A Little Note about Comments

Many of you may have noticed that I don’t always reply to the comments you leave on my posts. But I want you to know that I am reading and I am enjoying your comments immensely. I just don’t always know what to say in reply to your reply. If you say that Maya and Pierson are so cute in those photos, I feel silly replying, “I know” or “Aren’t they?”. I could say “Thanks” and perhaps I should.

While I may not always reply to your comments on my blog, I do enjoy going out to your blogs and commenting on your adorable fur family members (Snoopy, Roxy, Torrey, Pixel, Litchi, Tanner, Oliver, Dougie, Dakota, Cinnamon, Clowie, Eko, Hawk, Thunder, Storm, Freighter, Leroy, Sherman, Mollie, Alfie, Oz, Patches, Flash, Petey, Maggie, Kirby… OMDog I hope I didn’t forget anyone!!!). You may not always notice my reply on your blogs because sometimes I put in this blog title in the URL section, sometimes I put in my petautosafetyblog.com URL, and sometimes I just put the petautosafety.com retail URL.

Anyway, I just wanted to let you all know how much I appreciate you stopping by. And thank you so much for all the wonderful comments!!! If any of you would like me to reply to your comments, I’d be more than happy to. I know as bloggers that we are already bogged down with tons of email alerts. So some of you may not be concerned about whether I reply or not. But if you’d like me to, just let me know. You can let me know here by commenting on this post or email me at naturebydawn@aol.com so that your preference is kept private.

Thanks again! You all are PAWSOME! 🙂

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Wordless Wednesday – Practicing Pet Safety

I remember working in the corporate world and noticing that I had more pictures of my dogs on my desk than other people had of their children or grandchildren. So I wouldn’t be surprised if some people thought of me as the crazy dog lady. I don’t have kids so my dogs are my family (for years, it was just Sephi and I). And as such, I take care of them as well as, and sometimes better than, I take care of myself. Here are some photos to prove it:

We all eat healthy. Maya & Pierson get a good quality dog food in measured portions.

I feed my dogs twice a day so that they don’t eat a large amount at one time. Eating too much at once can cause bloat, which can be deadly for dogs, especially big dogs. One thing I would like to try is a slow pet feeder dog bowl.

I decided to stop using retractable leads since it made Maya’s walking habits worse and because I heard a horrible story about a dog getting struck by a car because he tried to run across the street after another dog. The owner did not lock the retractable lead quickly enough. 😦

Pierson has a rabies tag, the Home Again tag with his microchip number, and his id tag with my phone number.

Maya is wearing her Kurgo Tru-Fit dog car harness.

I make sure the fenced yard is kept repaired and any dug holes are filled up.

Dougie wears a dog life jacket when he is out on the water. Dougie is not my dog. Maya has one, but I don’t have a picture of her wearing it. Pierson has yet to go swimming so he doesn’t have one yet.

I keep these in my car along with pet identification cards with vet info, a blanket, water, and extra leashes.

This sign goes on my car window whenever my dogs ride with me in the car. It has their photo and emergency contact information.

Dog toys that I know my dogs will chew to pieces are kept picked up and can only be played with under supervision.

After I heard about a dog running with a stick in his mouth and the stick getting jammed into the back of his throat, I try really hard not to let Maya play with sticks.

The first thing I do after a snow is shovel and de-ice the steps. These steps are the only way my dogs can get to the fenced yard and I don’t want them to slip. Warm water is used when they get inside to remove the salt.

How do you practice pet safety? Am I missing anything important?

For more Wordless Wednesday pet photos, check out our Pet Auto Safety Blog for the blog hop.

The Sad Day My Dog Contracted Bloat

Guest Post from Joanne for her Westie dog named Dougie

Joanne – I am writing this to heighten all dog owners awareness about dog bloat.  Bloat in dogs is the second biggest killer after cancer.  When it happened to my much loved dog Dougie, I was ignorant and totally unaware of what was happening to my poor dog.  Due to my lack of awareness, my dog suffered more than he ever should have….

Every morning when I get up my dog greets me, when I go into the kitchen, with his favourite toy in his mouth – hoodie bear!  It is what he lays at my feet, day in day out – his greatest treasure – that he knows I love, as I exclaim what a good boy he is and fuss over him reaching for his treat tin.  2 years ago, one morning this didn’t happen – he didn’t even get out of his basket.  Worried, I went over and felt his nose which was warm.  I talked to him, he wasn’t much interested, he just kept turning around in his basket restlessly but his breathing was normal.

I had my coffee, I was alone, as my husband had gone to work.  I kept talking to Dougie and he got up a few times and wretched but either nothing came out or just foamy white –  he had done this before, so I wasn’t overly concerned.  I remember thinking what he had eaten the night before and knew he had been given a largish lamb bone with quite a lot of meat on it.  Suddenly I had an awful thought, usually the bone lay discarded on the floor but it was nowhere to be seen.  I started to search for it frantically and went through about 20 mins anguish until I found it buried deep in his basket!  Strangely this almost set my mind at rest and I just put it down to a tummy upset, whilst keeping him under close supervision.  I gave him water which he lapped up eagerly and I thought this was a good sign, it wasn’t though.

During the next few hours he started trying to be sick increasingly more often and paced around the room, settling here or there, then getting up again.  I got really worried again and started to look for the vet’s number for advice.  Whilst I was actually on the phone to the vet’s nurse, Dougie started whining, collapsed and started to crawl all hunched up to get behind the sofa – a place he had never ever previously bothered with.  It was happening in front of my eyes as I described it on the phone, by this time I was frantic and starting to panic badly, with all sorts of fear going through my mind.  The nurse put a vet on the phone at once and he told me to come IMMEDIATELY.

I put down the phone and rushed to Dougie, dragging him out from behind the sofa where he was hunched – there was a trail of blood on the floor which had come from him and he was slumped, whining acutely now.

My car was in the garage for service and I quickly googled taxi numbers and had to make 3-4 phone calls before I could find a taxi to come quick enough who was also prepared to take a dog, a very unwell dog at that.  I was in a terrible blind panic between phoning and trying to keep Dougie warm and next to me.  I was in tears and not coping well at all.  I finally found a taxi and wrapped Dougie in a blanket and headed outside and into the car.

Dougie was crying a lot and very distressed, I just held him close and talked to him all the 2 mile journey to the vets, which seemed to last forever.  I was oblivious of the taxi driver and on arrival at the vets, I just leapt out of the car and gave him far too much money.

The vet was waiting and immediately took Dougie from me and asked me to wait outside.  I didn’t think there was much chance now and just started to pray.  About 40 minutes later the vet came out and asked me to come into his consulting room, Dougie wasn’t there.  I thought I knew what was coming…so started to sob whilst he told me Dougie was sedated, on a drip and needed to be kept under very close supervision for the next 24 hrs.  He told me it was bloat and Dougie would have died probably died within the next 20 minutes if he hadn’t been attended to.

My dog lived thankfully.  If I had been aware of the main symptoms of bloat, I for sure, would have taken him to the vets sooner.

Drink better anti-gulp dog bowl

I have had to make quite a few changes in Dougie’s eating and drinking habits since he contracted bloat, as his digestion process had failed – this is essentially what happens when a dog bloats.  A dog who has already had bloat is more at risk of it happening again.  Gulping food or water can cause bloat.  Drinking large amounts of water either before or after eating can trigger it too.  As part of our routine to prevent or minimise the risk of bloat we use slow feeder bowls – drink better and eat better by Alpha Paws.

My Dougie is 10 now, a senior boy and I love him even more than when he was a pup!

(Guest post from Joanne in the UK)

Wordless Wednesday – Pet Portrait – Dougie the West Highland White Terrier

This is our friend Dougie. He is a West Highland White Terrier, or Westie. Isn’t he adorable?

Rough sketch. Notice I changed his back and tail a bit.

 

Finished sketch. I think his eyes are too far apart and not quite big enough so I make sure to correct this when I transfer the sketch to the pastel paper for the finished piece.

I traced the sketch with the big eyes closer together modification onto acid free pastel paper. Then I completed the background. This was my second attempt at a background. the first one did not come out well so I threw it away and started over.

Next I worked on the hardest, most important, and the funnest parts – they eyes and nose. If the eyes are not right when drawing people or animals, the rest of the artwork won’t look good either.

Then I did Dougie’s body and drew in his cute pink tongue.

I’m almost done!

Done!

Check out my other artwork in progress pages at Nature by Dawn.com. If you would like me to do a pet portrait of your dog or cat, email me at naturebydawn@aol.com.

For more great photos of pets, visit the Wordless Wednesday blog hop by clicking HERE.