Category Archives: Pet

Two dear friends just adopted two young dogs. They will have the best possible home. I do not pray but have done so for these pups.

One will be a troublemaker as is H and me. The other will be the considerable one who take things in stride, that’s P and me.

Both “owners” have held my feet to the fire and I am better for it, as is my nearly ten year-old dog who loves adults, kids, dogs and cats.

While we’ve tried to achieve legal leash-free areas that has been semi-successful. Now I take my ten year-old dog on short walks on a leash.

Everyone on the positive side of responsible dog owners have dealt with truth and conducted the fight with honor. The four opponents paid off the politicians and we mainly lost.

I am glad to have lost with truth on our side and honor. Unfortunately, given 2,500 petitions against four opponents, we lost with truth and honor. Dee

My new Claddagh ring must be working as with the heart in for being secure in love, the hands surrounding it with friendship and the crown giving trust I am more secure in my future.

Thank you Ms. Liz. I had to look it up and find one and even order it so do the sword dance one more time for my double nickel birthday. I’ll sing an Irish song for you. How about Scot… you take the low road and I’ll take the high road. Loch Lomond of course. Our water came from there, unfiltered and cold as could be.

Before I met my husband of nearly 11 years we talked about children. I said we needed to get a dog first. That hip-less dog will be ten in a couple of months.

Yes, there’s family, teachers. friends and love that come into one’s life. Who made me grow up? My dogs and cats. Each taught me something. Each went outside the box. Yes, all were rescues and as they’ve done me proud I hope I did as much for them as they did for me. They taught me love, honor, forgiveness and joy.

Nathan talked and always got the last word in. Chani was the mother of all dogs, and cats and was calmed of uniformed personnel and children when all the kids loved her and gave the park a tree in her memory.  Mickey jumped into Chani’s bed and she did everything a good mom would do. He caught post-it notes and retrieved them at my feet. All the dogs in the neighborhood came to visit him to play. I’d get calls early in the morning asking if a certain dog was at my door. Yep.

Sadly they’re all gone for a decade. We’ve not been here long but everyone knows my dog Zoe, Greek for “life,” and even little kids want to meet her. She has also  taught me lessons of patience, love, the need for some obedience and making a good dinner. Seeing my husband with her is joy, personified. Dee

Yes, my mother died five years ago but she never loved me. She cared for me as she needed to do but never loved me.

My husband loves me and has for over 12 years. My dog loves me and has for nearly ten years.

Today I remember two people I’ve had a contentious relationship with for over fifteen years. They just lost their dear dog. I know what it’s like to lose a loved pet and hold them through their final moments. That’s the first time I got the last word with my talking cat, and it wasn’t pleasant.

I felt his spirit go through me. About eight hours after my dearest dog died I felt the same. H and P please remember the good things and time you had together. Yes, she barked at me when you visited. No big deal.

Sometimes people think family pets don’t matter. Dr. Dog told me a backyard dog is a dog without a home. Our dog is old and has no hips. She is lifted to our bed nightly. She is a member of the family and would  be missed as is Miss S.

Condolences, our dear friends. S will be missed. Dee

I keep a couple around. Husband likes the big handle leash and I like a little leather one. A few weeks ago hanging on a hook the clasp on the one she’s had for nearly ten years split in two hanging there and I found the other half on the mat by my shoes.

Our nearly 10 year-old hip-less wonder-dog lost a collar buckle that was nearly her age. We met a lady with a Silken Windhound and since I’ve worked with Greyhounds for years I loved her collar.

Zoe’s just arrived and is gold Asian silk, hand-stitched, a Martingale collar with no buckle that will help me with the leather no-stitches leash so when a squirrel teases her I am in control. The Martingale is two loops and no buckle for extra control, especially usable for dogs with small necks and heads who tend to look for prey. It will take our dog through her final years.

My dog looks like a fox and can turn her head and get out of a collar. This new one is 1.5″ thick, gold and white with a dragon pattern and looks great on her. I’ll have to wait for the rain to stop before really trying it out to see if it’s squirrel-worthy.

Over the past few days I’ve been pulling plugs of fur off Zoe outside hoping to keep the squirrels safe and warm (with Zoe’s nearly lost undercoat before she grows the next one, next week) as she needs to pay them back. Hope it will be used in their various apartments for the winter. It’s the least I can do.

Wish I could send you a photo. The collar is Asian silk, handmade and I figure Zoe deserves it after ten years with the other. We need to give it to her after all those years of her pestering and loving us. Take care, Dee

September 26 is the day to remember shelter pets. We’re supposed to light a candle for those who have died due to owner neglect or lack of space in shelters so they were euthanized. I believe this campaign is wrong and will not donate my time or money or effort toward it.

Why? I’ve had one stray and three shelter animals in my life for 20 years, not all together. Some I’ve adopted have died regardless of kind care, great food and respect and just because they were old and I’d had them for over 10-15 years after abuse and shelter care and they’d had no real health care but spay/neuter at a shelter.

This should be for the shelter pets who lived as well. Yes, I’ll light four candles for the rescues I’ve had over the past 20 years and one for another rescue anywhere with a loving owner. That is my pledge.

We had a pact in our neighborhood. I had dogs and cats. Another neighbor had birds and reptiles. I’d bring the lost or tossed dog or cat to the nearest shelter and they knew me by now. They placed me in the euthanasia room, where I could see the chart for the day’s executions, the pet must have sensed the odor, and they used the universal scanner to find the chip that could find the owner.

Usually they did find the owner. We only had to adopt one cat, which whom I shared custody with a neighbor and it was only a couple of weeks until we found him a good home. We named him George, why, after years, I do not recall.

Often to raise money shelters give sad stories of abandoned and abused pets. I worked as a volunteer for one shelter for several years in many areas including dogs, cats, development, public relations, special events/volunteer management.

Do you know that people who are supposed to represent us in Washington are trying to shut down the government (which means your great-aunt won’t get her Social Security next month) in order to keep seniors, the poor and middle class from buying health insurance?

We have to make a change and Maddies’ Fund and SFSPCA and others did that for shelter animals but it has to go further as the money train must end, the training wheels need to come off.

Unfortunately people care is far behind dog and cat care. But it must change as well and will be a difficult road to know that caring for all from a young age through retirement and beyond is something rich people don’t want us to have.

When I bring my dog to the vet I get to be there. When my cat died, I held him in my arms. When my dog died the neighborhood gave a tree to the city in her memory. Today, people know my dog’s name but when I take her to get her nails trimmed I go to a groomer to cut nail costs by 2/3 by being the “tech” and calming her for the two minutes it takes.

Yes, we pay cash for our dog’s vet expenses, both hip removals, and nail-cutting. I bathe and groom her myself. Our nation had designed a system in which in preparation for ACA employers have cut back on their healthcare options and are forcing employees into HSA’s or making workers part-time so no health insurance whatsoever for a single mom and her kid. No-one with a pre-existing condition can get health insurance. No-one who is middle class can afford COBRA if they’re laid off. No poor person can afford much at all.

Dear anti-ACA, cash is not the solution. We pay cash for insurance because there is a risk pool and a lot of money to be made. Insurance doesn’t insure people, it makes investments on our premiums, denies claims then begs the government for a bailout and gets one. In the USA, we treat animals better than people. Dee