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Not really wanting to get out of bed. (Just like his mama.)

Love Your Breed Luggage Tag, Bichon

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Love Your Breed Luggage Tag, Bichon
– Love Your Breed Love Your Breed Luggage Tag, Bichon
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FouFou Dog wants you to travel in style. There is no better way to remind yourself of the sweetness of home than an adorable breed-specific tag to attach to your luggage. Dress your bags and differentiate yours from all the rest with these stylish tags. Put it on everything from your luggage, to your purse, or even your gym bag. Inside each tag, you will find a standard address card for you to fill out. Manufacturer: FouFou Dog
Manufacturer reference:
US0022

Product Dimensions: 4 inches x 4 inches x 1 inches; 1.6 ounces
Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces

Love Your Breed Luggage Tag, Bichon

• Inside each tag, you will find a standard address card for you to fill out
• Made of soft sturdy PVC
• Thirty-six popular breeds to choose from

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http://tinyurl.com/b28fpvv

Where to Love Your Breed Luggage Tag, Bichon
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Love Your Breed Luggage Tag, Bichon

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http://tinyurl.com/b28fpvv

I really, really do. I love him so much that I would love to have a gaggle of Bichons. (I don’t know if a group of Bichons is called a gaggle, but I am going with it for right now.)

One of the announcers said something I find to be inherently true right before Best of Breed was announced:

The best breed is the one you already have sitting next to you on the couch.

You are so very right, sir!

Congratulations to the Reserve Winner, the Old English Sheepdog, and Best in Show Winner, the Affenpinscher!

So it is only fitting my dogs help me to understand God’s unmerited favor, grace and patience in our lives each day.

Dogs implicitly understand Unmerited favor but it is a little harder for us two-legged creatures, who think we automatically deserve everything.

I recently started listening to online sermons from a powerful charismatic pastor called Joseph Prince. A self-professed grace addict and hardcore Christ lover, he challenges his readers to conceptualize, “Even if you lack the necessary qualifications, (God’s) unmerited favor can propel you forward.”

Well, every time I take care of my dogs, I realize they lack the necessary qualifications to make it in this world on their own.

If I didn’t feed them, I cannot imagine them hunting and killing anything on their own. Heck, my Bichon-poodle mix has trained me on which specific brand of greenies she prefers and she does not like getting her dainty white feet muddy.

It is through my unmerited favor and love for my two dogs that I feed them, house them and make sure they don’t get lost as we travel around the U.S.

God does the same for us, and our relationship with him works so much better when we do not fight him tooth and nail to maintain our sense of “freedom” – to do things our way.

However, this is a hard lesson to learn for both man and beast.

Even if we do fuss with Him though, He still cuts us humans like ten gazillion Grace breaks, which is good.

We need them. Just open the Bible. You cannot go a chapter without reading about his Grace for humanity somewhere in it. He did a lot of smiting but he also gave a lot of great gifts to our forefathers for no reason other than he loved his creation.

The New Living Translation says it like this:

“Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning (Lamentations 3:23).”

My eldest doggie baby and I have developed a sort of shorthand to communicate with each other. Most days, I know what she wants by following her eye movements. She often desires to be lifted onto the bed for its prime view of the campground out the window.

She has trained me to open the shade a quarter of the way up. If the blinds are opened anymore than that too much sunlight streams in and she quints until I lower them. She is not spoiled, is she?

I pay attention to the tiny details of her body language because I love her. Yet, she does not rest easy in that knowledge.

Every single day I pick her up and gently deposit her on the bed, but literally every single time she struggles with me. My husband and I are constantly telling her, “We do not need your help (in this lifting process).” But she never listens.

During these rides to her perch, she has launched herself off my stomach, arms and legs, and often scratches me leaving marks for days. Even though she knows I am a good doggie owner, somehow she cannot resist flailing around in a panic, each time. At least once a month, her erratic break dancing routine catches me off guard just enough that she cold cocks me in the jaw with her head.

I am not too happy when that happens, and I normally loose  my patience with her but then I remind myself she is just a dog. She is just doing what dogs do.

I often wonder, is this how God feels?

Is he upstairs right now saying, “Goodness child, you are just so stubborn! Can you PLEASE just rest easy in my arms for once as I unfold this plan that will benefit you…a plan that will lead you to higher ground with a good view!”

However, patience is a virtue easily forgotten in my roving home on wheels. 

You see I believe dogs are way more patient than humans.

Check out this picture of my youngest dog Oscar, who is suffering from a bad hair cut from moi.

Although it is a blurry phone pic (because really have you ever tried to capture a dog’s portrait? They always move!), his receding hairline is not natural to his breed (Maltese). However, his mommy is not so good at puppy haircuts.

My husband says I traumatized him with his new hairdo and I “have caused him to have nightmares” about sharp and shiny objects coming his way.

You know what, he loves me anyway. He is patient with me, even if I do not come home when he wants or I don’t feed him exactly on time.

Dogs are incredibly patient because their hearts are like 10 times bigger than their bodies.

Sadly, I am not this patient with my Creator.

When I do not get what I want on the schedule I want it, I tell God I am mad at him. Maybe not in those exact words but in my actions I express my lack of faith in his goodness towards me. I do not think I am alone in this?

When we are all by ourselves, I suspect we all shout at him, “Why not God?!!!!!!

“Why haven’t you dropped a high-paying job into my lap? A promotion? A child, or two, or three? Why cannot I have a new car? New house? New clothes? Rich and generous friends who own a home on a tropical island? A father, mother, boyfriend, wife…who appreciates me?”

We beg and plead with him, “I have been good! I work hard! Dang it %#@*, I deserve it! Why? Why!”

Dogs don’t do that. They aren’t beyond grovelling as well, but they patiently wait on their humans.

This brings me to my fourth and final thing that dogs can teach us.

Tenacity reigns supreme in the doggie realm.

Just try to hide something from your dog and tell them no they cannot have it. You might forget you hide “X” object but they won’t until they find it, retrieve it and digest it.

My husband and I visited our family in Delaware this weekend, and we immensely enjoyed our play time with our grand-puppy Mila. She is 33 pounds of wiggling, hyper-active joy.

Mila is a pit bull who doesn’t know she is supposed to be ferocious.

I have to admit I was a little leery of this breed until I played with her. But she totally disarms you with her charm and her tenacity to the 10th degree.

First of all, my 7-pound Maltese ruled the house as soon as he walked through the door, as he always does. This is not a good thing.

Although Mila was a little upset at his mean attitude, she never stopped trying to be friends.

Instead, she flopped down on the ground, played the subservient type and showed off her belly. You see in her house, she is the new kid on the block. The senior dog in the house Bo is not too happy with this young pup nipping at his heels. So he viciously barks at her. I wouldn’t go near him if I were her. His snapping scares me, and I know he is a gentle dog.

What does Mila do?

She literally sticks her head inside his mouth while he is barking at her. She just wants to be loved by everyone, and she won’t quit until she has you wrapped around her little paws.

Now, this isn’t the brightest move in the animal kingdom but it is notable that he does not bite her.

I admire her approach, and I know I need to incorporate her pig-headed determinance into my daily faith walk as a Christian and in my encounters with unfriendly human types.

Since I only accepted Christ into my life at the age of 36, I spent a lot of time distrusting Him. I mean you cannot even see God but you are supposed to depend on him and worship him.

The other day I was driving behind a van with a license plate that read, “Good Gd.” I thought that was neat analogy of how this invisible God works because despite the fact the “O” was missing (I suspect due to space limitations) I still knew it spelled out God.

My point is even though we cannot pin God down with our five senses, it does not mean he is not working in this world for our good. He is still here with us!

Jeremiah 29:11 tells us God has plans to prosper us and not harm us. Taking care of my four-legged companions each day helps me tangibly conceptualize that He is my eternal Caregiver, and He is a good God!

And for that I am forever grateful to my furry friends!

“Bow wow” until next time,

Melissa and CR

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Melissa and CR LeGates are two God-fearing sinners who love travelling the highways together in their 25-foot Winnebago Itasca Navion IQ RV with their four-legged furry angels by their side. Come along on our journey as we see what adventures God has in store for us!

It looks like someone is about to fall asleep in the pillows. It’s pretty funny how dogs use pillows like humans. Or at least mine does.

It’s cold out so Buddy decided to rock a scarf. Either that or he’s decided to update his style in a very J. Crew way.

Buddy’s January BarkBox included an octopus. Well it was an octopus, until he shredded loved on it.

The choice to get a dog in the first place is a hard one.  We took our time.  We researched and researched.  We were appalled at the price of puppies.  Even more shocked at the price of adoption from a shelter!  We decided on a Bichon Frise puppy from a breeder some 150 miles from our home – got to meet both parents on site – was happy with the breeder who LOVES these dogs and owns 3 adult dogs herself.  The temperament fit with our lifestyle.  And we knew what we were getting and could train her to be used to music students coming and going out of our house.

Choosing to get a 2nd dog is even worse than deciding on the first one.  When visiting the shelters it became apparent to us that not just any dog was going to fit the bill for us.  We found a few cute little dogs – but upon further inspection, there was something about them that we knew would be an issue.  One poor little thing was what Greg called “street smart” or “kennel smart” and had all her defensive’s on HIGH ALERT.  Who can blame her?  It’s a “dog eat dog” (no pun intended) world out there – calling for growling and barking at all the other cell mates.  Most of them did this incessantly – something we are not used to.

I’ve searched on-line like Ebay Classified for pets (this is where we found Daisy) and Craig’s List in our area.  There are MANY dogs and puppies on there.  Problem?  Most want an obscene amount of money.  It doesn’t surprise me when they are purebred, even though we did NOT spend very much on our pure bred (and she has papers too) because our breeder believed that even people who don’t have much money should have the awesome opportunity to own a Bichon.  I have really appreciated that.  Especially now.  But what really surprises me are those that sell mixed breed puppies for $400 and up!  Good grief.

The adoption fee at animal shelters for a small dog or mixed breed is MORE than what we paid for our pure bred puppy over a year ago!  We just can’t justify it.  It seems to me that we would have more people adopting animals if people could AFFORD it.  I mentioned this to one of the workers who was helping us at the shelter.  I don’t think she appreciated it.  They should interview families and care more about the care and love that these dogs will receive than recovering their “fees” for boarding these dogs.

The bottom line is this:  We would like a companion puppy for our Bichon Frise.  Even though my husband and I work from home and have plenty of time with her – I think she might appreciate another dog to wrestle and play with.  I think it must get lonely for her.  We were told that a male small dog would be the best playmate for our female.  Also a consideration would be a similar temperament dog – like another Bichon, a miniature poodle or a mix of either of these two with other small breeds.  A low maintenance dog will be best because of the high cost of grooming.  But we simply can’t afford the high costs that everyone is asking.  We would have liked to “rescue” a dog – but to rescue a dog who is already an adult and set in their ways is a risk to bring into our home.  It is simply not an option for our dog and for our home and even if it was – we cannot afford the adoption fee.  What we are really looking for is another puppy we can train and who will be raised to fit into our lifestyle and our other dog.  An owner who cares more about that puppy getting an excellent loving and attentive family – then making $500-$1000 on each pup.

I know that many animal activists are not going to like my opinion on this.  But the only way my opinion will change on this is to lower the cost for people to adopt and more people could enjoy having a their first dog or would maybe be willing to adopt a second one.   We cry out “save a life” – “save a dog or cat” and then make it so difficult to own one.  Dogs are expensive – need grooming, shots, good food and a lot of time and energy.  Why make them SO expensive to purchase, knowing how expensive they will be to own?

We were lucky.  We never thought we would be able to own a pure bred like our Daisy.  She is a gift and a little miracle to our family.  We need another miracle puppy to take into our home and love.

Do your research – there are breeders out there not looking to make money – just looking for loving families to take care of their animals.  The right one will care more about you than your money.

Just something to think about.

God Bless

Bela es el pequeño bichón  que llegó hace apenas dos años a la vida de mi hermana y  que se ha convertido en la delicia de mi Madre a sus 87 años.

Siempre dispuesta en la cocina a probar cualquier receta y manifestar su opinión, decidí inmortalizarla en mi particular Animalario de ilustres personajes..

Portrait Of A Lady With A Letter
Francois-Joseph Navez

Fluffy Tufts is participating in the Blogpaws blog hop. Come and join the fun!

Buddy’s new BarkBox came today. If you’re not familiar with BarkBox, it’s a mail order company which sends out boxes catering to dogs each month. Each box features a different variety of toys, treats and other dog-related items like shampoos and even the occasional cake mix. This is Buddy’s third box and he loves them. It’s like he knows the box is for him. This month’s box had an octopus toy, a bully stick and two different bags of treats.  So far, Buddy has tried the Superior Farms treats and he seemed to really like him. I think his favorite is the octopus though. It may have already lost a limb or two, which shows just how much he loves it. If you’re interested in BarkBox, check it out here. If you want to sign up, click here. Buddy will be happy you did, since he’ll get a free box added on to his subscription. Groupon also occasionally runs subscription deals, which is how Buddy got his subscription. They don’t have any specials right now, but I’d be surprised if they didn’t run one again at some point.