A few days ago, I received a very nice email from MrChewy.com asking me to give an honest review of their pet supply web-store, and graciously offering me a $50.00 gift certificate to use at their store as a thank you for taking the time to do so. Before I go on, I want to make you aware that any time I've reviewed any type of product on this blog in the past, whether it be jackets, CDs, books, or videos - the opinions are all my own and I'm not getting paid as an advertiser.

And I plan to keep it that way.

So when this store offered me the certificate in exchange for the review, I thought I would be saying "No thank you," however, in the very next sentence in their email, they mentioned that many of their reviewers have offered the $50.00 certificate as a promo prize to their readers, rather than using it to make a purchase for themselves.

Well, THAT, I can totally do....what better way to say thank you to all of my awesome readers? So I'm happy to announce that I'm having my very first giveway, and giving you a shot at winning a coupon code worth $50.00 to spend at MrChewy.com! (see contest rules below)

And I'm also happy to say that after checking the store out, I have only great things to say about MrChewy.com.

They sell many different brands of quality dog (and cat) foods - including some of the harder to find ones, like Orijen and the Royal Canin Veterinary Diets:

They also have competitive prices on Frontline - and they only sell American Made Frontline.

Along with food and Frontline, you can find dog & cat treats, litter, and wee wee pads....and they offer live chat on their site in case you have any questions about their products.

PLUS...they offer free shipping for purchases over $49.00.

Already sounds awesome, right? Well it gets even better. They offer a referral program - that benefits each of you, and it benefits an animal shelter. There's nothing in it for me, and all I had to do to get these great deals for you was to tell you about MrChewy.com like I just did above.

How cool is that?

The referral program works like this: If you are a first time shopper at MrChewy.com - just use my referral coupon code: CONT4013 - and you will receive 10% off your first order AND they will donate $10.00 to the charity partner that I choose from their site!

As for that donation, they only had three charity partners to choose from, but when I saw Bideawee as one of the choices, I just had to pick them - because as it turns out - that is where I adopted Toby from! So, please, head on over to MrChewy.com and check them out. You'll get 10% off your first order, and help Bideawee at the same time. But before you go, please take the time to read the contest rules and then leave a comment about your favorite Donna and the Dogs' post below, so that you'll have a shot at winning $50.00 to spend while you're shopping at: 

FAVORITE DONNA AND THE DOGS' BLOG POST CONTEST RULES: In order to enter, please leave one comment below this post telling me which of the blog posts I have written in the past is your favorite - and why. Commenting about THIS post does not count, it needs to be about a previous post I have written. Please leave the comment here, on my actual blog page, under this contest post to enter. Sorry, commenting through email or on Facebook does not count as an entry, you must visit my actual blog site to enter this contest. Only your first comment under this post counts, (no spam please), and you will need to leave a valid email address for me to contact you with the coupon code. Just be aware that Mr. Chewy only ships within the United States, excluding Hawaii and Alaska, so if you are from out of that area and you want to comment, you will not be able to purchase anything from Mr. Chewy unless you have a relative here that you can have it shipped to or know someone in the States that you would like to give the code to. On or about February 15th, 2012, I will count how many eligible first comments there are, and then I will use Random.org to choose a number out of those, and the person who left the comment with the corresponding number will be my lucky winner.

ETA: You must leave your comment by February 14th 2012.

That's it. Simple, isn't it?

If you have any questions about these rules, don't be shy, just ask.

Now, if you'll excuse me, Donna and the Dogs will be on a brief, short, minor, temporary hiatus (except for answering questions about this contest) until around February 5th, while I work on finishing the first draft of my novel. For those of you who have been watching, you may have noticed that my word count has NOT gone up in several posts...and I have a self imposed deadline to reach.

Good luck, see you in two weeks - and thanks for reading Donna and the Dogs!

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 My Novel's Progress: Current wordcount: 72,201

...The K-Rosco Dog Walking Utility Jacket from Let's Go Design.

I mean, really, even the name just sounds so catchy, and for a dog walker, it has a ton of cool features - including a removable treat pouch, reflective piping for nighttime wear, a back mesh pocket to carry a water bottle, and a belt that doubles as an extra leash!

But at $270.00, it was a wee bit out of my price range...

So this past fall, when my old winter jacket was ready to be retired, I went shopping. Instead of the K-Rosco, I found what I felt to be the perfect dog walking jacket, a zeroXposur snowboarding jacket with lots of cool features of its own. 

And since I bought it at Kohl's while it was 40% off and I had one of their nifty 30% off coupons, I got this two hundred dollar jacket for only sixty bucks.

The problem was, it has stayed so warm since the time I purchased it in October that I didn't have a chance to use it...until just recently.

Now that winter is finally here, (Brrrrrr), I pulled it from its hanger, and I just love it. Since it's meant for snowboarding, it is incredibly warm, and has every feature a dog walker could want.

A snug hood - which is detachable.

Two side pockets, one to attach my treat pouch to...

...and the other to tuck my citronella spray into.

An arm pocket to keep a roll of poop bags in...

...and a breast pocket to stash hand wipes.

An ID pocket in case of emergencies...

...and an interior pocket to safely carry keys and a cell phone.

ALL of the pockets have zippers on them to keep your belongings from falling out while you're on the go, and since it's got a lot of white in the pattern, I'm much more visible than I was in my old black jacket. Between that, and having Leah at my side, it's much safer for me to walk at night.

Not bad for sixty bucks, right?

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For those of you who are looking for an update on the dogs due to THIS POST, I don't have a whole lot to add at this time, but I'll tell you what I can.

Leah's still being grumpy with the other animals, especially with Meadow and the cats, and has been barking at them from behind the bars of the Xpen. I also have been alternating, by putting Meadow in the crate and leaving Leah free when I am in the room to watch her, and because of this, we had one "incident" with my cat, Cinder. I left the room while she was out of the Xpen just long enough to wash my hands in the bathroom, and she went after him. I heard the commotion and ran back into the room in time to see him scrambling away from her up onto the sofa, where he turned around hissing and growling with his fur on end. His fur was soaked, on both his back and head, but somehow, luckily, she did not harm him. It was momentary carelessness on my part, and I'm so thankful he didn't get hurt. I have been much more careful to make sure she is confined if I need to leave the room for anything, and it feels as if my house has gotten so much smaller between the Xpen, repositioned crates, blocked off baby gates and closed doors. Debi is coming to evaluate Leah on Monday, and hopefully, she'll be able to give me some advice.

After a full week of no activity, I gave Toby a short walk yesterday, and half way home I noticed a weird hitch in his gait, he was turning his right hind leg in - the same leg that was bothering him. I brought him to the vet today, but of course, he wasn't limping when I did, so she is not sure if it was his hips, his knee, or his back causing the issue. She wants him on 7 - 10 MORE days of rest, plus Deramaxx 1 X per day. If the limp comes back after that, she'll want to do x-rays, but she is not sure what to x-ray yet. She believes he probably does have at least have mild hip issues, judging by the way he walks and stands, but she does not know if that is the cause of the limp, so she wants to be conservative about it. She said if it is a torn ligament, it is only minor at this point, and they would give him 7 - 10 days of rest and Deramaxx anyway...so, more waiting.

Meadow's culture came back negative for bacteria, which I found out while I was in with the vet who was examining Toby. Although she is one of the senior vets, and one whose opinion I trust, she said I'll need to speak with the head vet, (he is the one who has been treating Meadow), to see what he wants to do next. So I'll need to phone him tomorrow. In the meantime, Meadow is licking at herself constantly, drinking a lot, and frequently urinating - sometimes it's clear and other times it's normal. Another puzzle to worry over.

So...like I said, I really don't know much of anything yet, but I'll post more when I do.

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 My Novel's Progress: Current wordcount: 72,201

On Halloween I stayed home with my dogs and watched several movies, including the independent film, MINE. This eye opening movie spun the tale of the thousands of animals that were left behind during Hurricane Katrina, and how hard many of their owners fought to try and find them after the storm - many of whom were criticized for abandoning their animals in the first place.

It's easy to condemn others for their actions. It's easy to say that you'd never leave your own animals behind during a catastrophe. That is, until it happens to you.

Unfortunately, sometimes things happen beyond our control. Many of the residents of New Orleans had no transportation of their own, and they could not remove their animals from the city because the emergency shelters would not take them. Desperate to save their own lives, (please don't forget that almost 2000 people died in Katrina's wake), the evacuees had to make a choice between their animals and their human family members. In order to save their children, their spouses, their aging parents, they left their fur kids behind - with extra food, water, and a promise to return for them as soon as the storm passed. Still others were pulled from their homes by rescue agencies, separated from their pets not through choice, but through force.

And when each of these owners tried to return for their precious pets, they found the city closed. The government would not let them back in to save their four legged friends.

Since the pet owners were not allowed to enter the city, rescue groups stepped in and began removing as many animals as possible. But there were only a handful of volunteers, and thousands of pets had been left behind. As fast as the rescuers could remove animals, others were running out of food and water, or found themselves trapped in dangerous situations due to the rising tide.

Thousands of animals died before help could arrive.

The ones that were rescued were carted off to local shelters, and when those filled, they began shipping animals off to other shelters all over the country. A few here, a few there, anywhere there was an empty crate. They tried to photograph the animals, to document where each came from, but the task was impossible due to the sheer numbers. Worse, as the weeks went by, the owners were not claiming their animals as fast as the rescuers had originally hoped. Temporarily homeless themselves, they had no means of finding out where their animals had gone.

A database was set up on Petfinder.com, in hopes of reuniting animals with their owners, but many of these families didn't even have access to the internet, a luxury which a lot of us take for granted.

Soon, due to lack of funds and resources to house them all, the shelters began adopting the animals out to new homes. According to the Lousiana SPCA, of the animals that were lucky enough to be rescued, only about 15 to 20 percent of them ever found their way back to their original owners. Worse, some owners eventually located their pets, only to discover that their new adoptive families refused to relinquish them.

Unbelievable? You betcha. Want to learn more? Take the time to watch MINE, which you can conveniently stream from Netflix. But be forewarned - if you love animals as much as I do, have a box of tissues on hand.

After wading through my recent epidemic of puppy mill posts, my friend Daria offered to lend me her copy of Saving Gracie: How One Dog Escaped the Shadowy World of American Puppy Mills. An avid reader, I of course said yes, and couldn’t wait to get the book home to dive in.

What I expected to read was a heartwarming memoir about a rescued Cavalier King Charles spaniel.

Upon opening its cover, I discovered that Saving Gracie is no memoir.

While the book does highlight the individual story of Gracie, a single dog who ‘escaped’ a puppy mill after languishing for six years in horrific conditions, what I really found myself reading was an eye-opening exploration of the insidious world of puppy mills, unearthed by newspaper reporter Carol Bradley.

I’d like to introduce you to just a few of the amazing people you’ll find in its pages, all of whom have made significant differences in the lives of animals suffering under the ‘care’ of callous breeders. The person who stands foremost in my mind is Governor Ed Rendell, a man who chased many a puppy mill proprietor from his state of Pennsylvania. Sadly, my local readers might be horrified to know that when Governor Rendell cracked down on these ‘breeders,’ many of them fled his state – and moved right into our backyard – thanks to New York’s more lenient animal welfare laws.

The next person of note that I’d like to draw attention to is Bill Smith, founder of Main Line Animal Rescue, a man who has saved thousands of animals on his own dime. He is also the person who prompted the above Governor Rendell into action, and later convinced Oprah Winfrey to air a show about puppy mills which opened a lot of eyes to the suffering that goes on inside shadowy barns and kennels throughout the Country. I’d love to tell you how he creatively caught both of their attentions, but I don’t want to spoil the book.

And finally, no review of Saving Gracie would be complete without the mention of Cheryl Shaw, a humane officer for the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA), who set the events in motion to close down Mike-Mar Kennels, one of the most horrendous puppy mills to date. Her actions freed Gracie, along with several other hundred dogs, from further torture.

Along with these, and many other amazing people who populate this book, Saving Gracie also documents the lives of countless animals that have suffered in the hands of heartless breeders.

It’s a worthwhile read if you are in the market for a dog, if you are curious about dog related legislation and animal welfare, or if you want to learn more about the plague of American Puppy Mills and what is being done to fight them. That said, Saving Gracie is not a book for the faint of heart. Throughout its page you while unearth the unspeakable horrors that are going on behind closed doors, every hour of every day. It is a book that will make you want to both cry, and cheer.

P.S. For those who are waiting on Meadow's Rally video, the second song Nick chose was copyright protected as well. (Unfortunately, you don't find these things out until after you spend hours uploading footage.) He hopes to add a new song tomorrow...we'll let you know when it's up. Sorry again for the continued delay...

So, I picked up this CD called through a Dog’s Ear: Music to Calm Your Canine Companion, Volume 1, with thoughts of helping soothe Meadow and Leah during thunderstorms and fireworks. According to the accompanying booklet, Pianist Lisa Spector came up with the idea for this disc while rearing Guide Dogs for the Blind pups. Whenever she sat down in front of her keys, the little bundles of trouble would stop creating havoc, pile up under the Steinway piano, and crash.

This got her thinking….

She approached Joshua Leeds, a psychoacoustician, with the idea, and at first he balked. But then, upon thinking it over, he said Hmmmmmm……

Mr. Leeds started researching if music could truly calm a canine, and well, the rest is history.

The music on this particular volume is intended to help dogs that suffer from separation anxiety, thunderstorm and firework phobia, excitement with visitors, stress in the household, and stress while boarding. It is not intended to be played while riding in the car – as it can put humans to sleep.

Right now, I’m at the stage of only using it during happy times so the dogs associate it with good things, like at this very moment. No fireworks. The sky is clear. Everyone’s bellies are full.

The results?

Leah is not staring out the window, barking at the neighbor’s feral cats, or the day laborers who live across the street as they come and go.

Toby is not pacing, touching my coffee mug, stealing my slippers, or moving around from toy to toy.

Meadow is not following him, sitting over him, staring, waiting for her opportunity to pilfer his possessions.

Instead, all three are sprawled out on their mats, out cold.

This is the fourth time I’ve used the CD, with the same results – each and every time. The last time I played it, Meadow actually put herself to bed.

We’ll see how well it works when I actually use it for fireworks and thunder, but for now, I would highly recommend it for anyone whose dog doesn’t have an off switch!

Vizsla and Labrador people perhaps???