Photo of The Week 3-28-2011 - Happy Marvelous Monday Dog Lovers!

According to my sweet dog Lexi it is Marvelous Monday so she wanted to make sure I shared this story of her canine cousins. These are photos of my beautiful niece Lisa with her black and tan coon hound dog puppy Greta. This was taken eight months ago when Greta was a puppy. Greta has such a great personality that Lisa decided when she was back in South Dakota a few weeks ago she would stop at the same ranch where she had gotten her pup Greta to see if they might get another pup from the same litter. The last time they were in South Dakota there was three puppies from Greta's litter remaining. What she discovered was there was one puppy left although he was almost full grown and he was 11 months old. He was being housed outside in a kennel in the harsh winter of South Dakota (it can sometimes be -20 degrees). He was not trained or socialized and pretty skinny. Now he lives with my niece, her 4 other dogs and her sweet dog loving husband-to-be Brian. They named him Henry. I am pretty sure Henry just won the dog lottery. When it comes to  her dogs, Lisa is just like me because she considers them to be her children and she loves them dearly. Below is a new photo of Greta, Lisa and Henry. They all look great in the color red. Little fashionistas!

       (from left to right: Greta, Lisa and Henry)

Japan's pet survivors face post-tsunami struggle

(A pet dog is seen sitting next to it's owner covered in blankets from the cold, at an evacuation centre in Sendai, Miyagi prefecture).

(Vet. Yuzou Taguchi, head of Green Animal Hospital feeding a pet dog at a temporary animal shelter) 

Article published March 28, 2011 on Breitbart.com

Hungry, hurt and separated from owners who are either dead or in evacuation centres, hundreds of family pets are struggling to survive in the desolation of Japan's tsunami-ravaged northeast coast.

Among the many rescue teams sent from around the world to search for survivors and bodies after Japan's worst natural disaster for nearly a century, a handful of specialised animal rescue groups have also been at work. In the days immediately after the March 11 tsunami that wiped out dozens of thriving coastal towns, the prospects looked grim. "In the hardest hit areas, we saw no animal life whatsoever," said Ashley Fruno, from animal rights group PETA. "We did see some paw prints in the mud at one point, but they didn't lead anywhere, and we could not find any animals nearby."

Slowly but surely, however, abandoned pets began to emerge, often from damaged homes where they had managed to ride out the destructive force of the tsunami. Many pet owners left their cats and dogs when the tsunami warning sounded, never imagining that the wave would be as large and powerful as it eventually was.
The animals were left to fend for themselves in a hostile environment with no food or fresh water.
Read full article here

 Hundreds maybe thousands of pets are strugging to survive in the desolation of Japan's tsunami-ravaged northeast coast. If you would like to help out the animals of Japan click on the following link:

World Vets effort for animal relief in Japan

 

AKC National Agility Championship April 1- 3 - Virginia Horse Center

April 1-3: 2011 AKC National Agility Championship

This is the 14th AKC National Agility Championship where dogs will be climbing, jumping and racing to become the National Agility Champion. Handler and dogs compete for a year to be the top teams in the country eligible to compete at this prestigious event. The AKC anticipates this to be one of our largest championships ever, with an estimated 1,000 teams competing at the beautiful 600 acre Virginia Horse Center.

Location: Anderson Coliseum and East Complex
Time: 8am-6pm Friday and Saturday 7am-6pm Sunday
Contact: Carrie De Young 919.816.3559
Website: www.akc.org/event/agility/national_agility_championship/
 Email: agilitynationals@akc.org

Nitro's Left Paw Is Improving

Just four weeks ago my deaf boxer puppy Nitro broke his toe. This has been a very emotionally draining situation. I have had the Vet rewrap his paw on four different occations. The first time we had him checked and rewrapped it was because I noticed he had stopped walking on his splint. On our next visit to our Vet we requested that they unwrap the bandages and check to see what was going on. Well sure enough we were horrified to see the splint had twisted causing the skin to infected. So we took the splint off, washed the leg and we proceeded with laser light therapy. By the third week I requested the bandage be changed again to see what was going on under all that vet wrap. This time when they unwrapped his paw they found he had a raging yeast infection in his entire paw and up his leg. We ended up taking him home with no wrapping on his leg. Keep in mind the bone on his toe was only partially healed (we had more x-rays done while we were there). So the vet wanted us to soak the leg twice a day in a anti-yeast soak and add medicated power to the area after the leg was dry after each soak. I decided instead of taking him back to have his foot wrapped again, I would just have him attached to me for the next three weeks to keep him from being to active. In the mean time his foot had atrophied so badly that I felt he needed to  start gently using it again regardless of the fact it wasn't fully healed.

As you can see from this photo his left foot has muscle atrophy. See how the foot curves upward instead of downward gripping the floor.

My next step was to follow all my steps to keep a puppy busy with a broken toe and also add some additional activities so we both don't go crazy. Click here to read tips on "What Can You Do To Keep A Puppy From Playing When He Has A Broken Paw?"I decided to just drive around with Nitro in the back seat. He has never experienced the back window being open before so I thought it might be a treat for Nitro to get some fresh air.

In this photos he is just taking in the sites on our country road and starting to feel the air come in through the window.

He is looking at me going...hey who is driving this thing if you are taking pictures of me! I did pull over to the side of our little country road to take these photos...no worries....

Here we are getting gas and Nitro's daddy went into Sheetz to get us a shake. Nitro always gets up in the back window to watch for us to come back. This time he is watching for Chris to come back to the car. I have noticed lately he is becoming more protective in the car when I am alone. Such a good boy!

 Look at that "mugshot"

As you can see from this photo we purchased one of the dog car covers which acts kind of like a hammack. He likes to sleep up against the front seats in the part of the cover that hangs over the foot area in the back seat.

Just hanging out.....


So now we are trying to get more exercise on soft grass. Nitro and I go out into our front pasture to get low impact exercise. What that really means is he is attached to me while I pick up all the sticks in the front pasture from past wind storms. Here are some photos from yesterday (it was 78 degrees). The grass is turning green and we are both very excited to have spring finally here for awhile.

All the white pear trees are in bloom here and it is so beautiful here in the springtime!

Nitro in the front pasture attached to me while I pick up sticks...every now and then he grabs a stick out of my hand and tries to run away with it but he doesn't get very far since he is attached to me.

My little white pear tree I planted two years ago finally has some pretty flower blooms on the branches this year!

We are very fortunate to have horse pastures and two fenced yards (one in front and a big one in the back) for our dogs to frolic.

Marvelous Monday Photo of The Week!

(Izzy taking a nap)

According to my dog Lexi, this is Marvelous Monday (Lexi gets to go back to school on Mondays and see her office mom Laura so she refers to Mondays as Marvelous Mondays). Anyway since it is Marvelous Monday, Lexi and I wanted to share this adorable photo of Izzy with all of you. Izzy is a Pekingese puppy and she belongs to Daryl and Buddy Rowland. Isn't just a little angel? I think it would be very hard to get up and go to work if I had this little muffin laying next to me in the morning. Izzy is a lucky girl to have Daryl and Buddy as her "furever" parents. Congratulations Daryl and Buddy on your new addition!
XOXOXO!
Christina and Lexi

Do you want to know more about this breed? Click here for more info on Pekingese

Dog Survives A Month In Burned Out House

Posted by Metro Desk March 22, 2011

Photo: Brian Adams/MSPCA-Angell

Lola spent about a month in the wreckage of a burned-out house.

By Brian R. Ballou, Globe Staff   (article from: boston.com 3/22/2011)

A Boston woman who lives in Hyde Park cried tears of joy this week after finding her dog alive among the ashes of her burned-out and boarded-up house, where the dog had survived since a blaze totaled the residence on Feb. 23.

Terisa Acevedo initially thought that Lola, her year-old long-haired dachshund, escaped the blaze and was wandering through the neighborhood. In the days after the fire, the 24-year-old EMT and Northeastern University student posted fliers on telephone poles and walked the neighborhood hoping to find her dog. But as the days turned into weeks, Acevedo began to think that Lola perished in the fire.

But on Monday Acevedo returned to the house to shut off the alarm on a truck she was keeping parked there, and she heard a scratching noise at the boarded-up front door. She immediately knew it was Lola.
Acevedo yelled out her pet's name and with the help of friends, tore the plywood off the entrance. Lola, apparently out of fear, retreated into the blackened interior of the house. But when Acevedo called out her name again, Lola ran into her arms.

"It was a miracle," Acevedo said yesterday, hugging her dog at the Angell Memorial Animal Hospital in Jamaica Plain, where Lola is being nursed back to health.

Originally published on the blog MetroDesk.

Tallulah And Her Frog Puppet

Lexi and I are very excited to participate in this week's Saturday Pet Blogger Hop! A big shout out to our Blog Hop hosts, Life With Dogs, Two Little Cavaliers, and Confessions of the Plume

According to my dog Lexi, our hosts totally ROCK!

Dog Toy Puppets!

Nitro and I were at Petsmart the other day and I decided to buy a frog puppet for the dogs. They get very excited when they see a puppet because they think it is a real animal. Here are some photos of Tallulah seeing the frog puppet for the first time. First she plays cool like she isn't interested and then POW! She attacks the frog with every bit of energy she has in her little body. She is such a little warrior! Enjoy the photos!

If you haven't gotten your pups a dog toy puppet, you should try one. They are awesome and the dogs have so much fun with the toy being so interactive (even though it is your hand instead of some battery operated toy). Here are some of the other puppet options at Petsmart:

Click here to order your pup a dog toy puppet

PS: I don't get paid for this endorsement - no one at Petsmart has ever heard of me or my blog.

UPDATE: We went back to Petsmart today and got the Dog Toy Bee Puppet. The dogs went crazy over that darn thing. So much so that all the photos I took were blurry because they were playing tug of war. I did manage to get one with the big Bee going for Lexi's throat and then I added a couple later in the afternoon. Lexi is still a little blurred but the bee is in focus...Enjoy!

Look at Lexi's face...she is looking at me thinking "Really, you call this playing...Help!"

 Remember SNL "I crush your head" skits? This time it is like the puppets saying: "Tallulah we crush your body!"

The Puppets: "Nitro, we crush your head!"

Photos From Last Sunday's Horse Show at Green Hill Park Equestrian Center

(Photos from the GHPEC Winter Series Horse Show taken on 3-13-2011 by Christina Lee)

Nitro, Chris and I all went to last Sunday's Horse Show at Green Hill Park Equestrian Center. The weather was amazing and we saw lots of old (and some new) friends. It was so good to see everyone out having fun on their horses. We are so darn lucky to have a facility like Green Hill Park Equestrian Center. Annual membership to the park is only $ 40 individual and $ 80 for a family. We have belonged to Green Hill for the last 15 years or so and we have very fond memories of our horses at the park. The facility has 3 arenas, 20 stalls, 30+acre cross-country course, round pen, 2 wash bays and restrooms with running water. If you live in and around Roanoke Valley (VA) and want a nice place to ride, check out the GHPEC Membership Application here

Let's celebrate by supporting "paws for Japan" - How You Can Help Paws For Japan

Since it is Saint Patrick's Day I thought I would celebrate with photos of my little Tallulah here in her "one lucky pup" T-shirt my dear friend Leslie gave us a while back. Doesn't she look like a little Irish Pughuahua?

Paws for Japan

So many folks have been sending me emails asking how they can help save the animals in Japan.
I’ve joined Blog Paws Be the Change in declaring Thursday, March 17th “Paws for Japan” Day. We will be raising awareness of the World Vets effort and encouraging people to donate to their vital work.

Please consider shelving the green beer, just this once, and spend the day with your fellow pet bloggers getting the word out. I’m just one voice out there, but there are so many of you with so very much collective power in your voices- we need your help!

To Donate Now click here

For a look at World Vets homepage and updates click here

Other ways you can help and participate:


How to Participate


1. Grab the badge(s).


2. On March 17th, post, tweet, or share on Facebook about the World Vets effort for animal relief in Japan Be as creative as you wish in promoting the cause!

3. We will create a blog hop using Linky Tools. Please add your blog link.

4. If you are a retailer and would like to donate a portion of your profits that day to World Vets relief effort, let me know and I will share that on Thursday. As always, giveaways are also a great way to support the cause.

Can we count on you? Have a great idea to add to get people to participate? Please share! I can’t think of anything I have done this past year that is more important than this effort

Thanks so much! Lexi, Tallulah, Nitro, Bailey, Montana, Skippy, Reiny, Christina and Chris

Wonderful Wildlife Wednesday!

We have lots of Bluebirds here on Bluebird Farm but we have even more House Finches here on the farm. The Finches love to build nests all around the front porch and in the front yard. The above photos are from last spring. Last year they constructed a nest out of my dear sweet 27 year old white mare's tail hairs. They added a little stuffing from the dogs (de-stuffed) toys from the back yard and whaaalaaa...a soft cushy nest for the little ones. I collect horse hair nests from around the farm (the ones they don't use). Doesn't this Wonderful Wildlife Wednesday Photo collage remind you of Easter? Have a Wonderful Wildlife Wednesday! Lexi and Christina

Photo of The Week 3-14-2011

This is our Photo of The Week for 3-14-2011

A photo is worth a thousand words. What would you name this photo if you had to give it a title?

Dead Soldier Liam Tasker and Army Dog Return Home

Article from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-12696791

L/Cpl Tasker's body returned to the UK, with the ashes of his dog Theo

The body of a soldier who died along with his record breaking sniffer dog in Afghanistan last week has returned home to the UK. Lance Corporal Liam Tasker, from Kirkcaldy in Fife, was shot dead while on patrol in Helmand province. The ashes of the 26-year-old's dog Theo were flown home on the same plane.

L/Cpl Tasker, who was called a "rising star" by Army chiefs, was shot by Taliban snipers and Theo died of a seizure shortly after his master. The soldier and his 22-month-old dog had made 14 finds in five months while on the frontline. The pair's successes at uncovering so many explosions and weapons had resulted in their tour of Afghanistan being extended by a month. Just three weeks ago, springer spaniel Theo was praised as a record breaking Army sniffer dog.

The body of L/Cpl Tasker and the ashes of Theo were flown to RAF Lyneham in Wiltshire at lunchtime, before a cortege passed through Wootton Bassett, the Wiltshire town which has built up a tradition of welcoming back fallen heroes.

Doggy-paddling Doberman Saved By Dolphins!

Since my Aunt lives on Marco Island and my cousin also has a vaction home there I thought this story was amazing!
Doggy-paddling Doberman saved by 'Flipper'
by Chad Smith - Pocono Record Writer, March 02, 2011

Turbo, a Marco Island Doberman, is safely back at his home and with his

family after resisents say some dolphins helped the dog stay afloat in a

canal for serveral hours - Photo by Melissa Evanko/Pocono Record

When Audrey D'Alessandro of Paradise Township was on vacation last week in Florida, she and a team of rescuers came together to save a dog trapped in a canal near her vacation home. And who else made up that team of rescuers? Her husband, firefighters — and two dolphins.

It all started when D'Alessandro and her husband, Sam, walked out of their home on Marco Island, near Naples, to go fishing. Behind the home is a canal where "we saw these two dolphins and they were splashing and making this big commotion," said Audrey D'Alessandro, a 16-year Pocono resident.

Dolphins usually swim through the canal behind the home, as it leads into the Gulf of Mexico, but this time the dolphins weren't just passing through. "They were just there, in one place, splashing water against the canal wall," she said. When the couple went to investigate, they saw that an 80-pound Doberman pinscher had fallen into the canal. The dog was standing on a sandbar and was half submerged in the water. (It was low tide at the time.) The dog, which had gone missing from someone's home 12 hours prior, was too weak to bark, she said, and the dog couldn't get back onto land because it couldn't climb up the canal wall, which was several feet high.

By the time D'Alessandro, who works as a delivery and labor nurse at St. Luke's Hospital in Bethlehem, lowered herself into the canal to get onto the sandbar where the dog was standing, the dolphins had already gone.Read full article here

Euthanized Oklahoma Puppy, Wall-E, Rises From The Dead!

Three month old puppy named Wall-E was euthanized on Saturday, but found alive again on Sunday.
By: Michael Sheridan - Dailey News Staff Writer NYDailyNews.com

A puppy euthanized by veterinarians has risen from the dead. The black-and-white pooch was one of five young dogs put to sleep Saturday at a shelter in Sulphur, Okla., News 9 in Oklahoma City reported. Each dog was checked and confirmed to be dead, then the 3-month-old and his four siblings were placed in a trash bin. On Sunday morning, an animal control officer looked into the bin and discovered that the one pup somehow survived. "He was just as healthy as could be," Scott Prall told News 9.
The puppies were selected to be euthanized because of illness, as well as overcrowding due to limited shelter space in the state, said Amanda Kloski, a veterinarian in Oklahoma who has been caring for the puppy since his resurrection
Read the rest of the article here

Wonderful Relaxing Wednesday!

Here on Bluebird Farm it is a pretty laid back relaxing place especially if you are a horse or dog on the farm. Here are some "over the hump day" relaxing photos of our dogs just "chillin" on the farm.

 Bailey "chillin" on the couch. She was banned from the couch for six months after getting into a tiff with Lexi and she has been a perfect angel ever since so now she gets her "couch privilages" back.

 My perfect Tallulah....oh my!

 This really is "The World According To Lexi"...we are all just mere props in her little world...ahhh...

Nitro...what a life!