I am sure that most of you followed along in September as the Ottawa Dog Blogs got skunked and I went through an array of products and many MANY baths to try to rid them of the smell. I will freely admit that the Drypet towel was my SAVIOUR during this time.

A while back, a reader sent in a comment about how amazing Drypet towels were so I contacted Drypet about doing a review earlier that month and they wonderfully agreed and sent me a towel to test out right away. And test we did. In that week alone, the dogs probably had close to 5 or 6 baths. They stunk…oh man it was bad. They don’t like baths to begin with so they were not thrilled at my many attempts to rid them of their stench. My dogs have longer hair and they are tiny therefore they get cold quickly so after the bath, there is usually quite a bit of toweling off…usually not very successfully.

The Drypet towel quickly absorbs the water out of my dog’s hair leaving them, although not fully dry (did I mention my dogs have a lot of hair??), but significantly drier than any other towel I’ve ever used. It will allow me to bathe them in the winter months without having to blow dry them for quite some time afterwards! Now I towel off, use the dryer a teensy bit and they are good to go.

The best part about the Drypet towels is that although we Ottawa folk have to purchase online, the company is based in Toronto and therefore we get the towels through the mail extremely fast and don’t have to worry about any import fees. I love supporting Canadian companies and it’s wonderful to find one with such a standout product.

The towel is very well priced at 19.95 per 24″x36″ towel. They are available in Grey and the best part is you can have is customized for 24.95!!! What a great deal!

Just for Ottawa Dog Blog readers, Drypet has agreed to give us a special discount – $10 off!!! The Ottawa Dog Blog special code is cdp10 and will work from Nov 18-25. EDIT: please not the date of the sale has changed – 1 WEEK ONLY!!

These towels would make a great gift for any pet lover this holiday season.

As some of you may already know, I got married in August and I would like to officially let you know that I will be changing my name.

From now on, I will be known as:

Liz Bradley

Continue reading →

Today Paddington is 3 – I can’t believe it! It seems like yesterday we brought her home. She has been such an amazing part of our lives and has been through so much with us, buying and moving into our first home, her major surgery, a new little puppy sister (Corduroy), our wedding and much much more. We love our little girls and are so happy to have both of them in our lives.

To celebrate her big day, we went to Bruce Pit Park and I had our own little photo shoot with both dogs. I took advantage of the beautiful weather and the sun setting and got some fabulous shots.

After we got home though, due to our skunk incident last night, it was off for yet another bath!

Happy Birthday Paddy – I hope you had a great day!!

Continue reading →

I didn’t realize how much these little buggers actually do smell until last night. I let the dogs out into our fenced in heart-of-the-city backyard at 10pm, not even thinking to check if there was another creature already out there. The dogs ran out and it took me a few minutes to realize what was going on. I saw a white stripe and realized to my horror that a HUGE skunk was out there, and the dogs were on him.

It was bad, not as bad as it could have been, but it was bad. BOTH Paddington and Corduroy got sprayed in the face. We rushed them into the tub to wipe the spray out of their eyes and noses, poor girls.

If you’ve never experienced a skunking, you may not know that skunk spray is a limey yellowey green colour – so that’s good for telling exactly where the dogs have been hit.

We first wiped off their faces with a washcloth then shampooed them with their regular dog shampoo. After we washed them with a solution of baking soda and dish soap and it worked quite well. All of the yellow gone. We thought we were home free until they started drying and we realized that they STILL smelled. Next we will venture out to buy and try a professionally formulated de-skunkifier. There are all sorts of other home remedies that we could try, tomato juice, coke, mouthwash etc, but at this point I want to use something I know will work.

You also may not know, as I did not know, that skunk smell permeates almost immediately into every corner and crevice of your home. Our house reeks, our clothes smell, the carpet, the couch, even my purse smells like skunk now. It’s pretty disgusting.

Skunk spray is a viscous oil. It adheres and penetrates well. It will stick to and penetrate
anything that it touches. It also evaporates and re‐adheres to other surfaces.

So now the spray in the face from the skunk has morphed into a full frontal attack on every good smelling part of our lives – a little dramatic, yes, but now I have to figure out how to not only deskunk my dog, but my house as well!

Skunks may be cute, but I really don’t like them at the moment…
–more to come after we try out the de-skunking products–

Continue reading →

Dear Dogs and Cats: The dishes with the paw prints are yours and contain your food. The other dishes are mine and contain my food. Please note, placing a paw print in the middle of my plate and food does not stake a claim for it becoming your food and dish. Nor do I find that aesthetically pleasing in the slightest.

The stairway was not designed by NASCAR and is not a racetrack. Beating me to the bottom is not the object. Tripping me doesn’t help, because I fall faster than you can run.

I cannot buy anything bigger than a king-sized bed. I am very sorry about this. Do not think I will continue sleeping on the couch to ensure your comfort. Dogs and cats can actually curl up in a ball when they sleep. It is not necessary to sleep perpendicular to each other stretched out to the fullest extent possible. I also know that sticking tails straight out and having tongues hanging out the other end to maximize space is nothing but sarcasm.

For the last time, there is no secret exit from the bathroom. If by some miracle I beat you there and manage to get the door shut, it is not necessary to claw, whine, meow, try to turn the knob or get your paw under the edge and try to pull the door open. I must exit through the same door I entered. Also, I have been using the bathroom for years – canine or feline attendance is not required.

The proper order is kiss me, then go smell the other dog or cat’s butt. I cannot stress this enough!

Continue reading →

I think it’s safe to say that winter is finally coming to a close. If you are lucky enough to have your own yard, as we do, you are probably noticing the snow melting and all of the poos that you haven’t picked up for the past three months leaving you with pangs of guilt to get out there and clean them up. Our yard is a mine field as you can’t tell the pine cones from the poos!

One thing you should check on as the snow melts is any damage to your fencing or hedges that you rely on to keep your four legged family members in the yard. This morning, I got quite the shock when Paddington disappeared out of the yard at our 5am pee time. Seems that a bunny has chewed a few holes in our plastic fencing we used to prevent the dogs from escaping through the hedges. I found Paddington about 15 minutes later a few streets over, but it was a very stressful 15 minutes, especially considering it was dark out still.

So be sure to check over your yard to be certain that it is safe and secure for your family. Paddy was VERY lucky to not have stepped out in front of a car and although her recall has improved tenfold, she still left the yard and ran off in the first place. Dogs are curious, especially those who love to patrol the yard for squirrels and bunny rabbits – the dogs take this “job” very seriously on our household.

Continue reading →