I Have Joined Rover.com!

I am very excited about joining Rover.com, a Seattle-based website connecting pet sitters with dog owners.

Rover.com is a new website built on the idea that people who truly love dogs make the best sitters. Dog owners may expand their list of available sitters from traditional kennels to a range of affordable options including fellow dog owners, professional sitters and dog boarders, or canine enthusiasts who would simply love to share their weekend with a furry new friend.

That describes me exactly! Those of you who have used my services know how much I love pets and how dedicated I am to making them feel as comfortable as possible while their owners are away. For those of you who haven’t met me yet, I hope I have the chance to show you my enthusiasm and professionalism soon!

Visit my website or my profile on Rover.com to read more about how I may be able to meet your pet sitting needs.

If Dogs Could Talk

This was written by Sharon Hampton @ www.pupbuds.com

I am a dog. I am a living, breathing animal. I feel pain, joy, love, fear, and pleasure. I am not a thing. If I am hit, I will bruise, I will bleed, I will break, I will feel pain.

I am not a thing. I am a dog. I enjoy playtime, walk time, but more than anything I enjoy time with my pack – my family – my people. I want nothing more than to be by the side of my human.  I want to sleep where you sleep and walk where you walk. I am a dog and I feel love and crave companionship.

I enjoy the touch of a kind hand and the softness of a good bed. I want to be inside of the home with my family, not stuck on the end of a chain or alone in a kennel or fenced yard for hours on end. I was born to be a companion, not to live a life of solitude. I get too cold and I get too hot. I experience hunger and thirst. I am a living creature, a thing.

When you leave, I want to go with you. If I stay behind, I will eagerly await your return. I long for the sound of your voice. I will do most anything to please you. I live to be your treasured companion. I am a dog. My actions are not dictated by money, greed,
or hatred. I do not know prejudice. I live in the moment and am ruled by love and loyalty.

Do not mistake me for a mindless object. I can feel and I can think. I can experience more than physical pain, I can feel fear and joy, I can feel love and confusion, I have emotions. I understand perhaps more than you do. I am able to comprehend the words you speak to me, but you are not always able to understand me.

I am a dog. I am not able to care for myself without your help. If you choose to tie me up and refuse to feed me, I will starve. If you abandon me on a rural road, I will experience fear and loneliness. I will search for you and wonder why I have been left behind. I am not a piece of property to be dumped and forgotten. If you choose to leave me at a shelter, I will be frightened and bewildered. I will watch for your return with every footfall that approaches my kennel run.

I am a dog – a living, breathing creature. If you choose to take me home, please provide me with the things that I need to keep me healthy and happy. Provide me with good food, clean water, warm shelter, and your love. Do not abandon me. Do not kick me. Do not dump me when your life gets too busy. Make a commitment to me for the entirety of my life or do not take me home in the first place.

If you desert me, I do not have the means to care for myself. I am at the mercy of the kindness of people – if I fall into the wrong hands, my life will be ruined. I will experience pain, fear, and loneliness. If I wind up in an animal shelter, I have only my eyes to implore someone to save me, and my tail to show you that I am a friend. If that is not good enough, I will die.

I am a dog. I want to give and receive love. I want to live. I am not a thing. I am not a piece of property.  Please do not discard me. Please treat me with kindness, love, and respect. I promise to repay you with unconditional love for as long as I live.

Greta’s Story

This is the story of Greta, a German Shorthair Pointer that I have the privilege of caring for.  This story is told by her owner.

This is not my story, but it certainly begins with me. I was
born into a dog-less household and despite 20 years of pleading for a pup, my
effort fell on deaf ears. When I graduated college, I had a traveling job and
was never able to fill the need for a four-legged companion in my life. My next
stop was New York City, hardly the place to raise
an active dog so the opportunity was delayed further. When Jenn and I got
engaged and agreed to move west, it was the first time I knew I would have a
dog in my life; after all, Jenn came from a long family dog tradition.

Jenn and I agreed that we would get two dogs, and my first would be a puppy.
Jenn wanted me to go through that experience. We were waiting for Tyr, our
younger GSP, to enter the world when we learned about Greta. Greta came to us
through the Jackson Hole Animal Shelter and her
life prior to our adopting her was not one filled with love.

Greta

If you believe the limited documentation on Greta, today she would be at least
13 years old. The earliest records we have of her are from 2001. We adopted her
in 2006, meaning there are at least seven years unaccounted for. While we would
like to believe her first four years were happy ones, wh know the three years
prior to our adoption were down right tragic involving two owners, a foster, a
shotgun and a very benevolent veterinarian.

Despite her breed, Greta is not an optimal hunting dog. She was likely a litter
runt as evidenced by her much lower and stockier build than a standard GSP,
despite appearing to be a pure bloodlines. She has a great nose but her prey
instinct is incredible, meaning she has periods where her ability to listen are
mitigated by her desire to hunt small animals on her own. It was possibly this
combination of personality traits that led to Greta being shot and abandoned in
2004, potentially after a bad day in the field coupled with too much alcohol,
but this is merely speculation (save for the shotgun part). Luckily for Greta
her owner had wayward aim and the scared and wounded dog was able to escape
into the backwoods of Star Valley, Wyoming.

While it is unclear how long Greta lived as a stray, what is known is that a
good Samaritan scooped up the starving and wounded GSP and delivered her to a
veterinarian in Star Valley. The vet removed the majority of the buckshot from
Greta’s torso, legs and abdomen, some of the pellets remain in her today and
are readily identifiable. She was turned over to the Jackson Hole Animal
Shelter for foster and adoption. Unfortunately for Greta a scared, untrusting,
and injured dog is not a top candidate for adoption.

After a foster period during which Greta fully healed, she was finally adopted
by a local man and the team at the shelter could not have been happier.
Unfortunately, a year later that same man returned Greta proffering some
unfathomable excuse why he could not longer keep her; the shelter team was
devastated. Greta went back out on foster and waited for her luck to again
turn, but her age and circumstance continued to make her a tough case.

When Jenn found out about Greta’s situation, we immediately knew we wanted to
adopt her. We knew we were the right people to restore this dogs faith in
humanity and enable her to realize her potential. There were a number of
hurdles between our decision and the time we were able to make her part of our
family, but the wait was well worth it.

Greta’s transformation was slow and involved a lot of time, love and patience,
but today she is one of the most remarkable dogs anyone has ever met. Most
people put her age at 7 – 8 based on her appearance, strength and energy. In
short everyone loves Greta, and in turn Greta loves everyone. The addition of
Tyr was of great value to Greta, as Tyr had only experienced love all her life.
Tyr taught Greta how to play, manipulate her owners into feeding her more (I
didn’t say it was all good), and gave her a partner to chase furry rodents
with. With a partner in crime, so to speak, Greta reached even greater heights.

Tyr & Greta

I can’t image our lives without Greta and making her happy is one of the
greatest achievements of our lives to date.

Happy Take Your Dog to Work Day!

I just realized that it is national Take Your Dog to Work Day! As a pet nanny, I get to be with dogs every day, but I know a lot of you don’t have that luxury. I hope that today you are able to spend quality time at work with your own pooch!

My daughter works at pet insurance company Trupanion and she is also able to take her dog to work every day. She spends all day with lots of different dogs and absolutely loves it! We are both firm believers that dogs can actually increase productivity in the workplace. I mean, what better stress reliever is there than a lick on the face or a moment playing fetch?

Today, my daughter posted some pictures of some of the office dogs on the Trupanion blog and I asked her if I could share them here as well. Check out all these sweet faces!

Dude the French Bulldog and Stanley the Min Pin

Ellie the Mixed Breed and Batman the Miniature Schnauzer

Hilda the French Bulldog

Safari the Rhodesian Ridgeback

Were you able to take your dog to work today?

Earth Day!

Please help Mother Earth

 

Earth Day: 10 Eco-Friendly Choices for Your Dog

Today, I was thinking about the choices that we make for our dogs and how they can have an impact on our planet. With today’s holiday in mind, I decided to look into ways that can make us more Earth-conscious when it comes to taking care of our dog.

 1. Try cleaning up your dog’s mess inside with vinegar and water or all-natural enzyme-based cleaners instead of harsh chemicals.

2. Buy your dog products at green stores. Find out if they sell all-natural materials and if they recycle.

3. Bake your own dog treats using all-natural ingredients- you will save the environment by using less packaging and your dog will love the taste of fresh treats!

4. Clean up their poop with biodegradable bags or recycle fruit and veggie bags from the grocery store.

5. Make the switch to all-natural dog food. Find brands that use meat and vegetables from sustainable food sources. Certified organic dog food means less chemicals and more nutrition for your dog AND a friendlier impact on the environment.

6. Make your own dog food. You can control the ingredients that go into your dog’s food by being a pet chef! Instead of throwing away the leftover veggies find a way to use them in your dog’s next dish.

7. Spay or neuter your pet. This is one of the easiest things that you can do to help the environment by reducing the number of unwanted dogs without caregivers.

8. Make your own dog bed. Instead of buying a new one, use old pillows and fabric to fashion a new bed with a lot of personality for your dog.

9. Buy recycled toys for your dog. Many pet stores and all-natural stores now have pet toys made from recyclable materials.

10. Use Earth-friendly grooming products that won’t have a negative impact when you wash your dog. 

If you do just one of these suggestions it will help the environment.  Happy Earth Day!!!

Ringo

I have to share this story about one of the dogs I have the privilage of watching.  He’s a Bernese Aussie mix named Ringo and I’ve been watching him, along with the new addition to their family, a Bernese Golden mix puppy named Stella, while their “mom” is away helping her ailing parents.  Despite his missing eye and scarred face, Ringo is a beautiful gentle giant.  He’s so sweet and loving it’s hard to believe the life he had before coming to live in this loving home.  Here’s his story as told by the wonderful person who rescued Ringo.

Ringo’s rescue

Ringo came into rescue a week before New Years, after his owners were threatened with cruelty and neglect charges.

For four years, they’d allowed their intact, male Akita to routinely attack and tear up this Berner, and had never provided proper veterinary care.  Thanks to the intervention of a veterinarian and the local animal shelter, he was taken out of an awful situation and released to rescue.

He was in bad shape: his entire head, neck, shoulders, and right rump were extremely swollen from the numerous severe wounds received in the latest attack; grossly overweight; coarse wiry reddish coat; rat tail; blind bulging eye from a prior untreated injury; and absolutely filthy. The shelter workers said that the owners had claimed he was a purebred Bernese. When I first went to evaluate him, two things stood out: he was in such bad shape physically that it was hard to recognize him as a Bernese, and he had such classic Bernese behaviors that he had to indeed be one.

I looked at pictures the shelter had of him from 2 years prior. It was hard to believe that the young Berner looking at me from the photo was the same dog in front of me. We immediately named him Ringo for his extreme ringii markings. Two days later, he went straight from the shelter to the bathing parlor, and then to the vet. After three shampoo sessions, the water no longer ran black, and he smelled much better! Then he was off to the veterinarian for a blood workup and in-depth exam.

We suspected that he was low thyroid, and the vet agreed. He also recommended that the eye be removed since it could not be saved and was causing pain. The next day, the blood tests showed him to be extremely low thyroid, and medication was started. He was healthy enough to be neutered and to have the damaged eye removed. Bless the shelter vet who performed both surgeries! He did such a good job that Ringo didn’t have the bad swelling I’d seen with other eye-removal surgeries.

Ringo went to temporary foster mom Lisa for intensive nursing care while he recovered from surgery, and then to long-term foster mom Sandi for further rehabilitation. He blossomed under their care. Six months later, he looked like a new dog. He’d gone from grossly overweight to only mildly overweight, had begun growing a normal coat and you could see that he was indeed a Berner.

It took us a while to find him the right home. There weren’t a lot of people interested in a dog that wasn’t the classic Bernese beauty. Thankfully, his forever mom, Randi, easily saw beyond his slightly battered body and recognized what a loving affectionate dog he is.  Randi dotes on Ringo, and he has responded with absolute devotion. Ringo has shown amazing adaptability and trust of humans.  His favorite things to do are to cuddle and play with his squeaky toys.  He and Randi are attending training classes. Although he’s good with females and neutered males, Ringo has an understandable fear-aggression towards large, intact, male dogs.  With Randi’s support, he’s working through it. She has plans for him to certify as a therapy dog.

Beautiful Ringo

How My Pet’s Love is My Holiday Gift

Trupanion Pet Insurance is having a blog contest and I decided to enter it.  I thought this holiday season would be a great time to share with all of you how important pets are to me, how much I love pet sitting and why they are such a wonderful holiday gift to me.

I was fortunate enough to have been raised having pets in our family.  Dad always had his hunting dogs, we had Tinkerbelle our cat, and mom had her canary Sugarfoot.  I was one of those kids who loved all animals and feared none.  Any dog on the street or cat in a tree, I was there to help.  I remember one time my dad and I went to a horse corral when I was very young and while Dad wasn’t looking I walked into the corral and right up to the horses.  My dad about had a heart attack knowing that the huge horses could have crushed me, but I think the animals must have sensed that I was no threat to them and were just so gentle.  I have my parents to thank for always having pets around so I could develop the love I had for them.

We even had a pet skunk when I was about 8 years old.  Dad found out about a man who raised and de-scented skunks so of course he had to get us one.  My sisters and I had Flower (we had to name him Flower, it was during the Bambi movie years) for many years and even took him to “show and tell” at school.  I’m pretty sure we were the only students who ever brought a skunk to school!

My sisters with our pet skunk Flower

Over the years our cat Tinkerbelle had several litters of kittens.  We always had a waiting list of people who wanted them.  In one litter there was a kitten that she rejected.  I kept putting the little kitten back in the basket with her until eventually she started feeding him.  We later found out the kitten had a tumor.  Well, when mom was putting the kittens up for adoption I couldn’t bear to let this one go.  Mom insisted I couldn’t keep him but I persisted until she finally gave in.  I took Smokey with me when I got married and loved him until he died.

Over the years my children had several pets as they were growing up and now in their adult lives share the love of pets that I have.  My son worked for the Humane Society for several years and adopted many dogs that otherwise would have been euthanized.  He and his family now have a mini farm with two very happy dogs, a cat and several chickens.

My daughter has been involved in Italian Greyhound rescue and has played a  big part in saving the lives of several sweet, sweet dogs that wouldn’t have made it without her help.  She and her husband now have two adorable, very spoiled dogs.

And I decided to take an early retirement and spend my time loving and caring for other peoples dogs, cats, birds, chickens and any other kinds of animals that they love and are in need of being cared for.  I consider all of the pets I care for my own and I’m so thankful that I get to share my love for them.  They definitely give it back 100%plus so yes; all of these pets’ love is definitely my holiday gift!

The gift that keeps on giving!

Guest Post: Pet Insurance

This guest post comes from Heather Kalinowski, a pet lover and internet journalist at pet insurance company Trupanion.

No one wants to think of their beloved dog or cat getting sick or injured. We like to think we can protect them from everything that can cause them harm. I was like that. I prided myself on taking extra special care of my dog, keeping her out of danger, making sure she was up to date on all her vaccinations, and never allowing her to get in contact with a sick dog. I even carried her in a dog sling when there were a lot of people around, or when there were potential dangers on the ground.

But unfortuantely, I learned that we can’t protect our pets from everything. My dog ended up developing an auto-immune disorder, which is something I never could have protected her from, never could have predicted, never could have added to a list of ‘possible dangers to keep her away from’. She developed it not because of anything I did or didn’t do – or anything she did. It just happened based on heredity and genetics. And diagnosis and treatment was costly. Extremely costly - in the thousands of dollars.

I shed a lot of tears and lost a lot of sleep during those months she was in and out of the hospital. But luckily, I had pet insurance so I was able to make all my decisions based on what was best for her, not what I could actually afford at the time. We never want to have to put a price on our pets’ lives, and because I had pet insurance, I didn’t have to. And now my sweet little pup is doing well.

Now, it’s true that pet insurance only becomes financially beneficial if something actually happens to your pet. I have a second dog who I have insured as well, and (knock on wood) I haven’t had to submit a claim yet. But just as with human insurance, while you can’t predict if you’re ever going to need it, you don’t want to be caught without it when you do.

Here are some common claims we see here at Trupanion, and the costs associated with each:

1. Patellar Luxation – A condition that occurs when the kneecap moves in and out of place, which can cause lameness. Cost: $600 – $2,000+
2. Glaucoma - Just like with humans, this is an eye condition in which excessive fluid buildup causes increased pressure which may damage the optic nerve and lead to progressive loss of vision. Cost: $1,400 – $3,000
3. Ingestion of a Foreign Body – Our furry friends are curious and like to eat things they shouldn’t be eating. Sometimes this can require surgery. Cost: $2,000 – $3,000
4. Portacaval Shunt – A condition in which the embryonic blood vessel in the liver fails to go away after the puppy or kitten is born. As a result, blood bypasses the liver and never gets detoxified. This causes a litany of issues, including neurological symptoms. Cost: $6,000 – $7,000
5. Seizures - Seizures can be caused by a number of issues, including epilepsy, brain tumors, and portacaval shunts. Cost: $1,000 – $2,000

Pet insurance can give you peace of mind if your beloved pet develops any of these conditions, and more. And remember that if you only invest in pet insurance after a pet becomes sick or injured, it’s too late to receive reimbursement for that particular condition. Invest early to ensure that you are covered for any and all future health issues.

What caused your most expensive trip to the vet?

Blogging Has Gone to the Dogs

I just found out that Pedigree has a new campaign called ‘Write a Post, Help a Dog’. Basically, for every blog post written that mentions the campaign, Pedigree will donate a bag of new PEDIGREE Healthy Longevity Food for Dogs to shelters nationwide. Well, I couldn’t say no to helping out shelter dogs! #dogsrule

According to Pedigree, more than 4 million dogs wind up homeless each year. Four million! And unfortunately, we all know that there are not 4 million families out there looking to adopt a pet, so many of these dogs are euthanized simple because there is not enough room for them.

This campaign is dedicated to educating the nation not only about the quantity, but the quality, of shelter dogs. Shelter dogs come in all shapes and sizes. Some are purebreds. Some are lovable mutts. Some are small puppies. Some are full-sized grown-ups. And each one of them has his own individual personality and disposition. And while shelter workers will offer plenty of advice and guidance on which dog is right for you, in the end, it’s your choice. But no matter what age, gender, color or breed your new dog ends up being, that dog should be treated like a member of your family. Because every shelter dog deserves a good home.

I have nannied for many dogs, and a lot of those dogs have come from shelters or rescue groups. I can testify that these dogs are wonderful pets that provide all the love, loyalty, and personality that you see from dogs from breeders. Don’t get me wrong – I’m not against breeders. Responsible breeders take care of their dogs, and most importantly, will take the dog back at any time if the owner decides to give him up. (Therefore not leading to more shelter pets.) But, I am saying that there are fabulous dogs right now in your local shelter waiting for their forever home. Please consider them if you are looking to add a dog to your family.

The PEDIGREE Adoption Drive is also raising awareness about awesome homeless dogs by donating a bowl of food to a shelter dog for every person who becomes a “Fan” or “Likes” the PEDIGREE Adoption Drive on Facebook. So check that out as well and let’s help shelter dogs!