Today is my Birthday.
Yes I'm one of those rare creatures born on Leap Day, so technically I only have a birthday on the human calendar every 4 years.

Thinking about turning 4 and having my first "Leap Birthday" set me to thinking about the differences between how long dogs live and how long humans live. I pondered why different species have different lifespans alloted to them and really couldn't come up with an answer that made sense to me.

Then about a week ago I asked my old friend Bear Dog. Bear turned thirteen a couple of months ago, and I reasoned that any dog having already lived the better part of his years might be able to shed some insight into our time here on planet earth.

So, in a quiet moment when the Bear Dog and I were alone together I asked him why he thought we were here such a short time compared to humans.

He thought for a moment, cocked his head and took a deep breath. For a moment his eyes went misty then he shook of some odd emotion that had obviously ran through his soul and spoke..

"Kid, " he said stretching out his long front legs in front of him. "I believe that every creature is put here to learn how to live simply, love generously, care for others deeply and always speak kindly of each other."

"Yeah, so?" I asked.

"I guess that humans just take a lot longer to learn those lessons." Bear replied getting to his feet and stretching " Most pups learn those basic things before they reach their first birthday." he sat down and studied something a long way off.  "Sad, son, but a lot of humans never learn,  not even after many decades of living."

"Why?" I asked.

The old yellow dog, shrugged and returned to his spot beside me. " Don't know, but that's how it is." he yawned. " I think  that dogs just learn how to live correctly a lot sooner then humans, so our work here is done and the maker lets us go on home."

We sat in silence for a long time and I have to admit his answer to my question weighed heavy on my heart. Since then I've pondered what that old dog said and I think I've come to understand his logic. So as my birthday approached I spent some time thinking about the lessons I've learned as a pup. Either from my mom, or two of the wisest dogs I've ever known, Mooch, my first dog friend and Bear Dog.

So, today I'd like to share what you humans would have to learn if a dog was your teacher about life.

• When a loved one comes home, always run to greet them.
• Never pass up the opportunity to go for a joyride.
• Allow the experience of the fresh air and wind in your face to be pure ecstasy.
• Take naps
• Stretch before rising.
• Run, romp, roll and play daily.
• Thrive on attention and let people touch you.
• Never bite when a good growl will do.
• On warm days, stop to lie on your back in the grass and watch the sky.
• On hot days, slow down, drink lots of water and stay in the shade of a beautiful tree.
• When your happy, dance around and wag your entire body.
• Delight in the simple joy of a long walk.
• Be loyal
• Never pretend to be something you're not.
• If you want what lies buried, dig until you find it.
• Get dirty by having fun.
• Trust your instincts, but only follow them if you're sure where they'll lead
  
• When someone is having a bad day, be silent, sit close by and nuzzle them gently.

So as my 1st Leap Birthday draws to an end I'm sitting here thinking about my old friend and about how many more of these birthdays I have left. Not because I'm sad there are so few but because I'm looking forward to all the good times before I celebrate my last.

Barks n Butt Sniffs
Your Blogging Dog
BJ

Hello Everyone,
Well here in the US of A it's Christmas Eve.. and I just had to stop for a moment to post this message to you.

My life these past few weeks has been very hectic with the arrival of my second litter of pups and all the family coming home for the holidays.  It was in fact the arrival of those pups that set me to thinking about Christmas and what a dog really wants.

My pups arrived on December 8th, 5 days early and what a miraculous gift they were. Normally we expect about 6 in a litter but this litter arrived in duplicate! ELEVEN pups! It was the arrival of number eleven that triggered my thoughts about this season and it's meaning.

Pup number eleven arrived weighing only 4.6 ounces, so small she could lay in my humans hand! There we so many that my second wife, Luna,  couldn't begin to feed them all. And what timing! Just two weeks before the holidays, a time that is always maddening around my house.

The humans were prepared and set up a twenty four hour nursery to care for my pups. Sixty six bottles of formula for them every single day, not to mention getting up every 4 hours to feed them. Everyone in the house pitched in and made the sacrifice to care for the family.  That's what families do, care for each other, or at least that's what they should do. Right?

But it was a few days later when my littlest girl started having problems that really set me to thinking. Here's this tiny little thing, already having to be bottle fed and now she's having trouble breathing. In the wild she would be dead, that's just the way nature works, harsh as that is.

In some kennels she'd have been put down,needy pups aren't worth the expense and the effort to some humans, and this little girl is needy. But, not in a family... family is different, families don't give up on each other and my humans weren't giving up on Hita Miaja. Her name means Lovable little girl in our  native Tibet and my humans were determined that she would grow up.

Watching them nurse her with oxygen and massage and medicine I realized exactly what this time of year is all about, and what dogs really want for Christmas.  It doesn't come from a store, you can't order it on line, or bake it in the oven. You can't find it at a craft store, or in the mall or even in a specialty shop.  Perhaps humans really want it too, but get so busy and so caught up in the tinsel and the lights and the competition for gifts that they forget.

Dogs really want three things for Christmas.. Love, companionship and a family to care for. Simple, wonderful things that seem to escape so many, and not just at holiday time.  Nothing can replace the touch of a human hand, the tender caress of a gentle owner. Sitting together around the house, lying by the fire, or the easy chair knowing  you're safe and you have someone to take care of, protect and defend , that's a gift that simply can't be replaced with anything you'll find in a store.

Being together, a family, taking care of each other in good times and in tough times; and knowing that someone is willing to get out of a warm bed in the middle of the night to take care of one who is sick now that's what Christmas is all about.  We all love the toys, the wrapping paper, the good food, and the romps in the newly fallen snow. But when it comes right down to it, if you really know me, you'll understand why I jump up in your lap, cuddle at your feet while you watch TV, sleep by your legs at night and always have an ear out for danger. It's because you're my family and nothing in the world replaces the time we have together.

So, I'll leave you this Christmas Eve with a parting thought from a small dog who has been blessed with a wonderful life.  If you have a canine companion, spend the years you share together with warm pats on the head, belly rubs and the pleasure of your company. It's the only thing we really want. And, if you  can, help one of us who are spending our lives in a shelter or rescue. You'll be giving the greatest gift there is .... FAMILY!

Happy Holidays Everyone!

BJ

Here's the second in my series of Holiday Tunes that really rock my paws!!
Enjoy!

B.J.

Played: 35 | Download | Duration: 00:01:17

Played: 24 | Download | Duration: 00:02:34

Well folks it's only a few days till Thanksgiving and already stores have their holiday merchandise on display. Even my web store has been decorated for the holidays !

So I thought I'd pod cast a few of my favorite holiday tunes for you to listen to while you read my blog. I'll be adding more music and video podcasts  as we go along so be sure to subscribe and get all the latest delivered to your e mail.

Barks and Butt Sniffs
and a hearty Ho Ho Woof Woof to all!

This is the first in a series of tributes to the dogs in rescues and shelters. We start with the dogs waiting for their forever homes at Lil Paws Rescue in Ohio.
Lil Paws is in need of assistance with a new litter pups recently delivered to Sissy one of the dogs in their care and in support for Haley Jo's medical bills which currently are at $2200.00
For more details visit : www.lilpawsrescue.org/

To view my pod cast tribute to Lil Paws Click below
Rescue Me

Meet A Champion Dog That Will Steal Your Heart

  Slim is the sweetest dog and on first introductions he is obviously special. Maybe it’s his quiet temperament and his kind brown eyes, but before he’s even shown what he can do in the paddock you can tell he is a champion.

After battling a life threatening illness this year Slim has managed to win the Australian Working Dog Championships. His owner Jamie Shipman still can’t believe what together they have achieved. “I’m still a bit over whelmed by the whole thing but it shouldn’t surprise me.” Slim was bred by champion dog breeder Charlie Bird in Narellan in Queensland. He was also trained by Darryl Williams and this good breeding and education “is the foundation to where we are at now.”

“Slim is a very quite dog, he's very relaxed, not too intense, and has a lot of eye so he can work cattle or sheep just by looking at them.” Watching Slim work cattle is super impressive. He stares down stubborn cows ten times his size and somehow manages to calmly get them to move from one side of the paddock to the other. This is a great help to Jamie who has both sheep and cattle and needs them moved from paddock to paddock each day.

“On the farm I can go and get a couple of mates or pay someone to come and help me, but at the end of the day all Slim wants is a pat, a cup of food and a bone here or there. He also doubles up as a great pet, and my wife and kids have grown to really love him.”

Instructing a cattle or sheep dog involves mastering a variety of whistle commands. “If you could imagine a clock then you want your dog at the point of balance which is at the back bringing the stock to you”. When they first enter the paddock and Jamie wants Slim to bring the cattle up to him he will send out the Behind command. Slim will then cast out in an anti clockwise direction and go down behind the stock. Jamie might then send the Here command which is a double whistle and Slim will head clockwise. There is also the Stop, Get Out, Walk In and when its time to get Slim to totally leave the sheep and cattle alone the That’ll Do command.

Earlier in the year slim was about as sick as a dog can get. He had a chest infection which caused puss to fill up in his lungs. “There was one stage there that I couldn’t get him in or out of his kennel; he could hardly take 5 steps. So I took him to the vet and we found out that the puss was squashing his lungs and his heart”. It was touch and go for a while there with the veterinarian not sure if Slim could be saved.

“He managed to pull through it, and it was only weeks later that he came 5th at the State Championships in Casino. Then to pull off the Australian title in the same year, that’s an amazing dog”.

Source : abc.net/au

DOG NEWS HEADLINE -  Found on the web today:

Vet Hospital Preparing Holiday Pet Boxes for Homeless

Volunteers at UC Davis' William R. Pritchard Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital are revving up their holiday spirit and invite the community to join in as they prepare holiday gift "baskets" for the dogs and cats of the homeless.

Some 130 holiday-wrapped boxes, filled with canned and dry food, treats, toys, leashes and pet-care products, will be distributed on Dec. 8 to the homeless clients and their pets who visit Mercer Clinic in Sacramento.

The clinic, operated by UC Davis veterinary students and faculty, and private veterinarians, is located next to the nonprofit Loaves and Fishes facility. It provides the animals of homeless individuals with basic veterinary care, access to emergency care and high-quality pet food, all free of charge.

"For the holiday baskets, our primary need is for monetary donations that can be used to purchase pet toys, which these owners cannot afford for their four-legged companions. We want them all to have a brighter holiday season," said Eileen Samitz, a clinical microbiologist at the teaching hospital. Using vacation time, Samitz annually coordinates a team of volunteers that carries out the longtime tradition.

While pet supply companies provide the food and some of the other items for the holiday pet baskets, other financial donations for toys and treats come in from the community. These donations enable the volunteers to make sure that the contents of the pet baskets are fairly uniform.

Media are welcome to cover the packaging and distribution of the pet boxes, which will be assembled from noon to 1 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 5, by staff and students at the veterinary hospital in Davis. The boxes will be distributed from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 8, to clients of the Mercer Veterinary Clinic for the Homeless. More information about Mercer Clinic is available at: http://www.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/clubs/mercer.

The clinic and Loaves & Fishes are located at 1321 West C St. in Sacramento. Veterinarians and students will be available for interviews.

Since 1995, the staff of the teaching hospital's newsletter, "Voice," has organized holiday pet boxes for Mercer Clinic, which was started in 1992 by UC Davis veterinary students. The clinic is open on the second Saturday of each month, staffed by faculty and private veterinarians who volunteer their time and supervise the students.

In addition to the holiday pet basket program, Mercer Clinic invites donations to be made throughout the year. The clinic relies entirely on donations and small grants to provide veterinary care to the pets of the homeless.

Donations for the pet baskets or to support the ongoing services of Mercer Clinic can be sent to Mercer Clinic for the Pets of the Homeless, P.O. Box 297, Davis, CA, 95617. More information about Mercer Clinic is available online at http://www.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/clubs/mercer.

Media contact(s):
• Pat Bailey, UC Davis News Service, (530) 752-9843, pjbailey@ucdavis.edu

Hello Fellow Bloggers,

B.J here with part three of my "pregnancy" story.

I will be begin by saying that the morning sickness didn't last long, and by the mid point of Zoe's pregnancy she had stopped making that "sound".  Everyone was relieved to be able to chow down our kibble without having to worry about at what moment that "sound" would erupt and set our paws on edge.

I should note that with her sickness out of the way her mood improved ever so slightly. She resumed her normal routine of snubbing everyone in the house with her arrogance and shoving me and sister Candy out of the television chair, off the human bed or out of her way during her ever increasing potty trips to the back yard.

Sis and I had pretty much bonded by this point, and in my mind, I had decided that sisters, no matter how bad, were better then pregnant wives!! A fact, that popped into my head one night at three in the morning, when I was shoved from the human bed by Zoe after she decided that she needed more room to get comfortable. I took up refuge with Sis on the downstairs sofa and we compared notes about "Preggers" as we now both referred to Zoe.

Candy, being female was sure that things were going to get worse before they got better. I on the other paw wasn't sure how things could possibly be any worse then they all ready were. By my read on the situation, Zoe was not only getting special food but nearly double our ration. She was also getting her way about sleeping in the human bed or the television chair. Sis and I were both told not to "play rough" with her due to her "condition".  How could things get any worse?

That question was answered the following week. Our downstairs room where we had our beds, television and toy box underwent a drastic change one morning. It began with the arrival of a large, wood scented box. The male human had been working on this thing for a few days in our garage, but no one knew exactly what it was.

That morning we were all introduced to a change in "arrangements". Our beds and toy box were brought upstairs and a stretchy gate installed at the top of the stairs. The large wood smelling box moved from the garage to the downstairs and into the spot where our television watching chair had been. Once the box disappeared down the stairs sis and I were herded up the steps and the gate closed behind us.  "Downstairs is off limits to both of you" the humans told us as we peered over the gate and down into what had been OUR space.

Later that day Zoe disappeared down the steps too. She was to start spending time in her "whelping box" and making her nest for the pups. She also started taking her "special" meals downstairs as well and would come back up afterward and regale sis and I about the mounds of cottage cheese, fresh roast beef, yogurt and other morsels she had just consumed.

"What are you doing down there all day?" I asked her a few days later.

"I'm busy making my bed, ah, the pups bed." she retorted licking a spare morsel of cottage cheese off her whiskers.

"All day, every day?" I asked.

"Yes, and I don't want you anywhere around my box!" she snapped, twitched her regal tail and walked away with her nose in the air.

It was at that moment that I noticed the "waddle"  It hadn't been there before but it was there now. Zoe has always had the ability to saunter off, tail held high, nose in the air, with just the right little wiggle in her butt, today the tail was high, the nose turned up and the rest of her swaying from side to side in a pronounced WADDLE!!

"Hey, ZOE!" I called after her.

"Do you know you waddle when you walk?, Hey, Candy, come look at the way Zoe waddles!!"

Fellow bloggers, take my advice.. NEVER.. I repeat NEVER tell a pregnant female she waddles! You will regret that remark for days, weeks... maybe even months!!

I knew I was doomed when she stopped, turned and walked straight up to me. Nose to nose, lip curled, that deep voice that comes from somewhere dark and dangerous.

"What did you say, hairball?"

"Ah, errrr I said you've got a cute little waddle when you walk?" GULP!

"Not what I heard, you undignified piece of rawhide! You called me FAT!"

"Fat never came out of my lips" I replied. I thought fat, but I didn't say fat.

WHOP! Her regal paw slammed down on my head "WELL JUST DON'T TALK TO ME!"

"OK, like er, no problem, I won't say another word." Ouch! Darn that hurts when she does that!

Zoe slept downstairs in her "whelping" box that night and I didn't see her again for the next two days except on her trips to the backyard for business. We didn't speak as she stomped out the back door and back in. But sis and I had several good giggle sessions in the middle of the night as we recalled the way she was waddling around.

In just a few days her belly was all you noticed as she walked past and she began to pant and puff as she climbed the steps frequently throwing herself out flat on the rug at the top.

"Zoe, are you really uncomfortable?" I asked one morning as she lie panting on the carpet.

"Don't talk to me." she puffed " I can't move!" she groaned and got to her paws. "UGH!! This is terrible I'll never get my figure back. I'll be all stretched out and saggy and I'll never set paw in a show ring again!"

"Yes you will, after the pups come, you'll be just like your ol' self." I suddenly felt sorry for her.

"The humans say that there are a least 7." she said softly.

"Seven?" GLUP! "Isn't that a lot?" I was suddenly hit with the realization that I was just a couple of weeks from being a daddy.

"I don't know, but oh, my paws and my back!" she rolled over again and put her head on the carpet.

"I have to get all my hair clipped off." she said suddenly without lifting her head. "I've never not had long hair. I mean, every since I was a pup I've had a show coat."

"All off?" I asked looking at my own foot long locks. "Really? Naked? Like all gone?"

"Yes, all off. I think later this week." she sighed. "I'll be too embarrassed to show my tail anywhere for a year!"

"Ah, you'll look just fine." I stretched out beside her on the rug. "You'll be a beautiful mom."

"Think so?" she asked rolling her head on my shoulder..

"Yep, I'm sure of it." and despite her crabbiness and her waddle, and the fact that I thought she'd look pretty funny without her long hair I kept silent and gave her a kiss on the top of her head.

Three days later Zoe came home from the groomers with a short coat. I hardly recognized her as she waddled into the living room and flopped down.

"SAY ONE WORD AND YOU"RE DEAD!" she growled under her breath.

"One word? I was going to say three words." I sat down beside her.

" And what three words is that?" she asked glaring at me.

"I love you." I replied.

"I love you too." she panted and waddled off down the steps to her whelping box.

I know that mother dogs have great instinct about when they are to deliver their pups, but for the first time I felt a tightening in my stomach too. I knew that the pups would come soon, and that I wasn't welcome in her life anymore until the litter was born and had their eyes open.  I was right, Zoe spent the remainder of her pregnancy downstairs while sis and I stood at the top and gazed down wondering when the time would come that my pups would be born.

I begin sleeping at the top of the stairs and listening for any sound that would signal their arrival.Each night was a little longer as I suddenly was filled with a sense of responsibility and excitement. Sis would join me there in the early hours of the morning and we would talk about puppies, and family.

"You're lucky B.J." sis said to me one morning.

"I am?" I asked trying to see any movement from the darkness below us.

"Unh huh." she sighed. " These humans, they'll take good care of your pups, you'll be a family and they'll grow up and have good homes."

"I know." I replied knowing that she wasn't lucky enough to be whelped into a good family had had lost her mother when she was just three weeks old.

"We are a family." I said flatly. "You, me, Zoe, and the pups. You'll be a great aunt!"

"I'll teach them how to be mischief makers and drive the humans nuts" she said laughing.

"I'm counting on it." I added before we both fell silent and listened down the stairs.

More next time on whelping boxes and learning your a daddy dog.

Barks and Butt sniffs to all, until next time happy blogging!
B.J.

    Hello Everyone!

Welcome to my new blog and podcast page at Every Dogs Closet!
I've been blogging on another service for nearly a year now, but with the development of my web store I've decided to add this to my site here as well.


This is BJ's Blog - I've Got Lhasatude!


Some general information about this blog. First there will be three catagories for you to choose from:

General Interest - which will contain posts about my life and my family - funny, silly, heartwarming, call it what you will but if it's entertainment you want, then read this catagory.


Canine Fashion Updates - Here we'll talk about the latest in Canine fashion, accessories and products for dogs. I'll educate you about dog fashion, grooming, safety and canine activities here.


Paws To The Rescue - Here I'll let you know about shelter and rescue dogs and their stories - both happy and sad. You'll find these dogs at the rescues and shelters we support on our site, or at sites who are link partners. I'll keep you updated on things like the California Wild Fires and its affect on dogs and their families.


So enjoy my blog for now ... and I'll let you know about my podcasts at a later date...


Barks and Butt Sniffs

BJ, the Blogging Dog