Dispatch about 7:30 am. He was gone at 8. He wasnt in pain and only really sick for a couple days. We should all be so lucky. He passed away yesterday 24 hours and 9 minutes ago.


This is a repeat of what I wrote on facebook. This was Dispatches blog in the first place.......

I knew I'd be one of "those" people some day. Dispatch Bichon died in my arms this morning about 8 am after basically a 2 day illness. I'd taken him to vet and he had congestive heart failure, an infection, and a heart murmur, lungs had fluid in them. He let me bring him home with 3 different medicines, told me to call if he got worse. But Dispatch Bichon was gone before he opened up. He was fine the last part of July which was when he was in vet. He'd had a cough since then but he's acted like hacking up a lung was his life mission for the last 10 years, he was dramatic.

He played after we got home Sunday. Seemed to be tired Monday and then had a horrible night Monday night but was better Tuesday morning. I had something important to do and got home mid afternoon and he was worse again. That's when he got the diagnosis of chf. The vet did say when he got over this spell he needed more teeth out and a vaccine updated. We had a bad night, he ended up wearing a baby diaper with a hole cut out for his tail. He left it on which says how sick he was. We spent at least an hour in the chair in living room with his head on my shoulder in the middle of the night. He did sleep a few hours but became very needy toward morning.

We had someone come to the house at 7 am and I checked on him every 5 to 10 minutes....I took a photo like 15 minutes before I found him by front door, he was breathing the same. I was going down to old house so I went to get his towel and when I picked him up he sort of shuddered. I got in pickup and I think he passed in pickup with me petting him. I think he knows I picked him up because he did protest the diaper 20 minutes before that. I don't know really if he knew much after we got home from vet but he did get off couch and go in kitchen and drink a long time this morning under his own steam.

I took him to be cremated. It will take a while they said. I went to the bathroom by myself for the first time in 13 years this afternoon....not really but it seems like it. I knew this day was coming and I shed a tear while writing it but I'm not doing bad. He was getting so deaf and blind he's better off now. It was hard to see those little eyes clouded over though. I carried him around for probably 1/2 hour before I told them he was dead and I was going to the house. Beauregard is in shock, he doesn't know what to do or what has happened. Please give your dogs an ear rub in Dispatch Bichons honor and I will remember the good times.......Dispatch was 13 years, 2 months, and 1 day old and he'd lived with us for 13 years and 18 days of him trying to tell us exactly what we were doing wrong and how we could improve by listening to him. That's why he was Dispatch Bichon.

Bichon dies After Saving Owner From Fire

OK, I know I haven't written anything for awhile but since I'm technically semi-unemployed I thought I'd start again.  This story not only made me sad but made me think twice about telling the dog to be quiet in the middle of the night. Biscotti the Bichon woke his owner up who then told a relative to call 911 and went back to bed....you can read the rest of the story  HERE.

Thanksgiving For Dogs

This is Dispatch the Bichon Frise, this is me in the middle and see my adoring fans?  OK, maybe they are part of my mama's family and maybe they have their dogs but you see just exactly WHO is in the middle, my "sis" is holding me and I mean that literally, she is MINE, I adore her, don't know why she had to go and get her own dog? Anyway back to the celebration, they said something about it being the tall guys birthday and some holiday, but since there was so much meat cooking going on I know they planned it JUST FOR ME!!  I mean why else would they have ribs, and brisket, and turkey, and HAM?  That is unless it was for dogs. I even tried the cranberry salad!  Then they offered me so many pretty ladies. There was Phoebe...

Then there was Sassy, she was a bit camera shy?  Both of these lovely ladies were shorter than I was and everyone kept talking about being fixed in relation to ME, Dispatch Bichon Frise, but I have NO idea what they meant.  I was busy doing my best Pepe` Le Pew voice and telling the girls how lovely they were today.... but back to the beginning of the visit.

 This is my cousin dog Lester.  He is an OK guy. We sort of got in a little contest when I got to his house, he's basset and something else...pardon if I offend but I peed on a chair on Lester's patio.  It was just a little on the back leg of the chair...my daddy happened to be sitting in it but it stunk like Lester and I had to make it smell better.  Then Lester got in BIG trouble for peeing on the front leg of the chair with Daddy in it...I wasn't quite rolling on my back pointing with my paw but it was close.  So then I proceeds to go and peed in Lester's food dish.  I thought I'd gotten by with it and was over by the fence begging mama to pick me up so I could properly say "HELLO" to the neighbor lady dogs when Lester PEED on ME.  Like on my back!!  Mama shrieked like a girl (I suppose she technically is) grabbed me up and ran for the house, I got washed off and I'd just HAD A BATH THE DAY BEFORE. That was the worst part.
This shows more of the festivities, Sassy is in this one, she thought maybe someone would feed her.  Silly Sassy, the food was on the table, see that is me the wily Bichon in the background planning an assault on the meat platters.  Although I would never do such a thing (you think I'm an idiot, first all the people have to be out of the house and then I have to be able to make it look like another dog did it!)

See this black dog? His name is Zeus.  He wasn't interested in much but his family.  Mostly his mama.  He wanted to kill my mama (who kept referring to him as Devil Dog) but I wasn't too worried, he weighed about as much as my back leg. 
I was much more worried about the ladies and whether any other dog was getting food or attention.  It was heaven.

We have to mention the family dogs who had their representative people there but they were LEFT AT HOME.  Newman was left at home and Charlie was with his second family.  I'm sure I'll get to see them soon again.  Maybe they can help me mark the back yard?  We are back safely at home and the new kitty has started running from me and all is well in the world.

Great Deals for Pets and Humans for the Holidays!!

Surprise!  I'm not reviewing luggage today!  I'm not reviewing bathroom shelving, tv tables, or my favorite department, at the CSN stores, handbags!  (You remember CSN has 200 online stores right and are great to deal with?)  We are going to take a look at another dog crate end table.  This one is solid ash and is $278.95.  Don't you agree it's pretty cool looking.  Much better than the pink one plastic on I have in the living room, the covered wire one in the family room, the little one on the floor, you get the picture don't you?  We only have one dog too!

The details are:

• vailable in natural, cherry, dark espresso, or medium walnut finishes
• Made from solid ash wood
• A knock-down kit and 8 screws are used to assemble the crate
• Top is removable for easy access to clean or easily remove a blanket or pillow
• Panels are put together with mortise and tenon construction 

It comes in 3 different sizes, prices vary of course.  This would be a good gift for the pet owner who has everything wouldn't it? I know Dispatch used to not like being in the crate so much but we made a party time out of it, fed treats in the crate etc, and he started going in the crate when he wanted to be left alone or something was bothering him.  So if you had a crate that was THIS great looking it would be easier to train the dog because you would WANT it visible in your house. 

The folks @ CSN have some other holiday deals going on at select stores that you can get in on starting Monday (today).  These deals are so good you can't use any promotional codes.
CSN Baby
CSN Games
CSN Fitness
CSN Toys and Games
Go check it out.  Items over $69 that can be shipped by regular methods ship FREE!!

Dog Crate End Tables and Children's Luggage

I have been rather amiss in posting, sorry.  The good folks @ CSN stores asked me to post a bit about children's luggage and their other high quality items and some specials they have going on this holiday season.  That is the next post though, I'll tell you about some special deals CSN stores have available this week. 
Right now check out this cool end table dog crate I found.  (I saw it and said to myself "hawt dawg, weeze gonna get us sum classie furrniturr fur shore," or something similar) I have a large pink dog crate in the living room, a wire covered one in the family room.  These end table dog crates look like furniture!!

How cool is that?  Pardon if it's old news to you, I'd never seen one before.

What You Can Do About Animal Rescue

I tend to start things I cannot complete.  My dedication to animal rescue often feels like one of these things. (so does my gutter cleaning, it just started raining....) BUT all is not lost for those who feel like I do, I've had this link up on my browser for a week about what YOU can do to help the animal rescue cause.  Bichon Information Station is just a great website in general, the only drawback is you will probably feel a great need to cuddle an animal soon after viewing it but that is OK, trust me.  Anyway if you do NOTHING ELSE about animal rescue go to the first link and see what you can do easily and quickly.  I blog, tweet, and facebook about animals in need and animals in general and try to help raise awareness.  Not everyone wants to do this or can, I can't foster and am strictly prohibited from adoption by my better half (I will NEVER give up) so I do what I can this way.  I also donate to the local thrift shop that benefits the local animal shelter and purchase items from the store.  Not much but I always tell myself it's better than nothing.  Then I cuddle the dog again.

He looks like he needs cuddled doesn't he?  Sometimes I think he is saying Jeeze, would she just let me sleep??? LOL

So WHY haven't I been blogging?  Well for one I'm lazy.  The main reason is I'm like MAKING MONEY writing for the internet.  You read that right, making money, some days it feels like $2 an hour but sometimes it's $20 an hour.  The latter doesn't happen that often and it's probably more like $10 an hour but sitting on my rear in my warm house or in my husbands truck and piddling @ the computer is not brain surgery nor do I sweat or have to deal with people, sorry I got burnt out doing that with my husbands business.  I'm also writing a few articles for a new site that is looking for excellent writers, they are something like hub pages.  Right now you are saying why is she going on and on about this?  Because I wrote an article about Bichons!!  Then I wrote another article about brushing a Bichon Frise.  The reason I wrote this article is because many people won't get a bichon because they are afraid of the maintenance involved with this breed.  I've had to chase errant dogs that got off their leashes, cleaned up after dogs that refused to be house trained, replaced carpet, woodwork, and phone cords that had been chewed; all dogs require some maintenance and take time.  It's a fact of life most things that are worthwhile require some maintenance or dedication.  Bichons require grooming but give love and adoration in return. 

If you are bored, or want to know more about these subjects, or are considering writing for the internet, go check out these pages.  They are something like hub pages, logbud.com doesn't provide immediate pay.  Textbroker.com is one of those that pay immediately or at least twice a month.  If you have some idea where a comma goes in a sentence they will pay less than one cent a word.  I'm above that but they are tough on grammar and sentence structure.  In fact I'm sure they would simply CRINGE @ this blog entry.... LOL

If I Could, This is What I Would Do With My Life

The people @ Seer Farms take pets and board them for individuals or families who cannot afford regular boarding fees and who have lost their homes, can't find pet friendly housing, or just need temporary boarding for their pets because of the economy or life changes.  This is a wonderful effort and actually sounds like it might be a workable charity idea?  Since my husband calls me Ellie Maye Clampett anyway and insists we only have one little dog @ a time (we can have a big dog too but we haven't found the perfect one, anyone have a giant bichon?  LOL) I can't do this but it's a GREAT idea for someone who is looking to channel a love of animals into a worthwhile endeavor.  Seer Farms was recently featured in a USA Today article,  the article is an excellent read about a couple on the way to deliver their first child looking for pet boarding.....

Once again one of my favorite rescues.....smallpawsrescue.org has a new bichon finder.....OK, pet finder, Pets911.  Pretty cool huh?  I found Ice close to my home,

OK not ice a Bichon puppy named Ice who was turned in to the shelter from a commercial breeder because he was TOO BIG!  4.5 lb and he was born 7/12/10, now I'm not too sure what Dispatch (my bichon) was when he was that old but I'm pretty sure it was over 4.5 lb.  In other words this dog may weigh 25 lb when grown, but that is really stretching it.  Dispatch used to weigh 17 and he is like at the top of the size for show bichons....he's a mutt though.  Anyway Ice is available for Adoption from Thistle Hills Rescue, in Birch Tree, MO.