Pet Blessing

Every summer, our church holds a service in the park followed by a picnic lunch. This year, a special 'Blessing of the Pets' was held prior to the service. Mark & I took Oscar to the park early so that he could get in a good walk, look for squirrels, and take a dip in the creek--all of which he enjoyed immensely. I really enjoyed the Pet Blessing and appreciate the pastors' willingness to do this. Oscar got to stay for the church service in the park & the picnic, because he behaved reasonably well--not as well as I had hoped but certainly better than I expected (he barked here and there, but never too long or too loud at one stretch!)

The service was lovely and we enjoyed visiting with friends during the picnic. I don't think Oscar knew how much being blessed & having to be quiet would take out of him--he has slept ever since we got home!

Now we're on to the work week and the month of July.

How to Tell When Your Dog Needs Therapy

Words can't really describe this. Click below to see what Oscar thinks of the pillows that came with our new sofa.

(By the way, you'll thank me that these are mere snippets of episodes that went on & on & on & on....)

Convalescing Oscar

As is often the case with long little doggies, Oscar somehow suffered a little back injury recently. As part of the recovery, we've re-introduced him to the crate (which we call his 'den'). He hated this idea as a pup, so we were a bit skeptical about trying it again. But as good dog parents, we decided to persevere knowing that it was good for him.

This all started out pretty iffy. During the first few days, he'd go in to get a treat, but clearly had no intention of staying. We took him to visit Mom & Dad and endured 2 hours (1 hour each way) of non-stop barking & whining since we made him travel in the 'den'. While in Temple, we very cleverly decided to leave him in the back bedroom with only the floor & 'den' as his napping choices, accomplishing this by removing all of the chairs from the room. Upon our return, Mark spied through the window to see which choice Oscar had made. The good news--he chose the 'den'. The bad news--he was ON TOP of it rather than inside it. Obviously, this dog doesn't know what is good for him.

But, we all persevered. By the first weekend, we could put him in the 'den' and leave for a few hours. By the end of the second week, he was choosing to stay in the 'den' most of the time--especially while I worked from home.

Now, several weeks later, he seems quite improved physically(though he's not sure why we won't let him jump on anything and have severely curtailed walks and lizard hunts), and his 'den' is his new favorite spot! So, you can teach an older (8 ) dog and his owners a new trick!

And, as you can see from the pictures below, he's quite content.

Trust me, he's in there!