Heart Like a Dog

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

Hey Universe – Barks and Bytes

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Sometimes, no matter how hard I try to be positive and have an upbeat outlook, it seems like the Universe is out to just beat the shit out of me.

Three weeks ago yesterday I was excited. Sampson had had his second ultrasound which indicated the mass on his adrenal hadn’t changed. I picked him up from the vet, brought him home and gave both dogs their walks. I went downstairs to share the news with my mom and discovered she had fallen. She told me she needed to go to the hospital, so I brought her over and it turns out she fractured her foot and some ribs.

She came home in a walking boot.

Hey Universe, I got this.

The hospital had given her dinner, so I got her set for the night and went upstairs.

All was quiet on the home front until just before bedtime. That’s when the wind picked up and we lost power.

Sitting in the dark we heard, “Beep…Beep…Beep”

And then the power came back on.

“What was that beeping?” I asked Hubby.

He didn’t know, so we closed up shop for the night.

I’m a pretty light sleeper, hearing everything that goes bump in the night, so I use a noise fan.

I went to bed, read for a bit and shut off the light. I was just snuggling down and drifting off to sleep when the power went out again.

Which means the house got quiet.

Hey Universe, I got this.

Beep….Beep….Beep. There it was again, coming from the den, right next to my bedroom. I got up and using that handy cell phone flashlight, headed into the den, following the sound.

It was a battery back-up for the computer. I slipped the switch from on to off.

Beep…beep.

Screw you battery back-up! I unplugged it.

And I went back to bed.

Except now it was so quiet, I could hear the wind whipping through the trees and the rain hammering on the windows.

I have a little travel sound machine that runs on batteries. I got up, went out to the kitchen with my cell phone flashlight and went to the battery drawer.

SQUEAK, the damn drawer squeaked. It was very loud in a quiet house. I paused, waiting to see if Hubby would wake up and come charging out thinking I was an intruder.

That’s when I heard it from downstairs.

“JODE.”

“What?” I yelled back. Then stopped, expecting Hubby to answer me.

Nothing.

I abandoned the open drawer and headed downstairs.

“Did you call me?” I called into the blackness of Mom’s apartment.

“Yes, I’m stuck on the toilet.”

(You can’t make this shit up.)

Yup, mom got up to use the bathroom and the power went out. She was afraid to get up because she couldn’t see a thing. (She now has a flashlight on her walker, just in case).

Hey Universe, I got this.

I helped mom get back to bed, went back upstairs, got the batteries for my sound machine, and got it started up.

I’ve heard so many people say they had dogs who had thunder phobias that lessened as they aged (mostly because of hearing loss). I have the opposite problem. Sampson never had an issue with thunder until recently, so when the first clap of thunder rolled over the house, Sampson came trotting into the bedroom.

Panting.

No problem Universe, I got this one too.

What’s a dog mom to do? He didn’t want to climb on the bed, so I grabbed a blanket (Delilah had the comforter) and a pillow, put the sound machine down next to my head and laid down on the floor with Sampson.

I could smell dust. Damn it, I’ll have to talk to that lazy housekeeper and let her know she needs to vacuum.

She lays on the floor one time. ONE TIME, and she complains about dust. She should see her housekeeping from my perspective.

She lays on the floor one time. ONE TIME, and she complains about dust. She should see her housekeeping from my perspective.

Sampson and I lay there, with my hand stroking his head, until he finally calmed down. And then I sneezed.

Which freaked him out all over again.

It’s okay Universe, I got this.

I finally got him calmed down. AGAIN.

This whole sequence of events started about 11:30 PM. Finally, about 2:30 AM, the last clap of thunder shook the house and then it was still.

And then the power came back on.

Sampson was quietly sleeping on the floor, I got up, plugged the battery back-up back in, turned the real noise fan on and squeezed my way onto the bed.

Apparently the Universe has a sense of humor.

 

Heart Like a Dog

Welcome to Thursday’s Barks and Bytes Blog hop hosted by 2 Brown Dawgs and Heart Like a Dog. We hope you will grab a badge from one of our websites and join us.



Barks and Bytes – March 10, 2016

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Update:

So I wrote the post, Is it just me? And I laid out about four different scenarios of how it could play out in my mind, BUT I never told you what DID happen.

This is what happens when I don’t write a post in the morning and digest it during the day and tweak it at night. I was rushing to get it finished before bed, decided to add in the bullet points and totally forgot to wrap up the post.

Siriusly, did she just compare me to Cujo?

I don’t get any respect around here…

So here’s what happened…basically nothing.

I hurried Delilah along and once we got on the downside of the hill, the other dog couldn’t see us anymore. Whether that made the dog change its mind or the owner bought a vowel, I’m not really sure. All I know is as suddenly as she began pursuing us, she stopped.

And I spent the rest of the walk playing out that last scenario where I dropped Delilah at home and drove up to the park and punched her in her stupid face, But, once I got home and released my frustration to Hubby, cooler heads prevailed and I settled in to enjoy the rest of my Sunday.

Note to self, read and re-read your posts before hitting the schedule button.

TummyWorks: Last week we had a review and giveaway for TummyWorks, a new probiotic being offered by Finest for Pets. I told you I would announce the winners today and thankfully, I remembered to pull the names.

TummyWorks So without further ado, my winners are:

  • Mandy Imburgio
  • Andrew Barella
  • Jan  – The Poodle (and Dog) Blog
  • Dianne
  • Sandy Weinstein

I’m in the process of gathering e-mails and forwarding them along to Steve. I’m super excited for you all to try it!

Steve at Finest for Pets is generously giving Heart Like a Dog readers a one-time 25% discount on a purchase of TummyWorks, simply use this code HLDWorks at check out.  You can purchase TummyWorks at Amazon, but just a reminder, if you click on THIS LINK and order TummyWorks, we will receive a small discount. And we thank you.

Sampson update: It has been six weeks since Sampson did a partial tear on his ACL. I’ve got him on a host of supplements and medications which I fully intend on writing in a post for you all. I’ve tried to keep him as quiet as I possibly can, and limited his walks in terms of timing and speed.

Yesterday he went to see the Physical Therapist for his first visit. It was worse than I expected, because he basically has no muscle left in his right leg, which means he’s been struggling with that leg well before he did the partial tear.  And I missed it. I’m not beating myself up over it, dogs, especially stoic dogs like Sampson can be very good at not letting you know when they are struggling. I can’t go back and change it, I can only move forward and do my best from this point on.

His therapy consisted of some cold laser therapy and five minutes on the underwater treadmill. The plan is for him to have the cold laser and underwater treadmill twice a week for four or five weeks, with the goal being to add in some land exercises once we build up that leg.

After the therapy package is finished, we will re-evaluate his progress at that time and determine if more therapy will be beneficial to him, or if our money can better be spent in other types of treatment, such as acupuncture or chiropractic.

The therapist and I also discussed other treatments that might help him and I’ll be researching those and of course I’ll let you know what we decide.

 

Heart Like a Dog

Welcome to Thursday’s Barks and Bytes Blog hop hosted by 2 Brown Dawgs and Heart Like a Dog. We hope you will grab a badge from one of our websites and join us.



It’s a Small World – Barks and Bytes

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It’s a small world.

I was chatting with my friend Sue one day and she said, “I feel bad for Sampson, his world has gotten so small.”

And she was right. He went from a two 1/2 hour walks (at a minimum) per day, down to two 8 minute walks.

Because his walks are timed, it’s hard to give him a little variety. I mean there are only so many places you can walk to in our neighborhood in four minutes. (I time it for 4 and then turn around, which makes our walks usually between 8 to 10 minutes.) I do try to vary it by making our morning walk down hill and our afternoon walk uphill, but even still, our routes are very limited.

The afternoon walk is where I feel the worst. We are heading towards the woods, and Sampson SO loves the woods. Typically, I’ll turn off before we reach the cul-de-sac BECAUSE four minutes will just about take us to the edge of the park. And that right there seems to be so cruel to me. To bring him to the edge and not let him go inside.

That doesn’t stop him from looking longingly at the woods though, as we make that right hand turn.

I told Sue when Sampson had a healed up some, I’d load him in the car and drive him to the park. I would still time the walk 4 to 5 minutes in and then turn around, but at least he’d get up to the woods.

Last week I thought the time was right, so I loaded the big guy up and off to the park we went.

You know I like being off-leash in the park, don't you?

You know I like being off-leash in the park, don’t you?

He doesn’t look thrilled in this photo, but trust me, he really was happy to be at the park. We walked up the main path and made it as far as the field. As his leg gets better and better, we’ll be able to increase our walk times and he’ll get more days at the park.

Sunrise/Sunset

I’m super blessed to be walking my dogs right about the time the sun is rising in the mornings. There is something so special about watching the changing of the guard, as night turns to day.

Some days the colors are so vibrant, I can’t help but try and capture it.

I took this one on Tuesday morning.

I took this one on Tuesday morning.

While I love standing outside and watching the sun set, I don’t usually get to capture it on a walk. Last Saturday however, was my grandson’s birthday, and I ended up having a late walk. Delilah and I were treated to this lovely display.

I loved the rainbow of colors behind the Rainbow Trail sign.

I loved the rainbow of colors behind the Rainbow Trail sign.

I wonder if someone caught a sunset when they were naming the streets? Do you have a preference? Sunrise or sunset?

 Heart Like a Dog

Welcome to Thursday’s Barks and Bytes Blog hop hosted by 2 Brown Dawgs and Heart Like a Dog. We hope you will grab a badge from one of our websites and join us.



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