The Green Acre 20 Are Our June 29 2014 Pups of the Week

I am often asked what us dogs’ biggest failing is, and sadly I know the answer, we trust humans too much.

Often this is a wonderful trusting relationship that lasts our lifetime.  But occasionally we put our trust in the wrong person and when we do the results can be horrific, at least for us.  When our parents put their trust in these same bad humans their cries of sorrow can be heard across the river.

This is what happened at Green Acre Dog Boarding in Gilbert Arizona.  They advertised themselves as having facilities for a dozen dogs who would have plenty of room to play inside and out with individual attention from the staff.  Parents, looking for a loving doggy daycare, left their dogs at the facility last weekend.

Something went terribly wrong that day. By it’s end 20 dogs, who had been left at Green Acre Dog Boarding earlier in the day, stood on the steps of the Bridge, waiting to be sworn into the immortal life.   They all told the same sad story.    They were brought into a small shed that did not have air conditioning.  If you are unaware of what happens to a dog left in a broiling hot environment I will explain.  Because we can’t sweat we first begin to pant and drool.  Our hearts begin to work harder.  Our blood pressure drops because our blood cannot be pumped through the body.  Blood starts to pool in our vital organs  The kidneys suffer thermal damage, small blood clots begin to form.  The cells inside the intestine and stomach become damaged leading to diarrhea and vomiting.  The cells in the liver begin to die.  As our system shuts down our brain swells which brings seizure, then coma, then death.

And that is what happened to each one of these dogs in this endless line.  They were left in a shed on a hot day with no air conditioning and the all succumbed to the heart.  Meanwhile, on the mortal side of the Bridge the humans were doing what the humans do.  First the two caretakers at the facility, not the owners who had gone to Florida, said the dogs had run away.  One of the parents of the departed decided to search the grounds for his missing friend and found his dog’s body, along with many more, behind the shed where they were trapped and died.

The owners and caretakers continued to try to shift blame.  They took a picture of an electrical wire that they said the dogs had chewed through.  On examination by experts it was determined that, if dogs had chewed it, the cord would be frayed, where this cord had been neatly snipped in two.

Humans will continue to do what humans do, try to get “justice,” in the form of money from one another.  I do know that the Green Acre Dog Boarding won’t be getting much business in the future, and there will be no place on this side of the Bridge when they pass over.

All I can hope is that humans learn from this, but I am afraid that humans are very slow to learn.

Today my Daddy was at a Pet Smart when a woman came in.  She had written down the license plate of a car where a small dog was trapped inside with only one slightly cracked window for air.  Daddy told the manager who paged the owner.  The owner was at the register, and announced that she would just be a minute.  Both Daddy and the manager told her how quickly a car could heat up but the woman didn’t seem to understand what she did wrong.  When Daddy told her she was in one of the few stores that allowed dogs the owner said she didn’t like bringing the dog in the store because it makes a mess on the floor.

Hey lady, not as much of a mess as a dog with diarrhea suffocating in a car makes.

So, for the Green Acre 20, please make sure humans understand what the heat does to dogs so we don’t have another tragedy and the line at the Bridge becomes shorter.

Ask Aunt Foley

Dear Aunt Foley:  Last winter you made it very cold with your ice hockey tournament.  Please tell me you don’t have any activities planned to make it hotter here this summer::  Bella

Dear Bella: I don’t want you to worry my friend, I learned my lesson this winter and know that my actions can affect those left behind on the mortal side of the river.  So I will not be doing anything that makes it hotter for you.  

Unless you live in the pacific southwest where we have already started our weenie roasts.  You can’t blame us. You know us dogs love weenies.  But we are only going to be holding it through mid-October.

Then there are the silent fireworks.  We love a good fireworks display at night.  Its so pretty.  Our launching pad is somewhere over the western plains, so it might get a bit hot there for a few months.

And there is no better place to watch a firework display than in a hot tub,  It takes a lot of machinery to keep the hot tub going and we placed the pumps over the southeast states so that might make it a tad warm through the summer months.

And there is nothing better to eat while sitting in  hot tub and watching fireworks than pizza.  We put the pizza ovens right over the New England states.  So it might get a little hot there for a few months.

So in short Bella, yes, I think it is going to be a very hot summer. But I am sure you would want your angels to have weenies, and fireworks, and a hot tub with some pizza, and did I mention the pop corn machine over the mid-Atlantic seaboard and the refrigerator unit to keep our ice cream cold over the Pacific Northwest?

On second thought:  Buy a pool.

Nearly Wordless Wednesday

What do you mean did I eat the plant?  Why would you think that?  Why am I sitting in the bay window?   Looking for the bay

Foley reflects on her first year at Rainbow bridge

In June I “celebrated” my one year anniversary at Rainbow Bridge. 

 Honestly it was quite disappointing.  Turns out the first year anniversary is paper and I was given a box of pee pads.   I don’t even pee!  Not that anniversary gifts will improve much.  Between 25 and  50 year anniversary gifts are good but after that things go downhill.  By the time of my 357th anniversary I will be receiving two dozen goats.  Like I have a place to keep two dozen goats.

While the Bridge is a wonderful place, from the River of Life where we can look in our loved ones, to the beautiful mountains overlooking the animals’ sections of the Bridge, to the grand mansions in the valley where the humans live, it is also a bittersweet place.

Everyone here misses someone.  There is so much to do that we don’t have much time to think about the loved ones we have left behind.  But occasionally these feelings do arise and when they do, the other angels can sense it, and we gather to share memories and comfort one another.

Because we have short, limited lives, at some point, everyone that we ever knew will be here, and we will be happy, but there is always someone left behind.  If our Mommies and Daddies come they miss their children, when they come, the children will miss their children..  Unless the humans manage to destroy the world there will always be someone missing someone.

It is said that the River of Life is filled with the tears shed here for those we left behind.  Others say it is filled with the tears of the reunited.  I think it is a mixture of both.  As I write this I see Smartie, PJ, Willie, Meika, Tanner, Fella, Brooklyn, Buddy and so many more of my friends running towards me.  They must know I have the blues.

Time to run and romp those tears away.

Sandy is our June 22, 2014 Pup of the week

One of the most valued traits most appreciated in pups is patience.  When I lived on the mortal side of the River I was known for my patience.  I never barked for food,or  to go out, or when I wanted to play.  I would just sit quietly and wait for my parents to finish what they were doing then be grateful when they gave me attention.  If my Mom remembers differently just remember that studies done by the mice scientific institute at the Bridge show that humans lose 15% of their memory each year so she is wrong.

I mention patience because for the last three weeks I have wanted to use my Sunday blog to recognize my friend Sandy but with the crossing over of Brooklyn and Susie and Nathan’s urgent need of a home Sandy had to wait.  Now that Nathan is settling into his new home it is time to tip my tail to Sandy.

Our friend Sandy has always been a very active chap.  His favorite activity is chasing squirrels, although any vermin, or even his siblings if its a low vermin day, will do.  A few years ago Sandy threw us quite a scare when he injured his knee requiring surgery.  But ever the champ Sandy recovered quickly, and soon was his old self, zooming across the world.

A few weeks ago Sandy tore the ACL in his other leg, and friends, this was not good.  Sandy is 12, and the doctors had their concerns, firstly being that any time a “senior” dog needs to undergo anesthesia there is a risk, and secondly, since Sandy already had suffered an injury to the other leg, it was unknown if that leg would be able to support his post weight surgery.  After much discussion the surgery was performed successfully (the surgeon’s hand guided by hundreds of pup and parents’ prayers) and Sandy once again came through like a trooper.

He was in the hospital for a full seven days and all of us angels went down and spent a night with him so he would not be lonely.  He got home, and even though he was working on less than one properly performing back leg he still wanted to rush out the door to go vermin hunting.

Sandy has a long slow recovery ahead of him this time.  He is going to need puppy prayers to help him recover so if you have them to offer please do.  There are plenty of vermin out there that need to be hunting.

We know you are patient Sandy, so keep being patient about being a patient and soon you will be back hunting down those vermin.

There’s just too many of the without you.  

Ask Aunt Foley

Dear Aunt Foley:  Last week was supposed to be my week.  Daddy was on vacation and I was promised long walks, a trip to the Peddler’s Village, and maybe a hamburger.  Well it rained on my vacation week.  On Saturday Mommy and Daddy went out of the house and when they came home they tried to act all casual but I could smell the stank of other dogs on them.  They had cheated on me.  Should I forgive them?  Leo

Dear Leo:  I know exactly what you are talking about.  You are sitting at home nervously waiting for your parents to return.  You hear their car, the shutting of doors, the key in the lock, the door opening, then you see them, you run to them,  greet them with all the love in your heart, and then you get hit with the stench of another dog.  It is stunning, and you don’t know how to react.

I believe part of what makes us so angry is how casual our parents are about it.  They know they cheated.  Couldn’t they give us the respect of trying to cover it up?  Would it kill them to take a shower, wash their clothes, at least make some effort to hide their misdeed?   Nope, they just come strutting in like we are too dumb to notice we were cheated on.

And the worst part is we forgive them.  We can’t help ourselves.  Even if I advised you to shun them you wouldn’t be able to do it.  They are in our hearts, our blood, our souls, and, while we might be able to manage an hour of shunning, we cave.

But I will tell you what you can do.  When they come home all stinking of another dog you have to get that stink off of them.  If they don’t have the common decency to clean themselves, as soon as they sit, you jump on them and run yourself up and down them, then back and forth, and even flip them over if you can, to get your stank on them and the foreign stank off of them.  This process can take up to 15 minutes.  

I imagine, after 15 minutes of Chow rubbing, your parents will think twice about cheating on you.

Wordless Wednesday

Nathan has a home

This is copied from our friend's Romeo's Page on DS:  Nathan will be fostered by Charlot' s Mom, Barbara. Charlot is Slater's sister!!!! We are hoping she will be a "foster failure" and end up keeping him! BOL Wishbone' s Mom, Tiffany has been working since November to find a home for Nathan, so PAWS up to Tiffany! We are so happy that Nathan is safe!

Nathan is our June 15, 2014 pup or the week

Usually I do my Sunday blog about a dog who has recently joined me at the Bridge, or is in need of prayers to keep them from our gates.  This week’s pup Nathan is healthy, but unless he gets a last second miracle he could be joining me at the Bridge very soon.  This is Nathan’s story

Nathan was rescued, as were so many dogs before him, by my friend Wishbone’s savior (and first real Mom) Paula Malatesta.  Numerous pups, and their owners, owe Paula for the love they share.  But now Paula is in ill health, having suffered the latest of several heart attacks, and no one can assure how many days this wonderful woman who devoted her life to saving us souls who commit our lives to humans, has left on the mortal side of the River of Life and before she passes over she has one final mission:  To save Nathan.

Nathan is a treewalker coonhound from North Carolina who is either five or six years of age and weighs in the vicinity of 80 pounds.  He is neutered and up to date on his shots.  He is a couch potato, and while he is very vocal, (a bark collar or some training may be needed but he is an excellent guard dog) he is a sweet baby with  no aggression issues whose loves to snuggle, although he would do better in a house with older kids familiar with dogs, and should be fed separately (and less, he has a few extra pounds.)   . He does bark at strangers but soon becomes bored with them and leaves them alone.  While he is not a threat to anyone some socialization might be needed.

Paula’s and Nathan’s fates are tied together.  Where she comes from dogs are mere possessions that can be discarded on a whim with the government an all too willing accomplice.  And that is not the worst fate Nathan could meet.  If their mortal lives don’t end at the end of a needle they end as a bait dog.  So Paula made provisions, knowing that Nathan could meet a very bad end, that when she left the mortal side of life, Nathan was to follow.

Posts about Nathan have been posted and cross posted with no luck.  So I am doing what I often do, hoping, begging, pleading for a miracle.   If everyone could reach out to any rescues they know, or anyone looking to adopt a mature dog, and let them know that Nathan needs a new home maybe we can fulfill Paula’s last wish.

Plus we need plenty of prayers for Paula and Nathan.

Please just this one little miracle and I promise I won’t ask for another one for at least a week.

Don't Trust a Squirrel Minion with Watching Your Mom by Foley Monster

As many of you know my Mommy loves to work in the garden, and it is my duty to make sure that she doesn’t over-do it and hurt herself.  When I was on the mortal side of the Bridge I would do this by panting a lot in the stroller so my Mommy would quit because I was overheated.  But my sisters are of no use in this situation.  They just peacefully sit in the stroller until I knock it over

Usually I watch over Mommy and when she overworks I send a bird to poop on her, or send an unexpected rain storm, or flip my sisters’ buggy, and she stops working.  But I have been working very hard at the Bridge lately and decided to spend Memorial Day at the Beach.  Unfortunately this coincided with Mom’s gardening day.

I needed someone to watch over her so I called in my squirrel minions.  I told them if Mommy worked over two hours then make it rain.  They squeaked and squirted yes and I grabbed my towel and went to the beach.

When I got back four hours later I checked in the River of Life.   Mommy was still working in her garden and my squirrel minions were nowhere to be found.  Plus the weather was a mess.  It had rained before they went out, and shortly after they went out, but then stopped.  Damn minions.  You can never get good help.

The first thing I had to do was to make it rain so I called the Rain Support Line and of course I got connected to a Vanjari Hound.  I have absolutely no problem with dogs from India but when you are upset, barking quickly and loudly, and having a hard time expressing yourself, honestly, you would probably rather be talking to an English Setter.  Needless to say I could not make it rain on Mommy.

I was furious and decided to seek out my squirrel minions and find out why they failed me.  I asked some chipmunks where the squirrels had gone, because they can never keep their mouth shut, and they told me the Beaver Strip bar.  I marched right over here.

I found the squirrels gathered around the stage and throwing their nuts in the air whenever they saw a beaver.  I asked the most minion of the minions what they were doing and he said “Making it rain.”  Grrrr……

So now I have to find something more reliable than the squirrel minions to watch over my Mom when she’s working in the garden.  Maybe I can get Orkie the Yorkie to drive down the street and bite her in the butt.  But he’ll probably pass out from exhaustion on the way.

Back to the drawing board.

This Moment

Ask Aunt Foley

Dear Aunt Foley:  My Mommy spent the entire winter trapped with me on snowy, frozen Enzo Mountain.  Despite the cold I enjoyed it very much.  Then spring came and Mommy got a job riding in the front end of Thomas the Tank Engine.  I know she is getting paid for it, but I can’t imagine why (humans.)  Anyway, while I am happy she is bringing home fresh kibble I do miss her.  Am I being selfish? - Enzo

Enzo:  This is one of the most difficult quandaries in a dog’s life.  We want our parents home all the time but if they are home all the time then they won’t have any money and, if they don’t have any money, we won’t have a home to be in, unless they are retired, which is wonderful, but sometimes they have been retired so long they can’t do long walks and play at the dog park, or they are rich, and when they are rich they always seem to be jetting off here and there, and if we do go along we seem to be more fashion accessory than friend.

So you do have to let your Mom go to work because it makes the time that you have with her even more special, but you have a very important role to play in the process.  When she gets home you have to act like her walking through the door is the greatest moment of your life and make her always want to hurry home to you.

The other part of your job is to make her feel like a huge crap puppy when she goes out the door to work.  Mom guilt is good.  Mom guilt is what gets us toys, kibble, and lots of attention.  So guilt on the way out the door, joy on the way in, and in between you nap and I’ll come get you to pay with your friends at the Bridge so you’re not lonely.  

That way you are never alone and always spoiled the way dogs should be.

Wordless Wednesday

The Nose Knows by Pocket Dog

A scientist with way too much time on his hands, obviously obsessed with dogs’ noses and peoples’ crotches, discovered, by what I hope was a freak accident, that dogs can detect prostate cancer in men by sniffing their pee.  The breakthrough was thought to be a great advancement for man, but really it is a great advancement for dogs.

Now, when we see a strange man, and we jump up and shove our face in his crotch, and are told to get down, we can turn around, look at our parent, and say “dammit, this isn’t fun, this is a medical examination.” If, after an examination we grab on to the man’s cuff and don’t let go it isn’t a sign of aggressiveness but a sign that something might be seriously wrong and the stranger should see a doctor immediately.

I hope that the scientists with nothing better to do can help us detect some butt cancer too, and maybe some lady part cancer too.  Oh to be able to shove our noses where ever we want in the name of medicine.

I advise all humans wear clothes that are sewed together quite well.  The last thing someone needs walking down the street is a medical breakthrough.

Susie is our June 8, 2014 Pup of the Week

I realize this is going to be hard for many of you to believe but there was a time when I wasn’t the world renowned celebrity blogger that I am now.  In 2007, when I joined DS, I wasn’t sure what I should do.  Be funny?  Be sympathetic?  And how much of my own life do I share?

I decided to take a look around the place and found Moses’ blogs.  They were mostly written by his Mom.  He had recently become terminally ill.  She did not write as much as she opened an emotional spigot and let it flow.  She vividly described everything she went through:  The shock, the pain, the horror, the emptiness, the grief, the sorrow, the loneliness.  Joan Didion and Christopher Buckley may have written bestsellers about grief and loss but no one wrote about it with more honesty than Moses’ Mom. The first lesson I learned from DS, and I have carried it every day, is that Moses is love.

And the second lesson I learned is how to blog.  There is no moment that is private, as long as it is based on life.  Your job is to make the reader feel:  Happy, sad, thoughtful, motivated, it doesn’t matter, as long as the emotional spot the reader was in when they began to read is slightly altered by your words.  Moses and his Mom taught me this.

When I reached the Bridge Moses was one of the first dogs to greet me.  He gave me a hug.  He was the biggest dog I had ever seen.  After our hug he told me he thought I would be taller.  I told him I get a lot of that.  Since then he has been my wise and trusted council.

Like me Moses had a sister he overshadowed at least on the blogosphere   Her name was Susie, and this week we all gathered and cheered when Susie crossed the River of Life and reunited with Moses.  Dog reunions are only second to Parent and Dog celebrations here at the Bridge. Then comes cats, then cats and dogs, and then birds, and then, well, you can only get so excited over a ferret.

Then we went down to the River of Life to watch Moses’ Mom Miss Nancy and Susie’s sister Matilda.  This was an especially hard time for Miss Nancy to lose Susie.  She had lost her own Mom weeks before and her grief was as fresh and strong as it was when Moses had passed.  None of us heard the footsteps but we all reacted when a hand landed on Susie’s head and gently scratched her.

At first Susie didn’t recognize her, and the she realized it was her grand mom, Miss Nancy’s Mom. She was younger than Susie had ever seen her, and she told Susie that she missed her and was glad to have her company, and she asked me to let Miss Nancy know that she and Susie were together, and would always be by Miss Nancy’s side.

I saw Susie and her grand mom romping through the fields and meadows today, laughing together.  I know Miss Nancy may not be ready to laugh yet, but hopefully the thought of the two of them together will make her smile.

Ask Aunt Foley

Dear Aunt Foley:  Why did God take away my best friend Ruger and leave me with the annoyance called Maxx, who whines all the time and refuses to play with me? Cocoa Puff

Dear Cocoa:  This is one of the most difficult questions to answer.  Why does God take our best friends?   First, keep in mind that God does not take anyone.  We are all born with a specific number of heartbeats, some of us have numbers that are high, and others, like Ruger have numbers that are way too low.

So God didn’t take away your best friend, Ruger just ran out of time on the mortal side of the River of Life, and he is here, with me, and Tanner, on the immortal side, where Tanner serves as Mayor and Ruger as his assistant, albeit one who can’t help but to get into trouble..

I wish you and Maxx got along better.  I wasn’t much of a player with other dogs when I lived on the mortal side.  I would spend most of my time sitting on Mom’s lap and snapping at any other dog, including Pocket, who tried to come near me.  Reading your letter makes me think that maybe I should have played with Pocket more. Then I think Nah!

When she was living with me I didn’t play so Pocket didn’t play.  Now that she’s living with River, who likes to play, she is just now, after a year, starting to play.  So don’t give up on Maxx yet.  His inner pup may still be emerging.

Until then Tanner, Ruger and I will all come visit you in your dreams and play with you all night long.

Doggyspace Time

This is about the way posts are time stamped on the site Doggyspace.  If you are not on Doggyspace you may find this a wee bit confusing.

Having been part of social networking for almost a year I have taken it upon myself to delve into one of the deepest mysteries of social media:  Doggyspace time.

What is Doggyspace time?  It’s the time listed above our posts that designates when we made them.  Sometimes they say an hour ago, or 8 hours ago, and sometimes, and here is where the mystery lies, it says 4 hours from now.

Take for example my birthday wish to my good friend Marshmellow.  I posted a comment on his page wishing him a happy birthday.  I then went back to the main page and clicked Marshmellow’s page again and found out I made the comment four hour ago.  I know DS is slow but four hours to make two clicks?  Time flies while you are waiting for a download.

But that is only part of the problem.  Sometimes I wish someone a happy birthday and see that Pocket has wished them a happy birthday one hour in the future.  What kind of time warp is DS?  It can anticipate what posts we are going to make and makes them for us.    Also when I sign on in the morning the first thing I do is look at birthdays and it often says a friend’s birthday is today, so I sign on their page and wish them a happy birthday.  Then later in the day it says their birthday is tomorrow, and even later it’s back to today and I go to see if I wished a happy birthday and it says I said happy birthday one day ago, but was it one day ago, or a year and a day ago?   So I wish happy birthday again.   And my friend thinks I am an addicted to happy birthday wishes.

So everything we post on DS doesn’t get posted until four hours after we post it, even though the poster can see it immediately?  I think Obama has to approve our comments.  Or everyone can see it but it doesn’t become official for four hours.  Or DS is in its own time zone that is always four hours away.  

I guess the best thing about DS is that it is a place where no one really knows what time it is and no one really cares.

---

[EG1]

Wordless Wednesday

Maggie is our June 1, 2014 Pup of the Week

All of us dogs hate pains in the butt, for me it was Pocket, but our very good friend Maggie had a serious pain in the butt this week, and it might lead to an operation.

When Maggie’s Mom took her outside to do her business on Thursday her Mom saw that Maggie was bleeding from her behind.  Her Mom was surprised.  Maggie hates to cause problems for anyone, and even though she was in pain, she never made a sound.

Her Mom became immediately concerned and told Maggie that she was too brave and needed to tell her when she was feeling poorly, but Maggie lives with boys, and we all know how much boys complain, so she decided not to bother her Mom and to suffer.

Maggie’s Mom took her to the vet. She was diagnosed with an abscess on her butt.  She was given two shots, put on three different medications and got her back quarters shaved against her wishes.

I feel especially close to Maggie because I have been to her house.  It was before she arrived, her brother Pokey was there, and he became one of my best dog friends and his

Mom became one of my most special human friends.  She gives her valuable time to transporting our homeless friends to their forever families every weekend.  

To make matters worse Maggie had her birthday on Saturday and nobody wants a pain in the butt on their birthday, or to feel poorly.  Maybe when she gets better we can throw her another birthday party.  

I saw on the humanbook that Maggie was not responding to her medicine and might need surgery so I am asking for prayers that Maggie recovers and does not need surgery, and, if the answer is no, I ask that she come through the surgery with no problems and recovers quickly.

And if you take no other lesson from this take this.  If you have a pain in the butt let Mom know.

Best wishes, feel better soon, and happy birthday Maggie