Heart Like a Dog

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

Put That Bitch to Bed – Barks and Bytes

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I can’t believe it’s 2015 already!!  Where did 2014 go?  Truthfully, I don’t care, I don’t know about you, but I’m glad to put that bitch of a year to bed. 

I started last New Year’s Day out with a goal to be grateful for something in my life every day, no matter how small.  I did too. But there were days I really struggled with it.

We had our fair share of illness, injury and misfortune. 

January started with Sampson’s misdiagnosis of Degenerative Myleopathy, two burst pipes and a Diverticulitis attack.  The year was off and running and it never looked back.  It ended with Delilah’s elevated liver level mystery, a car driving into our rental house after an ice storm and my mom in rehab after she took a bad fall.

Good bye 2014, I hope there’s a special place in hell for bad years like you.

Now, don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t ALL bad, there were some good things too!   Mostly you my dear readers!  Through all the turmoil you stuck with me.  Hanging on to my hand when I couldn’t hang on any longer.  Picking me up and pushing me along, encouraging me to not lose hope.  Don’t lose hope!  Whatever you do, don’t lose hope. 

You made the idea of Caring for Critters a reality, and for that I will always be grateful.  As much as I hate when someone needs to research an illness or injury, it makes me so proud of this community when someone tells me they found that page to be a great resource.

Sampson did recover from his ACL surgery, what helped him over the hump is an awesome supplement I’ve been using that I will be reviewing on Monday along with an incredible giveaway for you!

We co-hosted the #Advent4Dogs Calendar as well as the Dumb Ass Dog Owners blog hop.

I’m sure there’s more, but right now my brain is fried.

And while we’re calling 2014 a wrap, WordPress sent me notice that their little monkeys have been hard at work.  If you know me (which you should because I usually just throw it all out there) you know I don’t look much at the stats on this blog.  That’s mostly because I don’t attract a lot of sponsors nor am I making any money from the blog, so really, what’s the point?  But it was very sweet of those little monkeys to let me know I had enough views to have sold out the Sydney Opera house 17 times!  That’s so cool and I don’t even have the E-Street band behind me!

My longest streak of daily posting came as no surprise, as it was the #Advent4Dogs promotions and of course the day I posted the most (52 times) was Thursday for the Barks and Bytes hop.

Most of my traffic came from Twitter, Facebook or Triberr, but there were two blogs that stood out, they are The Daily Dog Blog and Kol’s Notes.  Thank you to all who shared and promoted!

My readers came from 119 different countries!  Most of them were in the US and Canada, but they came from so many countries, so many! 

Oddly enough the most viewed post in 2014 was a post from 2012 “Happy Birthday My Love“ (at least that’s what those monkeys say.  They also say, “Some of your most popular posts were written before 2014.  You writing has staying power!”  I don’t know about that monkeys, maybe you better go eat some more bananas.)

Of course we can’t forget the commenters.  The day with the most comments was “It’s Only My Opinion” with 40 comments.  Coincidentally that post was the Pet Blogger challenge and it’s coming up again!!  You can get all the questions at Go Pet Friendly.  Will you be participating?  I sure will.

I’d like to thank all of you for commenting and participating, but a special thanks to my top five commenters.

Linda from 2 Brown Dawgs

JoAnn from Sand Spring Chesapeakes

Emma from My GBGV Life

Callie, Shadow and Ducky’s Mom from The Golden Life

Lauranne from 25 Castles on 25 Clouds

I thank you all for hanging in there with me.  For your kindness and friendship and I look forward to 2015 with the hope you instilled in me.  I leave you with some of my favorite photos from this past year.

Happy New Year!!

Heart Like a Dog

Welcome to Thursday’s Barks and Bytes hosted by 2 Brown Dawgs 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 Linda and I ask you to please use the linky list. If your blog does not support a linky list, please link back to either Linda or I.

Mountain Laurel….Barks and Bytes

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I love walking in the woods this time of year.  Yes on the surface it looks bleak and dreary.

Not a lot of green, the skies are overcast.

Not a lot of green, the trees have lost their green and the sky is overcast.

Once you get into the woods on a trail, you notice there’s still a bit of green going on.  There are not a lot of pine trees, but there are tons of Mountain Laurel.  Mountain Laurel happens to be our state flower and as such it is protected.  There are hefty fines if you are caught picking Mountain Laurel.

Follow us, we'll lead you through the Mountain Laurel.

Follow us, we’ll lead you through the Mountain Laurel.

Sadly a lot of the Mountain Laurel in the area has been hit with some kind of fungus.  You probably can’t see it from the pictures but the leaves are all speckled with brown spots.

Before I started walking in these woods I didn’t realize that Mountain Laurel retain their leaves throughout the winter.  But they do.

SO WHY with the bleakness, and the spotted Mountain Laurel do I like walking in the woods this time of year?

Simple.

Even with the Mountain Laurel retaining their leaves, you can still see ahead to watch for other people and dogs.

Shit, there's an off-leash dog! Oh wait...that's my dog.

Shit, there’s an off-leash dog! Oh wait…that’s my dog.

Besides, not a lot of people walk their dogs around here in the winter.  They must think dogs don’t need exercise in the winter, either that or they’re wimps. 

Considering the dumb ass dog owners in my neighborhood I think either theory works.   What do you think?

Next week our Barks and Bytes hop falls on Christmas Day.  Linda and I realize people are busy with family and traditions, so we invite you to add a holiday wish, tradition, memory or greeting and link it up to the special Christmas edition of Barks and Bytes.  We’ve made a button especially for this occasion.  Of course, if you have a traditional blog post, feel free to add that as well.

A Special Christmas Barks and Bytes

A Special Christmas Barks and Bytes

Speaking of Christmas, welcome to Day 18 of the #Advent4Dogs Giveaway hosted by Kol’s Notes, Dogthusiast, Heart Like a Dog, NEPA Pets & Wag’n’Woof Pets. Today’s give away is sponsored by Inkopious. Enter to win T-Shirts for dog lovers!

Inkopious Day 18 Today’s trivia question is hosted by Dogthusiast, you can click HERE for the trivia questions and click the image to go directly to Kol’s Notes.

 

Oh the Weather Outside is Frightful

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Tuesday morning we woke up to thin sheet of black ice, thanks to a Nor’easter that hit the east coast.  The driveway, deck, road, front steps, hell even the grass was slippery!  But the Dynamic Duo still wanted their walk. 

Hubby said, “It’s very slippery out, BE careful. I sanded the driveway and steps, but it’s still very slippery.”

I got Thing One and Thing Two ready for their walk and decided I should step outside first to assess the situation.  Damn good thing too.  I almost fell on my ass.

Did I ever tell you we live on a hill?  Well we do.  Not only is our street a hill and we are about 3/4 of the way up the street, our house also sits on a hill. 

The first obstacle was getting to the road.  I figured the best path was down the hill on the grass and so Frick, Frack and I started out.

Thank God one of us knew it was slippery out. 

Because we live on a hill (see above, in case you missed that) our walk is down hill one way either coming or going.  SO I decided the best way would be to head up the hill to start and down the hill for the return.  I was hoping the the ice would melt just a bit and make our return a bit easier. 

News flash, we live in New England and while the weather is titchy, (yes I said titchy and yes it’s a word) the ice hadn’t melted in the fifteen minutes it took me to walk up four houses. 

Fifteen minutes.  To walk four houses up.  It was that slippery. 

Trying to keep Beevis and Butthead on the grass was no easy feat. The town had salted/sanded the roads but that stuff is very bad for their paws and besides, it was only the middle of the road that was cleared.  My luck I’d find the only icy patch in the middle of the street, get pulled down by Dr. Evil and Mini Me and left there to get run over while they found their way home.

Well here’s the titchy (there’s that word again) thing about New England, sometimes the weather changes in a snap and sometimes it doesn’t.  Tuesday was one of those days when it didn’t.  We managed to make it back into the house with minimal slippage.  I promised the dogs we’d have a longer walk in the afternoon.

The Nor’easter turned to straight rain.  I’m not complaining, it’s better than snow or ice, but it was pouring buckets by the time I got home for our walk. 

Personally I love rain.  I’ve loved it since I was a child and sat in the Adirondack chair on the porch with my Grandfather on a warm summer night, a bowl of fresh blueberries and cream in my hands and watched the beauty of a lightening storm.  When my kids were small, we’d put on raincoats and go outside and jump in puddles.  I love the rain.

The Dastardly Duo however, hate the rain.  No matter how many times I remind them they are Labs, they still hate the rain.   BUT if we are walking in it, well that’s an entirely different story.  So I suited up, harnessed Pinky and the Brain and we started out. 

I'm the Brain right? And the Mini Me. For sure, the Mini Me.

I’m the Brain right? And the Mini Me. For sure, the Mini Me. I know who the Evil one is.

 

You’d have thought we were running a marathon.  Sampson kept trying to run and I can’t even begin to tell you how many times they shook themselves.  We managed to make it around the block in record time and I still had time to get their food out, stock the fire and dry them off before I had to head back to work.

 

YOU dragged US out in a monsoon and you are calling ME evil? I look like a drowned rat!

YOU dragged US out in a Nor’easter and you are calling ME evil? I look like a drowned rat! Stop talking and tell the readers about today’s #Advent4Dogs prize.

 

Welcome to Day 11 of the #Advent4Dogs Giveaway hosted by Kol’s Notes, Dogthusiast, Heart Like a Dog, NEPA Pets & Wag’n’Woof Pets. Today’s give away is sponsored by Pet Lifestyle and You. Enter now for your chance to win XS Big Foot Paw Bed & Fleece Pillow + a pea pod toy, a King Crab toy and a surprise toy from P.L.A.Y.
Open to: US/Canada

#Advent4Dogs Day 11

Heart Like a Dog
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 Linda and I ask you to please use the linky list. If your blog does not support a linky list, please link back to either Linda or I.

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