"PAWS Chicago's Winter magazine used a picture of Dixie in her yellow duckie raincoat for their article on protecting your pet from natural diasters. What a cutie!"
"Our "official" Holiday photo. Burt is wearing WINston XXLP's bow tie, and I am wearing HoneyBunny's festive collar that she wore while fundraising for the Golden Retriever Rescue."
Nicknames: Dixie DoodleBug, Doodle, DixieDawg, Sweetie-girl, DixieCup, Birdie, TrixieDixie, Dix, Baby-girl, Queenie, Princess, DivaDog, DixieGirl, and the Dad calls me "Chachi"--don't ask me why
Badges:
Quick Bio:
-purebred
-dog rescue
Gotcha Date: August 26th 2008 Birthday: February 10th 2003 Likes: walkies, car rides, being in the same room as her people Pet-Peeves: not being able to sniff each and every clump of grass, bush, weed, hedge, tree for at least a minimum of 15 seconds... with her nose buried in the foliage Favorite Toy: After living with us for nine months, she still has no interest in toys... how sad. But we keep trying :D Favorite Food: Dixie understand treats now. She is a delicate little lady--only soft treats, and only small portions. We had to return the free bag of normal sized kibble for a bag of small bites :) Arrival Story: The Chicago Crew had just lost two of it's members--14 yr old Golden Retriever Remo the Red to renal failure and 9 yr old Golden LuckyLucy to cancer--and that left a very, very big hole in our lives. WINston XXLP is a wonderful, fabulous Bulldog who has us wrapped around his paw, but he's not a dog you can take out on walks or explore with. As adorable as he is, he's our fur-covered doorstop (but at the ancient Bulldog age of 11 1/2 he's earned that right!). Mum and Dad had recently heard about the plight of black dogs in shelters (in kill-shelters being black is almost a guaranteed death sentence because they get passed over for lighter-colored dogs until time runs out) and decided the next member of The Chicago Crew would be a beautiful Black Pearl! We found Dixie on Petfinder at a shelter in Indiana not too far from our wonderful vet, Dr. Mullings.
UPDATE: The unthinkable has happened. Our dearest bullyboy suddenly left for the Bridge not even a month after Dixie came to live with us. So many people have commented that WINston waited for Dixie to come before he felt he could leave us. Losing three in three months... Dixie came just in time to save us from unbearable sorrow. Bio: Back in the beginning of February 2008, in the dead of a Midwest winter night, Dixie was dropped off after hours outside of the Humane Society Calumet Area in Munster, Indiana, by person(s) unknown. Dixie spent over six months at the shelter, and from what we were told, became a favorite of many of the staff. Forums Motto: Share your love with a BlackPearl dog! The Groups I'm In: "Canadian Golden Retrievers" who want to be Friends with other Goldens..., ♥Pawrayer and Pawraise♥, ♫ THE KIT KAT CLUB ♫ ®, ♥All Fur Fun♥, *¨¨*DOGGIE CONNECTION*¨¨*, Everythings coming up Daisies!, FANCYPANTS CAFE, For The Love Of Pug! (FLOP), Pugapalooza, ♥♥MISS DIXIE MONROE'S **DIXIE**LAND♥♥, Black dogs, Border Collie Bay, Border Collie Mania, Chicago Dogs (and Cats), Da Mitey Mitey Buh-ens Club!, Dogster Dog Blog Bark Out, Duncan and Bailey's Wedding In Jerusalem, Dyson Dogster/Catster, Flatcoats World, For The Love of Every Dog, Meatball POTP Group, OnLy PuPs, P*I*F (Paw it Forward), PAWS Angels WAGS for Kindness, Pawsome Pages, PURRS N WOOFS VILLAGE, Round up Rowdy's Helpers, SMOOCHES FOR POOCHES, The Dog Park ;), ~~~*♥Dog Park USA♥*~~~ The Last Forum I Posted In: The Mitey Mitey Buh-ens Party!
So, they say it's your Birthday! A day to celebrate the wonder that is YOU! The one word to describe our darling Dixie? JOY! Not joy. JOY! Happy, happy, JOY, JOY! The JOY in which you approach the day. The JOY you make us feel when you're with us. The JOY that explodes from you when we're together. Happy 9th Birthday, sweet baby girl. We pray for many, many, MANY more!
Three years ago, after losing Remo and Lucy, we were no longer a Triple-Dog Family, for the first time in over 20 years. How very, very strange to have just one dog. Dogs are like Potato Chips--you can't only have one!
But our hearts were very bruised, and we hesitated to open ourselves up to love, and eventually lose, another dog. Lose yet another piece of our hearts.
But we took a chance on Dixie BlackPearl, and she took a chance on us. A shy, timid, frightened shelter dog, the volunteers had worked with you for over six months. You needed someone to believe in you. To take a chance. And little did we know how much more we would need you just three weeks later.
Dixie, thank you for saving our hearts.
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Dixie has been having episodes of irregular, slow heartbeat. Please keep her in your thoughts as we begin this journey with her, exploring any and all options.
So, the Mom hopped on the internet and ordered Burt and me our very own Thundershirts! The website not only offered the original Heather Grey Thundershirt, but also a Pink Rugby and a Navy Rugby Thunder Shirt--perfect for diva Dixie and dashing Burt. We'll be stylin' real soon and we'll be ready for the next TStorms that roll through ChiTown!
For those pups not up on what Thundershirts are for, well, the name says it all. From their website, www.thundershirt.com :
With its patent-pending design, Thundershirt’s gentle, constant pressure has a dramatic calming effect for most dogs if they are anxious, fearful or over-excited. It is this pressure that has a dramatic calming effect for most dogs if they are anxious, fearful or over-excited. From real world experience, we know with certainty that Thundershirt DOES WORK. That is why we are able to offer a money-back guarantee. Based on surveys completed by over 1,000 Thundershirt users, over 85% of dogs show significant improvement in anxiety symptoms when using Thundershirt.
Thousands of veterinarians and dog trainers now recommend Thundershirts for their anxiety cases. We recommend just putting on a Thundershirt and observing the results (No training!). You very well may see significant improvement for noise, crate, travel, barking and others with absolutely no training. For more complicated anxiety cases, we recommend using Thundershirt as part of a behavior modification program.
One thing is for certain, for a very large percentage of dogs, Thundershirt’s gentle, constant pressure has a terrific calming effect. This has obvious benefits for most types of anxiety. But Thundershirt is also a very useful tool for managing excitability or hyperactivity with strangers, on the leash, or in a training environment. Thundershirt’s calming effect helps a dog to focus (or refocus) her energies in a more constructive direction, allowing training to be more effective.
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