Puppy Connections

Hi everyone it’s me Gracie. Today’s topic is all about canine companions and compatibility. Not with humans, which is great because if I’m being honest they want way too much companionship from me. Don’t even get me started on how much they have to bribe me with food to sit on the same couch as them. It’s truly pathetic.

No, today we’re doing something a little different.

We noticed a trend on Instagram a few years ago as we started becoming friends with a lot of Bichon and Wheaten Terrier accounts. Many times there were families with a Bichon and Wheaten together, just like us! We’ve noticed more and more, not just with our breeds, that there’s definitely a trend with people having a certain “pairing” of breeds if you will.

Well, We’ve been in contact with a website PuppySpot and they’ve developed an infographic showing certain breeds that have a particular ease of getting along together. I guess this is called being friends. 

Since it’s February and we have Valentine’s day on the 14^th and more importantly celebration National Love Your Pet Day on the 20^th they were inspired to make puppy matches. 

Apparently the PuppySpot finds it super adorable when puppies have friends. We agree and thought this was super fun (okay that is clearly the human talking).

I; however, was not surprised by the lack of Bichon listed. I should obviously be an only child.

I admit dogs with friends do seem kinda cool. In fact, occasionally I’ll wander over to my neighbor, Monkey’s, house and see if he wants to play.

(Human note, Gracie runs away whenever she can and tries to hide as a stowaway at Monkey’s house.)

Anyway, if you’re thinking of adopting another companion or finding a new canine friend consider the info above when making your match so you have this sweet match...

My cousins Max and Duke are pretty rad pals

Instead of this...

#mylife

Sister for sale. Only serious buyers need inquire. (HN: she is not for sale)

Special Thanks to PuppySpot for the infographic, and to our cousins Max and Duke for being model friends. 

Lost and Found

                    

 Hi everyone! Happy New Year!!

 Today's topic is short and sweet. You see, I’ve developed a little habit of running away lately.

My humans are NOT impressed. I find the best time to take off is in blizzard conditions. 

This makes it especially hard to find me because I blend right in. I’m a master at camouflage.

We did a little digging, figuratively #lame, and wanted to talk about how helpful tags actually are in recovering a lost pet.

According to ASPCA 

”Forty-nine percent of dog guardians found their dog by searching the neighborhood, and 15 percent of the dogs were recovered because they were wearing an ID tag or had a micro-chip;”

We decided if it helps at. all. then we need it as a precaution. 

So Let’s talk accessories! 

Well…sort of. We’re talking ID tags specifically. You see, my girl human has an obsession about me wearing my tags NO MATTER WHAT! My other human doesn’t see the big deal. We live in the country after all and I have a micro-chip sheesh. Well today while taking some photos of me (because why not) she got to wondering about the personalization of ID tags.

My human spent TONS of time picking the perfect tags for us.

My feisty sister has this tag

This one is mine

So we want to know what are your safety precautions and do your ID tags express your personality? We can't wait to hear from you! 

Canine Cancer

 Last post you met our treasured friend Tucker. Later on in Tucker’s life he was diagnosed with Hemagiosarcoma, which according to caninecancer.com is an aggressive, malignant tumor of blood vessel cells.

Before we delve into the journey that cancer led Tucker on, we wanted to first share with you some facts on cancer in canines.

Tucker

The following facts are from:

Chemotherapy Overview from Mid-Atlantic Veterinary Hospital

What is chemotherapy?

Chemotherapy drugs are serious compounds that are toxic to cancer cells.  Chemotherapy drugs may be administered orally, or by intravenous (IV) or subcutaneous (under the skin) injection.

How does chemotherapy work?

Cancer cells typically multiply very rapidly, so most chemotherapy drugs target those rapidly growing cells to damage their ability to divide, eventually killing them.

Why chemotherapy?

Chemotherapy can be most effective single treatment for some types of cancer, by offering the best chance for remission while maintaining a good quality of life for your pet.

Chemotherapy is often recommended after surgical removal of a malignant cancer.  The purpose of chemotherapy in this application is not only to try to prevent recurrence of the cancer at the original sit, but also to try to prevent metastasis.

Occasionally, chemotherapy will be used alone for the treatment of cancers that are inoperable, or are not good candidates for radiation therapy, or have already metastasized.  In most of these cases, the goal of treatment will not be to cure the cancer, but rather to improve your pet’s quality of life temporarily by reducing pressure, bleeding or pain.

What about side effects?

Compared to people, pets suffer fewer and less severe side effects from chemotherapy.  This is primarily because veterinary oncologists use lower doses of drugs, and do not combine as many drugs as do human.  All rapidly dividing cells in the body are sensitive to chemotherapy, and while cancer cells fall into that category, so do cells that are found in the intestinal tract, bone marrow, and hair follicles.  Chemotherapy, therefore, may result in gastrointestinal upset, immune suppression, and hair loss in some pets.

Possible gastrointestinal effects include decreased appetite, vomiting, and diarrhea which, if untreated, can lead to weight loss and

Dehydration.

Immune-suppressive effects result when the bone marrow is no longer able to make as many white blood cells, which in turn leads to an increased susceptibility to infection.

Some pets, just like some people, may lose their hair during chemotherapy treatment.  While this is less common in pets, it does happen.  Hair generally begins to grow back within a few weeks to a month after treatment ends.

How Will My Pet Be Monitored?

At each chemotherapy visit, your pet will be physically examined by the veterinarian, and blood will be taken for a blood test to monitor white blood cells and other parameters.  Additional diagnostic tests, such as ultrasonography, may be scheduled as needed.  Once the tests are reviewed and your pet is cleared for the next round of chemotherapy, an appointment will be scheduled.

Next, we’ll take a look at the chronological vet visits to treat Tucker’s cancer.

I hope this will help any of you dealing with or who may deal with canine cancer.

Until then…

***Edited to correct Cancer Diagnosis. Tucker was diagnosed with Hemagiosarcoma not Spindle Cell**

A Journey with Tucker

Hello dear readers! It's been quite a while hasn't it? We have a lot to catch up on, but that'll have to wait...er, I guess I'll have to wait even longer.

What we have for you today is a special treat that we're really excited about!

We have a dear dear family that we've come to know and love through Instagram (No big surprise there is it?). We are going to take you on the journey of one of their dogs over the next couple of weeks.

So let's dive right in and meet Tucker.
The following was written by Diane (Tucker's girl human):

TUCKER’S JOURNEY

THE BEGINNING

            I remember the day we brought Tucker home like it was yesterday!

            My husband and I went to the Mall to do some shopping.  I needed to go to the pet store to buy doggie toothpaste.  While I was paying for my items, my hubby, Lee, walked up behind me with a rather large 4 month old puppy and said “I just bought him”.

            On the way home, Lee asked me if I was mad at him?  Of course, I wasn’t mad but I was thinking to myself “Great!  Now I have a sick dog, Casey, and Sophie, Peppy and a 4 month old rambunctious puppy, Tucker.

During this time Casey was very sick with Pancreatitis. Our Vet at the time did not give us very good odds if he would survive. I think this is the reason Lee bought this puppy.  He thought a puppy would distract me, if in fact we lost Casey.  Within a few weeks Casey recovered and we became a family of six.

            Tucker was a very high energy dog and due to the weather in Mass. (where we lived at the time) I decided to see if I could train him to walk on the treadmill.  I got his leash and we went to the basement to see if this would work.  I was praying this would help with his anxiety issues.  Every morning we went to the basement to walk on the treadmill.  I turned on the TV and sat with him while he walked on the treadmill.   It turned out that he loved it!  And it turned out he loved watching TV.  This was a win win situation!

            One morning Tucker was walking on the treadmill and everything seemed to be going well.  When all of a sudden Tucker moved all the back to the end of the treadmill and decided to take a poo.  At the moment I think I was in shock and at the same time it was really funny.  I immediately started training him so that he could jump off and on the treadmill and go outside to do his business.  On future treadmill walks he would jump off and on the treadmill.  Sometimes just for fun and other times he just had to take care of business.

            Tucker waited by the basement door every morning to walk on the treadmill.  As a puppy he walked with Peppy but quickly outpaced him.

I walked with Tucker on the treadmill at a slower pace but he always stayed with me.  As Tucker got older he could go faster for longer periods of time but he always wanted me to be with him.

EXERCISE AND TRAINING

I’m not sure when I discovered or decided that Tucker was “Fear Aggressive” but I needed to help him and myself because I was afraid to take him anywhere.   He was out of control with barking, bearing his teeth, jumping and it became a huge ordeal to take him anywhere.   At the time I felt I should rename him “Cujo” because I was afraid he would bite someone.

I was very fortunate to meet a wonderful dog trainer, Shari-Ann Morin Murphy, The Paws Training Group in Mass.  I met with Shari and explained our issues and just started crying because I knew Tucker could be a great dog but his fear aggression was holding him back. 

Time for Tucker to attend Shari’s training classes.  Tucker spent a lot of time in training classes and in the “time out room” due to barking and behavior issues.  The “time out room” was a quiet office where he was placed so he could calm down and stop barking.  Going to the training classes with Shari gave us both what we needed.  Tucker became a better behaved dog, we reached our goal and she used Tucker in some of her Puppy training classes.  However, he still liked to bark!  We never quite got the command “Quiet” under control.  But I learned so much about Tucker and myself.  I had an awesome loving boy!

• Now that you've met sweet Tucker continue on this journey with us next week. We're going learn about his battle with cancer, and chemotherapy treatments. We'll also meet his amazing family and share some of the delightful memories we have of him. 

 

Hazel Baby

Hello friends! Have you missed us? We've missed you!!We have had a lot of exciting things going on that will be coming up in the blog. More importantly We have a special guest feature for you today!! Cue- rejoicing and partying.

It's our pleasure to introduce our dear friend Sarah and her company

  Hazel Baby Soy Candles

Hazel Baby started not long after I had my daughter. I have always been a little creative, with a background in floristry, and after buying a beautiful candle from a local market one weekend i thought 'I could do this"! At the same market I bought some prints from a local designer which led to the idea of the typographic labels. I ended up contacting her and was lucky enough that she was someone who totally understood my vision and was able to create the branding for my label perfectly. 

At the beginning I jumped head first into everything! I am not the kind of girl to do things by halves... I had the branding, fragrances and packaging sorted before I'd even made a candle, I mean how hard could it be right? Wrong! I cannot even begin to tell you how many hours I spent making candles that turned out to be duds, so much time, effort and wax down the drain! I had completed a course in candle making but was taught with completely different wax than I intended on using. So many times I was ready to pack it all in but eventually I found an amazing lady online who was willing to tirelessly answer all my frantic emails and cries for help and after a very long road I finally started to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

After almost a year I am finally starting to find my footing in small business. It's hard juggling family, candles plus my day job but the satisfaction I get from what I do makes me so proud and happy. I draw inspiration from a lot of accounts on IG and I'm especially drawn to some amazing local artists like Yoko Home, Mogan Connoley and Harley Quinn and co. I love colour and typography and would give my write arm to be a great artist!

Pacho is well known for his infamous head tilt

Most of you know me as Hazel and Pacho's mama, and that job is still the most important one I have, but hopefully sometime down the track Hazel Baby soy candles will be successful enough so that I get to spend more time at home with my babies, that is definitely my long term goal. Pacho is still my number one boy even though I'm not able to spend as much time on his account as I would like to and as I used to. Many people told us when I was pregnant that Pacho would take a backseat to the baby once it came along but they couldn't have been more wrong. It was a little hard at the start when Hazel first came as newborns do take up a lot of mum's time but we made sure to still include Pacho as much as possible and tried not to change too much of his routine (walks, palys and where he slept etc). Now Hazel's old enough to start playing with him and we're teaching her to be gentle with Pacho which she's learning really well. We think it's important not to encourage her to play rough with him. Even though Pacho doesn't have a mean bone in his body, we know that that's not the case with all dogs so we figure if Hazel learns that she is to be careful with him, then she will learn to do the same with all animals. They really are gorgeous to watch together and I feel so blessed to have such wonderful kids and an amazing and supportive husband who's support I couldn't do any of this without.

We're so excited to bring you our first feature article! 

Get cozy, settle in, and get to know our great friends. 

Sara, Julian, & Maurice

 

My name is Sara Villines, and I am a 30 something health care professional living in SouthWest Missouri with my two amazing Havanese boys; Julian age 2 and Maurice age 1. If I could pick one word that has defined my life it would be "Compassion." When I was growing up, compassion is something my parents strived to instill within me... I was the child who wanted to donate my entire piggy bank to organizations like Feed the Children, and who gave my toys to the less fortunate. 

It was no surprise then when I graduated high school and immediately began volunteering my time for a non-profit in Haiti, where my parents had adopted three children just a year prior. What started as a volunteer project trying to find homes for three orphans, grew into a 501c3 charity with three orphanages, a school, and many humanitarian projects. Here I found my first career. From 2002-2008 I assisted with international adoptions and humanitarian aid until the economy crashed, and the Hauge Convention outlawed independent adoptions.

Health care was something I had never considered until a friend was able to help me find a job in the field. I started out working with individuals with developmental disabilities. Something just seemed to fit in my new field, and so I furthered my education in the medical field. I have worked in many different specialties, each one enriching in a different way. I think that is perhaps my favorite part of health care, the ability to learn, grow, and experience new things daily, all the while helping others.

Julian and Maurice each have their own unique stories of trials and tribulation. Julian is a pesticide poisoning survivor, and I rescued Maurice via Craigslist from severe abuse and neglect. It was going through these journeys with both of them that inspired me to launch HavaHeart as a way to pay it forward for all of the blessings in our lives... We want every dog, and their family to be as fortunate as we are. "...Freely you have received; freely give." Matthew 10:8

HavaHeart, opening on May 29, 2015, sells top quality homemade treats baked with only the best cruelty free and organic ingredients. We also sell boutique items, many of which are also hand crafted in our home. We take a holistic and homeopathic approach to meeting your pets nutritional and health related needs, because they aren't just pets, they're family... 10% of every purchase is donated to an animal related charitable cause. You can find us online at: www.hava-heart.com