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Tag Archives: pets
9.9.12 Snack Time at the Zoo
Note to my Readers: Sorry for the rant, but sometimes, I just have to get it off my chest.
Sometimes when I look down and realize that we currently have 5 cats, I worry that I am someday going to be called the crazy rescue lady. I wish I could say that everyone gets along, but lately, with Muffin really getting on in years, and Kitty, losing her mind and peeing everywhere, the multi-cat (multi-animal) household, is not working as calmly as it used to. Over the last 30 year I have always had multiple cats: it went from Rosie & Eddy, add Babydoll & Wussy, subtract Eddy (breast cancer), subtract Wussy (kidney), add Alice & Gertrude, subtract Babydoll (cancer), subtract Rosie (old age), add The Muffin Man, Zackary, & Cuddles, subtract Alice (kidney), subtract Gertrude (old age), subtract Zackary (kidney), add Nine & Stella, subtract Cuddles (brain tumor), and here we are. And then the dogs went from Nikki, add Squash, lose Nikki, add Louise, lose Squash, add Sofie.
With 7 animals, someone is always crying that they are hungry and because Muffin wants to eat all the time (he is down to about 3 or 4 lbs), we feed the cats pretty often. The cost to keep the zoo in dog and cat food is killing me! We just switched the cats to 1/2 commercial brand (9 Lives at $.43 per can) because the good stuff (Wellness $1.65 per can) is so expensive. I am switching the dogs to something different too, but it is harder for them (they are more tummy sensitive). Currently I am moving them from Prescription Hills ID to VeRUS, Lamb and Brown Rice (not cheaper but maybe I will use less in the long run). You almost need a Ph.D. in animal science to figure out the best animal foods at this point, and when you do, you can’t afford them. Oh my!
I will need to take a loan out of the bank to keep up with the 7 animal’s appetites at this point. Whose idea was all these animals anyway? Good thing that I don’t eat much (but how come they always want whatever I am eating too?).
Oh, don’t get me started on the cost of dog treats these days…….
Just another DogDaz morning at the zoo ❤ 
9.8.12 Doing A Bassa
Our blog friend Bassa (she is now on Facebook too) has this incredible perspective on things as she and her Tall person walk around their town of Tbilisi in the Republic of Georgia. So, when we were out walking today, the dogs notices a giant green dog guarding a house. This is something that Bassa would notice for sure. Louise asked me to take a picture of them with him. He did not say much to us and just sat there guarding.
The girls want him to come over and play in the yard but I told them that I think he is kind of ‘rooted’ at his house.
Just another DogDaz morning at the zoo ❤
9.7.12 We Won The Addictive Blog Award
What a nice surprise to receive an award from my friend Misaki at “The Misadventures of Misaki.”
Misaki is an Alaskan Malamute (I absolutely love love love Malamutes and always wanted to have one, but it just has not happened yet.). She lives with her Mummy and Daddy in Essex, England and has a fascination with Bonios (a United Kingdom dog treat, I assume).
It is with great appreciation that we receive The Addictive Blog Award.
Thank you so much.
And as with most awards on the blogosphere, there are some rules that one must follow to accept:
1. Thank the giver who has bestowed on us this award – so, thank you again Miss Misaki the Beautiful.
2. Link back to Misaki’s blog
3. Talk about why I blog and why I started blogging (see below).
I started this blog in late November 2011, to chronicle the antics of my rescued managerie of animals: Louise (aka Lulu Belle) my very shy 58lb (26kg) maybe Plott Hound/Black Labrador Retriever mix (3 years old next month), Sofie Bear (who will be 2 in November), my 48lb (21kg) maybe Corgi/Sheltie mix (who was suppose to be big Collie/Shepard dog), and the house cats: The Muffin Man (aka, Muffy, 18), Noel, the Christmas Cat (5), Miss Constance Kitty (4 1/2). and the kittens, Nine (19 mo) and Stella (1 year). We lost many of the zoo over the years and their spirits and stories visit the pages from time to time, especially my soul-dog-mate, Squash E Bear, who past over in February 2010. I guess deep down, I started the blog so that I could explore a different kind of social connection to animal lovers everywhere, which I felt in turn would help me understand myself and my zoo better.
4. Post the Award (see above).
5. Nominate 10 other bloggers for the award.
10 – I can only nominate 10 – I can’t do that! Ok I have capped it at 16 that I truly am addicted to and miss when I do not read them regularly. There are a lot more that I try and visit too, it is impossible at this point.
Bassa’s Blog
Bongo Dog Blog
Bumpy Road to Bubba
Collies of the Meadow
Cupcake Speaks:
Dante’s Diary
Doggys Style
2 Brown Dawgs
Heart Like A Dog
Hutchagoodlife
i adopted a dog now what
jmgoyder
Lead.Learn.Live
Misty Shores Chesapeakes
Monica’s Tangled Web
Passionate about Pets
You all have great blogs and I must admit, I am addicted to you (that is a good thing right?)
Just another DogDaz morning at the zoo ❤
9.6.12 Tummy Rubs & Scratch Zones
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 ❤
9.4.12 Black Lab Day At The Dog Park
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 ❤
9.3.12 DogDaz Milestone: A Labor Of Love
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 ❤
9.2.12 Bad Mommy – But Sofie’s Ok
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!”
