Tell me she doesn't sound like she's trying to say something important here. Like "Get that camera out of my face already", maybe?
Happy Friday, all!
Friday, March 30, 2012
Mumbling Mona (video)
I think I've told you all that Bella's a bit on the vocal side, yes? (Yes, Leslie, many times already, thanks.) Ah yes, well, here's a little demo of her voicing her opinion.
Tell me she doesn't sound like she's trying to say something important here. Like "Get that camera out of my face already", maybe?
Happy Friday, all!
Tell me she doesn't sound like she's trying to say something important here. Like "Get that camera out of my face already", maybe?
Happy Friday, all!
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Sunday, March 25, 2012
A good dog
Thanks for accompanying me on this journey back in time. As our "14 Years in 14 Days" series comes to a close, I realize I still have a million stories to tell about my handsome boy, Beau. But I've had fun reminiscing with you. Maybe we'll do it again sometime. In the meantime, here's a few last words...
As I've mentioned previously, Beau kept me busy in the health department. Starting with ACL surgery before he was 2, he was in the vet's office so often, most of the staff knew me by my voice alone over the phone and absolutely all adored Beau for his good nature and gentle demeanor even when he wasn't feeling his best.
Things started to get more serious though, when he had his first grand mal seizure in 1996 shortly after I moved to New Hampshire.
Seizures are a great leveler. My big, bold boy who always stood ready to protect his family suddenly became a needful pup again writhing helplessly in my arms. But we were lucky and his epilepsy was mild. While the seizures were not, they only happened once every 3 months for most of his life and we opted not to put him on medication.
He finally went on phenobarbital when he was 10 and the seizures had started to cluster. It worked like a charm. After a short period of adjustment and ataxia, he never had another seizure in all his remaining days.
We had a cancer scare around the same time which was removed and found to be malignant but non-metastatic (non-spreading). We had frantic rides to emergency clinics due to bee stings and "broken" tails. And there were certainly plenty of bloody noses, abscesses, ear infections and upset tummies. Beau even "lost his marbles" once (canine vestibular disease), which proved harmless and actually somewhat entertaining as he stumbled around looking for all the world like a drunken sailor.
The biggest scare he gave us, however, and one that comes with a story about the magnificent empathy of dogs, is when he developed pneumonia from the laryngeal paralysis we didn't know he had.
One morning while I was working from home, Beau began having trouble breathing and started spewing up a white foamy liquid. I called the vet and then Jan who rushed home to help bring Beau in for an emergency appointment where we were given 3 devastating options: take Beau home and watch him die slowly over the next few hours, allow them to put him down right then and there in the office, or try to get him to Tufts Emergency Animal Hospital 30 minutes away and see if they could do anything for him. We opted for a white-knuckled ride down Rte. 495 and through some sleepy New England towns to Tufts.
When we arrived, we witnessed an amazing scene as technicians and orderlies moved our now 95-pound dog from the back of my car onto an awaiting gurney and rushed him in to the facility complete with crashing doors and doctors shouting orders. I could only stand in the middle of the waiting room watching Beau watch me as they wheeled him away.
When the doors slammed shut behind him, I finally lost it.
There in the middle of a waiting room full of clients, staff and pets, I buried my head in my arms and fell apart crying right there in front of everybody. It only took a moment for me to realize I was making everyone uncomfortable as they began to study the floor and shuffle their feet or rummage through their bags. I took a seat in the corner hoping to make less of a spectacle of myself.
As I sat there sniffling, the most extraordinary thing happened: the biggest Rottweiler I have ever seen (at 160+ lbs, he was both big and overweight) did something none of the humans in the room found themselves able to do, he acknowledged my grief.
Obviously not feeling well himself, he slowly stood and crossed the room to come stand in front of me. And then he gently laid his head on my lap.
I laid my head on his, stroking his ears and we remained like that for several minutes. I don't know if the room really did fall into a hush but my little corner of the world did. I will forever remain in awe of Moose, a stranger's dog who offered me comfort in one of my darkest hours.
Beau came back home to us 8 days later after life-saving surgery and was with us for just over another year. We helped him cross over to The Bridge on May 18th, 2008. After a traumatic morning, he passed quietly in my arms in his favorite spot on the front lawn over-looking all his domain. He lived a long and wonderful life immersed in love and was a joy to all who knew him. He will be ever missed.
A dog's time with us is all too short.
Beau taught me, in both his life and death, to pay attention, to see and remember life as it spins too quickly by. To appreciate those who are with you now and recall fondly those who are no longer. To take lots of pictures, give innumerable hugs, to play with your dog and never give up on the ones you love.
Beau was a good dog.
As I've mentioned previously, Beau kept me busy in the health department. Starting with ACL surgery before he was 2, he was in the vet's office so often, most of the staff knew me by my voice alone over the phone and absolutely all adored Beau for his good nature and gentle demeanor even when he wasn't feeling his best. Things started to get more serious though, when he had his first grand mal seizure in 1996 shortly after I moved to New Hampshire.
Seizures are a great leveler. My big, bold boy who always stood ready to protect his family suddenly became a needful pup again writhing helplessly in my arms. But we were lucky and his epilepsy was mild. While the seizures were not, they only happened once every 3 months for most of his life and we opted not to put him on medication.
He finally went on phenobarbital when he was 10 and the seizures had started to cluster. It worked like a charm. After a short period of adjustment and ataxia, he never had another seizure in all his remaining days.We had a cancer scare around the same time which was removed and found to be malignant but non-metastatic (non-spreading). We had frantic rides to emergency clinics due to bee stings and "broken" tails. And there were certainly plenty of bloody noses, abscesses, ear infections and upset tummies. Beau even "lost his marbles" once (canine vestibular disease), which proved harmless and actually somewhat entertaining as he stumbled around looking for all the world like a drunken sailor.
The biggest scare he gave us, however, and one that comes with a story about the magnificent empathy of dogs, is when he developed pneumonia from the laryngeal paralysis we didn't know he had.
One morning while I was working from home, Beau began having trouble breathing and started spewing up a white foamy liquid. I called the vet and then Jan who rushed home to help bring Beau in for an emergency appointment where we were given 3 devastating options: take Beau home and watch him die slowly over the next few hours, allow them to put him down right then and there in the office, or try to get him to Tufts Emergency Animal Hospital 30 minutes away and see if they could do anything for him. We opted for a white-knuckled ride down Rte. 495 and through some sleepy New England towns to Tufts.When we arrived, we witnessed an amazing scene as technicians and orderlies moved our now 95-pound dog from the back of my car onto an awaiting gurney and rushed him in to the facility complete with crashing doors and doctors shouting orders. I could only stand in the middle of the waiting room watching Beau watch me as they wheeled him away.
When the doors slammed shut behind him, I finally lost it.
There in the middle of a waiting room full of clients, staff and pets, I buried my head in my arms and fell apart crying right there in front of everybody. It only took a moment for me to realize I was making everyone uncomfortable as they began to study the floor and shuffle their feet or rummage through their bags. I took a seat in the corner hoping to make less of a spectacle of myself.
As I sat there sniffling, the most extraordinary thing happened: the biggest Rottweiler I have ever seen (at 160+ lbs, he was both big and overweight) did something none of the humans in the room found themselves able to do, he acknowledged my grief.Obviously not feeling well himself, he slowly stood and crossed the room to come stand in front of me. And then he gently laid his head on my lap.
I laid my head on his, stroking his ears and we remained like that for several minutes. I don't know if the room really did fall into a hush but my little corner of the world did. I will forever remain in awe of Moose, a stranger's dog who offered me comfort in one of my darkest hours.
Beau came back home to us 8 days later after life-saving surgery and was with us for just over another year. We helped him cross over to The Bridge on May 18th, 2008. After a traumatic morning, he passed quietly in my arms in his favorite spot on the front lawn over-looking all his domain. He lived a long and wonderful life immersed in love and was a joy to all who knew him. He will be ever missed.
A dog's time with us is all too short.
Beau taught me, in both his life and death, to pay attention, to see and remember life as it spins too quickly by. To appreciate those who are with you now and recall fondly those who are no longer. To take lots of pictures, give innumerable hugs, to play with your dog and never give up on the ones you love.
Beau was a good dog.
Saturday, March 24, 2012
Saturday's Dog: And the wins just keep on coming...
So I've hit a bit of a slump in scheduling photo sessions of dogs to feature here on our "Saturday's Dog" section. Lucky for me, though, the dogs we've featured previously here have been batting 1000!
Today I'm excited to tell you about 2 long-term shelter/rescue dogs who finally went home to be with their very own forever families. Let's here it for Missy, who spent a year in foster care with North East All Retriever Rescue and Ed, who spent almost as long at the Buddy Dog Humane Society shelter.
Please join me in wishing them lots of hugs and snuggles with the new families.
PS - I'm trying to coordinate some time with another rescue/shelter since the one I was originally working with seems to have their own photographer doing photo sessions now. It may be quiet or just not as personal here on Saturdays for a few weeks but I promise, as soon as I have a new place to go, I'm going to head over there, get some pictures of some awesome dogs and share them here with everybody to help them find their own forever homes.
Thanks for all the tweets and shares about all these guys. It makes a difference.
Today I'm excited to tell you about 2 long-term shelter/rescue dogs who finally went home to be with their very own forever families. Let's here it for Missy, who spent a year in foster care with North East All Retriever Rescue and Ed, who spent almost as long at the Buddy Dog Humane Society shelter.
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Please join me in wishing them lots of hugs and snuggles with the new families.
PS - I'm trying to coordinate some time with another rescue/shelter since the one I was originally working with seems to have their own photographer doing photo sessions now. It may be quiet or just not as personal here on Saturdays for a few weeks but I promise, as soon as I have a new place to go, I'm going to head over there, get some pictures of some awesome dogs and share them here with everybody to help them find their own forever homes.
Thanks for all the tweets and shares about all these guys. It makes a difference.
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Not quite perfect
In an effort to make Bella feel better about herself, since she is, of course, the star of this show and riddled with a ridiculous lack of self-confidence, I thought I should follow up my Opposites distract list of Beau and Bella comparisons with a few wherein Bella actually comes out on top. For example:
The shedding situation:
The drool experience:
The lap-dog phenomenon:
The velcro-dog thing:
Kisses:
And then there's this:
As has been noted with the many stories shared in the previous comments by folks who have had similarly dissimilar dogs in their lives, love is a funny and wonderful thing that comes in all shapes and sizes. And I'm honored to have been given the opportunity to share mine with so many wonderful animals - these two crazy kids not least among them.
* These are related to touching an object such as a tip-py board and teeter-totter.
The shedding situation:
Labrador Retrievers shed. A lot. And always. (Don't let anyone kid you with that "twice a year coat blow" thing - it's not semi-annual, it's eternal.) Their outer coat is stiff like little sewing needles that weave their way into any penetrable fabric. Their undercoat is soft and fluffy. It accumulates like tumbleweeds in various corners of a home, yard, garden, vehicle and neighboring town. Beau is responsible for the early demise of more than one vacuum cleaner.
I don't shed. I 'accessorize'.
Bella doesn't quite win this one outright but she definitely scores higher marks. She sheds less, has far less undercoat and her top coat is somewhat shorter and therefore less likely to get stuck in things. That said, while Bella "appears" black, her fur is only black-tipped and is brown underneath so what shedding she does do shows up on everything you wear whether it's light or dark.
The drool experience:
Bella will drool on occassion if we're having something especially enticing for dinner. But it's a very thin and watery drool that leaves just a little puddle of drops where she's been waiting while we eat.
Beau had shoe-lace drool. As well as watery drool. Oceans of it. Think "Turner and Hooch" drool. I never left home without a towel.
The lap-dog phenomenon:
Most of us get a kick out of big dogs who think they're lap dogs but honestly, 115-pounds of bone-crushing, nerve-damaging dog leveled directly on your legs can become a bit of a nuisance. To be fair, once he realized he was too big to fit in my lap, Beau at least conceded to only needing to have part of him on me at any given time.
Leslie, Beau and Frodo
Bella has no interest in sitting in my lap. (Heck, she has only minimal interest in sitting on the couch with me and I'm pretty sure whether I'm there or not doesn't really factor into her decision.) But at just 55+ pounds, would it really be an issue if she did? She has recently shown interest, however, in lap-dogging during such "scary" events as windy days. I don't know, should I be worried?
The velcro-dog thing:
We seldom trip over Bella in the kitchen because she patiently waits in her place on the steps while we cook.
Beau had to be right next to me - always, even when cooking. He was tripped over often. And he was unspeakably lucky given my reputation with knives.
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| More ME, please! |
Bella gives kisses, Beau did not (well, in 14 years, I think I got 3). Of course, given Bella's penchant for eating things like slugs and other unmentionables, I'm honestly not sure which one wins this contest.
Oh who am I kidding - I LOVE getting kisses! :)
And then there's this:
Beau's command list:
Sit, stay, drop it, get him (Translation: "Go get the cat out of the garbage, please.")
Bella's command list:
Sit, stay, down, wait, off, up, hug, snugs, peek-a-boo, leave it, drop it (sometimes), trade, come, front, foot, other foot, both, one foot*, two feet*, jump, speak, quiet, touch, say hi, show me, bring it (sort of), look, go to mat, finish, tunnel, kisses, high five, there (Translation: "I want you to go sit there"), to me, in, finish your dinner... And she trims her own nails.
'Nuff said?
As has been noted with the many stories shared in the previous comments by folks who have had similarly dissimilar dogs in their lives, love is a funny and wonderful thing that comes in all shapes and sizes. And I'm honored to have been given the opportunity to share mine with so many wonderful animals - these two crazy kids not least among them.
* These are related to touching an object such as a tip-py board and teeter-totter.
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