Hi Dawgs, It's Opie!

Yo dawgs! Dopey Opie here.

This will be a short post... mostly because the dogmom is taking the good-smelling clothes down the hallway to make them stink again. What is it about humans that makes them want their stuff to smell funny... like flowers and ocean breezes and stuff like that?

Tomorrow will be three weeks since Gomer crossed the rainbow bridge. Dogmom really misses him, I think. It's kind of a mixed blessing for me, though... cuz she wants more cuddle time and she seems to pay more attention to whether my teeth need brushing and my nails need trimming. She even threatened the dreaded water bath to make me smell like her clothes. Yuck.

I kinda miss him too... but I'm relieved that I don't have to be naughty to take the pressure off of him.

Anyways... dogmom's back now and she said something about walking to the preserve again.

Chase Ya Later...
Opie

Gomer Has Crossed The Rainbow Bridge

Last night, at 7:15 p.m., I held Gomer's head as he quietly walked across the rainbow bridge.

He noticeably hadn't felt well for about a week, which I attributed to the stress of moving to a new place, then leaving on vacation, then bringing back a puppy from Ohio to live with us for a week. But, when he wouldn't eat at all, I noted that he was severly jaundiced and rushed him into the vet at Pet Crossing Animal Hospital. The bloodwork, of course showed very high liver values.

I tried very hard to ignore his pleas to let him go; I wanted the analytical me to win. To run all the tests and get all the information before making the ultimate decision. But, after five hours of treatments and IV fluids, I looked into his eyes and he asked me to please let him go. It was one of the most difficult things I've had to do. But I know in my heart that I did the right thing. Maybe not for me, but for him.

I miss him horribly and expect that I will for a very long time. I take comfort in knowing that I am a much better person for having accepted the scared little dumpster dog into my home, my life and my heart.

To steal a post idea from Hercules' dad when Herc crossed the rainbow bridge, here's a short list of things that I learned from Gomer. As those who knew him will understand, he taught me so much more than the items listed below... but these are the things I remember today.

Things I learned from Gomer...

• This world is a scary, dangerous place. But, with the right people to watch your back, everything will turn out ok. That... and a lot of the things that we fear the most aren't really all that scary once we understand them.
• Every single being, no matter what their faults and how mean they can be, has value. Even the guy who threw Gomer in the dumpster had value… if he hadn’t, I wouldn’t have had Gomer as a part of my life for the past nine years.
• With the right encouragement and acceptance, every single one of us can excel at fulfilling our purpose in life. Gomer’s first evaluation was that he’d always be feral and never be a good pet. Luckily, enough of us believed more in him than in the opinions of the “experts.”
• Don’t always act in the way that someone else believes is appropriate. Sometimes you need to run around like a crazy person and release pent up energy. And, sometimes you just need to lie down and let someone who loves you rub your belly.
• Life is what you make it. You can be scared, dissatisfied and blame others for your problems… or you can accept what it is and hold onto the hope that the rewards and treats will always come later.
• If your people can’t hear your words, talk to them with your eyes, your paws and your tail. And keep communicating how much you love them until they understand.

Opie and I are doing fine, all things considered. Thank you for listening with your eyes today.

Dogmom

Hercules Went to the Rainbow Bridge

'Member Hercules? We didn't talk about him a lot, but we mentioned him on our blog a couple of times. He went to our doggie birthday party. See here. And here. He didn't particularly like us... cuz we're bigger than him and he had a big ego, being a Corgi and all...

Anypaws... dogmom used to work with Hercules' dad. And here's what Herc's dad had to say about him:

HERCULES’ GUIDE TO BECOMING A BETTER PERSON

Pictured is Hercules, the Weber family’s pet of the past 11-plus years.

I wouldn’t normally talk about my home life in a blog that is mostly news and notes for Southwest editors and reporters. However, I’d like to share five things that Hercules has taught me about becoming a better person, colleague, boss and perhaps even journalist.

1) It’s not always about you. Raising children can wear you out, but having a dog is humbling work, too. You need to feed, walk, entertain, groom, train and, yes, especially love a dog if he or she is truly a part of your family. You might think you’re a big shot, but – seriously – who rules and who drools when it’s you that’s carrying the bag of dog droppings while walking down a busy street?

2) Praise matters. I believe we’re somehow hard-wired to enjoy hearing our name linked to a compliment – though it may not show as much in humans, since we don’t have a tail that wags. (Actually, Hercules is a Welsh corgi, a breed that has its tail docked while still young. But when praised, he can still get a pretty good shake going in the trunk vicinity.) Lay some praise on a co-worker or news source, and mean it.

3) Believe in people. My dog does, greeting me at the door after work every single evening with the unstoppable conviction that nap time is over and the fun will now begin. Even though I don’t always deliver. That’s true faith in another, which among humans – especially hardened, skeptical journalists – is often in short supply.

4) Get out there and play. Sometimes just getting outside and going for a walk is enough to forget about the heavy burdens we sometimes shoulder at work. Scientific studies back me up on this. And there’s nothing like dog ownership to provide the daily motivation to take that stroll.

5) Life’s too short. Enjoy your family, friends and colleagues … today, tomorrow and every single day. I’ve come to learn this lesson recently, and the hard way. Hercules died yesterday, after going through a quick but fatal slide caused by liver and kidney disease. He was an important part of our family, and the best friend I’ve ever had. May God bless his soul.

Until next time … thirty-dash.

Herc was a special little guy with lots of spirit. He's going to be missed. We hope he's playing in the rainbow bridge meadow with Floppy, Tosca's kitty, Tasha and all the other pets we've temporarily said goodbye to.

Wuf Ya!

Scooby Crossed the Rainbow Bridge

We don't think any of you knew our Scooby. He didn't have a dog blog. But that doesn't mean he wasn't a special puppy. He was too busy keeping our friends' house in order and protected from all the threats that can occur in Arizona.

Like blowing tumbleweeds and dust and birds that land on the patio.

We think that maybe Scooby went across the rainbow bridge in order to smooth the way for Stetson. Dogmom said that Scooby's mom and dad described him best:

"Our best companion and protector for over 16.5 years, Scooby, crossed over the rainbow bridge on Saturday, July 5th. His spirit remained strong until the end. He was at peace and ready to go. We were able to let him go from the physical world and know that he will always remain in our hearts.

Please smile when you think of him and hug somebody you love today. Scooby brought us immeasurable joy and taught us many life lessons. He was also an incredible healer with a heart of gold and a warrior spirit. We miss him greatly. The attached pic is of his majestic self in our backyard in 2005.

It has been a week of huge loss in terms of losing a friend to cancer and other animals we know with a resounding lesson of learning to let go. May God Bless them all. We honor the circle of life and acknowledge the many blessings we have, including all of you. We pray peace for all.

Our heartfelt thanks go to some very special people who have helped and supported us taking care of Scooby physically and spiritually along the way over the past few months and right up until the end."

Give your masters, owners, dogmoms and dogdads extra hugs and puppy licks from Scooby today, k?

Do People Go Over The Rainbow Bridge, Too?

Dogmom is very sad today.

We've been licking her face most of the night and it tastes salty.

She said that her friend Stetson in Arizona went to heaven yesterday morning. We don't know where heaven is... but we don't like it if it makes dogmom sad.

We do like Stetson, though. He was a very special guy. Not only because he was a Colonel in the Air Force. Or because he had a handle-bar mustache and a shiny head. Or because he had a turtle named Prince. Or because he was the bestest ever guy to everyone he met.

Stetson loved dogs. He especially loved Weimereiners... but he pretended that we were part Weimereiner when we lived in Arizona... because he loved us, too.

When I, Gomer, was a puppy, and Stetson found out that I was afraid of men and baseball caps, he always wore one whenever he came over to our house. And he laughed when I barked and growled and bared my teeth at him. Then know what he did? Huh?

He would take off his baseball cap and throw it. And I would chase it and bite it and try to shred it apart. And he would laugh. And dogmom would be horrified. And Stetson would say that he has lots of baseball caps. And then he'd put on another one and we'd start the game all over again.

Know what? I'm hardly afraid of men in baseball caps anymore. (Except the really scary ones!)

And, when Opie came to live with us, Stetson really liked his sillyness. He thought Opie acted like a Weimereiner sometimes. He told dogmom that Opie was really smart... even if he wouldn't learn to sit. He used to laugh at Opie. When Stetson would come to our house, Opie would sit down and wiggle his tail. And then, when Stetson wasn't paying attention, Opie would jump up and lick him in the face. This was a feat, see, 'cuz Stetson was 6'4" tall!

Anypaws... Stetson went to heaven yesterday. When we were leaving Arizona (2002), Stetson found out he had some tumors in his liver. They were cancer... endocrine pancreatic cancer that metastasized in his liver. Most patients with his kind of cancer live less than five years.

Stetson did all the treatments... and some that were experimental. Some worked for a while. Some didn't work very much. Some seemed to work really really well.

But, finally, the cancer won. More and more tumors started growing in his liver. And then they started moving into his stomach. And then he passed away.

It's ok, though. He fought the good fight for six years. And, he had a really good quality of life until last Friday. And we know he went to heaven.

So, put your paws together to say a puppy prayer for Stetson's family - especially his wife Tess and their "daughter" (neice living with them) Teresa.

Is Heaven anywhere near the Rainbow Bridge?

Wuf Ya!

We're Very Sad about Tasha

We're very sad to report that Tasha (of Tasha and Eva's Blog) crossed over the rainbow bridge yesterday.


We're especially bummed because we had just met Tasha and Eva a couple of months ago when they came to Dog Pad to meet Tory and to stay there with us a couple of days. It's never easy to leave a Dog Pad buddy... but especially hard when they're a dog-blog buddy, too.


We're going to do everything we can to help Eva get accustomed to being the main dog at her house. She's never lived there without Tasha, so we know it will be hard on her.


And, we hope that Tasha's mom and dad know how sad we are about their loss. We think they would appreciate knowing that all our dog-blog buddies care about them, too. Won't you leave them a message at their blog?


Wuf Ya!

St. Puptrick's Day Will Never Be the Same

Bye Bye Jessie.


We're very sad today. We were going to post today to wish Jessie a happy barkday, but instead we're saying goodbye to her.

Remember Haleigh? She's the girl that made us the Haleigh treats. We posted about Haleigh on our blog here and here and here. Jessie is Haleigh's dog.

Jessie would have been nine years old today. She got sick the first weekend in March, but then seemed to get better. But then, she walked over the rainbow bridge on Wednesday, March 5th. (We waited so long to post so that we could get some pictures from Haleigh and her mom.)

Haleigh and her sister and her mom and her dad are all still very sad. Someday maybe they'll adopt another dog. But, for now, they are just sad and remembering that Jessie was born on St. Puptrick's Day! So, she was just as Irish as the rest of her family.

Here are some of Jessie's family's favorite pictures of her. We're gonna miss her, too.


Wuf Ya!

Look Dooley-Bean, We Posted!

Ok, dawgs. So one of dogmom's friends gave her grief the other day at Pet Crossing because we haven't posted on our blog for WEEKS! Anypaws, we're posting.

There, Dooley! Is your dogmom happy now? (Snicker, Snicker...)

Guess we should 'splain to all our regular readers and posters. See, Dooley-Bean is a cutie-pie Maltese. We wuf her. Even if she doesn't have her own blog. Even if she does run away and hide from us whenever we see her at Pet Crossing. Even if her dogmom gives our dogmom grief for hogging the computer and not letting us post so much.

Dooley-Bean had a bunkmate until recently, so we're not giving her any grief. Just her dogmom.

See, Dooley's buddy Casey had to go over the rainbow bridge a couple of months ago. He was sick and not even Dr. Kate could make him any better. We were really sad when Casey had to say goodbye. Everydog and everyhuman that knew him was.

But, Dogmom says that Casey is running and playing and feeling no pain over in the meadow beyond the rainbow bridge. And, that he probably found Skyper and Floppy, the dogs that dogmom had before she brought us home. And the three of them are all the same size and they're too busy chasing Spidey to be worrying about us right now.

Anypaws, we posted. Did you miss us?
Wuf Ya!

What's with Marley and Me?

Ok. So I don't think we told ya 'bout this. But Tory at Dog Pad lent dogmom the book "Marley and Me" just before we left on vacation to Ohio. You remember, the long drive?

Anyways... so d0gmom has been reading the story to us. A little bit every day. She read some while we were in Ohio, but we were much more interested in climbing on the elm tree and rolling in the grass and watching the horses at Arvonwood.

Anyways... since we got home to Minnesota, she's been reading to us every night. It's not a new thing, though. She usually reads to us at bedtime. Sometimes she reads the newspaper to us. Sometimes she reads all your blogs to us. Sometimes she reads silly magazine stories. Sometimes she reads books.

We don't care what she reads, really. We just sit frog-legged on the floor and look at her. Sometimes she sits on the floor with us. Sometimes she sits up in the chair or on the couch. Sometimes, we sit on the couch and try to sit on the chair with her. (That doesn't work really well, though.)

Anyways, she was reading Marley and Me to us the last couple of weeks. She chuckled and she laughed out loud and she snickered and she said, "Geesh, Opie... YOU do that!" and "GO-mer, that sounds just like you!" And then she'd read some more.

First off, we don't see where Marley was such a bad dog, after all. I mean, really. Maybe misunderstood and a little rambuctious... but not a bad dog by any stretch of the imagination.

Anyways. Last night, we read the last three chapters. And dogmom was bawling like a dufus. And, well, we were kind of sad, too. But that's beside the point. The point is... why on earth would she read us that part about Marley having to go to forever sleep?

I mean. Really. We're not even over Oscar the Airedale leaving us yet. (www.oscartheairedale.blogspot.com) I mean, he was just a young pup and we're still sad about losing him. I mean. Well. We didn't even get to know him that long, ya know? He supported us in our 10K. And he always had a funny post to share in our comments. We're surely gonna miss him.

So... at least Marley was an old man when he got to cross the rainbow bridge. Oscar was just a youngster and he should be still blogging away with us. We'll never forget him. Never ever.

Wuf Ya!