Walking the dogs.

Hibbs, Heeks and myself go for a walk everyday. We live across the street from a pond so we often walk around the pond. Normally it takes us about twenty minutes to go around. Sometimes we go around the pond twice a day depending on the weather.

I do not let the weather deter us from walking for the most part but when it is really bad outside we just go up the street instead of around the pond or we just don't go that day. We are expecting another snow storm in the New England area tonight. Walking after the snow storm is sometimes challenging. If it is slushy the dogs want to come right back because the slush goes up inside there paws. One of my neighbors and fellow dog walker has a small poodle. He has booties he puts on his dog in the bad weather. I have never tried that. If it is really bad outside we skip our walk for that day and I feel like that is alright because we go every other day.

I walk the dogs everyday as much for myself as for them. We all benefit from the exercise and we all love to be outdoors. We are fortunate to have lovely and ever changing scenery around our neighborhood. Do you walk your dog everyday? Where do you walk?

Donna

P.S. If you are thinking of boots for your dog you can go to Specials at SitStay.com to find boots and more.

'Road kill' candy not sweet for animal lovers, article posted on msnbc news site

I found this article today on MSNBC news. I agree with the NJSPCA that this is not a good concept for children. Animals that are killed on the roads are not something to be taken lightly. It is a fact of life that this happens but to make fun of the situation is not my cup of tea. To read the article in it's entirety go to http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7030811/?GT1=6190

Donna

P. S. If you are interested in some elegant and delicious candy for yourself or perhaps to give as a gift to a loved you can visit Nirvana Chocolates

Wild Animals in Backyards.

It was just on the news the other day that a woman on Cape Cod, south of where I live, was attacked in her backyard by a coyote. The woman heard what she thought was a dog fight coming from her yard where her dog was tied out. She went outside and saw the coyote fighting with her dog. She went over and waved her hand telling the coyote to get out of there and the coyote let go of her dog and latched onto her hand. She tried to get herself free but could not. She hollered for her husband who fortunately was at home that day. He was on the second floor of the house and ran out to the balcony, he could tell by the way his wife was calling him that something was wrong. That is when he saw his wife's plight. The man grabbed a two by four that happened to be in room where he was and ran downstairs to his wife. He began hitting the coyote with the two by four board. The coyote did not let go right away. The man had to hit it many times before it finally released his wife and took off.

The couple called the police who ended up having to kill the coyote. It turned out the coyote had rabies. Now the woman and her dog both need to be treated for this deadly disease. The rabies is probably why the coyote was a bold as it was. Most of the time these natural creatures come around when noone else is around.

We see more and more wild animals in our backyards these days. The reason this is happening is due to all the building being done in our neighborhoods. There used to be much more room for these wild creatures to roam but we are moving more and more into their habitat leaving them little choice but to encrouch on us. Because of the fact that these places we have intruded upon was their home first, it should be up to us to learn how to live with them. There are things we can do so that we can coexist with these wild creatures. We could build high fences to discourage them from coming to close. Keep a closer eye on our pets when they are outside. Do not leave food outside accessable to wild animals, keep barrels and trash bags inside until trash day. These are just a few of the things we can do so that we can live together. If you have any other suggestions please feel free to post a comment.

I do not consider it unsafe to feed the backyard birds and the squirrels that live around my yard. The feeders are up high and I have never found them to be bothered by any wild animals in all the years I have kept bird feeders. If you want get started having backyard birds come to your house or need to replace your old feeders you can go to Duncraft.com. They have lots of backyard bird supplies to offer!

Hooey, our Amazon Parrot and My Grandson Max.

Yesterday my three year old grandson Max came over for a visit. I asked him if he said Hi to Hooey. He said "Gramma, that bird is to old, you need to get rid of him and get another one." It is hard to explain to a three year old that Hooey is an Amazon Parrot and can live to be sixty or more years old. Hooey is now about twenty - eight years old so it will be a while till he is old by bird standards. I did not tell Max that something else happened to distract him so I did not elaborate on the facts.

Max knows he is not to get to close to Hooey because I don't want Hooey to bite him. At this point in time I am the only one Hooey lets get close to him. I can pet him and touch him but noone else can. My husband gets a nasty bite when he tries. So Max has been told since he was a baby not to get to close to Hooey.

My daughter gives Hooey a treat and talks to him everytime she comes by and I am hoping that someday he will let her and maybe Max get closer to him. I found out not to long ago from Hooey's first owner that he has never liked men. It took him a while to bond with me but he has so I know that it can be done.

I hope that someday Hooey will have a great relationship with Max seeing as he might still be around when Max is an adult.

Do you have a one person parrot? We would like to hear from you!

Donna

Chinese own 150 million dogs according to news report

Apparently the Chinese people were not to interested in dogs in the past but now there are millions of dogs in the country. The news story found at the http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,12242781-23109,00.html gives more depth to this observation. This is a short article just passing on this tidbit of information. Go Dogs!

Donna

Happy Valentine's Day

Just a quick little note to say Happy Valentine's Day to all. This holiday is meant to express love! People and pets do that all over the world on this day. Red hearts are in abundance and romance is in the air. Valentine's day is not just for those in love it is for everyone to express their love to those who are most important to them.

When my daughter was little she always got something for Valentine's day and now it is my grandson's turn to get hearts and presents. I hope you all have a wonderful day!

Donna

News Article Fighting over Fido.

On my local NBC newsbroadcast last night they had a report on people fighting about a pet when they split up. Our pets become part of our family and it must be very hard to figure out what to do if both parties want to keep the family pet. There has been a lot of court time spent over this issue as well as plenty of money. Here is the article regarding that report if you are interested in reading about this unfortunate, emotional and real dilema faced by many people in this type of situation.

http://www3.whdh.com/features/articles/specialreport/DBM1227/

It is a short article, hope you find it interesting....

Donna

Cosmetic surgery for pets!

On the news today they were talking about cosmetic surgery for pets. I did not know what that could be all about when I first saw it. Apparently they are trying to stop this practice in California. What they were refering to was tail cropping in dogs, declawing in cats and so forth. Personally I am all for the banning of these practices. If you want to find out more about this topic and other pet related news today you can go to http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4602461/
This is the news section on msnbc and there are some other stories of interest there about pets.

Donna

Hello Folks!

Today I will feature a couple of places where you can find out more about natural pet care. There are many loving and caring people out there that feel that caring for your pets with all natural products is the way to go. There are many places that specialize in offering you products and services that focus on the natural way of caring for animals. Here are links to two places to find lots of good information and products to help you get involved in natural care of your pet too.

http://www.reikishamanic.com - interesting website for pets and people!

http://www.jeanesholistics.com/TWDS.html - The Whole Dog store offers a holistic approach to pet care.

Hope this information helps if you are considering natural pet care!

Donna

Blog search engine

I found this blog search engine today. You can go there to search for other blogs on pets. Here is the link:

http://www.blogsearchengine.com Search Engine and Directory of blogs. Looking for blogs? Find them on BlogSearchEngine.com.

Have fun!

Donna

Noahswish, People helping pets after disasters.

I found this website today where they work to help pets after disasters. They just returned from Sri Lanka where they offered a helping hand to the animals of the area affected by the recent Tsunami disaster. The site takes a few minutes to load but there are lots of pictures to view.

http://www.noahswish.com/

Donna