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Meet Lila Rose!

Breed:  Black Lab

Age:  9 weeks

Walker:  Marcin

Where Lila lives:  Ukrainian Village

Joys in Life:  Lila loves chewing on twigs and greens during her walks with Marcin.  Lila is the predecessor of Henry, “The Big Handsom Man” who passed away at the age of 15 this past March.  Henry also was a energetic black lab that began walking with Cruisin’ Canines at a young age.

Friends:  Lila is still too young to have friends on the route but Marcin and everyone that has met her knows there will be many in her future.

The following dogs are a few of Cruisin’ Canines sweet older dogs that still LOVE their walks!  Pet Ventures LLC has launched an informative website to help owners of senior dogs (7 years and older) www.seniordogs.com

 The website focuses on providing articles and resources covering medication, pet insurance, nutrition, dog arthritis and fincial assistance.  The web site also allows you to interact with message boards to share personal expereinces, ask questions and give tips. 

Kobey

Callee

Diva

Jessie

Maggie W

Bailey S

Dasha

Bailey K

Meet Jake!

Breed:  Yellow Lab

Age:  11 years (12 in July)

Walker:  Kraig

Jake’s Background:  Jake isn’t outspoken, just like his kid brother.  Even if he could speak, he wouldn’t speak of it.  But one pet, from his pink Lab nose and Yellow Lab tail tells his story.  A bad dog bite as a pup, hit by a car…a tumor…siezures.  Lumps, bumps, stiches and itches;  He’s the Six Millon Dollar Dog, given the vet costs.  Get knocked down six times, stand up seven;  Thats Jake.  They say every dog had his day and Jake has certianly seen his share of sun-ups and downs.  I just hope his strength and courage allow him to see many, many more. 

Joys in Life:  Slow walks with Spencer, dog treats from Dan the Mailman, ear rubs and doggie massages.

Friends:  Spencer, Dan the Mailman and Me (Kraig).

Cruisin’ Canines has recentely starting walking several new puppies and they are all so irresistable we wanted to share them with everyone!

Dozer a beautiful Charcoal Lab

Fletch (Fletcher) a Golden Retriever

Jerry a Retriever Mix

Ivy a Swiss Mountain Dog

Tuli another Swiss Mountain Dog!

Meet Rudi!!

Breed:  Chocolate Lab

Age:  6 yrs, female

Walker:  Rudi ecstatically greets Eddie everyday for their walk.  Eddie has been walking Rudi for almost 2yrs.  They enjoy their walks on the lake front and love sitting on the rocks watching the waves crash.

Where Rudi Lives:  Edgewater

Joys in Life:  Chasing squirrels and playing with her toys

Friends:  Eddie admits to being selfish when he walks Rudi because he wants to enjoy his walk with Rudi without any distractions from any other dogs .

Bob

Meet Bob!

The Big Handsome Man

Henry is an old walking client of Cruisin’ Canines and will be celebrating his 15th birthday on January 23rd!  Henry’s owner shared a sweet dedication to him with us.  Happy Birthday Henry!

I wanted to share some of my favorite stories:

 1.  The time he stole a sausage off a platter from a family picnicking in the park, then after walking another mile or so, the second his leash was released, bolted right back and stole another

 2.  The time as a little puppy when he got into the garbage and ran down the street with a tampon string hanging out of his bum

3.       The time he dove into a fisherman’s box of Dunkin Donuts and had powdered sugar and jam all over his nose

 4.   The countless times he would let other dogs swim out and retrieve his sticks in the lake, when the dog swam back to shore the stick was immediately Henry’s again 

 5.       The times we would go to the beach in Evanston and stop at the snack bar for a picnic of hot dogs and chips afterwards

6.       The times we rented an RV and drove through:  Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Ohio, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Delaware.  This launched a competition with my cousins age 8 and 5 as to number of states travelled to.

 7.       The time he jumped into the backseat of my neighbors car full of groceries, stole a loaf of bread, then jumped out the other side

 8.       The time he carried a 12 foot branch down the street as a little puppy, clanking it on all the metal fences down the block

 9.       The time he (we) got kicked out of puppy school and had to go back to graduate a month later, after much homework

 10.   The times he would wake me every morning at the side of my bed with a little cry and his head shimmying side to side as his whole body wiggled in excitement with the start of the new day

 11.   The times my neighbors would tell me about his “lunch bunch” jaunts with his fellow elders, Whiskey, Brick, Dane and Coleco

 12.   The time he popped a balloon at Jack Gordon’s 3^rd birthday party and months later when you asked Jack who popped his balloon he would say “Henry!”

 13.   The times he would sit under Jack Gordon’s high chair and get Jack to give him his food; Jack’s dog Webbie was Henry’s best friend

 14.   The time he sat in the back of my Jeep Wrangler on a beautiful Chicago summer day and a police officer stopped to pet him

 15.   The time as a little puppy he jumped and popped two paws on both shoulders of a little girl at the beach, knocking her down flat out (she was OK)

 16.   The times he would be sound asleep and suddenly jump up and leave the room to avoid the smell of his farts

 17.   The times we spent the summer helping the neighborhood garden club and Henry would just lie down on the sidewalk and watch us all garden

 18.   The times he would try to climb into my lap in the car

 19.   The day he got out of his crate as a little puppy and completely went crazy playing unsupervised for 4 hours, destroying everything in my apartment

 20.  The time he stole a panini from 3 girls dressed to the 9′s picnicking in the park

 21.  The times we went to the McDonald’s drive thru; I would be covered in drool from the anticipation

 22.   The day I picked him up as an 8 week old puppy and he insisted on sitting on the center console of the car, he was so little he fit perfectly

 23.  The time he ate the heel off a brand new pair of shoes and a put a hole in my cowboy boots

 24.  The time it was medically proven by Dr. Dann that Henry is “the most handsome guy” of all his patients

 25.  Henry is in his sunset years now, in diapers with bouts of colitis, and I had no clue about the pure joy he would bring into my world.  Please say a little prayer and upcoming birthday wish for my beloved angel bear, Mr. Jones, Busa, monkey, the big handsome man, my beloved Henry.

Save the Greyhounds!

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I thought I would fill you all in on something that happened 2 weeks ago that might help you in the future with our dearly beloved dogs.

Most of you know Christy, who helps Paul and I in every way with running our business.  When our employees are not able to make it in for the day she is the first one to usually cover.  Always enthusiastic she set out for her day and early in the day she gave me a call, sounding a bit panicked, that one of her dogs that she was walking had horrible diarrhea was throwing up and panting.  Now we are not vets here but we know our happy little clients.  And this was one that has boarded with us and Christy knew very well.  Like a domino effect I called the clients to inform them and Paul was ready to walk out the door to take him to the vet.  The owner called me back and was able to run him to the vet himself.  Thank god Christy felt the immediacy of the situation.  It ended up that he had eaten some rug and the twine got twisted around his small intestine.  The vet had said if we waited 3-4 hours longer he would not have made it. 

I suppose the moral of the story is to go with your gut in regards to your dogs.  There are a lot of viruses going around this time of year for humans as well as our animals and we are all a bit nervous about it.  But in our heart of hearts we know when we need to jump.  Kudos to Christy for doing her job in the best of ways.