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A beautiful surprise in the mail

Most of Saturday I spent with a Comfort Dog regional conference being held here at Concordia Seminary. It was a pretty miserable weather day for dogs, rain and more rain which meant they couldn't get out to have some fun in the quad after lunch as they had in previous years. It is always amazing to be in a room with those beautiful dogs. Before lunch the regional director pulled a chair into the middle of the room and made me go sit in it and then he asked all the dogs to come circle around me in honor of, and comfort for, our Ferdie who died a month ago. It was a tearful moment.

But then when I got home I saw a package which had come from one of our former students now in Wisconsin, who worked on landscape with us when he was here. Here is what was in the package.

This is beautiful enough, but even more in his letter that accompanied it. He wrote: "For decades a tall old Basswood tree overlooked the chapel of St. Timothy and St. Titus on the seminary campus. In 2013 the tree needed to be cut down for the safety of students. As part of the grounds crew I helped cut it down but wanted to preserve a bit of its history by making a cross cut from one of its limbs. I've saved this slab of wood since then for a special purpose. Since you two have been an inspiration to me in life and ministry and since my time with you at the seminary meant so much, I pray that the memory of our beloved Ferdie will last on with the rich history of the Sem, and the warmth of your home and office."

Dale and I both cried. We will treasure this as we do the memory of our most loved dog.

Poop signs

Springfield Missouri came up with a great idea after a growing problem of dog poop in public places. They had signs made and put them around their downtown parks and parking lots in hopes people will start picking up after their dogs.

We need to get some of these. There are too many dog owners who think they don't have to do this.

A sad day

Monday afternoon we had to say good-bye to the best dog in the world, our Ferdie. The staff at Northgate Small Animal Shelter in Collinsville were wonderful while doing a sad task. Ferdie left us calmly and peacefully while I stayed at his side. I am not able to really accept this yet, this life without Ferdie by my side at every hour of the day. All I can do is show his first day with us being adopted from Dirk's Fund Golden Retriever Rescue after being dumped on a neighborhood street in Collinsville on a cold snowy January night back in 2009. His life was amazing in how so many who have come and gone from here remember him with affection.

This shows the bottom of Bob, the head of Dirk's Fund who put us through the wringer before he allowed us to adopt Ferdie. When I got back to the seminary with him that day he met Dale for the first time in the sem office.  It was love at first sight.

From that day on it was a whirl of meeting and playing with endless neighborhood dogs, sem kids and sem students and staff. Our love for him knew no bounds and we miss him terribly.

How dogs think and feel

I came across this chart on dogs emotional life and the things that help or hurt. Now I realize we can't get into a dog's head, but this is actually pretty good.

click to enlarge in order to read it.

Remembering your dog in a wonderful way

The woman who runs the Golden Ratio on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube lost one of her dogs late in the spring. It about broke her heart and sometime later she came across a person who makes small, felted, replicas of dogs. She sent in photos of the dog she lost and yesterday the replica arrived. It is so real you'd think it would wag it's tail.

Here is the link to how it turned out.

I know in my heart our Ferdie is wearing down and getting weaker and it's getting closer to the day we lose him. So I've made a note of where this felted dog maker is.

 

Now this is a bag of...

I was doing a few things on the campus this morning and as I walked up to the Walther Arch which holds the big bells, this is what I saw.

Yes it is what you think it is. One of our fine local neighbors decided it was too much trouble to take their dog's poop home and left it next to the bench in a nicely tied up bag. Now you may think she probably didn't realize it had fallen, but we've come across so many of these bagged dog poops laying around it doesn't strike me as an accident.

The Pet Hair eraser

Someone in the Golden Ratio 4 Twitter page what brand of vacuum cleaner they use to suck up the dog hair dropped by their 5 Golden Retrievers. If you haven't seen or followed The Golden Ration 4 on Facebook or Twitter or Instagram, you should. This is an amazing couple who both manage all these wonderful dogs as well as their own full careers. Each day they put up at least one video or photo of the dogs eating or running around or sleeping and they have, I'd guess, thousands of followers.

Anyhow, as you might imagine, they need a vacuum cleaner. She recently bought the Bissell Pet Hair Eraser Turbo Plus Upright and likes it. She puts it to the test for sure.

Here are their 5

We have a hairy Golden Retriever, just one dog, and he drops the hair and a couple of years ago I bought the Shark Navigator vacuum and it works very well. The best part are the attachments, one of which reaches under beds without having to move the bed. Also the canister lifts off the base so it's easy to vacuum stairs.

The day after Easter

We had a nice Easter this year until the late afternoon when Ferdie's back legs went out on him and he couldn't get up or walk. The physical horror we felt for our much loved dog was painful. This morning we took him to our vet in Collinsville and they were so helpful getting him out of the car and into a room  I never knew existed. It had a couple of couches and the floor was totally carpeted so dogs in Ferdie's condition wouldn't slip and fall. 

We don't know much yet, because they took him back for xrays of his legs and lower back which involves a sedative. We should hear something soon and we hope, really hope, they can help him.

Here is a picture I took of him yesterday before this all happened. I can see in his eyes, now and didn't then, that he had some pain.

Dog pals

One of our former neighbors brought her new puppy by yesterday to visit Ferdie. Abner is a 6 month old English Sheepdog and his size belies the term puppy. But he is a real sweetie and just adorable. Problem is, Ferdie is really feeling his old age these days and isn't able to play due to a bad rear knee. But he was very patient with Abner and seemed to enjoy the company of another dog for a while.

Abner tried his best to get Ferdie to get up and play.

No go and Ferdie finally looked over at us as if to say, "someone make him understand I'm an old man".

Resignation.

This is about how we all feel as March arrives and another winter storm is in the forecast for this weekend. Everyone needs a comfort bear to get through this.