Tuesday night we had some snow. It wasn’t a lot, but enough to coat the roads. I was super excited to walk the dogs yesterday morning because Sampson is just so jubilant in the snow.

So when the alarm went off at 5:30 yesterday morning, I got right up and dressed for a cold walk in the dark. Sampson got up, I put his harness and light on him, then he went back and laid down. Delilah ignored me.

I put on my treat bag, grabbed my phone and my pepper spray and walked to the door. I called out, “I’m leaving.”

Nothing.

I opened the door and shut it.

Nothing.

I said to Hubby, “Well I guess neither one of them want to walk.”

Hubby said, “Well then don’t go.”

And I admit, for a few seconds I was tempted and then I thought. “Hell no! I’m up and dressed and I’m taking a walk, with or without dogs.”

So out the door I went.

I’ve stopped taking my camera with me in the morning because…well it’s dark. And since I use the point and shoot, I don’t have time to fiddle trying to take pictures in the dark. But I forgot how light the world is when it’s covered in snow and dawn is breaking. So there I stood, alone in the dark, looking at a beautiful world with no camera.

I’ve also forgotten how destructive a Lab who hasn’t been exercised properly can be. While I was readying Sampson for our afternoon walk (which they both went on by the way) I heard a ripping noise and Delilah had gone under the Christmas tree (hey, it’s fake and I like looking at the lights, don’t judge) and taken one of my boxes and destroyed it.

Once I saw that destroyed box, I knew Delilah needed a walk. I was happy that both dogs were eager to get out and get some fresh air.

It was super cold, with strong wind gusts, but we got out and got our walk in.

But apparently it wasn’t enough exercise for someone, because I came home to this.

And last but certainly not least, I have some folks in Blogville that I need to thank.

First, just before Christmas I was gifted a beautiful necklace from my friend Sue at For Love of a Dog. If you’re looking for beautiful, hand-crafted jewelry, look no further. Sue’s work is incredibly detailed and absolutely stunning.

Yes, this is what was in that box that Delilah destroyed.

And secondly, we were one of the top commenters on the Jones Natural Chews blog last year and so Miss Flea sent us a special package. Delilah’s nose knows Jones and Rocky’s Rollers are one her favorites, so thank you very much Flea for the special treats.

 

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 that time of year when bloggers everywhere are wrapping up their year in blogging. 2015 was a way better year than 2014 was on the personal front, but not so good on the blog front.  I’ll quote Jen from My Brown Newfies about her blog, “I got what I  put into it and the straight up fact is that I could of put more into it.” That’s true for me as well.  There were some days when my heart just wasn’t into it and I’ll own that.

I’d still say we had a successful year. We reviewed some great products and had some really fun and funny posts.

Every year those little WordPress monkeys work their little monkey fingers to the bone putting blog stats together for us. (Okay, it’s probably really a program, and super easy, but it sounds better if they’re working their fingers to the bone, no?) Since I don’t obsess over stats during the year, it’s fun for me to look back and see where the blog did well and where we can make some improvements.

The posts you loved.

We’re Trick Training So You Can Win Treats

You may remember this as Jodi’s unsuccessful attempt to train the dogs to turn the lights on and off. I will remember it as the day I learned how to use iMovie on my Mac. 🙂

With the holidays and all the craziness that goes with it, I haven’t gotten back to training, but it is on my list for 2016 and I’m pretty sure I have a plan to make it work. Stay tuned. 🙂

Styrofoam Coolers, Not Just For Beer

This was my Blog the Change post from last January. It showed step by step instructions on how to turn a simple Styrofoam cooler into a shelter for feral cats.

The bad news is the cooler-shelter is still sitting on a shelf in my rec room, but the good news is I haven’t seen the cat around work, so I’m pretty sure he wasn’t a stray.

Rejuvenate Your Dog With Rejenease

The first review of the year and the supplement that helped get Sampson over the hump from his ACL surgery.

I was thrilled to be able to review this supplement and am so happy that it is helping so many of my favorite dogs in Blogville.

Talk to me.

The post I got the most comments on was In Over My Head.

This was a really hard post to write, because I was so embarrassed over the whole incident and felt that I let my dogs and my readers down. It was hard to share that because I felt very vulnerable. That’s my bad for doubting my readers. I have THE BEST READERS hands down. You all are so supportive and caring and made me feel better about the whole thing.  And for the record, I can smile about it now. I can’t quite laugh, but I can smile.

My three top referring sites were:

Twitter, Facebook and Triberr

I’m not surprised about Facebook, because I’m siriusly bad about sharing posts there. I’m confused about the Twitter thing because I thought most of my Twitter posts would be shared through Triberr. Which just goes to show what happens when I think. 🙂

Where are you from?

This little ole’ blog had people visiting from over 122 countries! That’s so amazing to me. Most of our visitors are from the US, Canada and the UK, BUT we did have some from Africa, Australia, Russia and India, just to name a few.

Speak your mind.

I’d like to thank my top commenters, 2 Brown Dawgs, Callie, Shadow and Ducky’s Mom, Emma, Sand Spring Chesapeakes and Jan K!

So that’s the gist of it, which means 2015 is a wrap my friends.

I’d like to thank all my readers and sponsors for continuing to support this blog. I thank you for your friendship and wish you a joyous and Happy New Year.

And remember, if you’re driving, don’t drink and if you’re drinking, don’t drive.  See you next year!

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.