[roadkillbobb]

from the time I was 23 I always owned dogs....usually just 2 at a time, all were adopted from shelters or rescues...about 5 years ago I had a doberman female 15+ years old and a lab/boxer mix male alittle over 10 years old...the female got hurt and couldnt get up for a day or so, I had to carry her outside to do her business and carry her back in, I figured this was about it with her..but, I gave her some pain killers and in a week she was back up and moving around, the soon after the lab started to bloat, not the bloat from eating, but he was filling with fluids..either organ failure or cancer, either way no recovery, so once he stopped eating I had to put him down, gut wrenching to say the least..then about 2 months later my dobie got ill and at her age , no good, and I had to put her down, doing that so close together, I needed a break, I just couldnt do that again...so it took about 3.5 years to get another dog, a mixed sheppard/husky..beautiful dog and after a year of hard work with him, he is a great dog, but the first few months were beyond chaotic..so now since he is pretty stable and seems he wants a playmate..I adopted a 5 month old sheppard mix, an unknown mix..she came from the animal shelter, they said sheppard, but she doesnt look purebread at all, and in all honestly, the mixes have less health issues.. here are a few pics of her and him...and sheppards have the habit of being close, as im typing this now the new one is curled around my foot sleeping..the new one has the red collar..

 

[roadkillbobb]

the shelter said she paddles her water bowl, so I said ok...well......I have the dog waterers that have 4 gallon tanks on them....I went to do something and just heard..paddling...came back to the kitchen and 2 gallons of water on the floor..and 10 minutes later the remaining 2 gallons..so I put that away and used a small bucket, its high enough she cant just paddle away..problem solved and one clean floor...

 

[Earldw]

Dogs are great companions. My pack includes Maggie who I purposely picked, Henry who came from a kid who was moving, and Mama Dog, Bambi and Veronica who I found abandoned and starving in a ditch. Also my neighbor’s dog Jasper spends about half the day visiting.

 

[Wil]

You guys want to see me cry? I have had a dog or two my whole life. I have lost a lot of good pals so I know how hard it is. They are all special.

 

[Wil]

Addi when she was just a pup. She loves to play in the water. She would splash her water bowl out in seconds so we gave her this tub. She a Blue Heeler.

 

[Wil]

Then she moved up to this.

 

[Wil]

We finally had to get her a life vest because she couldn't swim.

 

[roadkillbobb]

I will take a dog over 99.99999999% over any human any day of the week.....
Earl, you definitely have a pack...lol..Ive always had 2, a male and female dog..maybe when I move upstate permanently and dont have to travel with them, I would expand the amount of dogs, but for now 2 works without being an overburden...all my dogs have been rescues, adopted from a pound or from a private person....

 

[Wil]

Found a picture of our last Blue Heeler, Hanna. We miss her dearly. She was such that you just spoke plain English to and she listened. Never a hassle. Cancer took her.

 

[Wil]

And every puppy needs a playmate.

 

[roadkillbobb]

the biggest threat to dogs/pets nowadays, is the garbage dog/cat food the companies put out, im moving closer to all out raw feeding my dogs, I did extensive research on what would be a good brand of dry kibble to feed and even the real expensive brands arent the best..I eliminated any food with certain ingredients that are known to cause cancer and illness, but almost all the dry foods are cooked at very high heats, this kills most nutrients and then synthetic nutrients are added back in, and the high heat causes other chemical changes that are very bad for animals, but since they technically arent ingredients they dont have to be listed on the label...
after all said and done I started this round of dogs off with costco dog food, its not the best, but far from the worst, it doesnt contain any of the bad ingredients..and its decent priced..a 35lb bag is under $40.00..but the $100.00 plus bags arent much better in ingredients....so thats where the raw feeding comes into play... organ meat is one of the most important things to include with whatever main protein, beef, chicken, fish,venison that you use..supposedly pork raw is not good to feed dogs....
I have come not to trust so called experts that say raw feeding is dangerous or bad for dogs, probably paid by the pet food industry which is a multi billion dollar business each year...as all the wild canines, wolfs, coyotes and every other animal that is out in the wild eating only raw meat....its in the animals DNA to eat raw, and 50 years of cooked pet food doesnt change that, tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of years does....
how many so called experts scream not to handle raw chicken or pork or you will come down with all kinds of diseases..Ive handled plenty over the years and many times not washed my hands or sterilized bowls or cutting boards and NEVER gotten sick from any of it...so do your own research..

 

[Earldw]

the biggest threat to dogs/pets nowadays, is the garbage dog/cat food the companies put out, im moving closer to all out raw feeding my dogs, I did extensive research on what would be a good brand of dry kibble to feed and even the real expensive brands arent the best..I eliminated any food with certain ingredients that are known to cause cancer and illness, but almost all the dry foods are cooked at very high heats, this kills most nutrients and then synthetic nutrients are added back in, and the high heat causes other chemical changes that are very bad for animals, but since they technically arent ingredients they dont have to be listed on the label...
after all said and done I started this round of dogs off with costco dog food, its not the best, but far from the worst, it doesnt contain any of the bad ingredients..and its decent priced..a 35lb bag is under $40.00..but the $100.00 plus bags arent much better in ingredients....so thats where the raw feeding comes into play... organ meat is one of the most important things to include with whatever main protein, beef, chicken, fish,venison that you use..supposedly pork raw is not good to feed dogs....
I have come not to trust so called experts that say raw feeding is dangerous or bad for dogs, probably paid by the pet food industry which is a multi billion dollar business each year...as all the wild canines, wolfs, coyotes and every other animal that is out in the wild eating only raw meat....its in the animals DNA to eat raw, and 50 years of cooked pet food doesnt change that, tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of years does....
how many so called experts scream not to handle raw chicken or pork or you will come down with all kinds of diseases..Ive handled plenty over the years and many times not washed my hands or sterilized bowls or cutting boards and NEVER gotten sick from any of it...so do your own research..

Yeah, my dogs, mostly the puppies, supplement their chow with whatever tool or personal item I have left unattended. Tie-wraps, screwdrivers, pruning shears and cell phone cases seem to have whatever nutrients missing from their diets. The odd rabbit, squirrel, snake, mole or inattentive bird make special appearances on the menu as well as one very decayed and smelly opossum.

 

[Wil]

Lol. I am reminded of the coyote coy dog I raised from a pup I found in the woods. Actually he found me as I was standing in the barn talking and looking over some horses with a friend when he appeared out of the woods just to come to the barn and grab a hunk of horse manure and eat it then take off with another one to the woods.One of the best companions I ever had and went in the boat fishing with my wife and I all the time. We used to troll for Muskys together and Jake would sit up in the front of the boat looking out over the water. We lost him to cancer 17 years later but he still ate horse manure up to the end.He loved it. Took Jake rabbit hunting with my two beagles one time but Jake was the one who caught a rabbit in his mouth and brought it back to me. He also loved to hunt down snakes and pounce on them like a cat in tall weeds. He was quite the hunter. He had the instincts.

 

[Earldw]

‘’This little guy bit my neighbors dog Jasper about 10 seconds after taking its picture. It ceased to be a snake about 11 seconds after taking the picture. Jasper got a swollen jaw and a free dinner out of it.

 

[Wil]

That's one of those nasty snakes...me no like!
I once passed within inches of a Bamboo Viper on a patrol in Vietnam when I seen him hanging on a branch next to me as I walked by. After watching two other soldiers get bit and die on two other occasions, I consider myself very lucky.

 

[roadkillbobb]

I use to hunt down in north carolina in the mid 90s,way too many things wanting to kill you, several species of poisonous snakes, alligators, bears and not poisonous but chiggers...and you'll itch for days...ill stick to the northeast that doesnt have any of that,other than a rattler here and there, I havent seen any rattlers on my property or surrounding areas, I know there are a few out there, but not like down south...
my exes father was born down there and had a hunting camp( hes deceased a long time ago), one day we were hunting and one of his buddies went into his dog pen and there were 3 dead puppies, as he backed up and knocked a water bowl over a rattler got him on the back of his ankle, he spent an over nighter in the local doc in the box, he killed the snake and brought it with him to get the correct antivenom, they figured he got a low dose as the dogs got the bulk of it...

 

[Wil]

I use to hunt down in north carolina in the mid 90s,way too many things wanting to kill you, several species of poisonous snakes, alligators, bears and not poisonous but chiggers...and you'll itch for days...ill stick to the northeast that doesnt have any of that,other than a rattler here and there, I havent seen any rattlers on my property or surrounding areas, I know there are a few out there, but not like down south...
my exes father was born down there and had a hunting camp( hes deceased a long time ago), one day we were hunting and one of his buddies went into his dog pen and there were 3 dead puppies, as he backed up and knocked a water bowl over a rattler got him on the back of his ankle, he spent an over nighter in the local doc in the box, he killed the snake and brought it with him to get the correct antivenom, they figured he got a low dose as the dogs got the bulk of it...

That's crazy. He was a very lucky guy. I was stationed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina with the 82 nd Airborne Div. between Vietnam tours and Africa. I got very familiar with snakes and bugs in that woods.

 

[roadkillbobb]

That's crazy. He was a very lucky guy. I was stationed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina with the 82 nd Airborne Div. between Vietnam tours and Africa. I got very familiar with snakes and bugs in that woods.

I bet you did..lol..I could only imagine all the critters that could kill you in vietnam...or sting real bad...

 

[Wil]

I bet you did..lol..I could only imagine all the critters that could kill you in vietnam...or sting real bad...

Lol, the best one I try to tell a story about and to this day, people tell me I am full of it but my squad buddy was just as impressed with it. He was as startled as I was. I was digging my fox hole ( in Vietnam by the way) on the side of a rocky mountain in the jungle when my entrenchen tool ( pack shovel) dug into a hole and a centipede about a two foot long and all different colors jumped out and chased me out of my fox hole.
Then one rainy night on ambush patrol,I was standing up in my spider hole ( round fox hole) and as the hole kept filling up with water and the mud started falling in from the sides,I looked down only to see a rather large black scorpion fall into my hole with the mud. I came out of that hole so fast,I don't even recall touching the sides.I laid flat on the ground the rest of the night. I don't know what I would have done if we had made contact that night with the enemy.
Then one time,back at base camp,we were tearing down a sand bag ammo bunker and building a new one when one of the guys picked up a sand bag to see a very large cobra laying in the hole. There we were,8 of us standing in a circle around this 15 foot cobra while he weaved back and forth trying to figure out wich one of us he was going to strike at. Finally, one of the guys came running through our little circle and beheaded that cobra with his shovel. The head still tried to jump around to get us. I could tell you more stories about the critters there but I might not be able to get any sleep tonight.

 

[Wil]

I used to visit my aunt and uncle in Florida when I was a little kid. I remember my aunt and uncle going outside first to chase any rattle snakes away before they would leave me walk out onto the concrete porch. The snakes would bask in the sun there a lot of times.