Help Needed!

My heart was still heavy over the loss of Lennox and Wicca when I opened my facebook this afternoon to see this story.

His name is Dre and he is currently on death row for barking at people. Yes, that is right he barked but harmed no one and he is on death row because of it. The good news is that it is not to late for Dre yet.

We can still help him. So please click on the link, read his story, sign the petition, and email or call Officer Herrera (please be polite though).

This could be any dog in the world sitting on death row for simply being a dog and barking at people. It could be Topaz sitting on death row rather than curled up beside me happily snoring the evening away.

Please help try to save this family member.

Thanks from Maggie and Topaz 

http://www.snotfaceandtwiggy.com/2012/07/help-needed-asap-dre-pit-bull-is-a-family-dog.html

Topaz the explorer

Sometimes I like to be an explorer.

I explore the yard, Daddy's vehicle (it always has so many smells, Mommy says he goes lots of places in it), any grocery bags that get brought home (you never know when there is a goody in it for me). Sometimes my exploring gets me in trouble.

Last night, I decided to explore the trash. Mommy puts so much cool stuff in there. I don't think she knows all the goodies she tosses out. So I decided to surprise Mommy. I pulled all the cool things back out the trash and left a trail for Mommy to follow. Then I deconstructed some of the items to help Mommy understood how fun these things still were. It was sooooo much fun tearing stuff up.

However, when Mommy got up this morning she was not very happy to see my surprise. I got scolded and told that the trash was an off limits thing. Mommy has spent the afternoon re-throwing away all the nifty things, vacuuming and mopping. I hate it when Mommy vacuums.

I guess my days of trash exploring are over. Hrumph, how does one get to be a famous explorer when their mommies are "off-limiting" areas?

Flashback Friday #1

Here our some videos of Topaz playing with Mischief the horse and Cheyenne the red bone. These videos were taken not long after we moved to Tennesse when we were having a playdate at Ken's moms house.

The game was that Topaz would bark at Mischief and then run around the fenced in yard until she came back to the spot where he was at and would essentially "tag" Mischief (really she would tag the fence). Mischief would then respond by whining and running and the pasture and occasionally bucking. He would then return to the fence where Topaz was and bob his head, stamp his feet and snort "tagging" her. They would play tag until Topaz was worn out.

Chey is an old man. He usually did not participate in these antics, rather choosing to spend his time invyestigating for any evidence of coons. Topaz would usually tag Chey as she ran her circle anyway.

Introducing Flashback Fridays

I have decided to start a new thing on the blog...Flashback Fridays. There is so much to post that is current that I do not often post about our pre-bloggie days. So starting from now on we will have a designated day to share about our pre-bloggie adventures.

Hopefully, I will be good and be able to post every Friday...or at least almost every Friday.

Tune in tomorrow for our first Flashback Friday.

The Many Moods of Topaz

We have been on a mood roller coaster with Topaz since Saturday.

Topaz spent all day Saturday in what I call a "terrible two" mood. Not that she was doing anything terrible, she just had the moodiness of a two year old when they decide they are not going to do a single thing you tell them to do. She has been trained to sit before we throw toys for her. It was a battle of wills all day Saturday to get her to sit. My normally toy motivated and somewhat food motivated dog was not having any of it. Not even for highly favored treats. I even broke down and tried the highly prized, no-no because she is allergic treats.

Sunday was going fine until Ken had to leave for an emergency job. As soon as she left, she curled up on the bed and pouted. Not something totally atypical for her. She had pouted for about 15 or 30 mins the previous weekend when he left out.

However, on Sunday her pouting reached the worse it has ever gotten. 5 hours of moving from place to place and just moping. I could not motivate her to do a single thing. She then began vomiting and having diarrhea. I checked for other symptoms thinking something more serious may be going on and the lethargy was just a symptom. However, there was no fever present and she was hydrated and able to keep fluids in just fine. So I am made the assumption that with no other symptoms she was ill because she was so stressed. I began resuming trying to find things to distract her. Due to the heat, I did not want to take her for a walk because the heat could further stress her systems. So I was stuck trying to come up with an indoor activity that was fun enough to get her motivated. Finally, I got her to play with a ball. So long as I stayed with her and played with her she was fine until bedtime.

Monday morning I had to work. The normal routine is that I get up at o'dark thirty and she remains in bed grumbling about the lights being on at the indecency of the hour. However,  it was not like all the other days that I get up early and get ready for work. She followed throughout getting ready for work. The closer to being ready to go the more visibly stressed she became. She attempted to get me to stay by bringing me toys to play with and attempting to get me to take a bath. When she realized that I was still going to leave she just hung her head and pouted in her kennel.

I came home from work and things were back to normal. She was slightly more submissive and careful when I let her out of her kennel. She normal has zoomies all over the house, accidently running over my feet at least once or twice. Due to her milder nature, I sat on the floor and played with her until she was ready to head outside to potty. We resumed our normal after mommy gets home from work routine and things were back to normal.

Tuesday, I got up and did the normal get ready for work schedule. Topaz resumed her normal schedule of griping. When we went out for our morning potty time the herd was outside so we sat and watched the herd for a few moments. She went into her kennel without any fuss about the fact that I was going to leave. When I returned home things seem back to normal. She was again a little more milder in her play right when I let her out, nothing to out of the ordinary. We proceeded with our after work routine. I sat down to do some budgeting and she laid down near me and fell asleep. She slept late so we missed our normal potty time at dusk. It was well after dark when she finally awoke and needed to go out. I got her leashed and all ready to go out and the second I opened the door she backed away nervously. I opened the door fully and turned on the outside light. I could not see anything out of norm. I opened the screen door while talk soothingly to her to try to show her nothing was wrong. She pancaked to the floor. Seeing that attempting to get her to go outside and got potty was going to be a futile and stressful. I shut the door and gave up and just put her to bed in her kennel. She will not potty in her kennel, however, she will in my floors.

I got up this morning and took her out. Things have not been normal this morning. Topaz is usually confident and independent. Since I choose to have a lazy Sunday, I have a mess of a house to clean today. I got my morning coffee and started on my work. Topaz normally supervises from the bed unless of course I am cooking. Then she is supervising underfoot. Today, her and all her toys have been supervising on the rug in front of the stove.

I am not sure where my independent, confident girl has gone too...but I hope this mood passes quickly. I don't mind her wanting to be near me and spend time with me, but I strongly dislike that she is unhappy and stressed out. For now, we are just taking the extra TLC route.

I have been closely watching her to make sure that there is indeed not something physically wrong. However, she has not been ill again and no other symptoms have developed so I am still of the opinion that the physical symptoms were due to stress.

I sleep with pitbulls

Topaz is allowed to sleep in the bed with me. Well, to be honest I should probably say Topaz graciously shares the bed with me.

Topaz also requires that at least one toy (sometimes 2) sleep with her too. She normally sleeps on top of the toys or pretty close to them.

However, last night she decided all 3 of her toys needed to sleep in the bed with her. She arranged them in a perfect line across the top of the bed so they took up 1/4 of the full size bed. These are not large toys either...it is a dog bone, a rope toy and a ball. She then went on to lay down in a ball beside them taking up half the bed. Leaving me with a quarter of the bed.

Under normal circumstances I would rearrange the toys and require more sleeping space. However, since she has been in a very odd mood the past 2 days I allowed it. 

I woke up to her still curled up in a ball but pressed into my upper back. Mainly occupying the space right between my shoulder blades.

This sleeping arrangement means I have a crick in my neck and some really tight neck and upper back muscles. We will definitely be using a different sleeping arrangement tonight.

Despite my achy muscles that have been screaming at me all day, I would not trade it for a life without my friend.

Our Sundays

Sundays are usually the one day Ken and I both have off. Being one of the few days I have off I usually try to catch up on some housework and in the evenings we watch Food Network Star. However, I really wanted a completely lazy day today.

So, the plan for today was that we were going to have a lazy day watching movies, I was going to completely take the day off and neglect the housework, he (and Topaz) would do some test reports. Maybe go out for lunch this afternoon and then watch the finale of Food Network Star this evening.

However, that is not how our lazy Sunday has gone. He got an emergency job call this morning. We did salvage part of our lazy Sunday and watched the pilot episode of Political Animals. I think we have our new show since the finale of Food Network Star is tonight.

After he left, Topaz and I resumed the lazy Sunday movie watching while I worked on one of the curtains for the kitchen. Topaz has spent the afternoon moping around which I originally assumed was because Ken left. However, she is apparently not feeling a well. I think it may be due to the heat.

So I am now having a lazy Sunday afternoon laying down with Topaz.

Friday Walks

It is finally Friday and Mama has the day off.

We got up this morning and it was actually cool outside.

Okay, not really. It was in the 80's still but there was a breeze so it actually felt good to be outside.

Mama said we could go for a walk since it was not super hot out.

We have not been on a walk in forever because of the heat wave.

I did have to wear that icky harness, but for a walk it is worth it.

I did not pull to bad...well, I may have had to be reminded to walk nicely on the lead for the first half mile but that is only because I was so excited to be going for a walk again.

Mama took me down the pond.

I found a frog. It leaped right of the bank into the water. I wanted to play but I was not jumping in the water.

So Mama found me a nice spot that I could where the bank sloped into the water. The frog was long gone though so I just put my front legs in...that water felt so good.

I got the zoomies after that, so Mama decided since I was coping so well with the heat that we could keep going.

She even took me out on the big road. She did shorten my lead up so that I had to walk right by her and made me walk right by the white line.

I was not a big fan of that. I wanted more lead and liberty to sniff everything. 

Then a big truck came by and I was okay with Mama's rules for walking on the big road.

Mama kept a close eye on me and when I started indicating I was getting hot we turned back.

Mama took me back to the pond and let me climb in the water as far as I wanted so I could cool off and get a drink.

Then we headed for home and when we got there I got to lay out under the fan and cool down.

Then I found all my toys and played for a while. Yup, after all that walking I still had plenty of energy.

But now I think that it is nap time and I am getting the whole bed to myself and all the pillows.

I love Mama's days off.

Hope you have a fantastic Friday.

We are Lennox!

Today, my dog is Lennox. On the day that Lennox was euthanized murdered, my dog was Lennox. On the day that Lennox was taken away from his family, my dog was Lennox. So long as BSL exists, my dog will be Lennox.

Today, I am blessed. I live in a town where BSL does not exist. I have a land lord who was willing to take a risk and give a pitbull a chance.

 However, when we live in a world where tape measures and lengths of femur bones are all that is required to determine a dog's genetic make-up, no dog is safe.

BSL does not work. Any dog has the potential to bite for many reasons. Genetics do not change the likelihood that a dog will bite someone. The current BSL list for the entire US (BSL laws vary from state to state and town to town) has 75 different breeds of dogs on it including Spaniels, Boxers, Retrivers, Shepherds, the Boston Terrier, the Pug, the Saint Bernard and the Great Dane as well as the "bully" breeds. Banning breeds of dogs is not going to make communities safer, the only way that works is to ban the entire species. Then whats next kill of other species because we fear them and they are a  "danger" us.

The effective thing is to create laws that are breed neutral and punish irresponsible owners. However, until that day comes my dog is Lennox. His fate could be hers, simply because of ignorance and hatred. But my dog is not the only dog that is Lennox; all dogs anywhere are Lennox.

There is hope. All of us can work together to end BSL. If your town, city, state is voting to allow BSL laws speak up, vote and say no. Educate others on the flaws of BSL. If you are in an area where BSL already is, get involved and find out how you can help end it. How many more innocent dogs need to die and families have to be punished?