Eleven Days ‘Til Christmas

This year the last two of our pet dogs died – and the oldest ones at that, making this the first time in twenty-five years that we haven’t had a dog.  Mandy died in August and we sort of put her out of our thoughts and mind. But every now and then DH and I would feel so sad and lonely without any little dogs to greet us, follow us and play with us – and just be there!  So one day a few weeks ago the groomer who used to bathe and trim our dogs posted a picture of a little dog that came right to her grooming shop – Laura’s Grooming

. So she posted a photo of the little guy and I fell in love with him – so darling! After talking it over with hubby we decided to invite the little fellow home. Laura said if he wasn’t what I wanted she would take him back until she found someone that wanted him.

When I went to pick him up he practically jumped into my arms! I told Laura he must have some Jack Russell terrier in him to be able to jump like that! Well, to make a long story short, we couldn’t keep him. His energy level was super high, and DH has a multitude of ailments plus advanced age, and Buster (as we named him) would take a flying leap unto the couch – and his lap; scared the heck out of him! Then I remembered we can’t use a doggy door now because of our two kitties. Some neighbors around here let there cats out but I wouldn’t think of it with the coyotes living so close. And DH wouldn’t be able to let Buster out if I wasn’t home so, sadly, I decided (with my head) that it wouldn’t be a good idea to get a dog right now. Very sad. Maybe someone that has never had a dog for a pet won’t understand that, but anyone who has had a dog knows what I mean.

Joining with Camera Critters and
Saturday’s Critters

Orange You Glad It’s Friday! Let’s Have a Paint Party!

I’ve sold quite a few Zazzle.com products with my pomeranian, Sushi, on them. She was my heart of hearts. She’s been gone about five years now but she lives on and is becoming popular around the world with her picture on magnets, keychains and the like.  Thank you Sushi! And for more splashes of orange go to Orange You Glad It’s Friday

For Paint Party Friday and Creative Every Day I have a fast sketch I did a few months ago and a WIP. My refrigerator was driving me crazy with so much junk stuck on the doors so I took everything off and organized and rearranged some of what was there before – and it looks pretty good! One of things I had was a magnetic strip of a bone, heart, and paw. So I took each piece out of the magnetic strip and had this great stencil of a bone, heart and paw! I’m not sure how to proceed from here. Normally, I’d just use some watercolor or acrylic paint but made the mistake of buying an art journal that doesn’t have thick pages and too much paint or water and the pages ripple terribly! So I’ll probably use stamps and tissue.  Are there any suggestions as to a glue that is least likely to ripple the pages?

         

       

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Creative Every Day

Scavenger Hunt Sunday

School

Since I forgot to photograph  the elementary school down the street from my house, I gathered some school supplies and made a pop art photo.

Rule of Thirds

This was by far the most unusual display of clouds I’ve ever taken.  A few days ago I posted another pix from this same shoot with a big rainspout coming down.

Not quite a full profile but pretty close.  This is Sunny – or Stretch.  She has become so long (and she is still not a year old) my husband nicknamed her Stretch.   She is one sweet cat!

Small

Sparky is big.  Mandy is small.

Motion

Fan in motion

Scavenger Hunt Sunday

A Recipe For Happiness

After spending a bundle at the vet’s office on my thirteen-year-old dog, Sparky, and finding there was nothing wrong (or not finding anything wrong) I analyzed Sparky’s behavior and eating habits.  Since she had her teeth cleaned and quite a number of them pulled, Sparky tended to swallow her food whole.  I know most dogs don’t make a habit of chewing their food well, but Sparky was really gulping it down!  That’s when I decided to try some home-cooked meals – I say meals instead of home-cooked dog food because it’s perfectly fine for humans, too!

After researching online I chose several recipes – one using ground turkey and the other cooked chicken parts – drumsticks, thighs, breasts. The ground turkey is the easiest:  You pour Six cups of water in a large pot, add Two cups of uncooked rice; add a pound of ground turkey, breaking it into small pieces and sprinkle in some dried ground basil.  Don’t add onions or garlic since neither is considered safe for dogs to eat.   Bring to a boil; reduce heat to medium-low, simmer and cook for about 20 minutes – or until almost done.  Then add 1/3 to 1/2 package of frozen mixed vegetables or green beans or carrots – most dogs like quite a variety of vegetables; and cook 5-10 more minutes.  This makes enough food for three meals for each dog. (Sparky is 50 pounds and Mandy is 15 pounds).  This last batch only stretched to two meals because my husband, Roy,  and I had some for dinner also!  It was fine just as it was for Roy’s bland taste but I added some garlic powder and salt to mine.

In all the thirteen years we’ve owned Sparky she has always just laid there, watching me prepare her dry dog food while Mandy would be prancing and dancing around like she just couldn’t wait any longer.   Well, after eating Mommy’s home-cooked food for about a week,  Sparky has become vocal also, giving a few anticipatory woofs!  Now, lest anyone think this is a burden cooking up food for their pets, I must say it has made me very happy!  My husband has “exotic” tastes: peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, swiss cheese sandwiches and salads.  He doesn’t like to eat meat or most fowl – turkey once in awhile, prefers his meals cooled down (a lot).  So,  the “Joy of Cooking” for me had disappeared – until I started cooking for Sparky and Mandy!  They’ve helped me to realize it isn’t so much what I feed them – it’s their wonderful response to my cooking that makes it such a pleasure to get in the kitchen and cook.  Now if I could just get DH to do the same when I fix his peanut butter and jelly sandwiches!  

And What Ails Your Dog?

She puked, was off her feed, had a hard time standing and finally was throwing and passing blood. Actually, Sparky had been off her feed for some time. A few hours after eating she would choke and hawk like something was stuck in her throat. So off to the vets we went. The doc took blood, a few x-rays and nothing seemed amiss. Next step, the doc said, was a barium x-ray  and this would show the GI tract much better. So, $1,000. later Sparky is fine! (at least the blood work and x-rays didn’t show anything). But I sure felt sick!! Don’t get me wrong. I’m very thankful Sparky is okay, but what a way to find out! $$$  😦

And, of course, I still wanted to know why my sweet doggie was having such difficulties.   Mandy, her little chiwawa/doxie mix sister wasn’t having any problems and they ate the same dry dog food mix moistened with water.  Then I started watching her eat; now mind you, she’d had most of her teeth removed when they cleaned them last year – and the vet assured me she would have no problems eating! Right. Only, as I observed Sparky eating, I realized she was pretty much swallowing it whole. I went out and bought some canned food – time to experiment! First night: No choking or hawking or restless discomfort. Second and third night: the same thing – no GI problems. But canned dog food is awfully expensive compared to dry dog food, so I thought trying homemade cooked dog food might be the way to go. I’m not sure if this is going to be much cheaper than canned food but certainly it will be more healthy – if I give them all the nutrients they need (still working on that). There are quite a lot of dog food recipes online if anyone wants to try home-cooked dog food. But I’m writing this article in case there are other dog owners out there that are having unsolved health problems with choking and hawking and vomiting .  It could be Sparky was bolting her food and it couldn’t digest easily, causing her a lot of duress.  Hopefully, there won’t be any retractions to this story and Sparky will continue to have good health (considering her age of thirteen years old!). And yes, I changed Mandy’s food also. They are extremely enthusiastic about eating now compared to when they were eating dry food.  Amazing!