10 Things Your Dog Wants You to Know

1. My life will probably only last 7 to 14 years. It will hurt me more than you know if I have to be away from you for longer than a day or two.
2. If you have patience with me and give me time to learn what you would like from me, I can promise you, you will never be disappointed.
3. Trust me with your life and have faith in our future together. If I don't feel that you honestly believe in me, I will suffer great emotional stress. My sense of self-worth is totally dependent upon your confidence in me.
4. Don’t stay mad at me for long or confine me to a cage to punish me. You have your friends, your job, and your recreation. I HAVE ONLY YOU!
5. Talk to me about anything you want as frequently as possible. Even if I can’t comprehend your precise words, I can understand the meaning of what you’re telling me by the tone of your voice.
6. Remember no matter how you treat me, I will NEVER forget it.
7. When you consider raising your hand to hit me, remember I have teeth that could break the bones in your hand, but I choose not to bite you.
8. Before you scream at me for failing to respond to your commands as I usually do, take time to think about what might be wrong with me that would cause me to treat you differently. Maybe I haven’t been eating right or drinking enough water. Or maybe my age is catching up with me and I just can’t do what I used to do.
9. Take good care of me when I get old. Someday you will be as old as me and you will see how it feels.
10. Be there for me through good times and bad. Never say you can’t handle taking me to the vets for stitches or surgery. Nothing could make me feel worse. Everything in my life is easier for me to deal with when I have you standing by my side. Remember my love for you is unconditional and it will last for your entire life.

A Child's Wisdom

" Being a veterinarian, I have been called to examine a ten-year-old Irish Wolfhound named, Belker. The dog's owners, Ron, his wife Lisa, and their little boy, Shane, were all very attached to Belker, and they were hoping for a miracle. I examined Belker and found that he was dying of Cancer.

I told the family that we couldn't do anything more for Belker and offered to perform the euthanasia procedure for the old dog, in their home. As we made arrangements, Ron and Lisa told me that they thought it would be good for six-year-old, Shane to observe the procedure. They felt as though Shane might learn something from the experience.

The next day, I felt the familiar catch in my throat as Belker's family surrounded him. The young boy, Shane seemed so calm, petting the old dog for the last time, that I wondered if he understood what was going on. Within a few minutes, Belker slipped peacefully away.

The little boy seemed to accept Belker's transition without any difficulty or confusion. We sat together for a long while after Belker's death, wondering aloud about the sad fact that animals lives are shorter than human lives. Shane, who had been listening quietly, piped up, " I know why."

Startled, we all turned to him. what came out of his mouth stunned me. I'd never heard a more comforting explanation. it has changed the way I try to live. He said, " People are born so that they can learn how to live a good life-- like loving everybody all the time and being nice, right?" The six-year-old continued, " Well, dogs already know how to do that, so they don't have to stay as long."

Author Unkown

House Rules

The following was found posted very low on a refrigerator door.

Dear Dogs and Cats: The dishes with the paw prints are yours and contain your food. The other dishes are mine and contain my food.. Placing a paw print in the middle of my plate and food does not stake a claim for it becoming your food and dish, nor do I find that aesthetically pleasing in the slightest.

The stairway was not designed by NASCAR and is not a racetrack. Racing me to the bottom is not the object. Tripping me doesn't help because I fall faster than you can run.

I cannot buy anything bigger than a king sized bed. I am very sorry about this. Do not think I will continue sleeping on the couch to ensure your comfort, however. Dogs and cats can actually curl up in a ball when they sleep. It is not necessary to sleep perpendicular to each other, stretched out to the fullest extent possible. I also know that sticking tails straight out and having tongues hanging out on the other end to maximize space is nothing but sarcasm.

For the last time, there is no secret exit from the bathroom! If, by some miracle, I beat you there and manage to get the door shut, it is not necessary to claw, whine, meow, try to turn the knob or get your paw under the edge in an

attempt to open the door. I must exit through the same door I entered. Also, I have been using the bathroom for years - canine/feline attendance is not required.

The proper order for kissing is: Kiss me first, then go smell the other dog or cat's butt. I cannot stress this enough.
Finally, in fairness, dear pets, I have posted the following message on the front door:

 

TO ALL NON-PET OWNERS WHO VISIT AND LIKE TO COMPLAIN ABOUT OUR PETS:

(1) They live here. You don't.
(2) If you don't want their hair on your clothes, stay off the furniture. That's why they call it 'fur'-niture.
(3) I like my pets a lot better than I like most people.
(4) To you, they are animals. To me, they are adopted sons/daughters who are short, hairy, walk on all fours and don't speak clearly. 

Pieces of My Heart

Our paths will cross for only a short time, but while you are in my care I will be devoted to you.  If memories of your former life are painful, I will help erase them.  No longer will you hunger and I will help to heal your wounds. If your former life was good, I will promise you an even better future.

One day our time together will come to an end and you will go off to your new home, healthy, happy and healed. As a parting gift, I will give you a piece of my heart to remember me by.  I may shed a tear . . . not for my loss, but for your gain.

Perhaps our paths may cross again for a fleeting instant and I will be comforted by the aura of love that surrounds you.  There will always be a bond between us, though we walk separate paths through this life.

After we reach our heavenly reward our paths may cross again.  You may try to return the piece of my heart with thanks for all that I did for you.  I will tell you to keep it and thank you for showing me that I could be better than I thought I could be, and that I learned in giving came the greatest gifts.

The pieces of our hearts are like grains of sand. They are pulled along a current beyond our control until they come together and form a safe haven.

I, like you, came to understand what it meant to be saved

 [by Jim Willis, Author]

A Letter to my Dogs

Dear Dogs,

 

When I say to move, it means go someplace else, not switch positions with each other so there are still two dogs in the way.

 

The dishes with the paw print are yours and contain your food. The other dishes are mine and contain my food. Please note, placing a paw print in the middle of my plate and food does not stake a claim for it becoming your food and dish, nor do I find that aesthetically pleasing in the slightest.

 

The stairway was not designed by NASCAR and is not a racetrack. Beating me to the bottom is not the object. Tripping me doesn't help, because I fall faster than you can run.

 

I cannot buy anything bigger than a superking size bed. I am very sorry about this. Do not think I will continue to sleep on the couch to ensure your comfort. Look at videos of dogs sleeping; they can actually curl up in a ball. It is not necessary to sleep perpendicular to each other stretched out to the fullest extent possible. I also know that sticking tails straight out and having tongues hanging out the other end to maximize space used is nothing but doggy sarcasm.

 

My compact discs are not miniature Frisbees.

 

For the last time, there is not a secret exit from the bathroom. If by some miracle I beat you there and manage to get the door shut, it is not necessary to claw, whine, try to turn the knob, or get your paw under the edge and try to pull the door open. I must exit through the same door I entered. In addition, I have been using bathrooms for years, canine attendance is not mandatory.

 

The proper order is kiss me, then go smell the other dogs butt. I cannot stress this enough. It would be such a simple change for you.

 

Sincerely,

Your Overwhelmed Owner

The Lesson of the Butterfly

A man found a cocoon of a butterfly. One day a small opening appeared. He sat and watched the butterfly struggle for several hours. It strugggled to force its body through that little hole then it seemed to stop making any progress. It appeared as if it had gotten as far as it could and it could go no further. So the man decided to help the butterfly. He snipped off the remaining bit of the cocoon.
The butterfly emerged easily, but it had a swollen body and small shriveled wings. The man continued to watch the butterfly because he expected that at any moment the wings would enlarge and expand to be able to support the body, which would contract in time. Neither happened. In fact, the butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around with a swollen body and shriveled wings. It was never able to fly.
What the man in his kindness and haste, did not understand was that the restricting cocoon and the struggle required for the butterfly to get through the tiny opening was God's way of forcing fluid from the body of the butterfly into its wings so that it would be ready for flight, once it achieved its freedom from the cocoon. Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in our lives. If God allowed us to go through our lives without any obstacles, it would cripple us.
We would not be as strong as what we could have been. We could never fly!
I asked for strenght and God gave me difficulties to make me strong. I asked for wisdom and God gave me problems to solve. I asked for prosperity and God gave me brain and brawn to work. I asked for courage and God gave me danger to overcome. I asked for love and God gave me troubled people to help. I asked for favors and God gave me opportunities.
Every major accomplishment began with a decision to act. What decision have you put on hold today?

Black Dog Syndrome

Why does it appear that black dogs, particularly the large ones, and black cats are unadoptable? The phenomenon has been dubbed "black dog syndrome." Is it superstition? Black cats are considered unlucky by some. Is it mythology? Big black dogs have been portrayed as symbols of death in literature and legend, cast as bad guys in movies like The Omen, and even featured in modern stories like the dog Grim in the Harry Potter tales.
Some of the reasons may be more pragmatic. Black dogs have to be specially lighted for photography and therefore don't show up well on shelter websites, and in pamphlets and flyers. Visitors have trouble noticing them too in poorly lit kennels. "In a lot of shelter environments the lighting is not that great to begin with," says Pam Black Townsend, a shelter volunteer at the SPCA/Humane Society of Prince George's County in Maryland, whose photo book of black dogs raises money for the shelter www.pgspca.org. "They are hard to photograph and some people say, with black dogs, their eyes don't stand out as much and so they are harder to read. That makes people a little bit cautious."
There is also a theory that there are just more black dogs then those of other shades, being the black gene is most dominant.

Some experts dispute the severity of "black dog syndrome." Kimberley Intino, director of animal sheltering issues for the Humane Society of the United States, cites one study by Pethealth Inc., a pet insurance and animal microchip company, that went through numbers from 679 shelters and found black dogs indeed had longer stays before being adopted — but just by two days on average. "The idea that black dogs are not being adopted is not as gloomy as it is being portrayed," Intino says. But the anecdotal evidence seems hard to dispute.