Speaking for Spot. read this book, save your dog.

a great big thanks to everyone that contributed towards our pet food drive last week! we collected close to 200 lbs of food and some cash donations, as well. in fact, the director of the save our pets food bank, ann king, stopped by to thank us and to discuss her goals. she is headed to houston, wherever that is, to rally support for a national program to raise awareness of the issue about hungry pets in hungry homes. yay for you, ann!

while mommy was checking out her twitter account, she came across a tweet from "Dawg Blogger" that caught her eye. it's a book, called "Speaking for Spot" , by Nancy Kay, and it's a very highly rated book about how to become your dog's advocate for health and well-being.

i bet you, or someone you know, have had to face difficult decisions regarding the treatment or life of your dog. in fact, when i was still a foster dog (before mommy and diddy became foster failures), i was swimmy-ing at the lake and drank too much water. i became very ill and had a seizure and mommy rushed me to the only emergency clinic open that sunday. they told her i was diabetic and it was all bad news, and how expensive the treatment would be, and how i would basically have a rotten life.
well, mommy took me to her real vet that next day, only to find out i was NOT diabetic, i had water toxicity (which diddy suspected in the first place). so, after spending over $500, we now know to limit and supervise my swimmy times. wish we'd had the book then!
Testimonials for this book are crazy-good, and now mommy has ordered it for us.

have you ever had to make a decision for you dog that troubled you? we'd love to hear your experiences, so please feel free to comment.

until next time, woof!

Save our Pets Food Bank

"nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could only do a little" Edmund Burke

did you know that in the last year, there has been a 35% increase in people surrendering their pets to shelters because they either can't afford to feed them or have lost their home? farmers have had to abandon or slaughter their livestock when the money for feed runs out. some people live in their car with their pets (most homeless shelters don't allow pets), other people have simply left their pets inside (or outside) with no food or water, to fend for themselves.

some, but not most, of these pets are found and rescued. the others? I'm not even going to go there. who knows, maybe that's what happened to me? maybe that's why i was running the streets, half starved, full of worms and a matted mess.

well, there is something that you humans can do. thanks to a great organization called "save our pets food bank", you can donate animal food to your local food bank. It will be distributed to hungry people to feed to their pets and help them to keep their beloved pets at home, where they should be.

last week, i encouraged mommy to set up a donations drive on our porch. so far we have collected 140 pounds of pet food, and more is coming! every time i look out the window i see all this delicious food and want to just dive in and roll around and stuff myself silly, but now that i have plenty of food, i will be happy to share it with my less-fortunate brudders and sisters.

animals all over the world are suffering. can you help the cause and start a pet food drive? if you can't, maybe you could make a donation to your local food bank, and desiic, decik,    just tell them it's for the animals. you can google "pet food bank" and your city to find one near you. If there isn't a food bank close to you, take food to the local shelter.

annuder way to help is to visit the animal rescue site, and click on the purple button every day. each click helps feed shelter pets. really! and if you buy their neat merchandise,you will fill even more bowls! (you can click on the logo on my site, too!)

i thank you, mommy thanks you, and all the other hungry pets thank you!

A dog, a cat and a rat

lots of times, mommy's friends send her videos of dog stuff. this one made me smile. it's about a homeless man in california and his 3 pets, a dog, a cat, and a rat. i love this video because, for one thing, the other animals in it are healthy and happy. you can tell the love that this man has for his pets, and the love they each feel for one anudder. enjoy!
i wish i had had someone who cared for me like that when i was homeless. as you can see in my first post, i had a big girl dog that i took care of, but i was in pretty bad shape, myself.
but that was then, and this is now, and because of some fine humans in this world, both me and my old girl friend dog are living happily ever after. amen!

anudder great day!

hi hi hi hi! ooohhhhh! last weekend was soooo beautiful! after being iced in for a week, then lots of ickky rain, the sun came out and mommy and diddy took all three of us-- sister roxie, brudder kismet and me, on a nice 5-mile hike. we went to the chattahoochee river national recreation area, where there are lots of different trails to explore. this time we did the gold branch trail.

surprisingly, there weren't that many people on the trail, even though it was 68 and sunny. and because there weren't many people, we got to practice going off-leash. well, not completely off leash, kizzy and i had to drag our leashes, because kizzy tends to run off (he's a terror, er, terrier,  remember) and mommy didn't know how i would behave.
roxie is a herder, so she always stays close by, to make sure mommy and diddy stay together and in order. she tries to herd me and kizzy by nipping at our faces, but we don't like that and try to stay away from her.

anyway, mommy had treats with her, so we practiced the "recall" drill, where me and kiz would go off and she would call us back and then give us a treat when we came back.  hahahahaha! i never had any intention of running off, but i played her little "game" and got lots of treats!

it was a very, very good day!

It's Hard Out Here For a Pup

stand up, yawn, stretch, yawn, lay back down.  sleep awhile and do it all over again.

it's hard out here for a pup.

when you're layin' down and gotta get back up.

first ya stretch and yawn and chew your feet, 

then ya look around ya for a treat.

ya know it's hard out here for a pup.
when you bark and the neighbor yells shut-up
and ya just can't catch you a squirrel
and your haircut looks like you're a girl

ya know it's hard out here for a pup....

My Dog Tulip. Sometimes Love Really is a Bitch

hi hi hi hi hi! chance here. it's yukky and rainy outside so mommy went to see a movie yesterday. she wanted to take me in her purse but was afraid i'd eat the popcorn she snuck in.  oops---no, just kidding.  really. (sorry, mommy)
she went to see "my dog tulip", an animated movie directed by sandra and paul fierlinger about the love between a man and his dog. it's based on a true book written by J.R. Ackerley before mommy was even born, which makes it like, a fossil!

it's not a movie for children, which is another reason i couldn't go. it had dog sex and poopie and bad dog behavior in it. none of which i ever do. ever!


the narrator of the movie is voiced by christopher plummer. he plays an old man (like granddaddy's age) who has never found his "special friend" (the movie hints that he's gay, but that's ok, so are lots of mommy's and my friends) and goes through life lonely. until he adopts this german shepherd, tulip. tulip has lived in a little cage all her life and acts wild and crazy, and the old man can't control her, but, still, they fall in love with each other.  really. when he takes to to the vet because she scoots on the floor on her butt (i did that once when i had the worms), the vet, voiced by isabella rossallini, tells her tulip's not the trouble, he is.

Click here to see the trailer
tulip poops on the sidewalks and everywhere, and the man never cleans it up. mommy said that is a problem, because it makes her real mad when she steps in poopie. then he tries to "fix her up" with a good male shepherd dog so she can have purebred puppies, but it never works. the movie is pretty graphic in showing the sex scenes. since i got tutored when mommy rescued me, i don't really care about that stuff.  it's dumb.  but tulip wanted it pretty bad, so, finally, the man gave in and let the old “disreputable dirty ragamuffin” from next door get her preggars. 


i'm not gonna give away the whole movie, but i will tell you that it was "computer animation, made by hand, and consisted of 58,320 drawings.    And that is pretty cool.

Some of the reviews say that the movie showed irresponsible behavior by the old man, but, well, he was old. and so is the book. and back in the 50's, people weren't as cosse  contc , conscent   they didn't worry as much about their pets. i mean, he did rescue tulip. and mommy rescued me. so maybe people can just get over the other stuff and just like the movie for what it is. a sweet, touching film about a man and his dog.

love, chance

OMD! These animals are hialrious!

OHMYDOG! since i've been iced-in the last few days, i've had time to get on mommy's computer and "surf the net" as she calls it.
i just watched these funny animals with their funny accents--i am rolling on the floor laughing! have a watch! it's another funny video from wimp.com!
funny funny ha ha  http://www.wimp.com/animalvoiceovers