Helping Japan's animals

When I'm not spending time with the dogs I'm quilting or sewing. I run a shop on Etsy.com a website for folks who sell handmade goods like me.

I've made several novelty pillowcases, including two designs with dog prints, that I'm selling to raise money for World Vets, an organization that is helping to rescue companion animals displaced during Japan's earthquake and keep them in no-kill shelters until they can be reunited with their owners.

I'm donating 50 percent of the pillowcase purchase price to World Vets relief efforts in Japan. Click here to see the selection.

Or if you'd like to donate directly to World Vets, click here.

Things my dog ate: The prophylactic edition

"Please tell me this isn't the first time you've heard this?"

That was what I said when I called our local emergency veterinarian to ask what to do when Sophia ate a condom.

Thankfully Sophia is not the first dog to think a prophylactic would make a great snack. Unfortunately it's not something that moves through the digestive system very easily.

One tablespoon of hydrogen peroxide and 15 minutes later my bathroom floor was covered in vomit. I really just don't know what was the most disgusting part about the whole experience, trying to pull a condom out of her mouth before she swallowed it, sifting through her puke to make sure it all came out or cleaning up the multiple piles of barf when it was all done.

But Sophia is fine now and is cuddling with me on the couch. I'm sure she'll be back to her normal, inquisitive self by morning.

Long time no blog

Hello all. I know it's been a LONG time since I blogged. My husband and I bought a house last spring and it's a fixer-upper, so we've been quite busy remodeling in almost every spare moment.

Right now we're working on the kitchen, which means the dogs haven't been allowed in there for about six weeks. Einstein, whose favorite room is the kitchen because it is the source of all things good in life, is not doing so well with the banishment.

He vocally complains every time I'm in there. He seems to think that varnishing somehow involves food and he's not going to miss out one one little morsel.

The good news for us and Einstein is we just finished refinishing the kitchen cabinets, and while we still have plenty to do, it shouldn't take as long as the cabinet portion of the remodel.

What have you all been up to during my blogging hiatus?

Self magazine comes up with a workout for you and your dog

I got an animal-related e-mail today that I just had to share with you all.

Self magazine has come up with a workout you can do with your pet. After watching the video above, I think I'd just frustrate my brood with the tennis ball you're supposed to hold during the workout rather than exercise them.

The story did mention that the University of Missouri's Research Center for Human-Animal Interaction in Columbia found people who walked with dogs increased their pace 28 percent when compared with those who walked alone.

We haven't been doing much walking recently because Cuddles, our latest foster dog, went into heat a week-and-a-half ago, and I'm not taking any chances at having an accidental litter by letting her out of our fenced-in yard until her cycle has passed. But we do walk pretty quickly with four dogs leading the way.

Do your dogs help you get exercise, too?

The dogs are tired of the rain

We've been getting dumped on with rain in the Midwest for what seems like forever. Myself and the dogs are sick of it.

When my alarm went off this morning it I could hear it pouring down rain outside, so rather than get up, which means an immediate trip outside so the dogs can go potty, I stayed in bed until it died down and then let the dogs out.

Did they appreciate my thoughtfulness? No. Einstein and Lady sat by the back door the entire time and I had to chase Sophia through the house to make her go outside. Then she proceeded to walk between the back door and the door to the three-season room, hugging the house as she went and picking up a nasty looking spider in her fur during her travels.

I'm ready for the dry heat of July that turns the grass brown any day now.

In more pleasant news, I made the dogs a quilted dog bed, pictured above, to match our bedroom decor. You can read about it here, on my quilting blog.

Einstein's on Cheezeburger.com

I LOVE www.Cheezburger.com. It is filled with goofy pictures of dogs and hilarious captions written with poor grammar.

You can even upload your own goofy pictures, so when I took a particularly silly one of Einstein, I uploaded it and slapped a caption on.

What is really happening in the photo, is Sophia stole Einstein's frog toy, and he's barking at her to get it back. What do you all do with your goofy dog pictures?

Crisis averted

Einstein LOVES his squeaky frog toy.

If we take it away, he sits near the counter it has been placed on and cries until he gets it back. He doesn't care about any other toy as much as his frog.

Any toy that receives that much love is bound to sustain some wear and tear. The frog hasn't squeaked in a while, it's tongue and a piece of its foot are long gone. But this morning Charlie, our foster dog, delivered the final death to the frog, ripping it open in the bottom and pulling out the stuffing.

Knowing this day would come, we've been searching for a replacement frog for months, scouring the toy aisle every time we go into the pet store, but we've never been able to find another frog.

So today, I turned to Google, did an image search for "dog frog toy" and several search pages in I found Einstein's beloved frog. I ordered five, one for Einstein to play with and four to store in a safe place until the replacement croaks (pun intended). Crisis averted.