As usual I am behind but I did remember this great documentary Through A Dogs Eyes, you can go to the link below and search for rebroadcasts. For example my local PBS station has a rebroadcast at noon today.
I hope the lady who sent me the email doesn't mind me quoting her verbatim but I had like no sleep and need to get a little, there is a bit about service dogs and Milk Bones involvement below.
Canine Assistants service dogs assist children and adults with physical disabilities or other special needs in a variety of ways. Some of the tasks our dogs perform include turning lights on and off, opening and closing doors, pulling wheelchairs, retrieving dropped objects, summoning help, and providing secure companionship. While all of these functions are vitally important in helping a person obtain greater freedom, perhaps the most impressive gift our dogs provide is social, rather than physical, in nature. The dogs eliminate feelings of fear, isolation, and loneliness felt by their companions. One Canine Assistants recipient made the value of this gift quite clear when asked by a reporter what she liked most about her service dog. Immediately, she responded, "My dog makes my wheelchair disappear." Most Canine Assistants service dogs are born, raised, and trained at our facility in Milton, Georgia, while some are occasionally adopted from local organizations or breeders. The majority of our service dogs are retrievers, including both goldens and labradors.
Milk-Bone allows these recipients to receive their service dog for free, providing the necessary funding for some of these dogs to be fed, trained, groomed, etc. at no cost to the recipient. Milk-Bone has sponsored hundreds of dogs through its partnership with Canine Assistants.
Happy 4th or actually 5th EVERYONE!! Dispatch is horse and barks like a little girl (no offense to all the little girl dogs out there) from being in his crate and telling me he did NOT want to be in his crate @ his Daddies family reunion, OK his human daddy, his real one hasn't had a family reunion that I know of....
OK here's the gist of the whole thing, watch Dis leave it, I told ya he was a good dog and ya didn't believe me!!
Here are two videos I shot last night of Skeeter, the incredible old terrier dog. Her story is here and here. I thought I ran over her, I did run over something, may have been her tail but I think it was her, she was under my wheel on the car and I felt a little bump, I let the car idle for a minute before I took off, I'm wondering if she was that deaf, she's been weirder than usual since then. I tried to feed her cereal and milk and sausage, I know not the proper food for a sickly dog but @ her age it's got to be easy to eat and good. She still hates me.
You have to remember this dog waits till I get on the riding lawnmower and then runs in front of me about 20 ft like I'm chasing her, or she used to, I doubt if she does that anymore. I swear she does this because we live by the highway and people can say look @ that horrible person chasing that POOR little black dog on the riding lawnmower....
Skeeter is a survivor, Dispatch is the only dog who has lived while we've had Skeeter and we've had 4 other dogs.
I've got a CUTE picture of a bulldog and a baby on animalsthatgivepause.com .
AND there's a story about why I hide things from my husband on Tresa's Blog .
She came back up the driveway yesterday morning then disappeared again, she has another house to go to down the hill of my cousins, all on the same farm.
So my husband saw Skeeter this morning laying BEHIND THE BACK WHEEL OF MY CAR which is what started the whole thing. I went out and she finally came around the corner. I know if I take her to the vet it will be a one way trip, I'm just not positive she's in pain or any more pain than she was in before when she's walking like a troglodyte.
So I'd cooked this HUGE ham, I wasn't sure it would fit in the turkey roaster so I got a granite-ware wash-pan off the display wall in the family room. After I took the ham off the bone I gave the juice and leftover gristle and fat to the cats. I took Skeeter over to the log cabin where the cats live and she ate some ham. Then she gave me another really dirty look and waddled off.....
See the dog in the middle? Not Dispatch the white one or Fema the gray one, the dog who is by the pickup and green chair? That is Skeeter, she used to be my dads dog. My dad has been dead 10 years and Skeeter was old then. She looks sort of like a fake dog mixed with a troglodyte she is so old.
Anyway I'm not sure I ran over her but I thought I might have ran over something earlier today and she took off over the hill (OK she waddled and I tried to feed her chicken and she said bad words to me with dog esp and kept on going) and I can't find her......I was going to have to take her to the vet soon anyway to be put to sleep, she was pitiful she's like 20 years old, but I don't like to think of her dying alone but I can't find her.....we will see in the morning...this is her last known photo. She took like a minute to get up when she was laying down but maybe she didn't hear the car start which means she couldn't hear anything. I feel bad but I took care of this dog for 10 years and nobody else would take her, she bit kids when we first got her.....she really didn't like me, she liked my husband....I still feel bad....
THE NEXT DAY...........
Skeeter came up the driveway this morning, she's been down in the farm buildings somewhere. I haven't seen her eat or drink but she acted interested in food, I patted her down and she didn't seem to be in pain. She's not very perky but she wasn't perky before I thought I ran over her. You have to remember she is 140 in dog years or close to it, she's @ least over 100.
If I don't see her eat or drink by tomorrow I will take her to the vet. She's in her dog house in the shade and has hot dogs, cream, and water nearby..
Teddy a bichon from Hastings NZ is back with his family today. Complete story @ Hawkes Bay today.
The dog disappeared Wednesday night from the family home. The family has two disabled daughters and Teddy is a companion to them and is a s of therapy dog. The family also planned on breeding other therapy dogs.
Teddy was evidently thrown from a car window and then police and his owner had to bribe him with food to get him caught but eventually he was caught, dirty and disheveled.
I once participated in an attempted dog rescue like this but I never did find out what happened because the police came but the dog was out of my sight. I was driving down 110 down to the casinos in Biloxi MS, we lived there and I think I was going shopping for a bar-b-que grill. My husband had left earlier and had my bichon with him. All of a sudden I see a little white ball of fur barreling up the exit ramp. Instincts took over, swerve to side of road, open car door and try to catch dog as he runs by, he looked @ me like I was the most hideous thing in the world. It wasn't my dog, it was a Maltese, he's running up the freeway, people are chasing him, everyone is stopping, I'm out running up the highway trying to get people to stop or go around so as to not hit the FAST little white ball of fur. The dog found an opening in the fence around the highway and the police were below but I couldn't see what happened, he was never in the pound so I'm assuming they found his owners. That little short legged white dog could BOOK. It was funny though because almost everyone on the freeway stopped and got out and chased this little dog.
The dog dances, walks, pirouettes, he does it all. What is funny is the man holding the bone (Daddy is what we call him though no blood relation to the bichon or Mama for that matter?) doesn't know we are doing a video and he is waiting for the flash. Silly Daddy....
Daddy has on his oldest jeans because we've been working on the yard (surprise surprise, that's extreme sarcasm BTW). You can see the lawn @ Florence View and other interesting things.
Ok, my dog (who is REALLY unbrushed in this old picture)
Hasn't done anything interesting today so no new videos. He did give me his bone grudgingly and growling trying to fake me out but it doesn't work very well if he comes and puts the bone in my hand when I ask?
So we will talk about other things. Att has a new deal to help you keep track of your dog. (OK it's 3 months old) it's a sim card inside of a collar, pretty good idea right up there with the blinkie collar which is sort of scary in the middle of the night.
Just because my dog didn't do anything today Chloe the Corgi tested an Ipad. You can see more @ tested.com. Which currently has an iphone in a completely sealed long plastic container that perhaps is not meant for an iphone? It's actually a tech test site which I find interesting, the phone idea not so much.
And each to his own but a wireless crate that is basically a shock collar with a mat? Wouldn't it be almost as easy to teach the dog to lay somewhere? I'm not much on shock collars but if they had been invented when I had the Airedale mix that could jump a 5 ft fence they would have been pretty attractive.
Dogblog has had a series of posts on different options for pet memorials from urns to mummification. Mugseys ashes are still on the fireplace mantle in their little gift box type thing. For those who are new Mugsey used to be a major part of this blog, he was a yellow lab that looked like Marley, he died the end of July last year.
Dispatch is my Bichon Frise as you can see, he gets REALLY excited when we go to bed. He attacks my feet, he attacks my hands, he hears things and barks. He gets so excited he chokes but goes to the EDGE of the bed to cough because he has been taught not to spit up on the furniture if he can help it. I swear.
My Bichon Frise being loving, I think he wanted me to feed him some more or go outside. The paper on the floor had had either yogurt and grape nuts on it or cottage cheese and raspberries. He likes the cottage cheese mixture, the yogurt not so much....
Here's the video of him talking to his food a year ago.
If I hold the bowl up he will eat. He goes in the kitchen where his bowl is and barks @ it. Yes I could put the food on the floor and he would eat it. I'm not a food on the floor kind of person. He will eat out of plastic, he will also dump plastic bowls. He is 6, he will probably face down the bowl when he gets really hungry. BUT not until he tries to get me to hold it for him? Not that he is spoiled, he also knows I have a supply of bones in the freezer and has learned to beg when I go to the freezer.....
This is a book about dogs. Thus it goes on Missouri Books and Animals That Give Pause too. The Art of Racing In the Rain is by Garth Stein. I'd give it a 9 out of 10 or maybe an 8, not the most intellectually stimulating read I've had but it's a dog talking, gimme a break. I bought this book for like $10 @ Wally world because I had to wait an hour in KC and had NOTHING to read and NOTHING to do which is a fate worse than death if you know me.
You can buy it from Amazon by clicking to your right in that handy dandy amazon box or down below. In fact you can buy anything from amazon, anything, you are getting sleepy...back to the book review.
I love dog books. I love books on training dogs, about dogs, by dogs, (supposedly, most of them are not trained for proper grammar) I love dog books. This one is no exception. I'm not saying it gives particular insight into your fido's secret life but who is to say? So what happens in the book? Basically it follows a dog through his years with a family, through good times and bad though this family seems to have the market on bad times cornered for awhile. If nothing else read this book for the psycho thriller scene with the zebra........
I do do more than go through border patrol stations but the dog @ this one by Laredo struck me as funny today, this isn't a picture of him, he was shepherd and greyhound. The Border Patrol was sort of dragging the dog around (it's April 30 and 103 in Laredo) the dog seemed to be saying "You want drugs sniffed, FORGET (or insert a more appropriate f word) it, YOU GO SNIFF your own DRUGS, it's just too HOT. Aliens? Let em in if they have fans or a/c!!"
And I have been on a diet but someone should tell my husband that I don't consider walking up and down a hill after a fax in 103 degree heat to be the proper exercise, especially within sight of the Mexican Border. Just Saying.......
I have no pictures, happened too suddenly...we were driving from TX to Kansas City. The roads were snow covered from Adair Oklahoma on...we took the back way. In a big truck. In the snow. With people off in the ditch everywhere, well their cars were off and the people were still in the majority of em. Anyway we stopped in Seneca Missouri to clean off icy windshield wipers because they weren't doing their job especially on my side of the truck and it was really important I see so my various muscles could clench appropriately (we won't go into that). I opened my door and started to reach around to the windshield wiper to slap it up and down and all of a sudden the Bichon Frise, Dispatch, is tumbling out and down, it's about 5 ft and the truck was stopped, he landed in a couple inches of water and slush. It was a slow motion tumble I think he was trying to catch himself on every step. He landed pretty well upright in the water and looks up indignant as h*!!, like you stupid woman, why'd you do that!! Get down here and PICK ME UP. He was fine, a bit wet but not even really shaken up. His pride was injured though.
BUT get this? He still like jumps from the truck to my shoulder when I tell him it's time to get out, evidently he's still not afraid of heights.
Driving was a different story though...he was shivering and scared...I'm thinking why is this dog so scared of the snow? Part of it was the noise the slush makes and if the snow plow decided to plow the shoulder of the 4 lane we would end up on rumble strips for a bit. My husband says dog was tense because I was. We saw @ least 100 cars off in the ditch in the last 150 miles or so, I think I had a right to be tense? Especially when they would spin out about 1/4 of a mile ahead of us.
I've been a bad bad blogger, I've been freelancing for a web designer and trying to keep up with husband. I've promised to do better but I haven't......I do think about you all..
I wrote about my problems uploading pictures on my other blog Florence View.
When I got Picasa I was going through some folders I didn't know I had.
I didn't do this, didn't even know it existed, was in my daughters folder on my computer she scanned many moons ago.
I was like is that part of the dog licking screen screensaver? Nope it's just the bottom side of Dispatch the Bichon.
Now my day is complete, I can go to bed. I have no idea how she got him to stand so still. The thing does make noise ya know?
I had to add this too. Women posing nude on calendars for pets, I thought my posing nude on calendar days were over but maybe not. I'M KIDDING OK!! I can hear my kids.......
My friend Bev lost her Bichon Bailey recently, I hadn't kept up with her, :-( because her blog moved (and I am a bad person). She has a very good pet blog and works for Iams so she has some very interesting information and lots of good links. I haven't finished reading about what happened with Bailey because I can't (yes I'm that weak and wimpy) but she was a sweet sweet bichon with a wonderful caring owner.
Here's an article about the search and rescue dogs who went to Haiti, it's a bit dated but interesting. Doesn't the man in the picture have a Richard Chamberlain look about him, I don't care what Richard was he wouldn't have been if he'd stayed with Meg in the Thornbirds.....or I had gotten ahold of him. I suppose ahold isn't a real word? Probably some hillbilly thing because there's a red line under it in blogger? How would Ellie May have ever catched any critters if she couldn't get ahold of em?
And pictures of the panda Tai Shan who is going to China from the National Zoo in Washington DC to help Chinas panda breeding program. You can send a panda e-card here.
Dispatch is better. He's eating and drinking and no more diahrrhea!
Read about the exotic animal sanctuary where the only chimp in the state of Indiana is available for public viewing. They had to turn away 100 animals last year.
Today is my Nephews birthday Mikey, he teaches school in TX and he is 43 (yes he is 43 and I still call him Mikey) which means he isn't much younger than I am. He could be classified as an animal so.......
Above image may be slightly distorted. Don't worry he would do the same for me I'm sure.
Here's a link to download Hachikos story, the Japanese dog who waited 10 years for his master. I didn't check this one out as I have limited bandwidth but if you google the name you will find all sort of sites to download the movie for free.
Meadow Lark Fearnot, a regal beagle, came flopping his ears with inquisitive dismay. The stench of many persons assailed his infinitely delicate nostrils; he would have enjoyed belling at the crowd of 10,000 people or biting a small girl who sat at the south east corner of the arena; these things were forbidden.
How did I find that obscure article? I started @ an article that makes you think about how your dog got to be the way he is. If you are a dog lover you might want to read it, if you are remotely interested in dog behavior it's great. Studies have proven that dogs are smarter than chimpanzees in relating to people. This is also proven by the tennis ball, the kong, the pillow on the floor for the bichon, and his newly acquired love for cream. Don't ask me how THAT got started. Here's the little darlin wanting on mamas lap............... look @ those sweet eyes. Then in the next picture he isn't actually going to attack, he was just telling me which end was up, sorry so blurry but he was moving one direction, me the other and the truck the other.
With infinite variation but only slight exaggeration, some such table d'hôte is presented daily in countless American households. Samantha the cat, Buddy the beagle, Carol the canary, and myriad other furred, finned, scaly and feathered creatures are not only members of the great extended U.S. family; they are more equal than most. The U.S. pet set gets not only more nutritious meals but also better medical care and vastly more affection than the great majority of the world's people.
I don't necessarily agree with above statement, it's sort of like don't buy your daughter a new dress because you could donate to 1000s of needy charities. Those of you who have daughters know it's in your best interest (and contributes to a positive mental state for several years) to buy the dress (and maybe donate something on the side).
This picture is Dispatch the bichon playing with a ball. He uses his feet like a cat sometimes, bats @ things etc. much more than any other dog I've seen. The ball is about to go off the chair, he will go get it in his mouth, take it back on the chair, chew on it, bat it around, let it fall, jump down to get it etc. He can play like that for a long long time. This is another bad hair picture. I've heard that other bichon frise use their paws like cats too?
I wrote the two youngest kids like Dispatch more than the others. Christy and Christi remember? We call my daughter Christy Sissy, makes life much simpler and was her nickname anyway, if I really get carried away it's Sissy Beth which makes it sound like we live in the deep South? You can tell my daughters resemble me but they don't look much alike but we all three sound just alike to everyone but my husband, especially on the phone. We have fun with it, I can fool my daughters husband on the phone for awhile till I get tickled.
Sissy Beth is Dispatches favorite of the kids to this day. When he was neutered his hormones evidently ran amok. Sissy Beth came to visit about that time and she was his intended. He's not a really bad little dog about having to hunch or wanting to unless he's showing dominance to another dog, and wasn't then either but he was in LOVE. There is no other way to put it than he was like a love struck teenager. He would hear her voice and even if I was in the room he would RUN to her, he had to sit on her lap and if he couldn't he would stare mournfully @ her but you could tell he just worshiped her. We still talk about it, he still likes her the most out of all the kids, but has never acted like he did that one visit she made. I still call her Dispatches intended once in awhile to get her goat. She has a pet sitting business in Wichita now, Happy Tails if you need pet sitting or house sitting she is your girl.
