Follow-Up Friday – September 5, 2014

September 5, 2014 By Jodi

Welcome to this week’s edition of Follow-Up Friday, the post where I highlight reader’s comments, answer questions and generally wrap up my week.

Before we get to that, some of you have said you aren’t receiving the e-mail post. I apologize for this. I’m currently working on it, I’ve contacted Jetpack to see what the issue is. I hope to have this issue rectified soon.

You Make Me Laugh – August 31, 2014

Were are the minions when you need them?

Molly the Wally said, “That is what staff is there for.”

Oh yes Molly, that is exactly what the staff is there for! 🙂

Sue said, “LOL Jeffie does the same thing with toys… lounges on the couch while his minions return them to him. ”

Would you believe that’s the exact word I used when talking with Hubby? We are his minions. LOL

Pamela said, “Years ago, I read about a study of dog intelligence. The researchers claimed that border collies were more intelligent than golden retrievers because the BCs worked longer to solve a problem while the GRs looked to their people for help. At the time, I doubted their conclusion. After all, what is smarter than getting someone else to solve a problem for you?”

I’m with you 100% on this one. He’s a very smart dog, he knows he will be taken care of.

Canine ACL Injury/Surgery

This post is a perfect example of why I need Follow-Up Friday. I totally forgot to include one very important fact. Due to the limited physical exercise we gave Sampson from the time he first injured his leg until his surgery, the muscle in his injured leg atrophied. I think this was a contributing factor to his slow healing.

Have you been following the Round Robin? If you want to but are having trouble keeping up, I am adding each post to the community page. So far we’re off to a great start!

Jen Jelly said, “I think I probably would have waited on surgery as well because from what I understand it can heal on its own sometimes. I guess given his size maybe it was less likely?”

I am not a veterinarian but from what I understand over time scar tissue will build up. The dog will be able to use the leg, but will probably always have a limp.

Jane Rade said, “I agree with you. Conservative management sounds very tempting but often it just ends up being waste of time and asking for furthered damage (such as to the meniscus, the other leg etc.) ”

Nothing I read told me that. I wish I’d known about it, I definitely would have scheduled the surgery right away. I have heard that smaller dogs have a better success rate with conservative management.

The Writer’s Process Blog Tour

Emma asked, “Good luck with the publishing part. I don’t remember, are you trying to find a publisher, or self publish?”

Ideally I’d go the traditional route with an agent and a publisher. Once it’s done I will be letting a few people read it and once I get input, we’ll see how it goes.

Pamela asked, “But you raised a whole other question: if part of your novel writing process is exploring the idea of living on Emerald Isle, why are you writing a mystery? Is that really the life you want to live?”

It’s hard to explain without giving away a whole lot of plot. Let’s just say the mystery pulls the heroine in.

Jan K said, ” Good luck with the publishing part, I imagine that’s not easy?”

I suspect it’s a lot harder than writing!

Stalked on a Walk Thursday’s Bark and Bytes

King of all he surveys.

Sue said, “I was beginning to think Honey Chipmunk had a death wish! Hope your stalker is not a 100% outside kitty.”

No, I saw one of the kids bringing him inside once. Although in this neighborhood I really do wonder about letting a cat go outside at all. Nor would I let a dog stay out for any length of time either.

Lauren Miller said, “Right now we are having a major problem with wildlife. We have new neighbors who are feeding.. It’s been pretty bad. The dogs got into a fence fight with a coyote. ”

HOLY GOD. I would freak right out. What did you do? Our neighbor feeds the raccoons and fox, I wouldn’t be surprised if coyotes aren’t attracted to it at some point if they aren’t already.

Jan K said, “I had to laugh at the glasses thing. Earlier this week I took Cricket up into the fields at the farm above us. I saw something in the distance and stood there squinting to try and see what it was. A woodchuck? Would Cricket want to chase that? It turned out to be a crow….they look a lot like woodchucks, right?”

Yes, yes they do. Just like signs look like little white terriers. I got your back Jan!

That’s another week in the bag! Have a great weekend!

Stalked on a Walk – Thursday’s Barks and Bytes

September 4, 2014 By Jodi

Stalked on a Walk

It’s no secret we live in an area chock full of wild life.

In fact, we’ve encountered a couple of different animals. Some on our wood walks and others just out and about in the neighborhood. For the most part I am on high alert watching for potential threats and diverting my dogs (hopefully) before they see it. Most of the animals we have encountered look at me, look at the two big dogs and head in the opposite direction.

That was until last weekend.

Last weekend we were actually stalked. And I have to tell you, I was completely terrified imagining what would happen if the dogs were to spot the stalker. It was challenging getting the photos but luckily my dogs are used to the Pupparazzi and don’t usually look to see what I’m taking a photo of.

I will let the pictures tell the story and then you will see why I was utterly and truly terrified.

I noticed him when he was high up on the hill and I watched him move down to duck behind the tree.

Can you see it? Right there behind the tree.

Can you see him? Need help? How about a clue?

It’s there, I promise you.

He left the safety of the tree and moved down behind this bush.

Surely you see it now?

From there he darted down to the driveway, where he peeked out at us.

Does the arrow help?

I know the pictures are hard, but it’s a little point and shoot camera!! Here he is where I originally spotted him.

King of all he surveys.

You can understand now why I was terrified of the dogs seeing him. In fact, shortly after the photos were taken Delilah spotted him and I had a hell of a time getting her to keep walking. Nothing in my treat bag was as enticing as that kitten.

Believe it or not seeing this kitty actually makes me a wee bit sad. Not too long ago there was another cat that lived at that house and I haven’t seen him around lately. I watched the other cat catch a chipmunk once, but having an outdoor cat in our area is risky business.

Speaking of chipmunks

You may remember when we met the cat that wouldn’t budge? That cat was nothing to Honey Chipmunk.

This chipmunk is now in the witness protection program. He’s seen too much.

This happened on a morning walk. From about 50 yards away I saw what I thought was a chipmunk sitting on the side of the road. Since I wear glasses I can’t always tell what exactly I’m ‘seeing’ from a distance. (For instance I mistook the sign at the bottom of the hill for a small white dog, that is until I got close enough to really see it.)

So when I first noticed Honey Chipmunk who apparently just doesn’t care that two big dogs are bearing down on him, I thought, “Hmm, I wonder if that’s a chipmunk?” At about 25 yards away, the dogs took notice of Honey Chipmunk. At 15 yards, their demeanor changed, their ears perked up, their body’s stiffened. At 10 yards away they began pulling me. At 5 yards I was straining to hold them back and saying, “Run Honey Chipmunk, run!”

Finally seconds away from contact, Honey Chipmunk darted down the sewer grate. I’m not sure Honey Chipmunk knew how lucky he was.

Delilah’s been itching to catch a chipmunk. She says they taste like chicken.

Welcome to Thursday’s Barks and Bytes Blog hop hosted by 2 Brown Dogs and Heart Like a Dog.

The Barks and Bytes hop is for anything at all and all bloggers are welcome. You don’t have to be a dog blog to join.

For new blog hoppers, a blog hop is list of links that is shared on multiple blogs. In order to be fair to all participants we ask you to please use the linky list. If your blog does not support a linky list, please link back to your hosts.

The Writer’s Process Blog Tour

September 2, 2014 By Jodi

I was asked to do the Writer’s Process Blog Tour by Linda from 2 Brown Dawgs.

I turned her down. I figured no-one wants to know how I come up with the silly posts I write. Besides, I pretty much told everyone most of my ideas come from the dogs on a walk.

Then Pamela from Something Wagging This Way Comes invited me to do the tour. Pamela indicated I was writing on a couple of different fronts and she’d be interested to know what my process was.

Hmmm, I never thought to do the tour about the book I was writing, but I felt super bad, I mean I’d already turned Linda down and I just didn’t feel right.

So I chatted Linda up and she said she was perfectly fine with it. So here I am doing the Writer’s Process Blog Tour, but being the little rebel that I am, I’m going to write about my book writing process.

What am I working on?

I’m currently working on my first book, or do you call it a novel? Whatever it’s called the damn thing is taking forever!! It’s a comedy/mystery/action book set in the beach town of Emerald Isle, North Carolina.

I love walking on the beach with my dogs.

Emerald Isle is on the Outer Banks, we had such a lovely time there.

Why do I write what I do?

The story just started rolling around in my head. Sort of wishful thinking I guess, since I love Emerald Isle and would love to live their some day. Imagining what your life will be like is the first step to making it happen, isn’t that what they say?

How does my writing process work?

I started this book close to two years ago for NaNoWriMo and worked hard core at it for the full month. At the end of the month, I had about 36,000 words. It burned me out bad, and I put the book down and didn’t pick it up again for about 16 months.

But a few months ago it started rolling around in my head again. I feel like my most creative time is early morning, just after I’ve walked the dogs and poured myself an Irish coffee. I usually pick up where I stopped and it seems to come naturally. There are times though when I have a thought about an entirely different scene and then I just go with it For me the natural progression of the story is just flowing.

BUT it still remains to be seen whether I can get it published or not. 🙂

That’s the end of my tour, but in order to keep it going I’m supposed to tag three more bloggers. I believe that most of you have already completed this tour, and my friend from The Dog Park said she was interested in participating.

I love The Dog Park, I think I’ve been reading it for close on two years now. I love how she calls her dog, Our Best Friend (or OBF), when she wrote about how worried she is that OBF will get sick and she won’t have the money to pay for treatment, I knew exactly how she felt. When she shared that she was getting a divorce and had to break it to her children, my heart broke for her. She has a way of writing that totally makes you feel like you’re sitting down with your best friend over coffee, sharing your deepest, darkest secrets.

Yes, I really love The Dog Park.

Only she wanted me to tag her other blog, Opinons Opinions, but here’s the kicker, she hasn’t written in this blog in like two years, so I can’t really tell you what it’s about. I can only guess it’s opinionated.

Oh AND she won’t let me share any pictures either. But according to Pamela at Something Wagging, people have a tendency to look like their dogs. If that’s the case, I’m guessing she looks like this.

OBF

Although I’m thinking she doesn’t have quite so much fur. 🙂

Heart Like a Dog

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

Follow-Up Friday – September 5, 2014

Stalked on a Walk – Thursday’s Barks and Bytes