Pet Lovers

About Kiki's Dog

Gracie is a rescue dog. Right after her husband died, Kiki happened to drive past a Pet Adoption Event sponsored by a pet store. She saw poor Gracie, squashed into a large crate, and Kiki fell in love with the Great Dane.

The breed is thought to be 400 years old. Originally they were bred to hunt wild boars. According to a citation in Wikipedia, "the most treasured hound...is the white colored with black markings...Harlequin."

Great Danes have a historic place in the mystery genre, as it was probably a Great Dane featured in the Sherlock Holmes adventure, The Hound of the Baskervilles.

When I was in college, I worked in a pet store and found homes for dogs and cats. (I love cats, too. Unfortunately, I'm very allergic to cats and rabbits. And boy, I was I wasn't!) That began a lifelong passion to help homeless animals. Today I own a Bichon Frise, Victoria, and a rescue Bichon/Poodle, Rafferty. I found Rafferty through Small Paws, an organization I can't praise enough. If you are considering a small dog, please check them out at www.smallpawsrescue.org

I doubt that I will ever buy a purebred dog again, but I must caution you: Rescue dogs frequently come with baggage. For Bichons, since they are so totally devoted to their owners that can be a great big trunk! We've found that Clomicalm helps poor Rafferty to not freak out when I leave the room.

Resources

www.smallpawsrescue.org
The largest rescue agency in the country devoted to Bichon/mixed Bichon and other breeds. They did a thorough interview with us and checked our references. Because our dog was dying of cancer, these wonderful people considered us an emergency situation and whisked our paperwork along.

www.cvm.uiuc.edu/ope/enotes/showarticle.cfm?id=185
This is a list of the ten most common household poisons that dogs accidentally ingest. I'm sharing it because of two near-tragedies I know of-my neighbor's dog ate the mice poison they put down and nearly died and my sister's dog picked up one of my mother's ibuprofen tablets and nearly died. Yeah, the "nearly died" part seems redundant, but I did it on purpose. Both animals were in intensive care for days. Take a few minutes and acquaint yourself with the items on this list.

About Canine Cops....

I was so impressed by Pete St. James and his two canines, Bo and Lucy. Click here to read my blog account.