Bliss update

Posted on 28. Dec, 2009 by Keri in Dog Bliss News

Bliss helps with the laundry

Thank you all so much for your kind words. It really means a lot to us.

I thought I could continue this blog while Bliss was ailing. I couldn’t. Every time I looked at a new dog product, it would upset me. “How long,” I would wonder, “will she be able to enjoy this?” (And then there was the unfortunate meltdown in the dog section of Old Navy, but we won’t go into that right now.)

I do plan on continuing this blog at some point. I don’t know what it will become, but I have a few ideas I’m working on. For right now, though, I need to concentrate on keeping Bliss as comfortable and happy as possible.

She’s not doing very well right now. We started to see a pretty definite decline a couple of weeks ago, and we don’t think she has much time left. Although her spirits are mostly good and she has a healthy appetite (she still hasn’t met a cookie she didn’t like), walking upstairs is proving painful and she seems to be in a fair amount of discomfort a lot of the time. The good news is we were hoping she would make it through Christmas, and she did. Any time we have left with her we’re considering to be an extra bonus round, and we’re thankful for it.

We’re exploring our options right now, but we know we’re going to make some hard decisions soon.

Thanks again for your prayers and good thoughts. As always, hugs to your pups.

Keri & Bliss

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Celebrate Adopt a Shelter Dog Month with an ASPCA Prize Pack

Is there a shelter pup in your life? Tell the world with this shirt and other goodies from the ASPCA.

October, as you might already know, is Adopt a Shelter Dog Month, and our frinds at the ASPCA want those of you who love sharing the adoption message to turn up the volume with the help of this shirt:

In fact, they want to give one Dogster reader a prize pack full of goodies to help you spread the word on adoption well beyond October. Included: an "I Love My Shelter Dog" tote in addition to the shirt, an ASPCA wristband and magnet, a Humane Law Enforcement handcuffs keycain, and some K9 cookie treats in pea-mutt butter flavor for the best accessory in your homemade adoption campaign: your shelter pup!

HOW TO WIN

If you'd like the prize pack, use your Disqus account to comment below, telling us your shelter pup's story. Creating a Disqus profile and avatar just takes a minute and is a great way to participate in Dogster's community of people who are passionate about dogs. (Please note that if your Disqus account doesn't contain a valid email address, you can't win because we can't contact you. Lame! So please check your account). 

We will pick a random winner on Wednesday, Oct. 31, at noon PST, and contact him/her by email. The winner will have two days to respond or we'll pick another -- that's just how it goes!

The ASPCA would also like to invite you to their virtual Adopt a Shelter Dog Month event, which will take place on their UStream Channel on Tuesday, Oct. 30 at 7 p.m. EST. The live stream will feature behavior experts chatting about the dos and don'ts of bringing a new dog home and vets who will help prepare you for Halloween with some safety tips.

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Is house cleaning harming your dog?

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Goodbye, little Bliss.

Posted on 22. Jan, 2010 by Keri in Dog Bliss News

We said goodbye to Bliss on Monday.

Bliss’ health had been steadily declining since Thanksgiving. One by one, we saw her lose the things she loved: playing catch with her stuffed toys, going on walks, and even rolling over on her back to receive belly rubs. Just getting up and down became increasingly difficult and painful for her, and maneuvering stairs was out of the question. We fashioned a make-shift sedan chair out of a cardboard box so we could carry her up and down the stairs to our backyard. She hated it.

Still, her appetite was good, and her spirit was intact. It was hard seeing her body turn on her. She still wanted to do all of her fun Bliss things, but they only caused her pain and frustration.

We tried new pain medication. It helped a little, but not much. She cried all day and all night. I moved to the couch and stayed with her every night so my husband could get some sleep, but she could be heard all throughout the house. It was physically and emotionally draining for all of us.

Then on Sunday at about 3:00 am, she started panting. The panting turned to whining which turned to crying which turned to something I could only describe as screaming. It was horrible. I tried comforting her, but nothing worked. I sat helpless as my little girl endured something that must have been excruciating. I gave her an extra dose of her pain medication, though she wasn’t due for another 12 hours. It eventually seemed to take the edge off and she dozed off into a fitful sleep.

We knew then it was time.

Monday morning, I gave her extra pain medication to help make her as comfortable as possible, and made an appointment for that evening. I’m still not sure how I found the strength to make that phone call.

Bliss and I settled in for a “girl day” of bad TV and good snacks. She had as many cookies and Greenies as she wanted, and about an hour before the vet arrived she had another dose of pain medication along with her favorite dish: scrambled eggs and shredded cheese. My husband arrived home in plenty of time to give her lots of attention and ear rubs. She was having one of her “good” days; clearly still uncomfortable, but not in the kind of pain we’d seen before. Of course, this was probably due to all the extra medication, but it was making it extra hard to see our decision through. We wavered, but then remembered the screaming, and knew we had to do it.

The vet arrived right on time. He was kind, compassionate, and everything you’d want from a vet in that situation, but nothing could buffer us from the horror and grief of watching that lovely creature, our beloved friend, companion, and family member, slip away from us. That memory will haunt us forever.

And now there is a gaping hole in our family, one that can never be filled. Sure, we could get another dog, maybe even another Keeshond. But Bliss was a once-in-a-lifetime dog. There was something about her that, as my husband said, transcended “dog.” So smart, so happy, so funny and good-natured, and everyone who met her recognized it immediately. Not a mean bone in that body. Never once growled or snapped. Always happy to go where you’re going. Always happy to be where you are. And always, always providing unconditional love. There’s no getting Bliss back.

We already miss her terribly. No longer does she herald our arrival home with her “inside voice” of baroos and howls. No more jumping on our son’s bed to gleefully awaken him. No more bows and high-fives. And no more soft sighs when she settles in for the night, the sigh that lets us know that all is well in the world.

We can’t possibly repay her for all the joy she’s given us. And the one small consolation we have for deciding to end her life – especially when she was having a good day – is that we stopped the pain. We opted to make it harder on us so it would be easier on her. We removed all possibility of repeating that horrific, painful night and let her go in peace and comfort.

I’m not exactly sure where dogs go and what memories they take with them. But my hope is that, wherever she is, she’ll remember that her last day on earth was stormy and wet, but she was dry and cozy at my feet. I hope she’ll remember all the treats, and all the pets, and the great big bowl of eggs and cheese brought right to her. I hope she remembers us, at the last moments, holding her and telling her she was a good girl, good girl, good girl.

And I hope, above all, she’ll remember that she was loved.

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Obama to His Daughters: No New Dog

During his victory speech, the president put the kibosh on a new dog, ending months of speculation.

One of the more compelling issues of the presidential campaign concerned President Barack Obama's official stance toward matters canine. Would he get another dog? Would that dog be a Chow or a Pug? Would that Pug be named Henry Adams and get fed Beef Wellington late at night by the White House staff on banquet nights? Actually, these questions were not so much a part of the president's campaign as my head. 

Anyhow, during his victory speech, Obama put those questions to rest. "I'm so proud of you guys," he said to daughters Sasha and Malia. "But I will say that for now one dog's probably enough."

Damn. 

Bo, the Portuguese Water Dog who Obama gave his daughters after the first election, did not comment. Bo has one heck of a lawn to deal with, so maybe he was all tuckered out from running around with the Secret Service all day and re-enacting scenes from Air Bud.

Still, if Sasha and Malia and have learned anything from living in a political think tank for four years, it's that words have meaning. One dog is "probably" enough? Please. If they exploit that "probably," they can ram their new-dog legislation through the dinner-table congress before the weekend is out. Once this is all over, they'll probably have five dogs. 

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Study Finds Dog Yawning Is Contagious -- Because Dogs Love Us

Researchers at Lund University in Sweden rigorously studied the behavior -- when they could have just asked us.

Scientists recently discovered that dogs can catch yawns from their humans, a finding that many dog owners knew already. 

The findings are important to scientists because it means dogs feel empathy toward humans, a finding that many dog owners knew alre -- wait, scientists didn't know this already? 

What the heck have scientists been doing all this time? 

Many of you, of course, know full well that dogs have empathy and can catch your yawns -- often you catch each other's yawns and collapse into a heap and sleep through the afternoon. 

The study, conducted by Lund University in Sweden, exposed 35 dogs -- puppies and adults alike -- to various people yawning over a period of time, according to ABC News. (What we wouldn't have given to be a part of that study!)

“We showed that the dogs were yawning contagiously," says Elainie Madsen, a doctor of psychology at Lund University, who co-wrote the study. "Not just yawning; they also took on the emotion that yawning usually signifies, which is usually sleepiness and tiredness.”

“For those of us who have dogs, we often feel this very close connection with them, and we feel that they must understand or sympathize with our emotions and our emotional states,” says Madsen, surprising not a single dog owner. 

One new thing to us that the study did reveal was that puppies do not catch yawns -- just like infants and young toddlers don't catch yawns. Empathy is a learned trait, and puppies are as cruel and unyielding as babies.

"Oh, you've got to wake up at 7 a.m.?" your puppy says to you at 2, 3, and 4 a.m., licking your face with full-tongue kisses. "And that concerns me ... how?"

“[Dogs] go through what seems to be an empathy development that somehow mirrors humans’ empathy development," the study concluded, "so it’s just obviously on a very different time scale.”

The study found that puppies start to display empathetic yawns at 7 months, while children don't start until they reach an age of 4 years. Hahaha, parents. 

Oh, and cats? They don't contagiously yawn, but we knew that already.  

Via ABC News

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Welcome new RAGD Partners RedMoon Custom Pet Food and All Dogs Big and Small!

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