While we await news from Lilly’s veterinary neurology recheck appointment this morning, how about a little happy news … for once?
Lilly and I could NOT be more pleased to take part in Pillars of Strength – A Special Day for K on this of all days. You see, K (who is both a real-life dog training and local dog blogging friend) is the QUEEN of all Heart Dogs. So, a tribute to her on Valentine’s Day seems fitting.
All the love in the world to you, beautiful K (and your family). May all the strength and blessings in the universe rain down upon you as you fight back against the darn cancer veterinarians found in your bones.
New York Metropolitan Opera star and animal lover Janet Hopkins will join Grand Champion Sweetbriar’s Ecco D’Oro (Ecco) in New York for a musical good luck send off as he competes in the 2012 Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show. At 1 pm on today at the Hotel Pennsylvania in Midtown Manhattan, Hopkins will serenade opera loving Ecco with a favorite personalized Italian aria, “O Mio Babbino Cane.”
Thanks to my work, writing pet industry and pet consumer articles for magazines and online outlets, I interview lots of amazing people and pioneers. The latest one to catch my fancy? A cat named Bug, who hikes, canoes, and sometimes oversees events at her human companion’s veterinary practice (Westside Family Pet Clinic in Madison, Wisconsin).
OK, I might be a tad partial to Bug since that’s one of Lilly’s nicknames, but she is an awesome, awesome kitty. Observe. Read the rest of this entry »
Our friends at DoggieStylish, makers of designer dog collars and leashes, launched a new feature, where you can find oodles links to FREE online do-it-yourself projects.
A terrific cartoon by Gemma Correll is making the rounds on Facebook. It shows a female party goer making friends with the host’s cat. It’s funny because it’s true. While taking pictures of a bulldog named Margie at the Colorado Authors’ League party Saturday, a fellow writer asked, “Why are you doing that?”
Taking a week “off” is relative, of course, meaning mostly not owing drafts to clients. Other demands of life continue. HOWEVER, Lilly and I ventured to Boulder for dog training class with our dog trainer Gigi Moss … for the first time this year. I’ll tell you how it went tomorrow. Today? A video showing just how much Lilly loves her dog trainer.
As promised, some agility humor for our dog training friends who already have earned or aspire to earn a Master Agility Champion title (MACH) with their dogs. Meet Chaos, a nationally ranked Labrador Retriever who TWICE had to earn her 20th and final double-Q to get her MACH #5. All this … at the age of 10.
Fellow dog writer and dog blogger Peggy Frezon from Peggy’s Pet Place asked us to take part in blog book tour to promote her new book Dieting With My Dog: One Busy Life; Two Full Figures and Unconditional Love. I’m VERY good at keeping Lilly’s weight perfect, and I mean perfect. Even our veterinary nutritionist friend said Lilly had a perfect body condition. Me? As I mentioned last week, not so much. So, I asked Peggy a few questions about her weight-loss journey.
Dangerous Instincts: How Gut Feelings Betray Us is a new book by Mary Ellen O’Toole, PhD, a former FBI profiler. She is a friend of a friend and was nice enough to offer these safety tips to people who love dogs.
Allow me, please, a quick brag about that darling, darling husband of mine … who for the second time in his second try WON the first in class ribbon at the Colorado English Motoring Conclave (one of the biggest British car and motorcycle shows) for his custom 1951 Triumph Thunderbird.
They call the black ones “blackbirds.”
Many thanks to my friends at the Humane Society of Boulder Valley for inviting me to their Q&A with Alexandra Horowitz, author of Inside of a Dog. Exhausted and weary from real life, I chose NOT to take notes. So, here are just a few tidbits.
The girls of Champion of My Heart first “met” Ecco D’Oro, a passionate Spinone Italiano (Italian pointer) with a penchant for stealing underwear and snorkeling in the koi pond, when we reviewed Ecco’s human grandma’s book about a Native American artist named Quincy Tahoma.
"It's exhausting being this handsome."
The truth? We were a little sad that we were not the first dog-based book reviewers on the scene.
Since then, however, we’ve made friends via the blog, via email, and on Facebook with Ecco and his many, many dog friends … who collectively put the “Power of the Paw” into action every day through both virtual and real community efforts.
Columbia University filmmaker Jed Cowley needs to raise $3,000 by September 6, for post-production costs on his romantic comedy short film “Dear Dog, I Love You.” The movie features canine actor Paul Newman, a white basset hound rescued by Suzanne Fitch with Mid-Atlantic Basset Hound Rescue. He had been tied up in an abandoned garage.
This is Bjorn ... the "baby"
A friend is facing a truly life-and-death medical emergency, so we’ve been pitching in with dog care around dinnertime while she is hospitalized and her family runs up and down the mountain. I am not a “Golden Retriever Person,” but after a few days with her three … I can see the appeal.
