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My Dogs and Me

Kiera, Graidy, Wink and Me

A Day in the Life of a Dog Writer

5:00 AM: Alarm goes off (read get woken up by wet dog noses). Hit snooze button (read push dogs off bed and bury self deep under covers). Alarm goes off again (read dogs dig under covers and stick cold noses in neck and ear). Get up and take three dogs—one 11 year old Australian Shepherd, one 8 year old Border Collie mix, one 3 year old King Charles Cavalier Spaniel—downstairs to greet the day.

5:30 AM: With everyone fed, watered, … Read More

PetFlow Delivers Dog (and Cat) Food to Your Door

You guys know me, I’m all about the sharing — and convenience. So let me share this great website, PetFlow.com, where you can order all your pet food needs and have them conveniently delivered to your door for one flat rate of $4.95 per order.  And don’t worry about selection because they carry just about every brand there is.  (I use four different high quality brands that I usually have to traipse to three different stores to buy and … Read More

Birds of a Feather

Yes, time flies — and those of us, ahem, over a certain age know exactly just how fast. Seems every time I turn around another one of my animals has just turned another year older. Just this week Finnegan and Wink have traveled around the sun one more time.

maine coon catFinnegan is 6 years old now — the longest I’ve had a cat live.  He tells me he’s going to live to be 16. I’m choosing to take him at his … Read More

The Case of the Dog Food Mouse, the City Mouse, and the Country Mouse

So goes a recent phone conversation between Cait at home after school, and Andrew and me at work. Cait calls. Andrew picks up the phone.

Cait: Dad, there’s a mouse in the dog food drawer. How do I get it out?

Andrew: Yell at it.

Cait: Yell at it?

Andrew: Yeah, that’ll scare it out.

Cait: Is Mom there?

Andrew (handing me the phone): Cait wants to talk to you .

Me: Hey honey, what’s up?

Cait: Mom,there’s a mouse

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Living With a Dog Who Speaks English

Kiera, my Australian Shepherd, has a vocabulary of a hundred or so individual words and a couple dozen expressions — last time I counted. On the one hand it makes life much easier for me. For instance, I can just tell her to go get Cait for dinner, instead of yelling upstairs. Or I can ask her to help me find my other shoe that Graidy, my Border Collie mix, has hidden somewhere. The “helpful” list goes on and on. … Read More

Animal Communication — Perfectly Clear

A visiting friend asks, “Do you want to me to let Graidy out? He’s pacing by the door.”

“Nah, must be around 4 o’clock,” I say, looking at the clock to confirm. “He wants to be fed.”

A while later the same friend, noticing Graidy at the door again, says, “Is Graidy hungry again already?”

“Nope, he wants to go out now.” I get up to let him out.

“This is like having a mother translate for her babbling baby!” … Read More

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