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National Animal Shelter and Rescue Appreciation Week

National Animal Shelter Appreciation Week
Scruffy B at Crossing Paths Animal Rescue

National Animal Shelter Appreciation Week is a great time to show support for our local shelters and rescue groups. As we enter the time of year that we give thanks to all that we have, our family and friends, lets also give thanks to our local shelters and rescue group for helping animals in need. Remember that shelters need help all year long but now is a great time to start.

Here are some ways you can show your local shelter or rescue that you care:

1. Volunteer

Volunteers are always needed at shelters to help keep the place clean and to take care of the animals. Many shelters have programs to help socialize the dogs by having volunteers take them for walks and spend time with them outside of the shelter. Check with your local shelter to see if there are age restrictions before going with your kids.

2. Donate

Shelters and Rescues are always in need of supplies and funding. Donation can be in the form of money or you can donate food, toys, blankets and cleaning supplies.   Check with the shelter to see what they need the most.

3. Spread the word

If you have an adopted pet already, consider spreading the word about how wonderful adopting a pet can be. Many people are afraid of the unknown. It is helpful to have people share their adoption stories so other people have an idea of what to expect. Be honest. If you have had challenges let people know about them and how you overcame them.  

4. Foster

Not everyone is in a place to adopt. Getting a pet is a long term commitment that you need to be ready for. If you would like to bring a pet into your life but you are not sure if you are ready for the long term commitment consider a short term foster.  You will be making space for another animal that needs to be saved and you will get the feel of what life would be like to have a pet.      

5. Adopt

If you are ready to adopt go ahead and do it. Just make sure you are truly ready to make the commitment. Pets live a long time. They take time and resources to care for them. Make sure you have both before you adopt.

Let’s celebrate National Animal Shelter Appreciation Week by paying it forward. You can make a differnce in the lives of animals living in shelters and rescue groups today.

While owning a dog is a great experience, you need to make sure you’re ready for the responsibility. Let us help you decide if you are ready for a dog.

Are you interested in adopting a dog but hesitant due to the unknown cost? Join us as we take a look the cost to adopt a dog and why.

10 Ways to Celebrate Dog Moms on Mother’s Day

10 Ways to Celebrate dog moms on Mother's Day
10 Ways to Celebrate the Dog Moms in Your Life

Mother’s Day is a celebration of mothers, all mothers who unselfishly take care of their families and love ones.  This includes dog moms. Now-a-days our dogs have become very much a part of our families.   For my husband and me, our first dog together, was our baby.  She taught us so much about caring for and sharing our lives with another living being that depended on us.    

This Mother’s Day let’s celebrate all the wonderful dog moms out there by doing something special to recognize everything they do.  Don’t know what you should do? Here are ten ways to celebrate the dog moms in your life.

10 Ways to Celebrate Dog Moms on Mother's Day pin

10 Ways to Celebrate Dog Moms on Mother’s Day

1. Take your favoriate dog moms to a Dog Friendly Restaurant

Get your pup involved with the celebration by bringing them and your favorite dog mom to one of the many restaurants that allow dogs on their patios or at their sidewalk tables.  Check out BringFido.com list of dog friendly places. Just make sure you call the restaurant ahead of going to make sure they have not changed their policy. Some restaurant’s may only allow dogs during non-peak times.

Also make sure to follow proper dog etiquette:

  • Only bring well behaved dogs that listen to you the first time you give them a comment
  • Keep them on a leash tied to your chair.  To avoid spills don’t tie them to the table.
  • Stay away from other diners.  Not everyone will appreciate your friendly pup.
  • Make sure they are out of the way of other patrons and servers
  • Bring a blanket or towel for your pooch to lie down on. An uncomfortable dog will be a restless dog.   

2. Take a scenic ride in the car

What dog doesn’t enjoy a good car ride?   The rush of air from the window and all those scents will thrill most every dog. No matter where you live you can always find a beautiful drive nearby.   Not sure where to go?  Check out My Scenic Drives.com.  Just plug in your zip code and they will provide you with nearby options, descriptions of what you will see, length of drive, duration and driving directions  

3. Go for a Stroll

Take your dog and the dog mom in your life to a nearby park or hiking trail for a relaxing stroll.   Most local parks allow leashed dogs on their trails. You can find a list of state parks that allow leashed dogs at GoPetFriendly.com

4. Make a weekend out of it

Ways to celebrate Mother's Day for dog moms

Get away with your favorite dog mom and pup by visiting a nearby dog friendly town. There are many tourist towns that will welcome you and your fury friend.  Savannah is one such town. Savannah has 142 pet friendly hotels, 120 pet friendly restaurants and 48 dog friendly activities.  To learn more visit BringFido.com

5. Go to the Beach

Although dogs are generally not allowed on public beaches during the busy season, you may be able to visit during the off season. Make sure you check out the beach pet rules before going.

6. Give her a break

Give the dog moms in your life a break by giving them a Dog Walking Gift Card from Rover.com or another service.  Better yet offer to walk the dog yourself a few times.

7. Clean up

Although we all love our furry pets they are known to make a mess.   Give your favorite dog moms a hand by de-furring their house or car.  Don’t like to clean? A gift card for a free cleaning will also be appreciated especially since spring tends to be the times dogs shed the most.

8. Let your dog moms get some extra shut eye

10 Ways to Celebrate other's Day for dog Moms

Wake up early to take the dog for a walk allowing her to sleep in.  

9. Breakfast in Bed

While you are out walking the dog, stop by her favorite bakery for some fresh goodies and coffee.  Bring it to her in bed along with a mom’s day card, signed with a paw print from the dog.

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases

The perfect gift for a coffee loving dog mom is the Sillybean dog themed coffee sampler. Sillybean offers 8 small batch roasted coffee samples with dog themed names like “Muddy Dog” Caramel Mudslide, “Wet Nose Nudge” Columbian, “Crazy Dog” Jamaican Me Loco. You can find the Sillybean Dog Lover Coffee at Amazon.com

10. Tell the world

There are all sorts of items from shirts, cups, and jewelry that you can get for your dog mom to let the world know she is a great dog mom.

Did you know that April 11 is National Pet Day ?

This cutie is probably already adopted but there are many more available on Petfinder.com

Started in 2006 National Pet Day was created by Colleen Paige to celebrate the joy pets bring to our lives and to create public awareness about the plight of many different kinds of animals awaiting a forever home in shelters and rescues all around the globe.

Let’s celebrate this wonderful event by helping out our local Animal Shelters or Rescue Group today!

How can you help?
  • Donate needed supplies – most shelters will have a list of needed supplies on their website. Often they are in need of items you may have lying around your house, like old towels and blankets or pet friendly cleaning supplies like paper towels.
  • Don’t have time to shop? Consider a monetary donation to help offset food and medical care  
  • Volunteer your time to care for the animals
  • Get the word out – tell friends and family how they can help
  • Consider adopting one of the wonderful pets in need of a new home.

To find a list of local Shelters and Rescue Groups in your area go to:  https://www.petfinder.com/animal-shelters-and-rescues/search/

National Pet Day is a good time to focus on your pet too
  • Go through your pet’s toys looking for any toys that are no longer safe for them.
  • Look at the recall sites to see if there is a recall on an item or food that you have for your pet
  • Look around your house to make sure it is pet friendly.  Keep cords and toxins secure from your pets. Research house plants to see if toxic to pets
  • Verify that you are up to date on your pet’s medical exams and vaccinations. If not make sure to schedule an appointment.
  • Check your pet’s collar to make sure it fits correctly
  • Ensure your pets tags are up to date and secure
  • Give your pet some extra special attention.
To learn more about Animal Shelters and Dog Adoption go to:

Crazy Things that Dogs will Chew

I think we have all heard the story about the little boy who tells his teacher he did his homework but couldn’t hand it in because the dog ate it.   He gets a harsh disbelieving look from his teacher in return.  His teacher might not have believed him and it may be one of the oldest excuses in the book, but anyone who has ever had a dog knows that dogs will chew on anything. And I mean anything.   I started thinking about what my own 10 month old pup has chewed.

Take It From The Tinkersons, March 5, 2015

Bella

Let’s start with the day Bella, my small poodle mix, decided she was bored and grabbed hold of the toilet paper which was still on the roll in the holder and ran through the house with it.  I came down stairs to find toilet paper zigzagged around the room and wrapped around the furniture like she was leading her own parade.   Of course my kids were right there but no one noticed.

Crazy Things that Dogs will Chew

Then there was the time when she decided to just unroll the toilet paper and shred it to pieces right there in the bathroom.  Dropped napkins and paper towels are like gifts from above to her.  The second someone accidentally knocks off any type of paper from the counter she goes into stealth mode and extracts the item from the floor. She then hides it behind a chair or under the couch so she can take her time chewing the catch into tiny pieces undetected. At times I’ve wondered if she was hired by the IMF from Mission Impossible to make sure all of our dropped mail self-destructs.

Crazy Things that Dogs will Chew

In addition to her fondness to chewing on paper she has a love for soft plastic.  She has been caught eating the plastic safety bands from milk and water jugs. She chewed on the end of a power cord. Thankfully, it was not plugged in at the time.  Most recently she was caught chewing on a pink rubber eraser.

What about other dogs

It was at this point that I became curious to know what other dogs have nibbled on, so I posted the question on Facebook.  Here are the results:

The most common household items included paper towels, paper and tissues products, but after that it became interesting.

The next most common items were walls and drywall.  One person posted that her dog was bored and lazy so he ate the wall next to his bed.

Although less common clothes were in the mix of items consumed, including a favorite pair of pajamas and a pup that ate the kids bathing suits and socks. Swallowed whole and then pooped them out.  There was a lab that ate a pair of yoga paints—whole. Then after the vet removed them surgically, he offered them back to the owners in a ziploc bag.  Yuck!

Crazy Things that Dogs will Chew

While we are on the topic of fabrics; feather pillows, bean bags and couch cushions were mentioned. Here are the remains of one women’s feather pillow.

Dogs like to get into some gross things too.  Some of the worst ones included a frozen rat and a skunk skeleton; a bird skeleton and the worst was a poopy diaper.

Kitchen items included exploded sponges and a pup who was obsessed with shredding the disposable dishcloth. Every. Single. Day.

I was amazed at how many stories there were on various electronics that were chewed.  These included a car’s remote-control fob, many cell phones, TV remotes, and games controller,

One person mentioned how she woke up one morning to find her phone, unscratched, on the floor with the mangled case beside it. Her pit had literally eaten the (lifeproof) case off of the phone without damaging the phone.Scary Stuff

Scary Stuff

The scariest stories included a dog named Pippin who chewed up a box of staples.  Thank fully she was ok.  A dog named Odin who ate a large 3 inch hook. He had to have surgery to get it out. There was a dachshund that would eat aluminum foil.

For those of you who are thinking it is the owners fault for not dog proofing their homes, there is this story of a female pup who she chewed on a scented candle that was on the bar height counter and her brother who chewed up a spare pair of eye glasses that were sitting on the fireplace mantle, which was even higher up than the bar counter.  If the dogs wants to chew sometimes there is no dog proofing that can stop them.

Do you have a story about what your dog has chewed?  Please let us know.

For more tips on buying pet insurance check out my other posts

Shelter Dog – The Realities of Finding One

Shelter Dog - The Realities of Finding One

“Why buy while those in shelters die?” is a pretty common mantra these days.  But is it really that simple to adopt a shelter dog?

In my previous post Meeting Katie I spoke about our first failed attempt to adopt a shelter puppy.  Since then we have been searching pet rescue sites diligently twice a day for the last 2 ½ months looking for a dog that would fit into our family.

According to the ASPCA, approximately 3.3 million dogs enter U.S. animal shelters nationwide every year.  You would think with that many dogs in need of a home finding one that fits in with our family would be easy.  But we are finding that it is actually quite difficult.   Part of the reason is that we are searching for a particular type of dog that would best fit our family’s lifestyle.

Although we have found dogs that closely match what we are looking for on places like Pet Finder, Adopt-Me or Adopt-A-Pet we often don’t meet the requirements to adopt due to things like our children are too young (my kids are 11 and 9), we don’t have a fenced in yard or we live too far away to do a home check.   If we do qualify, we don’t seem to find the dogs quick enough to be first on the list.

Here is a look at some of our disappointments.

Lacey

Shelter Dog - The Realities of Finding One
Lacey the Shelter Dog

Lacey was a sweet 3 year old girl. Although she was smaller and older than what we were looking for, she fit most of our criteria and she was nearby.

As soon as we saw her on Pet Finder we completed an online application, with all of the necessary information including our veterinarian’s contacts and three personal non-family references.  The next morning we heard back from the rescue.  It was an automated response telling us that our application was being processed and requesting that we inform our veterinarian to expect a call.  Once we notified our veterinarian we had to let the rescue know it was ok to make the call. The email also stated that if someone was able to get through the application process quicker than us, they would be granted the option to adopt her ahead of us. This meant it was not just a race to get your application in first, but to have it approved first.   The email gave us some hope but by the early afternoon she was marked as adopted on their website.

Aurelia

Shelter Dog - The Realities of Finding One
Aurelia the Shelter Dog

After that, there was Aurelia. Aurelia was a Chesapeake Bay Retriever mix puppy located at our county’s regional animal shelter which happens to be in our town.    They did not have an online application. Instead you filled out a word document that you could download from their site. It only asked for one reference and the name of your veterinarian.  We filled out the application and brought it with us the next day.   MY husband and I arrived at the shelter 15 minutes ahead of the scheduled opening time to find two people standing outside waiting.   Both were there to adopt Aurelia.   After waiting 40 minutes to have a chance to meet her only to find out that the first person in line had adopted her on the spot.

Maple

Shelter Dog - The Realities of Finding One
Maple the Shelter Dog

Our next attempt was Maple, a miniature schnauzer/golden retriever mix puppy.  She was located in state about an hour and twenty minutes away from us.  We were more than willing to make the trip.   After filing out the application we heard back from the rescue.  We lived outside of their 1 hour driving limit to do a home check.

So far our experience has not been good.  But I am learning what it takes to find a shelter dog.

This post is part of a series on Shelter Dogs

Our Journey with Bella – Day 6

happy-oodles-bellas-life-day-6-featured-fl

Bella had a very naughty day after the kids came home yesterday.

She is still trying to figure out where she belongs in the pack and unfortunately, is testing her boundaries by nipping at our children, albeit playfully.

Both Greg and Jas have never dealt with a 9 week old puppy before so I think they are bit afraid. We are teaching them how to exert gentle dominance over Bella to establish proper pack order and get rid of her nipping.

Otherwise, she has been really good with her elimination, peeing and pooping outside. Fortunately, we both work from home so that allows Bella to be on an hourly bathroom breaks.

The only thing that concerns me is that she seems to be developing a kennel cough. It caught me off guard when I took her out around 3am and she made a pig snorting or honking sound (check out some YouTube videos to see what it sounds like).

What is Kennel Cough?

Kennel cough or canine cough is a highly infectious disease, usually affecting puppies and adults dogs exposed to crowded conditions like puppy mills, kennels and shelters.

The disease itself has multiple pathogen vectors with common culprits being Bordetella bronchiseptica bacteria, Mycoplasma, canine distemper virus, parainfluenza virus and the canine adenovirus type 2 (similar to hepatitus virus).

Though not fatal in most adult dogs, untreated puppies may end having under-developed lungs and/or develop pneumonia.

Bordetella Bronchiseptica incubation period is roughly 3-10 days so my Bella probably contracted the disease while at the shelter.

We will schedule a vet visit to take care of Bella.

PS. By the way, adopting a shelter dog that has kennel cough is not that unusual since most shelters take in all kinds of pets, including strays. Kennel cough is not a reflection of shelter’s cleanliness practices.