Heart Like a Dog

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

Small Successes

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I wanted to share with you a small success Delilah had last night in our walk around the block.

You may remember there are a couple of dogs contained by an electronic fence at one of the houses we pass when we take our neighborhood walk.

One of the dogs is quite docile and just stands/sits there watching, the other dog loves to run back and forth along the border barking.  This sets Delilah into a fine mood and gets her lunging and barking on the end of her leash trying to get at this dog.

I entice her with treats as I continue to walk but obviously the leash gets taut and I end up pulling on her, which I don’t care for.

 We approach the house on the opposite side of the street and as we do I am ever watchful, when I see the outside light on I know the dog(s) are out. 

Last night I decided to take Delilah on the 30 foot leash so she had a bit of freedom. As we got closer to the house I could see the light was on so I began wrapping the leash around my arm. 

I mentioned to Hubby, “I don’t see a dog.”

Hubby murmured back, “He’s out there, just watching.”

Delilah knows where this house is and the closer we get, the more antsy she gets.  Last night however she was intent on something on the ground and she stopped to piddle directly across from the house.

I had seen the dog though, so I stepped in front of her hoping to block her view. 

I failed. 

I could tell by the look in her eyes that she had seen the dog.  As soon as she finished her business she made to head on over and give a not so friendly hello, but before she could get to the end of the leash (while it was still somewhat loose) I said, “Leave it, it’s ok” and calmly kept walking.

She turned and headed in my direction.

Then she hesitated a second and turned once again to confront her frenemy and one more time I said, “Leave it,” and kept walking. 

Once again she returned to me, but this time she didn’t turn back and we continued our walk without further incident.

This morning Kristine at Rescued Insanity had a post called “Failure Isn’t Always What It Seems” where she shared examples of a failure turning into a success and she asked her readers to share instances where they had done something similar.  I had been planning on sharing this as a blog post anyway and it didn’t dawn on me until I started typing that I had a perfect example here.

If I hadn’t failed in blocking Delilah’s view, she might not have had the opportunity to succeed at making a choice to walk past the other dog.

Following Kristine’s lead I will ask you, have you ever had an instance where a failure turned into a success?  Did you view it that way at the time or did it take you a while (like me) to realize it?

Social Media For Social Good – Happy Birthday Dear Delilah

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As usual I’m late to this party.

I’ve mentioned before, sometimes things aren’t quite clear to me when I read about them.  Hence, not knowing what I was supposed to do for this event, my post is a bit late.  But none-the-less, I am here!

Two Little Cavaliers and Pamper Yourself In Pink are hosting a Social Media Blog Event.  Bloggers sign up to promote their blogs on Facebook, Twitter and Google Plus.  On specific days (12/14, 12/18 and 12/22) these 30 bloggers will have posts that will contain links to enter the contest.  Follow the instructions in the blog post by going to the link and entering the contest. (The free WordPress account won’t let me add the script myself.)

The money paid by these bloggers will be split 40/60.  You can enter the drawing here.  The winner will receive $112 cash AND $213 will be donated to the charity of the winner’s choice!  How exciting is that?   Please go check the link out and enter to win.  What do you have to lose?

Before I knew I was supposed to be blogging about this event, I had planned a post for Delilah’s birthday.

Yes, today is my darling Delilah’s sixth birthday, or at least this is the date we have chosen as her birthday  since we don’t really know the date she was born.  When we adopted her in May of 2007 our vet told us she was maybe 18 months old, going back 18 months to December we chose this date to celebrate as it was my grandmother’s birthday and she was very special to me.  The vet’s office lists Delilah’s date of birth as December 1st.

We celebrated her birthday with the family on Saturday.  Pizza and cake for the human partiers and raw food and special cookies for the canines. 🙂

I thought it should have said 'Princess' since Sampson's cookie said 'Prince' but I didn't make them.

 

I handed my niece the camera and said she's fast. My niece gasped Delilah gobbled up that cookie.

 

Seeing she was the birthday girl, she got her bag first.

 

My sister spoils them, so Sampson got a bag too.

 

They sure got a lot of loot.

A brief history.  Delilah was adopted by us from American Lab Rescue, she came to us from a high kill shelter in Louisiana via a converted horse trailer from her foster family in Tennessee.  You can read her story here.

Hubby always says, “Delilah is one dog who is happy to be alive.”

She greets and embraces life head on, whatever is thrown her way she is up for the challenge.

Her enthusiasm for life is amazing, everything she does is with her whole being.  Nothing is half-assed with this dog. 🙂

I could stand to take a few lessons from this gal.

Funny, sweet, frustrating, impetuous, enthusiastic, challenging, silly, stubborn, loving, these are all words I use to describe my girl.

So today on this special day we call your birthday I’d like to say thank you Delilah for all the joy and laughter you have brought into my life.  I am grateful to whoever looked at you and said, “We can save this girl.”

You make me a better person Delilah and for that I thank you.

Think of the lives you can save simply by entering this contest.  Who knows, the donation made on your behalf just might give someone else their ‘Delilah.’

Kreativ Blogger Award

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Our dear friend at 2BrownDawgs presented us with the Kreativ Blogger Award.  🙂

This award comes with a bit of direction, the first being share ten things about yourself or your blog that people might not know.

I have to admit, I’ve really been thinking quite hard about this and since I pretty much put everything ‘out there’ I’m not real sure how this will play out, but I’ll give it a shot.  I decided to mix it up, and tell you a little bit about me and a bit about the dogs. 🙂

1.  My post last week, A Christmas Miracle was written very spontaneously, and was the first time I had ever tried a writing prompt.  I really liked the challenge of that writing prompt and intend to participate whenever I can.

2.  I have to gate off my Christmas tree because one of my dogs LOVES to pull off and chew ornaments or open packages.  I’ll give you three guesses who it is and the first two don’t count. 😉

3.  I’m a dreamer, I dream someday of becoming a published author.  My problem is I just can’t figure out how to make it happen and how to get the words out of my head and into the computer. 🙁

4.  Sampson is part Labrador but he really doesn’t care for swimming.  Mostly he just likes to wade in or lie down in the water.   Occasionally he will take a quick swim, but that is it for him.

Sometimes I just like Daddy to hold me.

5.  Delilah is pure lab, she LOVES the water and would fetch a stick in the water all day if we would let her.

I can do this all day, how's your arm feel?

6.  I love to sing, mostly classic rock.  But I can’t sing.  Hubby says I am ‘tone-deaf,’ and turns the music louder when I do sing. 🙁

7.  Back when I was pregnant they didn’t do ultra sounds unless there was something wrong.  I found out I was having twins 5 hours before they were delivered by c-section.

8. My hands always have to be busy, even if I am watching TV, I usually am either on my laptop, crocheting, knitting or playing solitaire.  I really struggle to just sit and relax.

9.  I’m a big Lord of the Rings fan, if you’ve been around a while you know Sampson’s middle name is Aragorn.  I have the “One” ring on a chain.  I also have the serpent ring that Aragorn wears in all the movies.  Over Thanksgiving Starz aired the trilogy, back to back to back to back to back, everytime you turned a TV on in our house, LOTR was on.  It was pure heaven.

One ring to rule them all, one ring to find them. One ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.

10.  I think the real hero of LOTR was Samwise Gamgee, if it wasn’t for Samwise well poor Frodo probably wouldn’t have made it out of the shire.

Now comes the REALLY hard part, pass the award on to six other blogs.

In no particular order

Fabulous Flo – Flo is a Rhodesian Ridgeback who comes from the land down under.  Flo is the first experience raising a dog that her human has ever had, kick back and enjoy the ride with her.

Hound Girl – Kari lives in Texas with her Blood Hound Fred, and her Labrador Haylie, Kari says what she means and means what she says!   Mosey on down for a warm southern welcome.

Life at Golden Pines – I found this blog a while back and I love reading about Kim’s life in rural Virginia with a houseful of Goldens.  Kim is someone whose heart is as big as all outdoors, she is always reading and willing to help foster a dog looking for a forever home.

My Reality Show – Mary Ann is a writer, she recently adopted her dog Lila from the Humane Society, but don’t think this blog is just about Lila, Mary Ann is a creative writer, and there is always something interesting going on here.

Pawfect Friend – Nicole is a dog groomer and has the cutest little dog, Aladdin.  One day she will own her own grooming salon, but until then she will share her stories with us.

Shoes On The Wrong Feet – I started reading this blog not too long ago, this gal is a microbiologist and left her career to raise her two little boys, you can bet with her mind there is always something educational going on.  I’ve already learned a few things myself. :-0

That’s it folks, when you get a minute check out some of these blogs, I know you will be as much of a fan as I am.

 

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