Thursday, December 17, 2009

Heat Hogs

Okay so this week I am going to show you how dogs and cats do in fact learn from each other. As I mentioned earlier this month on my other blog, our cat Sophie has started to creep off the sofa a bit and onto the pet stairs in order to place herself more directly into the path of the space heater we use.

We were entertained by this of course, but were really surprised when last night, we witnessed an old dog demonstrating that she learned a new trick. See for yourself. Louise thought that if it was good enough for a cat, then there must be something to it. She started to step out onto the stairs, also to get more heat from the space heater.

In her defence, she had just come in from outside and quite frankly, she isn't really feeling the colder, damper weather. There have been days where she will flat out refuse to go for a walk, or she at least needs a lot more coaxing to get outside. Even when out, Louise will now sometimes 'abort' the walk. She does this little protest where she will not move an inch unless we are going in the direction she wants (usually back inside).

There are a few exceptions to this. I can tempt her to continue if we are headed to Bosley's (our closest pet food store) or possibly to the dog park. But even a walk to the beach is a vain effort if the wind is too cold, or there is a lot of salt on the sidewalks.

Oh don't even get me started on the salt. Every year seems to be worse than the last! Vancouverites are salting walkways in the remote chance that it *might* drop to freezing. I couldn't believe it when Louise's paws started to hurt from the salt already. Normally that is something that happens in combination with really cold temperatures, or at least it used to be that way. We may have to take another look at doggie bootie technology and see where it is at now. (Our last attempts were failures because the booties would slip off after only a few yards.) For now, we walk on the grass for the blocks that are heavily salted.

4 comments:

PunkRawkKnitter said...

I don't have a pug (yet), but I like reading your blog because I'm looking into adopting one in the new year. I live in Calgary so the whole cold and salt thing have been on my mind as well and I found this stuff online... http://www.musherssecret.net/
you might want to check it out.

Sequoia & Petunia & Emma said...

We don't know about the paws and salt solution, but we have to say her hanging over towards the heater is too funnny!

Manda Girl said...

we carry this product now - http://pawhauspetboutique.com/catalog.php?item=1219&new=yes&ret=catalog.php%3Fnew%3Dyes

which is suppose to help with the salt. I would try it on my two pugs, but I can't even get them off the deck when it's cold here!

iTripped said...

Thanks for the suggestions, everybody! PunkRawkKnitter, I hope you are able to find a dog when you are ready and glad you enjoy Louise's blog. Louise is a rescue and we have had a great experience with her from day one - certainly not damaged goods!