November 2013 Blog Posts (59)

Meet Raven, an 11 month old Great Dane.  She was Gavin's playmate today.  This gorgeous girl made Gavin look like a small guy in spite of the fact that he is 29in at the shoulder.  After a good romp, we took the two for a nice walk.  Looks like she may be coming back for more tomorrow :)…

The Bernese Mountain dog was originally bred to pull the carts of the dairy farmers in the Swiss mountain towns and villages.  Yarrow's mother is a Berner, as they are nicknamed.  I can tell that the drive to pull is quite strong in Yarrow.

Here in the mountain town of Kimberley, B.C., it's not possible for me to go anywhere without having to go uphill one way or the other.  That includes a simple trip to check the mailbox at the front of the house.  I instruct any deliveries to the…

Hi, my friends, JD here. My birthday fell on Thanksgiving this year! I turned 9 years old yesterday, so we had a double celebration at my house. My human brother and his friend spent the day here, and they played ball with me a lot !!! I have a bunch of new balls that my Aunt Jane sent me for my birthday, and we played with all of them! Even the Happy Birthday tennis balls that are only supposed to be for outside! I had a really good time!

My mom got me a new antler for my…

From Richard, Judy, Holly and all our Maltese and honorary Maltese fosters...

Yesterday was a busy day.  After having a decent night's sleep, the weather was a bit warmer and I took Yarrow and Sadhu to walk around town.  We were gone much longer than planned, stopping and chatting with others walking their dogs.  Yarrow is quite timid around strange, large dogs.  She sits behind me with her head between my legs, as if my legs are fence boards she can safely watch from behind.  It's good for her to just sit there and experience the calm exchange of conversation after…

In my travels, I haven’t met many people who don’t enjoy birthdays and holidays, have you?

Speaking of birthdays – It is hard to believe that my little Harley Darley is a whopping 5 years old today…

I am in love with this face!

Two weeks ago (seems like) he was just a pup! Scared to go down…

 I have had some of the most wonderful dogs through my life.  I was always the woman in town with the one dog who was so well behaved, I was discouraged by shop owners from obeying the 'no dogs allowed' sign on their doors.  And, I've raised three children.  Lots of experience!  Never, in my wildest imagination, did I think I would have such a difficult time with a puppy. Even my beloved Basset Hound who used to eat EVERYTHING including the carpet, seemed easier because she wasn't always…

Her official name is "Sweet Georgia Brown". I had wanted to name her Georgia and was waffling between that and another name. The deciding factor was taking her across the street to visit with a little girl, and a neighbor walked by with this large doberman mix dog who was super sweet and gentle. He called her Greta. Really Greta? The shock was that I was so close to calling my dog Greta and got such negative response from my friends that I had decided to dismiss it. I told him her name was…

The Super Adoption Event at Rancho Mirage, California (near Palm Springs) was super for our Maltese Rescue California. My wife and the other volunteers brought 11 adoptable dogs and nine were adopted with applications on the other two. This is the first time that the organization used our new canopy.

I stayed at home to care for the dogs that didn't go...

With…

Off the top of my head, I can’t think of a lot of benefits to getting older, except that you get away with less sugar coating and more blunt talk.  I have just decided the older I get the less likely I am to bottle up my feelings and suffer fools gladly. Whether this is a good plan remains to be seen and some members of my family will tell you my age has nothing to do with…

OMD (oh my doodle) this weekend was a weather nightmare for me! As my mother used to say back in the day when we lived in New York: “Jack Frost came this way last night.”

Up until this weekend, I had been “bamboozled“ by this incredible weather. Clear skies, bright sunny days with a mild to moderate breeze every now and then. “Sweater weather” the retailers called it. So when Mr. Jack Frost decided to “pounce” upon us, it caught me…

I have an older brother – actually he’s the oldest, and he lives approx. 9 hours south of me. When I heard his VM Sunday evening, I looked at Harley and said: Guess who’s coming to dinner?…

This is the look I get when we’re having a conversation

His birth name is…

http://wesa.fm/post/challenges-suburban-homelessness-and-education

I wrote a blog sometime ago ( I guess in June ) in regard to students who graduated despite of significant difficulties they faced from my school district. One of them recently received resiliency award here in Pittsburgh, also recieved National Scholarship for students experiencing homelessness. There were 15 students nation wide…

So I thought I'd blog my experience with learning to groom my doodle.  Finding a groomer who doesn't want to just shave her down to look like a poodle has been a challenge.  We live in a small town and so my options are limited which brings me to my present place of learning the art of helping Bella continue to look like a doodle and not a shaved rat! We have brought her home numerous times looking naked and my whole family is in dismay! 

I have done lots of research and read blogs on…

‘Mrs O’Connor is using that dam hairdryer again’ said my mother as the black and white TV looked like a snow storm yet again. Mrs O’Connor had one of those dryers that involved her sitting with a cap over her hair with a tube attached to a machine and as she was our next door neighbor was routinely blamed every time the TV set had major interrupted service.  Grandpa called for a lemon tea and three lumps of sugar which I was too young to make but was…