We have had a run of thunderstorms.. big time. Every day for the past 3 days at 4PM like clockwork BOOM!

I’m so relieved that my dogs are not afraid of thunder or noises. I cannot imagine what the last few days must have been like.

This week reminded me of a conversation I had last year with a Canine Chiropractor Friend of mine. She told me about Through a Dog’s Ear Evidently this is music that has been engineered to be calming to dogs.

I was intrigued, so last year I emailed Dr. Susan Wagner who is the board-certified veterinary neurologist who assisted with the development of this series and asked her which one of the CD’s would be the best for thunderphobia and noise sensitivity. She suggested the original one Music to Calm Your Canine Companion, Volume 1

So here is the scoop. I’m running a contest. Leave me a comment about your dog and his or her thunderphobia. It doesn’t have to be a lot of info.. just tell me about your dog. Then all the names of the commenters will be put in a hat and my dog will pull a name. (Or I might use one of those random generator thingies.)

If you don’t win, there is still something for you. Every commenter will get a coupon code for 10% off a
Stainless Steel Enamel Dog Tag from Sew Crazy Dog Lady who also happens to be me..

Contest entries are accepted until July 18th.

Witness Below: From Last August.. A little more than a month before when we lost him

Qay was just starting to really play in the hose.. she still hung back quite a bit. Not this year.. this year she had an awesome time! Which is good because I needed to be happy about something. I miss that big lug.

We can’t take another dog. We don’t have room for another dog. We don’t have the time to rehab or train another dog. Especially one that will be 185lbs when she’s full grown. And, yes although we are doing ok now, if this year has taught us anything about the economy, it’s that it could turn on a dime at any minute. We don’t have the budget for emergencies for three dogs. We have just enough tucked away for the two we have now.

Yes she’s adorable and needs a handler who understands large, independent stubborn breeds. We get that. But it wouldn’t be fair to her. Or to our pack.

We know you think we could simply integrate her into the house and you assume all would be well. But, here is the thing. There is a reason why we have well trained, well mannered, CGC bullmastiffs who walk nicely on a leash and listen to what we say while you have a (insert relevant “family dog” breed here) who drags you down the block and can’t be trusted.

We understand our limitations. We understand our breed. We understand that StoVoQor, for as sweet as she is, is an Alpha bitch would not be happy with us tossing any old dog into the pack. And that ParmaQay is very insecure, in spite of all the work we have done with her. To bring another dog into this pack, a dog that needs a lot of our attention, would be unfair to both of them. There could be serious consequences. Dogs could die. People could be injured. We aren’t sure that you fully understand that.

Please stop coming to our door with pictures. Please refrain from stopping us on the street to once again tell us about the adorable little mastiff in the shelter. We can’t take her. As much as we would love to rescue a dog, heck 10 dogs, 20 dogs… we just can’t. Please spread the word that we are sorry but we cannot take her. Five of you have told us about her so far and every time we hear about her, our hearts break a little more.

We support the dogs in our local shelters by supporting our shelters. We donate when we can, we raise awareness where we can and attempt to educate others on the benefits of responsible pet ownership.

Thank you for letting us know about her. If you want to help her, Find your local shelter and donate

Thank you,

The Bullmastiff Family On the Block

If, in fact, the story is true, I’m impressed.

When I was working as an animal communicator, I never took lost pet cases. I had two major issues with doing work like this. I was paranoid that I would send people off looking in the wrong place and a chance at actually finding the animal may be lost. (nothing like a little self doubt, no?) and that if I was able to find their energy, the messages I would get would be of no use.

I worked by sending out “feelers” I guess would be the best way to put it, to find the animal’s energy and tune in. This was why most of my work was done either on the phone or via email. Personally, I found the physical presence of the animal distracting. I would get impressions or images from the animal I was talking to and then “translate”.

Here is the thing. A frightened lost animal makes their energy very small and hard to find. They pull it all in very close and try to hide. Then because they are so frightened the images I would get would often be full of fear and panic and.. well.. it’s kind of like talking to a hysterical child.. rambling nonsensical stuff.

I broke my rule once.. Once. Because it was a dog I knew and her Mum was desperate.

It was um.. interesting. The good news is that little Nutmeg was found… the not so great news is that although the impressions I got made sense, they were in no was shape or form helpful.

Here is what happened. I’m at work and I get a panicked call from Nutmeg’s Mum’s friend. Elaine says to me “Nutmeg got out! She’s lost… and we can’t find her and I know you never take lost pet cases but I was hoping you would make an exception”. Okay fine. But I warned Elaine. I said to her that I would call Nutmeg’s mom with what I get but I can’t make any promises.

I took a break, went to my car and took a moment to tune in.. I found Nutmeg’s energy and as I had expected.. she was freaking out… She was screaming “The GREEN! the GREEN! It’s HUGE! It’s going to EAT ME!”.. uh.. okay.

Did I mention that Nutmeg is a little rat terrier? Poor little thing.

So I sent her lots of light and calming energy and I asked her again to please look around.. what do you see.

“GREEN! it’s all GREEN … oh my gawd the Green … it’s everywhere”.

oy.

So, I called Nutmeg’s Mum and said “Linda.. I don’t know how much help this will be.. but she’s telling me she’s surrounded by green and it’s very frightening… from what I can see around her everything is bright green… it doesn’t feel like grass but I can’t imagine what else it could be… maybe there is a big green field around you? ” Linda had no idea. I told her I would ask Nutmeg to try and stay calm and stay in one place.

Two hours later, I get a call from Elaine. They found Nutmeg.

She got locked in the neighbors garage. I’m thinking, well damn I was WAY off.. not much green in a garage.

Come to find out, the neighbor collected ceramic green lawn frogs. The garage was storing a TON of green frogs… and Nutmeg had broken one and was surrounded by broken shards of GREEN!

So.. accurate.. mostly. Helpful? Not at all.