If it weren't for my Brody

[houghchrst]

I would probably spend most days in my room reclining and vegging. He makes me get up and go outside and play, he makes me laugh all day, he brings out the sweet kind places in our hearts. Luv my little buddy








He actually thinks he's fierce when he chases the squirrels with this in his mouth. Sometimes he tries to pick up more toys with this lol, doesn't quite work out.

[serene_butterfly]

Hi Christina,

What a lovely story, Brody sounds very sweet and a bit mischevious!! It's amazing how dogs know how we are feeling and then do their best to cheer us up. He's very cute too.

Though I would also add a picture of my dog, Honey too, as like Brody she also cheers me up when feeling down and is my constant companion through the day, always keeping an eye on me in case of a fall, was stumbling a lot around the house the other actually and she didn't take her eyes off me until I reached the safety of the sofa again!!

She's also incredibly funny, especially when it's time for her to take medication, she was on anti-biotics while ago for a cyst on her paw, which turned out to be a benign tumour which she had removed as well as one of her digits as it became deformed as the tumour was pushing against it, anyway here's a video of my Dad trying to get her to take her tablet, throught it would cheer people up if they are feeling a bit down:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ii9MMO1dH6o

Photo-0005.jpg

[AnnieK]

Hi Pet Lovers,
I enjoyed looking at the beautiful dogs in this thread and serene_butterfly, your video was great for a laugh. May I suggest wrapping the next pill in a little cheese and your dad will see it disappear in a second!

I have two canine loves of my own. Roxy, who is a 7 year old female mix of miniature Dobermann Pinscher and an American Fox Hound and Tody who is a 5 year old Yorkshire Terrier.

I am new to Braintalk so I will get all the features figured out and post their pictures soon.

I wanted to encourage anyone who might be on the fence about pet ownership as I was to go ahead and do it. I am very limited physically as so many of us on this board obviously are, however my life has been improved in many ways by having these little guys in my life. I got Roxy first and didn't intend on anymore but after having her a while Toby showed up and "found" me. After a diligent search and no luck finding his owners he seemed to fit right into our home and I realized I was more capable than I thought I was of taking care of myself and others in need. Truth be told I needed Roxy & Toby as much as they needed me and the unconditional love they give me is priceless.
I am blessed because I also have a loving family but most of them live out of state so it's just my husband and I here in the town where I live. I'll take all the extra snuggles I can get and especially on those days when I don't feel so well. It's always amazing to me too how well the animals sense my feelings. Anyway....I for one am glad that I finally gave it a chance and I will always have a pet friend with me from now on. AnnieK

[serene_butterfly]

Hi AnnieGlad you found Roxy and Tody who has helped you in so many ways, it's amazing how dogs can have this affect on us, and how they are so in tune with how we are feeling, don't know what I would have done without Honey in our lives. P.S - Thanks for the tip, about the cheese, we used to be able to do that, wrapping the pill in a bit of cheese, but she's quite inteligent and cottoend onto what was in there so she refused to eat it, have now discovered that peanut butter does the trick, can get a bit messy but it works like a charm and it goes down the first time!!

[joy]

You are so right about that cute critter, LOL. It is good that pets get us up and out. Now for instance the opposite is my old dog Meanness. Named that because he is so not mean, remember, LOL!

He lays around all day, he will ocassionally get up and change sides he is lying on tho. He waits until I jangle some rings and metal stuff I have on an old collar of his for his feeding time. After that it is outside and back to his bed. That is it. So neither of us get exercise at all or not much. Truthfull I do tend to not do as much, he hates the vaccum etc. So I have lovely little fluffy doggie hairs that look like giant fluffy clouds floating on my hardwood floor. But I know for sure, I will miss him when he is gone. I could feed a horse for what it cost to keep him as well as he has to eat soft food, so canned, and he is picky at that.

The granddaughter's horse that is staying on our farm doesn't cost that much a day. Just some oats ocassionally and all the grass he wants. . Horse is active too. He will not carry anyone that wants him to go faster than a trot. He really was meant to pull a wagon and other grandparents that bought him were told that. Seem you can't get a horse to change midstream on what they were taught very easily either. Give that horse some treats and he will follow you around better than a doggy would tho.

[Deedeelyn]

Thanks every one for such cute stories about your pets. My little yorkie changed my life just about as much as having children. I tell you on some days If it hadn't been for him I would not get up.

Dee

[tic chick]

hey everyone !

i was bullied into getting our dog nora. our dalmatian, pepper, had to be put to sleep and i didn't want another dog, didn't want the responsibility cause of course it would be mine, since i don't work outside the home.

so, my husband and daughter started a campaign to wear me down. my daughter wanted an australian border collie, a highly active dog. i knew she wouldn't take care of it's exercise needs. then husband says, "am i going to get another dog before i die?" well, you can see what i was up against.

so, we bought nora, a german short-haired pointer. i was the one taking her out in the middle of the night to potty train her. she never pees in the house.

then we found nicky in our backyard 2 summers later during a thunderstorm. i don't know if he got over the fence or someone put him in our yard. we brought him in and he and nora just hit it off right away! we tried to find nick's owner, but after 2 weeks, noone called, so we kept him. nora is very high maintenance. she gets bored easily and needs to be active. nick will chill out anywhere it's cool or shady. someone did play fetch with him because when i played with him, he knew to bring the ball back. nora liked to keep the ball and just run around the yard with it . then she finally got the hang of it. now her game is making me pry the ball from her jaws of steel to throw it. well, i got wise to that and i don't pry. i ignore her until she drops the ball in my lap.

nicky will jump on my lap when i am sitting when i invite him. nora never does. i take them outside in the summer in the evenings when i am doing yard work for 4 hours until it gets dark. as it gets dark earlier now, we are out about 2 hours. we play fetch, then i let them rest or explore and i do my yardwork. i have to hide nora's ball because all of a sudden, she keeps putting it in front of me when i'm working so i can throw it. see what i mean by high-maintenance? in the winter i take the dogs outside around noon if it's above 25 degrees. nora has a short coat, so i put her hoodie on . nick has a thick coat, so i think he loves the colder weather. i will shovel the driveway from snow and play fetch with them about 45 minutes. it's funny when they lose their red balls in a snow bank, but they have great sniffing out powers.

what i do not like about having dogs is when they get sick at the end of their lives and die. the death of my dalmatian was a hard blow to me because i had her while i was raising the children and she was my companion. what do i do if one dog dies before the other? the other dog will get depressed, i know. i will get depressed. it gets harder the older you get. i was in my mid-40's when pepper, my dalmatian died. now i'm 10 years older. it takes longer and longer to recover from the death of a dog. how am i going to handle this in another 5-8 years?

thank you for sharing and caring.
jeannie

[CrystalSword]

I'd be very lost without our two. They are brother and sister and just turned five years old Sept 1st, Bearbear is my hearing assist dog (he's kind of disabled himself because he lost a leg). and Munchkin is my hubby's diabetes dog, she lets us know when his blood glucose is out of whack (high or low).

[houghchrst]

Great pictures guys. I am considering fostering for rescues. Something small, young, just to see if I am capable and if so maybe move on up. Hard part is sending them to their forever homes lol.

Welcome Annie to BT

[Jo6]

Of course lil queenie you are capable of doing anything your heart desires!! Did you see that huge dog my Beth put on FaceBook? Gads, I was afraid it was going to start chewing away at me!! I've always been a little shy of animals, I don't know why, but the talk and all the loving pictures you girls post has kinda made me want a small dog.

Beth brought Spinkie up to meet his grands. He hung after me and if I sat down he would lay his head in my lap and look up at me. Beth was so excited, she said he was grinning at me. Do dogs grin? She said he had bonded with me as they were leaving. He was an orphan and the shelter picked him up when he was 4 months old. Susan helped out at the shelter one day and she started going everyday and walking Spinkie. Well, she walked him right home one day and he has been there every since.

Queenie, Susan mention doing what you are thinking about. If that is what you want to do I know you can. Just don't over load yourself.

My baby Sis saw the pictures of the dog and me, she just about screamed and said you are so afraid of my toy Poodle and I about had a heart attack when I saw you loving on that huge dog. Well, the poodle is one little devil and he will jump across the room, hop up on my shoulder and start kissing me, right on the month!!

Enough babbling, just wanted to thank all of you for posting in this forum. It is a delight to read and I enjoy the pictures!! I feel like I already know Queenie and Jeannie's dogs. They are beautiful dogs!

take care all, Julia