Doggie Heaven Hotel

How To Get Rid of Skunk Smell

Moondoggie, if you find a skunk under there I'm giving you back to the Humane Society.

We have been waking up every morning lately to the smell of skunk, which means that skunks live somewhere near, which in turn means that it is only a matter of time before my dog gets—well—skunked.
I’m sure that skunks are very important to biodiversity and hold a very important place in the ecosystem.

I just don’t like the way they smell.

Hey, I even saved a baby skunk’s life once.

My husband came in one morning and told me that he inadvertently caught a baby skunk in a rattrap. He told me that he was just going to let it die so he didn’t get sprayed.

I peeked at it and saw how cute it was and I noticed that his back foot was barely stuck in the trap. I couldn’t let it die—It was so precious.

So I covered my whole body from head to toe in clothes that I didn’t care about and carefully approached the little skunklet. I took deep slow breaths and tried to keep calm, thinking myself quite the Dr. Doolittle. I could sense that it had no fear of me. I thought this little animal knows I mean it no harm. It knows instinctively that I am going to open the trap and set it free.

It had crawled under a fence and the trap was lodged there. I approached from the front. It was stuck pretty good under the fence so I knew it couldn’t turn it’s tail toward me. Hey, I know nature. So here I come slowly covered in rags, slowly, slowly, slowly.

I start to talk to the poor little frightened creature in a low soothing voice. “It’s O.K. little guy, It’s going to be alright. Don’t you worry.” It was so cute, stuck in the trap so helpless and sweet.

I stretched my gloved hand slowly toward the trap, keeping my eyes on the terrified little critter’s adorable face.

You Must Watch "White Knuckles" By OK Go

If you love dogs, you must watch this wonderful music video by OK Go.

It is marvelous.

"Wake-Up Call Willie"

I think that I’m going to start calling Willie my “Wake-Up Call” dog instead of Freight-train Willie.

I find that I can learn important lessons from him, such as:

Birdbaths at Doggie Heaven Hotel are a bad idea.

New planting beds should probably have a doggie fence around them.

Shelves with orchids on them are perfect ledges for dogs to put their large front paws on.

I love having Willie at Doggie Heaven because he is always teaching me something new.

The “Vicious” Miko

Miko watching me cook

I am watching my friend Amber’s dog, named Miko, for the first time.

Miko is an eight-year-old Weimaraner who was adopted when he was six. He was slated to be destroyed because he was “vicious”.

This is what I know about Miko:

He loves to chase all the other dogs when they run.
He likes to kiss Willie on the face.
He is scared to death of the evil 42-pound-Moondoggie.
He drinks out of toilets and he walks when he poops.
He has a great sense of smell.
He likes to follow me into the bathroom and gives me the strangest looks when I pee into his water bowl.
Above all else, he wants to eat my yellow-sided conure, Sprout.

So I guess if wanting to eat a pet bird is vicious, you could call him vicious.

Miko trying to sleep on Moondoggie's bed

I just call him a bird dog.

Good Night Miko

For the Love of Gus

A face everyone can love.

Meet Gustavo, my next-door neighbor.

Gus is a wolf hybrid. He is actually my next-door neighbor’s dog. My next-door neighbor tried to tell me, when he first moved in, that Gus was a huskie.

My next-door neighbor came to my front door with this one-hundred-pound mass of grey fur. I was a bit taken aback when I first saw him and I knew instantly that this was no huskie.

I said, “That dog is not a huskie. He looks like a wolf hybrid to me.” My neighbor looked a little sheepish—no pun intended—and said, “That’s what I’ve been told before.”

He was Gus’s second owner and had rescued him from a bad situation.

At first, Gus’s size kept me at bay but he had that unmistakable look of love about him, that sweet, gentle, if-you-were-bigger-I-would-crawl-right-up-in-your-lap-and-stay-there-forever look.