So why do our dogs get so much attention? Because our kids are all grown. It’s as simple as that. What else am I going to talk about?
Anyway… since I talk about our dogs so much, I decided they deserve a page of their own on this new blog of mine. That way, people that don’t want to read about dogs don’t have to. Conversely, people that do want to read about dogs will have quick and easy access to all my cool blog stuff. Like these videos, which I put together specifically to celebrate this new page.
The first video, The Grumpy Old Lady, is to give you a taste of their personalities.
The next video is a real quickie. This is the perfect example of what they do to me when I am trying to work and they want to go outside. Notice I didn’t say “need” to go outside? They want to go out way more than they need to, which I gotta tell you, some days can drive me crazy.
I hope you enjoyed this little glimpse into our lives. If you did, say so. Maybe I’ll show more.
If you did not enjoy them, feel free to tell me. I can’t promise that’ll keep me from sharing more in the future.
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World of Pets Expo
Last modified on 2010-02-01 14:23:48 GMT. 5 comments. Top.
This past weekend was pretty fun for me. Friday night was spent cleaning out the basement. That was NOT fun and it’s nowhere near complete. I’ll explain the basement thing some other time.
K and I at the American Brittany Rescue booth.
On Saturday morning, Amy and the grandkids came for a visit. I didn’t have time for pictures as I was busy helping Amy remove some of our basement treasures.
Then I had to leave for the World of Pets Expo that was held at the Timonium Fairgrounds. The fine folks at Annie’s Pooch Pops pay for American Brittany Rescue to have some exhibition space. Those of us who volunteer for ABR and have Brittanys of our own take our dogs to the expo so people get to see what a Brittany really looks like.
Fortunately, no one asked me if K is an ABR dog, because she came from the National Brittany Rescue and Adoption Network. I volunteer for both groups.
Notice I did not say “dog” show? It was a pet expo. There were all sorts of pets there. Birds, cats, alpacas, monkeys… even a contingent of people from the American Gerbil Society.
I did not walk around nearly as much as I would have liked to since K was with me. She did very, very well, but I think the crazy sounds (squawking parrots) and smells (miniature horses and alpacas) were sort of freaking her out.
Eurasian Eagle Owl
This is a Eurasian Eagle Owl. Obviously, it’s an owl typically found in Europe, but it reminded me of the Great Horned Owls we have in the US, which I think are very cool. I would have asked the guy about him, but when K and I walked by, he was sitting in a pen that had a sign reading something like “world’s largest rodent, eats 9 pounds of food a day” and talking to someone else. I didn’t want K to spook the owl, so I took a quick picture and we moved on.
One of the reasons I like doing stuff like this, in addition to helping the dogs of course, is that I get to meet and talk with lots of different people. I get to see lots of dogs, too. In fact, when I arrived, I could not find the ABR booth. I saw a couple with two liver-and-white Brittanys. They saw us and exclaimed, “Look another Brittany!” (Britts aren’t that common in Maryland) We chatted briefly and then they directed me to the ABR booth.
I took quite a few pictures, but most didn’t turn out very well. I didn’t feel like lugging my big camera, so I relied on the little point-and-shoot I recently bought. It just did not do well on indoor pictures. I will, however, share some of the images from the day.
The picture below is Julia Smith and her dog, Cooper. Oddly enough…
- He is also a liver and white roan, one of the least common color patterns for Brittanys
- Cooper was adopted from ABR in 2004 (the same year we adopted CeCe)
- He was fostered by the same foster family in Virginia (Kelly and Jeff Murray) that fostered CeCe
- He is the reason Julia became an ABR volunteer (CeCe is the reason we got involved, too)
Julia and Cooper
Here’s another picture of Cooper.
Cooper
I have some other shots to share, too, even if they are not the highest quality pictures in the world.
Andrea and Sam
Andrea, the Maryland ABR Coordinator, is Chester’s mom. She has another boy dog, Bodie, who I could not seem to capture in a decent picture.
Finally… an anonymous big-ass (literally!) dog.
K and Clifford, the Big Ass Dog
Clifford is a Newfoundland. I forget how old he is. Maybe about 4. But I do remember that he weighs 165 pounds! And he is not overweight.
Clifford
The same folks also had a “little” brown Newfie puppy, who at 15 weeks weighs 34 pounds, which is more than Belle or K!
Wanna know the puppy’s name? She is Emily Elizabeth. 
Clifford was very sweet, and very well taken care of by his family. All I kept thinking, though, was, “My lord, I’d hate to see one of his poo piles!”
And that was my Saturday. Sunday was a really, really fun day, but I’ll have to tell you about that tomorrow. I have to get to work…
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On Having Young Dogs…
Last modified on 2010-01-30 14:50:45 GMT. 2 comments. Top.
In case you ever wondered what my dogs do all day while I am working, check out this video.
They are a never-ending source of amusement for me.
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Chester, the Orange & White Brittany
Last modified on 2010-01-27 20:35:21 GMT. 8 comments. Top.
Most of my readers know I have several dogs. They’re all Brittanys. Technically, the plural form of Brittany should end in “ies”, but I prefer using Brittanys.
All of our dogs came to us through breed-specific rescue organizations:
C, who we lost in November 2008, was our first dog. She was rescued from a breeder and adopted through ABR.
Meg, who turns 11 in June, was our second dog. She was an owner-assisted placement through ABR. An owner-assisted placement is what you call it when an owner contacts the rescue group to surrender a dog, for whatever reason, but agrees to keep the dog until a new forever home is found.
Belle, who will be 3 in June, was our third dog. She was surrendered to ABR by a family who was losing their home to foreclosure and could no longer care for her.
K and Belle make the goofiest faces as they play...
K, our fourth Brittany, who will be 4 in June, came to us through NBRAN. She was dropped at a kill shelter by her previous owners who could no longer afford to care for her.
... but they sure have fun playing together.
Why switch rescue groups? We were looking for a very specific dog to add to our family. We needed to find one that was a certain age (young) with just the right temperament. ABR didn’t have any dogs fitting the bill at the time, so we discovered NBRAN. I’m glad, too, because K is an amazing dog. And, through NBRAN, I’ve met lots of really wonderful people.
American Brittanys come in three different colors: liver & white (like Belle), liver & white tri-color (like Meg) and orange & white. Their coats can either have a clear (Meg and Belle) or roan (like K) pattern with ticking (freckles).
I figured I’d give you this little bit of background before introducing you to Chester, an orange & white Brittany, who happens to be the latest addition to our pack.
Meet Chester.
I’m not sure of Chester’s exact age, but he’s definitely a senior. I think the vet estimated him to be around 11 or 12. He looks much older, however, because he has some sort of spine issue that makes walking sort of difficult. He also tends to get a bit confused. He’s gotten stuck behind our sofa twice now because he couldn’t remember how to back up/turn around.
He’s a sweet old guy, though. He’s pretty quiet, but paces a lot while in the house. It isn’t easy for him to sit either because of the spine issue. Plus, this place is new for him.
Belle keeps forgetting Chester is here. All of the girls hang out with me while I work in my upstairs office. Chester doesn’t do steps too well so he’s been staying downstairs. A couple of times now, when Belle has run downstairs and seen Chester, she’s started barking. She barks pretty loud, too, which has set the poor guy’s heart a-pounding.
K doesn’t seem to be thrilled by the old guy, but I think that’s just because he doesn’t play. Meg, being Meg, is mostly indifferent to him.
"Mama, he won't play with me."
Hubby says he reminds him of Duke, our first long-term foster dog. Oddly enough, Duke and Chester were both pulled from the same kill shelter on the same day in late 2004. The lady who fostered Chester had just lost a Brittany of her own named Duke, and knew fostering a Duke would be hard on her. SO she opted to foster Chester.
Chester is what this particular lady, the Maryland state ABR coordinator (she coordinates for other states, too), refers to as a failed foster. Chester was not the failure. The failure was all hers. You see, once she’d had Chester for a while, she couldn’t bring herself to give him up. So she adopted him. She’s had two more failed fosters since then (Bodie and Sam), too.
The lady (Andrea) had to go on a business trip. She put Bodie and Sam in a boarding facility, but didn’t want to subject Chester to the same, with his various issues and ailments. So he’s staying with us for a few days. I picked him up on the way back from Carol’s house yesterday. He’ll only be here until Friday evening.
Belle is checking Chester out.
Yep, Chester’s just a temporary addition to our pack, which I could have said at the very beginning of this post, but thought it would be much more interesting to let y’all think we had completely lost it and added a fourth dog!
He's not very speedy.
Sorry, but I just could not resist.
Chester enjoying some sun.
It’s very weird having four dogs here…
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Meg Update & Some Strange Excitement
Last modified on 2010-01-24 17:10:41 GMT. 6 comments. Top.
Remember how sick Meg was?
"Oh, Mama. I don't feel good..."
After her brief (thankfully), but very scary bout with pancreatitis, Meg is back. See for yourself…
As for the STRANGE excitement…
This "strange man" mysteriously appeared...
Last night, while the girls were all outside, a strange man showed up in our kitchen. The minute she saw him, Belle started barking. Of course, K came running to investigate. She saw the strange man and started barking, too. Loudly. They both meant business. By that time, Meg showed up. She was barking, too, but her heart wasn’t in it. Especially after the strange man opened the door (the little girls were still barking), removed his big glasses (the little girls were STILL barking) and his yellow hat (barking continued).
The “strange man” was Hubby. I don’t think the little girls liked the yellow hat.
Later, after we finally convinced the little ones to come inside, things had settled down.
Thinking nothing of it, Hubby put the hat back on so he could return to the basement (he’s in the process of finishing it).
Well, that set the little knuckleheads off again.
They must really hate that hat.
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What Recuperation Looks Like
Last modified on 2010-01-21 14:14:47 GMT. 3 comments. Top.
Meg was quite sick yesterday. She hadn’t been feeling quite herself for a couple of days, but things took a turn for the worse yesterday morning at 3:30 AM when we woke to the not-so-lovely sounds of Meg retching. It happened again at about 4:00. And again a short time later. I knew I wouldn’t be going back to sleep, so I took the dogs downstairs where Meg vomited again. And again. And again.
Not a happy camper.
It was obvious we needed to get her to the vet. To make a long story short, she has pancreatitis, a very painful inflammation/infection of the pancreas. I don’t know all the particulars, I just know she was feeling BAD. She wouldn’t even eat the small piece of raw ground beef I offered her before I started cooking dinner.
She’s got lots of meds, and we need to keep her on a bland diet. We also need to keep her water consumption to small amounts at a time until we know she can keep it all down.
I babied the old girl a bit last night. Want to see what recuperation looks like?
As I write this post, she’s giving me the “can I have a piece of your muffin look” that usually annoys me, but today makes me quite happy.
The old girl is on the mend! Woo hoo!
Thanks to all of you who expressed your concern and good wishes. My Meg has become a popular Facebook attraction.
I need to close now so I can take a piece of my muffin to Meg…
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Not Such a Great Hunter
Last modified on 2010-01-21 20:45:34 GMT. 3 comments. Top.
Those of you who have been following for a while will remember when Belle caught a squirrel in our backyard. That was almost a year ago. She hasn’t caught another one since, but not from lack of trying. She might catch another someday. She’s very fast. But being fast isn’t always enough.
Take K as an example. K is actually a little faster than Belle (she has longer legs). But I doubt K will ever catch a squirrel.
Here’s why… (your sound has to be turned on or you won’t “get” this at all)
We’ve been working on the squeaking thing. This video is actually a few weeks old. She’s gotten better. But she still squeaks.
And if she sees something out there to chase, she practically screams.
I guess it’s her way of saying, “I’m coming to get you nasty little critters that insist on invading my yard, eating all my birdseed and leaving little round poo pellets everywhere.”
She’d probably leave the poo pellets part off, though, because she, like every other dog we’ve ever had here, loves nothing more than sniffing out and eating squirrel poo.
Dogs can sure be gross.
[...] Dogs [...]