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Living Solutions

8 Min Read April 9, 2018

Sweet Dog, Bad Dog

Living Solutions, Storytime

Despite her name, Fiji did not hail from the South Pacific. She was a medium sized German Shepherd cross of some kind, who was fun loving and sweet natured. We had no problems with her during the week she initially boarded with us. She belonged to a Canadian military family. Fiji’s dad was being posted to Edmonton. At the end of the first boarding, he asked if we would take Fiji for another five weeks, until they could get settled somewhere that allowed dogs. We were happy to agree.

Sweet Fiji. Quiet Fiji. Well behaved Fiji. READ MORE

13 Min Read April 2, 2018

Living With The Enemy

Living Solutions

The largest number of dogs we owned at one time was three. After Annie, the last of these, died we were without a dog for the first time in many years.

John and I agreed that we would not get another dog. For one thing, every day at the pet resort, we already interacted with anywhere from ten to thirty dogs. For another, the requirements we had for an ideal dog were just too important to take a chance with.

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12 Min Read November 12, 2017

The Last and Hardest Decision

Cats, Living Solutions

The General and I have personally owned six dogs and over thirty cats, only two of whom died a ‘natural’ death. Not only that, we had literally thousands of clients at the pet resort whose pets would inevitably age and become terminally ill. From time to time, we’d be part of the discussion about when they should seek a quiet end for their friend.

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18 Min Read July 13, 2017

At War With Pepe LePew: De-skunking A Dog

Cats, Health Solutions, Living Solutions

It was a humid summer night. It had not been a great day so far.

It had taken all day for The General’s mother to be discharged from the hospital, where she had had a stent put in to correct a blockage in an artery. Apparently super important heart surgeons can’t be bothered with details like speaking the magical words from their Olympian heights that will produce the prescription necessary for a patient to get the hell out of his domain.

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22 Min Read June 27, 2017

Boarding Kennels: Barking Prison Blues or Howling Good Time?

Activities with Dogs, Living Solutions

When I acquired my beloved Toby, we weren’t traveling a lot anyway.

We had two boys who the “Nanny State” told us we had to “feed, house and clothe”. We had a house to pay for and jobs that inexplicably and cruelly required us to be present at the office five days out of seven during the week and forty-nine out of fifty-two weeks in the year. After the bills were paid there wasn’t much disposable income left for that dream vacation to Maui.

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16 Min Read May 24, 2017

Button Up Your Overcoat

Living Solutions

“Clothes make the man,” said Mark Twain. He went on to observe that “Naked people have little or no influence on society.” Of course that was before the internet brought sex tapes, nude selfies and Kim Kardashian’s ass to our desktops, but still, we get the idea.

Surely, the opposite is true for dogs. A Bulldog in a tuxedo or a Chihuahua in a tutu may crack us up, but I imagine the only influence they would exert on their doggie peers would be to make them pray fervently that they are never subjected to the same indignity.

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