Happy Hanukkah

Another holiday to celebrate. What a great season with a holiday for everyone.

 We wish a most blessed holiday to all our friends who celebrate Hanukkah.

Happy Festivus

Another holiday is upon us. May we wish you all a most wonderful Festivus. We'd like to share our holiday wish with you.

May your grievances be minor,
As you assume you holiday role.
May wrestling not leave a shiner,
And no toppling of your pole.

I've already been airing my grievances for several weeks, so today could be a bit of a letdown, but I'll dig deep and come up with a few more. As for wrestling, I'll leave that to the dogs.

We do, of course, have a lovely Festivus pole and we'll all gather around it, weather permitting. Some people buy live Christmas trees and plant them in their yards after the holiday. Our Festivus pole is planted in the yard where we can admire it throughout the year. Enjoy your Festivus one and all.

And More Holidays

While we're in the holiday spirit, let's mention a few others. I'm not as familiar with these, but I think we should be aware and be happy for those among us who do celebrate them.

December 8th is the Buddhist holiday of Bodhi Day, the Day of Enlightenment.

December 21 - 23 is the Hundu holiday of Pancha Ganapati , a celebration to honor Lord Ganesha, patron of Arts and guardian of Culture.

December 12 is Milad Un Nabi, the Prophet's birthday, celebrated by by those of the Muslim faith.

We are happy to celebrate with our friends and acquaintances, no matter what holiday they observe. We wish you all a peaceful and joyous 2017.

Happy Solstice

Today is my holiday, the winter solstice and I share it with all of you.

I tried to think of something appropriate to say but instead I'll rely on one of my favorite authors who said it better than I can, Charles Dickens.

 "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair......"

May you all enjoy a peaceful and bright  Solstice.

"I heard a fowl sing
In the corner of December.
An enchanted thing
And sweet to recollect that:
We are closer to spring
Than we were in September."
    Oliver Herford

Well Well Well, A Review

For years I've been hearing good things about Wellness dog food. Many of the people involved with Portuguese Water Dogs feed it and love it. Several friends feed it and are very pleased. Still until recently I never tried it.

Then in September, Chewy gave us the opportunity to try it. At that time we tried their canned food and I was impressed by the good smell, the fact that the food remained soft and spoonable even after refrigeration and the general quality. Of course, the dogs loved it. You can see our review here if you're curious.  http://theportuguesewaterblog.blogspot.com/2016/09/some-really-tasty-new-food.html

This month we're trying Soft WellBites. These are also made by Wellness and we chose the turkey and duck recipe.

The ingredient list includes turkey, duck, chickpeas, ground potatoes, carrots, sweet potatoes, blueberries and apples, all things I feed my dogs regularly, plus some other additions for flavor. Just as important is what's not included, corn, soy and artificial colors or additives.  If your dog prefers a different flavor, they also come in beef and turkey, lamb and salmon, chicken and lamb or chicken and venison.

The treats are a nice size, not too little, not too big, and they are soft. They feel almost squishable, good for all life stages even puppies with tiny teeth or old dogs that find chewing a hard treat too much trouble.

My dogs were all happy to try these and there were no complaints.

 Sebastian was back looking for seconds.

Wellness is also a company with a conscience. They contribute food to shelters and this month they are giving extra for each purchase thru Chewy. Also, that all important marking is on their packaging, Made In USA.

Chewy sent us this bag of Wellness Soft WellBites at no cost to us in exchange for our honest review.

Year End Confession

Hi Blogville. I haven't been around much lately, though every morning I sit on the couch with a cup of coffee and read each of your blogs. I just haven't been able to comment.

Over the years, I've shared with you that I fight a constant battle against depression. It's a battle I've been fighting my entire life and I'm dealing with it now. When I lived in Maryland I took part in a depression research program at Johns Hopkins. Unfortunately, I learned that my depression doesn't respond to medications, so I've had to teach myself coping techniques. For the last few years these have been fairly successful, but they don't seem to be working so well now.

I'm aware that I often experience a letdown at year end for any number of reasons that I won't bore you with just now. There's also a little S.A.D. thrown in there at this time of year.

This year I've been hit hard and I'm really struggling with it and it doesn't feel like I'm making any progress. I'm trying to force myself to do the things that ordinarily make me happy and not just get sucked into the dark side of everything I see, hear and feel.

Though I sit down at the computer to blog, it just feels too hard and I walk away.

So tonight I'm making a year end resolution to really try to experience even some small pleasure from the things around me. I'm also going to try to blog several times a week, even if they're short posts. My sweet Fudge will help me with that.

Thank you for sticking by us for all these years. Your responses are so important to me and I'm proud to be a citizen of Blogville.

Friend or Foe?

Sydney is a strange dog. You all know that she has some pretty severe mental problems that we've been dealing with for most of her life. She takes Prozac daily and since we cut her dose from 30 to 20mg, she's doing much better. She's found her appetite again and is getting along better with the other dogs, though they mostly avoid her.

She just turned four years old, but still isn't reliably housetrained. She lives in the garage when she isn't outside or sleeping in her crate. The garage is easier to clean if she has an accident. It may sound mean to you, but Syd is actually much happier in the garage. She has a nest of blankets and her alligator toy. Being in close proximity to the other dogs in the house is too stressful for her and she attacks any that get too close. In the garage, she has her own place and nobody bothers her. The garage is heated and air conditioned, so she isn't cooking or freezing and it works for her.

Syd is part Beagle and part Dachshund and has become quite a good little hunter. She's gotten a couple squirrels, a mouse, a rabbit, a bird and about a dozen moles. Unfortunately, hunting moles means digging lots of holes, so that keeps Rob busy filling them in again.

At Christmas last year we went to the thrift store and bought a bag of small stuffed toys for the dogs. There were a couple dozen toys, some bears and dogs and bunnies and some I didn't recognize. I think they may have been Pokeman characters. I've been doling them out gradually. As one gets chewed up, I'll put out another. Most of the dogs like carrying them around and it's really only Mackey who destroys them.

One of the toys was an alligator and Syd has carried it around for months. The other day I reached in the bag and pulled out a small brown fuzzy toy that I guess is supposed to be a dog or something. It doesn't have much shape and isn't very appealing, but the minute Syd saw it, it was love at first sight.

It's the same size as a mole and the first time I saw her carrying it, I thought she had a mole. I guess it must feel like a mole to her because she carries it everywhere, inside and out. We call it Holy Moley.

Sydney loves her Mole and whenever I walk into the garage to see her, she does a little happy dance with him in her mouth. I wonder if she'll continue to hunt moles if her best friend is one. Sure she will.