ABBEY December 1st, 2009

Hi all, and thank you for your emails and comments.

The girls and I lost internet access.. then the lap top died… so posting didnt happen. Im trying to fix it.

Quick update, Shys eyes are worse but the vet thinks he can do it over christmas. Shes also become destructive but I think thats down to boredom more than anything else. With aussie heat its just too hot to walk her.

Chels… she is my worry, shes become aggessive towards Lucy…. but Lucy picks each fight???. She growls, walks/struts around Chels. Chels just picks her up by the neck and throws her. At the mo, luci has 3 puncture marks (deep and bloody), but then they curl up and sleep together, beside me… Im at at loss??

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ABBEY November 18th, 2009

Not often do we get personal mail anymore… and when we do it comes for the dogs!!!! it was a parcel from our Shiloh’s American blue sister Darwin!!! Yep she was ‘Pawing It Foward’ and the girls were the lucky ones.

I hardly had a look in.. the parcel squeaked and the girls took off around the house with the parcel, I was lucky to be able to grab it and save Darwins letter!. Little bit soggy but readable. The tug toy with the ball is brilliant. Its a long rope with a ball in the middle & Chelsea soon took that as hers. Its extremely well made and up to Dane usage which makes sense as it comes from and organisation called ‘Rescue Me Tugz‘ who donate the money from their tugs, collars etc to Dane rescue organisations in the US.. go check them out… I will definitely be shopping there.

Shiloh wasnt being left out and the rubber chicken..was hers. She bought it to the kitchen and curled up with it. No way was Chelsea getting a look in. I laughed last night as I tried to sleep, there was a loud squeak and the chicken had been buried in my bed

While the girls played I read Darwins letter to them… the last paragraph had me crying…

Abbey

I’m sorry to hear about Shy’s eye. We wanted to give something to help go toward the cost of her surgery. I wanted to do something for her and you, after all thats what ‘Paw it Forward’ is about? Isnt it’

Gees Brooke, you are one amazing chick to help out a stranger like that….Gabrielle made me laugh when she said Americans spell funny (ie Check instead of Cheque) That was one of the most selfless gestures Ive witnessed.. thank you …x

If you click the bottom pic you can see Shys eyes (I left out the worst ones) they are most sore in the evening & Ive been bathing them in a warm saline solution. I talked to the vet and should be able to get her in for the initial operation mid December. Ive noticed she seems to bark more and often at the slightest thing and I think thats because she cant see as well as Chels…

Tags: friends, toys

• Chelsea , Shiloh , accessories , rescue
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ABBEY November 17th, 2009

Sorry everyone Im running behind so I thought Id make this an easy one… the word(s) is ‘Body Part’

All you have to do is post a photo over the weekend with your interpretation of the word… hope everyone will join in… and visit each other to Ooooh and Ahhhh at each effort … happy pic taking

• Weekend Photo Challenge
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ABBEY November 16th, 2009

Still working at it.. the photo on right shows where Ive cleared. Today Im off to order some mulch and woodchip. The photos at left of all the regrowth that hides the wall to a massive lake and Chelsea has found the overflow. With her constant romping shes beginning to wear down the long grass so she has saved me a massive job. When shes churned it up by doing 360’s I cant tell the difference between her and Shy as the mud makes her grey.

I had a wine barrel with a frangipani growing in it, the barrel having long since rotted away and full of big fire ants so I decided to move the tree to another spot. I was moving the dirt from the old barrel when I looked down and saw this cutie in the bucket. I didnt want to hurt him so I just upended him into the new pot. I kept working and was removing rocks from under the old pot when I discovered two more.Id say the snakes were feeding on the ant larvae.  I showed Bella and told her we needed to be particularly careful with the dogs and snakes.

Hes a Dwarf Crowned snake and roughly 20cm… 3/4 of a ruler for those on the old scale and only mildly venomous. We do however have Red Bellied Black snakes and Eastern Browns who are incredibly deadly, its part of the reason Im madly clearing to give the snakes less places to hide in. Its also why I have information under first aid here on my site on Dogs and Snakebites the one plus is that dogs are incredibly noisy and a snake will always get out of your way, they are very shy creatures. Its the fools who try to kill them that get bitten…

Ah well back to the grindstone as they say

Tags: backyard, Home

• Chelsea
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ABBEY November 15th, 2009

The girls and I have had a big few days cleaning the yard. I burned off the dead wood in a bbq, piled the green stuff in the middle of the lawn and today thought id use the pit as well.

The pit is a massive, square hole about 6 foot deep, lined with tin for burning wood then firing pottery in. Mmmm may have ticked the neighbours off with that. Sure enough, sirens blaring and the fire brigade turns up…

They laughed when they saw it was me. Two of my mates piled out,  Chels and Shi were carrying on like rabid guard dogs. Told my mates they were cool as long as they didnt climb over my fence. They soon stood beside their truck. I managed to debate for an hour but they said the pit wasnt on their list (not sure what was) and I needed sausages if i wanted to call burning off a bbq. Sheesh, apparently if I want the bush tidied so its not a fire hazard this summer, I have to get the rural fire brigade to write to the council, who then inspect it, write back to the fire brigade. Its council land and in 18years they havnt cleaned it once.

According to Mr Rudd (our Prime Minister) no one can burn anything which has me knee deep in extremely combustible dead gum leaves and sticks (not to mention snakes). They said I could if I was rural, the problem being I am the line between rural and residental so even the fireys werent sure what to class me but then said I had to have 5 acres. He said I had to use a green waste bin… then even he laughed the pile I have is close to two storys high…

So I put the hose on the pit.. which made it smoke even more, grabbed some sausages from the freezer and kept the bbq going. The girls are loving the outdoors and the added exercise has Chelsea eating more which is great. The photo above is her watching me work… Shyloh nicks off the first chance she gets …

Tags: backyard, Home

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ABBEY November 14th, 2009

AP – In this photo taken Aug. 21, 2009, Diana Taylor walks with her Great Dane, Titan, along Ocean Beach in …

By SUE MANNING, Associated Press Writer Sue Manning, Associated Press Writer – Thu Nov 12, 8:26 pm ET

LOS ANGELES – Only one animal got credit for a record Thursday, the same day Norway registered the world’s largest gingerbread man; the most people hugging in one minute were in the U.K.; Italy set the mark for the fastest consumption of a bowl of pasta; Finland had the most nationalities in a single sauna; and a team from Mexico assembled the world’s longest paper clip chain.

In the midst of it all, Guinness World Records officially named Titan, an ailing 4-year-old white Great Dane from San Diego, as the world’s tallest dog.

Titan is blind, deaf, epileptic and undergoes acupuncture and chiropractic adjustments every three weeks, owner Diana Taylor said.

Great Danes are built like giraffes one way and submarines the other, Taylor said, so they have spine issues. Titan is doing well on his treatments and medication. He hasn’t had a seizure in a year.

He is a gentle soul who befriends everyone during his daily walks on the beach and is often mistaken by young children for a horse or cow, Taylor said.

Titan’s official height, as measured by a veterinarian, is 42.25 inches from floor to shoulder. You could add eight inches if official measurements included the head, Guinness spokesman Stuart Claxton said.

Titan weighs 190 pounds and doesn’t stand on his hind legs because it isn’t good for him. If he did, Taylor figures he would stand 80 or 82 inches tall.

Titan takes over the title held by Gibson, a 7-year-old harlequin Great Dane from Grass Valley, Calif., who died earlier this year after battling bone cancer. He had measured 42.2 inches tall.

Taylor was living in Atlanta when she adopted Titan as a puppy from the Middle Tennessee Great Dane Rescue. When he could see out of one eye, she taught him sign language. As he went blind, they learned to communicate by touch.

“I stay close,” she said, noting he still seems to sniff out every friendly face.

Taylor has a female white Great Dane named Ari, who is also deaf, stands 38 inches tall and weighs 160 pounds. Then there’s Diego, a 9-year-old German shepherd who tips the scales at 125 pounds.

Taylor and the dogs do a lot of charity events and therapy work, and she hopes Titan can help educate people about Great Danes.

Some breeders try to pass off white Great Danes as rare and exotic. Then when they find out they are deaf or blind, they take them to the shelters, she said.

“They are not rare, they are an anomaly,” said Taylor, 49, a communications adviser with San Diego Gas & Electric Co.

“Titan is magical,” she added. “He’s low-key, calm and has a wonderful demeanor about him. He gets along with all dogs, even the tiny ones … He’s also great to travel with. We’ve gone across the country twice.”

A project to give victims of disasters a place to stay with their pets following natural disasters is on Taylor’s to-do list.

Many shelters refuse to accept animals, so if owners don’t want to be separated from their pets, they have to sleep outside with them. If there were a converted train car or shipping container that could be rolled in during earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes or fires, people wouldn’t have to be away from their animals at a turbulent time, she said.

Nov. 12 is officially Guinness World Record Day, and more than 30 records around the world were announced or set.

___

On the Net:

http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com

http://www.titanandfriends.com

Tags: deaf danes

• Miscellaneous
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ABBEY November 13th, 2009

I only just scraped in with this weeks challenge.. but here is Shiloh @ 18 weeks and our contribution to ‘Yellow’ and joining us are

Darwin

Murphy

Moose

Tucker

Hope you can join us…  when we did it on my human blog it was just a bit of fun, no winners or losers and we would all visit each other and Ohhhh and Ahhhhh at everyone’s efforts…I have the weekly words from there for each  challenge but if you’d like to add some let me know. I’ll post a new word Sunday so that gives us a week to be creative and come up with a pic… by all means use an old one if it fits

Tags: s.18weeks

• Weekend Photo Challenge
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ABBEY November 10th, 2009

Lots happening a Che Dane and I havnt had the camera out. Im trying desperately to clean up the scrub we call a backyard. The photo above is Chelsea @ 22weeks discovering the bird bath. Well its currently underneath the bush…lol The girls have loved me being out the backyard. Chelsea is fine and stays in sight, happy to ferret in the undergrowth but today Shiloh started crossing the road and going out the front. The yard is unfenced so unsure how to fix that problem.

Oh yeah and Chelsea taught herself to roll over, going on her back is not something that comes naturally to her but the damp earth and sunshine must of enticed her. Each night she has has one tick on her eye and what a drama to get it off. For some reason they dont seem to get Shy but we keep a close check on them anyway.

Tags: backyard, garden

• Chelsea
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ABBEY November 8th, 2009

“In order to really enjoy a dog, one doesn’t merely try to train him to be semihuman. The point of it is to open oneself to the possibility of becoming partly a dog.”

Tags: art, dog quote, harlequin, Wisdom

• general dogs
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ABBEY November 7th, 2009

The first favourite is my Chelsea Girl @ 8weeks (Ja n 08). This is why shes such a water babe as she has been on the sand since the day we got her. I love how shes looking around Bellas feet at the waves.

My favourite Shiloh picture is also at the beach. She and I were just having a quiet word on the benefits of the ocean on a hot Christmas day (she didnt fall for it) She was terrified of the ocean and wouldnt move from under my feet.Thankfully shes alot braver now.

The last one is all three of my dogs and my favourite all time pic. Shiloh was about 3months here and I smiled as the daybed still has a mattress and pillow which is long gone having been eaten by the hounds.

So the word for next weekends challenge is YELLOW. So the idea is to incorporate that word into a pic with your dogs. Cant wait to see what everyone posts & Ill remind us all during the week

Tags: Beach, bella, Chelsea, Home, Lucy, Shiloh, verandah

• Weekend Photo Challenge
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