Archive for the ‘Favourite Family Dogs’ Category
Blog contest
January 31st, 2010 | 
Author: Hello Good Dogs Canada fans. This blog is being entered in a dog blog contest. If you like GDC and would like to vote for it, please go to:
www.TrainPetDog.com , enter the contest code: JI7A1-and Submit
Thanks!
Posted in 
Sasha’s surprise
Jack and two of Sasha's offspring
The morning Ann Silberman took Sasha, the family’s 11 month old yellow Labrador Retriever to their Bowen Island, B.C. veterinarian clinic to be spayed, she was surprised to receive a call a short while later.
The vet explained that he couldn’t spay Ann’s dog because she was already pregnant. Ann, her husband Jack, and their son Ben were astounded. Sasha was their first dog and they had meant to have her spayed sooner but the busy family hadn’t quite got around to it.As the initial shock wore off, reality sunk in. Read the rest of this entry »
Latchkey child
Her bond with a neighbour’s dog, a young Airedale female named Asia, meant the world to her and gave her respite from her own home life which, although caring, was highly dysfunctional. Her friendship with this dog and the people she met through the dog allowed her to find her own voice and provided a little balance in her otherwise tumultuous life.
Since I also grew up bonding with my neighbours’ dogs, I’ve always remembered this child who eventually grew up and had children and I hope dogs of her own.
Tags: The mysterious disappearance of Toby
Toby and Mr. G
Mister G lived alone for many years in his big rundown house in my neighbourhood. His was an entrepreneurial spirit. Garbage pick up days provided him with weekly opportunities to fill his big old truck with his neighbours’ scrap and other ‘re-cyclables’. A feral cat and many litters of her kittens called the crawlspace under his veranda home. Mr. G’s one sidekick, a Miniature Poodle, Toby, followed him everywhere. This is what innocent, loyal dogs do, whether they’re treated well or not.
Eventually both Mr. G and Toby began to show their age and then Mr. G was diagnosed with liver cancer. Toby’s condition had already been going downhill; his eyes were caked and sticky and his fur so matted no hand could pass through. Several concerned neighbours urged Mr. G to take Toby to the veterinarian, but Mr. G was in denial and maybe a little thrifty.
One day Toby disappeared. Mr. G was sure he’d been kidnapped and shipped to an experimental lab. He was upset and furious that somebody had picked up his dog from his front porch.
Several months went by. One afternoon I found myself in the home of a woman who lived several streets away who wanted me to look at something unrelated in her house. As she was showing me around, in every room I saw one, two, or sometimes three animals, both cats and dogs, in various stages of twilight living. There was no unpleasant odor, they were all clean and looked well fed, all were very old, curled up in individual dog or cat beds. I’d walked in to an old folks home for pets! And suddenly, there before me, lay Toby. He was cleaned up, his eye condition medicated, and no more mats. He lay content in his own little bed and if he’d been a cat he would have purred.
What did I do? Did I blow the whistle? Did I confront the ‘dognapper’? Did I tell Mister G? I did not. Mr. G was in another world by then. I kept my discovery to myself and let sleeping dogs lie.