The statistics dont lie. Ninety nine percent of pet stores use puppy mills to supply their puppies. Why is it so “shocking” to find out that Petland has been involved in a months long investigation by the Humane Society….and…shocker….find proof positive that they use puppy mills as their puppy supplier.

EVERY pet store will tell you they use approved breeders. Yes, puppy mills are breeders. And “approved” is a fairly loose term. That just means that they follow the rules to not get shut down. So, yes, a puppy mill is a breeder. “An approved breeder.”

Now, ask that pet store employee for the name of the kennel. They will balk. Ask for the puppy’s parents’ names. Or what their titles are. For the exhorbitant prices that pet stores charge, those dogs oughta all be bred from Champions.

Before you spend your money on an overpriced pet store puppy, insist on the kennel name. Tell them you want to meet the parents. Tell them you want to visit the kennel. They will most likely ask you to leave.

If you must have a particular breed of purebred puppy, check the rescue network. They mostly have adults, but occasionally, all of us rescue groups do get puppies in!

If you go the private breeder route….ask these two questions and then judge for yourself:
1) Can I visit your facility?
2) Can I meet the parents?

Dont let them meet you halfway (if they are rural) GO TO THEIR FACILITY!

Here is a link to the article - http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27822309/from/ET/

ps…Nebraska Dachshund Rescue has three puppies who will be ready to leave their mom for Thanksgiving. All black/tan minis. Two longhair boys and a smooth girl. (Alexander, Ronan, and Molly) You can see them on our website under “adoptables”. Their mom was rescued, pregnant, from a puppy mill. http://www.nebraskadachshundrescue.org

Bob said to me, “You havent posted anything about Telly on HIS blog lately.” Telly’s life is pretty much the same every day… So, I thought I would photograph and detail a very typical day in the life of the little blue dog.

8:00 AM - The little blue dog is in his crate patiently waiting for mom to get him up and squeeze him. He sleeps in a big crate a few feet from our bed… at eye level

There is always a nose or an eye poking out in the morning. Even though he never makes a peep, he likes to know what’s going on

Nekkid blue dog heading to the potty. He has put on a little bit of weight! He needed to gain a pound or two. I thought he was getting too thin.

Squeezing the little blue dog. I do the one handed method. I support his chest with one hand and reach through his legs with my other hand and find his bladder.

Mom is putting his new pad on. I use the Always nighttime maxi pads. I only need to change it once a day. He mostly just dribbles a few drops into throughout the day.

Ok….ready to go to breakfast! Pick me up, mom!

Cart (Telly’s “magic legs”) awaits. I plucked him out of it last night and carried him up to bed. His cart stays downstairs.

Zoom to the kitchen because he knows his breakfast is waiting!

Hopping Hopping Hopping! Breakfast is so exciting!

Scarf… Telly is a gobbler. And a low rumble warning to that brown and white dog who is a little too close for comfort.

“What else you got?”

Making his way to his favorite “after breakfast nap spot”.

See you in a while, Bell (nickname for little blue dog)

10:30 - Linus started dancing around and barking at me. Time to get out the toys. Telly likes to play fetch with a Cuz ball. We play for about 15 minutes and I have to put the toys away, or there will be bedlam in the house. Plus, they will sit around and ruin all the favorite toys.

RUN AWAY!

“Squeaka Squeaka Squeaka” He holds the ball with his hands!

Back to napping

2:00 - Squeeze the blue dog again, take off his belly band, put him in his downstairs crate, and give everyone treats (mom’s leaving for a while…I do the bulletin at St Pat’s every Wednesday afternoon) Treats - half a pupperoni and one pillow of SD T/D food.

5:00 - Get blue dog out, belly band on, put in cart. Make dinner. 2 TB of dry Solid Gold Wee bits. 1/5 tin of wet food. Omega 3 oil. and some cheese

Time for dinner! Celebration, barking, racing around! Everyone eats in their designated spots.

Finish dinner in less than 30 seconds

5:45 - Nest / nap for a bit….Then, Yay! Daddy’s home! Get out of nest and join the excitement.
6:00 - Beg for mom and dad’s dinner. Score! Then nap for a couple of hours.
7:30 - Then, politely crab at mom to come up on the couch. Stay on the dog bed on the couch for an hour or two.

9:30 - Go upstairs with mom for a nighttime squeeze. Mom changes the tinkle pad and towel (I change it about every 2 - 3 days) FYI - I have switched all of Telly’s towels to be bamboo fiber. Nice and soft! And dont use dryer sheets on towels! It makes them build up a waxy coating and they wont be as soft (recommended by Consumer Reports!)
Center blue dog on his dog bed, pad, and towel. Massage his little walnut muscles behind his front legs. (he falls over on his side in ecstasy) Lean in for a good night kiss. Cover blue dog with a nice soft blankie. Not another peep out of him. He loves going to bed

Covers me up completely….and I dont move a muscle. I like going to bed!

Good night blue dog. Mommy loves you.

This is a VERY typical day in the little blue dog’s life. Did you notice his little brown and white friend all morning? She always has to be near another living being (deaf and blind)

Why are people of mixed african heritage always referred to as “black”? For instance, Barack Obama is 50% african american and 50% caucasian (white american?). Why is he only referred to as black?

Tiger Woods. The two descriptors that come to mind are “golfer” and “black”….not necessarily in that order. Would you believe that his mom was 50% Thai, 25% Chinese, and 25% Dutch. His dad was 25% Chinese, 25% Native American, and 50% african american. Yet, Tiger Woods is Black.

I suppose we have come a long way in the last 100 years…but we still have a long ways to go. Though…..I suppose we did just elect a “black” president.

I think this blog looks all messed up on various versions of internet explorer? Can someone confirm this? I use a Mac and can only view it on Safari and Firefox (and it looks fine)… but there are websites that allow you to do a browser check and it looks like the IE browsers are shoving everything to the left? Everything should be in the center of the page. I am not PHP proficient. HTML is my programming language. So, I am a newbie at trying to problem solve any potential display problems with PHP code. UGH! Programming languages!

Can someone confirm that this blog is displaying ok on their version of IE (and what version are you using?)

If it IS all jacked up on IE, I may be looking for a new theme. Hopefully that will help. Thanks so much!

I knew Lanoha’s was overpriced, but THIS IS RIDICULOUS.

FYI to anyone who doesnt know what Lanoha’s is. They are a huge nursery that carries everything from flowers to trees/shrubs to fountains to statues to furniture, even!

http://www.lanohanurseries.com/

Anyways, a few posts back, I was detailing my new bird bath contraption + new heater. I went to Lanoha’s for the heater, as I figured that they would definitely have one and maybe even a selection. They had one. It was $60! I just couldnt figure out what cost $60. An element. A little box. A short cord. I chalked it up to being a durable little son-of-a-gun that should last MANY winters.

Ok, I was at Menards yesterday. I was pricing bird seed. (DID you know that Menards has food, a freezer case, and toiletries?? But, I digress…)
I saw MY heater…. The SAME EXACT ONE! $29 OH MY GOD!

So, I am now on a mission. That is just frickin ridiculous. And even at $29, they make money. Sixty dollars is highway robbery. I was going to go to Lanoha’s and make SURE that the barcode was the same. And make sure there was no specific Lanoha sticker on it. Look for my receipt. And then go buy one from Menard’s and return it to Lanoha’s. An hour’s worth of work to make $30 back. Worth it.

ps….I am working on a post called “A Day in the Life of Telly…” Check back in a day or two

I saved this beautiful boy. I found him online and it was love at first sight. The picture was when he was one week old. Just a little piglet looking guy. He was the product of a backyard breeder. Much the same way that dachshunds cant breed piebald to piebald or dapple to dapple….danes cant breed harlequin to harlequin.

Angel is a white, deaf, mostly blind great dane. He came from a backyard breeder in Arkansas. I flew to Arkansas to pick him up.

Poor Angel was not a good fit with little ones who have bad backs….and are…..little. It seemed that my precious little low-riding gang spent all their time hugging the walls and hiding underneath the dining room table. At 18 months, Angel showed no signs of slowing down. I decided that the good of the many outweighed the good of the one. I contacted the Rocky Mountain Great Dane Rescue. I absolutely wanted to be his “foster mom” until a perfect home was found for him. I didnt want him going through the trauma of being bounced around. Also, I absolutely wanted it to be known that if things didnt work out, that I wanted him to come back here. Once again, I didnt want him bounced around from home to home.

As I was in Manhattan, Kansas with a Linus who was on his deathbed….I received the email that there was a family interested in him. It was so much for me to handle. I was alone in Manhattan and my beautiful Linus had just had major surgery. If Linus hadnt pulled through, I was keeping Angel.

Today, Linus is fat, sassy, and still throwing those sappy, big-nose looks

The family is in Douglas, WY. They have 15 acres, a beautiful creek, a mini donkey, a horse, and three other dogs. AND two kids, a mom, and a dad who all love him to death! The “mom” wanted to help a “challenged” dog. Also, her three dogs were getting old (as of now, 18 months later, she has lost two of them) Angel’s birthday is Nov 29th. He’ll be 3.

I send care packages on a regular basis. She sends me updates and pics. Did I mention that that PUP grew to be 38″ at the shoulder? Imagine your kitchen counter (36″) and add 2″….that was his shoulder height! That’s quite a stack of wiener dogs! And, good news, Jeau’s back has not gone out ONCE since Angel has quite ramming into him

Here is the most recent pic that his mom sent -

I think this is a mild pet peeve of mine… Those Rosetta Stone commercials with Michael Phelps. How he wanted to learn Chinese before he went to Beijing…and that he does everything fast.

Does it strike anyone as odd that there is not one single scene in the one minute commercial that has him uttering one single syllable of Chinese? For Pete’s sake, would it have been too much to ask to teach him ONE SIMPLE SENTENCE of Chinese?

In an interview, someone asked him if he actually learned any Chinese. He said, “No, that he didnt have time.” Fast? How about learning on the long plane flight?

Arent celebrity endorsers supposed to actually stand by the claims they make? Does the scene where he is sitting on the bleachers with headphones on, computer on his lap, his lips moving (while the narrator is talking)…does that qualify as his use of the product?

I’m over it

Ok, the vet’s office keeps calling Jeau “Joel”. One of these days I’m going to have to correct them on that!

Poor little spud had three little teeth pulled. I arrived early to pick him up. I just couldnt wait. He was sooooo drugged looking. And when we got home, I set him in the yard for a tinkle. He fell over when he tried to lift his leg. I stood him back up. He leaned into a boxwood bush and lifted his foot about half an inch off the ground. He got the job done. He tried staggering a few steps and I scooped him up. It’s sooo hard to see him this way!

He slept all evening. His eyes were soooo glazed and drugged looking. He did join the other dogs for dinner, but he sat and licked his food slowly. He usually is one of the first dogs done.

Here he is today…still looking a bit glazed, but definitely on the mend. You can see his St Roque medallion that I bought for him. I made sure to get a nice, soft leather collar for him to wear to the vet’s office (my dogs usually go naked…especially Telly…hehehe) I wanted him wearing St Roque during his surgery, as St Roque is the patron saint of dogs and dog lovers.

Still loopy, droopy, and a bit glazed. And, did I mention, he’s the cutest boy in the world?

I did this rainbow bridge print for a customer -

(ps…if you want to order a custom made rainbow bridge print, you can do that through my pet loss website at www.griefonline.com Thanks)

Anyway, I had been emailing back and forth with the woman who ordered the print. She told me about a company called VIP Fibers. They take your collected pet hair and make it into yarn. Depending upon the amount, they knit the yarn into various items - scarves, sweaters, etc. Some of you may be thinking…”creepy”…but when your pet passes, you may just be very grateful for that little bit of them. Burying your pet or having them cremated really doesnt give you anything to hold onto. That knitted item just may mean the world to you.

Here is a link to their website -
http://www.vipfibers.com

I bought a bird bath heater at Lanoha’s. It seemed like such a simple contraption. An element. A little box with a thermostat. And a cord. It was $60!

Now, I needed a large, low reservoir to set on the deck. I have never seen my squirrels actually in the bird bath that is off the deck, so I wanted to put a low water supply close to the feeder.

I had the brilliant idea to use the fire-pit that has sat on our deck and only been used once in a year. Hmmm…now what to put in it to hold water. How about the bowl of the actual bird bath? Yep. That worked great and it looks nice, too.

Here it is. Notice stupid squirrel UNDER it. He spent a lot of time hanging onto icicles and licking them.

and later that day…still challenged

and still later…

Here is Moe eating (I named the ones in the trees closest to the deck Larry, Moe, Curly, and Shemp…Shemp has a short tail)

And, FINALLY, they figured it out! I knew it was only a matter of time.