That Awesome Feeling Of Being Missed By Your Dogs

I was gone for 4 days last week and while I had a complete blast at BlogPaws I missed home.

I’ve always been a homebody.

Home is where my family is.

Home is where my bed is.

Home is where my dogs are.

I love home and home loves me and I love home even more when I know that it and all of its occupants missed me when I was gone.

I know Gracie missed me because she sent me a text every morning and every night telling me so.

I know Bobby missed me when I saw him for the first time after 4 days and he had the biggest smile on his face that I’ve seen in quite awhile and he actually hugged me out in public.

I know my husband missed me, just buy the relieved look on his face and the enormous pile of laundry that was sitting there waiting for me to fold it, and the mail unopened but separated out into piles all over the kitchen table, and he gave me a big kiss.

I know that Sherman missed when he just melted when I waked in the door and rolled over on his belly for a belly rub.

It’s been 4 days since anyone has rubbed my belly and wiped my slobber!

And Leroy.

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BlogPaws Exhausted

I went. I saw. I survived. I came home.

And now I am mentally and physically exhausted.

Don’t get me wrong, I had a blast.

A BLAST.

I connected with so many bloggers that there is just too many to name and I’m afraid if I do try to name them all I might forget someone and then I would feel bad and I don’t like feeling bad.

The bloggers who I got to meet and spend time with know who they are, and the ones who I didn’t get to meet, I am truly bummed and I hope we will have the chance to meet one of these days.

I have so many things to share with you all, but at this moment in time I don’t know where to start. My brain is still in overdrive from all the things I learned.

So I’m going to take a few days off from blogging and catch up on some sleep. Conquer the pile of laundry waiting for me. Hug the kids. Lay on the floor with the dogs. Maybe unpack at some point. Read my notes from the conference, and then get my mind out of overdrive!

Maybe in that order. Maybe not.

The Monday Mischief Pet Bloghop

Welcome to Monday Mischief – The pet blog hop that wraps up the weekend! This Blog Hop is brought to you by Alfie’s Blog, Snoopy’s Dog Blog, and My Brown Newfies

Dog Therapy. Best Therapy Ever.

courtesy of Life+Dog

I saw this sign on Facebook yesterday and it got me thinking and it really hit home because I think a lot of us feel this way, I know I do for sure.

It’s been a bad year and if I have any hopes of making it through to 2014 I need to just realize that life is as good as I make it and while some things may be out of my control, the way I deal with them is totally up to me.

Dealing with some of those things in a positive manner can sometimes be totally exhausting and stressful but over the past few months I’ve learned that, while I’m not to the point of needing professional therapy, I do need some sort of therapy to help me cope.

Lucky for me I have two very good pieces of therapy right in my home.

They’re a bit furry and drooly but they are just what I need to keep on truckin along.

Meet my therapy:

You might know them as Sherman and Leroy. I now to refer to them as Therapy One and Therapy Two and here’s the kind of therapy they provide:

1.Fur Therapy. I brush them. After a long day at work and when the kids are in bed, I sit down next to one of the dogs and brush. It’s extremely therapeutic for me and for them, and sometimes I even find myself thinking out-loud to them. (that’s an entirely different blog post for another day)

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We’re Taking Notes On Some Of Your Favorite Dr. Seuss Quotes.

I don’t rhyme very well but I’ll try it just this one time, to honor one of the best children authors of all time. So please sit back and relax and start taking some notes of some of my all time favorite Dr. Seuss quotes.

“Think left and think right and think low and think high. Oh, the thinks you can think up if only you try!”
― Dr. Seuss

“Look at me!Look at me!

Look at me NOW!

It is fun to have fun

But you have to know how.”
― Dr. Seuss, The Cat in the Hat (Deluxe Edition)

“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot,
Nothing is going to get better. It’s not.”
― Dr. Seuss, The Lorax

“Think and wonder, wonder and think.”― Dr. Seuss

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Most Big Purchases I Make Are Made With My Dogs In Mind

As a serious dog owner a lot of my “life” decisions are made around my dogs.

A lot of purchases get made with them in mind.

Is it dog friendly? Was it made with pets in mind? Are questions that I ask myself a lot.

And to be honest I am more likely to purchase a product if it has a dog in it’s advertisement.

Why? Because I like to think that this company was keeping in mind the needs and wants of a pet owner when they created it? Is that always true? No. But I like to think it is.

They’ve seen the stats, They know what an important roll pets play in the lives of people these days. They know that most average households include a pet and they know that pet owners are willing to spend money when it comes to them.

It’s not just a dog anymore. It’s a member of the family.

I’m always gonna buy the stain removal product with the picture of the dog on it rather than the one with the picture of the red wine spill on it. (after reading the ingredients of course)

Come on. It’s they way we think.

And some companies have figured that out.

Which is why I really like the new Subaru Dog Tested. Dog Approved campaign.

Subaru’s based a whole campaign geared towards dogs.

Dogs have been driving Subaru vehicles for years, which begs the question, where are they buying them? Meet Grant Weber, the most beloved Subaru Canine Sales Associate.

Besides having a salesperson dedicated to selling cars to dogs, they’ve created several commercials and have even launched a new Facebook app which we’ll take about more later this week!

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Wordless Wednesday Plus A Few Words. Come Fly With Me

Sometimes………..

When your a dog, you try to fly.

But you can’t because you’re a dog.

So you crash and burn.

Or in Leroy’s case, you crash and end up with a face full of snow.

Getting Ready For The Big Game This Weekend. #SuperDogSunday!

This Sunday’s The BIG Game!

But did you know that it’s also the third annual Super Dog Sunday?

This event, hosted by Event Barkers, takes place on the day of “the big game” and benefits Petfinder Foundation to help them do more of their awesome work assisting shelters and rescues to find loving homes for homeless pets.

There’s over $1,500 in prizes being given away by the 2013 Super Dog Sunday Sponsors:

Just making sure there’s enough air in the ball!

So how can you join in the fun of Super Dog Sunday?

You can enter photos of ANY kind of pets–including adoptable pets on Petfinder– but here’s the game rules: your photo has to have a football theme. It doesn’t have to be a particular team…any kind of football theme. You can dress your dog up, play a game of football, touch only please, no tackle:) or you can edit in a football theme. You can enter one photo per pet.

Then email your digital photo to EventBarkers@gmail.com. (full size photos only.)

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When A Little Bit Of Knowledge Can Be Dangerous And Heartbreaking. A Sherman Story Part 2

Read the title carefully:

When A Little Bit Of Knowledge Can Be Dangerous And Heartbreaking.

Little is the key word here.

As a vet tech I have a small amount of knowledge in veterinarian medicine. I am by no means an expert and would never claim to be. Each day I go to work and I learn something new. What I know is from what I have seen and been taught by licensed veterinarians who went to school for many years.

Vet techs and assistants see crazy shit all the time which in turn, I believe, makes us one of the more paranoid pet owners in the world when our pets get sick. Of course I can only speak for myself here, but I have seen other techs act the same way as me.

Sometimes we know just enough to make things complicated when our pets get sick. We have just enough resources available to us to induce panic. We are able to read our pets report from the lab before the vet ever sees it. We are able to analyze and over analyze everything because it’s right at our fingertips.

When we are left with no answers, only questions about our pets health we are left with an undetermined amount of time for our minds to wander.

Hence the situation we have going on with Sherman……………..and me.

Before I get to the latest debacle, let me say that Sherman is doing well, he is not any worse than he was, and I would have to say he has improved. He has never stopped eating during any of this and over the last few days has showed interest in wanting to play. He is getting around fine, without any signs of limping in his back legs. He has become even more of a velcro dog than he was before and is constantly following me around the house. I’m pretty sure at this point in time, he is more worried about me than I am about him, if that’s even possible.

Despite all of this we still have no answers and the more tests we run the more questions we are left with. Recent lab works show mild kidney and liver elevations. And when I say mild I mean barely out of the normal range.

Not enough to suggest anything but enough to watch, and induce panic into a concerned owner.

That would be me.

Concerned owner with a wandering mind and just enough knowledge to be dangerous which brings me to last Saturday when I came home from work and noticed Sherman chewing on his back leg. I immediately went over to check out the situation and as soon as I saw the ulcerated mass that he had been chewing on my heart broke into a million pieces.

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Pardon The Interuption

Please excuse my lack of posts over the last few days.

It’s not that I don’t have anything to say, it’s that I can’t stay awake long enough to say them.

Our home has been taken over by the flu virus.

It started with Gracie on Friday. Me on Sunday. My husband on Monday, and Bobby on Tuesday.

While I am starting to see the light of day again my husband’s flu has tuned into pneumonia and poor Bobby is just starting his flu journey.

As soon as everyone is back in working order I’ll be back with stories of a dog show to tell.

edited by jen**HB was admitted to the hospital late last night as his condition worsened. Hopefully he will only need to be hospitalized for a few days.

Can I Trust Santa Claus With My Dogs?

I’ve got Santa on the brain this week.

I’m a huge Santa fan and I admit that I am a believer. Always have been and always will be. There’s just something magical about that jolly old fella.

I’m fine that my kids want to go see Santa and tell him what they want for Christmas, I mean after all, our mall has the ”real” Santa and he gives them a candy cane just for being cute.

Taking my dogs to see Santa is another story. I know that I’m not taking them to see the “real” Santa, he’s busy at the mall, so I’m taking them to see one of his elves, and to be honest I don’t know that I can trust his elves.

I’m not sure which elf exactly it is that I’m seeing. Is he a dog lover? Has he been trained to deal with dogs? Does he speak dog language? Does he mind slobber? Is he sober? What kind of dog treats is he handing out? Are they treats from China? What elf school did he go to? Does he have any references that I can contact?

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