled as to why I would ask them to sit and stay while walking away and then pointing that camera thingy at them. We could have been sitting together and snuggling. You can see what Phoebe thinks of my idea to sit. I don’t think so she said, laying down.

Kammie and Peonies

And the photo shoot would not be complete without our foster dog Kammie. She also seemed puzzled by this new concept of sitting in front of flowers. But she aims to please so she did her best to cooperate. Kammie is a nice girl.

Dogs and peonies are two of my favorite things so I thought what could be better than combining them!

 

 

Happy Memorial Day from the Dogs!

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Dogs are always a part of our holiday gatherings. We have fun times and lots of laughs because of it. As you can see, Phoebe wears a cap well.

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But mostly we have dogs at our family gatherings because, well, they are part of our family. All of these photos are taken at my brother’s home. And not one of them is his dog. Here Baxter solicits a belly rub.

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His dog Dakota passed on a few months ago and we miss him still.

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Even wet dogs are welcome with us. Coco provided lots of extra fun and amusement.

Happy Memorial Day!

Qualifications?

About, Dogs & Other Animals, Thoughts On Life, ,

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I was reviewing my notes from when I started this blog. One of the bits of advice was to let the audience know your qualifications. Hmmm, I need qualifications so people will listen to me spout random thoughts and ideas? Apparently so. Well, since the majority of my musings have something to do with dogs, I will provide my “dog” résumé. This the résumé I had to provide when I applied to be an evaluator for therapy dogs.

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I did update it to be current. To be honest, I am more proud of this than my professional work résumé. It is a summary of what I am passionate about. It makes me think of a quote I saw on Facebook recently. “I don’t always talk about dogs…sometimes I’m asleep.” Guilty as charged. But proud of it.

Friendship

Dogs & Other Animals, Thoughts On Life, ,

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I love to take my dogs visiting at the assisted living facility. There is a feeling of joy you get when you see the people petting and talking to your dogs.

Most people think it’s a very kind and giving thing to do. It may have started out that way, but now it is more of a two way street. I guard my scheduled time for these forays. There are very few things I allow to interfere. I  get to go spend time with my dogs where they are the center of attention. They are fawned over and folks want to listen to me talk about my dogs and know all about them.

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You might say these visits are a very selfish thing to do, soaking up all this attention for my pups. One of the ladies even gave us her dog’s toys that she had kept after his passing.  Now that is selfless.

Not only do we talk about the dogs when I visit. I have been going there long enough that we talk about many things. I  dare say these folks have become my friends. I spend time with them more regularly than I am able to do with most of my other friends. We make time for each other. That is a special gift that is shared.

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When the dogs and I must miss a visit for some reason, usually only for illness, we all feel short changed. I care about these people who have become my friends. I think about them in between trips to visit. I wonder how they are and what they’re up to. I know the dogs are eager for our visits and the time spent together. I believe this would be one definition of friendship. Thank you my friends.

I do not show faces in my photos to protect the identity of the individuals.

Evening Walk

Country Life, Dogs & Other Animals, ,

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I have always liked to walk dogs in the nearby cemetery when I want a quick walk. I enjoy the old stones and the beauty and history they share.

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I took only Baxter so we could work on training. We haven’t worked one on one in a long time so we started with sit and down, then give paw and other paw. Also sit-stay so I could get these pics.

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Baxter is a good boy. He is different than all of our other dogs. He prefers to work for praise and back scratches rather than food. He will take a treat to be polite but then lays it down and walks away. He will take a bedtime treat. He apparently has his own rules.