Heart Like a Dog

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

BlogPaws Part 1

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As I mentioned in Monday’s post, my mind is twirling with all kinds of things I want to share with you about this past weekend.

I’ll start with bloggers I met.

It started at Washington National airport when the shuttle driver called my name.  I looked up to find a woman smiling at me.  When I approached she asked if I was going to BlogPaws and I said, yes how did you know?  She had noticed Sampson’s face on my shirt.

Well I had met my very first cat blogger, Bernadette Kazmarski from The Creative Cat. We climbed into the backseat of the shuttle and chatted our way to the hotel.  What a super nice lady!

After I checked in and dropped my stuff in my room I headed down to the lobby, and found the Jones Natural Chews booth.  I said, “Hi” to Flea.

Before I knew it, a woman standing next to me said, “Jodi!” and pulled me into a bear hug.  It was Sugar’s mom. Seriously love this lady and I enjoyed spending time with her and getting to know her on a personal level and to learn more about her and Sugar and yes, I referred to her as Sugar’s mom on more than one occasion.  I was lucky enough to have breakfast with her and Kim from Golden Pines on Sunday morning before we began the trip home. (Since neither of these ladies put their photos on their blogs, our photo will remain private and just between the three of us.  Hang tight ladies, I hope to get around to it this weekend.)

I was hanging out in the lobby with Jodi Chick from Kol’s Notes, and Mrs. Taleteller from Tales and Tails when I started getting text bombed by Kari from Hound Girl and Jen from My Brown Newfies. “I see you” their texts said, but I couldn’t see them, finally Jen came up and introduced herself and pointed out their hiding place. My time with them was limited, but I did get some time Friday night to hang with them after dinner, had a quick lunch with them on Saturday and hung with Jenny Juggs a little bit Saturday night after the party was over. (Best after party ever! But that’s for another post.)

Checked my phone and I had a missed call from Pup Fan! I called her back immediately and turns out we were probably standing only a few feet from each other when she called.

Things kind of became a blur with all of the wonderful bloggers I met, so in no particular order here goes.

Elyse from Adventures of a Cattle Dog

Jessica from You Did What with Your Wiener

Pascale Lemire from Dog Shaming

Caren Gittleman from Dakota’s Den

Lynda from Two Ears and a Tail

Pamela Douglas Webster (and her husband, Mike) from Something Wagging This Way Comes

Dawn Miklitch from NEPA Pets

Emma’s mom from MY GBGV Life

Kristen from Cokie the Cat

Friday night as we were getting our party together to go out to dinner my phone rang and it was Kirsten from Peaceful Dog.  She was in the parking lot of the hotel!  In the whirlwind of the conference I lost my mind a bit and forgot a couple of things (one being Kirsten meeting up with us and the other being the mandatory speaker meeting.)

It was a pleasure to have her join us for dinner and she is just as warm and down to earth in person as she is on her blog.

Most of these photos were taken Saturday night at the Awards Party, I thought I’d had a few too many Margaritas (because everyone was so blurry) but it turns out my glasses were just really dirty.  Please forgive the glare. 😀

Oh and I met Vinny the Pug’s dad Sunday morning at breakfast!

If I met you and forgot to include you in this post, please don’t be offended.  My head was literally spinning.

What Would You Do For Your Pet?

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I had a totally different post planned for today and then I came upon this article on Yahoo, and the title caught my eye, Experts: Don’t attempt to save swept-away pets.

You can read the article for yourself AFTER you finish this post (apparently I have to be concerned with something called bouncing.)

I’ll give you the down and dirty.  Apparently five people have died in California in the last five months trying to rescue a dog being swept away.

The article says that most dogs are better swimmers than humans and by using their fight or flight instincts will work with the currents and find their way to shore.  Of course it might be a bit farther away than where they started so microchips and collar tags are highly recommended.

We all know that certain dogs are better in the water than others.  Labradors, German Shepards and Pit Bulls are designed for swimming. Their strong bodies, heads that stay above water, thick/and or waterproof coats not to mention the four feet vs two for humans, (with some of them being webbed) give them the advantage over two footers who can experience hypothermia due to the cold ocean water.

Animals have far better stamina than most humans and are capable of keeping themselves alive in the water by remaining calm and focusing on the task at hand vs humans who tend to panic and become confused.

And what if your pet manages to stay alive, turning up two or three miles down shore and you have died, where does that leave him/her?

Logistically this all makes sense to me, but the reality of seeing your dog struggling and being swept away is far different.  I can’t imagine the guilt I’d feel standing helplessly by.   And God knows I have enough guilt I carry right now.

Delilah-1

Sampson-1

How could I let either one of those sweet faces just drift away without trying to help?  What do you think?  What would YOU do?

SDS

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Both the dogs in my house have SDS.

You may know it in lay terms as Spoiled Dog Syndrome.

It manifests itself in a number of different ways, but here is a prime example.

We all have assigned spots on the bed, Hubby and I each on one side, Sampson in between us and Delilah curled up at the bottom in the middle.

Normally I use carrots to lure Sampson into his position.  While I’m going this, Delilah sits next to the bed.  (One for Delilah, one for Sampson.  One for Sampson, one for Delilah.)

Once they’ve both had their carrots, Delilah jumps up and I pet and love her for a few minutes, then I settle in to read until I’m tired.

Tuesday night after all the carrots had been dispensed, Delilah jumped up on the bed but stretched out on the wrong side.

This basically turned me into a Lab sandwich.  I didn’t mind so much because it was warm and I thought it was cute and figured she’d move by the time I’d finished reading.

I woke up at 11:15, the light was still on, Delilah was still on the wrong side of me and a lumberjack had replaced my Hubby in the bed.

I shut off the light and tried to wiggle my way into a lying position.

I couldn’t.

I thought well I can sleep sitting up, I mean I just slept sitting up for about half an hour, why couldn’t I do it again?

I forgot about the lumberjack in my bed.  He was cutting some heavy wood, the chainsaw working over-time.

I tossed in the towel, got up and took a half a Xanax.  I know, I know!  I don’t like to ingest unhealthy things, but I do make an exception for alcohol and Xanax, although not normally at the same time.

I went into the other room to play a mindless game until I fell asleep.  After about an hour I got tired, so I shut the light off and lay down to sleep.

What was that noise? Is someone outside? I got up and looked out the window. Why is the motion sensor light on?  Who’s out there?  Am I in danger?

I gave it up and thought I’ll try reclining on the couch and see if that works, but changed my mind and instead headed back to the bedroom.

I’ll take my chances with the lumberjack, at least his snoring should scare off an intruder.

The lumberjack was still at work, but the blade had dulled somewhat so the sawing wasn’t so intense. I think I might be able to do this!

Except Sampson was stretched across my pillow.

Sampson eye mask Please Mama, I’m trying to get my beauty rest.

Thankfully Delilah had moved, she was now curled against the lumberjack’s legs.

 

IMG_0727 Do not disturb my REM cycle.

I stroked Sampson’s head, you gonna let Mama in buddy?

Nothing.

What the hell, why not? 

I pulled back the blanket, threw a pillow down and curled up at the bottom of the bed, next to Delilah.

After a few minutes I thought I heard a growl.  (Delilah has some scarring on her feet and there are certain times (mostly when she’s sleeping) where she does not like anything moving near her feet.)

I figured the lumberjack must have moved.

Just on the verge of sleeping when Delilah barks.  I open my eyes to find her staring at me.

Stop it, I say.  Lay down and go to sleep.

Two minutes later she barks again.

I open my eyes to find her staring at me once again. Like I moved in that tiny corner lot I had!

Why not?  I’ve already lost hours of sleep, what’s a few more minutes?  I proceed to have a staring contest, in the dark with my dog.  Finally I look at her and point with my finger and tell her get down.

She stares at me.

I point again, get down!

She scootches over and puts her head under my chin.

We both sigh and fall asleep.

And that’s how Hubby found me curled up at the bottom of the bed on Wednesday morning.

What happened last night babe?

What are you talking about Paul Bunyon?

(I apologize for my lack of pictures, but flashes definitely disturb the REM cycle.)

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