I thought every day was National Dog Day, but that may be because of our 2 dogs.
Dogs are great companions, and friends. Even if they’ve never been trained as therapy dogs, your own dogs make great personal therapy dogs. You can talk to them, and they’ll listen. If you need some love, go find your dog. Dogs give it unconditionally.
That was a fun article.
Hey, no cat praise in the dog thread. I’m gonna have to flag you if you do this again.
Well, we had a little wired hair doxie die 5 years ago. She was my wife’s defender and constant shadow when home. That little dog, and our other wired hair doxie raised a kitten. That kitten, now 12 years old, did his best to be near Fuzzy (the little wired hair) the last 3 or 4 months of her life. That kitty did his best to be with her, to be a comfort to her, basically do his best to be a nurse and a friend. He did the same when Frieda died last year. So, cats can and do form bonds with dogs. I hope that our 2 dogs now, return the favor when Boots is nearing his death. As it is now, Boots (that kitty raised by dogs) follows me around, after he’s done his rounds in neighborhood.
So, if I need to be flagged for praising a cat, so be it. But in my defense, Boots is an odd cat; he loves his dogs, and loves to be with them when I’m not around.
You said the C word. It’s like saying Jehovah.
That was a good read on grieving for a pet. I still have a picture of Frieda, our dog who died a year ago March, on my phone. Losing her was hard, but expected. She lived to me almost 17 years old. She had a good life, she travelled a lot, got to see more of the US than any of our current pets. She was a great companion and had an affinity for comforting anyone who was feeling down or not well.
When we got Paolo near Thanksgiving, it was a good thing. He’s not Frieda, he doesn’t take her place. Yeah, anyway, thinking about Frieda has me tearing up. I miss her. I suspect I’ll feel the same when her kitty, Mr Boots dies. Since he’s only 12, hopefully he has awhile to be everyone’s friend.
Ok, it’s time to stop this.
I get it, CCU.
[quote=“Carolina_Cycling_Ute, post:56, topic:2975”] I miss her.
I too know what you mean. Hence, my username & avatar.
We lost our dog in spring of 2020 which was really awesome with all the other things going on. He went too soon for a small dog at 11, and before I could get a “backup dog” to help ease the transition.
Truth be told he was a real butthole and I was routinely annoyed with his barking, indoor urination, and humping small dogs and children (!). But he was still a loyal companion and my wife misses him daily as he was her first dog.
We got a replacement pair of puppies and of course one is the next generation butthole (Shiba Inus - They may be cute but you shouldn’t get one). However, the other one (the hawaiian shirt one I posted in another thread) is the friendliest small dog we’ve ever seen and a far, far better companion dog. But my wife still misses the first butthole dog.
Ain’t that the truth. I still get teary eyed over one of our dogs’ death. She died over 18 months ago. Although the puppy we got a year ago has been a joy to have, and is incredibly spoiled, he just isn’t my old Frieda.
One of our two dogs is quantifiably better in every way than the considerably more difficult one we put down almost two years ago. (Of course the other living one is also difficult in different ways, we can’t win.) And yet the wife still looks up to the sky and “talks” to him when we are playing with the dogs. He was her first dog and her first dog loss.
I still need to make an urn for the ashes. I’m lazy.
This is interesting.
Interesting indeed. I can believe what they’re saying. Dogs don’t necessarily learn the words themselves but the intent behind the phrasing. Like we have three different ways to encode the word “walk” but if we’re not careful about the sentence, they get the gist.
My wife often drops into Cantonese when she coos or sings at them. I’ll have to observe more closely when she does that.
I saw this a spoke Spanish to my dog. He just stared at me in my lap and rolled over, not unlike when I talk to him otherwise. But he’s not the brightest. Tone and options help him some. I confuse him because I taught him to shake with his paws and he does thay to initiate play now, but then I tell him to shake in the shower to get the water off and just stares (I need a new word and he barely tolerates being bathed).
My dogs know these words, so we have to be careful. Often we spell the words out to avoid a reaction.
Supper
Breakfast
Squirrel (we use the Spanish word “ardilla”)
Outside
Walk
Ride
Ball
Car
Park
Cat (We have two, but the word “cat” does not apply to them. It applies only to other cats.)
Then there’s the word “heel,” which one of them
often pretends not to understand.
I would assume that “treat” is also on the list of understood words.
“Lunch” is another that our dog understands.
Absolutely. I forgot that one. It will raise them out of a deep sleep and leave them sitting up, giving me their full attention.
