DOGKISSES A Personal Blog about Life, Health and Healing, Nature, Love, and Dogs.

Hello.  I’m your blogger, Michelle, and dogkisses is my personal blog.

I named this blog after my sweet dog, Ruthie Mae.

Ruthie gives the slightest little kiss on my arm each time I reach into her bag of food. 

The little kisses remind me of snowflakes landing ever so gently, melting my heart.  

I’ve written about several subjects in this blog.  I’ve always enjoyed writing and have long hoped to write non-fiction stories about my life experiences.

“You should write about your life,” many friends have suggested over the years and I couldn’t agree more.

I’ve always enjoyed stories.  Oral or written.  Especially real life ones, whether they’re mine or someone else’s.  I’ve also lived through situations and circumstances that upon reflection, are far more than ordinary. 

I started writing around age eight with my grandma’s help through letters to family who lived in a different state than us.  I got my first diary and a desk in early middle school.  I loved both! 

I still have that desk.  And a story worth telling as to how the desk was lost to me for years, but my mom was amazing to find it and buy it back!

I’ve always loved dogs.  My dad raised Beagles after we moved to his home town in North Carolina when I was seven years old.  We called them rabbit dogs.  I loved the meat but my dad spared me the view of any rabbit before my grandma cooked it for us.

Jack, who was very cute and a good hunter, was my dad’s last dog.  His tombstone has a carving of a man with his hunting dog and a gun.  Daddy left us too soon.  He was barely sixty.  I was twenty-six.

After living with chronic health conditions for many years, I have a deeper appreciation of a dog’s unconditional love and companionship. 

Dogs are good medicine. 

I understand better now why my dad loved his dogs.  He liked sitting in the woods, listening to them bay.  He liked the end, when Jack got a rabbit, but most of the time, he came home empty-handed.

“It ain’t as much about getting a rabbit, as it is about me having time to myself,” he told me.  “I like hearing ’em go after one.”  He smiled a lot when he talked about his dogs. 

I’m blessed with my mother, who is eighty-seven, as I update this page (October 31st 2022).  She’s as high-spirited as ever.  

I’m also blessed to be a Mother!  I have a grown son and am a very proud Mom.  My son has lived with a mental health condition since he was about 19 years old.  He’s a survivor, like his mom and grandmother.  

My best friend is a dog.  She’s also my medical support animal.  She might be the sweetest dog in the world!  She’s my tender-heart.  Her name is Ruthie.  Ruthie-Mae to be exact.

Ruthie is also a hunting dog.  She hunts squirrels, although I don’t let her, but she would and she has.  She once killed a big rat and when we found a black snake in our house, she wanted to kill that too. 

Mostly, Ruthie Mae hunts insects.

No spider or bug gets by Ruthie Mae!  Ever!  She must hear them, because I’ve seen her jump up in the dark of the night to go find whatever insect, almost always a spider, decided to crawl on our floor.  I get up to find her right in front of them, with her eyes glaring at them, so I know exactly where they are.

We recently moved, so thank goodness, Ruthie no longer spends her nights hunting insects indoors!

Sweet Ruthie Here!

Ruthie, like all dogs, is a teacher. 

Mostly, Ruthie teaches me about being gentle.  Ruthie is a true tender-heart. 

Dogs have a lot to offer and when I listen, I can hear their wisdom.  They sure do know how to live.

Tiny likes Yogurt!

In January, 2013, we parted with our dear friend, Tiny, the very handsome fellow in the image (left). 

Tiny was my son’s dog, so he was my grand-dog 🙂

He was the best friend in the world to my son.  Tiny could communicate with me telepathically when my son needed me.  He was an amazing animal!

Tiny lived twelve years!  That’s a pretty good life for a big dog, and Tiny boy was a big dog, sort of.

We love you Tiny!

Free was our first family dog.  She’s the shiny black dog resting on the river rock at the end of this page.  I have lots of “Free” stories and awesome memories of her.  She made our small family bigger.  When she got tall enough she’d always get in on our hugs.  My son and I loved that.  We both adored her.

My son picked Free out of a litter at the Apple festival on Franklin street in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.  Free was like a sister to my son.  She was mostly Lab mixed with Border Collie.  She was smart! 

Free lived from 1993 to 2006.  What a sad time it was when we had to let her go, but Free left me with a heart full of love.  Particularly, a love of dogs.

Thanks for visiting this page and if you feel like taking a stroll through my blog, dogkisses, feel free to leave me your thoughts.  Your emails are never published.

You may also visit my photo-nature blog, Green Healing Notes (http://greenhealinggirl.wordpress.com/) where I share nature’s beauty.

My Lucky Little Lady

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Thanks for visiting!

Below: Links to posts by Michelle.

• Pain in fibromyalgia
• Homeless with Dog (A favorite post)
  
• Hope Grows in the Garden
• Green Healing ~ Good Greens! (Green Healing Notes)