Murphy's Law and the last day of the year.

I got bitten by R_ _ today.

R_ _ barks at every dog that walks past his house. Sometimes, he scares the humans passing by too. Lately, my out-at-work human started giving him a treat or 2, so he's been much more polite to me.

But today, he jumped up on the railing around his porch and lunged at me as I was walking by. I had the fright of my life. I was on the sidewalk just on the other side of the railing. I jumped up back at him and he bit me in my mouth. There was a lot of blood.

After my out-at-work human flushed the blood away, he saw that my lip was split.

My humans were woozy when they saw the blood and immediately called Dr Dog. Although he was very busy, Dr Dog squeezed me in immediately because it was An E.m.e.r.g.e.n.c.y.  

My out-at-work human hurried me over. To my surprise, he just left me there all alone. They put me in a cage. I was scared. I had to wait a long time before someone came to see me. "Can I go home now, please?" I asked, but instead they did something I don't know what, and I went to sleep.

This was after I woke up. I had 5 stitches in my mouth. I don't know what that means. My humans say Dr Dog was very neat and you can't see a thing.

After I woke up, my out-at-work human came to pick me up. I was very glad to see him.

When I got home, I felt all wobbly. I wobbled into the dining room and found a strange human sitting there. He gave me a bit of a fright.

It turned out to be Mr Prab. He's okay. He's staying with us a few days. Maybe he'll cook some special lentils for me.

I felt strangely peckish, so I wobbled into the kitchen to look for some food. But there was nothing to eat. Not even in the bin.

I was about to wobble out of the kitchen when Mr Thumper came over to say, "Hi."

I couldn't believe that I was wobbling more than wobbly old Mr Thumper, so I ignored him, wobbled away and went back to sleep.

After a few hours, I woke up and started to scratch my mouth. It started to bleed again. My humans called Dr Dog to see if they could pick up an E.l.i.z.a.b.e.t.h.a.n  Collar for me, but he was already closed for New Year's. They called everyone they knew who had biggish dogs, but no one had an E Collar.

It was late arvo on the last day of the year. All the shops were closed. People were out partying. No one was worrying that there was a dog that needed an E Collar. There was nowhere my humans could go to buy an E Collar. And nowhere they could go to buy stuff to make one either.

My stay-at-home human called this Murphy's Law. I've never met Mr Murphy but he sounds mean.

Being very determined, my stay-at-home human rummaged about until she found a raggy bit of plastic in an old cupboard. She made me this.

It's not beautiful, but it worked. She even put an ouchless bandage on the inside so it's nice and soft for my chin. Sometimes, I quite like my stay-at-home human.

Not to be outdone, my out-at-work human went to Woollie's, which was just about the only place left open, and bought a bucket. He cut the bottom out and made this.

A bucket without a bottom.

It's 11 now. Our Famous 9pm New Year's Eve Fireworks went BOOM! BOOM! at 9. They were very loud because we live close by. I was scared all over again, for the 4th time today.

Luckily, my humans didn't go out tonight because they knew I was feeling poorly. My out-at-work human cuddled me.

He held my ears tight.

My stay-at-home human put a towel over me.

After that, I felt much better.

I hope they do that all over again when Our Famous 12 midnight New Year's Eve Fireworks go BOOM! BOOM! at 12.

Mr Thumper's been sleeping out in the backyard all night. I don't know why he's not scared of fireworks. He once went to see them with Mr Piglet, who wasn't scared of them either.

I hope my mouth isn't too sore tomorrow. I'm supposed to be getting fresh lamb for my New Year's Day brekkie. I heard my stay-at-home human ask my out-at-work human if she should feed me oatmeal with angophora honey instead.

That would be an awful way to start the New Year.

I'm a bit tired now so I'll say goodnight.

I hope you're having a lovely New Year's Eve, and...

A HaPpy New YeAr!

My Top 10 Posts of 2010 AND My 1st BlogHop Ever. Scary.

I just found out about this list, started by the very 1st dogblogger I ever wrote to, Dr V. It sounds like a marvellous way to end my 1st year of dogblogging. So here goes...

I'm taking the route of the prolific Kristine, and will start with my favourite 5 from this blog, followed by my 5 favourite from the tiny list of blogs I currently follow. I'm working on discovering more gems this ooops! NEXT year :)

MY Favourite 5, in no particular order.*
                                                                     *W=weeper  F= funny [a warning - because some people might not want to cry on the last day of the year, OR the 1st day of the year!]


I am the 10th dog. I lied. This one's special to me and is probably #1 on my list. Maybe because it's about the 1st dog I ever had. He lives on entirely in my memories because I only have 1 small fuzzy black and white picture of him. W

Mr Thumper's 15 minutes of fame. Rufus B Thumper is the other dog in the family. He's old, sickly and sleeps a lot. One morning, he decided to wake up for 15 minutes, I had a camera, he was in a happy mood, and the story got written. F

My Fashion Tuesday. Every dogblog should have SOME silly posts, right? This is an early effort. I thoroughly enjoyed the writing part, not so much the sewing! I'll be cheeky and include a link here that was the happy ending to the story. F

The day The Great Debate made way for a cooking show. I'm not quite sure why I like this post so much. Maybe because it captured the essence of Australia on the day, for me. Recipes before Politics please, we have priorities here, you know! F

The Purple Collar. This is a story I wrote for one of Georgia's friends, who died a few weeks ago from lymphoma. It was written for the children in the family. Someone sent me an email telling me she cried when she read it. I was a little surprised because, although the subject was sad, it was also meant to be hopeful. W?


My Favourite 5 From Other Blogs, again in no particular order.

Time from rescued insanity. I start my list with a post that isn't even about dogs, but it was 1 of those pivotal moments for me in my short history of dogblogging, when I read something that made me stop, think and comment. And I'm so glad I did, Kristine :)

Nothing gold can stay from the now defunct blog, One bark at a time. This is simply 1 of the best written, most heartfelt stories about pet loss that I've ever read. I discovered this blog too late, but the words in this post make me keep coming back. The author now has a new blog about Pound Dogs. 

Are you prepared for a dogfight? from Kenzo the Hovawart. Talk about timing. I read this shortly before Georgia got into a fight with one of her friends. Everything seemed to happen in slowmo as I tried to remember what I should do. Really I did...I heard Kenzo's voice in my head. Arf-arf!

A Dog's Diary; A Cat's Diary from Something wagging this way comes. I think this captures the characters of our 2 most popular family pets very well and, bloody hell! I wish I'd written it!

Leela and the dead penguin from Are you a pariah dog fan? The emotional lives of dogs. Do YOU believe it exists?

There are, of course, many more posts from top dog bloggers that made me smile, got me indignant, taught me lessons, etc etc etc. Too many to mention, but I'm guessing you already know who you are :) Thanks for making my 1st year i.n.t.e.r.e.s.t.i.n.g!

Now to click on that scary bloghop button. EEEk!

***

It's 12.44am, 2011 here in Sydney. I'm about to do an update.

Sorry, but I'm going to add an 11th post, 1 from this blog. I'm doing this because I just read this very sad post from Hero the sharpei.

There's every chance that, after you read I woke up full of good intentions today, you'll think me a toad. I wouldn't disagree, but it wouldn't change how I feel about it either.

My fabulous holiday week.

I hope you realise I was just being sarcastic with the title of this post.

Christmas Day, a long time ago now.

We slept in till 6.30. My out-at-work human took Mr Thumper and me to the park to play. We left my stay-at-home human at home because someone had to prepare our Christmas breakfast and lunch.

There was no one at the park or on the streets. It was eerie. We saw 1 christmas tree. If you look very hard, you might see it in the picture too.

I didn't get to meet any of my friends. I suspect they must have been home opening presents. I didn't get any presents, maybe because there wasn't any tree at home to put them under.

My stay-at-home human felt bad about being possibly the only human on the planet who didn't make a fuss over her dogs at Christmas. So when she saw a lovely squeaky Santa at the petshop yesterday [4 days after Christmas], she stopped and thought about it. She says she did and I believe her.

But she decided that, since I don't really play with toys anymore, a big bag of [low-fat grain] biscuits would make more sense. It's sad having sensible humans.

***

Every year, we get to go to The Dreaded Christmas Lunch At The Rellies. Please don't gasp. Just about everyone feels the same way, only they're too polite to say it.

We brought 3 kinds of salads. It was a long trip and I accidentally stepped on the salads a few times.

The salads were under the rug? How was I supposed to know that?

My stay-at-home human tried her best to fluff up the squashed baby mesclun, pear, smoked salmon and blue cheese salad but it was too late. Luckily, the garlic roasted vegies with couscous and extra creamy potato salad with a sprinkling of onion chives were already squashed.

We may have to rethink travel arrangements next year.

I don't know whether you know but I have quite a few cousins. None of them ever come for Christmas lunch though, except for Cousin Ralph.

This is Cousin Ralph a.k.a Santa's Little Helper.

Cousin Ralph is One Grumpy Dog. Even his humans think so. He didn't want to play and kept growling at me. Unfortunately for Cousin Ralph, I am a lot bigger, so I just sat on him. He was quite cordial after that.

 

Mr Thumper and I had a lovely light lunch of fresh lamb, roast turkey and ham. In the spirit of Christmas, we forgave Cousin Ralph and gave him some too. For dessert, I had some mango skins out of the garbage bag and a cherry off the table. It was strictly self-service.

I thought I might get some yummy turkey bone soup too, but I didn't.

Can you see where I am?

After lunch, the humans played pingpong to make themselves hungry enough to eat some more. I've never seen pingpong before. The ball was very small and bouncy and I wasn't allowed to chase it.
My out-at-work human won the tournament [of course] and my stay-at-home human got to pick the prize [of course]. It was just what she needed. A facial mask.

After many more hours of such fun, we were very tired. We went home and went directly to bed.

On Boxing Day, my humans were supposed to go on a boat to see the Sydney-Hobart Boat Race off. But they decided to sleep all day instead.

My family really knows how to have a good time.

 

Since Christmas Day.

It's been very quiet. We sleep a lot. I don't know where my friends are.

Mr Thumper got his 3rd trim for the summer today. He's lost 3 bagsful of woolly fur, and still looks fat and hot. I think he's quite happy to have a cold bath these days.

 

Our rat hunt is continuing. We've caught 5 so far. 2 are now living in a park [unless they've been eaten by feral cats]. 3 are drinking fizzy lemonade in heaven.

On Monday, my stay-at-home human cracked open an egg with 2 yolks.

There are 2 eggs in this picture.

She says she hasn't seen one of these in more than 10 years. Maybe it means we'll win Lotto soon.

This is a flower from our backyard. My stay-at-home human can't remember what it's called. It's pointless asking my out-at-work human.

The flowers bloom only at night and they smell very nice. My stay-at-home human likes putting her nose in them. The flowers always die before sunrise. This one was still open late morning a few days ago. 

I really think it might be a good time to buy a Lotto ticket.

***

Since it's holiday week, my out-at-work human hasn't had to go to work. It's been wonderful. Every morning, I wait for my stay-at-home human to go brush her teeth, make coffee and stuff like that. When she leaves the bedroom, I politely ask my out-at-work human if I can climb onto the bed for a snuggle. He always says yes.

Of course, we're not stupid and this was our little secret.

So I don't know why he decided to tell my stay-at-home human. Maybe he thought she'd be understanding. But she was instantly disagreeable. 

To cheer her up, I jumped on top of her and gently put my paw on her neck and face. Unfortunately, my paw went into her mouth and my nails into her throat. She gurgled and struggled [which was silly of her], and now she has a fat lip, a bruise in her mouth and a hole in her neck.

It's a good thing my stay-at-home human secretly loves me a lot.

'Twas 2 nights before Christmas and not a rat was stirring.

A rat came to eat my mango after all, a few nights ago. Greedy thing! It got caught and started to cry. My out-at-work human almost started crying himself.

"Oh no!" he sobbed, picking up the trap with trembling hands. "Oh no! I can't kill it! Look," he pleaded with my stay-at-home human, "it's just a baby. We have to let it go."

My stay-at-home human put her hands indignantly on her hips and cruelly said "NO! DON'T BE SILLY! KILL IT! NOW!"

But while she wasn't looking, my out-at-work human quickly snuck the rat away to a park and let it go.

He was very pleased. She wasn't pleased at all. "It'll be back. Just wait and see."

2 nights ago, a rat came into our filthy, disease-ridden house again. It ate a mango AND a banana from the fruit bowl on our dining table. "WHAT DID I TELL YOU?!" my stay-at-home human shouted, as she cleaned up the mess and disinfected everything all over again [including the remaining banana and mangoes].

Once more, my out-at-work human had to sadly set the trap in our little backyard that has now become The Rat Highway Of Balmain.

And sadly [for the rat], it got caught [again, if it was the same rat].

And rats! [for the rat]. This time, it was put to sleep.

My Year As A Dog. Part 3, in which I make a confession.

I had my 1st dog when I was 5. Suffice it to say, that was a very long time ago.

Every dog I've had since, has taught me some thing. Not the least of which is, how little I really know about dogs. I've done many silly, regretful things with dogs that I/we've had over the decades.

There was a time when our dogs didn't get walks every day because we thought a big yard was good enough. There was a time when we smacked our dogs [with rolled up newspapers - remember that?] for chewing things, not realising they wouldn't make the connection hours after the deed. There was a time when we depended wholly on commercial dog food and considered that a satisfactory diet. There was a time when we believed it was fine for dogs on leashes to say hello on the street. There was a time when we believed in de-sensitizing dogs to things they feared, rather than avoiding triggers. [Though I still believe de-sensitizing works in some instances.]

I did some of these Questionable Things decades ago. Some, in the last few months. Many changes in attitude were initiated by posts I'd read while dogblogging.

Here, as promised, are some of the fascinating things I've learnt this year. I've included the links so you can read them yourself, if you so wish.


*This is the post that most stands out for me. If you scroll down to the comments section of the post, you'll find out why.
http://kenzothehovawart.blogspot.com/2010/10/are-you-prepared-for-dog-fight.html

If you have a dog, you might want to read it. Even if YOUR dog is a pacifist, not all other dogs are.


*Some dogs love cars. Some dogs chuck up at the thought. Some dogs...well...they're like Georgia. Here's the desperation...
http://littledogsonlongleashes.blogspot.com/2010/08/things-i-am-learning-4.html

...that led to me sharing these posts with The Other Half...
http://willmydoghateme.com/pet-travel/auto-anxiety-part-1-canine-carsickness

http://willmydoghateme.com/pet-travel/calming-your-car-crazed-canine-part-2

...that led to this.
http://littledogsonlongleashes.blogspot.com/2010/08/rotund-ro-tund-adjective-1round-or.html

Aren't blogs da bomb?

I hasten to add that in the past month, Miss Pea has somehow managed to sneak into the front seat and is now QUIETLY learning how to drive. *sigh*


*I shared the story in this post with The Other Half as well. http://kenzothehovawart.blogspot.com/2010/11/small-fearful-dog-therapist.html

He promptly tried it out on a neighbourhood [in this case, XL] dog that has a habit of rushing out to the porch to lunge and bark at every passing dog [including Georgia]. What can I say? It worked. Both the XL dog and Georgia have calmed down.


*In late July or thereabouts, Georgia turned 2 and became a trigger-happy, angsty teenager.
http://littledogsonlongleashes.blogspot.com/2010/10/dogs-day-out.html

I was worried enough to seek advice from [who else] Group 1, and was directed to links such as these.
http://www.boulderdog.net/2010/10/07/how-do-you-help-a-reactive-dog/

http://www.theotherendoftheleash.com/dog-dog-reactivity-ii-the-basics

Since then, Georgia has become much less reactive with dogs that bark and/or growl at her, and even with cats. She might give a little whine, but she mostly just walks by them. We're very proud of her!


*Thanks to posts like this one - 
http://www.dogspelledforward.com/on-leash-aggression-no-greetings

I no longer hesitate or feel bad about walking by or blocking a dog that "just wants to say hello". When I see such a dog approaching, I shorten Georgia's leash and make eye contact with the dog's owner so he/she knows I'm not interested in having the dogs meet. I find that shortening Georgia's leash often prompts the other dog owner to do the same. I now do this with all dogs that are not known to us. 


 *All of the links above gave useful and good advice. But I thought I'd share another one here that has nothing to do with that sort of education. You might already have discovered it on my blogroll. If you haven't, here it is.
http://indianpariahdog.blogspot.com/

Did YOU know there's a difference between a pariah and a mongrel? I didn't.

Here, at a site maintained by the same lady, you'll find other indigenous dogs from around the world. It's a fairly new site and still under construction.
http://www.indog.co.in/


*Finally, here's a current post that ISN'T really something I don't know [for a change]! But I think it's important to get the word out, especially if there are mums reading this blog. Yes, Ms Chapeuzinho. YOU would be one of them :)
http://www.boulderdog.net/2010/12/17/do-not-smooch-your-pooch/

You're not going to kiss me are you? Because I'm really NOT into that kind of stuff.You know that, right?

Oh yes! I mentioned in Part 2 that I'd learnt things, not only from Group 1, but also from being part of Group 4.

Here's what Group 4 has taught me.

Although it might sometimes feel that way [especially when we meet snarky people], Georgia isn't the only dog in the world that's a work-in-progress. Wherever we are in the world, the journey from ladette to lady is fraught with danger [and snarky people]. It may sometimes be frustrating and maddening, but it's always also exciting and interesting. Every baby step forward is something to be happy and proud about.

Best of all, it's a journey I now know I don't have to make alone.


Some lessons I've learnt from My 1st Year Of Blogging: THE SHORT VERSION.
1. All the above.

My Year As A Dog. Part 2, in which I make an analogy.

After a couple of weeks of Being A Dog, I got lonely and tired of playing by myself. "Higglety-pigglety-pop! There must be more to life than this!" I said, to quote Mr Sendak.



And so, like Jennie, I packed a little suitcase, crammed it with high hopes and wide-eyed wonder [but no experience], and went walkabout. I googled "dogblogs". What a huge mistake.

In an instant, I was transported from my small familiar backyard to a dog park with no apparent fences.

There were thousands of dogs, and I didn't know a single one of them. I was awed, frightened, overcome really. I felt like a startled chihuahua in a pen of great danes at feeding time.

There were big dogs and little dogs, top dogs and wannabe top dogs, happy dogs and fearful dogs, working dogs and princess dogs.

I didn't see anyone who might want to be my friend. I was quite forlorn. Like any fearful dog in a strange dogpark I was tentative and nervously skirted the area for weeks, looking but not approaching.

Then one day, I plucked up my courage, and sniffed a bum [that is to say, I posted a comment].

After I hit Enter the 1st time, there was no turning back. "Will you be my friend?" I arfed as I went from dog to dog, kissing noses, and wagging my tail hopefully, ready to roll over and submit if need be. Over the year, I kissed about 20 butts noses. 3 [if I remember correctly] weren't interested and looked away. 6 were willing to play, but only in their corner of the dogpark. I hope one day, they'll get curious and go walkabout too.

And then, there were the rest! Who sniffed my bum back, wagged their tails, and became my friends. There may only be a few of them, but they make my daily visits to the dogpark an exciting and glorious time!

"Will you please, please, PLEASE play with me?"

I now completely understand how little Leo feels.

There are so many types of dogblogs out there, and a few niche ones too. Here are just 4 of the bigger/more popular groups I found:

Group 1: The Top Dogs
Some dogbloggers might take offence that I call this group Top Dogs but that's what they are to me.

Here are the vets, trainers, behaviourists, authors and other such scary people dog experts. Everyone seems to know what they're talking about and they often talk about serious things. Even the comments in these blogs are goldmines of information. Everyone else wants to be their friend. To get a comment from one of these top dogs is like getting a shout out from the pope.

Group 2: Agility Dogs
If the dogs in these blogs are dusty, muddy or stinky, it's not because they had a roll in possum poop. It's because they spent their day being useful to mankind, hunting, hauling, tracking and herding. I've yet to see an even faintly plump dog in these blogs. For fun, they do agility stuff. If they put their minds to it, they could probably leap through hoops of fire too.

In another life, before she became A Rotund Princess, Georgia The Pig Dog might have fit neatly into this group. That's A Big Might.

Group 3: Happy Dogs
The dogs in these blogs are happy grinners. All of them have fat beds and couches to lounge in. Some have an outfit for every day, with matching leashes and collars, of course. Well-groomed and well-adjusted, they have many friends and no bad days worth talking about.

I like these blogs. I envy these blogs. I'm dumbfounded that dogs like these exist. I envy the people who are their owners. I tried my best to fit into this group. But Georgia kept chewing her oufits [if you need a laugh today - please do click on this link] and didn't want to learn how to paint or play the piano. Besides, she [me] had Bad and Sad Days we were keen to share too. So we quickly exited stage left.

Group 4: Work-In-Progress Dogs
The dogs in these blogs have Good, Bad and Badder days in equal measure. They may have fluffy toys and outfits, but none of them ever survive very long. The owners often beat their breast and tear their hair out over how their dogs are misbehaving. They also cry copious tears of joy when Spot takes another baby step to being a good dog citizen.

This is, without a doubt, my favourite group. Mainly because I LOVE a good rant [both reading and writing one]. Based on rants alone, I believe this is where littledogsonlongleashes belongs. Look at that. Even the title is a rant!

In my opinion, Group 4 has a somewhat symbiotic relationship with Group 1. We supply the issues. They supply the answers. I've learnt a lot from Group 1, and from being a part of Group 4.

And in Part 3, I will share some of these fantastic lessons!

Until then.


Some lessons I've learnt from My 1st Year Of Blogging: THE SHORT VERSION.
1. There are A LOT of clever, beautiful and interesting dogblogs out there. Don't be resentful or envious. Just enjoy.
2.Take time to make friends. 10 good friends are better than 3000 acquaintances. [If I say this often enough, I'm sure I'll believe it too.]
3. If you want your dog[blog] to have lots of friends, disregard point 2 and head directly to the nearest BlogHop and LinkyLink. These are North American things. We don't have stuff like that in Australia, as far as I'm aware of.

My Year As A Dog. Part 1, in which I blame Mr Prab.

It's 7 more sleeps to Christmas. Not many people have been popping in here the last week. Even my long-suffering friends and family have better things to do [shame on you] - like drinking too much, trimming trees, packing for holidays and, you know, having a life.

So I've decided that now's a jolly good time to surreptitiously put together some thoughts on my 1st year ever of blogging. Just for my record. I'm anal about commemorating special times.

My report will start right after the ho-ho-ho! So if you stumbled in here and don't want to proceed with a ho-hum report [or 3] on my dogblogging experience, go away now.

ho-ho-ho!

Julie famously started her blog with A Plan.

Until I started blogging, I'd never heard of Julie. As such, I had no plan on Day 1, and still don't 11 months later.

After my 1st post, I needed only the encouragement of a single follower Mr Prab, to NOT delete the whole thing and consider it a wasted hour.

Over the next few weeks, Mr Prab kindly commented that my layout sucked. My sister 2 agreed. The Other Half told me that words were willy-nilly breaking up everywhere and my prized carefully selected pictures were overlapping.

"Pleasssse everyone..." I hissed. "You know I'm not a web geniussss. It'sss a free template and a free blog. Ssssstop complaining already."

Being a web genius, Mr Prab told me he'd help beautify it soon. That was 10 months ago, my face is bright blue, and I think he may already be too late.

About 6 months after I started blogging, I found out that all my pictures were going to something called picasa web albums. I had A Very Big Duh? Moment.

After which I went to have a look at this mysterious album. I discovered that I'd somehow managed to use almost 60% of my alloted free storage. There's a limit to free storage? I was horrified. It must have been in the fine print of course. You see how, despite my [occasional] ranting and [sometime] pessimism, I have [a misplaced and naive] faith in the generosity of the human race?

The Duh? Moment was quickly replaced by a Quick, Kill Me Now! Moment before I heroically decided to go back to post #1 and start cleaning up the mess. It took me more than a few days and nights to go through every single post I'd ever made but [pat on back], ruthless hours of deletions and re-publishing later, I miraculously found myself using under 45% of storage again.

I'm telling you this because, if you once thought you saw a picture of your dog on this blog and told nanna who then told her knitting club who all had a look and saw nothing, at least now, you know why. Sorry, but something had to go.

As the months flew by, I discovered, from hours of googling and lurking, that there are many types of dogblogs. I will talk about these in Part 2 because my neck is killing me and I'm typing standing up.

Until then.


Some lessons I've learnt from My 1st Year Of Blogging: THE SHORT VERSION.
1. Have a plan.
2. Read the fineprint.
3. Don't type too long or you'll have a sore neck.
4. Don't believe anyone named Mr Prab.

Gratuitous photo of dog since this is a dogblog.

A rather belated guide to picking the perfect dog to give as a Christmas present.

Dear Person Who's About To Give A Dog As A Present,

Please don't worry. I'm not going to climb onto A Very High Soapbox and sermonise. That would be judgemental, rude and naive of me. Besides, there'll be enough of that this season.

If you've already made up your mind to give a dog to someone this Christmas, there's nothing more I can say, that hasn't already been said by much more informed people and organizations.

So instead, I've decided to help you pick The Perfect Dog!

It won't be the definitive guide, of course. I'm not an expert in these things. But I'm hoping it'll be helpful and a good start. At the very least, it'll be a most convenient one-stop page for shopping for a dog [and not just at Christmas].

I must warn you that it will take some time to read the links, and view the video. But I can definitely guarantee you that an hour or so spent here, WILL save you a lot of time, money, disappointment and grief later.

So here goes.

Step 1. If you're giving a dog as a Christmas present, why not consider getting one from a rescue?

If you're in Australia, here are 2 excellent links. They are a collection of dogs from different rescues and sources. You'll be able to immediately shortlist your preferences by gender, state and size and see pictures. You won't have to drive 2 hours out to a pound until you see something you like. Given that there are only 10 more shopping days till Christmas, that must be good news!

http://www.petrescue.com.au/

http://www.dchanimaladoptions.com/


Step 2. Oh dear. Those links are just showing you mutts and you've set your heart on a pedigree. What is a pedigree? Hmmm, let's see...

http://www.myspace.com/video/vid/44215931

http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/2688984.htm

Step 3. You think that video was nonsense made for bleeding hearts. You still want a pedigree.

No worries. Believe it or not, you won't need to go to a breeder or [heaven forbid] a petshop to get one. You'll find many tossed away ones here:

http://www.dogs4sale.com.au/Rescue_Organisations.htm

"Mummy, can I please, please, PLEASE have a snow dog? Please?"
http://www.winterpaws.com.au/index.html 

http://greyhoundrescue.com.au/ 

Interesting Note: Rufus B Thumper was abandoned twice before he was even 8 months old. Over the years, we've had people offering thousands of dollars for him and wanting to breed him. [Sorry, neutered.] You can see how cute he is, even at age 10 and a half, HERE.

See? It is possible to fool everyone and pay [something like] AUD200 for YOUR very own pedigree. Go on, check the links. Plenty more if you google your preferred breed.


Step 4. You've decided you want a Great Dane/Blue Heeler/Pug/Jack Russell/_ _ _fill in the blank_ _ _

But will it be the right dog for The Lucky Person Who's Going To Get A Dog This Christmas? THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT! Would you buy a pair of size 40 shoes for someone with size 37 feet? No, because that would be silly!

So, check the fit here: http://animal.discovery.com/breedselector/dogselectorindex.do

If you're feeling industrious, googling will get you to many other helpful breed information and selector sites.


Step 5. You've changed your mind! It does sound like giving a dog as a Christmas present might after all be something to think about a bit longer. But you  really REALLY want to give something warm and fuzzy away for Christmas.

Why not try this?

http://www.oxfamunwrapped.com.au/ChooseAGift.php

I have a feeling the recipients will really REALLY treasure your gift.


That's it then! Thank you so much for reading. Maybe you know someone who might find this page helpful. If so, please feel free to share it!

Love & pe*ace 

&

a  Happy Christmas to you :)

The wonderful stickers that you see here come from a rescue in South Africa:
http://www.africantails.co.za/

Ms O is in town!

"O. Really?"

Now, now. Enough of the sarcasm. As if you and the rest of the planet didn't know that Ms O is in town!

Over the weekend, apart from shopping, drinking VB and bridge climbing, Ms O threw A Big And Excellent Party for her 300 guests from America in Our Botanic Gardens. Although it was A Garden, they made it into A Beach. Do YOU think this a bit strange? I think it's a bit strange. If they wanted a beach party, why didn't they have it at the beach? Humans can be hard to understand.

It might surprise you, but I wasn't invited to Ms O's party. I'm not too disappointed. None of my friends were invited either. I think Our Nicole and Our Hugh were there though.

My stay-at-home human saw The Menu in the papers. She tells me they didn't serve any liver or chicken hearts or sundried squid. I'm not quite sure why not. Maybe they ran out of money for the yummy stuff. I don't want to sound like a sour grape, but I don't think I missed much at all.

I was, however, really looking forward to Our Famous Annual Christmas Street Party That Everyone Always Talks About, which was on the very same night!

Mr Thumper was there early. He's so unfashionable.

It was a small and quiet one this year. There were no twinkly fairy lights on our little house or in the garden, as there has been every year. Most of the other houses on the street didn't have them either. Santa didn't turn up. The mini-humans went home to bed early.

One of the sausages fell on the ground. My stay-at-home human thoughtfully rescued it for me but then,  forgot to give it to me. What can I say? It was THAT kind of night.

No dogs came out to play. The cats went wild and strutted all over the place. The food table was a bit bare. Everyone forgot to turn on the music machine. No one seemed to care much at all that it was their Famous Annual Christmas Street Party That Everyone Always Talks About.

But there was a good reason for this. Many sad things happened this year. We lost some good friends, both 2- and 4-legged, from the street. Some went away to live in other places. Some went away forever. The street and the party just wasn't the same without them.

Sometime during Our Famous Annual Christmas Street Party That Everyone Always Talks About, the fireworks from Ms O's party went off and lit up the sky. We all went, "O!"

As did Our Very Famous Harbour Bridge.

Picture from http://news.ninemsn.com.au/

UPDATE 17th DECEMBER  Could not resist this!

from smh news review, weekend edition dec 11-12