Tails From Rainbow Bridge: Catching Up with Angel Apollo

I began writing my Pup of the Week blog in 2010.  There are a lot of reasons a pup can be Pup of the Week but the most common one is that the Pup went to the Bridge.  Back in 2010 we had only been blogging for three years and all our dog friends were young with no thought of the Bridge calling.  But there were some elders, and out of our elders no one was more elder than Apollo.

Apollo was our cowboy from Oklahoma:  Proud, tough, strong and brave Apollo was our leader.  He was the type of dog that you would think no human could hate but there were evil people who did hate him.  His neighbors put poison out and Apollo gobbled it up, as he did everything.

Apollo, our strong cowboy, was in dire straits, but they don’t  make them any bigger or stronger than Apollo and he fought off the poison, and then his Mom fought the neighbors off their property.

When his time did come he passed over in his Mom’s arms, in his home, while she sang Don’t Worry Be Happy to him.

Apollo was the first Bridge dog I knew who was able to influence events on the mortal side of the Bridge.  His mother and grandmother are two heroes in the dog rescue world.  They have saved countless dogs and given them forever homes.  .And each of those dogs has been guided by Angel Apollo.

Five years after crossing the Bridge his Mom still writes about him like he is with her.  Because Angel Apollo is still a huge presence in her life.  He sits in a beautiful mansion on a hill.  In front of the mansion, is his famous weeping willow tree that had to be taken from his yard last year.  He has a beautiful office with natural wood walls and floors  There he projects thousands of pictures of dogs who needs homes on to a screen.  He flips through them looking for the most needy ones so he can send them to his Mom.

He knows his Mom, Aunt Kimberli, will do everything in her power to make sure the dogs will have the perfect foster homes then the perfect homes.  I don’t know any dog here who is more responsible for finding homes for other dogs.  And he helps me and my staff find homes on the immortal side for those dogs who never found love on the mortal side.

No matter what side of the River of Life he is on Angel Apollo is about loving humans and taking care of his fellow dogs   Plus Apollo has the large responsibility of taking care of his Mom’s ever expanding brood from Napa to little Munchee.

When I was on the mortal side Apollo was a dog to look up to and try to emulate.  And that is still true on this side of the River..

And I believe it will continue for eternity.

New Rules, Hot Paws by Pocket Dog

As one of the founders of this site and blog with my sister Foley I have long believed in the Freedom to Bark.  But there is another right I fully support.  The Freedom to poo and pee.

I understand humans don’t want us pooping on their lawn, and River and I, along with our parents, try to respect their non pooping wishes, often expressed by a small sign showing a dog in the squat position with a line through it.  Try to respect it being the optimum expression because sometimes when you have to go……

But now there is a new controversy in our village  Two owners are upset because us dogs are peeing on the lawns.  They say the peeing on the edge of their lawn is killing all their grass.  Us dogs here must have some pretty powerful pee.

My parents talked to the property manager.  He is a dog lover too.  He thinks the man who doesn’t want urine in his yard is being ridiculous.  But he is probably going to give in to him since he is making such a big deal about it.

That is one of the differences between humans and dogs.  The dogs that bark the longest and loudest are told to be quiet, the humans that do it get their own way.

We are going to try and follow the rules.  We don’t live far from the big common area in the front.  Our parents are going to try to keep us off the lawns but they aren’t going to let us burn our paws either.  And no big field walking for us either.  We know too well what ticks can do.  We will walk around the perimeter of it but not across it.

I do enjoy walking the parameter in the field.  I don’t just walk, I do a little hop over the grass.  We know most of the humans who live along the route and they are our friends.  They won’t complain if we leave a little pee behind.  A couple of them have pups of their own.  One is a little poodle.  Her parents love us even if I am a little “obnoxious.”

So we can roll with the punches.   We aren’t going over to the mean man’s house and peeing.  Because another new rule is that the humans can’t wash their cars on the property.  And I just happen to have an Angel sister who controls a large amount of pooping birds.  

So if you see an angry old man driving a car covered in poop give him a wave.  He is our cranky neighbor.

Wordless Wednesday Birthday Edition

A cat named Scamper is our July 26, 2015 Pup of the Week

Sometimes, as I watch humans from my fine abode at Rainbow Bridge, I see some extraordinary things.

We all know that pets and elderly people, especially those who live alone, become very close  At a Petco by my parents house there was a cat, named Scamper, in a soft travel bag in the carriage.  His parent, a 75 year old woman, told another customer that she had lost her daughter earlier in the year and her cat meant everything to her.  Later she opened the travel bag so two children could pet her cat.  And then she forgot to zip it.

She was at the register when the doors opened and spooked Scamper who jumped out of the bag and the carriage then ran out of the store.  His elderly mother cried out and ran after her baby, followed by the cashier, several associates, the manager, people from the grooming salon, and even customers.  

Scamper ran down a bush covered knoll on the west side of the store.  His Mom tripped over the curbing and fell face first and then flipped down the hill.  The manager went to the woman.  Scamper then ran towards the south across a busy road and into bushes followed by a group of customers, male and female, young and old, dark and light skinned.  People may not be able to agree on much but these people all agreed this kitty needed saving.

But Scamper wanted no part of being saved.   When he saw the people coming for him he came out of the  bushes and crossed the busy street again.  Someone shouted for the cars to stop and they slowed down enough for the cat to cross the street.  He ran towards a group of young women who tried to grab him but he ran past them and towards a parked car.

One man ran to the east side of the car and put his hand under it.  Two more men got on the north and west side with their arms stretched out as the Scamper sat hissing.  The manon the north side was able to grab Scamper by the scruff and pulled him out as the cat’s Mom cried in joy.  The manager checked Scamper over and then got him back in the carrier as the woman tried to thank the dozen people who had searched for her cat.

The woman was brought over to her car.  The manager got some supplies to clean the woman’s bloody leg.  Another man stayed with her.  The only thing he knows about medicine comes from watching Deadliest Catch.  He asked her to move her fingers and she couldn’t.  He noticed her wrist was beginning the swell.  The manager came back out and together the man and the manager tried to get her to go to the hospital.  But she had no family, no friends, just her cat, and all she wanted to do was go home.  So they got her in her car and made sure she got out of the parking lot.

This made me realize there is hope for you humans yet.  The way all those humans came together to help put that scared kitty back with his frightened Mom was a beautiful thing.  I know there a lots of things that make humans fight, but it does my angel heart good to see all that can be put aside to reunite a scared cat and a scare Mom.

A tip of my tail to everyone involved.

Tails From Rainbow Bridge: #BlackDogsMatter

From my perch here at Rainbow Bridge I watch humans, particularly Americans, destroying themselves quicker than any outside terrorist organization could.  There seems to be arguments that black lives matter or that white lives matter or if that all lives matter.  I can tell you as someone on the immortal side of the Bridge that all life is precious from humans to the most microscopic beings.

I wish I could say it was the same for all dogs but it isn’t.  There is one type of dog who has it tougher than all of us and I would like to change that now:  # BlackDogsMatter

Black dogs suffer from what is known as Black Dog Syndrome.  Black dogs are by far the most surrendered dogs in shelters and they are the least adopted.  A Black Dog left in the shelter is going to be there for a long time.  It may never leave.

A black dog can be the sweetest, best natured problem free dog at a shelter but people still will be hesitant to adopt him.  People love dogs with markings and black dogs don’t have any markings.  Studies show that, for some reason, the black coat discourages parents from adopting.  It is true with cats too.

Scientists did a study where they showed the same dog with black fur and light fur and more people said they would adopt the dog with light fur.  Many people said that the thought of a black dog scared them.  

When dogs who have never known human love pass over to the immortal side many of them are black dogs.  My crack staff works very hard to find dog loving humans on this side of the River who will take in the black dogs and give them the love they never knew when they were on the mortal side. I am happy to say we have found homes for every single one.  

But I would rather see black dogs arriving here who have known love on Earth so if you are searching for a new dog please remember.  #Blackdogsmatter

Wordless Wednesday

I got a case of Limes by River Song

Sometimes life hands you limes.  

I got some limes handed to me when I went to the vet.  Things were going great.  I got to go in the car with Mom and Dad while Pocket stayed home.  I got to meet another dog.  I was having a wonderful time

Then I got put on the cold table.  I got poked, prodded, had blood drawn, got a chip put in, got all sorts of shots.  It was terrible.  Finally I was ready to go home when the vet tech told my Mom that a tick gave me limes.

I could hear Mommy’s heart drop.  Her face turned white  The vet tech saw this and started to give my Mom statistics that made my little head spin. 99% of dogs who don’t show symptoms of limes at the time of diagnosis respond to the antibiotics.  All Mommy heard was that I had a case of the limes and there was a chance I wouldn’t get better.

When Mommy got home she read everything she could about Limes.  Most of it was good news but Mommy suffers from WPS (Worried Parents Syndrome) and she concentrated on the bad news like how in rare instances limes can cause kidney damage.  When you suffer from WPS rare turns to likely.

Thanks to some close friends in the dog blogging world Mommy has calmed down.  I have been vaccinated and the vet says that I am going to be fine.  I will have a test in another six months to see if the disease is still active in my system.

Mommy want you to know some important things about Lyme disease.  In certain parts of the country, especially the northeast, 70 percent of dogs will get bit by a tick and contract Limes.  Out of that 70 percent 95 percent will be able to fight off the illness through self produced antibodies.  Some dogs, like my friend Butkus, will develop symptoms that range from lameness in a leg (it will switch from one leg to the other) and in some cases dogs will be unable to walk.  Dogs like me are battling the disease inside of us and it is possible that I would have been able to defeat it myself but the drugs greatly increase the odds.  In severe or chronic cases the antibodies created by the body to fight the disease will become trapped in the kidneys causing damage but this happens in less than one percent of the cases.  If your dog does contracts Limes there is an excellent chance of full recovery but there is also a vaccine to protect us from the disease and tick prevention medicine is also still needed.

Wow, that left me confused.  All I can tell you if you see a little bloodsucker selling fruit stay away or you will get Limes.  

But right now I am getting a pill inside a piece of chicken.  To me chicken twice a day is better worth the Limes.