First: Maggie is alive. Second: She almost wasn't. All thanks to a cork. Which she ate. Which almost killed her. I'm telling the story in hopes it will educate, inform, and inspire. And don't we all love a good dog story, as long the the dog doesn't die? This one didn't, but it was pretty damn close. It all started on Monday, June 13th, when Maggie began vomiting. At first I wasn't particularly distressed; we all know owning a dog means cleaning up the occasional vomit on the rug. But the vomiting continued, and became so violent that her body actually was pushed backward by the force of her stomach expelling its contents. "Rocket vomit," I'm going to call it. Lots of yellow fluid, with a bit of partially digested food. She was also thirsty--very, very thirsty, but she couldn't Read More

Due to a glorious visit from five family members, straight out of a commercial for _______ (Fill in the blank--Allergy medicine? Arthritis medicine?), in which old people are still able to keep up with and enjoy the youngsters, I'm behind on everything else. "Everything else" being far less important than family, right? (Note: Using the word "youngsters," makes me feel old right there.) I was looking at past posts, as I do on occasion, to see if I could repost something I wrote that hadn't been covered in a while, and was reminded that asking readers what they like to talk about has resulted in all kinds of good things. As in, me learning things I didn't know before, and/or, didn't know I didn't know. As in, readers getting to bring up topics important to them that I have never Read More

You might have noticed that there have been no photographs of cats in the last several months. That's because there are no cats living here now, but I couldn't write about it until it wasn't so raw. (See many of Brené Brown's works for excellent discussions of when, and when not, to go public with something that's difficult and personal.) Here's the story, starting with the stars of the show: Nellie and daughter Polly came to the farm ten years ago. Nellie had shown up at a friend's place, not far away, a starving, pregnant adolescent who clearly had been well socialized. She had seven kittens growing in her belly, and was otherwise skin and bones. Our friends Bonita and Fredericka took her in, and helped her raise her kittens, each one glowing with health. Polly was one of the two Read More

I'd love to have a conversation about avoiding over heating in dogs. We all know that it can be a life or death issue for all dogs, but the fact is that my Skip overheats easily. Very, very easily. It may be that his bad heart is the only factor, or perhaps there are others, but it can take him 30 minutes to cool off when it takes Maggie 10. I simply can not run him if it's truly hot and humid; or if I do, for a minute or so only. Given that those of us in the Northern Hemisphere are rolling into summer, and it's already been hotter than hell up here in the Northland, it seems like a timely conversation to have for all of us. First, it probably goes without saying, (and yet I feel obliged to), that high internal temperatures in dogs can be a serious health emergency that can lead to Read More

It seems I went to sleep about a month ago and had an endless dream that I woke up in the Aleutian Islands. Days and days of forty mile an hour winds, forty degree temperatures, lots of rain. I woke up for a few days in Wisconsin, then had a nightmare that I was in Alabama in August. (Apologies, Alabama, but I am a disaster in hot humid weather.) Ninety four degrees, super humid, for days on end. I am happy to say that I have finally awoken into my home state in May again, with temps in the 60's and low 70's. Low humidity, light breeze. Heaven. However, my plans for a content-rich post have been squashed by the following To Do list, made extensive because, well, see the weather above. As a result, about 6 weeks of gardening has to happen NOW. RIGHT NOW. ALL OF IT. Here's a brief Read More