Doggie Heaven Hotel

Carsick Canines

 Oh...I need an Alka Seltzer

Dogs love to ride in cars, right?  Moondoggie comes almost everywhere with me, and is perfectly at home in the dog bed in the back of my car.  How many of you have “lost” the dog, only to find that your loyal companion simply snuck back into the car? 

Surprisingly, however, there are exceptions. Did you know that a small percentage of dogs get carsick? The good news is that this is more typical in puppies and young dogs because their inner ear structures are not fully developed.  Many dogs that suffer carsickness as puppies grow out of it.  

But if they don’t, there are things you can do to help your dog feel better.

If You Liked White Knuckles, You Will Love the Outtakes

A couple of years ago I posted the Youtube video,"White Knuckles" by OK Go. The dogs used in the video are all rescue doggies.

Here is the Outtakes. Enjoy

 

Rosie's Happy Ending

A couple of days ago a neighbor told me about a girl whose father had died, forcing her into foster care.

She couldn’t keep her beloved dog, Rosie, with her foster family so she had to find a home for her.

As my neighbor was telling this story, I got a little teary, especially when she asked if I knew of someone who wanted a sweet 6-year-old 45 pound tri-colored Aussie named Rosie. 

I told her to email the story and some Rosie pictures so I could post it on my blog—we would find a home for her.

As I was about to post the story, the neighbor called to ask me to hold off my posting it because someone was considering adopting Rosie—she’d know the next day.

I contacted her the next day and she asked me to hold off another day. I suggested that I post it anyway because it wouldn’t hurt to have a back up offer. 

Then she came clean.

What to Do if Your Dog Eats Dark Chocolate?

 

Happy National Puppy Day

In honor of all the rescue puppies that have graced Doggie Heaven Hotel, Happy National Puppy Day.

Here are some of our Rescue clients.

Luna

Moondoggie

Buddha

Chloe

Moondoggie, Boomer, Buddha

Mozart

Sadie

Rain

Lucky

Kona

Willie

Ruby

Adopy a puppy soon or this chicken goes squish.

 

Sammy, We Miss You

Sammy 3-15-97 - 6-20-11 

Eight years ago, I spotted a beautiful white lab running around the field at my son’s school.

School was out and the kids were at some after-school function. 

I approached the owner of the dog, a pretty willowy brunette. Her name was Sheila. We started talking about her dog Sammy and to this day Sheila and I have remained good friends. 

Last year when I started dogsitting, Sammy was my first guest at Doggie Heaven Hotel. He and his sister Gemma stayed with me for several weeks while Sheila packed up her house and moved to Southern California. 

Sammy and Gemma last summer

I was devastated to lose Sheila but I felt close to her during the whole process through the care of her dogs. Shelia and I stay in touch and even get to see each other once in a while. 

I was sad to hear the news that Sammy died yesterday. He was a very special dog to Sheila and her family, and to me.

As all dog-lovers know, one day he’ll be waiting on the other side of the Rainbow Bridge.

Take care Sammy, we miss you.

Happy New Year, (I mean) Happy Birthday Moondoggie!

It was two years ago today that I took in a two-year-old foster foundling.

Her name was Ribbon, a border collie and cattle dog mix.

At the time she was considered unadoptable. She needed someone to work with her, someone to help her overcome her fear of, well, basically everything and everybody.

She was my first foster dog and, as of now, my last because my family and I fell in love with this timid, beautiful, athletic, intelligent girl. Then, when our long-time family dog, Mr. Wizard, died a few days after she arrived, there was no way we were going to give up this new member of our family.

The name Ribbon was given to her at the Humane Society, no doubt picked from a batch of Christmas names made up on the spot. I’m sure there were probably dogs taken in by the Humane Society with labels like Ornament, Wrapping Paper, Candy Cane, and Scotch Tape.

We changed Ribbon’s name to Moondoggie.

And hopefully Scotch Tape had his name changed, too.

Gotta Mint?

I love dogs.

But why, oh why do they love things that stink?

I’m not talking about stinky cheese, or gin.

If you’re a dog owner, I think you know what I mean.

I live near horses. On occasion I walk my dog and other dogs off leash near the horses. Every once in the while I will have a dog that likes to investigate the horses but mostly what they really want to do is to eat horse poop. That’s right—road apples—manure.

Horse dung isn’t the only animal waste they like either. They love kitty poop and coyote poop and all things poop.

When they are not attempting to eat it, they like to roll in it and when they are not rolling in other animals’ excrement, they like to roll in dead things, anything decomposing works.

My husband’s theory is that they are attempting to cover up their own scent in order to fool their prey. I keep reminding him that they really don’t need to go to all that trouble to sneak up on that bowl of kibble I just put out for them.

I was watching my favorite wolf, Gus, today. I took him for a walk past a friend’s house. My friend has cats, and Gus found some delicious kitty droppings buried along the trail. Before I could stop him, he ate some.

Here’s the strange thing—no matter how much people know about this...ah...behavior, they still want to kiss their dogs on the mouth. They still allow their dogs to lick them on the face. While I love dogs, I mean I really love dogs—more than some humans, I still have that Lucy-like reaction when I accidentally get licked on the mouth by a dog.

Eeewwww, dog germs, yuck.

I want to wash my mouth out and take one of those HAZMAT showers with the water pressure so high it strips the skin from your bones. I have just seen dogs eat too much doo-doo to enjoy “doggie kisses” as I’ve heard some of my friends call them.

Come on people, dogs lick their own butts.

After Gus’s kitty poop incident, his breath was so bad I couldn’t get near him. I was contemplating taking him back home when I suddenly remembered that sample pack of doggy mints I had been given once. I dug through my doggie junk drawer and thank goodness, found them.

 

The mints actually worked—hallelujah—but I’m still never going to let him kiss me, no matter how cute he is.

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.