**WARNING** Grass Seed Season!

I have just spent the last 10 minutes gently extracting not just one or two but FIVE grass seeds – one of them over a centimetre in length – from underneath my dog’s  eyelids after a run in the fields.

 

This is the worst time of the year for grass seeds and they are designed to grip and cling to whatever they make contact with; in this instance,  Sticky’s eyeballs!

 

I was going to post a video of me extracting them but I didn’t want to make anybody faint!  It really was horrific stuff, with the biggest seed actually making me think for one awful moment that I was pulling out a piece of eye tissue – it was that big.

 

Please please please make sure you check your dog’s eyes, ears, paws and pay careful attention if your dog seems in any discomfort.  We thought we’d cleared Sticky for seeds but they had worked their way right round and deep around the eyeball and when he couldn’t stop pawing his eyes, we knew something was wrong.

 

Obviously be careful about digging around the eyeball and if any doubt whatsoever, get your dog to a vet and keep them out of long grass for the time being to prevent it from reoccurring.

 

Obesity in Dogs...

A fascinating piece of research undertaken by Kienzle et al (1998) says the following:

 

“The results of this survey indicate that owners of obese dogs tend to interpret their dog’s every need as a request for food.  It appears that this is due, in part, to a transfer of their own health and eating habits, including a certain laziness and a lack of appreciation of the dog’s nutritional and health requirements.  In counselling these owners, they should be encouraged to respond to the dog’s requests for attention not always with food, but more frequently with physical activities, such as brisk walks or regular play sessions.  There will be benefit for both dog and owner.”

 

For me, there is absolutely no excuse for obesity in companion animals.  Even those that have an underlying physical condition can be kept at a healthy weight by good nutritional management.  I agree with the researcher’s findings above that obese animals are normally suffering from some kind of emotional displacement of their owners, including denial!

 

Loss...

No matter what anybody says, to those of us who share our lives with canine friends, the loss of one can hurt as deeply and for as long as losing a human one...

 

Never, ever belittle your feelings when feeling the loss of a dog, or a cat, or ANY friend, no matter what species it was.  It matters not how many legs it had or whether it had fur or feather; what matters is what they represented in your life.

 

My dog Gus represented unconditional love, faith and loyalty in mine and with this he gave me what no other companion ever has (and that includes human ones!).

 

I get through the days and the weeks since I last touched him as I did when he was here but every now and again something pulls the connecting thread between us taut and the pain of loss mixed with the power of the love we had for each other is overwhelming.

 

What was it today? 

 

It was something that had become so much a part of our lives that I have been living with it, walking past it every day for the past five months not even realising that it was there.  It was uniquely his.  Uniquely ours.

 

“What was it?”  I hear you ask.

 

HIS SLOBBER TOWEL!!!  Yes, still with his slobber on, it was hanging up over the door near the water as it always did and I hadn’t even realised I hadn’t taken it down.  Isn’t it funny what catches us out?...