Bark About It

Helping Japan's animals

2011-03-25T09:35:00.000-05:00

When I'm not spending time with the dogs I'm quilting or sewing. I run a shop on Etsy.com a website for folks who sell handmade goods like me.

I've made several novelty pillowcases, including two designs with dog prints, that I'm selling to raise money for World Vets, an organization that is helping to rescue companion animals displaced during Japan's earthquake and keep them in no-kill shelters until they can be reunited with their owners.

I'm donating 50 percent of the pillowcase purchase price to World Vets relief efforts in Japan. Click here to see the selection.

Or if you'd like to donate directly to World Vets, click here.

Things my dog ate: The prophylactic edition

2011-03-24T23:13:00.001-05:00

"Please tell me this isn't the first time you've heard this?"

That was what I said when I called our local emergency veterinarian to ask what to do when Sophia ate a condom.

Thankfully Sophia is not the first dog to think a prophylactic would make a great snack. Unfortunately it's not something that moves through the digestive system very easily.

One tablespoon of hydrogen peroxide and 15 minutes later my bathroom floor was covered in vomit. I really just don't know what was the most disgusting part about the whole experience, trying to pull a condom out of her mouth before she swallowed it, sifting through her puke to make sure it all came out or cleaning up the multiple piles of barf when it was all done.

But Sophia is fine now and is cuddling with me on the couch. I'm sure she'll be back to her normal, inquisitive self by morning.

Long time no blog

2011-02-15T07:38:00.005-06:00

Hello all. I know it's been a LONG time since I blogged. My husband and I bought a house last spring and it's a fixer-upper, so we've been quite busy remodeling in almost every spare moment.

Right now we're working on the kitchen, which means the dogs haven't been allowed in there for about six weeks. Einstein, whose favorite room is the kitchen because it is the source of all things good in life, is not doing so well with the banishment.

He vocally complains every time I'm in there. He seems to think that varnishing somehow involves food and he's not going to miss out one one little morsel.

The good news for us and Einstein is we just finished refinishing the kitchen cabinets, and while we still have plenty to do, it shouldn't take as long as the cabinet portion of the remodel.

What have you all been up to during my blogging hiatus?

Self magazine comes up with a workout for you and your dog

2010-07-27T10:28:00.002-05:00

I got an animal-related e-mail today that I just had to share with you all.

Self magazine has come up with a workout you can do with your pet. After watching the video above, I think I'd just frustrate my brood with the tennis ball you're supposed to hold during the workout rather than exercise them.

The story did mention that the University of Missouri's Research Center for Human-Animal Interaction in Columbia found people who walked with dogs increased their pace 28 percent when compared with those who walked alone.

We haven't been doing much walking recently because Cuddles, our latest foster dog, went into heat a week-and-a-half ago, and I'm not taking any chances at having an accidental litter by letting her out of our fenced-in yard until her cycle has passed. But we do walk pretty quickly with four dogs leading the way.

Do your dogs help you get exercise, too?

The dogs are tired of the rain

2010-06-23T08:00:00.005-05:00

We've been getting dumped on with rain in the Midwest for what seems like forever. Myself and the dogs are sick of it.

When my alarm went off this morning it I could hear it pouring down rain outside, so rather than get up, which means an immediate trip outside so the dogs can go potty, I stayed in bed until it died down and then let the dogs out.

Did they appreciate my thoughtfulness? No. Einstein and Lady sat by the back door the entire time and I had to chase Sophia through the house to make her go outside. Then she proceeded to walk between the back door and the door to the three-season room, hugging the house as she went and picking up a nasty looking spider in her fur during her travels.

I'm ready for the dry heat of July that turns the grass brown any day now.

In more pleasant news, I made the dogs a quilted dog bed, pictured above, to match our bedroom decor. You can read about it here, on my quilting blog.

Einstein's on Cheezeburger.com

2010-06-21T18:21:00.000-05:00

I LOVE www.Cheezburger.com. It is filled with goofy pictures of dogs and hilarious captions written with poor grammar.

You can even upload your own goofy pictures, so when I took a particularly silly one of Einstein, I uploaded it and slapped a caption on.

What is really happening in the photo, is Sophia stole Einstein's frog toy, and he's barking at her to get it back. What do you all do with your goofy dog pictures?

Crisis averted

2010-06-04T13:17:00.004-05:00

Einstein LOVES his squeaky frog toy.

If we take it away, he sits near the counter it has been placed on and cries until he gets it back. He doesn't care about any other toy as much as his frog.

Any toy that receives that much love is bound to sustain some wear and tear. The frog hasn't squeaked in a while, it's tongue and a piece of its foot are long gone. But this morning Charlie, our foster dog, delivered the final death to the frog, ripping it open in the bottom and pulling out the stuffing.

Knowing this day would come, we've been searching for a replacement frog for months, scouring the toy aisle every time we go into the pet store, but we've never been able to find another frog.

So today, I turned to Google, did an image search for "dog frog toy" and several search pages in I found Einstein's beloved frog. I ordered five, one for Einstein to play with and four to store in a safe place until the replacement croaks (pun intended). Crisis averted.

Meet Charlie, our latest foster dog

2010-05-17T08:03:00.000-05:00

Charlie is our latest foster dog from K9 Kindness Rescue. He's a large, nine-month-old daschund, around 20 pounds. Adam is lobbying to change his name to Oscar, since he's a wiener dog.

He came to rescue over the weekend, but he did not get along with the cats at his first foster home, so last night he came to our house. My husband was a little concerned because Einstein has been displaying his dominance to the the neighbor's dog, and he thought Einstein only liked other cocker spaniels.

I assured Adam that Einstein had no idea he was a cocker spaniel and with a proper introduction, everything would be alright. So far I've been right and Charlie is getting along well with our brood. He loves playing fetch with Sophia and is the first dog we've had in the house that is faster than her.

He also really likes squeaky toys and appears to be quite smart. He knows how to sit, drops his ball when asked, figured out where we keep the treats, scratches at the door when he has to go (although he wasn't so fond of doing his business in the rain) and will get in his crate on command.

I blogged too soon

2010-05-13T13:52:00.003-05:00

I just got an e-mail that Saturn's current foster mom's situation has changed and will be able to keep her and her two brothers until they are adopted. So we won't be getting another foster dog after all.

A new member of the family

2010-05-13T13:22:00.004-05:00

The cute little puppy pictured above is our new foster dog, Saturn, that will be joining us tomorrow until she goes to her forever home.

Saturn is one of four dogs from K9 Kindness Rescue that desperately needed a place to go by this weekend, so my husband and I decided to take her in. Saturn is about four months old and she's a lab/pit bull terrier mix.

Her two litter mates, Milo and Toby, also need a place to go on a temporary or permanent basis. The dogs' previous foster family is unable to keep them because they have family moving in with them this weekend.

The fourth dog that needs a home, either temporary or permanent, is Lillie, a 2-year-old tree walking coon hound. She was taken to a shelter when she was very young and was never properly socialized with other dogs. As a result, she is hard to place because she needs to go to a home where she is either the only dog, or is with a submissive male. She has been through obedience training, is house trained and is good with children.

For more information about fostering or adopting any of these dogs, go to www.k9kindnessrescue.org, or e-mail k9kindness@mchsi.com.

Sophia's harem pants

2010-05-06T09:07:00.001-05:00

No I did not buy a belly dancing costume for the dog. But I did have to shave her paws, and the effect of her fluffy fur stopping abruptly just above her feet makes it look a little bit like she's wearing harem pants.

Why did I shave her paws? Well, she's been licking at them almost constantly for weeks. I thought maybe she was developing some sort of obsessive compulsive disorder, but our annual visit to the vet revealed that she actually has a yeast infection in the bed of her toenails. Poor girl.

She is otherwise healthy, so I was sent home with a special shampoo that has a steroid in it to help clear up the infection. But the vet told me I was going to have to shave her paws otherwise I'd never get all the shampoo out when I wash her feet every other day. Sophia was not happy about the feet shaving. I normally have to clip the fur on Sophia's feet with scissors when I groom her because she's so sensitive about them. I ended up having to use a hair tie as a makeshift muzzle to keep her from biting the clippers.

But I got it done and now I have a very funny looking dog. Hopefully she'll start to feel better soon so I can let the hair grow back out.

We're officially moved in

2010-04-29T07:35:00.001-05:00

We officially have all our stuff at the new house, although we haven't put any of it away.

On moving day we thought we could just put the dogs outside in the backyard to play while we unloaded, but to our surprise Einstein and Sophia ran in the front door to see what was going on.

We discovered someone had opened one of the gate on the side of the house and the two trouble makers took full advantage. Lady stayed in the backyard like a good girl.

So after that short adventure they all went in crates in our bedroom while we moved in three U-Haul loads of boxes and furniture. Einstein isn't normally crated, so he thought we were torturing him and wailed all day.

Once we let them out, the dogs kept running all over the house smelling everything. It was like they were trying to make sure that all our stuff really had come to this new place.

Eistein vs. garage door

2010-04-21T08:00:00.000-05:00

I've often said that Einstein doesn't care where he's going as long as he gets there fast. Well, that desire almost got him crushed yesterday.

My husband was working over at the new house, removing five layers of contact paper from the kitchen shelves. He was a using a solvent with a potent orange smell, so he brought the shelves into the garage to work with the door open.

At some point in the lifetime of the garage, the motor on the door opener was jury-rigged so it comes down fast and hard. There is no sensor that makes it go back up if something runs underneath it or it encounters tension (like if a dog gets caught underneath it) on the way down. Needless to say, it was marked "defective" on our home inspection.

Einstein, not wanting to be apart from Adam, pitched a fit at being locked out of the garage. So Adam closed the garage door and opened the door that is attached to the house for Einstein to come in and join him.

Well, the garage door wasn't all the way down when Adam opened the door from the garage to the house and Einstein bolted for the tiny opening at the bottom. Adam described it as an Indiana Jones-like moment as Einstein slid under the door at the last possible minute before getting crushed, although he did get bumped on the butt. One moment sooner and he'd have been rushed to the vet.

Adam rushed back outside, where Einstein was running back and forth in the driveway. Adam called out "treat" and Einstein, always motivated by food, came running back to the house.

Everything turned out alright, but I'm glad my in-laws' housewarming present to us is a new garage door, complete with safety sensors and a new motor. It should arrive in two weeks. Although I did remind Adam that he still needs to be careful because if the door had gone back up as Einstein ran under it, then he would have had three dogs to catch and get back into the house instead of just one.

A peak at the new house

2010-04-19T15:51:00.008-05:00

My in-laws came out last weekend and helped us get the house painted. We never would have gotten it all done without them. Our move in date is one week from today and we can't wait.

We didn't bring the dogs over until the painting was done, but on Sunday there was one closet left with wet primer on it and Sophia of course found it and has a streak of white on her ear now.

Here are some before and after shots.

Living/dining room before

Living/dining room after

Master bedroom before

Master bedroom after

Second bedroom/sewing room before

Second bedroom/sewing room after

And here's some video of the dogs checking out the backyard for the first time.

The dogs have a new backyard

2010-04-09T12:13:00.002-05:00

Sorry I've been MIA on the dog blogs recently. We've been quite busy house hunting, but we've finally found one and we close on Wednesday. I waited to reveal the official news until we got through all the inspections and FHA appraisal because I wanted everything to be pretty certain before writing anything.

The dogs are going to love the HUGE backyard. It's already fenced in, although we do have to make some minor repairs to the gate and to a couple of loose posts. We're pretty excited and I think the dogs will be too once they see their new stomping ground complete with trees which will likely mean lots of squirrels to chase.

One item that I think will not be coming with us is Lady's favorite chair. It's dirty, smells like dog and I never liked it in the first place. To take it's place I'm going to make her a nice comfy patchwork dog bed cover. When it's done I'll put it over a waterproof lining that I bought at PetSmart almost a year ago and stuff it with cedar chips. They're supposed to be quite comfy, smell nice to us and ward off fleas.

Lady is still doing fine

2010-03-27T09:51:00.003-05:00

It's been almost 36 hours since Lady's seizure and she hasn't had another one which is a very good sign.

Hopefully that will be her one and only episode, although I did follow the veterinarian's instructions by writing down the date of her first seizure and a description of what happened. Thank you to everyone who expressed their concerns.

Lady gave us a scare

2010-03-26T10:36:00.000-05:00

Last night I went from praising Lady for squeaking a toy for the first time in her life to rushing her off to the vet within five minutes.

Somewhere in between Lady abandoning the toy in favor of my attention and me turning my back for a second, she started rubbing at her face and holding her paw up. Her leg she was rubbing with was jutted out so far at the shoulder joint it almost looked like it may have been out of its socket. Her mouth was also contorted and quivering, as if she was in pain.

When I picked Lady up her body was very stiff and ridged. I couldn't find any immediate injuries so I rushed her to Animal Emergency Center to see if they could figure out what was wrong.

She was back to normal by the time we arrived and all her vitals were good, so the veterinarian believes she had a seizure. She's never had one before that I know of, and the vet said she could never have another one again or she could have five more today. It's just not something they can predict.

If she is going to have another one, it's likely going to happen within the first 24 hours of the first one, so I was up until 3 a.m. with her, and had her sleep in the bed with us, hoping I'd wake up if she started to have the strange body movements again.

So far she's been fine and we've already received a follow up call from our regular veterinarian. We're supposed to bring her back in for tests and medicine if she does have another one. My husband works second shift, so there will only be about 30 minutes today that she'll be home alone while our work schedules overlap which is good.

Happy Birthday Einstein

2010-03-16T09:34:00.003-05:00

Einstein's birthday was Sunday, or rather the real Albert Einstein's birthday was Sunday, so that's the day we picked for our Einstein's birthday since we don't know when it is.

When we got Einstein last year, the shelter thought he was seven. A vet estimated his age at four when I took him in for a pulled muscle in his leg over the summer. Then a couple weeks ago our vet said that judging by the advancement of tooth decay, Einstein was probably closer to seven than four. So long story short, we also have no idea if Einstein is five, eight, or somewhere in between.

We think he's toward the younger end of the span because he still LOVES to play, but he does get tired easily, so who knows. We love him no matter what age he is, especially considering part of my argument about why we should adopt Einstein in the first place was because as a senior dog, his chances of getting out of the shelter were slim.

How many of you have to guess how old your dogs are and decide when their birthdays are for them?

The dogs missed me last weekend

2010-03-08T11:05:00.002-06:00

When I was growing up we had a black cocker spaniel named Princess. Whenever we'd leave on vacation and Princess didn't come with, she'd snub my mother for a few days when we returned. It was almost like she was letting my mom know that she was not happy being left behind.

That is not the case with my brood. I spent the weekend at the Mississippi Valley Quilt Guild Retreat, leaving the dogs at home with my husband. He did request that I stop at home to feed the dogs on Saturday when I came back into town, because Lady refused to eat breakfast that morning. But otherwise the dogs did well in my absence and were elated when I returned on Sunday.

All three dogs climbed in my lap and Einstein gave me big kisses, a treat he usually reserves for Adam, his favorite. Sophia and Lady wouldn't let me out of their sight the rest of the evening and they all got really excited when we got their leashes out to take them on a car ride to check out some houses.

But I really knew I was missed when Einstein went to bed when I did, instead of staying up with Adam which is his normal routine. Instead he cuddled with me.

Einstein - Post bath

2010-02-26T13:13:00.001-06:00

Einstein covered himself in mud outside. Now clean, and soaking wet, he is rubbing his body over every surface in the house.

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Sophia's story

2010-02-26T12:18:00.003-06:00

Three years ago I took home a seven-pound, ball of fur and energy.

It was two days before I started by first job, which meant I had fulfilled my parents' requirements for me to get a dog: That I get a job that wouldn't require me to live at home.

My father, who had never owned a boy dog and thought they'd mark everything in the room, talked me out of adopting a 70-pound plott hound named Max that I walked every week at the Quad-City Animal Welfare Center. Max was later adopted, and with all the tiny places I've lived since graduating from college, it really is a good thing I didn't get such a large dog.

So I bought Sophia from a responsible breeder. She was the last one left from her litter and they called her Stormy, because to call her a handful was an understatement.

The first night I had her, I put her in a newborn baby sweater when we went outside to go to the bathroom because I didn't have a dog coat yet. I had to roll the sleeves up because they were too long.

The first time I left her alone for an hour, I came home to find her sitting in her crate covered in poop. When I showered to get ready for work the next day, I got out 15 minutes later to find the same scene. She was so used to being around other dogs and people all the time that whenever she was left alone she'd freak out, poop and throw herself around the crate until she exhausted herself.

So after reading several articles online and a making frantic call to my mother, I started vigorously playing with her before I had to leave until she fell asleep. Then I carefully placed her in her crate so I wouldn't wake her and put a Kong filled with peanut butter to distract her when she woke up and I was gone. It worked.

Sophia demanded to be the center of attention. When my husband and I started dating a few months after I got her, she jumped in between us during our first kiss. She peed on the bed multiple times to show she was ticked that she had to share. But she loves Adam and it was when I said just that when Sophia happily greeted him after he had gotten back from a trip that he told me he loved me for the first time.

Now that we've adopted Einstein and Lady, both older than her, there is no question that she is the alpha dog in the house. Whenever we pet another dog, Sophia comes running, to make sure she doesn't miss out on the love. And whenever she gets to sleep in the bed, she always sleeps on top of me, as if to say, "She was mine first."

But I couldn't imagine not having the little terror that forced me to be a cleaner person, lest she eat the shoes I left on the floor, the dog that knows all her commands, but chooses not to listen to them when I want her to come in from outside, and who usually beats dogs three times her size in a foot race at the dog park.

And if it weren't for Sophia, I wouldn't have gotten Lady so Sophia could have a friend, which then led me to become passionate about rescue dogs, adopt Einstein and foster Smokey and Molly. So really, the seven-pound ball of fur and energy started it all.

The kids strike again

2010-02-19T15:07:00.001-06:00

The kids next door have escalated their habit of throwing trash over the fence to kicking out entire boards.

The hole was large enough for the dogs to get through, so I replaced the broken one and called my landlord. Maybe a call from him to their landlord might carry more weight since their mother only seemed annoyed with me when I brought over a handful of crap the kids tossed over a couple days ago.

I hate to be the pesky neighbor, but this is getting a little ridiculous.

Adventures with an expensive tummyache and a pet skunk

2010-02-18T11:50:00.001-06:00

Sophia refused her fourth meal in as many days last night.

Normally she gobbles her food down as fast as possible and then tries to steal Einstein and Lady's food, so I knew something was wrong. She also reeked of fish food even though we don't have fish.

Since we've had an ongoing problem with the kids next door throwing trash and potentially hazardous objects over the fence, I couldn't be certain that she hadn't eaten anything that either could have gotten stuck on its way out or was toxic to her.

Previous experience has taught me that when a dog does eat something it's not supposed to, time is of the essence when it comes to getting it out, so I took her to the Animal Emergency Center of the Quad-Cities in Bettendorf.

While we were there, several other owners brought in animals you'd expect to see at an emergency veterinary clinic. There was a Doberman with a severed artery and a nine-year-old black Lab that also had stopped eating and had to be carried in by its owner.

Then there was a pet skunk. I wasn't sure I had heard correctly as the receptionist got off the phone with the owners when they called before bringing the skunk in. But sure enough, a few minutes later a young couple arrived holding a skunk like it was a baby.

The skunk was completely content to lie there, swaddled in its owners' arms. I think I've officially seen everything now.

Meanwhile, X-rays and blood work revealed that Sophia's intestines were inflamed and that her pancreatic levels were elevated, which means she either has a very expensive tummyache or she has pancreatitis. The latter diagnosis is unlikely because she doesn't have access to wild animal feces. Also, she's still young and of a good body weight, so she's not really a candidate to get that disease.

We were sent home with special food that I had to give her a little bit of every couple of hours, some anti-nausea pills and instructions to go to our regular vet for a pancreatitis test if Sophia wasn't back to normal by today.

This morning, she ate normally, which included an attempt to steal Einstein's food, and has kept it down so far. So, hopefully she just had one expensive tummyache because pancreatitis is not only serious, but it sounds like we'd be kissing our down-payment fund goodbye if she has it. I'll keep you all posted on how she's doing.

Sadie has a home, new name

2010-02-11T12:22:00.003-06:00

My grandparents came out to visit and Sadie greeted them by crawling right up into my grandpa's lap and laying her head on his stomach.

That was about all it took for them to fall in love with her, fill out an adoption application and pick out a new name for her, Molly.

That was two weeks ago. She still needed to be spayed and updated on shots and my grandparents needed to get some doggie essentials since they haven't had one in two decades. But now she's completely vetted and officially crate trained, so I'll be bring her to them when I head home to the Chicago suburbs for a cousin's bridal shower tomorrow.

I've been keeping them posted on her trips to the vet and daily activities, and they seem more excited every time I talk to them. They're both retired so they'll be able to be home with her all day, which Molly will love. They've gotten her plenty of toys and a harness for walking.

I think Sophia will be happy that she can still play with Molly when we visit my grandparents, since the two of them have such a good time running around the yard and wrestling together.

More trouble with the kids next door

2010-02-08T11:08:00.004-06:00

We've been having an ongoing issue with the kids next door. They hop the six-foot fence, they poke around in our mail box, they throw ice at the dogs and there's always a steady stream of trash coming into our yard from theirs.

I've talked with the kids and their mother on several occasions, but it never does any good. I just keep picking up the trash and crossing my fingers that they won't throw over anything that the dogs will eat and get sick from (which has happened in the past).

But last night as I chased Sophia around the yard to retrieve a can of Hawaiian Punch, I came across a large wooden chair leg with a screw sticking out of it. That was it. I'd had enough. I put all the trash in a bag and marched over to the neighbor's house. They were home but didn't answer so I called the police.

There is an officer assigned to our neighborhood and he called me back first thing this morning. I told him I really didn't know what else I could do and was wondering if there could be anything done on his end.

Turns out another police officer is my neighbor's landlord, and judging by the sympathetic tone the officer had as he said I shouldn't have to put up with the nuisance, I think my neighbor is going to be getting a call from her landlord. Hopefully a call from a cop who doubles as a landlord will be enough to get her kids to quit throwing dangerous objects into our yard.