Quick reminder that the little online dog memorial or tribute jewelry party we're hosting ends next Friday, July 14. Originally, I was thinking only about creating something treasured to wear after you've lost a dog, but…
Welcome to the Terrible Twos! The amazing and silly Tori Autumn Hawn turns 2 on Saturday, July 1, 2017. We picked that day by counting back 12 weeks from when we adopted her. As has…
In Chapter 5 of Heart Dog: Surviving the Loss of Your Canine Soul Mate, I recommend getting a piece (or several pieces) of dog memorial jewelry so that you have a wearable symbol to keep…
I promise the silly title is worth it. You see, I'm increasingly amped up about a number of real-life things, but I recently developed a new coping mechanism for worry.
Neutropenia in dogs - Our saga with Clover's weird white blood cell counts continues, so we saw a board-certified veterinary internal medicine specialist (the same one who helped us with Clover's non-stop UTIs as a…
Saturday, May 27, is Clover's third birthday. Already! So how is a Dog Mom supposed to celebrate our amazing birthday dog? With dog birthday party cupcakes, an exciting new present (woot!), and with another dog…
Really. We got about 2 feet of snow late this week. These big storms are more common in March and April, but we have had at least some snow as late as Memorial Day. Here…
Remember I said back in March that we did NOT think a new dog supplement was causing Clover's weird dog blood work problems? Perhaps premature. We tested Clover's blood again last week, nearly a month…
When Clover was around 7 months old, I put her on a waiting list to get into a dog agility foundations class with a trainer my experienced agility friends recommended. A full SEVEN MONTHS LATER…
April 13, 2017, marks the 10th anniversary of Champion of My Heart. No kidding. Our first blog post went live a decade ago. I'd been mulling the idea for a while, and on a bit…
Do you know the term cause marketing? It essentially means companies do good work, fund good ideas, or support non-profit efforts. In some cases, big companies create their own foundations. In other cases, they boost…
We received an early morning call from Clover's veterinarian with her latest blood work results. It's good news.
Question: Why would you routinely do dog blood work on young and seemingly healthy dogs? Answer: Because sometimes you find things and can catch them before the medical issue gets worse. This appears to be…
When a puppy gets car sick, many tell you that the puppy will outgrow it. And, you hope. Then, reality sets in. With Tori's second birthday coming up in July, we've renewed our pursuit of…
Jana Rade is a dog blogger and moderator of a Dog Health Issues Group on Facebook with more than 10,000 members. She has written quick-reference guide that I highly recommend. Here is my book review…
My friends tease me about keeping a financial spreadsheet for how much I spend on my dogs each year. They argue it's better NOT to know. Funny, right? Nothing will ever compare to the nearly…
Over the holidays, I went back to walking Clover and Tori separately. Since cold temps and icy roads kept us home, we mostly worked on our own driveway -- with some short stints up to…
I've been sick for 10+ days with my second major respiratory virus this winter. It reminded me that I've been wanting to share this cleaning advice for months. I wrote a big project in 2016…
A couple of my veterinary pals actively work on 2 new pet food resources I want you to know about. The first is called Petfoodology (a blog written by board-certified veterinary nutritionists). The second is…
In the last 9 months or so, we've seen a couple things in Clover's body that we wanted to address right away. We're doing physical therapy or canine rehabilitation (under the direction of our rehab…
Yes, I feel a bit of a RANT coming on. Let's call this Dead Dog Etiquette 101. Our rural mountain community features a not-very-efficient email distribution system when neighbors have news to share or questions…
Big news!!! You can now buy T-shirts for dog lovers featuring 5 designs inspired by our award-winning dog blog Champion of My Heart and our first book Heart Dog: Surviving the Loss of Your Canine…
Earlier this week, I attended my second Purina Better with Pets Summit. I've been invited all 4 years, but the first year I couldn't go because Lilly was so sick, and last year, I didn't…
I remain a staunch supporter of having pet insurance. Yet, the news that our monthly pet insurance premiums were going up -- WAY up -- bummed me out.
A long time ago, I gave up walking two dogs at once. I stopped even trying after our (late) Penelope Grace and our (late) Cody got their leashes so tangled up around my legs that…