Another note from The Typist

Hey there... just wanted to let the blogosphere know that Cub isn't doing so well right now. Her liver disease seems to be getting more aggressive. The Alpha and I plan to do whatever we can to keep her comfortable. Hopefully she'll be back to blogging in a day or two.

Prayers are much appreciated. Again, and still.

Happy Easter!

This is a nifty picture for a lot of reasons:

1. All four of us have glowy eyes. That doesn't happen very often. The Typist doesn't like that, but I think it's cool. Besides, she doesn't really know how to use Photoshop so she can't do anything about it, even with having thumbs and everything.
2. We are all looking at the camera. And it only took one try.
   
3. We are all dressed in our Easter finery. See my sunflower bandanna?

Happy Easter, everybody!

In Memoriam: Lady

Before I was born, Lady was The Best Dog Ever.


Lady was the dog who helped The Typist want to have a dog of her own. And so, when I showed up, she was ready to say yes.

Late last night, Lady went on. We don't really know how old she was, but The Alpha and The Typist knew her for about 11 thumb-haver years.

She was a Great, Great Dog.

Rest well, Lady.

Guest Blogger: The Boy

How To Get Attention When Another Dog Has Been Getting More Than Her Share Lately
By The Boy
Guest Blogger

Step 1: Wait until just after 1:00 in the morning.

Step 2: Have a seizure. Grand mal, if you can manage it. I'm new at this, but my effort did not go unnoticed.

Step 3: Let a thumb-haver scritch you behind the ears for, like, an hour.

That worked pretty well!

Quincy's meme

Hi -- The Typist here, having been tagged by Law And Gospel, who writes: Dave over at Here I Stand posted on a sad note, that they had to put Quincy, the family dog, to sleep. Certainly, we pray for Dave and the family because we all know that pets are people too. Their stories are our stories. One thing that can guarantee good conversation is a sharing of the antics of our animals. So, in honor of Quincy and all of our animal companions past and present, I thought I would post a couple pet antics from our house and create a new meme.

1. What is an amusing anecdote about a pet friend in your life (past or present)?
When we brought Angus, a.k.a. The Boy, home, we pulled a fast one on Cub: we had some friends bring The Boy in through the front door instead of bringing him in from the garage as if he had arrived with us (which he had). She thought she was getting someone to play with for a little while, which was cool. Then our friends went home -- without The Boy. For the next 48 hours, Cub would stare at him, then at us, as if to say, Wasn't he supposed to be leaving? But things settled in after a while, and they're quite the pair these days.

2. What is a gift a pet gave to you when you really needed it?
There's nothing like a muzzle-nuzzle and a cuddle from a dog who understands that you're sad or upset. She may not understand why you're the way you are, but she knows how to be present with you and comfort you.

3. Share a picture of one or more of your pets - extra points for amusing photos.
I just happen to have a new amusing photo of Angus, a.k.a. The Boy, from our New Year's Eve celebration:

We were all hanging out around the fire pit, and he got thirsty. It was only ginger ale and pomegranate juice, or I wouldn't have let him drink it. (Certainly not with the existing canine liver problems in this household.)

And, just because she was so cute we could hardly stand it, here's a picture from the day we got Cub:


Isn't that sweet enough to rot your teeth?

Big grown-up Cub is having a liver biopsy on Monday. Please pray for her, if you're the kind of person who prays for dogs. (And if you're not the kind of person who prays for dogs... just don't tell me that, okay? I'd rather not know.)

Gracious God, we thank you for all of your creation. We especially thank you for the animals that grace our lives. May we learn the unquestioning love they share with us. Bless all of our pets, and those who care for them. Amen.

Now, I tag... Janie, Mary Beth, and SpookyRach.

In Memoriam: Uncle Ren

This is a picture of Uncle Ren from years ago, with Aunt Nancy holding him.

Uncle Ren went on this weekend.

He was 14 in thumb-haver years. He didn't like to play very much at all. The Alpha says he used to love to jump up high, and roll over, and shake hands, and go after members of a certain political party, and catch peanuts, and even kill a gopher or two out in the garden. But that was back before The Boy and I got to know him. Lately he'd just been tired, and deaf, and nearly blind. His smeller still worked great, though. He could always find where the food was.

Ren was our Pop's buddy, and his pardner, too. I hope Pop does okay without him.

According to Martin Luther and Rowan, Ren now has "a little golden tail." We were wondering, is that a stump-tail like he had here, or does he get his full tail back in heaven? Because "a little golden stump" just seems kinda funny.

Either way, it's golden.

Rest well, Ren.

Dog Hero Profile: Boe and Budge

Meet Boe and Budge.

Boe and Budge are trained to work with combat stress units, which I think means they help thumb-havers who have had a rough time of things start to feel better. That's a very heroic kind of thing to do.

Read more about them and learn about the big plans they have. If my Uncle Kevin starts to feel bad or needs special help from dogs when he's far away from his own dogs next year, I hope that Boe and Budge will be there for him. But mostly I hope they all come home safe.

Dog Hero Profiles: Thunder and Haven

This dog may look very familiar, but it's not me.

This, dear readers, is Thunder, Dog Hero, with his thumb-haver Carlos. Thunder is a working dog who does all Carlos's looking for him. He gets to wear an official Guide Dog harness and everything.


Our good friend Lily knows Carlos and Thunder from her work (stuff she does when she's not here petting us). Lily says Thunder is really great, and we know she's got to be right about that.

What happened to Thunder and Carlos is really scary. They were with Carlos's girlfriend Diane and her guide dog Haven when a car came right at them. The car hit Carlos and Thunder, but Haven, being very smart and doing a Good Job, pulled Diane out of the way. So Haven is a hero for that.

Thunder's hero bit came when he was already hurt. He got himself back to the library they all had just left. In special emergency dog language, he told the people who work there that there had been an accident. They called 911 for him to get Carlos some help.

Carlos and Thunder are injured, but they're slowly getting better. Thunder may have to retire from his job, but he will live with Carlos no matter what (and for that, Carlos is a hero, too).

And guess what? Carlos and Diane got married this weekend! Hooray!

I hope they let Thunder and Haven have just a teeny bit of cake...

Dogs on a Mission

Well, the thumb-havers forgot the camera, so there are no action shots, but they took pictures of us at home after we completed our mission.

We're incredibly humanitarian, especially when you consider that we're dogs.

This morning we did a CROP Walk. See the special stickers on our bandannas?




The Alpha and The Typist tell us that there are hungry thumb-havers all over the place. As much as The Boy and I complain about Never Getting Fed, we know we're just being whiny and that we're actually quite well-nourished (The Boy has even had to go on a little bit of a diet this week). So we walked to raise awareness of all the hungry thumb-havers out there. It was a nice walk, too... a little longer than our usual neighborhood walk, but there was a water break halfway through. Also, lots of thumb-havers noticed that we are Really Good Dogs and came over to pet us and say how pretty we are. We even saw my friend Bear's thumb-havers -- they got to meet The Boy for the first time. They were amused, I think.

Anyway, doing CROP Walk is just one small way we can help. We love to help. You can help, too, if you like.

Dog Hero Profile: Nicky

This picture is of Moose, a Jack Russell terrier who pretended to be Eddie on TV.

But tonight I'm talking about a dog who looks kinda like this: Nicky, a local hero.

Or, should I say, who looked kinda like this. Nick went on today.

We never met him, but Nicky lived near us, with our friend Miss Cherrie. He was very old, but he had lived with her since he was a puppy. She took very good care of him and loved him lots.

There was a time when Miss Cherrie couldn't hear well. Nick understood she needed help, and so he used his ears for her until she got her own ears fixed (and even some after that).

He liked pickles.

He liked watching Wishbone on TV.

And he loved Miss Cherrie.

Rest well, Nick.

Dog Hero Profile: Jake

This is Jake.

Or, actually, it was Jake.

Jake went on this week. He was a big-time hero dog, especially in New York City and Mississippi. When he was in New York City wearing his work vest, he got to eat a free steak dinner under fancy restaurant's table. That sounds like fun!

He helped find thumb-havers who were stuck in awful places, and he taught other dogs how to do that, too.

When Jake was little, he was abandoned, like me. But he had a hurt leg, which I didn't have when I was all alone. And when he got better, he got special training so he could be a hero dog. A thumb-haver saw that he had potential, and believed in him. And he helped the world.

Woff, woff, Jake. We salute you.

Dog Hero Profile: Zoey

See that little dog there? You almost can't see her, she's so little. And because she blends in with her thumb-haver's shirt.

She's not even as big as I was when I got my family, and she's already as big as she's going to get.

Guess what she did?

She took on a rattlesnake and protected that little baby thumb-haver there.

She got a nifty scar on her forehead, kind of like Harry Potter (I like Harry Potter because I'm hairy, too). You can see her scar in the video they have with her story.

Zoey, Hero Chihuahua: we salute you.