More patient in 2009

Aarroo! First off, Happy 2009 to all the pups and peeps. Secondly, how come there are not more frequent ‘Year of the Dog’ designations? So 2009 is the Year of the Ox? Huh? Oxes don’t blog, and last time I checked it’s nearly impossible to hug one. W00f, every other year or so should be the Year of the Dog.

Again this year, my official New Year’s Resolution will be: Pretend to be Patient. ta-da! Mum and Pop are always bugging me to stop wiggling when it gets to be about 3 hours from suppertime, you know when my wiggilometer goes off. I can not help it. The dang wiggle starts at the tip of my tail and bedore you know it, every part of my doggy body is in motion. It also goes off when one of my peeps comes home after going out for a while. I wiggle so much that they really fuss at me. A lot. ;0)

So I will try again this year to sit perfectly still when the dish comes out and the IAMS goes in and the roast beef trimmings goes in, and the hot water sloshes around, and the …. what the f…? Oh no, the tip of my tail started, you know, wiggling even writing about it. Good grief, I hope they don’t come in here while my mutt is palpitating just writing about supper.

That’s all. I gotta go lick something now and try to practice my inner Zen Dog. So all my pupper friends out there, blog back with your New Years Resolutions. W00f, football and snacks later today… WW

Aarroo! What a handsome bunch o’ hounds! Hey, check this out if you can find it. Great book about our noble cousins.

Erwitt’s selection of 820 photographs of dogs, taken across 50 years, offers astonishing variety in age, breed and expression from battered strays to pampered pooches, towering great danes to chihuahuas and yorkies, young puppies joyfully charting the world to grizzled mongrels peacefully snoozing. Location is equally varied with dogs from 30 and more countries from Brazil to Burma, Morocco to Mexico, New Guinea to Iran. Yet finally, Erwitt’s stated aim was to create, ‘not a book of dog pictures, but of dogs in pictures’ and it is above all shots linked with humans – touching, sometimes eccentric, frequently comic – which provide the most memorable among many appealing images in this heartwarming collection. (Kirkus UK) Posted in Amazon

The Obamas' Dog: The Pressing Post-Election Question

Aarroo, Pupsters! So now we get to the real important issues in this election. When President-Elect Obama said Tuesday night in his Victory Speech, that his family would get that new puppy to go to Washington, my ears perked up. My Mom and Pop have been listening to all these screaming hoomans on the TV for several months now, yammering about all kinds of, well, boring stuff.

Now this Obama guy says today that the White House Dog Issue is an important decision to make. And today when he had his first news conference, whatever that is, he made me sit up and really listen. He said ’shelter dog’ and then the magic phrase that really got me howling agreement. “Of course we really want to get a shelter dog, they are all mutts like me.” Aarroo!

I‘m a Catahoula, and we are the ultimate American Mutts, with our ancestors being a splendid mixture of the Amercian Red Wolf, with the best and strongest of cousins from the Old World. We all found ourselves in this amazing place, this America, where we all worked and lived and barked out in our own voices across the centuries, becoming what we are today: handsome American Mutts.

Pick Me. I'm a mutt and proud of it

So you go, Sir! Pick one of us shelter dogs to play with, and help protect your family, to snurl at the occasional overbearing news persons, to give you photo ops that remind our country that you and your family are just like my family. There’s nothing like a dog to keep this deal running straight, and help keep our priorities in line. OK? Now let’s eat… WW

Note: As this time there are 100’s puppies in the Petfinder List for Washington, DC, and they all look like winners, and some might be hypo-allergenic.

Dogs Rule - A Holiday for Dogs

If anyone deserves their own holiday, it’s dogs. So let’s celebrate our best friends and recognize their contribution to the quality of life on earth. All we have to do is give our own dogs a little extra love, share our stories and pictures with friends, and do a little something extra to make the world a better place for dogs. This gets 5 w00fs – WW

read more | digg story

Amid the chaos of a mass evacuation — when every second counts — even the most beloved companion animals can be overlooked and left behind. Big woofs and hugs to these folks who make a difference 24/7 year-round. Tell your fiends and get your hoomans to contribute to this outfit, now and from now on…

Take a look at the staff, training and equipment this group puts on the road, where ever and when ever they are needed. Also the history of the endeavor goes back to WWI… 5 w00fs – FF

read more | digg story

Last month was the 5th anniversary of my discovery by my hoomans on the Petfinder website, in the Hooman Society of Southern Arizona (HSSA) shelter, in Tucson, Arizona. Thank you, Mom, for seeing my skinny self on the web, and going ‘eek’. She says it was a surprise to see such a bootiful face looking back at her. And to Dad, for staying up with me those first nights when I was stoned out of my mind (after the ‘fix’ thing) and was wearing that stoopid neck cone thingy, and had to be walked day and night to relieve myself and my fears.

Thanks to the folks at HSSA, for running such a wonderful place like the shelter, and most of all, for not giving up on me when I was so sad I couldn’t eat. A special tail wag for my ‘trainer’ at HSSA, who kept on working with me to pull me back to the world, to take me out to PetSmart, to meet people who actually loved dogs. I was a mess after my beginning in life, and thanks to HSSA for changing the direction of my life.

Thanks to my unknown hero, who I don’t know and don’t remember much about. You were supposed to ‘get rid’ of me for my stoopid first hoomans, by taking me to the desert, but you brought me to the HSSA instead. ‘They’ had no clue what a Catahoula was, and you might not have even liked dogs, but you had the decency to make an effort with me.

All that was five years ago, which seems like a lifetime to me, in my little dog brain way of thinking (of course it is my lifetime, duh!) . Now, I can’t imagine any other life except the fun we have now, and the hugs. We take walks, smell smells, go on adventures in the truck, go to ‘Grandma’s House’ in west Texas, tell stories, laugh, cry, hug. My hoomans rub my ears and knuckle my head. I wiggle all over when Dad comes home, and watch at the window until Mom comes back. Life is good.

≈

Thanks to all the doggies and their hoomans out there, repeating this story thousands of times. I don’t know how much that is, but Dad says it a lot. This Dog’s Wish has come true, and I just wanted to take this time to say so. Wayman Wynn on Thanksgiving 2007

I got this thing about food. Any food, but my favorite is whatever Mom and Dad have on the table. So I do this deal where I stare at their plates of bootiful smelly food, while I’m sitting next to Dad just under the the table. You know just to keep an eye on it, in case any falls to the floor, and I hear those magic words, “Cleanup, Wayman!”. Anyhoo, Dad looks over at me and says that he thinks I’m looking through the table at his plate of whatever. So I think, of course I’m looking through the table, doesn’t everyone when they want to see what Dad is eating and not giving me any?

“Why, I believe that dog is looking right through the table.”, says Dad. Mom says “I warned you about Catahoulas.” This is the way it goes everytime, but I don’t see what the dang deal is. I can see what I need to see. And that is food! Sometimes I wonder why I hang around. Oh yeah, I love these guys. Somebody has to take care of them. They can’t even see through a thick fog… Ha!

The years go so very fast and before you know it that romping pup is old and grey muzzled and they have sat by our sides while we read, watch TV, and work on our computers. Every so often they come and lay their heads in our laps, toss our elbow with their muzzle or gaze into our eyes and wait for us to notice them.
Take a moment now to commune.

I am your dog, and I have a little something I’d like to whisper in your ear. I know that you humans lead busy lives. Some have to work, some have children to raise. It always seems like you are running here and running there, often much too fast, often never noticing the truly grand things in life.

Look down at me now, while you sit there at your computer. See the way my dark brown eyes look at yours? They are slightly cloudy now. That comes with age. The gray hairs are beginning to ring my soft muzzle. You smile at me; I see love in your eyes. What do you see in mine? Do you see a spirit? A soul inside, who loves you as no other could in the world? A spirit that would forgive all trespasses of prior wrong doing for just a simple moment of your time? That is all I ask. To slow down, if even for a few minutes, to be with me.

So many times you have been saddened by the words you read on that screen, of others of my kind, passing. Sometimes we die young and oh so quickly, sometimes so suddenly it wrenches your heart out of your throat. Sometimes, we age so slowly before your eyes that you may not even seem to know until the very end, when we look at you with grizzled muzzles and cataract clouded eyes. Still the love is always there, even when we must take that long sleep, to run free in a distant land. I may not be here tomorrow; I may not be here next week. Someday you will shed the water from your eyes, that humans have when deep grief fills their souls, and you will be angry at yourself that you did not have just “one more day” with me. Because I love you so, your sorrow touches my spirit and grieves me.

We have NOW, together. So come, sit down here next to me on the floor, and look deep into my eyes. What do you see? If you look hard and deep enough we will talk, you and I, heart to heart. Come to me not as “alpha” or as “trainer” or even “Mom or Dad,” come to me as a living soul and stroke my fur and let us look deep into one another’s eyes and talk. I may tell you something about the fun of chasing a tennis ball, or I may tell you something profound about myself, or even life in general.

You decided to have me in your life because you wanted a soul to share such things with. Someone very different from you, and here I am. I am a dog, but I am alive. I feel emotion, I feel physical senses, and I can revel in the differences of our spirits and souls. I do not think of you as a “Dog on two feet” — I know what you are and who you are. You are human, in all your quirkiness, and I love you still.

Now, come sit with me, on the floor. Enter my world, and let time slow down if only for 15 minutes. Look deep into my eyes, and whisper into my ears. Speak with your heart, with your joy, and I will know your true self. We may not have tomorrow, but we do have today, and life is oh so very short. So please–come sit with me now and let us share these precious moments we have together.

Love, on behalf of canines everywhere.

Your Dog.

Author Unknown.

From WW’s Dad: This is why we’re here, staying up too late on the computer, sending out these digitized bits and bytes to each other, miles and continents apart. I ran across this while looking for content for Our Blue Dog, a website about the life, times and loss of our precious Martha Jane, the Queensland Blue Heeler. Tell you what, Pupsters, this one gets me every time…

This was originally retrieved from the Pet Guardian Angels of America™  website:  A Dog’s Wish

My folks are always telling me that I have to pass on all the hugs and kisses they give me, to all those who have suffered, or passed over the Rainbow Bridge. I love hugs, and whenever there’s any around, I go after ‘em. They make me wiggle all over. When I nap (with one eye open in case there’s a food op), I visit with all the dogs (ok, ok, and cats) that don’t get hugs, and I pass ‘em on to them.

Whenever we see a sad dog, or my hoomans hear a sad story about suffering or cruelty, they always tell me, “More hugs for Wayman. Be sure to pass them on to all the other dogs (and cats) when you take a nap!” … and so I do. You should, too. W00f.

Carpe Canis, Serva Mundi

obstinate • \AHB-stuh-nut\ • adjective
*1: perversely adhering to an opinion, purpose, or course in spite of reason, arguments, or persuasion
2: not easily subdued, remedied, or removed
3: Wayman Wynn Catahoula Dog

See Detail Page