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Favorite Video Friday – Corgi Charlie Goes Jumpy, Jumpy
This week’s Favorite Video Friday features Charlie, a Pembroke Welsh Corgi. Talk about adorable!
I don’t think I need to provide much explanation as to why I chose Charlie’s video. Once you see him in action, you’ll understand.I promise you’ll come away with a smile.
What is it about Corgis that makes them so much fun to capture on video?
Happy Friday everyone!
P.S. In case you’re wondering, yes, that is a cast on his foot. According to the owner, he had a hairline fracture in his toe.
Near and Far
Sharing a little dog park photography today. Have a great day!
Wordless Wednesday #111
The “Lady” has a secret.
Hi everyone!
It’s me! Your delicious, scrumptious, sweet little Sheltie friend. Remember me? I was lost for 12 days last year and lived to tell you about it.
Oh. I didn’t tell you about it? Are you sure?
Well, maybe some things are better of left unsaid.
Let’s just say I am very happy to be back home. 🙂
In an unusual moment of insanity, Mom has decided to let me take over the keyboard today. I have to tell you, she’s a bit reluctant to let me do so. She knows why I want to write today and she’s a bit nervous about the whole thing.
But, I convinced her it was important. I told her it was time.
“Time for what?” you ask.
Well, it’s time to reveal my little secret.
It’s something I have keeping from you for some time now. Something that only those closest to me know.
Lady is not my real name.
“What?” you ask, “What do you mean Lady isn’t your real name?”
I know. It’s a shocker (almost as shocking as who shot J.R. in Dallas).
Lady is a really great name. I prance around like a lady, I look as beautiful as a little lady and I often clean my paws at the end of a good meal (what lady wouldn’t?). But, such a serious name can also be so limiting. After all, how can one be silly if they are expected to act like a Lady all of the time?
I am sworn to secrecy about the reasons behind my public name change, but I can tell you that the reason for the change was a good one. I was in the Witness Protection Program for Dogs.
What? You’ve ever heard of it? Ask your dogs. I am SURE they have heard about the WPPD (Witness Protection Program for Dogs). Every dog knows about it. It’s our last resort when we get into trouble. “Contact the WPPD if you ever need help.” That’s what all dogs say to one another.
And you thought you knew everything about us. Ha! Did I also tell you about our secret society? No? Well, maybe I should leave that one for another day. 🙂
I can tell you that I am now out of the WPPD (thanks to my mom). Getting a forever home meant I could leave the WPPD. And now that I am safe, I can come out of the dog house.
Oh. You can still call me Lady if you want. I won’t mind. I just prefer mom call me my real name. (To be honest, I think she’s having a hard time trying to keep the two names straight. She often forgets and calls me by my real name in public. I hear that humans have trouble remembering things as they get older.)
So what is my real name you ask?
Let’s see if you can guess.
My name is….
Still not sure?
No. My name is not Birthday or Candle or Happy Birthday.
It’s…
Cupcake, a.k.a. Cuppers, a.k.a. Cupperdoo
Blog the Change – Spay and neutering your pet: Two personal stories
Blog the Change is a chance for bloggers to write about something they are passionate about. I am passionate about a lot of animal welfare-related issues, but this is one I haven’t written about before – spaying and neutering your pet.
I know. It’s not a sexy topic. It’s not exciting or drama-filled.It’s something everyone has heard before.
Most people have heard many of the reasons why someone should spay or neuter their pet, like …
- 3-4 million pets die in shelters each year, we don’t need any more to die.
- It decreases the chance that your dog will get mammary or testicular cancer
- Less marking by your male dog
- Zero chance that your female dog will have an “Ooops!” pregnancy
- It’s better for your dog’s health.
- Your male dog will likely mark less after he is neutered.
But, I’m not going to do that today. Instead, I thought I would share just two stories of my own. Both are about family pets who were impacted by our decisions not to spay or neuter. The first is about my dog, Alicia, the second about my brother’s dog, Remy.
How I nearly lost my dog
When I was 15 years old, I got my very first dog of my own. Her name was Alicia. She was a Sheltie, a puppy, and absolutely adorable. We were the very best of friends. We did everything together. We walked together. Trained together. Shared each others’ secrets. She was there with me through some of the most difficult times of my life, including the death of my father. She was everything to me.
When I had to leave to go to college, it broke my heart. I hated to leave her and my family behind. But, I knew my mom would take care of her while I was away. It was during my freshman year, probably when Alicia was 6 or 7 years old, that she got very, very sick and nearly died. She had developed something called Pyometra.
Thankfully, a vet saved her life, but I will never forget how guilty I felt knowing that I would have prevented it. A stupid decision not to spay my dog nearly cost me her life.
Lest you think my experience is unique, another blogger shared her very own experience with Pyometra, in the last Blog the Change. It’s not something to fool around with. Don’t wait until it’s too late. Spay your dog.
Testicular cancer is a reality if you choose not to neuter
My brother’s dog, Remy, was the most awesome dog. Everyone in my family loved him. He was a Chow-Lab mix and was beautiful. He may have looked like a Chow, but he was all Lab in personality. There wasn’t anyone who didn’t love Remy. He went everywhere with my brother. He was a part of every family gather. Who doesn’t want to hang out with a giant teddy bear all of the time.
Remy was also intact. He had never been neutered. My brother always joked that he didn’t want to make him less of a man, but I suspect that he loved Remy so much he wanted to breed him so he could have another awesome dog like him. Like Alicia, Remy had been his dog from the time he was a young man. The two were inseparable.
When Remy was around 10 years old, he developed testicular cancer (it’s the second most common type of cancer in unneutered male dogs). It could have killed him. It didn’t, but I think that was due more to luck than anything else. A vet recommended Remy be neutered in hopes that it would not spread. Like me, my brother was lucky. He had Remy for a few more years.
You could read my own personal stories and come away thinking that every dog survives. I hope you won’t. The truth is my brother and I were LUCKY. That’s it. If you choose to not spay or neuter your dog you are playing Russian roulette with your pet. You are placing a bet on your pet’s life in hopes that he/she won’t be the one who gets sick. Maybe you’re comfortable with that. I’m not. Every pet of mine will be spayed or neutered. I might have been lucky the first time around, but I’m not betting on the chance I will be again.
There are a lot of myths and misconceptions out there about spaying and neutering (e.g., it makes them fat, they are less likely to have problems if they have one litter first, it’s expensive, etc.), but they are just that, myths. I recommend checking out the links I shared below before making a decision to rely on lady luck. Please spay and neuter your pet.
- Myths and Facts About Spaying and Neutering
- Top 10 Reasons to Spay or Neuter Your Pet
- ASPCA Low-Cost Spay/Neuter Programs (find an affordable location near you)
- SpayUSA (find an affordable program near you)
- Minnesota Spay Neuter Assistance (MNSNAP)
Pyometra http://www.snapus.org/site/PageServer?pagename=Health_Benefits
Bacterial infection of the uterus (pyometra) commonly afflicts older unspayed dogs and cats. As pyometra advances, bacterial poisons enter the bloodstream, causing general illness and often kidney failure. If the uterus ruptures, the dog or cat will almost certainly die. Pyometra requires emergency spaying, which may fail to save an animal already severely weakened. The best preventative is to spay dogs and cats while they are young and healthy.
Black and White Sunday #9 – A Black Newf in Black and White
It’s Black and White Sunday. I thought I would feature one of our dog park friends, Abbie. Who said you couldn’t take a good black and white photo of a black dog?
Abbie
My thanks to our hosts for this blog hop You Did What With Your Weiner, My Life in Blog Years and Dachshund Nola.
Unfortunately, WordPress.com doesn’t allow Java script so I can’t provide a direct link to the linky, but you can join here.
Favorite Video Friday – Greyhound leaf run
It’s officially fall. The leaves are falling like crazy and the colors are magical. While I dread the leaf pick up process (I have 6 huge trees in the backyard and two in the front), I do love watching the dogs playing in the leaves.
This week’s video had me laughing out loud. Is there any doubt that this Greyhound loves running through leaf piles?:)
I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
Happy Friday!
A Brief Respite
Today, I was going to write about a news story that has stuck with me since yesterday, but Daisy wanted a little extra cuddle time this morning. So I am taking a brief respite from writing and just sharing a picture of Daisy I took last night. Have a great Thursday everyone.
Wordless Wednesday #110
How do you imagine your Rainbow Bridge reunion?
On Monday I learned that a friend had lost her beloved husband to cancer, after a very short but hard-fought battle over these past three weeks. I couldn’t help but be sad for her and for the animals they shared. They didn’t know he wouldn’t be coming home when he went into the hospital for pneumonia. I know they all miss him terribly. I have no doubt that one day Greg and Ecco (their Chocolate Lab) will reunite happily at the Rainbow Bridge where they can be together forever. At least, I believe it to be true.
Animal lovers often refer to the Rainbow Bridge when a beloved pet passes. All of us hope to one day meet up with our pets at that bridge and cross over it together on our way to heaven. But when we think of that rainbow bridge, and what lies beyond, what do we imagine it to look like? Do we take the time to imagine what that reunion will be like? And, what do we imagine what we (our dogs and us) will do when we get there?
In my mind, the Rainbow Bridge is more beautiful than any human words can describe. The reunion with my pets more joyous than I can ever imagine.
I hope my last two dogs, Indy and Aspen, are there to greet me with smiling faces. I hope to see my first Sheltie, Alicia, spinning in excitement, as she did so often when she was here. I imagine my cat, Sebastian, wrapping his paw around my hand as we sleep together on a heavenly bed of clouds.
I also see my days spent in laughter as I watch my dogs running around heaven with their noses to the ground, exploring it with joy and excitement. I see Alicia curled up at the foot of my bed every evening and Jasper chasing his ball over and over again during the day. I imagine my little Lady barking her excitement at first seeing me, and then licking me on the tip of my nose, as she does now when she is happy. I imagine Daisy confident and strong, and just as gentle as she is today; happy to sit with me by a river or lake, or to leap in with her tail wagging as she happily paddles around.
I imagine the world beyond that Rainbow Bridge to be better than my best day with my dogs on earth, because it is there I will see them at their most strong, most healthy and most happiest.
After reading about Colton Burpo’s death (and return) in “Heaven is for Real” I feel even more assured that I will one day see my pets again – both at the Rainbow Bridge and beyond. If Colton says there are dogs in heaven I am more than happy to believe him.
So how do you imagine your reunion at that rainbow bridge? Who will you see? What will you do?
The Rainbow Bridge Poem
Just this side of heaven is a place called the Rainbow Bridge.
When an animal dies that has been especially close to someone here, that pet goes to the Rainbow Bridge.
There are meadows and hills for all of our special friends so they can run and play together. There is plenty of food, water and sunshine, and our friends are warm and comfortable.
All the animals who had been ill and old are restored to health and vigor. Those who were hurt or maimed are made whole and strong again, just as we remember them in our dreams of days and times gone by. The animals are happy and content, except for one small thing; they each miss someone very special to them, who had to be left behind.
They all run and play together, but the day comes when one suddenly stops and looks into the distance. His bright eyes are intent. His eager body quivers. Suddenly he begins to run from the group, flying over the green grass, his legs carrying him faster and faster.
You have been spotted, and when you and your special friend finally meet, you cling together in joyous reunion, never to be parted again.
The happy kisses rain upon your face; your hands again caress the beloved head. You look once more into the trusting eyes of your pet so long gone from your life but never absent from your heart.
Then you cross Rainbow Bridge together…
Author Unknown
Greg – wherever you are, I hope that everything you imagined heaven to be is true. I have no doubt that your pets greeted you at that Rainbow Bridge or that you crossed over together. That is as it should be. Godspeed.
No Dog About It Blog 