This blog feature amusing and heartwarming stories about our late Leonberger dog Bronco, as well as other Leonbergers. It also has a lot of information about the Leonberger breed, the history, care, training, Leonberger organizations, etc. I also wrote a Leonberger book, which I am featuring in the sidebar.
Please visit the Smorgasbord Blog Magazine post above. Smorgasbord Blog Magazine is sharing my super fact post Accents are very difficult to lose, as well as showcasing my Leonberger dog book.
The focus of this blog is Leonberger dogs but sometimes I write about other things, for example, about myself. This time I am responding to the daily Writing prompt “Which languages do you speak and how did that impact your life?”.
My native language is Swedish because that is where I was born and grew up. Since I lived in northern Sweden, I speak Swedish in a dialect referred to as Norrlandish. I was told by a Dutch linguist that Norrlandish is different enough from main Swedish that Norrlandish could be considered its own language, especially in the region where I grew up where the Norrlandish dialects are especially distinct. He was very familiar with the local variants of my dialect, which I found to be amazing. I was also amazed by the fact that he spoke so many languages. If I don’t remember incorrectly this linguist claimed that he spoke 30 languages.
Anyway, languages evolve, including Swedish. Things like Television, local travel, etc., tend to dilute and evolve dialects. However, I’ve been in the US for a few decades, and I’ve lived in Texas for 25+ years, which means that the way I speak Norrlandish has not evolved much, which has led to some interesting situations.
For example, once when I was shopping at a local grocery store in northern Sweden the cashier told me, “It is so nice to hear someone who still speaks the old way”. She was curious about how I had managed to keep the old dialect, and she asked me where I was living. Maybe she expected me to live in a cabin deep in the forest without a TV or radio. It was obvious from her reaction that she did not expect “I live in Dallas, Texas”.
One of the languages I studied back in school was English. The other was German. My parents did not speak any English, well, at first. However, my dad took English classes as an adult and was able to get by. My guess is that when I was done with school, I spoke English at the B1 level, possibly B2 level, according to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, which rates your language skills in any language from A1 to C2 (A1 is beginner, then comes, A2, B1, B2, C1, C2, C2 is like a native speaker).
B1 means that you can participate in a conversation with some difficulty, understand a newspaper article that does not have difficult language, write a short essay on any unexpected topic using multiple tenses, and understand a radio newscast that is not too fast.
In 1987 I was sent to Case Western Reserve University by my University, Uppsala University, Sweden, as a university level exchange student for one year. I was studying electrical engineering and physics. During that year I met my wife and after living in both the US and Sweden we ended up staying in the US. I had some difficulties with my English at first but with respect to learning a different language nothing beats being embedded in the language and I soon spoke and understood English I think pretty well. The type of English that we had studied in Swedish school was British English, but now the English that I absorbed was American English. Thereof the tongue in cheek of the title of this section.
I view being fluent in the main language of the country you live in to be of high importance. I have no problem understanding, speaking, reading or writing in English. However, it is very difficult to lose your accent when you have learned a new language as an adult. Just think of Arnold Schwarzenegger. Children can do it more easily. They say that the cut-off age is 12 years old. It is quite uncommon for people who are not fluent in at least two or more different languages to grasp this. On several occasions people have expressed their surprise over the fact that I still have an accent. Sorry the accent stays, and it is not my choice. You can read a related post “Accents are very difficult to lose” over at my second blog.
Another second language fact that you will find in that post is that Spanish has 74 million non-native speakers in the world, making it number eight with respect to the number of non-native speakers (second language). Oh, you thought it was the most popular second language in the world after English? Well, that is a common misconception here in the US due to the closeness to Latin America. I have often come across people who do not consider me bilingual just because I don’t speak Spanish. There are thousands, actually millions, of ways of being bilingual.
My wife has a sister in France and her parents speak French. When she decided to improve her French by taking French lessons for adults, I joined in with her. I don’t know if it is because of age, or because I am not putting in enough time into it, but it is going slow. However, I did pass the French B1 exam, which means I can participate in a conversation with some difficulty, understand a radio broadcast if they don’t speak fast, read a newspaper, and write short essays in French. However, I don’t think I can become fluent in French unless I somehow stay in France, or another French speaking country for some time.
So far, my experience in French has not been of very high importance to me. However, it is a hobby, it is something interesting that my wife and I can do together, and French speakers cannot speak behind my back without me knowing.
Dogs don’t speak human languages, but they can understand many words and react to them. Some dogs such as our mini-Australian Shepherd Rollo understand several hundreds of words. If you tell him, “Rollo go look out the window”, he goes and looks out the window. If you tell him, “We are going to Jack and Etty”, he starts screaming happily and running around in circles, because he knows he will get snacks there. If you say “bribe” he comes running expecting a handout, just like a politician. I could go on.
Dogs don’t speak with words, but they express themselves through body language and different kinds of barks, and if you pay attention, they can tell you a lot. For example, when Rollo lays down on his side and lets out one loud bark, he wants a belly rub. When it is 4PM and he starts staring at me, he wants dinner. When I am sitting in the sofa and he scratches my leg with his paw, it means, “move over so I can sit in the sofa”. So, you could say I also speak Dog. Sometimes people call me the dog whisperer, which I like to hear. Well, except for the sarcastic tone.
Click here or here to join in.
About number 2. Our dog Rollo loves getting close to people and not bark because he knows he will get a treat if he does not bark at people. So sometimes it appears that he wants to stalk people to get a treat. He even spots people half a mile away. However, we do not actually stalk people.
Our dog Rollo loves to cross the street when we are out walking, and we cross the street many times during our walks. He knows the word “cross” because we have taught him this word so that he understands that crossing a street back and forth is a special action that he needs to pay special attention to. We want him to know that when crossing the street, you have to be careful. Ideally, we would like for him to look both ways before he crosses a street, but we are working on this. We have had a bad experience with dogs crossing roads.
WARNING: the paragraphs below are very sad, so if you are sensitive, please skip to “My Other Responses to Esther’s Prompts”.
In December of 2008, we were planning a one-week trip. Baylor our yellow Labrador was maybe twelve years old at this point, and Bronco our Leonberger dog was a year and a half. We also had Baby our German Shepherd and Ryu our Japanese Chin. We needed someone to watch our four dogs while we were gone. Following a recommendation from our veterinarian at the time, we settled for a sitter who would visit the dogs, feed them, and walk them but not stay at our house full-time. This sounded like the best option at the time, but it turned out to be a disaster.
After we left on our trip, we got a phone call from the sitter, who told us that she was taking care of several other dogs in addition to ours and that she did not have time to drive back and forth to our house and attend to our dogs. The fact that she was taking care of several other dogs simultaneously was news to us. She asked if she could take our four dogs to her house. She stated that she had a fence like ours, and by having them at her house she could watch them 100 percent of the time.
We didn’t really like the idea because the dogs had never stayed at someone else’s house before. Moreover, we had never seen her house, and we had no idea how crowded it was with the other dogs there. But it sounded like the best solution under the circumstances, so we reluctantly agreed.
A couple of days later, the dog sitter called us again, but this time she told us that Baylor was missing. He had been barking at night, so she put him out in the backyard. Unfortunately, the gate at her place had been left open, and she didn’t notice that Baylor was gone until early in the morning. She asked us what we thought she should do.
We told her that she had to find him. “Go look for him; put up posters,” we said. She was reluctant to do any of that because she didn’t want to leave the other dogs alone. We told her that it was an emergency and she had to do it. We suggested that she recruit other people to help her. Baylor had to be found.
We were pretty upset about the fact that the sitter had put Baylor out into the backyard in the middle of a cold night and left him there. However, we needed her help, so we kept calm. We enlisted help from family members in Dallas, and I used an online service called My Lost Pet Alert, which sent 2,264 emails to people in our neighborhood that night. It didn’t help that it was cold and sleeting and the streets were icy and dark. Baylor also needed his insulin shot in the morning.
The following afternoon Baylor was found dead two miles from the dog sitter’s place. He had been hit by a car. He was found around midway between her house and our house, so it seemed like he was trying to get home.
Baylor had a very special place in our hearts, and I was devastated. My wife Claudia was crying, and the kids were crying. Not only had we lost a family member in a sudden cruel twist of fate, but his death was also likely an unpleasant one. That it was the result of a dog sitter’s carelessness didn’t make it any better. In fact, it made it worse. It is a traumatic event that none of has yet gotten over.
A professional content writer by the name of Ryan Goodchild contacted me about me posting an article he had written on how to manage stress for dog owners. The title of the article is “How to Manage Stress Naturally with Simple Daily Habits” and you can see the article below. Ryan wrote the article and I provided pictures.
Dogs can calm your nerves as well as cause some stress. Our mini Australian Shepherd Rollo chewing up my shoe. Our Leonberger dog Bronco clears tables with his cone. Our mini Australian Shepherd harassing our Leonberger dog and biting his tail. Our Leonberger and our Pug raiding the kitchen and eating the gingerbread house. Our Japanese Chin Ryu and Pug Daisy staging a protest against us travelling. Our Leonberger dog is trying to sit in my wife’s lap.
Busy dog owners who are already juggling work, family schedules, and a million small decisions often find themselves struggling with stress management and hoping things will just calm down a bit. The hard part is that stress rarely comes from one big event; it builds from sources of stress like constant notifications, unresolved conflicts, money worries, or even a packed calendar that never resets. Without recognizing stress triggers, it’s easy to treat the noise instead of the cause, and the stress impact on wellbeing can show up as irritability, poor sleep, or feeling stuck in overdrive. Spotting what actually sets stress off turns a vague problem into something that can be handled.
When you can name what’s contributing to your stress levels, it’s easier to choose the right tool for the moment.
Stress is your body’s built-in alert system, not a personal failure. The Cleveland Clinic calls it a natural reaction to changes or challenges, and it can show up in your thoughts, feelings, and actions. When you learn your early signals, you can separate “I’m stressed” from “something is wrong with me.”
This matters because stress patterns are often predictable. Spotting your common causes of stress and your most frequent symptoms helps you choose the right support faster and recover sooner. It also keeps you from treating every bad day like a character flaw.
Picture a typical morning: a late start, nonstop notifications, and a tense conversation. Your shoulders climb, your patience drops, and you reach for caffeine or scrolling. That’s your cue to connect the trigger and the response, then adjust. The same pattern recognition can help you notice stress signals in your pets, too.
Once you start noticing how stress shows up in your body and habits, it’s easier to see how it can ripple out to the beings around you, especially your dog. Dogs are keen observers, and a shift in your schedule, voice, or body language can register as “something’s off.” Calm, family-oriented breeds like Leonbergers often mirror the mood of the home, so when you’re rushed, inconsistent, or tense, they may become more clingy, withdrawn, restless, or reactive.
The good news is that the same steady routines that help you feel grounded can help your dog feel safe. Regular walks burn off nervous energy for both of you, and consistent feeding and sleep times make the day more predictable. Add a little quiet bonding time, sitting together, gentle attention, an unhurried presence, and create a calm space where your dog can settle when the house feels busy.
These habits work because they are simple enough to repeat on busy days, which helps your nervous system learn what “safe and settled” feels like over time. Pick one or two, practice them consistently, and let the routine support both you and your home.
Q: How do I choose a relaxation technique that actually works for me?
A: Pick the one you will realistically repeat, not the “perfect” method. Start with something low-friction like slow breathing, a short walk, or gentle stretching, then notice what changes first: sleep, irritability, or focus. If you hate a technique, it is okay to swap it.
Q: Why do I feel worse when I try to relax?
A: This is more common than people realize, especially if you have been running on adrenaline for a long time. Try a lighter version: shorter sessions, eyes open, or movement-based calming like walking. If panic spikes, pause and choose grounding actions like naming five things you see.
Q: When I miss a day, should I start over?
A: No, you are practicing a skill, not passing a test. Restart with the smallest version of your habit and anchor it to something you already do, like after brushing your teeth. Consistency over time matters more than streaks.
Q: When is professional support the safest next step?
A: Reach out if stress is affecting sleep for weeks, causing frequent panic, or leading you to rely on alcohol, drugs, or self-harm thoughts. A clinician can help you build a plan that protects both your body and mind. If you ever feel unsafe, seek urgent help right away.
This was a stressful situation. Our Leonberger dog Bronco, wearing a cast chased our neighbor and his Corgis down the street. He was limping badly but wanted a walk so we took him outside just for a little bit. We did not think he needed a leash in his condition, but it turned out he could run. He was not supposed to bump his cast and not chase neighbors either. Illustrations by Naomi Rosenblatt.
Managing stress naturally does not require a complete lifestyle overhaul. By learning to recognize your stress triggers, understanding how your body responds, and building a few simple, repeatable habits into your day, you can create more resilience and balance over time. Whether you find relief through breathwork, mindful routines, supportive supplements, or simply creating calmer rhythms for yourself and your family, consistency matters more than perfection. Small daily actions can add up to meaningful changes, helping you navigate life’s challenges with greater clarity, energy, and peace of mind.
A professional content writer by the name of Ryan Goodchild contacted me about me posting an article he had written on launching a pet boarding and pet daycare business. The title of the article is “A Step-by-Step Guide to Launching Your Pet Boarding and Daycare Business” and you can see the article below. Ryan wrote the article and I provided pictures.
Photos from Pexels.com by Nataliya Vaitkevich, Aishu gowda, Austin Briones, and Blue Bird. At the top left, me with our Leonberger dog Bronco.
For local business owners and new pet service entrepreneurs, a pet boarding business opportunity can feel obvious, until the local pet daycare market reveals crowded options in one area and unmet needs in another. The core challenge is separating real community pet care demand from friendly encouragement, so a small business startup in the pet industry doesn’t open to empty spots or unhappy neighbors. The upside is meaningful: reliable support for working families, safer care for pets, and a business built on trust and consistency. Clear demand and clear standards are what turn pet care into a lasting local service.
This roadmap helps you turn a pet boarding and daycare idea into a real opening day plan, with fewer legal, safety, and customer service surprises. It matters because most “small” gaps, like paperwork, intake rules, or staffing, are exactly what shape trust in your community.
Boosting your business acumen can be as practical as earning an online business degree, giving you structured training to support smarter choices as you grow. Earning a business management degree can help build skills in leadership, operations, and project management, the same capabilities you’ll lean on when you’re coordinating people, processes, and services. An online format can make it easier to learn on a flexible schedule while still applying what you study to your business in real time; for additional info, explore the program details.
Q: What licenses or rules do I need before I take my first booking?
A: Start with your city or county business license, zoning approval, and any kennel or animal care permits your state requires. Ask specifically about occupancy limits, noise rules, waste disposal, and vaccination requirements. Create a simple compliance binder with permits, inspection notes, and written policies so you can prove you are operating responsibly.
Q: How much insurance do I really need, and what should it cover?
A: Look for liability coverage that includes animal bailee or care, custody, and control, plus protection for bites, escapes, and property damage. Many sitters benchmark options by noting 78% of members in a major industry survey used one insurer, but the right choice depends on your services and facility. Get quotes from at least three providers and confirm exclusions in writing.
Q: How do I set prices without scaring off new clients?
A: Price around your true costs first: staffing, cleaning, rent, insurance, and supplies, then add a profit margin. A practical reference point is the pricing range $25-$65/day for day boarding, adjusted for your local demand and service level. Offer clear add-ons like medication, late pickup, or enrichment instead of discounting your base care.
Q: Should I hire staff right away, or start solo?
A: Many owners start lean, then hire when supervision and cleaning tasks begin to compete with customer service and sales. If you do hire, prioritize reliability and calm handling skills over pet ownership alone. Use paid working interviews and require proof of any claimed certifications.
Q: How can I prevent fights, illness, or mix-ups between pets?
A: Use temperament screenings, separate play groups by size and energy, and set firm criteria for when a pet must be kenneled or isolated. Require vaccination records, a signed emergency authorization, and clear ID on every collar and kennel. Daily cleaning checklists and incident logs help you spot patterns before they become big problems.
This checklist keeps your launch organized so you can open confidently and care for pets safely. Use it to spot gaps early, avoid last minute scrambles, and create a smooth first impression.
✔ Confirm business license, zoning clearance, and required animal care permits
✔ File insurance policies and document coverage limits, deductibles, and exclusions
✔ Set pricing sheet with add-ons, cancellation terms, and pickup windows
✔ Prepare intake packet with vaccine proof, emergency contacts, and behavior notes
✔ Stock supplies list for cleaning, enrichment, feeding, and first-aid essentials
✔ Create daily routines for sanitation, headcounts, and incident reporting
✔ Verify staff identities, references, and hands-on handling competence
✔ Launch local outreach with a simple website, reviews plan, and referral perk
Starting a pet boarding and daycare business can feel overwhelming because pets’ safety, regulations, and expectations all land on day one. The path forward is a community-first mindset, use your open-ready checklist, stay consistent, and build trust through clear standards and a customer satisfaction focus. When those pieces are in place, entrepreneurial motivation turns into confidence building for new owners, steady referrals, and long-term growth strategies that make the operation resilient. A calm, prepared launch is the fastest way to earn trust and keep it.
The focus of this blog is Leonbergers including Leonberger book reviews. However, sometimes I post about books that are not about Leonbergers but that are books on other topics that I love and want to promote. This time the book is Tales From the Irish Garden: The Missing Pieces by Sally Cronin. Below I am giving an overview of the two formats for the book (I bought the paperback edition).
In the Irish Garden there is fantasy, magic, friendship and love to be found in this green and welcoming haven. For some of those who find their way to the garden there is a renewal and an awakening of the spirit and special gifts lost through tragedy. For others it is the end of a long and arduous journey to find their soulmate.
The Irish garden has been a sanctuary for centuries for those escaping persecution, invaders and grief. Its guardian is the storyteller, a man who has lived for hundreds of years and who is part of a network of guardians around the world, offering a safe haven to those worthy of their protection.
It is not only humans who travel from afar to this garden, but animals which are hurt or lost. One creature in particular has travelled across time following the elusive melody remembered from its time in an ancient civilisation, a cat who has reached its ninth life.
There is fantasy, magic, friendship and love to be found in this green and welcoming haven. For some of those who find their way to the garden there is a renewal and an awakening of the spirit and special gifts lost through tragedy. For others it is the end of a long and arduous journey to find their soulmate.
You are welcome to join the storyteller, Finn, Lilah, Ramon, Michael, Bebechat and Flaco in the garden to enjoy their company, discover their stories and be amused at some of the antics they get up to as they finally find a peaceful home to call their own.
There is a magical garden in Ireland where persecuted healers, mistreated animals, and others can seek refuge. It is a beautiful sanctuary with flowers, birds and cottages. It is overseen by its guardian the Storyteller, an ancient practitioner of the magic arts. He is several hundred years old and does not seem to age. He is able to talk to fairies, animals, and other creatures. The Storyteller cannot have a large group of friends and marriage is not a good idea for him, because of his immortal existence and magical abilities. People seek refuge at his sanctuary, and he welcomes them, helps them and protects them. They live happy lives in the magical garden until they pass on.
In this book we meet several fascinating characters in need of help including Finnegan, Lilah, Bebechat, Michael, Gabriel, Ramon and others. There are people who are intolerant and egotistical, men with evil hearts who wish to harm others, but they cannot enter the sanctuary. That is to protect the innocent. There is adventure, gripping and scary moments, but peace wins. I found the adventures in this book captivating and the description of the magical garden and the Storyteller comforting. The book is very imaginative and fun to read. I highly recommend this book.
Sally Cronin is the author of nineteen books including her memoir Size Always Matters in 2024. This was an updated version of her first book, Size Matters published in 2001 which followed her weight loss of 150lbs and the programme she designed to regain her health.
A programme she shared with her clients over her 27 year career as a nutritional therapist and on her blog. This has been followed by another eighteen books both fiction and non-fiction including multi-genre collections of short stories and poetry.
Her latest book is part of a three book series set in a garden in Spain and then in Ireland. Tales from the Irish Garden: The Missing Pieces brings together creatures and people in need of a sanctuary, where they can spend their lives in peace.
As an author she understands how important it is to have support in marketing books and offers a number of FREE promotional opportunities on her blog Smorgasbord Blog Magazine and across her social media.
After leading a nomadic existence exploring the world, she now lives with her husband on the coast of Southern Ireland enjoying the seasonal fluctuations in the temperature of the rain.
Website: https://smorgasbordinvitation.wordpress.com
This is my review and post regarding another of Sally Cronin’s books that I love: Life of a Dog Told by the Dog.
A professional content writer by the name of Ryan Goodchild contacted me about me posting an article he had written on making a big difference for shelter dogs in your community. There are many ways that you can help as described in his article below. His article certainly contains a lot of great advice for all of us. I know that some of my regular readers volunteer at shelters and my gratitude goes out to all of you. You are heroes.
The photo tile above includes five photos of dogs in shelter. The photos are from pexels.com and the photographers are Laura Beauty Designer, lair arce, halilibrahimxq, 12photography and A P E R T U R E.
I should say that Leonberger dogs, the main topic of this blog, rarely end up in shelters and the reason for that is that Leonberger owners tend to be responsible dog owners and perhaps more importantly, it is difficult to get a Leonberger from a breeder that is not LCA certified. LCA is the acronym for the Leonberger Club of America. LCA requires breeders to take the dog back if anything goes wrong and they also keep an eye on Leonberger owners. If you mistreat a Leonberger, or sell or donate one in an unauthorized way, you can never own a Leonberger again. You have to sign a contract before you can buy a Leonberger. Below is a photo of a group of Leonbergers.
Our first two family dogs, a Labrador and a German Shepherd, came from a shelter via our niece and my wife’s sister. Their photo is below.
The title of Ryan’s article is “How Anyone Can Make a Big Difference for Shelter Pets in Their Community”. While Ryan did all the writing, I added some photos. See below.
Busy parents juggling work and school schedules, apartment renters with limited space, and local business owners trying to stay afloat often care deeply about animals but feel unsure how to create real animal welfare impact. Community needs are big, yet time, money, and energy are tight, and it can feel like only experts can move the needle. In reality, community support for shelter pets is the backbone of local rescues, from volunteering at shelters to helping more families feel confident about rescue pet adoption. Small, consistent involvement changes outcomes for animals waiting today.
Most people make the biggest difference when they pick a help style that matches their real life. A simple framework covers almost every option: donate time through specific shelter volunteer roles, offer space by fostering, or give money to fund care and services. Think of it as choosing the lever you can pull consistently.
This matters because shelters run on steady support, not one-time bursts. Time keeps daily routines moving, space reduces crowding and stress, and money covers essentials like food, medical care, and outreach. The scale adds up fast when many people contribute in small ways: one volunteer community donated 211,307 hours of service.
Picture a typical week: you cannot adopt, but you can walk dogs on Saturdays, foster during a quieter month, or set up a $10 monthly gift. Fostering works because fostering is a temporary arrangement that moves an animal into a calmer home environment.
Clear, shareable graphics make those adoption and donation asks easier for your network to act on.
Once you know whether you’re giving time, space, or money, one of the fastest ways to amplify that help is to make adoptable pets and urgent needs stand out online.
Volunteers can use free online tools to create eye-catching graphics that showcase adoptable pets and support fundraising, think social media posts, adoption flyers, or promotional materials for an upcoming event. Clear, shareable visuals can help more people notice a pet’s face and key details as they scroll, or understand what a donation drive is for at a glance. With an AI tool like Adobe Firefly’s AI graphic design generator, you don’t need design experience: you describe what you need (for example, an adoption post for a specific dog or a fundraiser graphic for medical costs), and the tool generates a customized visual you can share.
From there, you can pick from more high-impact actions that fit your schedule, skills, and comfort level.
Pick two or three actions you can sustain, and do them consistently. Shelters and rescues run on tight timelines, so reliable help (even small) often beats one big burst.
If you’re unsure what fits your time, budget, allergies, or experience, choose the smallest version of one idea and build from there, doing the “right-size” help consistently is what changes outcomes.
A few quick answers can make starting feel a lot easier.
Q: How do I help if I only have an hour or two a week?
A: Choose one small, repeatable job and stick to it, like laundry, enrichment prep, or photo posting. Many people give time in bite-size chunks, and 63 million people volunteer, so shelters are used to scheduling around real life.
Q: What if I show up to volunteer and the tasks feel boring or awkward?
A: That is normal, especially at first. Many roles are repetitive, dry, and unremarkable tasks that still protect animal health and keep operations moving. Ask for a clear checklist so you can be helpful even when you do not feel “plugged in” yet.
Q: Can I foster if I have pets, kids, or allergies at home?
A: Often yes, if you choose the right match and set boundaries. Request a foster that fits your household, confirm separation options, and get medical and behavior expectations in writing before pickup.
Q: How do I know my donation is actually used well?
A: Ask what their most urgent need is this month and whether they can share a simple breakdown of spending or program outcomes. If you want tighter accountability, fund a specific item they request and ask for a receipt or confirmation note.
Q: What should I avoid when adopting so I do not end up returning the pet?
A: Do a lifestyle match first: time alone, energy level, grooming, and realistic training needs. Ask about decompression time, medical history, and a support plan, and start with a slower transition rather than a packed social calendar.
Small, steady help adds up faster than you think for the pets counting on it.
Shelters are stretched thin, and it’s easy to care deeply yet feel unsure where help truly lands. The way forward is a steady, community-minded approach: choose practical roles, communicate clearly, and keep support consistent so good intentions become real relief. When that mindset sticks, making a difference for shelter pets looks like fuller foster networks, stronger outcomes from encouraging pet adoption, and volunteer impact stories that motivate others to join in. One reliable helper can change the daily reality for dozens of animals. Pick one next step today, sign up for a shift, submit a foster application, or set a small recurring donation, and put it on the calendar. Ongoing support for animal welfare builds the stability that lets pets and rescues recover, connect, and thrive.
Click here or here to join in.
I grew up not having any pets even though I really wanted a dog. However, both my parents were working, and my brother and I walked to and from school every day. We stayed by ourselves until our parents came back home. That is not a good situation for a dog or for many other kinds of pets. This all changed after I met my wife. She was used to having dogs and other pets. While we were still students we had an aquarium, hamsters, a rabbit, and a cat. Unfortunately, I was extremely allergic to the cat and I got very sick. Luckily, we found someone who could take care of the cat.
After we got married and had kids we had a couple of aquariums, a pet snake, a frilled lizard, hamsters, and eventually dogs. On one occasion we went fishing in a lake here in Texas. We used minnows for bait. My daughter wanted to take the leftover minnows home and put them in an aquarium. She named all of them Sally. Sally #1, Sally #2, Sally #3, Sally #4, Sally #5, Sally #6, etc. She was very young at the time and did not take care of her Sallys’ very well. She wanted them to have cranberry juice, so she poured cranberry juice in the aquarium. She wanted them to have a beautiful red aquarium, so she poured red paint in it. Well eventually the minnows died.
Our first dogs as a family were our Labrador Baylor and our German Shepherd Baby. To be precise, Baylor was a mix, one quarter Rhodesian Ridgeback and three quarters yellow Labrador. They were both rescues that were adopted by our niece (Baylor) and Claudia’s sister (Baby). They were both wonderful dogs. Baylor loved swimming and he was brave and very playful.
Next, we got a Leonberger dog by the name Le Bronco von der Löwenhöhle, or Le Bronco, or just Bronco for short. He was a big friendly goofball who saved our Pug Daisy’s life, probably saved Baylor’s life my smelling out an oncoming insulin shock, found and saved run away hamsters, and saved the entire neighborhood by chasing off a trespasser / intruder / peeping Tom. I wrote a book about him “The Life and Times of Le Bronco von der Löwenhöhle”.
Next, we got a Japanese Chin named Ryu and the Pug Daisy. Two little energetic and funny dogs. Ryu loved howling and he sounded like an opera singer. He loved the applause he got. Daisy was a funny girl, and she loved being around Ryu. They did not like it when we travelled and on one occasion they staged a protest. They defiantly sat down in one of the suitcases and refused to move.
Finally, we got our little rascal, the mini-Australian Shepherd Rollo. He is an intelligent, curious, energetic, anxious and spoiled dog that is a chore. He probably understands several hundred words. When we still had Bronco, they were best buddies. He was pestering Bronco, biting his tail and even swinging in it. Luckily, Bronco was patient. When we leave for a little bit, he sits in the window and looks out into the street. When we say “Rollo, go look out the window” he runs to the window. He knows we are leaving. He is our most misbehaved dog, but he is full of life and full of joy.
Pets give you unconditional love, company, adventure, memorable moments, hilarious moments, protection, and lots of joy. Playing with them or taking a dog for a walk is good for your health, as this article from the Mayo clinic states.
I typically don’t ask for Guest blogs, but I certainly don’t mind if someone wants to do a guest blog here. It is great to get quality content for free. I just came home from visiting our 8 months old grandson Jack. We had a good time. We went to the zoo, I went fishing with my son, and Jack wrote a blog post which is shown below.
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Please take a look at Smorgasbord Blog Magazine’s post about my super fact #7 “Poverty and child mortality has been sharply reduced worldwide“.
Leonberger Life 