Paw-Limpics examples

Well, the entries have started coming in for the Paw-Limpics. Since I am on vacation now, I wanted to leave you with a little inspiration for your photos for the Games.

Since I am the host of the Paw-Limpics Games, I will not be entering the events, and I will pick the objective people who will be the judges (i.e., NOT my mom). But here are some examples from my photos that would qualify for some of the events.

RUNNING
Practicing my speed at the dog park.

SWIMMING (Aquatics)
Here I am swimming with my dad.

BOATING
On the water with my nana.

TUG OF WAR
Playing with my dad and Walter.

MAKING A MESS
Leaving my muddy pawprints everywhere.

SLEEPING

KISSING (my nana)

SYNCHRONIZED NAPPING
Rosie and I practicing our moves.

DANCING
Here's Uncle Walter doing the Mexican Hat Dance.

AT WORK
My cousin Oliver hard at work, doing the dishes.

BEGGING

And finally, I am pleased to announce the newest event, Begging Face. Send in your best "Please" eyes that no human could resist! This is my cousin Bailey, who was Luke's brother.

So like I said, these are not entries, since it is me and my family, but rather some examples to give you some ideas. Send your entries to pawlimpics AT gmail DOT com. I can't wait to see all your entries when I am back from vacation! See you in a couple weeks!

Two Appreciations

Well, I feel a little guilty that I didn't wish my dad a happy father's day on my blog. He is always saying he is not my 'dad,' since he is a human and I am a dog, but he takes really good care of me and I really do appreciate him. He gives me my shots, rubs my belly with his feet, takes me to work, takes me for hikes in the woods, and we snuggle in bed every morning when my mom heads off to work.

Also, I want to mention my cousin Luke, a German Shepherd. I just found out that Luke crossed the Rainbow Bridge a few weeks ago. I only met him once, and he looked really big and scary, but it turned out he was really nice. When a car would pull up in his driveway, he would run up to say hi right when you opened the door. He always took really good care of his family. He was 17 years old.

Paw-Limpics events, and my friends

Great news! More event ideas. Please also feel free to submit photos for the categories of:

At Work (whatever kind of "work" you want!)
Being a nuisance
Tug-of-War
Barking/Singing

I have started to receive entries and I am so excited! Don't forget the deadline to email me your entries is July 31st. Also, please email me if you would like to put the Paw-Limpics button on your blog and need the code. Opy and Charlie's dad was nice enough to make that for us!

We have 33 dogs signed up for the bone relay before the Olympics, from all over the world. Let me know if you also want to be a part of it!

I got some bad news. My two best friends are moving away on Friday. Tobey (Chow/Lab mix) and Stonewall (Lab, aka "Stoney") are leaving my neighborhood because their dad got a job all the way in North Carolina. They're not the kind of buddies I chase and bark with; they're more the type of friends that you can just hang out together and chew rawhide. I see them almost every day. Their dad has walked me and taken care of me many times, and vice-versa.

(Sorry about the blurry pictures. We were over at their apartment and it was really dark, and my mom only had her cell phone! Stoney is above and Tobey is below by the couch.)

Tobey is one tough cookie. She was diagnosed with salivary gland cancer over 2 years ago, and the vet thought she would cross the Rainbow Bridge shortly. But here we are - and she is better than ever! It has not progressed, and she is not uncomfortable or sick at all.

They are both the strong silent type, like me, and a little camera-shy. Once I was hanging out at their place and their dad was kind of creeped out, because I was just staring at him and kind of wobbling back and forth. He thought I was sick. It turns out I had just eaten a bunch of their dog food from the kibble bag, and I had engorged myself. I had "Basketball Belly."

Ah, sweet memories. I think I am going to miss them, and their tasty kibble, a lot.

I'm going on vacation!

On Wednesday, my people and I are off to New England for vacation! My dad has been traveling a lot, but my mom has been stuck working in her office since Christmas, and we all need a break.

The reason we're going is that my auntie, the human of my kitty cousin Mr. Smitty Snoofers, is getting married! (That's her and my new uncle in the picture.) However, I am not invited to the wedding. Apparently no dogs are allowed in church. (No pee-mail in the pews.) So I will be hanging out with my uncle Walter, the wiener dog, at this fancy place called "Puddleby's on the Hill." It sounds a little more sophisticated than my usual "Bark'n'Buddies." I guess I will have to be on my best behavior.

Mr. Puddleby apparently used to breed fox terriers like me! So he understood when my nana made the reservation for "the fox terrorist." Very funny, Nana!!



The day after the wedding all of the family is going to see a high school graduation. My mom's cousin is valedictorian and is off to Cornell next year.


Finally, they will come get me and Walter and we are all going to Maine for a week, to my nana's house on the lake. That is where the humans have their own annual summer family Olympics, which helped inspire the Paw-Limpics.

Spanish WFTs/more Pawlimpics

My dad went to Spain for a week for a music competition. He had a great time without me. I had a great time sleeping on his side of the bed! He was around Barcelona, mostly, but not near my buddies Verdi y Gaucho.

He must have missed me at least a little bit because he took pictures of two wire fox terriers he saw on La Rambla.

He thought this WFT was not cute. Well, not everyone can be as handsome as I am, but still, I think he looks pretty cute. Plus, he's sniffing around garbage - a dog after my own heart.

He said this dog was fun and happy and very cute. He looks like he's smiling.

Thank you to everyone for your enthusiasm and support of the 2008 Paw-Limpic Games! There have been some suggestions for more events, so I would like to announce them:

Dancing (may be combined with the Gymnastics category)
Kissing/Bitey Face
Sticking your tongue out/panting

If you have other ideas, please let me know! I have received responses from all over the world about the bone relay, so I am really excited about starting that. I will contact you with more info in a little while if you have let me know you are interested in participating in it, and please let me know if you have not already.

We have had some flooding here in Indiana. My family is just fine, but some of our friends have had problems in their houses and businesses. Here are some pictures from the University, where my mom works. I don't know who took these photos, because they were forwarded to my mom. Her building did not get flooded, but her air conditioning doesn't work now!





I hope all of my buddies here in Indiana and the midwest are dry and safe!

The 2008 Summer PAW-LIMPICS!

I am pleased to invite you to participate in the 2008 Summer DWB Paw-Limpics!

In honor of the people Olympics in August, I will be hosting our own DWB games to promote global peace and friendship.

The Paw-Limpics will be a photo contest, and you may enter as many events as you would like. The way to enter is to email your picture of you participating in the event to pawlimpics (at) gmail (dot) com. Teams are allowed for events as well.

The events:

Aquatics - swimming, diving
High Jump
Hurdles
Track (running)
Wrestling
Gymnastics
Synchronized swimming or other activity
Any kind of ball game
Boating
Pee Mail
Roaching
Sleeping
Making a mess

So for instance, an entry to an event might be something like this picture of me and Rosie, doing our synchronized napping routine. This photo would also qualify for the Sleeping event. You might submit a photo of you at Agility class for the hurdles or high jump categories, for example.

You are invited to create your own event as well to propose to the Paw-Limpics Committee. When events are added, they will be announced on the blog.


The rules:

1. No doping.

2. There will be separate categories for original photographs, and photographs that have had some human/computer editing and assistance (i.e. Photoshop)

3. You must indicate which event you are entering when you submit your picture.

4. You are allowed to participate in multiple events, but please send only one entry per event. You may submit one photo to several different events if it fits into the category.

5. Everyone from Dogs With Blogs is invited! And photos taken of you a long time ago are allowed.

6. Please send submissions and any questions to pawlimpics (at) gmail (dot) com.

7. The deadline for submissions is July 31st. Winners will be announced during the human Olympic games, which begin on August 8th.

8. If your photo wins, it will be featured on my blog.

9. Be creative!

There will be a Paw-Limpics Bone (instead of a torch) Relay around the world in preparation for the Games. Please let me know if you are interested in being a part of the relay.

The Olympics motto is "Citius, Altius, Fortius." The Paw-Limpics translation is Louder, Furrier, Droolier.

I can't wait to see your submissions!

Barbecue!

I got to go to a barbecue at the park with the people. It was a get-together for their orchestra here in town and it was great. There was all sorts of food that fell on the ground, and people snuck me food too. One guy showed everyone how to make ice cream in a ziploc baggie with sugar, milk, salt, and vanilla. As you can see, I was paying very close attention to the instructions, but I was not given my own ziploc baggie, unfortunately.

The orchestra gave my dad a nice card to wish him good luck on his trip to Spain. The card had lots of great dogs on it, including a handsome fox terrier!

The biggest excitement was that there was a cute girl doggie there named Gracie. Does she look familiar at all? Anyone she resembles? It turns out she is a CORGADOR just like our buddy Wally. But she was not very nice! She growled at me. How rude. Apparently this corgador does not share Wally's refinement and exquisite manners - he is still one of a kind!

My Crazy Allergies

A few friends have contacted me about my allergies and what I have been doing to help them, and since spring is here, and we're all a little itchy, I thought I would share the details on my blog. This might be really boring if you don't have allergies. (Or even if you do!) Beware, the info might be a little graphic!

When my people got me at the age of 5, I had only had a couple of breakouts before, which involved getting scabby, infected spots on my chest and by my crotch area. It happened once or twice more before we moved away from New England, and I just went on antibiotics and an anti-histamine and it cleared up. A year later, we moved to Indiana. I immediately had problems. I got the infected spots, and "hot spots" where I chewed or scratched myself. I scratched my ears and mouth until they bled. I licked my paws until they were infected and then chewed on them because they were so itchy. My people got used to coming home and finding blood spots everywhere. And I was clearly miserable.


So for a while, the routine was anti-histamines, antibiotics, and if it was bad enough, prednizone, the steroid stuff. My old vet tested me for mange and parasites. She also put me on Duck-and-Potato special food. That didn't help. My people put me on 6 different diets - all different proteins, salmon, lamb, chicken, etc. Nothing improved. (They didn't and won't try the BARF diet, if you are wondering.) I got special medicated shampoo. Some months were better than others, but the spring time was the worst. They put shirts on me to stop scratching, and my e-collar so I couldn't chew on my paws. And they put booties and socks over my paws. If my people were home, they always made sure I stayed in the same room as them, because I would sneak away and chew and scratch.

My vet ended up moving away, so I got a new vet, Dr. Koch. (I was very lucky - he was my surgeon for my ACL surgery, and he just became my full-time vet after that. He's GREAT!) He said I am the worst allergy case he's ever seen. Yikes!

Dr. Koch got me tested to see what I was allergic to in the environment, since none of the food diets had pinpointed an allergy. He took a blood sample and sent it to this place called Greer Labs. A few weeks later, they sent back a list of my allergies. I was off the charts. I am allergic to grass. I am allergic to trees. I am "extremely" allergic to everything outside except ragweed. I am also "very" allergic to cats, and to people. So, the labs mixed up a concoction for me, and I get allergy shots. We have to constantly experiment with the timing of the shots and the dosage, but they help - A LOT! My dad just gives me the shot while I am eating breakfast.

If we get off-schedule or dosage with the shots, I still break out, but I have been seeing the vet much less. He said he is really pleased with my progress! But there are a bunch of other things that my people have to do in addition to the shots.

Vegetarian food. I eat Nature's Choice vegetarian dog kibble. The vet said it certainly can't hurt my allergies, and he and my dad are vegetarian, and he said it's healthy stuff. I'm not supposed to have any "people" food, and my snacks are baby carrots. They also freeze my kibble overnight before they feed it to me - apparently there are little mites that live in dog food, and I also happen to be allergic to those.

Baths. I am supposed to have a bath every three days, in cool water to help my inflamed skin, and with special medicated "Malaseb" shampoo. Here's the worst part: they have to leave the shampoo on my skin for ten long, miserable, wet minutes before they rinse it off.


Spray. After the bath, they chase me around and attempt to towel-dry me, while I rub my face on the carpet. Then, they are supposed to spray me all over, but especially on my paws, with this awful fir-tree-smelling spray stuff, Chlorhexiderm, or something like that. This is usually a challenging process, because I am an excellent escape artist, and I do not enjoy being sprayed. What usually happens is that one human will scratch my paw, which feels so good I almost go into a trance, and the other human sprays me while I am distracted.

Fish Oil. Every morning, I get a fish oil caplet. I got these from the vet. They are also good for my joints. Since I have started taking them (in addition to my glucosamine/chondroitin), I have started sitting more often like a normal dog, with my legs bent and under me, rather than off to the side! (I had that knee surgery two years ago and have a little arfritis.)

Children's Benadryl. a.k.a. "num-nums" During those times (spring) that I am especially itchy, I get a Children's Benadryl tab twice or three times a day. They make me a little sleepy, but they are quite tasty - grape flavored!

Bedding. I have two pillows that I sleep on. They are just square 25" x 25" pillows, and my mom has made several cases for them. After every bath, she changes the pillowcase to a fresh one, and complains about all of my laundry. My dad is also supposed to vacuum a lot.

So that is what helped me, and I hope that something from my list can help my itchy friends. I still have problems, but my vet and people are taking good care of me. Please feel free to email me if you want more specific info - lennylatshaw at gmail. Good luck!