If you let your pets sleep on your bed it is almost a given that they will find the optimum position to make you feel uncomfortable. Your comfort decreases proportionate to the size of the dog as well as the number of pets allowed on the bed.
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If you’ve been cruising on the internet you’ve most likely run across several oddities from Japan. Game shows, happy-go lucky music videos featuring energetic young adults, and of course anime. One thing that has jumped out at me recently are the various interesting cat videos that are out there. One of the best known Japanese cat stars is Maru. Maru was originally made famous when he would dive head first into a box. From those humble beginnings we got to see even more of Maru and he’s become a YouTube superstar. That cat is almost as sweet as saccharine, isn’t it? But what if the cat isn’t so sweet and cuddly? What if, just by chance, the cat hates you? With that, I present to you Sashimi. And wouldn’t you know it: Sashimi hates Shingo A while back I read the following comic from XKCD (it’s a pretty geeky comic strip written by an engineer so you may not understand some of the other strips:
Why am I posting this? Because recently I stumbled onto the following video – The Cat House on the Kings: I am the owner of a new pup and, as such, I have succumb to the trials and tribulations of owning a small, four legged shark with boundless energy. We come to love our furry little ones and they become part of our family. They are a part our lives and a part of ourselves. However, sometimes there are situations when we can no longer keep our babies; circumstances come which we cannot avoid the harrowing prospect of giving up our babies. On June 17, 2009, the following appeared in the Seattle-Tacoma Best of Craigslist section -
Here is the original link to the above post – http://www.craigslist.org/about/best/sea/1226773949.html I know that those of you that read this blog and also are clients of Woofie’s love your pets with all your heart. If you should ever have to unwillingly part with them then keep in mind the above post. All stories don’t end badly and your precious one may end up living a long, happy, fulfilling life. Now, just to bring this to an even more personal level: I once had a black labradour retreiver named Zoe. She was absolutely gorgeous! She was all black and to make things even more special her birthday was on Halloween. She was my little goblin. I was living in an apartment complex in Cetnreville and one of my neighbors complained that she was too big: I had to find her a new home. At the time I couldn’t afford to move and my life was a complete shambles. At the time it was one of the most painful experiences I’ve had. I was giving away my little girl. Through the Labradour-L emailing list I found her a new home on the Eastern Shore. I bawled my eyes out drivng home and there was an emptiness in me that I never thought I’d be able to recover from. As time went on I got updates from her new owners. My little Zoe, who had a penchant for eating my shoes and destroying my couch, was trained to get the newspaper by herself at the end of the long driveway of her new family. She had also become quite the accomplished swimmer and took boat rides, went fishing and had become quite enmeshed in her new family; her new life. I was both happy and sad for her. As time went on I got fewer and fewer updates from her new family. I have faith, though, that she is in good, loving hands. There are always going to be videos and images on the web. As a personal policy, I try not to post pictures which are controversial or shocking. There’s enough going on in the world these days, isn’t there? We really don’t need anything to bring us down. In one of my last posts I wrote how easy it is during my down time to get lost in the internet’s web. Videos, songs, interactive sites and pictures seem to bombard most of your senses. However, every once in a while you find that gem of a picture; something that makes you look at it and at the very end say ‘Awwww!’. I found the picture to the right on one of the various news sites that I frequent. When I saw it I did exactly as I said – “Awwww!”. There are so many facets to this image which make it so adorable:
Growing up we’re all faced with believing that cats and dogs have a hard time coexisting. We learn this from cartoons, movies, television shows, books and magazines. It has been drilled into us so much that we begin to believe it. Those of us who have a multi-species home no that both of these fine, furry friends can love each other and coexist under the same roof. It’s a nice lesson to learn, isn’t it?  Regardless of species, this cat and dog get along well I have seen this floating around the net and via emails. With all the trials and tribulations that we’ve had in the past few years I thought it would be nice to repost it here. retreived this version from The Examiner at http://www.examiner.com/x-677-Dogs-Examiner~y2009m3d1-A-Dogs-Prayer
I need help. During one of the few periods of time during my day when I have free time I was sucked into watching the following video clip (from 2005). I have absolutely no idea why I find it so amusing but the song has been stuck in my head for most of the past two days: I’m a Kitty Cat For an animal lover the internet is both a wonderful thing as well as, let’s be honest here, both a great source of entertainment and a time suck. At one point I’ll be researching dog breeds, training and feeding tips, the winner of the Westminster Dog Show. It is amazing that I could find remedies for getting the stink of a skunk off my dogs (all solutions aren’t perfect!) and removing the smell of cat urine from a leather couch (don’t ask) and then…I get lost in Facebook, poking and prodding people, accepting gifts and telling them random bits of information about myself. Then I get caught up in reading the news. News is EVERYWHERE. I could easily spend over 3 hours catching up on all the local, national and world news, entertainment, human interest, WTF, pet industry news. By the time I feel that I would be done catching up there would be even MORE news. It is a never ending cycle! Then there are the web comics. I’ll admit that I’ll read some of the mainstream web comics. There are times, though, that I’ll catch up on others. Some are web only, others I sometimes don’t even understand. But they’re there and I MUST READ THEM!! Finally, I get drawn into the videos. Holy cow. Aside from the videos of Japanese game shows, people doing stupid things, amazing science experiments I wind up right back to what I know best – animals. I keep falling in love over and over again with videos of kittens and puppies, birds and fish, turtles and…well, pretty much everything! The internet is both my friend and my weakness. Then again, who wouldn’t feel weak in the knees and fall in love with little puppy howling with his owner? 
The day after Christmas last year one of my dogs left this life and ventured into the next. He was a beautiful dog with a sweet and loving personality but over the year he had several medical issues that the fine doctors at TLC in Leesburg couldn’t diagnose, despite trying their best. As I’m sure all of you pet owners are aware, we humans tend to outlive these fine, furry family members. And that, my friends, is our curse that we must endure. If we’re lucky, we get to see our animals grow from being a baby into adulthood. We get to experience the howling in their crates when they first come home or the clawing and scratching of your favorite furniture. We see them mature, act silly or serious and, for all intents and purposes, become an integral part of our existence. If we’re lucky, we get to be with them when they pass. As hard as it is to see your loved one go we gladly carry this curse with us for as long as possible, knowing that it will eventually end in heartbreak and pain. Why? Because even though we know the inevitability of the situation we are also sure that this curse is also a blessing. I took it very, very hard when my baby passed away. I think of him daily; missing his big, lumbering body that didn’t have a shred of grace nor coordination. But he was mine and he always will be. When I was in North Carolina I remember driving around with my dogs in my truck and we were listening to NPR and Garrison Keillor’s ‘Prairie Home Companion’. On this particular show was Billy Collins reading his work “The Revanent“. Although it is a humorous piece about a dog’s ‘true’ feelings after passing, it helps bring some levity to an otherwise dire time. Plus, we all know that it isn’t true I have a deep love for old dogs. Maybe it is because, for the most part, they’re nice and mellow. Old dogs seem to reach an age of maturity and you can see it in them. They’re wiser, more experienced and, for better or worse, set in their ways.
Face it, the lives of our furry family members is fleeting at best. It is almost unfair that we humans live 4-5 times longer than our pets. But when we live with them and see them as they age we can’t help but feel that, no matter what, they have enriched our lives and have become a part of us. If we’re lucky we’ve been able to watch our friends grow from a sprawling young mass of paws, teeth and fur filled with limitless energy to the more sure footed, graying old timers. Looking through the book and reading the stories reminds you how much you appreciate your friend’s life. Undoubtedly, you’ve been through much with your dog and Weingarten does a phenomenal job of telling anecdotes that you can relate to. When you look at the black and white images throughout the book and read of the dogs exploits and experiences you’ll see and feel that you’ve somehow seen your dog in this book. There is also a companion website, Old Dogs: A book in progress. If you get the opportunity, look through the other dogs pictures and stories. It is a great read and will be sure to spark thoughts and memories of you and your pooch. A soldier returns home to his dogs. I watched the following video and I couldn’t help but get sappy. Since this automatically plays when the page is loaded I’ve posted the video after the jump. |
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I recently picked up Gene Weingarten and Michael Williamson’s 2008 book
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