Hugs

With Nathan, age 8

His eye is smooshed because of the tuft of ear fur being pressed against it, a hug-related hazard.

Sparky trilogy

Trying to find his good side

Sparky over thanksgiving

Sparky and his parents

Be HEALED!

My brother Mike had ankle surgery. Since he can’t bear weight on that ankle for 6 weeks, he’s off work so he went 8 hours away to visit Sparky.

Sparky is trying to help Mike get well, using only canine mind powers. Concentrate…. cooooncentrate…

Sweater Weather

Click images for bigger.

“OK, you put the dreaded sweater on me.  But if you take me for walkies, all will be forgiven.”

“It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to get this hint.  I’m staring at the door!  WALK ME!”

“How come I have fur yet have to wear a sweater, but senior citizen can wear shorts during flu season?”

Finally some new pictures!

Sparky is about 14 months old now.

My mom was unloading her winter clothes from storage.  Each time a new pile hit the bed, Sparky would move to lay in the new pile.

“Wait! Where are you going? What do you mean, you have work to do?”

I have no idea what’s going on in this one.

Always there to help and give support.

He has the snaggliest of teefs.

And my favorite:

Dangerous Dog Toy

If you have this dog toy in your house, throw it away immediately!

Chai, a gorgeous yellow lab mix, was almost killed because of this toy.

While chewing on the toy, a vacuum was created and it effectively sucked his tongue into the hole in the ball. From speaking with my vet, this likely occurred because there is not a second hole in the ball preventing the vacuum effect from happening. I became aware of this when Chai approached a friend at my home whimpering with the ball in his mouth. She tried unsuccessfully to remove the ball but the tongue had swollen and could not be released.

Chai’s Story

Luckily he was saved by quick-thinking owners and good vets, but he had to have his tongue amputated and suffered horribly. Worse yet, the company knew back in 2005 about the dangers of the ball but didn’t change the design, despite repeated promises they would do so.

Please boycott Four Paws toys!

If you want the company to know how you feel, here’s the instructions from Chai’s blog:

This should never happen to another animal again!
I’M CALLING FOR AN INTERNATIONAL BOYCOTT OF ALL FOUR PAWS PRODUCTS UNTIL THIS PRODUCT IS RECALLED. We need your help, please take the time to make your voice heard.

Please copy/paste the following into the body of your email in support of this boycott and send it to the address below to let Allen Simon the CEO of four paws know your stand;

Mr. Allen Simon,

I am in support of a boycott of your company until you recall the product pimple ball with bell,
as it is designed is such a way that irreparable damage can be caused by its use.

hbirk@fourpaws.com

Again, keep in mind that this company has promised in the past to redesign this product and has not done so. With Chai, the company claimed it was a defect in that particular batch but three years and many cases of this happening prove it is not.

End of the visit

Alas! The boys had to go back home. Sparky wandered around the house for a day looking for them. And when mom stripped the guest beds, he laid in the pile until mom kicked him out.

Photo Shoot

Nathan and Jacob decided to put Sparky through a high-fashion photo shoot, to get some headshots for his modeling portfolio.

Just pose for the camera Sparky.  We’ll make you a STAH!

That’s it!  Work it!  Make the camera LOVE you!

Let’s get a closeup on this “keeper shot”:

A little airbrushing to take off a few pounds, and we have a natural born model!

Are you up yet?

Sparky would bark and scratch at the bedroom doors in the morning because he couldn’t wait to play with the nephews. So my mom would bring Sparky downstairs every morning and put up a baby gate. Sparky would just have to wait for the boys to get up. So Mom says he was glued to the bottom of the stairs until the boys did just that. Then it was playtime all day.