Dogs
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Wordless Wednesday – Office Dogs
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Wordless Wednesday
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They Are Always With Us
Today marks 11 years and 11 months since we lost Moree. He has been gone longer than he was alive. (That was true starting 2 years ago since we lost him shortly before he turned 10.) November 7, 2009, is not a date that is locked in my head, for which I am grateful. But I was reading through my old blogs yesterday and the very first post on Life by Pets is called “Let’s Start with the Hard Stuff” and talks about losing Moree. It was in one of those early posts there that I noted the date we lost him. That’s not to say I did not know…
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Sparklers: Chasing Junebug
When we first brought Junebug home, she was only 6 months old and filled with puppy energy. We had to take a walk every day and still spend time playing with her. If we did not take a walk, it would take close to an hour of chase, fetch, and wrestling to wear her out. She has been our Baby Bug for 10 ½ years now. She is starting the Beagle fade. She spends more time sleeping than getting into mischief (though she still gets into plenty of mischief). Dogs slow down as they get older. It is a good thing as they grow out of the frenetic puppy stage…
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Gratitude Journal #3
Apparently, you can train your brain to be happier by keeping a gratitude journal, so I am giving it a go. My goal is post about 100 things I am grateful for over the course of the year. (This should average out to just a little over 2/week.) However, I am going to try and stay away from the standard family/friends/pets. Please know I absolutely am grateful for my family, friends, and pets. I would not have made it through the past couple of years without each of them. But if I am trying to train myself to be happier, then I want to start recognizing the smaller things in…
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Junebug & Beagle Breed Memory
The first time Junebug ever “Beagled”, she was deep in the blackberry brambles. We heard this terrible sound that we knew was her, and thought she had tripped in a hole and broken her leg. I, at least, was pondering how in the world I was going to find her, let alone get to her, in the middle of the bramble patch. But none of that was needed, because in less than the time it took me to actually formulate the thought, I realized that Junebug was now chasing something through the brambles. A moment later, in a less dense spot, I saw a rabbit run through, and seconds after that,…
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A Third Dog
Things have gotten settled enough in the new house that we are now actively looking for a third dog. By this I mean that this weekend we visited three different shelters and met four different dogs. None of them were the right dog for us, which is in some ways hard. But I have learned that we have the right to be picky. So what are we looking for? C wants a Lab or Lab mix of some sort. This works for me. Larry & June are 25lbs and 35lbs respectively, and I would like a larger dog- 60-70lbs. We do not want a puppy. Two-three years old is probably…
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Geek Culture for my Dogs
A couple of weeks ago, when I gave the dogs a bath, I realized that Junebug’s collar was broken. The clasp no longer worked. We had to make the collar as big as we could and slip it off over her head. This was not unexpected. The clasp on Larry’s old collar (bought at the same time) had broken just a few months before. At that time, I had made a quick dash to the pet store, saw some collars on clearance, picked out a blue-ish one for him, and we were good to go. I spent less than two minutes on the process. We have since moved. So this…
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National Puppy Adoption Awareness Day
National Puppy Day was yesterday. I was busy being sick and not posting, but I did not want to let the event go by completely unmentioned here. I think the idea is to encourage people to adopt puppies from shelters instead of getting them from a breeder. And I get that. Shelters are overcrowded. But you know what they are not overcrowded with? Puppies. (I also happen to believe that the best way to cut down on dogs in shelters is for families to get the right dog for them, and sometimes that means going to a breeder.) When we first met Junebug in the shelter, she had been placed…
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100 Word Book Review: Soul of a Dog by Jon Katz
(Originally posted on August 28, 2011) If I’m going to read a book about dogs, I most likely want to read a Jon Katz book. I’ve read other books and even enjoyed them. I read James Herriot growing up and still enjoy returning to his book, Dog Stories. But the truth is, for a look at dogs in our modern world, Jon Katz is the best. Soul of a Dog explores the philosophical and religious answers to the question- “Do animals have souls?”, but depends mostly on the every day observances of a man who loves his animals as much as any pet owner out there.
