February 2012 Blog Posts (78)

Paddy and I have taken a long, circuitous route to get to this point.  When he first came to live with us, at 8 weeks old in 2008, he was on some premium brand puppy kibble, and he graduated from there to the adult version.  I was careful to give him grain-free, quality kibble.  After feeding Purina One to my last dog, it was a revelation to me -- all the new, organic, healthy kibbles were just amazing.

We stuck with this diet for two years.  And then, in the midst of my sister's…

Sorry for not adding to my blog for sometime, but my dad has been very, very poorly and poor mum had been rushed off her little feet.  Luckily dad is now back at home and mum says he's making good progress.  He was admitted to hospital last April (2011) with something called Guillain Barre syndrome and stayed in hospital for ages.  Mum visited everyday, I wished I could have gone as well, but someone had to stay and look after the house mum said.  Still, when she came back she took me for a…

it is about time--it is almost March and we have had no snow for months--so today it is really coming down and covering up all the dead grass--hooray! I got some of the puppies outside right after it started--I will take a few more pictures tomorrow when it is deeper--that should be fun.…

There are so many of you to thank, all my new two and four legged friends for supporting Paz's victory.  He placed second and the 3 pets with the most votes win....so he is a winner.  I won't be formally notified until next week, but I believe the Mayor's Alliance is going to feature the three winners and their respective "stories" on their website and blog.  I'll keep you all posted.  Again you all are the best.  I feel so very connected to so many people I have never met in person, but…

Four weeks ago, Vern went back to training class. We are in a group class with the same trainer we have worked with before. He is a breeder of Belgian Malinois dogs.  The trainer is a macho kind of guy, loves to tell his “war stories”, and thinks his dogs are the best breed of dog ever produced by man.  Privately, I call them Mallomar Bars, but feel it is not necessary to publicly agitate a man who trains police dogs. 

 …

Our American Maltese Association Rescue group just received an email from the San Diego Animal Support Foundation which they fowarded from Yorkies and Friends Rescue:

From: Yorkies&FriendsRescue a href="mailto:yorkies6d@gmail.com">yorkies6d@gmail.com> Subject: URGENT~~Possible Tainted Food To: Date: Monday, February 27, 2012, 3:03 AM

URGENT!!!!! I received this message from a friend in the animal welfare community!! Please read and…

I want to thank all of you who welcomed me when I signed up for DoodleKisses around the end of 2011. Your welcoming words meant the world to me. I was at a particularly low ebb at the time - a never ending bronchitis that began the week before Thanksgiving had me drained. I just want to say that things are a lot better with Dudley now. I got a helpful book - Leader of the Pack by Baer and Duno - which changed some things. Dudley now eats after we do instead of before.  I hadn't realized how…

When I was a kid, I hated broccoli but, now I love it - either cooked or raw in a salad.  I dropped a piece when I was preparing a salad the other day and my dogs went crazy over it.  So now I add it to the kibble topping I give them.  Brocolli has lots of vitamins and minerals.

My kibble topping consists of...

London Broil

Yams or sweet potatoes

Carrots

Pineapple - seems to keep any rescues from eating poop

I cook these ingredients…

Anyone who has a doodle is probably familiar with their tendency to "borrow" things that don't belong to them. I've been told by the "experts" who own pure-bred labs or goldens, that "borrowing" things must surely be the "crazy poodle" side of doodle-ism. On the otherhand, at least one poodle owner I know assures me that it couldn't possibly be the poodle side but rather "it's those nutty retrievers, you…

Yep, that's right, she has a forever family. This morning Ginger and I met her new mom, Kathie, new dad, Mac and big brother, Laser (yellow lab). Her new family had just spent two days driving from MA to just north of Atlanta. Ginger is so lucky that her entire family is retired (even Laser is a retired service dog) and everyone will be together 24x7. Her 2 footer sibs are all grown with fur kids of their own so Laser and Ginger have their parents all to themselves. Ginger doesn't know yet,…

When we got Cooper she was a very dark chocolate

Though she always had a blonde nose

Now shes fully…

I have 3 cats and a dog. My inlaws (with who we are living with for a while) have 1 dog.

Legolas the kitten likes to chase Pippin the cat who likes to chase Merry the cat.

Legolas likes to chase Abbey the dog who likes to chase all 3 cats and Cooper the dog

Cooper and Legolas play together, Abbey and Legolas play together, Abbey and Cooper play together

Pippin loves to sit on my lap, and Merry is a grumpy pants most of the time (but sleeps in my arms at…

A Dog's Purpose? (from a 6-year-old).

Being a veterinarian, I had been called to  examine a ten-year-old Irish Wolfhound named Belker. The dog's owners, Ron, his  wife Lisa, and their little boy Shane, were all very attached to Belker, and  they were hoping for a miracle.

I examined Belker and found he was…

I think the picture says it all.....It is either laugh or cry with this one!!  My hubby gave me 150.00 so he wouldn't be carrying it around in his wallet while he went to play golf.  He put it on the couch while I was sitting on the floor brushing Bailey.  I got up and completely forgot about it.  Got on the phone to talk with my mom, then got on the computer to see what was going on with DK....  I glanced over and guess what I see out of the corner of my eye....part of President Grant…

Just a short entry to say that all the puppies' new owners came today to choose their favorite puppy--it all went beautifully so far and each pup will have a great home that suits them to a T. It is an exhausting process since each family came an hour or so apart--and a few more tomorrow and then we are in the home stretch...momma dog leaves tomorrow and she will be joined by her daughter Hazel, a chocolate female who is staying in the breeding program and was in the last blog entry. Momma…

We haven’t really mastered a nice ‘greeting people at the door.’ My bad–I’ve been negligent. Strangers aren’t a problem. Trav jumps up on the leather couch by the door and observes, with great interest, his head in the general vicinity of my shoulder. He doesn’t bark or door dash; he’s just there to observe.

If one of his Beloved People arrive, greeting takes on a whole new meaning. He has a vague and imperfect grasp of the concept ‘don’t jump up–four on the floor.’ There’s the couch…

I have just managed to wrestle a soggy glove from the jaws of death. The process requires laser sharp timing. One has to grab a suitably tasty treat (regular biscuits won’t do. It has to be something special like a piece of dehydrated liver). One must then toss the treat in the opposite direction. The shaggy perp will then run towards the treat. But act fast as this may be your only your chance to retrieve the stolen item!  Should your timing be slightly off, the subject will dash back…

Last night, it happened again.  Vern got up in the middle of the night and started barking.  These were not ordinary barks, either, but enough to wake the dead.  The only person in our bed that did not seem to be bothered by all the ruckus was my husband.  I followed all the noise out to our foyer and there was watchdog Vern standing at the window, looking out at something, and determined to get outside.  Fudge was not barking, except for an occasional…

It was surreal. A lady in a bonnet and apron, sitting on top of a trampoline was playing with a black shaggy puppy. Here I was at a Mennonite farm - hardly the place you'd expect to find anyone playing with a puppy. Certainly not the place you'd expect to find a trampoline. The puppy turned out to be mine. The lady in the bonnet turned out to be the breeder...

It was the Spring of 2004, and here in the middle of nowhere, on a dairy farm near Listowel, Ontario I was…

Hi there, I am just letting everyone know that Neely has a new puppy friend! My friend who has Harley the GD that I look after sometimes has just brought home an eight week old Bernese Mountain dog poodle cross. An Absolute gorgeous little guy! This mix is supposed to allow the normally short life span of the Bernese to be lengthened by infusing the doodle gene. 

Since my son brought home his little Great dane puppy 10 weeks old for us during their reading week we have been enjoying…