Bugsy had heard the old cliche about "even a blind squirrel finds an acorn once in a while," and he set out to prove that even a blind dog can tree a squirrel once in a while. Alayne heard Bugsy barking like crazy in the front yard one day last week and went out to…

Wendy M., who adopted blind Stoney the Lab and blind-and-deaf Baron from us back in 2008, just sent me this photo of her two pups dressed up in their Halloween costumes. Stoney is going as a ghost and Baron as a Chippendale. Very cute! — Final 2013 Shelter Challenge Begins The final round of the…

One of our long-time blog readers sent us the link to this piece by Brian Hare and Vanessa Woods, whose work we have posted on the blog before here and here. Here's the intro to the Live Science article: There is real chemistry between dogs and their owners, new research over the last few years…

We're happy to report that not only is Widget doing very well with her chemotherapy, the oncologist confirmed for us last week that Widget's lymphoma is probably in remission — and if it's not, "it's pretty darn close."  We had noticed even after Widget's first week of treatment how much her lymph nodes had shrunk.…

A couple of weeks ago I took our blind and deaf dog Spinner to our veterinary ophthalmologist, Dr. Sarah Hoy, for surgery on an eyelid tumor. The growth was on the edge of the eyelid and had begun rubbing on her eyeball. On Tuesday of this week it was time to take Spinner back for…

These are more photos that I took last Saturday while Alayne was picking apples next to one of the goat paddocks. She had been handing out a few apples to the goats, who inevitably would drop a couple of them. Aaron, our Maremma livestock guardian dog, picked one up and the game was on. (Click…

I don't know how many folks saw this article in the New York Times this past weekend, but I thought it was an interesting piece and worth sharing on the blog.  The photo they picked as artwork for the story is such a sad and haunting image … and that poor dog is standing right on…

I took that photo of Widgie this morning just before giving her the first set of pills for the day. She had her third chemo treatment yesterday at the oncologist in Burlington. Her lymph nodes have shrunk dramatically, so we're clearly gaining ground on the lymphoma. She's her usual self, too — on Monday she…

I had noted in an earlier blog post that Darla had broken Rule No. 1 soon after arriving here: no dogs allowed in my ancient, woe-begon-but-still-beloved recliner. She quickly claimed it as her own, and I surrendered almost as quickly. She broke Rule No. 2 — no dogs in our bedroom — shortly after that,…

A rain overnight really made the fall colors pop on Sunday, and everywhere you look it's just a gorgeous rainbow of trees. Initially, in the past couple of weeks, it looked like it would be a muted autumn — some years are just more splendid than others, depending on weather — but suddenly the colors…