PetLvr.com - [The Blog]

And who would have thunk it - the slideshow is of my own pets!!

This week, I upgraded to the PRO flickr account and have been starting to upload various types of pictures to the internet, in my feeble attempt to try to move closer to living in the clouds.

It’s Friday .. our anniversary is this weekend, and we’re heading out to the cottage shortly for the long weekend. I hope you don’t mind a little slideshow of the cutest pets in the world .. our very own critters … Maxxie and Sophie (the papillons) and Zeussie Pussy Cat and friends!

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Happy Canada Day Everybody!

I’m out at the beach now .. and wanted to show you all my *New!* Doggie Trailer!

I was sooooooooo proud of myself last summer, when I bought a used baby trailer and converted it into a doggy trailer! Looking back, I am glad I did that and it really worked out. You see, at the cottage, my wife likes to jog about 12 km each morning around Victoria Beach and if I don’t get out there too, I never get any exercise! But, if we leave the dogs in the cottage, all they do is bark waiting for us to come back … not too good at 7am-9am in the mornings! Also, Sophie can’t keep up for more than a few miles and then wants to just stop in mid-tracks in the middle of the road … and, Maxxie has the spinal Canine Degenerative Disc Disease (CDDD) and he isn’t as agile on his back feet as he used to be!

And, the trailer was okay - but, a little stuffy. It was better for Maxxie if we left the roof open, so he could get some air. I had to put Sophie in the front basket But, she was cute as a button (and fit the basket) and loved the attention she would get as people would pass by. But, if a dog came out from a driveway and started barking, Maxxie would try to jump out of the doggie trailer, to meet a new friend! That sounds okay, but I had trouble making a good conversion of the front of the baby trailer into a good wall of the doggie trailer. You see (from the pictures below) … where the baby’s feet used to stretch out of the trailer .. I added some nylon material and stretch nylon string to hold it in place. If Maxxie just looked out of there, that nylon wall would come down, and if it was muddy or raining .. slosh from the back tire of my bike would go right in his face!

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My wife and I married in a Medieval Themed Style wedding back in the summer of 2002. Our only Papillon dog (at the time), Maxxie, played a major part in it. It was an outdoor wedding and afterwards the event was under a huge tent outside on a venue with about 10 acres. About 85 people showed up in costumes, but it was 32c that day and a good handful took their costume out before the dinner and party started, but fortunately we rallied them out to the road and took a great picture of them all!

Anyway, Maxxie was a big part of our wedding. He was there, “all dressed up” (wearing a tie), and was let loose the entire venue. He is a social monger and enjoyed greeting all the people and having free reigns to go where ever he pleased, although he usually stayed close to us. During the actual handfasting/wedding ceremony we did lock him up in the location’s house and once again during dinner (health regulations required we do this while we were eating), but for the most part he was on his own and just like any other guest, allowed to roam free and enjoy the festivities!

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Every morning, our two Papillon dogs .. Maxxie (on the right) and Sophie (on the left) wait patiently for their “morning ritual” treats….

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Well .. it’s “Tax Time” again for me .. and, I just got over one of the first deadlines - ‘T4 Season’. In addition to me trying to get out all of my monthly bookkeeping clients’ work out the door .. I’m also starting to work on Year End financial statement preparation and corporation income tax. For this past month, it was also all about the preparation of employee and owner wage remuneration and/or dividend slips that have to be reported and filed with Canada Revenue Agency by the end of February every calendar year.

Well .. in every normal month my busiest ‘offline’ time of work is around the 20th and the last week of each month and this past month was a doozie for me! I had a few extra jobs and rush deadlines, had a few late comers, and quite frankly .. I think I only slept about 5 hours in the past 72 hours! Most of my clients have December year ends, so work is definitely piling up - and, Personal Income Tax clients are now calling (our deadline to file personal income tax in Canada is April 30th for most people, June 15th if you are self employed).

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We took Maxxie out of his 14 day isolation stay in his Kennel last Thursday evening around supper time. If you weren’t aware, he suddenly was unable to stand on his hind two feet and was diagnosed with Canine Degenerative Disc Disease.

If I could quantify into a percentage of how well his recovery went .. I would guestimate that he has about 60% feeling in his hind left paw and about 35% feeling in his hind right paw. When in a stance mode, if you flip his paw backwards, he will immediately correct it. But, it’s very slow walking up steps and dangerous walking down them. The other day, Sophie was in the bedroom and started barking when a courier arrived at my door and rang the bell .. and got Maxxie excited. He tried to run down the first set of stairs in the hallway and nearly fell down the whole stairs!

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Poor Maxxie

It’s been a week now since we took Maxxie to the vet last thursday and found out he had Canine Degenerative Disc Disease and recommended that he be locked up in a cage for 2 full weeks, to restrict him from aggravating his spinal cord and allowing these discs to mend themselves over this time.

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Well .. I’ve been tagged again for another meme .. by WildCatsThree in The Dog Log blog.

Here are the rules of the game:

* Link to your tagger and post these rules.
* List eight (8) random facts about yourself.
* Tag eight (8) people at the end of your post and list their names (linking to them).
* Let them know they’ve been tagged by leaving them a comment on their blogs.

Well .. WildCatsThree tagged this blog, and NOT me personally (HART) so .. I feel I can take this to mean 8 random facts about my dogs!

In case you were also wondering .. both of our dogs are purebreds. Maxxie is the larger dog, and actually oversized from the normal size of Papillon dogs. Sophie is the female dog, which are normally smaller than the normal male papillon dogs, so she looks small. But - don’t put these sizes out of mind. Sophie can take care of herself and actually considers herself to be the Alpha dog, even though she is the baby (or ‘Baby-Gurl’) of the pack!

So .. Let’s get this *party* started! For this Meme game .. and PS: it’s a pictorial!
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Why It Is Important To Know How To Take Good Pictures Of Your Pet

Here is a picture of our Maxxie, taken in 2002 by a professional photographer.

We ordered pizza one night on my wife’s birthday, and I put my business card inside a “bin”. Next thing you know, $300.00 later with our ‘Free Pictures’ and other pictures, we finally had some family pictures .. me, my wife and Maxxie! Maxxie was the most photogenic of the lot, as if you can’t tell! I call this picture .. “Maxxie - Formal - Smiling”

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We took Maxxie and Sophie to the Vet May 8, 2006

Every spring, we take our two dogs to our vet and have an annual checkup performed. We do this mainly to get those HEARTWORM pills that we give them on the first of every month between spring and fall. Also, it’s a good thing to see if any other preventative maintenance can be done, and because we are too close to the source (our pets) it’s always a good thing for a 2nd party to periodically check out for items that we may not notice over time.

PLEASE NOTE: Later this weekend I will be posting a 3-Part article about Heartworm disease .. about its description, prevention and treatment in both dogs and cats .. be sure not to miss it!

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