Beat This Caption

"What are you pulling me over for?

I wasn't doing anything wrong!

This is breed profiling!  

Monday Questiion

Do you follow Mom and Dad wherever they go?

Pocket: Sometimes, but I like to sit on my own too.  I let them come to me.  

River Song: Always.  I never leg Mommy out of my sight.  She hates when I stare at her while she is pooping.  She claims I give her performance anxiety.  

Angel Arrives at Rainbow Bridge by Judge Foley Monster

Traditionally, angels have been depicted in all-white garments. They may have different colored faces, but they are always wearing white robes. It probably had to do with the influence the white robe lobbyists had in biblical times. Truthfully, angels wear the same comfortable clothes we wore on the mortal side. There is no angel uniform, even on the most important occasions. But this week, I met a true angel in all white.  

Coincidentally her name is Angel. She is a cute little white bulldog.  I enjoyed visiting her and her pack, including her brother Prince who is as dark as she is white, on dream dates. I enjoyed their stubby legs, their snorting breaths, and how they would play with sister Gabriella's big ball, trying to use their short legs to mount it. 

Mama Jeanne has enjoyed watching pups play for her entire life. She always has a pack of fun-loving dogs that keep her smiling. Sadly large packs lead to heartbreak when inevitably the members make their journey to the other side. But Mama Jeanne never gets discouraged.  She recently adopted a six-year-old bulldog named Mickie. She knows they won't be together as long as she was with Angel, but she will love him none the less.

As beautiful as bulldogs are, they have their drawbacks.  Their short snouts and broad chests cause breathing problems.  It can lead to heart issues, which creates a bull dog's number of heartbeats to dwindle rapidly.  

A heart issue is what sent Angel to the Bridge.  She was showing the all too familiar breathing, low energy, and lack of appetite signs that dogs experience as they approach their last few heartbeats.  Her mom took her to the vet who told Mama Jeanne she could either take Angel home where she would struggle during her last remaining days or she could stop her suffering 

Mama Jeanne made the difficult decision to take on all of Angel's pain and suffering.  She set her beloved baby-free at the Bridge leaving her heart shattered and the large part that was devoted to loving Angel hollow and vacant

If she were allowed to see what we angels are privileged to witness, her heart would have been instantly uplifted.  When an angel who has been suffering crosses the Bridge, they do so with great trepidation. They expect their steps to be painful and their breaths laborious just as they had been at the mortal side.  With each step, they realize all that they had been suffering from has dissipated. They are young again. 

There is a great joy for everyone when the new angel takes their first pain-free steps, their mouth opens, their tongues come out, huge smiles cross their faces, and they run without having to worry about pain or shortness of breath. 

One of the many advantages to being part of a large pack is that many siblings have blazed a path for you at the Bridge. Angel had spent so much time here on Dream Visits; she was able to assimilate to being an angel in minutes.  Soon she and Prince were trying to mount Gabriella's big ball again to the delight of the welcoming angels. 

We know Mama Jeanne has significantly suffered each time she has sent a pack member to the Bridge, but she should know, because of the way she cared for them, she has made perfect angels.

None more so than Angel. 



  

Foley and the Truth about Labradoodles

Did you read that the guy who bred the first labradoodle says he created a monster?  I don’t think he created a monster. Everyone who has ever met a Labradoodle knows they are adorable and caring dogs.  If there was a monster created by this equation, it was the guy who saw a Gen-challenged dog and decided to create his own master race of mutts.

Let me tell you what the scuttlebutt is about this guy.   He was a breeder, and he got an order from a family that wanted a poodle and a labrador. He got careless and forgot to check who was in whose bed the night of the breeding.  A few weeks later, the female gave birth to half poodle/half labrador. An honest man would have admitted his mistake and returned the deposit. But this guy never met a deposit he wanted to refund.  He took the two dogs out of the birthing room, walked outside, held them like he was Mufasa, and announced that he had created the “poobra!’  

The other dogs groaned.  “Okay, I created the Labrapoo."  There were more groans. “Labradoodle?” he tried.  

“Close,” a bulldog said.  

The man thought for a bit.  “Labradoodle?” he asked meekly.     

“It’ll do,” a sheepdog said.  

The man then waited for the family who ordered the pups to appear.  Later that day, they drove up to see the pups. “What the hell is that?” the youngest child asked. 

“They are Labradoodles!” the breeder said.

“It’s a mutt,” the man said.  “Give us our money back!”

“Now wait!” the breeder said.  “These are special dogs. I have taken the best parts of a labrador and the best parts of a poodle, and I put them together to make dogs who have been specially bred for people who need a guide dog like a lab but are allergic to their fur.” 

“Really?” the dad asked.

“Either that or dogs who are hyper and shed like mad.  I don’t know. It’s literally a crapshoot.”

The dad thought about it.  “I would like a dog who is a good guide dog without the shedding,” he said.   “Can you guarantee that is what I can get?” 

“As much as I can guarantee that I meant to create this genetic freak,” the breeder said.   The father was satisfied. The family brought the dogs home, and everyone loved them. Of course, they did.  Who doesn't love a puppy? The breeder could have put together a Shih Tzu and a Great Dane, called is a Shizstain, and it would be adored.  We are just that good. 

The dogs do have a unique look.  People asked about them, and the owners said they were spectacular, which caused other breeders to begin creating and charging big money for the dog formally known as a mutt,  Soon the Earth was overrun with Labradoodles. 

Like when peanut butter and chocolate were combined to create the Reese's Cup and spurned several other peanut butter and chocolate combinations, breeders began to gather different breeds that had names that sounded catchy when combined, mated them, and created new breeds.

Now there are hundreds of crossbred dogs whose breeders claim that their new creation has the best qualities of both breeds while suppressing the negative ones.  These new breeds mow the lawn, get rid of unwanted facial hair, pick up the kids from school, finds the slipper that had been lodged under the chaise lounge for several weeks and get rid of the heartbreak of psoriasis. 

Frankly, I would prefer we were all mutts.  There would be no comparing breeds or trying to fix what is already perfect. Dogs don't see breeds.  We just see friends.



Humans should stop experimenting and do the same. 

River's Favorite Pet Store Closes

The local pet store is much more than another shop.  The pet store welcomes we furry creatures inside, and the staff always gives us attention. There are treats at the register and more pee-mail then at a busy dog park. 

Our favorite pet store closed this week. It is where we got our food, treats, and occasional toys. Pocket and I didn't spend much time in the store. We bark when we see another dog.  Mommy doesn't want us to be the loud little dogs at the pet store, which everyone smiles at and despises.

I did spend a lot of time in another store when I first came to live with my family.  I got private training lessons! My parents had not taken a dog to school in years. While they found the instructor to be very friendly, they did not think the course was intensive. A few weeks later, they discovered the trainer had no training experience.  She was a groomer, thus explaining why I only was taught how to sit. Yes, my parents should have asked for their money back, but everyone was very nice. My parents rank that ahead of competency. 

The store that closed had a real trainer.  On Sunday mornings, she would teach four consecutive classes with close to a dozen pupils. When the dogs returned to the store after graduation, they were treated like returning prodigal children.  Dozens of times a week, the staff heard people say it was the dogs' and their humans' favorite store. 

The saddest aspect of the store's closing is that it was a successful business.  There were acknowledgments on the wall in recognition of goals and quotas achieved.  It was financially sound. But, the lease was up, and the building owner refused to renew it, hoping to move in an even more profitable business into space, a risky venture in a world with a vitriol economy.  It was a hard blow to the associates who lost their jobs. They had done everything right, worked hard to create a thriving store depended upon by their guests, and one landlord ended it all by refusing to sign the leash. 

The employees learned of the closing a week before Labor Day, which gave them less than a month to find new jobs.  After the holiday sales, the team put up signs saying they would close September 29. Customers, upon learning of the closing, reacted like children discovering their parents impending divorce. "Where will we go? What will we do?  Who will give us food?" 

The store is in an urban area.  Many of the shoppers took public transportation to get there. With no pet stores in the immediate vicinity, they are at a loss for where to.go, especially for toys, over the counter medications grooming, fish, and small animals. 

A good pet store becomes vital to a pet parent.  A knowledgable staff is relied on to answer questions as much as a vet is.  Often the pet store is a parent's first stop when their pet gets sick. A trust is created between the staff and customers. When the parents use grooming and training, it becomes more so.  I feel sorry for the dogs who don’t know where there next grooming is coming from and the parents who are trying to provide for them.

Daddy’s work brought him to the store twice a week.  On Thursday, he walked around the near-empty store for the final time. The prices had been slashed first to 50 percent, and then 75 percent.  The shelves were almost bare, the groomer closed, and a few bargain shoppers were sifting through what was left. The staff had been bustling when the prices dropped.  Sadly, with every minute of hard work, they brought the end of their employment closer. 

On Sunday, the doors shut for the final time.  The store was an empty husk, but if you squinted, you could see the happy dogs and their parents, hear the busy hum of interested shoppers, and the laughter of people who would never speak outside the shop, but who were brought together by their love of dogs.

Foley told me that everything goes to the Bridge when it dies and that the store appeared Monday morning waiting for those who worked there, shopped there, laughed, and loved there, to come.  There is no work at the Bridge, but there are places where families gather, to do what was work on the mortal side, and will be play on the immortal side.

Someday the store will be thriving again. 

Wordless Wednesday

Beat This Caption

"Excuse me!  Can you spare a square?