TGIF!

Annie must be very busy studying or either the squirrels have hidden her blog post again so Sasha is filling in today.

Treatment of Wounds

Here are some tips I hope none of us never need:

-Take precautions: Most experts recommend muzzling a dog or cat before trying to treat injuries. If you don’t have one, you can improvise one from a roll of gauze or a length of rope. Just wrap it firmly several times around the animal’s muzzle, then pull the ends back and tie them behind her ears. Be sure to keep a pair of scissors handy. If your pet starts to vomit, you’ll need to remove the muzzle promptly to prevent her from choking.

-Try wrapping her up: If your pet is too small to wear a muzzle, you can wrap her head in a pillowcase, towel or blanket before beginning treatment. To avoid making it difficult for her to breath, don’t wrap her too tightly or for too long.

-First Aid comes first: Stopping the bleeding is number one. As soon as is possible, apply firm pressure to the wound with your hand or a clean piece of gauze or cloth. Maintain the pressure until the bleeding has stopped, usually within a few minutes. If the bleeding isn’t stopped, get your pet to the vet immediately.

-Make the fur fly: Once bleeding is under control, the next step is to clean the wound thoroughly. Start by trimming away the fur surrounding the area. It can help to coat the area with water soluble K-Y Jelly. It keeps the hair from falling in the wound as it is cut and can easily be washed away.

-Do some deep cleaning: It’s especially important to flush deep cuts or punctures with water to expel germ-covered hair or debris.

-Bubbles mean trouble: Although doing a thorough cleaning is critical, veterinarians generally don’t recommend applying hydrogen peroxide or alcohol because they can further irritate injured tissue.

-Let ‘em Lick: When dogs or cats become injured, their tongues go to work. Don’t interfere with Nature’s plan. Licking does no damage and may actually help the healing process
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-Heads up: Although some licking may be good for a wound, pets that have gotten stitches often will try to chew them loose. To prevent this, your pet may be given a collar to wear.

-Let the Sunshine in: Although a firmly tied bandage can help slow bleeding soon after an injury occurs, in most cases it isn’t necessary and can actually be harmful.

-Watch out for abscesses: While most minor wounds will heal on their own, at times they may form an abscess. You need to have a veterinarian treat this.

*These tips are home remedies only and should not ever be used as a substitute for any treatment that may have been prescribed by your veterinarian. If your pet has a medical problem, we urge you to seek competent medical care.

Alice England
Makingstuffwithlove.etsy.com
　

Goals to Reality

Last Wednesday I shared some thoughts on reflecting over the past year and listed some questions to help us see that we really have made progress in life. I thought it appropriate to follow up with new goals for this year. Annie has already shared some excellent thoughts on resolutions in previous posts. Today, I wanted to encourage us to share one goal and how you will achieve it. This way, we can keep each other accountable, share suggestions that might help others reach their goal, and pray for one another to succeed.

One of my major goals is to double my income from my shops. This will allow me to remain home with my boys so I can continue to home school them and be here for them. My two main objectives for achieving this are:

1. To list 10 items per week

2. To reopen my Beyond5 shop by March 1^st with a new look and inventory

So far, I have created something every day. This was how my creation for Tuesday came about.

As part of a home school art assignment, we each quickly sketched 30 of one kind of animal. We chose our favorite one and were to embellish it in any way we wanted. (This part is due on Thursday-but I finished mine already!) These are a few of my sketches.

I chose the one I liked best and enlarged it on another sheet of paper.

I made a pattern on paper I found in my craft drawer (which you would not want to look at!) and cut it out.

From there, I added features and feet along with a tail. Until…tada! Stella was born!

Goals are great. But they are only dreams unless we break them down to a daily plan of achievement. What is one of your goals? How will you achieve it? If you have any great ideas of how I can reach this goal…please feel free to comment!

Dream Big…..

then bring it down to earth and give it a face, arms, and legs!

By

Patty

Catcalls and Dogbarks

SHOW AND TELL TUESDAY

Well the last 2 weeks I have been occupied with the holidays, orders, trying to organize, and other things and have not had the time to think about new blog materials or games, so I thought I would share the following with you, and hope that you enjoy it.

I got a new video camera for Christmas so I have been determined to get Gianna and Giupetto at play.

Here is a usual example of what I get when I take out the camera.

We did go to our little house in Pennsylvania last weekend, and I did manage to get a little play time on film out in the snow:

Here they are pretending they are cats and playing tag:

Then, back in NY, I finally got them wrestling on video. Giupetto, who is usually the mild mannered one, is the one making all the noise. He also likes to pull her by her sweater. Now don't worry about her, she could take him if she wanted to, she is just loving this:

It is so much fun having the two of them around the house. Hope you liked my home videos.

Diana

www.DianaDesignsNY.etsy.com

www.StylinDogsBoutique.etsy.com

January Pet Photo Contest: Something NEW

December Pet Photo Contest

Accepting entries now.

Click the Furbabies link above to go to the contest and rules. Visit us in the forums where we'll be hanging out and introducing the new entries.

Story Time: You Add To It.

Hello all. I am trying something a bit new here. I thought for awhile we would try a group story. We are all creative people and so I thought it would be fun to do a collaborative story together. Each week, I will start a story off and you add to it in the comments area bellow. It could be as little as a sentance or a lot more. It is up to you. Feel free to come back here as often as you like to keep the story going. At the end of the week, I will do my best to try and end the previous weeks group story and start a new one each Sunday. I hope you all have fun with this story time. Thank you. Athena and Sasha from SassySashadoxie shop on etsy.

The cold winter air sent a chill up Divine's back. She knew she would so regret shedding her outer coat half way up the hill side, but her thermal snowsuit underneath was so heavy and bulky it was hard to climb the steep slope.

Divine had just managed to climb to the top of the hill and was just about to explore a new patch of the woods when she heard a scream that echoed through the frozen hills.

Something inside her said "Turn back now. Go home!" but, being a curious child she often ignored that little voice in her head.

She started slowly towards the section of woods that the scream had come from. She stopped many times and heard nothing, but the sounds of birds and wind rustling snow covered tree branches.

Divine entered into the new woods cautiously. Then, suddenly as if by magic she was entangled in the frozen tree branches of a near by tree.

She could feel her body slowly lose its warmth and begin to freeze. Her hands started to turn to ice. The ice crystals were slowly creeping up her arms, and then she noticed in the snow below her feet was a small heart.

Divine moved one foot over to the heart and she could feel warmth flow through her body once more. The heart had some kind of magical ice melting property. She eventually was able to touch the heart with her hand, but unlike most drawings in snow this one remain the same no matter how much you stepped on it or touched it.

Then, she noticed a series of small hearts leading the way deeper into the woods. The ice branches would not let her go back the way she had came in so the only choice she had now was to follow the heart path.

NOW IT IS YOUR TURN TO CONTINUE THE STORY IN THE COMMENTS BELOW.

Happy New Year 2011!!!

Happy New Years Everyone!!!

Wishing everyone a fantastic life in 2011!

Our New Year's Resolutions:

Velvet:

I resolve to quit eating poo and other things that are not considered food by humans.

Julia:
I resolve to quit waking mommy up 5 minutes before her alarm goes off in the mornings.

Frau:
I resolve to not have my claws out when I'm loving on mommy.