Save a Dog's 2011 Paws in the Park

I love the Wayside Inn area in Sudbury, Massachusetts. I have been having picnics with family and the dogs there for years. Next Sunday, May 22, Save a Dog is having their 2011 Paws in the Park event at the Longfellow Wayside Inn and you can attend with family and dogs. The event is not free. There a $10 entry fee or equivalent pledge per adult. I am not associated with Save a Dog, but I have been looking for dog friendly local events to take Katy and Bailey to and find it even better when they benefit other rescue dogs.

You can find a list of other events and vendors that will be at the event by checking out their website. If you are interested in adoption this is a great chance to learn more about Save a Dog and the dogs they have available, too.

Shelties React to Celtic's Playoff Loss

My husband is a huge sports fan and Bailey has been his loyal watching companion since he arrived. For the first time, Katy jumped up during the game and snuggled with hubby last night, as the situation was tense. We shot this photograph, as it was clear the Celtic’s playoff hopes were over for the season. My husband is still holding out hope for the Bruins and Katy does seem fascinated by the moving puck. Bailey does not have too many sports he is not willing to sit and watch.

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Wordless Wednesday

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Bones Banned in Beds

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Bailey does not see this as a huge issue. He mostly takes his soft toys to bed. I like bones. Chewing a bone in bed is comforting. Loud I know, but comforting. OK, so it does inspire me to want to play. I am not a controlled chewer, which can make for a challenging sleeping environment. I just cannot believe they took my bone. I got it back in the morning. However, when I jumped off the bed and took it in my doggy bed, I discovered the ban included my doggy bed, too. That is when Dad said the bone was going away for the night. It went up on one of those awful high places I can see from the big bed, but cannot reach. Now no bones are allowed even in my own bed. Bailey reminded me Dad would let me have one in my crate if I wanted to sleep there.

I practiced chewing on one of Bailey's stuffed toy bones to see if it will work as a bed substitute this morning. Bailey is not looking thrilled.

Parental Curfews

Mom used a version of this post for her Wordless Wednesday post last week. She carefully never explained what the picture demonstrated so we insisted she blog about it this week.

Mom and Dad need a bedtime curfew. As Shelties, it is our job to shepherd our sheep and keep them safe. However, if they will not go to bed however are we to get our sleep? Katy and can usually push Mom into going to bed, but Dad is a night owl. How is a Sheltie to get its beauty sleep when we are kept away waiting for the humans to go to bed? After seeing these exhausted faces would you force us to wait up for you?

Disaster Preparedness.

The news has pushed me to think more about planning. We have pushed forward with long-term plans that we did not wish to think about addressing. What I learned from that process is it starts with education. As I was looking at the poison plant link at the ASPCA I also noticed they had a link for Disaster Preparedness with a list of what you need to do before and during the situation to protect your pets. Some of this we have, some of this we need to do.

I know the first step for me is education. I need to learn more about my options and think about what resources are available to us in a variety of situations. The ASPCA list is a good place for me to start. In fact I think I will start some resource pages for this blog to help others looking for information that I can add links to as I learn more.

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Shelties and Garden Safety

While reading Chunyo's Corner's blog entry yesterday, I started thinking about our gardens and our shelties. Bailey and Katy are part Hoover vacuum and it is important to be aware of which plants are toxic to them.

For my own reference, I am listing the link here so I can find and refer back to it again. The ASPCA has a list that categorizes plants as toxic and non-toxic for cats, dogs, and horses. While Bailey has never eaten any of our toxic plants, it is important that we are aware of the dangers, especially since Katy is more of a plant snack eater.

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