Follow-up Friday w/a Reminder about the Diamond Paw Print Pendant auction

I've got a few weeks of posts to follow up on here so let's get right to it, shall we?

Honey, I broke the dog

I really wanted to thank everyone for their input on this. At best I was thinking maybe I'd learn I wasn't the only one this ever happened to. Hearing so many folks talk about similar experiences, possible solutions and even just brainstorming ideas was more than I could have hoped for. There were so many good comments and suggestions that I had to start writing them down so I wouldn't forget to follow up on them.

KB from Romping and Rolling in the Rockies' note seemed to ring truest for us: "I wonder if, in Bella's excitement to see you, she gets hypersensitivity of certain nerves. I know that this type of "hypersensitivity" can happen. It's essentially the body's way of lowering the threshold of a nerve so it fires more easily." When 24 Paws of Love concurred with that assessment from personal experience, it became the opinion we decided to pursue first.

KB suggested we 'tone down' my welcome home which is also what our trainer recommended. It's a good idea but a little complicated to pull off. See, I greet Bella the same way every day. Bella, on the other hand, greets me with more or less enthusiasm depending on her mood. (And she is one moody puppy as we know...)

But I am working on moderating my greeting so that, regardless of Bella's mood, I don't play in to any over-excitement on her part. Cross your fingers.

Don't It Make My Black Dog Brown

Bella has almost finished shedding for this year and between that and adding a little salmon oil and some kelp into her meals, she's not quite as blonde as she was a few weeks ago. She's still nowhere near as dark black as she used to be but at least Carolyn has stopped calling her "Blondie". Crystal from So Fly: My Life with Flyball Dogs made me feel a lot better after recounting the story of a dog she grew up with doing this as well.

Still we'll have Bella's thyroid checked next time she's in the vet's office just to keep an eye on things. Otherwise, it might just be time to realize our little girl is growing up and maturing. Le sigh.

Beautiful Black Diamond Necklace - Auction Starts Now!

Well, the auction is off and running. Thank you to everyone who has jumped in sharing the post or bidding on the pendant. It's only at $79.00 now which is a really good deal for a diamond necklace. The auction runs until Monday at 9:38 PM EST so there's still plenty of time to get in on the action. You can bid on it here!

And remember, 100% of the proceeds (plus a double match!) will be donated to Save a Sato so it's a total win-win. Pretty black pendant for you. Pretty green papers for them.

And finally, I learned in the comments of our Wordless Wednesday post, that Deanna and Day-Z from Deanna Time are in a contest to win a "Dream Dog Park". She made a great video for her entry and you can vote for them by clicking here. If you have a moment, go check out the video - it's definitely worth the 2 minutes of your time.

Thanks to Jodi Stone from Heart Like a Dog for the fabulous Follow-up Friday hop. It is "the blog hop that lets you wrap up your week and leads you right into the weekend".