Do You Know How To Save Your Dog's Life?

This is a question I hope you never have to learn the answer to. It's a question I never thought we'd need to deal with. Unfortunately, last Thursday night, we did.

As previously posted, Jim and I adopted two Boston Terrier puppies back in May - a boy we named Fenway and a girl we call Chloe. They are our dearly loved "fur babies", are almost 7 months old now and are best friends with each other. They enjoy playing and romping around, but can get a little rough at times. One thing we have attempted to discourage is Fenway grabbing Chloe's collar while they wrestle. She generally can hold her own but it is too rough for my taste and I'd rather error on the side of caution than have somebody get hurt.

 

Fenway left, Chloe right

Thursday night, Jim and I were watching television in our room, the little ones were asleep and my daughter was with the pups in the family room on the main level. I began to hear a very high-pitched noise and thought it was our resident fox at first. It got louder and I heard my daughter yelling Chloe's name,  which made me believe that she was playing with the dogs. Then the tone became more clear - it was one of panic and terror. Jim and I jumped up and ran downstairs just as an extremely concerned Fenway was dashing up. As I got to the family room, my daughter was hysterical, yelling at me what had happened and that she thought Chloe was dead and to do something, to please not let her die. I then saw Chloe lying lifeless on the floor. As she had a faint heartbeat, I knew not to apply chest compressions, but it appeared her breathing had stopped. My daughter had blown into her mouth a few times, which bought us some precious time. I picked Chloe up, cupped my mouth around her nose and began rescue breathing as I carried her to the car for a trip to the emergency vet. Thank God, after four breaths, she gave her patented little snort and slowly began breathing on her own, each breath a little stronger than the one before. She became more responsive to my voice, perked her ears up and surveyed her surroundings.

Cute collars - danger in disguise

A thorough examination showed Chloe's vitals were normal and stabilized and she was kept overnight for observation. Everybody was thrilled to have her back home the next morning, including Fenway! I honestly feel he felt badly, even though what had happened was an accident. Here's the details: they were playing and he grabbed her collar. She flipped over and when she did, her collar twisted and got caught on his lower teeth, tightening it around her neck. Neither dog could break lose and my daughter was unable to pull it off of Fenway. She finally was able to get the latch to release from Chloe's collar, at which point she collapsed on the floor. The collar had strangled her that quickly!

I'm sharing this because I know how much we all love our pets. They give us such joy and complete our families. I encourage you to watch the linked instructional video by Pets America on how to administer CPR/Rescue Breathing to a dog and learn all you can about the process for your particular breed of pet. Know where your emergency vet is located and what their hours are. Supervise your pets while at play. I pray you never need this information but felt it was important to pass on. Oh! And collars? They are no longer used in our home. Chloe is sporting a brand new harness which she thinks is quite stylish! Fenway has a harness now too! They're a little bulkier than I prefer, but I'll take safety over fashion any day!


Photo courtesy of PetCo

Thank you so much for stopping by! I promise a more upbeat post soon! Take care!
Hugs, Leena

Jim's Beach Birthday!

In my last post, I mentioned that we were at Ocean City MD during the week of Jim's birthday. I really enjoy spending his special day at his favorite place as it makes him so happy! If he were home, he would normally go to work then maybe we'd go out for dinner that evening; not very exciting. Such an awesome guy deserves an awesome celebration!
 

You may also recall that I was bummed that our reservation for an ocean front room had been changed to an ocean view room. I had plans to decorate the balcony, which faced one of the busiest sections of the boardwalk, with balloons, streamers, a Happy Birthday banner and a large sign asking people to yell or sing Happy Birthday to Jim as they walked by. He would have gotten the biggest laugh from that! I'll try that idea again next year.

We rode our scooters to the boardwalk and I turned him lose! I told him he could go anywhere he wanted to. It turned out to be a day of boardwalk epicurean delights! He got shaved ice from the Alaska Stand, lemonade from Love's, a sausage sandwich for lunch from Polack Johnny's - he was a happy camper! Fried Oreos seemed to be this year's hot item, but we declined. We took pictures from the pier and of the dunes until an evening shower came in, then we headed back to our hotel.

Dinner was enjoyed at JR's, a favorite place for steak and crab cakes. We always make sure to get to JR's. Their steaks melt in your mouth and their lump crab cakes are Heavenly! Add fresh, warm honey wheat bread, a refreshing salad and locally grown vegetables and it's pure dining pleasure! We took two pieces of chocolate cake home, which was later enjoyed on the balcony underneath the stars.

Overall, it was a very pleasant day for us both.

Thank you for dropping by - I always love your visits and comments! Have a great week!
Hugs, Leena

WhaT We Did ON OuR SuMMeR VacATiOn

WELCOME TO OCEAN CITY. MARYLAND!

Jim and I recently returned from a well deserved and much needed week at our favorite vacation spot, Ocean City, Maryland. Normally, I would have posted a little blurb with each day's activities, but the Wifi connection in the hotel was so sketchy, I couldn't stay signed on long enough to do much of anything! Speaking of our hotel, I'll get the whining out of the way first. We'd reserved an ocean front room with one king-sized bed, a sitting area and full kitchen. What we got was an ocean view room on the side of the building with a mini kitchen and couch shoved in one corner and two king-sized beds. Upon pulling back the drapes we discovered that our "ocean view" wasn't exactly what we had in mind. It was this:
 

Yes that's right, Hooters! Not even a good one either! We ate lunch there last year and it was horrible! If we sat sideways, we could see a little bit of the ocean but the building air conditioner units were so loud that we rarely got to hear the waves. At least we could see the kites from The Kite Loft dancing in the breeze so we decided to make the best of it.

The weather was gorgeous most of the week, with the exception of a mini hurricane that blew through. I must admit that I'm a bit of an adventurous, aka stupid, person when it comes to these big storms. I love watching the rain falling sideways and the waves up over 8 feet. I found a little corner on the balcony where, if I huddled close to the wall, I could watch it all and not get wet! I was able to take a few pictures prior to the storm hitting but once the sustained 50mph winds hit,  photography was not possible. Jim was shocked to find me out there at 4am, but I was enjoying watching the storm, listening to the power of the wind and waves and thinking. It was actually quite relaxing! Fortunately, the rain had stopped by morning and we were able to venture outside.

Thar's a storm a-brewin'!

Morning clouds gave way to a sunny sky!

As was the case last year, we needed to rent mobility scooters because of Jim's foot surgery and my awful back. I was hoping that the treatment I'd recently started would allow me to walk the boardwalk, but it's too soon for that. With everything that's wrong with my spine, I have a long way to go. We rented from the same super nice man as last year and since we were repeat customers, he allowed us to keep the scooters for 4 days for the price of 2! We even got to take them back to our hotel room!

Watch out! It's Lightening Lanteigne, Speed Demon Deluxe!

We rode up and down the boardwalk, photographing our favorite spots, checking out a few shops for souvenirs for the grand babes and had a nice lunch while watching the waves. The sea gulls were insane, trying to steal our food and squawking up a storm! Jim finally decided to buy them a funnel cake (sucker) and that's when the trouble started! If you've even been to the beach, you know that if there's one sea gull eating, there's 1000 more uninvited guests on their way to crash the party. Soon we were surrounded! These guys were bold too, attempting to take the food right off of the plate! They were diving in so closely that we were getting hit in the head by their wings! People eating at the outdoor restaurants were laughing and taking pictures when Jim finally made a run for cover between the entrance of two buildings. I followed him and the birds followed me! I decided to treat them like I do my dogs and told them all to wait their turns and sit still. This worked for a while as I hand fed the ones cooperating, then the trouble makers again tried to steal the entire funnel cake off the plate which made the ones behaving themselves start to complain and it was a full-out riot! It was like a scene from "The Birds"!

I love this little guy. He looks like "what do you mean it's all gone?"

The worst part was when this poor young lady was standing on the sea wall, posing for pictures for her family and the birds decided to, well, poop all over her! She was squealing and laughing and saying something in Japanese and didn't seem too traumatized by the event, but Jim and I decided to make our way down the boardwalk and see what other mischief we could get into.

Jim Feelin' Groovy!

We went up onto the pier and enjoyed the view for a little while, but it began to rain so we decided we'd better get ourselves back to the hotel. A quick stop for iced coffee and we were back inside our home away from home.

Fishing Pier

Storm coming in

I tried that selfie thing but don't think I quite got the hang of it yet! LOL!

Coming Up - Jim's Beach Birthday!

Thank you for stopping by and have a wonderful day! Hugs, Leena