Category: Dogs

Picture Parade Four Hundred and Twenty-Three

Continuing on the theme

With ongoing many thanks to Penny.

Nothing to add to this wisdom from the mouths of dogs!

Pleasing one’s dog!

Penny Martin delivers another great post!

At first sight, the above title goes without saying. But then one quickly realises that not everyone, by far, has the circumstances that are ideal for dogs.

Thus, it is an important guest post from Penny.

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Explore the world of Learning from Dogs, where the integrity and lessons from our canine friends are celebrated.

Canine Contentment: Effortless Ways to Please Your Pooch

Enhancing your dog’s quality of life goes beyond just fulfilling their basic needs. It’s about creating a fulfilling environment that nurtures both their physical and mental well-being, ensuring they lead a happy and healthy life. By adopting a few straightforward strategies, you can make a significant impact on your furry companion’s daily life. In today’s post on the Learning From Dogs blog, we delve into practices that promise to elevate your dog’s overall happiness and strengthen the bond you share.

Diversify Playtime

Traditional fetch is a classic game, but expanding your play sessions to include interactive toys, agility courses, and the teaching of new tricks can significantly stimulate your dog’s mind and body. These activities are not just fun; they challenge your dog, keeping them mentally sharp and physically fit. An engaged dog is a happy dog, and by incorporating variety into your playtime, you ensure their days are filled with anticipation and excitement.

Upgrade Their Living Space

A nurturing environment for your dog goes beyond daily walks and playtime; it extends into the realm of maintaining a safe and secure home. Leveraging a home maintenance and repair app can be a game-changer for pet owners, offering an efficient way of covering repair and maintenance. These digital tools simplify the process of arranging service appointments. Furthermore, they connect homeowners with skilled professionals, ready to provide estimates for any necessary work, keeping the living space both comfortable and safe for your furry friend.

Plan for Daily Exercise

Tailoring daily exercise to match your dog’s breed and energy level is crucial for their overall well-being. Incorporating at least 30 minutes of brisk walking or running into their routine plays a pivotal role in maintaining physical fitness and mental alertness. This practice acts as a fundamental pillar of health, warding off boredom and potential behavioral problems, thereby securing a state of contentment and optimal health for your pet. Moreover, this commitment to regular physical activity reinforces your bond with your dog, highlighting the shared experiences that enrich your relationship.

Socialize Regularly

Socialization introduces your dog to new experiences and fellow canines, crucial for their emotional development. Visits to dog parks, pet-friendly stores, or arranging doggy playdates offer your dog a chance to develop social skills and enjoy a variety of experiences. Such outings enrich your dog’s life, offering new sights, sounds, and smells to explore, keeping their days interesting and fulfilling.

Consistent Training Sessions

Consistent training sessions are crucial for both teaching your dog new skills and enhancing the bond between you and your pet. By employing positive reinforcement methods, you not only make learning enjoyable for your dog but also significantly strengthen your relationship. Keeping the training sessions regular and brief ensures your dog’s mental stimulation is high and reaffirms their status as a cherished family member. The technique of positive reinforcement turns each training encounter into an anticipated and joyous occasion, underscoring the pleasure found in the learning process.

Mealtime Enrichment

Transforming mealtime into a game satisfies your dog’s natural foraging instincts. Puzzle feeders, snuffle mats, or hiding treats around the house can turn a routine meal into an exciting adventure. This not only enriches their daily routine but also provides mental stimulation, keeping their minds sharp and engaged.

Provide a Cozy Retreat

Ensuring your dog has a comfortable resting area is essential for their sense of security and well-being. Spending time each day on calm interactions, such as petting or grooming, reinforces their feeling of love and security. A dedicated space for rest and the assurance of your love helps them feel safe and cherished, fostering a deep sense of well-being.

Adopting these strategies not only improves your dog’s physical and mental health but also enhances the bond you share, making each moment together richer and more meaningful. Each practice, from diversifying playtime to ensuring a comfortable living space, plays a vital role in your dog’s overall happiness. By investing time and love into your dog’s well-being, you ensure they lead a fulfilling life, full of joy and love. Embrace these strategies and witness the transformation in your dog’s life, knowing you’re providing the best care and affection possible.

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I am very grateful to Penny for sending these posts to me.

Long may it continue!

Picture Parade Four Hundred and Twenty-Two

And another cartoon!

Val sent me this one and I promised to publish it!

It is gorgeous and makes me smile every time I look at it.

Thank you, Val

This beggars belief!

What some people get up to!

I know (alright assume) that everyone who reads this blog is a dog lover. Indeed, millions more to add to that count who do not read the blog.

So I just do not understand how this dog came to be abandoned. As reported recently in The Dodo.

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Beautiful White Puppy Left Tied To Pole Waits Days For Someone To Rescue Him

He had no food or water 😔

By Maeve Dunigan

Published on the 15th February, 2024

Alone on a cracked patch of cement, a white dog named Buckley stared up the street from where he was left tied to a pole in Santa Monica, California. For days, the gentle dog waited for someone to notice him, hoping they might take him somewhere safe.

One day, a local rescuer passing by noticed Buckley’s big brown eyes. She couldn’t believe the 6-month-old husky puppy was alone without food or water. She knew she had to help.

Soon, Buckley was off the streets, safe in the expert hands of Love Leo Rescue.

Meeting the pup for the first time, rescuers felt moved by Buckley’s warmth and resilience.

“Buckley is an exceptional dog,” Love Leo Rescue director Sasha Abelson told The Dodo. “He is well balanced and loving and didn’t let his previous experiences change his lovely personality.”

The wayward pup eventually moved in with a foster family. Lately, he’s enjoyed spending lots of time outside with his new friends.

“Buckley is a typical, happy-go-lucky husky,” Leo said. “He loves playing with his dog friends and learning new skills. He loves going for hikes and also cuddling near his humans. He is just a perfect family dog.”

For now, Buckley is still searching for his forever home, hoping his family finds him soon.

“Buckley would love to go into a home that is active and preferably a home with another playful, balanced dog,” Leo said. “We think a dog brother or sister would be wonderful for him.”

With any luck, Buckley won’t be waiting very much longer.

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Now it is just possible that a person who reads this story will want to adopt Buckley. If that is the case then visit the Love Leo Rescue website for more details.

Fingers very tightly crossed that Buckley finds his home soon!

Picture Parade Four Hundred and Twenty-One

A departure from my normal Picture Parades.

Simply because a good friend, Neil, from my English days down in Devon, sent me a cartoon that I wanted to share with you all.

Wonderful!

A dog in an Arizona desert

For the last day in February, a wonderful story!

This is a post taken directly from The Dodo. It was published by The Dodo on the 8th February this year so it is very current.

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Sisters Driving Through Desert Spot A Lost Dog With Something Stuck To His Side

“He growled at us at first …”

By Caitlin Jill Anders, Published on February 8th, 2024

Vanessa Keating, Theresa Burge and Aubrey Metropulos, a group of full-time RVers and Vanlifers, were wandering around Bulldog Canyon in Arizona one day, looking for a specific type of cactus. They weren’t far from their campsite when they spotted someone tiny and furry, and quickly realized it was a dog out in the desert all alone.

They immediately knew they couldn’t leave the pup out there by himself and began the process of trying to win him over. Thankfully, it didn’t end up taking very long. The sweet dog was more than ready to be rescued.

“He growled at us at first and took some convincing to come over,” Keating told The Dodo. “It only took a few minutes for him to come up to my sister, Theresa, first, but he was still nervous. We quickly realized he had a cholla cactus stuck to the side of him, and once she pulled it off, he warmed up and got excited. So many kisses, and he even had the zoomies!”

Once the cactus was safely removed from his fur, the lost dog felt so much better and jumped for joy that he’d finally be found. His new friends gave him all the cuddles he’d been missing and started asking around their campsite about him, trying to find his family. Unfortunately, they didn’t have any luck, but they refused to stop trying.

The next day, they took the lost dog to get scanned for a microchip and were overjoyed when they discovered he had one. They got in touch with his dad, who told them the pup’s name was Echo, and quickly made arrangements for a long-awaited reunion.

“The reunion was amazing,” Keating said. “Lots of tears. He thought Echo had been eaten by a coyote and was giving up hope … He was so grateful and relieved.”

Echo had only been lost in the desert for a few days before he was found, thankfully, and he was so excited once he was back in his dad’s arms. He knew once the three women found him that they would be the ones to get him back home safely, and he was right.

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Echo is a lucky dog and being reunited with his Dad must have been magical. But then again, the three women that stopped to gain the attention of this lost dog, and then cuddled him and gave him perfect love are really special

So here’s to Vanessa, Theresa, and Aubrey. Well done all three of you.

Keep it Simple – Live the Dream

A guest post from a friend of many years!

Bob Derham is someone I met many years ago, when I was living on my yacht in Larnaca, Cyprus, and I can do no better than to repeat what I wrote in my autobiography.

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I negotiated what I thought was a good deal and sold the company. Inevitably I resigned from what was now not my company; it was the end of November in the year of 1988.

In Tollesbury, I had my annual tax returns done by Peter Michael, also living in the village. Peter was an accountant who also taught accountancy at the nearby Essex University. I saw Peter and we discussed the recent agreement for the sale of the business.

“Paul, there is not a lot you can do, to be honest. You will be liable in broad terms for the tax in the difference between the opening price and the closing price. In your case the opening price was near enough zero and the closing price…” Peter did not need to finish the sentence. I got the picture and stood up to leave. Just has I was going out of the room, Peter added: “Unless you can leave the country before April 15th next year, and stay away for a minimum of four tax years. In other words, leave before April 15th, 1989.”

I walked home from Peter Michael’s house that November, 1988 with the advice I had been given ringing in my ears. I would worry about the tax implications in a day or two. But once again fate intervened.

I was a subscriber to the boating magazine Practical Boat Owner (PBO). In a late 1988 issue I read in the classifieds:

Songbird of Kent – Tradewind 33

Great opportunity to purchase a long-distance ocean yacht designed by John Rock for sea-kindly short-handed sailing.

Well kitted out, continually updated and maintained Songbird of Kent is the yacht for you if you dream of blue waters and serious long distance cruising.

Lying Larnaca, Cyprus.

I knew about Tradewind yachts, was familiar with John Rock. (As the designer of Tradewind yachts he had been featured several times in Practical Boat Owner magazine), and knew how many of his yachts had made world circumnavigations, and, finally, I deserved a holiday. I arranged to go out to Larnaca as soon as I could.

About a week later I caught a flight to Larnaca International Airport; upon arriving I rented a car and drove the few miles to the Marina.

The yacht was easy to find as it was out of the water. I met the owners, Michael and Betty Hughes, who were still living onboard Songbird of Kent. They explained why they were selling. Simply because, as Michael put it, they had been living on the boat for many years and it was time to return to their native Wales. Songbird had been extensively cruised the length of the Mediterranean Sea using Larnaca Marina as the base.

I quietly inspected the boat. Because it was lifted out viewing the boat in detail was much easier than had it still been floating. It was in good condition; very good condition in fact. Then I climbed up the ladder and entered the boat. Again I found everything that I expected, and more. It was clear to me that Michael and Betty had had the boat as their home and, consequently, everything was in order. Or to use the phrase; shipshape and Bristol fashion!

I excused myself, left the yacht and went and sat on a nearby seawall. I wanted to think. To be honest, it was pretty easy thinking. I loved the boat; it was a purchase I could afford, and if everything went to plan and I left the UK before April 15th, 1989, and stayed away for four tax years, there would be no UK tax to pay on the sale of my company Dataview. Nothing: Nada!

So that is exactly what I did!

I went back to Songbird, where Michael and Betty were still sitting in the cockpit, and told them I would buy it. They drew up a contract there and then and I signed it!
My autobiography

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Here is Bob’s story:

Paul and I first met in 1992, when I was working as a contract pilot on the BAC 1-11 for Cyprus Airways.

My last flying post was down in New Zealand, a wonderful place to be, with it’s natural beauty, and lack of aggression and oppression. The joy of life is set around being outdoors, so road trips, camping, sailing, and skiing all feature, but less on big houses, and possessions.

Although I have travelled widely in my career, I now want a simple life, and that amounts to being free of ties to a property, such that all I really need is a warm, dry place to sleep, a suitable place to prepare food, and a place to relax, it is no longer about the big house, which brings it’s own issues, and expenses.

Following on from my time living on Paul’s boat, I was then drawn to living on a boat. I owned a smaller Westerley Centaur, for a few years, and even though small, I had a very happy time when I lived on that. It was down in Lymington, a small market town on the south coast of England opposite Yarmouth, on the Isle of Wight, that I kept my first boat.

The reason for this was simple 🙂

One of the interesting people I met in Cyprus was a man called Les Powles. Paul and I would regularly go out and have a mezze in a side street of Larnaca. Les would be very easy company, and found fun in the most silly situations. I was invited to call by on his boat any time, and have a “ cuppa” What I was intrigued with onboard was a picture of the globe, but cut in half, and opened up. There were a series of lines around the world. I asked Les what this was. His reply was “It’s where I have been when sailing round the world.“

So why I asked are their three lines ?

“Because I have done it three times!“

Les was a most unusual character in that he had started building his boat in 1970. It took him 5 years to complete, and apart from a few short sea trials, Les actually had no other sailing experience, but in 1975, with barely enough rice and water onboard, he headed west. Actually he had intended to go to the Caribbean, but he had applied the variation to his navigation the wrong way, and made land fall 1500 miles from his intended destination. Les only died last year, 96, and his home had been his boat for all those years.

It’s that bit that has been the big thing for me.

Having a home has been ongoing hassle, the fun and enjoyment has been removed, because you are in a trap.

It is important to have a home, but I started to question the point of having a physical building. That brings all the ongoing costs and expenses, where the authorities can milk you for a lot of money!

I first saw Antoinette, in Lymington, and from the first moment I saw the boat, I knew I could make the boat my “home.”

She went to Southwold in Suffolk, England for a major refit, and so there is a new engine, gearbox, and propeller, replaced decking, and repairs have been carried out to the hull.

Inside, I can stand up, and although only 37 foot long, being beamy, there is a lot of room.

There are double cabins both fore and after, with “heads” (bathrooms). The main cabin and galley is very comfortable. It has a lot of mahogany wood, so looks homely, and the “dog house” (bit in the middle), is a very open useable space, either enclosed when cold and wet, or if the weather permits, opened up to enjoy the sun.

The key is that this is “my home”.

I can now travel, and go where I like, but I have my home with me. It has heating, but normally when you arrive somewhere, part of the mooring fees offer a shower unit and facilities. I have space to entertain, but above all, I am free of all the ties that we adopt by following the life society offers us as “the norm“.

It is only now that I see the traps that others face, because I can up anchor and head off, and can see where Les Powles got his freedom, and lived his dream.

In the cabin of Antoinette with Finn the dog belonging to Natalie (on the left).

The collie is “Finn”, Natalie’s dog. I think Paul was one of the first to see her when she was born, so 31 years later, Natalie wants to enjoy the alternative life.

As for Finn, he loves it. Fresh air, plenty going on, and a lot to see.

“Tiny living”, but the release from the way most people live is amazing.

No speeding tickets for me. 🤪

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Thank you, Bob for the story of you and me. That last thirty years have flown by and those years on Songbird of Kent were really special albeit the end of my cruising days were pretty scary.

Picture Parade Four Hundred and Twenty

An addition at the start of today’s Picture Parade!

That is Sharyn’s German Shepherd whose name is Rayleigh. (It is a shame that it isn’t a bigger picture of Rayleigh.)

Wonderful.

Now for the photographs from Unsplash.

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Photo by Poovarasan K on Unsplash

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Photo by Henos Solomon on Unsplash

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Photo by Sofia Guaico on Unsplash

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Photo by Anna Dudkova on Unsplash

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Photo by Tahoe on Unsplash

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Photo by Dustin Bowdige on Unsplash

Pure love!

This article is so beautiful!

As Stephen Messenger, the author of the article, says: “It was a moment of pure awe.” I am not going to waffle on in a prelude to this story, that was taken from The Dodo, so I am going straight into it.

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Animal Shelter Finds A Crate At The Door — And Most Touching Handwritten Note

“It was a moment of pure awe.”

By Stephen Messenger

Published on the 18th January, 2024

Earlier this week, staff at North Carolina’s Fayetteville Animal Protection Society arrived to find that a crate has been placed outside their door, covered in a blanket.

In an instant, their hearts sank.

“Our first thought was, ‘Oh no, not another case of irresponsible pet ownership,’” Jackie Peery, executive director of the shelter, told The Dodo. “We were bracing for an accidental litter dumped at our doorstep due to not spaying/neutering, or someone moving and not willing to bring their pet.”

Inside the crate was indeed a litter of bouncy puppies. But there was more.

“Then we saw the note,” Peery said. “It was a moment of pure awe.”

As the note explained, this wasn’t an act of abandonment.

It was an act of love.

The letter reads as follows:

“Please help! I found these puppies sadly after noticing a local stray dog that I would often feed when I could, dead by the road. She had been hit by a car. I knew from feeding her that she had puppies somewhere and after searching where I would usually see her I found them. I’m sorry for leaving them like this but I myself am homeless and cannot afford to care for them …”

“My heart shatters for them and their mother. I just want them to be given the chance their mother, like myself, was never given. Please do not think poorly of me but it felt wrong leaving them alone in the cold waiting on a mother that would not be coming home. Sincerely, nameless man.”

He’d saved them.

Reading the note, Peery was stunned.

“This nameless man made it his mission to find these puppies to ensure their safety,” she said. “He remains a mystery — our very own nameless hero.”

Meanwhile, the puppies he rescued are now thriving, thanks to him.

“When they first arrived, you could tell they weren’t in the best shape. But now, it’s a whole different story,” Peery said. “It’s like they understand they’ve been given a second chance and are just soaking up all the love and joy.”

In time, Peery has no doubt that each of the puppies will be adopted into loving homes. But she hopes the unnamed hero will make himself known so he can be the recipient of the same sort of kindness he’s shown.

“We’re keeping our fingers crossed that he comes forward,” Peery said. “There’s a whole community here ready to support him just as I have supported these puppies. It would be wonderful to thank him in person and perhaps even help him in return.”

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I am almost lost for words that this event, that was written in 2024, is so beautiful.

Are there any persons who would like to adopt a puppy? Because I want to leave you with the address, email address and contact telephone number for the Fayetteville Animal Protection Society.

Email address: info@fapspet.org

The address is 3927 Bragg Blvd, Fayetteville, NC 28303.

The telephone number is +1 910 864-9040.

Thank you, Stephen!