Our beloved family lab from my childhood died suddenly of an aggressive form of colon cancer. Was about to turn 9 years old and had been in perfect shape for his age. We found a lump on his belly we initially thought to be a common, harmless cyst that many older retrievers get. Took him to the vet to get it tested just to be safe only to find out it was definitely not “just a cyst”. Less than a month later the tumor exponentially spread all throughout his body basically overnight one day. He was nothing both a sack bones and we had no choice but to end his suffering by putting him down. Was a very sad and sudden way to witness the demise of the first dog I loved growing up. Come to find out years later his cancer was likely caused by us feeding him “Keebels and Chunks” daily most of his life. At the time he seemed to love it and it was cheaper than other dog food options out there. It being the late 90s/early 2000s we truly had no idea that the dog food we were giving him then was essentially a cancer ensuring diet. My family/dad was simply ignorant about all things dog food at the time. Our second lab my family got as a puppy when I was still in HS. He is now over 13 years old and is very much still living a great life. He is incredibly healthy and active for his age. Us investing more money in organic/non processed dog food this go around seems to have very much paid off with our second lab. Dude has eaten clean his entire life.
Naming Dog 101: Pick a name. Go outside. Yell name at top of lungs. Preferably when neighbors, walkers, joggers, bike riders are present. If it embarrasses you, pick new name. Note: 1 syllable names or 2 syllable names that can melodiously stretched work best.
My dog has the following names: Micah Baby Bird Stinky McBlinky which is usually accompanied by: Smelly McBelly Probably others I am forgetting off the top of my head. Sometimes I will string them together doing a Michael Buffer voice when he poops outside throwing in descriptive terms like "the big pooping, killer chihuahua..." It probably would not be a shock to know that we do not have close neighbors.
My dog has two nicknames (his name is Oliver). Zach, because I call him by the name of my last dog all the time. Lump. Because he is. He is the laziest lump of a dog I have ever had. You can pick him up and put him down somewhere and he won't even move a muscle.
Eddie and Edward Lenny or Leonard. My last name is Little and saying “Leonard Little” gets his attention when he ignores me.
I named the new cat Puddin'. My wife started calling him Sir Nanner of Puddin'. She was not too happy the first time she heard me call him Sir Puddin' of Tang.
If I really, really, really want our beagle-mutt to come, his name is of no consequence. If he is within eyesight, he looks at me and thinks awhile before he comes. If I yell "Treat" or blow the "treat whistle", he comes immediately no matter if he can see me or not.
We have 3 dogs and 2 of them are either called their name or something very close. The 3rd, our bulldog, is named Rose and we call her Beef 99% of the time. When she was a puppy I said that I was tired getting tired of picking her beefy ass up onto the furniture. My wife started calling her beefaroni and that was then shortened to Beef.
Our dog learned caution when the coyote chased him out of the woods. If I had not run toward the coyote and scared it yelling like a mad man, he would have been a Scooby snack.
Both are very sad but at least the hounds went out heroically fighting the mountain lion. Old Yeller sucked more imo because of how he had to be put down.
This dog’s sniffer is already something to behold. It’s crazy when she picks up on a scent how she will not let it go. She was going bonkers on something in our bedroom last night and the wife pointed out it was where she spilled a protein shake…..about 5 years ago. And she’s not 2 months old yet.
Don’t mean to offend those without them, but I can’t imagine my home without dogs. Life for me wouldn’t be the same or as enjoyable as they make me smile or laugh everyday.
