Feline Friday - The time Baggy lost his mind

Baggy is our first fur kid.  He was the king of the jungle until about 12 years ago when we brought the first dog (Loki) home. To say he hated Loki and Gemi would be an understatement. He did not like anything about them. This is mainly because they chased him and took his spot on the bed. He basically lived in the basement for 8 years, a place off limits to the dogs.

After Loki's death, he started to become a little more tolerant of Gemi. Since then he has become tolerant of the dogs. He will be out and about when they are around. He has tolerated a sniff from them (often with a protest). But while he hasn't acted like he is plotting to kill them every second of the day, he hasn't been overly friendly with them.

You can imagine our shock last Friday when the following happened (please excuse the poor quality of the pictures, I only had my phone and didn't want to leave to get my camera).

Baggy came into the room. We put him on the bed (as he can't jump up anymore). Then he went and snuggled right into Phod.

I think the look on Phod's face was fear

Then the unthinkable happened. Bagheera, the dog hating cat began to lick Zaphod. He licked him for several minutes. The Man and I watched in shock and awe really that this was happening. Phod just put his head down and didn't move.

Lick, lick

This snuggle lasted for at least 15 minutes. It lasted until the Man had to get up.

Later that day, we came upon this:

Lee, Baggy at the top, Nin at the bottom, curled up on the couch. Note that Lee has her mouth and head touching Baggy.

Clearly Baggy lost his mind last Friday, that or the end is near!

Training Thursday - Loving Hailey

I love Hailey. She is a wonderful, delightful, beautiful, smart girl. However, if I am completely honest, loving her can be challenging some days, and has been more challenging the past few months. As I mentioned earlier, she has been playing deaf a lot. She has had some accidents in the house (and before Emma came to stay). I have been a little frustrated with her.

 I decided to look at the factors that were influencing my less then favourable feelings about my angel at times:

-I am always seeing her beside Phod, who is just an easier dog.

-The weather. It has been cold and snowy and really a terrible winter. The weather has limited the time we can spend outside safely. We are not getting enough exercise so this is influencing all our behaviour!

-Work has been crazy busy for me this year. Financially good, but emptying my tank by the end of the day and not giving me the time and energy my girl deserves.

For saying I am not perfect! 

What I am doing about this:

-Remember my dogs are each individuals with strengths and weaknesses - aka don't compare her to Phod

-Celebrate her angel qualities more often - she is pretty pawsome!

-While I can't totally change the weather (Man says we can't move to a warmer climate) I can make sure we maximize the nicer days and do more training inside when we can't (we have 4200 square feet, we have lots of room)

-More individual time. This is a big challenge for me because I always feel like I am depriving the other, but I am working to make sure Lee gets her own walk (an extra walk as in the morning I don't have time for 2 walks) a couple times a week. Phod can have his own chuck time, so both are happy. We have done this for 2 weeks and I think Lee is really enjoying it. More about that at another post.

-Working to making my work schedule more manageable - this will be a work in progress because no is not a word I am good at saying - but I am starting to create a plan to work only 4 days a week by the end of the year (maybe if I say it out loud enough I will be able to make that happen!)

These changes have started to make our relationship better. We had a wonderful snuggle on the couch last night!

Do you have have days/weeks/moments where loving your dog is harder?

Wordless Wednesday - Blast from the Past - Angel Loki

Tasty Tuesday - Which food to buy?

Currently my dogs don't have a regular brand of food. I am experimenting with other brands to find one that works for us and is not too expensive.

My preference in a food for them is a grain free one. Not because either of them have ever shown any issues with grain (or any foods, so we are lucky), I just think it is healthier for them. [They do get some grain filled cookies, and I am ok with this because the bulk of their diet is grain free].

For the longest time my pups ate Fromm. They did well on it. My issue is that is $100 a bag. With a Phod in our life who eats 4 cups a day, and a Lee who eats 2 cups, this only lasts us a month. While I liked the food, I wanted to know if I could find one that was as good for them and not so hard on my pocket book! 

Then I tired a Canadian made food that's name has completely escaped me. It is a new company (like a year old). I liked it but it was hard to find (I only found one store that carried it and it isn't in the most convenient location) and again was very expensive. A $70 bag didn't last the month as the bag was smaller.

We tried Nutrience but it gave us farty dogs. Really bad, stinky farts. 

This month we are trying Halo.This is the company Ellen Degeneres is the co-owner of.  It is cheaper, at about $65 a bag that will last a month,  and seems to agree with the dogs. It is also carried at the pet store by my work, so it is easy to get. (I don't have to drive all over the city to find it). 

I am opening to trying other foods. Does anyone have a grain free kibble they love that won't break the bank?

Phod: "I don't care what they feed me, as long as they feed me!"

Mischief Monday - Man's Bad Day

Sorry there are no pictures for this as I was not home. The Man retold his story about last Thursday. Here is the summary.

The Man was almost home when he ran out of windshield wiper fluid. He figured he would just deal with it at home. As he was driving down the private road we live on he saw a car. He was curious so as he turned into the driveway (with his dirty windshield) he was looking into the rearview mirror and cause he couldn't see out the front, he drove into a snowbank.

Driving into a snowbank is only a problem if you get stuck and the Man got really stuck. It took him, the next door neighbour and 2 people who were renting the cottage down the road to push him out. The 2 renters had a dog. While the people were pushing, their dog checked out our yard.

Once Man got his car out he came to take the dogs out. Of course, the dogs had seen this strange dog and when he opened the door 2/3 took off to find the stranger. [Emma was the good dog and she stayed in the yard during the events that followed]. They were stopped part way down the road by one of the neighbours, his dog Ghost (who is wonderful and friendly) and his new foster Shadow. The dogs were all getting along smashingly, until the Man went to put Phod on leash. Something about this action caused Shadow to become aggressive and lunge at Phod. The Man intervened and in the end was the one who got bitten. Fortunately Shadow didn't bite hard and with the Man's winter coat etc no marks or damage done. Man was then able to bring everyone home and he called it a day!

I, the Lady, of course am very supportive and I didn't LMAO at the Man. No, I felt bad for the Man for his series of unfortunate events.

I do admit I am now a little concerned about Shadow. Clearly he has some socialization issues and I am concerned because we live out the country and I know he is often off leash (I saw him running down the road off least yesterday). I am concerned if we come upon him, he may be aggressive again. We will have to be extra careful to make sure everyone stays safe.



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THANK YOU!
I am thrilled to report that we won the bronze in the Canadian Blog Awards - Best Pet Blog.
Congrats to The Cat from Hell for the gold and Nerissa's Life for the silver. I love both your blogs and count myself lucky to share the podium with such great blogs!

Black and White Sunday - Dreaming of Spring

Awards and Other Catch Up

First, we would like to take a moment to say goodbye to our friend Daisy from http://scotsmad.blogspot.ca who lost her battle to oral cancer this week. Run Free Daisy. Hugs to her sisters, Roxy and Bella.


I am embarrassed by how long it took me to formally thank Love is Being Owned by a Husky for the following awards:

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

I admit to having been too busy and overwhelmed with work to give my blog the full attention it needs. I see this being a bit of a problem for the next couple weeks, so will do my best to keep up with this and everyone else's (we may comment a little less, but know we are visiting!)

To help with this catch up,  have decided to copy others and have one day a week where I do this. For now this is going to be my Saturday post.

Monday: Attack of the pb

It is far more challenging to get pb on the dogs correctly when you are laughing so hard you can't see! It was a very fun, if unsuccessful photo shoot and perhaps turned out better then planned! 

Tuesday: Life with Emma

Easy: I am sure Emma would love to date you, but I don't think her dad would allow her, he is very strict.

Moving the cat food: The cats are feed their soft food on the counter. Nin can jump up and down but Baggy can't so they are lifted 2 times a day for this. They also have access to hard food during most of the day. The issue is, Baggy can't climb up. We  keep the cat food in the laundry room. We have a baby gate across the door. Our dogs are too big, Emma is smaller than Baggy so she can fit under. I don't think we have another place to put it. We are just monitoring Emma more and during the week only putting the hard food down once Emma is in the crate for the day or gone to bed for the night. 

Cat poop: I don't think Emma eats it, Lee does . . . . Lee also eats cat vomit, dog poop, deer poop etc etc. Lee is just gross! 

Wordless Wednesday:

Hailey gives me lots of kisses (usually when I first come home). I don't normally have to resort to pb, but to get the picture I wanted, I needed help. I washed my face after not because of the pb but because it was covered in slobber! 

Thursday: Love your pet day:

Yes, you are all correct, love your pet day is pretty much every day in the house (maybe a little less when people do things like eat the wall or pee on the guest bed).

Nin has been our simplest pet, so him clearing the magnets is like a human curing cancer. 

Friday: Laundry Inspector:

Baggy has always loved warm laundry and other warm places. When he was younger, I discouraged it as I didn't like the cat hair on the clothes. Now in what may be his last year, he can do what he wants!

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Wishing the Canadian Men's Hockey team all the best tomorrow morning, not because we really care about hockey, but we care about the mood the Man will be in for the rest of the weekend!