Tummy rubs. My dogs love tummy rubs. I think that humans like backrubs best, but dogs, well they really like tummy rubs. I guess it would just feel to vulnerable to me to have someone rub my tummy. When I was pregnant, total strangers thought they had some weird right to touch my belly. How Rude! I think that is so invasive of a person’s privacy. But my dogs, they love it and ask for it daily. (Since I have never had a pregnant dog, I don’t know how they feel about it, maybe they don’t like it during that time for the same reasons that humans don’t, it is just to vulnerable.) Louise and Sofie are both submissive animals in my pack, so I figure they get on their backs and just sort of say, ‘Hey, aren’t I cute, please don’t hurt me!’ Come to think of it, I do not remember ever having seen The Muffin Man, our old alpha cat, ever, in all his years, show his belly. All the other cats in the pride do, but not him. The other cats lie on their backs and show their bellies very often, but around here, if you want to keep your hand in one piece, I would not try to rub any cat’s underside (S C R A T C H!).
Tummy rubs are a big deal in our house. I tend to give them in the morning before work and definitely find time for some before the pups go to bed. Sofie is a big one to throw herself on the ground and roll over immediately if she thinks she is going to get yelled at (smart dog). 
Rubbing a dog’s tummy is different than scratching (I look at rubbing more like massage). I like to give all my animals a good scratch in some of their favorite ‘scratch zones’ regularly. Have you noticed that most dogs seem to have a scratch trigger spot down near the inside of the back leg (kind of between the ribs and mid-hip). This makes their back leg kick as a reaction to the scratching motion. I think the dogs like it, but I don’t know for sure. Something tells me it is probably a protective response (more so in male dogs) to protect their private regions. (Is that TMI (To Much Information)?) Louise also really likes to be scratched on her flanks and top of her tail (as I watch the short little black hairs fly). I am still exploring Sofie’s scratch zones, but I know she likes her chest done.
Does your furry have a special scratch zone?
Just another DogDaz morning at the zoo ❤ 
Tags: Animal, animal awareness, animals, Cat, cats, cute dogs, dog, DogDaz, Dogs, nature, Pet, pets, postaday, submission, tummy rubs
I can not help myself. Right now, there are so many beautiful butterflies in the garden that they are overwhelming me. Yellow Swallowtail, 2 kinds of black, some orange Monarchs, and a new one today – a Variegated Fritillary. We have lots of brown skippers and white cabbage moths too. They come right up and land on everything. They dance in groups and in pairs. It is like an amazing choreography of life – just for us. So, I had to take a short video with my silly smartphone to share with you, so that you might catch a glimpse of the incredible dance along with me. The butterflies entertain us for hours. We have planted for many years to maximize the butterflies and birds in the garden. The pool is surrounded by Buddleia, also known as ‘Butterfly Bush.’ We have a red, white, pink, light purple, and black night purple. 
Our grove blooms all summer, so it is nonstop color and show. These deciduous shrubs are so easy to grow and always have a wonderful fragrance and a swarm of butterflies around them. The elongated flowers grow in clusters on arching branches that can get maybe 10 or 12 feet high (unless you cut them back – which is a good idea or they get leggy). I like the willow-like foliage that is a grayish green color and is pretty dense. The white Buddleia was here when we moved in (she must be at least 15 years old telling by her main stalk) and we have added 5 colors around her.
A new visitor today, just for you – Variegated Fritillary.
Make sure to tap this picture once with your pointer, so that you can get a close up and see his incredible colors. This is one of our Black Swallowtails.
Do you bring any interesting insects or creatures to your garden? Do you plant for anyone special (besides yourself and dogs and cats of course)? Yes, I do grow catnip.
Just another DogDaz morning at the zoo ❤
Tags: Buddleia, Buddleja davidii, butterflies, butterfly, Gardens, nature, postaday, Wildlife
It must have been BLACK LAB day at the dog park. There were like a million dogs and most of them had Labrador Retriever somewhere in their blood line (or so it looked like). There were a zillion black, 2 browns, and few yellows but mostly Labs. Little Sofie was actually the smallest of the pack, not that she minded. 
Going to the dog park is always kind of hit or miss thing for us. Some days there are only a few dogs, or even none, but this time there were many. It is hard for me to tell whether the girls really enjoy it or not. My dogs stay very close and tend to avoid getting into it with others. Lulu will run to see what is happening when a whole bunch get loud and snarly, but I usually call her back before she gets to close to that kind of action. Sofie gets hot really fast, especially on humid days, which it was, so she runs and then takes to sitting under my bench in the shade. Dog parks actually kind of scare me. There are times when I go and some dogs get stupid, and then owners get stupid, and it is just not fun. This time was good. They were tired, which was what I wanted, and they were ready to go home when I was. I always enjoy seeing all the different breeds of dogs usually at the dog park but it definitely was Black Lab day this time.
Just another DogDaz morning at the zoo ❤
Tags: Animal, animal awareness, animals, Black Lab, dog, dog park, DogDaz, Labrador, Labrador Retriever, Pet, pets, postaday
The other day I past a milestone on the DogDaz blog. Over 400 followers and over 22,000 hits. This is incredible to me. I started writing the blog the end of November last year. It was a way to deal with my love of animals but also for me to talk about all the incredible things that I learn from them. I never really thought a lot about how public a blog is and how many people I would interact with on a daily basis. I set myself a personal goal to post everyday. This has not been easy, since I travel a great deal and work incredible hours. But, so far, I am doing it. My posts are not always to the level that I would like them to be, but it seems that the ones I think are the weakest sometimes get the most good feedback and comments. I wish I had more time to read other people’s blogs and many times I want to comment but am reading them on my SmartPhone with limited ability to type something decent, which can be frustrating. I ‘Like’ people’s blogs, which my Phone lets me do easily, but commenting is not as easy. I enjoy visiting so many people’s sites and getting views into their animal world, photo world, food world, and just family life,but it has become a huge task to keep up. I wish I could just do this all day and night, but alas, one must live in the real world to be able to blog about it, and I do not chose to live ‘in’ the blogworld all the time (you know what I mean?)
What an incredible gift this internet is. I wonder if people really understood the power that this tool has to allow us to see incredible sights from far away places that we may never visit physically but can virtually (and interactively and instantly). Don’t get me wrong because I love paper books, and ebooks, and magazines, and photographic essays on nice heavy paper, but I can see the world here from my computer in a way that I could not as a child. The internet has allow me totally new ways to socially interact that I could never have imagined. I have more high school friends than I had in high school and can see all my family pictures instantly, thanks to Facebook; I stay in touch with old and new business associates via Linkedin; I Skype with my family when I am overseas and also now with my college student; I blog on WordPress, and reblog on Tumbler, and even Pinterest; I work with my community service group via GoogleDocs. Though I have been emailing since the technology was launched, I can now instantly answer via my SmartPhone if I want to. Here on my blog, my animals get to be stars and I get to write about what I love. Less than a year ago, I would not have known how important every blog post would be to me.
THANK YOU, whomever is reading this, for an incredible time. Come back again and I will do my best to make you smile, laugh, and maybe think about something you had not thought about before. You are my blessing – and clearly – I am blessed.
Just another DogDaz morning at the zoo ❤
Tags: Blog, cats, DogDaz, Dogs, Facebook, Pet, pets, postaday, Skype, SmartPhone, Wordpress
I am lacking inspiration and yes, I know why, but still it is hard to get moving on anything. It doesn’t help that the heat has returned and it is really unpleasant to be outside. So the dogs and I took a trip to PetSmart to return 2 big bags of kitten food that the kittens no longer need and to buy some new cat food and of course to get them treats. I was actually very excited about taking them on an adventure because we have not done that much the last few weeks. When we got to the store, I figured that I would be safe and I backed the truck up to the curb, so that when I let the dogs out, there would be less of a chance of them running into traffic. Well, you know how in parking lots that have those cement bumps on the ground for cars to park against, I think they have some special name like… “curb stops,” or something. 
When I opened the back door of the truck, the dogs were good and stayed until I told them to come out, but when Sofie jumped down she landed right on that cement bump and then proceeded to careen into the real curb, which was only 6″ or so away, and landed chin first. I was initially worried that she lost a tooth, but she appeared just dazed and did not whine or cry. So, being the ‘let’s just keep going no matter what,’ kind of person, I went into the store with them. It was about 5 minutes later, as we were admiring the guinea pigs (Note: please go to animal rescue (even guinea pigs), do not buy live animals from pet stores unless they are from an animal charity), that I realized she was bleeding all over the place. She had really scraped her chin bad. Thank goodness she did not loss any teeth. I swapped her down with a tissue but then went to the in store vet and asked them for some wet guise to clean her up. She did not like me touching it, but otherwise was ok and wanted to sniff and explore. We had a great exploration of the store, got 2 new eggcrate beds for their kennels, and a new rope toy. Did you notice how you always spend more money if your kids are with you in the grocery store (really, they have scientifically proven this to be true), well I absolutely spent more money because the dogs were with me in the pet store (or was it because I was suffering from Mommy guilt because one of my furries got hurt.) Good thing the cats weren’t with us or I would be broke.
“Lulu, I got a boo boo, can you make it feel better?” – Sofie Bear
Post Script: Sofie does not want me to touch the boo boo, but I have been trying to put antibiotic cream on it. She has been licking her paws a lot and I think that is because she is trying to rub it. She also won’t let me take a picture for you to see. But she is fine.
Just another DogDaz morning at the zoo ❤
“No Mommy – I do not want you to touch the boo boo and I really do not want you to take any pictures of it!”
Tags: Animal, animal awareness, Animal rights, Animal welfare, animals, dog, Dog People, DogDaz, Dogs, Guinea pig, nature, Pet, pets, postaday
(Source: lacrisalideinversa, via clumsy-odd-stubborn)
Cats are sooooo smart! – DogDaz
Tags: Animal, animal awareness, animals, Cat, cats, DogDaz, nature, Pet, pets, postaday
Tummy rubs. My dogs love tummy rubs. I think that humans like backrubs best, but dogs, well they really like tummy rubs. I guess it would just feel to vulnerable to me to have someone rub my tummy. When I was pregnant, total strangers thought they had some weird right to touch my belly. How Rude! I think that is so invasive of a person’s privacy. But my dogs, they love it and ask for it daily. (Since I have never had a pregnant dog, I don’t know how they feel about it, maybe they don’t like it during that time for the same reasons that humans don’t, it is just to vulnerable.) Louise and Sofie are both submissive animals in my pack, so I figure they get on their backs and just sort of say, ‘Hey, aren’t I cute, please don’t hurt me!’ Come to think of it, I do not remember ever having seen The Muffin Man, our old alpha cat, ever, in all his years, show his belly. All the other cats in the pride do, but not him. The other cats lie on their backs and show their bellies very often, but around here, if you want to keep your hand in one piece, I would not try to rub any cat’s underside (S C R A T C H!). 
DogDaz Zoo 