Heart-exploding moments with a dog going blind

So, sometimes the dehydrated sweet potato in the Kong just won’t come out, and after working at it for a long time, the only solution is to bring it to the thumbed biped for assistance, right?

 

Which just happened. So I fished the sweet potato slice to the halfway-out position as I always do if it’s really stuck in there, and Gilly, as he always does, very sweetly, gingerly, delicately extended his muzzle out to take hold of it with his little grooming-teeth, silvered eyes half-closed with anticipated chewy delight, and sweetly, gingerly, delicately took hold of my ring and pulled–and pulled–and pulled–

 

AAAHHH, I shouted. YOU JUST EXPLODED MY HEART.

 

BARK. He said. THAT IS NOT A SWEET POTATO. PUT THOSE THUMBS TO WORK, BIPED, AND MANIFEST MY SWEET POTATO.

 

Which I did, because: love.

 

Good thing my fingers were bent. I don’t think platinum’s good for dogs.

 

From our overlords: Robo Cat & what they get up to

 

“The shadow of a life grows small before the light of dogs.”

From Stephen Kuusisto, on Facebook:

“A lot of people say dogs make us human and who would sensibly argue the point? Those who work alone, hour after hour, know the good company of dogs. The bereaved who’ve survived scenes of huge violence are reminded of unambiguous good when therapy dogs arrive and nuzzle. The shadow of a life grows small before the light of dogs. Dog lovers have always known how canines complete their lives and nowadays theorists like Brian Hare (who coined the word “dogology”) argue dogs possess empathy which they share in abundance with their human partners. We know dogs are smarter than we’ve previously imagined. For the blind none of these ideas seems very surprising. Blindness, on a primary level, means living at one remove from the world, no matter how successful you are. A guide dog is not merely a guide through traffic, but an animal friend, close to the ground, beautiful, familiar, resilient, and strong. One can add confidence to empathy–a dog’s reliable faith can be shared with anyone, but especially the blind. Paired with a guide dog a blind person is back in the world, or, as was the case for me, is in the world for the first time.”

Adventures on the lake:

Found a snapper I thought was dead, heron-flipped and headless – but in fact she’d either been flung or fallen into a wedge of stone with her head stuck under her own shell (ouch).

Flipped her over, and here’s what happened.

Gilgamesh was very courteous – and pleased with himself for supervising a happy ending.

The great blue heron who had been perched just overhead was not so happy with us, but has plenty else to eat. Close call for turtle!

Bookmark this one for any time you need a happy 10 minutes (courtesy of our overlords):

Poo poo pa do

Very funny story of entrepreneurial war in the Albany Times-Union:

Poop scooping is dog-eat-dog fight to top of the pile

You might assume that Jonathon Locke has a crappy job. You would be wrong. …He is driven by poo.

Diary of our overlords

Petri love:

Bacteria On Dog Lovers’ Skin Reveal Their Affection

Well, it looks like there really is such as thing as a dog person.

Humans who share their homes with canines also share the similar bacterial houseguests on their skin, ecologists Tuesday in the journal eLIFE.

In fact, two dog owners who don’t even know each other have about as many of the skin bacteria in common as a married couple living together.

The signature doggie blend is a mixture of harmless bacteria from their tongues and paws, the report finds. Microbial sharing from pooch to person occurs primarily through two routes: tongue to skin and paw to skin.

That’s right, dog owners have bacteria from Fido’s tongue and paws flourishing all over their bodies.

…

(Don’t worry, it’s good for you.)

Lakedrama

Turtles and beavers and eagles, oh my!

Lifestyles of our overlords:

Stressed out cat is very stressed out.