Pictures of Alba

Here a some more pictures of Alba. These are not my photos, but pictures posted of him on Petfinder.com.

The second night we had him, just after midnight we heard this awful hacking, honking, choking sound. Talk about rude awakenings. We had given him a bone (big bone, not chicken bone)earlier in the evening and my first thought was that he somehow managed to bite off a piece and it got caught in his throat. He would have moments of quiet and then start again so after awhile I was pretty sure it wasn't the bone that was the problem. I suspected he might have kennel cough. Together with the lady from the dog rescue place and our horse/dog trainer friend, we determined it was kennel cough (or at least a cold).

We got him some homeopathic concoctions and after adding it to his dinner last night, we noticed improvement very soon afterwards. Last night he did have coughing episodes but the quiet times in between were longer. Hubby and I were able to get a decent night's sleep too.

Yesterday during the day it was quite awful but today he's only had the occasional cough. I am impressed with the natural meds. Since he was a rescue, he was underfed and malnourished and we're going to see that he gets to a healthy weight. As a person who eats a diet absent of animal products (meat,fish, fowl, dairy, cheese), I couldn't imagine a day when I would be feeding my dog a raw diet (meat and veggies), but it seems to agree with him.

Our horse/dog whisperer friend doesn't like crates and showed us how to get him to stay in his bed at night. It worked like a charm and now the crate will only be used for travel. I'm happy about that because I don't want to crate him either.

He's a real sweetie and we love him. :)

We Have A Dog

Today we adopted a Lemon and White Beagle from a dog rescue place. He comes from a shelter in Ohio and arrived here in Canada on March 21st. I have had my eye on this little guy for 3 weeks and now, finally, he is here with us. I fell in love with him from the brief description and three photos posted on Petfinder.com.

The woman that runs the rescue farm is truly remarkable. Her whole life is devoted to dogs and you can tell she loves them. She's a no nonsense person and I LIKE no nonsense people. She is also of the same mind as the Dog Whisperer, Cesar Millan. In fact, it was the Dog Whisperer program that inspired hubby and I to adopt a dog after owning strictly cats during our 25 year marriage.

His name was Albany. We didn't have to change it very much when we decided Alba would be his name from now on. Hubby is Scottish and "Alba" is the Gaelic word for Scotland.

What a handsome guy he is. It will take every fiber of my being to keep from spoiling him because of his "cuteness". :) He has a lot to learn. I don't know his history. He is between two and three years old and has no leash experience and doesn't seem to know simple commands like sit, stay, and down. We intend to be the best pack leaders we can be and make him a very well mannered boy. :)

Sorry that the photo isn't the best, but I didn't want to get too close to the crate and get him all excited. I promise better photos of him in the future. Oh yeah, you can count on it. :)

PS-This doesn't mean I will stop making cats. LOL.

Happy St Paddy's Day

Here's a touch of green for St Paddy's Day on March 17th. I thought it might be kind of fun to attach this little flower to a stick and use it as a plant stake for a house plant.

Besides the green, I also happen to have an Irish name (Dempsey), thanks to hubby. :)

Tiger

I cut up a wild patterned shirt that a friend gave me. In fact, there was more than one animal print to be found on the "crazy" shirt, but today, I used the section resembling a tiger print. I am really pleased with the way this turned out.