A Little Hope for Hope

We recently had a post on the BML asking for hope and vibes for Hope who was diagnosed with a mast cell tumour. Here's some info, and photos, on Hope's recent surgery.

I would like to submit some photos of our white girl Hope.  She recently had surgery to remove a cyst from each front leg.  One was at the top and one was at the bottom.  I requested some info from the group for store bought or home made cones that might not make her go bonkers.  So far we kind of came up with something to keep them covered up so that we have not had to use a cone.

The first shot is of her the night she came home.  Does she look properly pitiful?

The second shot shows what we first came up with.  I took a pair of my thin socks and wrapped the sticky medical tape around her bandage spots.  She did pretty good with this.

From there we graduated to this-gauze over her surgical site, then a trouser sock, some medical tape and secured with some duct tape.

The last shot shows what a boxer looks like on pain pills.

Sleeping Dogs

The other day I received a bunch of photos with the following explanation.

I was looking through some pics that have been taken of our two fur kids (Riley is the brindle 3.5 yr old girl & Austen is the 3 yr old fawn boy) over the past couple years, and realized they have about 20 different "sleeping positions" with each other…I now have 4 full pages in a large photo album that show  a wide variety - which I'm sharing just a few of them here.

Twisty paw tangle

Smooshy faces

Full body pillow

Headrest - Austen

Headrest - Riley

For the Love of a Dog

I am not an activist. I am a dog lover and when I can I will help a dog in need. Something horrible happened this week and even though there were millions of people all over the world who tried to help a dog in need a political body couldn't, and wouldn't, admit they might have been wrong.

If you don't know, I'm talking about Lennox. Lennox was, according to all documentation and DNA testing, a cross between an American Bulldog and a Labrador Retriever. Two lovely North American breeds, the second of which is not common in Europe. But, based on his looks and an arbitrary measurement of his head he was seized from his family two years ago and this week lost his life to the political body known as the Belfast City Council.

For two years Lennox's family, including the little girl for who he was a service dog, battled the Belfast City Council in the courts and lost at every step. The longer it went on, the story spread. It spread until this past week when there were worldwide demonstrations asking that if they wouldn't return Lennox to his family would they release him to be rehomed to a location that wouldn't discriminate against him because of his "looks". The answer was a definitive no.

What shames me even more is that this could just as easily have happened in my home province of Ontario, Canada. It's called Breed Specific Legislation and what's really ridiculous is that it's not breed specific at all. It was enacted to encompass a group of "pit bull type" breeds with no definition of what that is or training for those expected to uphold this law. This means that any number of other breeds including Boxers could, and have been seized because they "looked like a pit bull" to the person who took them.

This means that every time a person asks me if my dog is a pit bull I not only tell them no, he's a Boxer, but I point out the physical characteristics that make him what he is. But you know what? That might not be enough because Boxers all share a bully ancestor with the breeds that have been banned. Please, support Cheri DiNovo, Member of Provincial Parliament for Parkdale-High Park (Toronto), in removing all aspects of Breed Specific Legislation in Ontario.

Wednesday night the Brindle and I lit our candles. This is something we, and many others on the BML, do when one of our own passes. Lennox was one of our own and we are Lennox.

I would like to leave you with the words of Cesar Millan:

"My kids are around pit bulls every day. In the '70s they blamed Dobermans, in the '80s they blamed German Shepherds, in the '90s they blamed the Rottweiler. Now they blame the pit bull."