dog:blog

During the last few months, I’ve thought about refocusing this blog completely on pet-related matters. So the title of a recent post on the Dolittler veterinary blog, How to start and grow a top pet health site…with love, intrigued me. My original blog was devoted almost entirely to pet health. As I am not a veterinarian or a journalist, it was a personal blog discussing only the pets owned by me and my husband, and occasionally those of family members or friends. At the time, our pets numbered four dogs, three cats and two birds, so there was ample material for me to write about. After the two oldest dogs passed on, I didn’t have it in me to keep writing regularly. Effective tools for fighting comment spam were not quite ready for prime time then, and trying to keep up with it sapped any enthuasiasm still remaining.

Comment spam isn’t the problem it once was. I would probably need to expand the focus of a new version to include dog training, dog showing, dog sports competition and pet-related legislative issues, because most of my pets are thankfully young and healthy, and I won’t have many health issues to write about, hopefully for a while yet. I’ll need to give this a bit more thought before I make any changes. My pets are my favorite subject, but I do enjoy writing on other topics now and then, too.

Back to the Dolittler post, though. One of the pet health sites profiled was Tripawds, a site inspired by and supporting all three-legged dogs, primarily cancer patient amputees. My own three-legged dog Jake passed away in 2002, so I had no idea this site existed until this week. Back in 1998, there was not much information on the ‘net to help owners of amputee dogs. I think I found just one site, Cassie’s Three-Legged Dog Club, which still exists and has expanded quite a bit since then. Back then, I wrote to Cassie’s Club founder Cynthia Davis, got some good information, and had Jake join the club (he is the bottom Jake on this page). I updated my then-website to add a page about Jake’s accident and amputation, which I have never taken down.

I still get email from that page occasionally, and as I have done since the beginning, I always try to respond to those emails as quickly as possible. I never thought of the possibility of an entire site to support tripod dogs, but I am very glad that Jim and Rene were inspired by their Jerry’s illness and amputation to create the Tripawds site to provide an awesome resource for those facing the same issues.

Times are tough for all of us, but if by chance you have a bit to spare, please consider visiting the Tripawds site and donating towards their server upgrade. Back in 1998, I would have loved to have a site like that, with not only information available, but a forum and chat to actually talk to others in the same situation. I was glad to be able to make a small donation today in Jake’s memory.

I haven’t blogged regularly in years, and I’m still not quite sure why I decided to do NaBloPoMo this year. No peer pressure was involved, although I do know that some friends and acquaintances are also taking up the blogging challenge. I don’t have anything earth-shattering, life-changing or even !!really cool!! that needs saying. So I guess this is just one of those “just because” things to do.

My old blog (you’ll find it linked on the About “Look Twice” and me page if you care to take a look) was almost entirely about my dogs, cats and birds. Though I haven’t posted to it in years, I’ve never taken it offline as much of it was health-related and the information might still be of use to me or others. I’m sure I’ll post about my pets several times during the month. So if you don’t like animals, run, run far away now.

A much-needed Hawaiian vacation falls in November as well. I grew up in Honolulu and will be visiting my parents who still live there. Hopefully I’ll have some then-and-now photographs and stories to post during that week.

And of course, like practically every American, I have some thoughts on the impending election. I posted this quote from Mary Schmich of the Chicago Tribune to my LiveJournal after Election Day 2004 and I think it still applies this year:

The problem is, we’re not all carrying the same country in our hearts. We all claim we want to be safe and free. But each side in this war–the internal American war that’s shaping the whole world–has a different vision of what it means to be safe and free and how we should share those gifts.

Whatever your vision is, vote for whoever you think can fulfill it on November 4.