5 Things I Want To Help My Audience With
I’m creating this blog for a number of reasons. The main reason is probably pretty obvious, I love my dogs. I am especially head over heels in love with my puppy, Bailey. Hence the name of this blog, Trish (me) and Bailey. I have two dogs, Bailey my Shetland Sheepdog puppy, and Nugget. Nugget is my senior Pekingese, who I rescued in late July 2020. I will undoubtedly include Nugget in all aspects of this blog and the accompanying social media accounts, but because Nugget is a senior, he lives his best life most days sleeping on the couch or laying in bed with me watching YouTube cooking shows, makeup tutorials and conspiracy videos (to roll our eyes and chuckle at).
I have wanted to put together a dog mom lifestyle blog for quite some time, and when I was ready to get the ball rolling my dog and inspiration at the time, Ming, was diagnosed with terminal cancer and passed away before I could even come to grips with his diagnosis.
Heartbroken, I shelved the idea and grieved for my sweet boy, who was a Pekingese my family had from the time he was 10 weeks old. He was five weeks shy of his 10th birthday when we had to say goodbye to him. And I was completely lost without Ming. He had been my constant companion for almost ten years, and then suddenly he was gone.
My family decided we would adopt our next dog, and that’s where Nugget came into the picture. He needed us and we, in particular ME, needed him. He seemed to fit right into our little goofball society here, which makes me believe that Ming, from somewhere over the rainbow bridge, had a hand (paw) in bringing us together.
Then Along Came Bailey
Bailey came to us when my family was going through a very difficult time. My husband needed to spend several months in a hospital (not Rona related) leaving me and my kids to wonder what the hell was going to happen to us.
You would think this would be the worst time in the world to bring a new pet into the fold, and it probably was, but I felt the kids and I needed something very positive to focus on. And Bailey definitely gave us the positivity we were in need of.
Initially, my husband was not thrilled about me bringing a puppy home without telling him. But then again, I wasn’t exactly thrilled that he ended up in a hospital for a few months and left us to fend for ourselves. That ended that argument, and over the past few months, Bailey has enchanted my husband with her goofball antics and he loves her very much now. So, all is good there.
My daughter and I drove a little more than two hours into Amish Country in Lancaster County, PA to pick Bailey up from a small farm. I consider her a rescue because on the drive home she threw up hay, dirt and pebbles. It took everything I had not to drive back to the farm and snatch up her littermates, biological mama and her older sister and bring them all home with me.
Bailey is a Shetland Sheepdog (Sheltie) who was born on February 6, 2021. She has been a wonderful addition to our family.
So, now that I’ve told you a little about my dogs and showed off their adorable faces, let’s get down to business. What can I do for you. What do I want to help you, my audience, with?
1. Celebrate the bond between dogs and their humans
“Animals have come to mean so much in our lives. We live in a fragmented and disconnected culture. Politics are ugly, religion is struggling, technology is stressful, and the economy is unfortunate. What’s one thing in our lives that we can depend on? A dog or a cat loving us unconditionally, every day, very faithfully.” – Jon Katz
Seriously, is there anything better than the unconditional love of our dogs? I feel whoever stated that diamonds are a girls’ best friend obviously never had a dog love them. When my fur babies greet me when I walk through door, when they stand in front of me in protective mode when a stranger approaches, and even when they bark and chase each other around our family room because they’re arguing over who gets to sit next to me on the couch, it’s just the best feeling ever.
Our dogs love us unconditionally and become our ride or dies; that’s a special unbreakable bond and it deserves celebrating.
2. Dog moms ARE real moms. I said it. You wanna fight about it?
Before we engage in a cyber throw down, let me just say this. I have three human kiddos. Two are fully grown, and my youngest is a teenager with special needs who will most likely be with me for the rest of my days. So I thoroughly understand that raising a small army of humans that you made yourself is difficult. No one ever said it wasn’t. But let’s think about what makes someone a mom, shall we?
If we Google the definition of parent we find several meanings, and this was one of them:
To be or act as the parent of
So this is not an exclusive term to humans who raise humans. And it’s also not exclusive to humans who give birth to humans.
When I refer to myself as a dog mom I’m not just being cutesy. What I do with my dogs is, what I consider to be, parenthood.
I feed my dogs twice a day. When they need to go outside to poop and pee, they whine a bit and look at me with their big ‘ole puppy dog eyes, and Bailey even tries to herd me out the door, and I take them outside. When I found a round worm in one of Nugget’s nuggets, I rushed said nugget into the vet’s office for analysis and then gave them both the medication they needed to make them both feel better (Bailey had them too). When either one of them has diarrhea, I wipe their floofy butts and bathe them afterwards. I make sure their vaccines are up-to-date, pay their medical bills, and give them their monthly heartworm, flea and tick medications. I buckle them up when we travel together in the car, and I buy them sweaters and coats to keep them warm in the colder months.
Please tell me how what I just described doesn’t qualify me to be considered their mom.
3. Cooking for our fur babies
Losing Ming the way I did shook me to my core. And even though quite a bit of time has passed, I’m still haunted with the memories of it all. One thing that really bothers me is wondering just how preventable his illness was. I know that dogs have a much shorter life span than we humans do, but part of me was expecting Ming to be around until he was at least 12, possibly even longer. I know of Pekingese pups who lived to be 16, 17 and 18 years old, so to say I felt cheated to not even get 10 full years with my sweet boy is a huge understatement.
Part of my being shaken to my core is a lot of guilt. Guilt over not feeding Ming the way he should have been fed. Guilt for opting for a cheap brand of dog food instead of investing in a much healthier option for him. I started to make his food from scratch, but only after he was diagnosed with bladder stones in the summer of 2018. By then he needed to be put on a prescription dog food, after which the seizures started. If I had just fed him a healthy home cooked, holistic diet in the first place, or even just researched what was good for him in the first place, maybe Ming would still be with us today.
I love cooking for my dogs because I know exactly what’s going into each meal I make for them. I also get to play around with different food combinations, and my dogs get to sample a variety of healthy homemade noms.
4. Dog Momager Stuff
Okay, you’re probably asking yourself just exactly what the heck is a dog momager. Just think stage mom, but for doggies. .
This is why I incorporated Bailey’s name into this blog’s name, because she’s the fur child who has pupfluencer and dog model stars in her eyes. So, what does that translate into as far as dog blogging goes?
- Manage all social media accounts affiliated with this blog, and blog about it
- Review products for dogs and dog moms
- Network with other dog moms and pet bloggers
- Create a supportive dog mom community
- Share my experiences as a pet blogger
And that takes us to #5
5. Blogging Help and Support
I’ve been debating on whether or not this would be a good thing to list as wanting to help my audience with for the simple reason of, well, I’m just getting started on my own pet blogging adventure so how could I possibly help anyone who wants to start their own blog. What do I have to offer you, my audience?
I can be supportive and listen. I can share my own experiences on this exciting adventure and show you the pros and cons of becoming a dog momager/pet blogger. Although, let me be optimistically naïve here for a moment by stating, being a full time dog momager and pet blogger, as someone who is head over heels in love with both of my dogs, I cannot see any cons. I know there are some, but I have yet to see them.
Being transparent with you, my audience, will hopefully provide the blogging help and support I want to give.
Now It’s Your Turn
So now that I’ve told you how I would like to use this blog to help you, is there anything in particular you would like to see featured here? Please let me know down below in the comment section.
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