Just a Dog

                                                                  Botanicaldog.com

JUST A DOG

From time to time, people tell me, "lighten up, it's just a dog,"
or "that's a lot of money for just a dog."

They don't understand the distance travelled, the time spent,
or the costs involved for "just a dog."

Some of my proudest moments have come about with "just a dog."

Many hours have passed and my only company was "just a dog,"
but I did not once feel slighted.

Some of my saddest moments have been brought about by
"just a dog," and in those days of darkness, the gentle touch
of "just a dog" gave me comfort and reason to overcome the day.

If you, too, think it's "just a dog," then you probably understand
phrases like "just a friend," "just a sunrise," or "just a promise."

"Just a dog" brings into my life the very essence of friendship,
trust, and pure unbridled joy.
"Just a dog" brings out the compassion and patience
that make me a better person.
Because of "just a dog" I will rise early, take long walks and look
longingly to the future.

So for me and folks like me, it's not "just a dog"
but an embodiment of all the hopes and dreams of the future,
the fond memories of the past, and the pure joy of the moment.

"Just a dog" brings out what's good in me and diverts my thoughts
away from myself and the worries of the day.

I hope that someday they can understand that its' not "just a dog"
but the thing that gives me humanity and keeps me from being
"just a man" or "just a woman."

So the next time you hear the phrase "just a dog,"
just smile,
because they "just don't understand."

~Unknown Author~

100 ways you can help Save a shelter dog or shelter cats Life

Can you:
1. Transport a dog?
2. Donate a dog bed or towels or other bedding items?
3. Donate money?
4. Donate a Kong? A Nylabone? A Hercules?
5. Donate a crate?
6. Donate an x-pen or baby gates?
7. Donate a food dish or a stainless bucket for a crate?
8. Donate a leash?
9. Donate a collar?
10. Donate some treats or a bag of food?
11. Donate a halti or promise collar or a gentle leader?
12. Walk a dog?
13. Groom a dog?
14. Donate some grooming supplies (shampoos, combs, brushes, etc.)?
15. Go to the local shelter and see if that dog is the breed the shelter says it is or go with rescue to be a second opinion on the dog?
16. Make a few phone calls?
17. Mail out applications to people who've requested them?
18. Provide local vet clinics with contact information or educational materials on responsible pet ownership?
19. Drive a dog to and from vet appointments?
20. Donate long distance calling cards?
21. Donate the use of your scanner or digital camera?
22. Donate the use of a photocopier?
23. Attend public education days & try to educate people on responsible pet ownership?
24. Donate a gift certificate to a pet store?
25. Donate a raffle item if your club is holding a fund raiser?
26. Donate flea stuff (Advantage, etc.)?
27. Donate HW pills?
28. Donate a canine first aid kit?
29. Provide a shoulder to cry on when the rescue person is overwhelmed?
30. Pay the boarding fees to board a dog for a week?
31. Be a Santi-paws foster to give the foster a break for a few hours or days?
32. Clip coupons for dog food or treats?
33. Bake some homemade doggie biscuits?
34. Make book purchases through Amazon via a website that contributes commissions earned to a rescue group?
35. Host rescue photos with an information link to your website?
36. Donate time to take good photos of foster dogs for adoption flyers, etc.?
37. Conduct a home visit or accompany a rescue person on the home visit?
38. Go with rescue person to the vet to help if there is more than one dog?
39. Have a yard sale and donate the money to rescue?
40. Be a volunteer to do a rescue in your area?
41. Take advantage of a promotion on the web or store offering a free ID tag & instead of getting it for your own dog, have the tag inscribed with your Club's name & phone number to contact?
42. Talk to all of your friends about adopting and fostering rescue dogs?
43. Donate vet services or donate a spay or neuter each year or some vaccinations?
44. Interview vets to encourage them to offer discounts to rescues?
45. Write a column for your local newspaper or club newsletter on dogs currently looking for homes or ways to help rescue?
46. Take photos of dogs available for adoption for use by the Club?
47. Maintain website listing/showing dogs available?
48. Help organize and run fundraising events?
49. Help maintain paperwork files associated with each dog or enter info into a database?
50. Tattoo a rescue dog?
51. Loan your carpet steam cleaner to someone who fostered a dog that was sick or marked in the house?
52. Microchip a rescue dog?
53. Donate a bottle of bleach or other cleaning products?
54. Donate or loan a portable dog run to someone who doesn't have a quarantine area for a dog that has an unknown vaccination history and has been in a shelter?
55. Drive fosters' children to an activity so the foster can take the dog to obedience class?
56. Use your video camera to film a rescue dog in action?
57. Pay the cost of taking a dog to obedience class?
58. Be the one to take the dog to an obedience class?
59. Go to the foster home once a week with your children & dogs to help socialize the dog?
60. Help the foster clean up the yard (yes, we also have to scoop what foster dogs poop)?
61. Offer to test the foster dog with cats?
62. Pay for a dog to be groomed or take the dog to a "do it yourself" grooming place?
63. Bring the foster takeout so the foster doesn't have to cook dinner?
64. Pay house-cleaning service to do spring cleaning for someone who fosters dogs?
65. Lend your artistic talents to your club's newsletter, fundraising ideas, t-shirts designs?
66. Donate printer paper, envelopes and stamps to your club?
67. Go with a rescue person to the vet if a foster dog needs to be euthanized?
68. Go to local shelters & meet with shelter staff about how to identify your breed or provide photos & breed info showing the different types of that breed that may come in & the different color combinations?
69. Go to local businesses and solicit donations for a club's fundraising event?
70. Offer to try and help owners be better pet owners by holding a grooming seminar?
71. Help pet owners be better pet owners by being available to answer training questions?
72. Loan a crate if a dog needs to travel by air?
73. Put together an Owner's Manual for those who adopt rescued dogs of your breed?
74. Provide post-adoption follow up or support?
75. Donate a coupon for a free car wash or gas or inside cleaning of a vehicle?
76. Pay for an ad in your local or metropolitan paper to help place rescue dogs?
77. Volunteer to screen calls for that ad?
78. Get some friends together to build or repair pens for a foster home?
79. Microchip your own pups if you are a breeder, and register the chips, so if your dogs ever come into rescue, you can be contacted to take responsibility for your pup?
80. Donate a small percentage of the sale of each pup to rescue if you are a breeder?
81. Buy two of those really neat dog items you "have to have" and donate one to a rescue?
82. Make financial arrangements in your will to cover the cost of caring for your dogs after you are gone - so rescue won't have to?
83. Make a bequest in your will to your local or national rescue?
84. Donate your professional services as an accountant or lawyer?
85. Donate other services if you run your own business?
86. Donate the use of a vehicle if you own a car dealership?
87. Loan your cell phone (an cover costs for any calls) to someone driving a rescued dog?
88. Donate your "used" dog dryer when you get a new one?
89. Let rescue know when you'll be flying & you'd be willing to be a rescue dog's escort?
90. Donate a doggy seatbelt?
91. Donate a grid for a van or other vehicle?
92. Organize a rescued dog picnic or other event to reunite rescued dogs that have been placed?
93. Donate other types of doggy toys that might be safe for rescued dogs?
94. Donate a roll-a-treat or Buster cube?
95. Donate clickers or a video on clicker training?
96. Donate materials for a quarantine area at a fosters home?
97. Donate an engraving tool to make ID tags for each of the rescued dogs?
98. Donate sheets of linoleum or other flooring materials to put under crates to protect fosters floor?
99. Remember that rescuing a dog involves the effort and time of many people and make yourself available on an emergency basis to do "whatever" is needed?
100. Do something not listed here to help a rescue

Dog Rescued from Iraq

Great post on Paw Nation!

    

Maj. Brian Dennis and Nubs the Dog today.
Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

When Maj. Brian Dennis of the United States Marine Corps met a wild stray dog with shorn ears while serving in Iraq, he had no idea of the bond they would form, leading to seismic changes in both their lives. "The general theme of the story of Nubs is that if you're kind to someone, they'll never forget you -- whether it be person or animal," Dennis tells Paw Nation.

In October 2007, Dennis and his team of 11 men were in Iraq patrolling the Syrian border. One day, as his team arrived at a border fort, they encountered a pack of stray dogs -- not uncommon in the barren, rocky desert that was home to wolves and wild dogs.

"We all got out of the Humvee and I started working when this dog came running up," recalls Dennis. "I said, 'Hey buddy' and bent down to pet him." Dennis noticed the dog's ears had been cut. "I said, 'You got little nubs for ears.'" The name stuck. The dog whose ears had been shorn off as a puppy by an Iraqi soldier (to make the dog "look tougher," Dennis says) became known as Nubs.

Dennis fed Nubs scraps from his field rations, including bits of ham and frosted strawberry Pop Tarts. "I didn't think he'd eat the Pop Tart, but he did," says Dennis.

At night, Nubs accompanied the men on night patrols. "I'd get up in the middle of the night to walk the perimeter with my weapon and Nubs would get up and walk next to me like he was doing guard duty," says Dennis.

The next day, Dennis said goodbye to Nubs, but he didn't forget about the dog. He began mentioning Nubs in emails he wrote to friends and family back home. "I found a dog in the desert," Dennis wrote in an email in October 2007. "I call him Nubs. We clicked right away. He flips on his back and makes me rub his stomach."

"Every couple of weeks, we'd go back to the border fort and I'd see Nubs every time," says Dennis. "Each time, he followed us around a little more." And every time the men rumbled away in their Humvees, Nubs would run after them. "We're going forty miles an hour and he'd be right next to the Humvee," says Dennis. "He's a crazy fast dog. Eventually, he'd wear out, fall behind and disappear in the dust."

On one trip to the border fort in December 2007, Dennis found Nubs was badly wounded in his left side where he'd been stabbed with a screwdriver. "The wound was infected and full of pus," Dennis recalls. "We pulled out our battle kits and poured antiseptic on his wound and force fed him some antibiotics wrapped in peanut butter." That night, Nubs was in so much pain that he refused food and water and slept standing up because he couldn't lay down. The next morning, Nubs seemed better. Dennis and his team left again, but he thought about Nubs the entire time, hoping the dog was still alive.

Excerpt, "Nubs: The True Story of a Mutt, a Marine & a Miracle,"
Little, Brown for Young Readers

Two weeks later, when Dennis and his team returned, he found Nubs alive and well. "I had patched him up and that seemed to be a turning point in how he viewed me," says Dennis. This time, when Dennis and his team left the fort, Nubs followed. Though the dog lost sight of the Humvees, he never gave up. For two days, Nubs endured freezing temperatures and packs of wild dogs and wolves, eventually finding his way to Dennis at a camp an incredible 70 miles south near the Jordanian border.

"There he was, all beaten and chewed up," says Dennis. "I knew immediately that Nubs had crossed through several dog territories and fought and ran, and fought and ran," says Dennis. The dog jumped on Dennis, licking his face.

Most of the 80 men at the camp welcomed Nubs, even building him a doghouse. But a couple of soldiers complained, leading Dennis' superiors to order him to get rid of the dog. With his hand forced, Dennis decided that the only thing to do was bring Nubs to America. He began coordinating Nubs' rescue effort. Friends and family in the States helped, raising the $5,000 it would cost to transport Nubs overseas.

Finally, it was all arranged. Nubs was handed over to volunteers in Jordan, who looked after the dog and sent him onto to Chicago, then San Diego, where Dennis' friends waited to pick him up. Nubs lived with Dennis' friends and began getting trained by local dog trainer Graham Bloem of the Snug Pet Resort. "I focused on basic obedience and socializing him with dogs, people and the environment," says Bloem.

A month later, Dennis finished his deployment in Iraq and returned home to San Diego, where he immediately boarded a bus to Camp Pendleton to be reunited with Nubs. "I was worried he wouldn't remember me," says Dennis. But he needn't have worried. "Nubs went crazy," recalls Dennis. "He was jumping up on me, licking my head."

Dennis' experience with Nubs led to a children's picture book, called "Nubs: The True Story of a Mutt, a Marine & a Miracle," published by Little, Brown for Young Readers. They have appeared on the Today Show and will be appearing on The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien on Monday.

Was it destiny that Dennis met Nubs and brought him to America? "I don't know about that," says Dennis. "It's been a strange phenomenon. It's been a blessing. I get drawings mailed to me that children have drawn of Nubs with his ears cut off. It makes me laugh."
by Helena Sung (Subscribe to Helena Sung's posts)

Running with your Dog

 

www.botanicaldog.com

OK, it is time to start working off those holiday pounds and your canine pal should probably do the same. Dog running partners are much more motivating than humans. Unless they are sick, a dog will never say I just don t feel like it this morning and they will probably roust you from your bed even if you don 't feel like it. A dog will not make fun of your lycra or criticize your form. He will not mind running the same boring route everyday. And, a dog that exercises is a happy dog all day long.

Before you head out with your new jogging partner, you need to make sure that he or she is up to the task. The ideal running dog weighs 30-70 pounds and has a short to medium length hair coat. Giant dogs like Great Danes do not have appropriate body proportions to support long distance running. And, believe it or not, Greyhounds are not great for long distance either. They can sprint like the wind, but long trots are not really their forte. Obvious breeds that cannot become running partners include small or miniature dogs, those with squashed noses like Bulldogs and Pugs and short legged dogs like Basset hounds and Dachshunds.Young growing dogs should not be considered a good long distance partnereither. At this early age, it is best to begin training the puppy to obey commands so he or she will heal, stop, slow down and respect traffic. My dog even understands right and left . This is very helpful when I decide to make a sudden turn or if she us out ahead of me. All this obedience training can be donewithin a couple of blocks of your home while you are waiting for the dog tomature. Most are ready for long distance training by the time they are 2 years old.

Once you have determined that your age and breed of dog is going to make an appropriate running partner, go see the vet. He or she will check out the dog sheart, joints, muscle and weight. If all goes well, he ll get a clean bill of healthand you can begin training. If your dog has been enjoying the couch as much asyou have over the holidays, you should probably start very slowly. Start with halfa mile every other day. Increase the distance by 10% each week and give the doga day off for every day of running. In no time you will both be enjoying the spring for an hour or so at a time.

Always keep your dog on a leash. Some people like the waist leash attachments and others think they are dangerous because the dog could pull you over if he sees a squirrel or other dog. Know your companion and his habits when makinga decision about what type of leash to use. Stay visible. Use reflective vests,collars and leashes. Flashing lights around the dog s collar are very effective. Ifyou must run near traffic, remember that your dog's nose is the same height as automobile exhaust pipes. Try to keep him away from these nasty pollutants.Check your dog s paws before and after the run. If you are running on the beach,where sand can clump between the pads, you might want to do this more often.

As it starts to warm up, be very cautious. Dogs do not sweat like humans. The dissipate heat through panting and through seat glands in the paws. If the surface is hot, it will be more difficult for the dog to cool off. Let him run through puddles, along the edge of the ocean and stick to morning or late evening running when the roads and beaches are cooler. Carry a collapsible water bowl to allow your partner to refresh himself frequently and keep is tongue cool. Include your dog in warm up and cool down walking to help prevent injury.

The most important point to remember is that dogs will run to the edge of the earth for their human companion and may not complain until an injury is severe.It is up to us to make sure that we stop immediately if a dog seems exhausted,sore or hot. If you notice excessive panting, increased salivation, red gums,vomiting, diarrhea or weakness, stop immediately, get some water, walk homeand consult your veterinarian.

In generally, you probably should not enter running races with your dog. Some runners are terrified of dogs and under crowded circumstances, leashes can be asource of trips. However, there are some races that encourage canineparticipation, and these can be great fun. As my friend and client ran across thefinish line of our local Reindeer Run with her dog Lulu, she could not have been more proud of her pal and running partner. The trophy they were awarded isnow a symbol of their powerful human-animal bond that drives so many of our lives.


Article written by:

Katherine Saenger, DVM

Bees Ferry Veterinary Hospital

3422 Shelby Ray CourtCharleston, SC 29414

www.beesferry.com

843-769-6784



First Published:

James Island Journal

Moultrie News

Editor 843-849-1778



Postings on our blog and www.botanicaldog.com

By the kind permission of the above mentioned people.

Please do not Copy!