Follow-up Friday: Dog Book, Dog Treats, Dog Ticks

I'm happy to be joining Heart Like a Dog in the follow-up Friday blog hop again this week.  This is the blog hop that lets you wrap up your week and leads you right into the weekend.  Hosted by FUF creator, Jodi at Heart Like a dog and co-hosted this week by Misty Shores Chesapeakes.

So far it has been too cool and rainy to do any real swimming at our house, but maybe that's a good thing!  While we've been waiting for the sun to shine, I've been online window shopping doggie life jackets for Rosie because I'm sure she's going to love it.  However, I'm glad to have stumbled on this blog post from Life in the Dog Lane about Swimmer's Tail in Dogs before we took our first dip in the pool this year.  I'd never heard of it.  It is real and if you have a pool and your dogs swim with you in it, you better check it out!

Live within traveling distance to Kansas City?  One of my favorite places, Wayside Waifs has been selected as one of 50 shelters in the US to compete in the ASPCA/Rachael Ray $100K Challenge.  Wayside's goal is to adopt 1,831 animals by August 31, 2013 and win the cash.  To kick off their efforts, Wayside Waifs is having an "Adopting Around the Clock" event beginning tonight at midnight.  All adoptions are just $25.



Wiener Dog Song: Dog Song Saturday
Just have to say... if you love wiener dogs, you should watch this Doxie dog music video!

Adopt Thor a Bernese Mountain Dog Mix
Three years old, beautiful, and waiting for you in St Louis!  If you're not participating in the Tuesday Tails blog hop, consider joining us.

Thor - Available for adoption at the HSMO

Book Review: It's Just A Dog by Russ Ryan
Russ Ryan is a real dog lover and he's written a charming dog tale with humor and heart.  Be sure to check out our book review, plus enter to win a paperback copy of It's Just A Dog.  Hurry!  Giveaway ends Sunday night midnight.  Plus, if you purchase this book, do it before September 2.  Prior to that date 50% of the sales will be donated to Muttville Senior Dog Rescue!

A barking good dog story by a guy who loves dogs!

As part of the giveaway, I asked readers to comment about how they would feel if their beloved dog came back as a ghost and how their current dog(s) would feel about it.

A few commented that it would scare them, including Amy, Sugar, lennyg.  Several said they'd love it!  I agree with Snoopy about that quote saying love never dies.  Danielle, Christine and Caren... their dogs are their first dogs, so they couldn't answer the question!

Jackie said, "If Bailey came back (our first dog) she would be like, 'hey! How come Rita gets to eat wed food, when all I ever got was kibble?!!'"
I know my Benji would say the same thing!

I've thought a lot about Shelley's comment that she's had dreams of her 20 yr old dog, Penny, coming back as a ghost and Shelley had a chance to tell her what she didn't get to.   Wow.  If Lucy came back as a ghost, I'd feel that way, too.  And I would be thrilled.

Orijen Dog Treats from Chewy.com Product Review
This wasn't the first time we've received dog treats to try from Chewy.com and to say my dogs are fans of Chewy.com is putting it mildly.  There's a double bonus for Jeffie.  Not only does he usually love the dog treats and taste testings, he gets to try to scare the life out of the FedEx man. 

A number of readers commented favorably about Orijen /Champion Pet Foods.  We loved these treats!

The Tick King on a better day!

The Tick King Dog
I published a teaser on Wordless Wednesday.  In fact, on my Facebook page I said:  Moses in the bulrushes?  No.  Jeffie in the cattails.  Almost everyone seemed to think this was a pleasant adventure.  Nope.  Not even for Jeffie.

I am still creepy crawly and so is Jeffie.  We're still picking/finding ticks from this little adventure.  Yesterday I found 3 seed ticks on him.  Dead, but still...  This year we realized the ticks were going to be bad.  The dogs have now had 2 (monthly) applications of Frontline.  Usually we do not have to apply any topicals.

Most of the ticks are just catching a ride.  But not all.

Here's the real problem:  though Frontline does kill them if they're sucked in and does seem to kind of repel them... it takes only a few hours for disease to transfer from the tick to the host once they've sucked in.

Add to that, though Frontline kills the ticks that manage to attach, I'm now finding dead ticks on Jeffie.  

Smart ticks.  Though Rudy and Rosie would be more tender morsels, Jeffie's wild fur coat makes a perfect place to run and hide.  Jeffie now endures many (way too many if you ask him) "tick checks" a day.  

I'm really not sure how many ticks total there were.  I stopped counting at 50 and my guess is that was about half way through the "big" removal.

We usually do not even have to apply any topicals to the dogs, in spite of living on a farm in the country.  So, even if you've never had any problems with ticks before, I encourage you to be vigilant.

We're organic gardeners, but this year we're spraying. 


So, what 's your week been like?  Join the Follow-up Friday hop and tell us all about it!



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The Tick King Dog

If you read Talking Dogs yesterday you saw this photo.  Many probably recognized Jeffie. 

A couple of mornings ago, I was out in my studio taking photographs of new jewelry for For Love of a Dog and Bittersweet Ridge.  The south side of my studio is all floor to ceiling windows overlooking our garden, creek and a series of springfed ponds.

My map drawing skills leave a lot to be desired, but this may help:

Something caught my eye and I was startled to see little Miss Rosie between the south garden perimeter fence and the big pond.  She was looking straight at me and I know that she knew she shouldn't be out there.  By the time I made is outside, she was back in the backyard.

I looked for Rudy, who has, in fact, been known to jump the yard fence.  Rudy was up on the deck.  What a good boy!    

How did this happen?  Some idiot left the gates open.  Both the gate from our backyard into the garden AND the gate from the garden over by the greenhouse which leads to pretty much our whole acreage.

So, anyway, I call (and call) for Jeffie...  no Jeffie in sight.

Whoops!  Could that be Jeffie?

 Oh, yeah.  That's Jeffie alright!

Sitting in the most marshy area of the creek, in the middle of cattails.

I forgot to add it to my little map, but there is a gate from the backyard to the creek, which is where I headed.  I'm standing on the edge of the march, calling and coaxing Jeffie.  He would not budge.

I holler for the idiot and he goes into action.  Around the garden he goes, crosses the pond via the bermed road, and advances on Jeffie from the other side of the creek.

He reports that Jeffie is not stuck or hung up in any way.  Jeffie appears to be afraid to venture into the creek, so won't cross it and come back to me and the yard.

Of course, when Jeffie realizes the Dog Daddy is over there on his side, he's happy to oblige all the coaxing and join the Dog Daddy for a walk back home.

Unfortunately, it wasn't until Jeffie had been back in the house for a little while that we noticed the little spots that pretty much covered him.  TICKS!  Lots and lots of the little devils.  We've never picked so many ticks or so fast.  We stopped counting in the 50's.

Thanks to the topical treatment our dogs are sporting this year, the ticks on Jeffie were on the move... to his face, lower legs and feet.

Our blogger friends at My Brown Newfies had just posted a great article about ticks this year.  The tick forecast is:  gonna be a bad one.  We'd already noticed way more ticks than usual, hence the topical treatment this year.  Boy, little did we know!

Still picking a stray tick here or there.  Have run the vac (too much) to catch any that abandoned the good ship Jeffie.  Suspect I'll be creepy crawly for a long time to come.  Needless to say, Jeffie has been banned from sleeping with us.  AND we learned that not only does he not like the doggie swimming pool, our Tick King, Jeffie, is not about to put his feet in a creek! 

The Talking Dogs Tick King, Jeffie

I hate ticks.  They're right up there with ants, but at least I can thank the ants for helping my peonies open!  Even though we live in the country, we've never had a problem and didn't even use any topical applications last year.  As I write this, the Dog Daddy is out picking up chemicals to spray on the backyard and garden fence lines.  Hate to do it, but gotta draw a line.  Literally.