If you, like me are a lover of animals, particularly dogs, but not exclusively, this space is for you. I am a life-long dog lover. I have ‘owned’ several dogs or they have owned me rather over the years.
They bring such joy, emotional support, love, and of course in losing them, such pain and grief. I have never forgotten any of our dogs. They are family members. I know some people balk at that statement, but I find it to be so true. They love us unconditionally, are loyal, protective, want to be involved in anything we do and go anywhere we go.
I am an avid fan of many Facebook groups involving particularly Great Pyrenees, our current pet. Seeing everyone’s pictures, hearing the stories are so similar to our experiences with Blanco. They have humor and intelligence and are truly a stubborn breed, explained I guess in that they protect flocks, herds etc. and need to make decisions about their work.
So I decided to start this blog to hear others’ stories share in their joy and grief and give and get tips on food, tools to keep the massive hair loss under control (ha ha) and just know others out there are going through what we do, especially in our grief when they do finally cross that rainbow bridge.
As I said, we currently have a Great Pyrenees, age 9 (February 20th). He has set habits of when he eats, what he likes to eat, mostly treats, and sleeps, most of the time. He also loves to bark, a common trait of this breed. They protect us and others by their very ferocious bark! Especially when any delivery men dare to approach the house to leave a package.
We have had two Old English Sheepdogs, both female; one Australian Shepherd, male and very dominant; English Springer Spaniel we rescued from an animal shelter. I also had an Irish Setter, male, limited intellect to put it nicely who unfortunately I had to give up to an animal shelter when my practice marriage; shared ownership of a medium sized Heinz 57 breed Butchie, male, and Queenie a Sheltie when a kid. I have owned cats as well, but my permanent husband has an allergy so no cats.
A good friend of mine has doxies. Adorable but I guess they all are. She did have Great Danes and maybe a Burmese Mountain dog I think but found them too big to walk as she aged. I guess they walked her more than she did them:)
So today my mission is to find the best food for Blanco. We feed a high quality dry food interspersed with a fresh food, currently fresh pet beef. I tried to make his food, which he rejected. I also tried farmers pet, so pricey; Ollie’s, off and on likes it, and Cesars wet squares which Blanco was hooked on. We fed Baxter (Aussie) this for the last months of his life as it was the only thing he could tolerate. Blanco would lick the container and so we continued to feed it to him, then started wondering just how healthy it was.
I have questioned how healthy all the foods are since our dogs seem to have more cancers and non malignant growths then ever and shortened life spans.
Okay, so if anyone reads this, if they could respond (hopefully I set it up correctly) to share experiences with foods, whether home made, fresh or dry. Thank you! I’m thinking this should really be called Blanco’s Blog. Thoughts?
