Scratchings-and-Sniffings

Get Out Your Camera! Win a Trip to Denver!

Over at BlogPaws, we're gearing up for our next conference - in Denver! W00t!!! We hope you'll be there.

As anyone who reads this blog knows, I'm a co-founder of BlogPaws, the only online resource for pet bloggers, created to help you be a better blogger, whatever "being a better blogger" means to YOU. So whether you are blogging for fun, to raise money or on behalf of a company or organization, BlogPaws is your go-to place.

We held a successful conference in April and we're doing it again! It may seem a bit soon, but we got such wonderful feedback and lots of applause for BlogPaws East (in Columbus), that we thought it only fair to do it again in the West. We chose Denver because Tom and I live here. And, for the most part, Denver is pet-friendly.

Back From Our Backpacking Trip with Miles

Just got back yesterday from our seven day backpacking trip with Miles in the incredibly beautiful Gila Wilderness. We are so lucky to have this area virtually in our back yard. Even if you live back East you should consider a visit if you love the back country. Drop a few bucks with our local merchants on the way in.

There are so many memories from the trip it's hard to pick one to get started with. Miles had a wonderful time of course. There is nothing quite like the unfettered freedom of the wilderness for a dog like Miles. We were fortunate to have had some test runs with him and we used all that learning to good advantage.

A Girl and Her Dog

I've written lots about the unique relationships we have with our dogs and cats. I've written extensively about our dog Miles and the effect he's had on my wife and I since we took him in last winter. He's a special dog and we both love him.  

Lately though, I've noticed something interesting.

Miles is my wife's dog. Oh, he likes me and he's happy to see me in the morning when I come up the steps. He wags his tail and gives me a nice greeting, but he's really waiting for Chris to come up stairs. When he sees her his whole body wiggles and his tail wags and it seems that he even smiles. He's excited to see her and the feeling is mutual.

Gotta Love that Dog's Tongue!

Oh my word! I got all caught up in this fabulous video from Fido friendly and it made my day! It's a bit long, but well worth it. Enjoy!

Celebrating Love for Our Pets

Nestle' Purina and Kroger grocery stores are celebrating love - of the mostly four-legged kind. I say 'mostly' because we know pets come in two-legged versions, also. In fact, I just read a superb story in Reader's Digest about pets where an Eagle was featured. And, I know people who keep chickens as pets!

The pet world is a big one, my friends. And, precisely because of that, pet parents and pet enthusiasts need to come together to help disadvantaged animals . Okay, disadvantaged is marketing-speak. We'll say abandoned and abused animals, animals that have saved lives, animals who give more love than they will ever get. Your pets and mine.

Save This Pup: Our Aha Moment by Laura Posey

As a supporter of the Save This Pup idea and organization, I will be hosting guest posts from Laura Posey on a regular basis, here on Scratchings & Sniffings. You will remember Laura and Save This Pup from our previous interview describing how Save This Pup came to be.

Today, Laura shares an "Aha Moment" --

Be the Change for Pets at BlogPaws

Regular readers know that I'm a co-founder of BlogPaws, along with Tom, my business partner and husband, and Caroline, the founder of Romeo the Cat. BlogPaws exists to bring pet bloggers together - for learning, community and fun.

As we all learn more about ourselves and each other, we discover the true value of friendship. Many BlogPaws' friendships began online, via blogs and twitter and facebook, and continued IRL (in real life) at the first ever pet blogger conference, back in April.

Now, we are connecting to each other even more - all to help make a change in the world.

Back Packing Tune up For Miles

Chris and I took Miles up to visit Alice, Phil and Martha at the fire lookout tower on Hillsboro Peak last weekend. It was Miles' first trip to the peak and a great opportunity to do a test run for our week long backpacking trip coming up.

I really wanted to nail down how much food Miles would need and make sure his new pack was working out well. We learned other valuable lessons, too.

The new pack worked well. We've had problems with other packs. We bought one from REI that looked really good in the store, but didn't hold up well on the trail. Both Miles and Alice have torn the saddle bags off these packs by hanging them up in brush.

Figuring Out How Much To Feed Your Pet

In the last post, I went through a convoluted process tying to figure out how much food to take for Miles on our upcoming backpacking trip. It can be tricky, especially when you consider the tremendous variation in caloric need created by different activity levels.

For most people it should be easier.

There are basically two ways to arrive at a starting point for how much to feed a pet. I say starting point because there can be significant variation in caloric need even in dogs and cats of similar weight and activity levels. That's important because most problems with excess weight happen because an owner feeds slightly more than a dog or cat needs over a prolonged period of time. As few a 15 extra calories a day over a year can add up to several excess pounds.

How Much To Feed Miles?

My wife and I are having an ongoing disagreement over how much food we need to feed Miles to keep him in tip top shape. We are planning a seven day backpacking trip and I've been trying to figure out how much food Miles will be carrying in his pack. We disagree about how much food we need for ourselves, too.

I tend to see backpacking trips as more about being out there than gastronomic adventures. Chris's biggest fear is that we run out of food. Mine is that we have some left in the pack when we get back to the trail head.

I've been feeding Miles about four cups of Purina ONE a day. Two cups in the morning and two in the evening. That comes to about 1530 kcals a day. I figure that Miles is about seventy five pounds or 34 Kilos and that he qualifies as an active dog.