All Things Towal

My New Toy

April 19th, 2007 by Towal

After about a week of doing nothing but comparing digital cameras, I finally bit the bullet yesterday and got a new Fuji Finepix S700 camera.

Since my friends are now going to be subjected to a constant flurry of pictures while I learn all the settings on this new thing (it’s a lot more detailed than my old camera), I figured I would take the opportunity to get some blogging in as well. Misery loves company as they say

So I have picked a few of my favorite pictures from my first test run to post here today.

First we have Orion (aka Smooshy). This picture was actually taken in a room with NO lights on. This is not postworked at all..it’s straight off the camera. I’m quite impressed with the flash capability on the camera so far.

Next up we have Obie. Obie has actually been a permanent resident for about 3 years, but I have never gotten around to making him his own page like the rest of the dogs. Obie is one of my infamous fear biters. Obie is not terribly enthused with cameras under the best of circumstances (part of the reason he’s never been given his own webpage) and his opinion has not changed. He was less than thrilled about the new camera and being “flashy thingyed” over and over.
Obie

For the curious, Obie is a lemon (he is a true lemon..in other words he does not have black tips on his fur like a lemon sable) and you will notice that he lacks pigment. Lemon is an acceptable color in Papillons, but they are penalized if they do not have black pigment. I had never seen a true lemon in person until we got Obie.This next dog is Cajun and he is my seperation anxiety/thunderstorm phobic shadow dog. Cajun is the only dog that, no matter what John does, loves ME best ;) He can pretty much always be found near me. This picture is not flipped. He was sitting at my feet, I called his name and when he looked back at me I snapped this picture.
Cajun

Finally, we have Turner (aka Mr. Turner or Turnip Head). Turner was our introduction to Papillons and he was purchased from a pet store. When Turner was younger, I wrote an article about some of the pitfalls you can run into with buying a puppy from a pet store.While one should never buy a puppy from a pet store (check my rescue page for information, links and stories about this topic), you absolutely should love your dog no matter where it came from.

Turner is definately a “favorite” here. Just don’t tell the others that because they all think they are the favorite

I’m sure in the following days, I will be posting more pictures as I learn the camera. Maybe this will be a good thing and actually get me blogging more regularly.

Posted in General Musings, Papillons | | 1 Comments

Storm Phobias

April 10th, 2007 by Towal

Spring is upon us (although winter seems to be having a hard time letting go this year) and with spring comes thunder storms.

If your dog is not storm phobic count your blessings. Since most of my dogs are rescues that were unadoptable to the general public due to behavioral or health related issues, I deal with a variety of issues on a daily basis.

Storm phobia was a new one to me, however. When we got our storm phobic foster (now resident) we were not told he had an issue with storms. He had an incredibly severe case of seperation anxiety which may have masked the phobia due to the conditions under which he was kept in the home he was in.

If you have a storm phobic dog, this article on storm phobias is a must read. Even if you don’t have a storm phobic dog, it’s a good read as you never know when you may end up with one.

I tried to manage my dog’s phobia for several years through a variety of non-drug means and it just continued to get worse. Finally, when my other dogs started reacting to storms because the one was so stressed I said ENOUGH. I made an appointment with my vet to get some kind of medication for him.

Ironically, the day I decided to go with a medical intervention method of coping with his storm phobia, I found that article which just made me more sure I was doing the right thing.

Today it has been going on 3 years that we have medicated during thunderstorms. We use Xanax and had to work on getting the dosage right, which did take a while because we only medicate during storms.

While Cajun is not thrilled with storms now, I no longer worry that he is going to have a heart attack during a storm. He is able to lay quietly (panting) beside someone and he no longer tries to eat my carpet or tear down doors.

He also knows now that if there is a storm he is going to get a special treat and at the first sign of a bad storm will come running to me waiting to get his bite of squeeze cheese (which contains the Xanax, of course).

Posted in Papillons | | 0 Comments

Ruthie Memorial

April 3rd, 2007 by Towal

(originally posted October 26, 2006 — yes I know the 26th is before the 31st…it’s been a long day)

Just a very quick update that I did today.

We lost our old girl, Ruthie, on Mother’s Day this year. She was our first Papillon to cross over the Rainbow Bridge and we were deeply saddened by her passing.

Today I pulled pictures off the camera and there was a very nice one of the memorial stone we got to commerate Ruthie’s life so I put that on her page.

View Ruthie’s page.

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