JillFlorio

I’ve got my mind on RVs these days. A LOT of people traveling in RVs - fulltimers, partimers and weekenders alike - bring their doggies along for the trip. What do you do to keep your mutt looking pretty on the road? What happens when you let Fluffy out to do her business, and she comes back with a coat full of burrs and mud? Even if you are just road tripping in a car, it pays to have a little ‘grooming emergency kit’ tucked away somewhere. These are the essentials:

1. Fine-Tooth Comb - you can work out the burrs before they get really entwined with any plastic comb. Just don’t yank on your poor dog - be gentle!

2. Dog brush - once you have the burrs out, brush through the fur to remove leaves, dirt and mud blots.

3. A small scissors is a lifesaver if there are matts.

4. Tweezers to remove the thorns and spines. Check your dogs feet every time you think of it - a thorn could become an infected abscess if neglected.

5. Baby Wipes are great for touch-ups between baths, for wiping eye boogers - and can really help out when you see any dangling dookie (you DON’T want THAT in your vehicle)!

6. A small spray bottle of doggie cologne, to help cover up any odors from Fido rolling in the cow pies. Find a scent you like since it will linger in the car or RV with you - there are hundreds to choose from; something for everybody. I am partial to the Christmas Spice-type scents…plus, after Christmas, you can probably buy a bunch of bottles on sale and use all year.

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If your dog has a short coat, you might be lucky enough to not deal with burrs - at least, not as many. Plant burrs are essentially hitch hikers, and have evolved to cling to skin, fur and feathers. This moves the little seeds from their parent plant to a possibly better, more fertile area for new growth. It’s a very effective means of weed propagation.

You’ve probably had little burrs cling to your own blue jeans, so it’s not a stretch to see the little seeds sticking to your short-haired dog. It can be a nightmare for a longer-haired one!

The key is removing the burr as soon as possible, before there’s been time for either 1. the burr to work it’s way into skin, and 2. your dog’s hair to get more firmly wrapped around the little seed, eventually becoming a solid matt.

If you have a show dog, it’s a good idea to have a pliers or hemostat in the car, which can hold the burr while you pry loose the hairs from around it. Gently! This saves the coat from needing a scissors…and if you are enroute to a show, the last thing you need is a big hole in the coat you have spent so much time perfecting!

I love to reuse the resources my own home produces, and my many fish tanks are a fine source of free nutrients for my houseplants, yard and vegetable garden.A great way to introduce the ecosystem concept in your own home is to recycle your own natural resources - like the dirty water you collect from your own fish tanks. I change my freshwater fish tanks on a regular basis - betta bowls get changed every few days, larger tanks get it once every week or two. I DON’T pour this water down the drain. It goes right into my houseplants and garden.

People always notice how healthy, green and shiny my plants are. While partly it’s a firm knowledge of how to raise houseplants, my main secret is the fish water. That dirty, icky, smelly water is pure nutrient nirvana for your flora - both inside the house and in the garden.

Here are some hints:

• Use a gravel siphon, from any fish shop to remove fish wastes. Ask your shop how to use it, then drain your wastes directly into a bucket you set aside for this purpose.
• You can use this smelly stuff directly; no need to age it or add anything. The concentrations won’t ‘overfertilize’ your plants, unlike many chemical applications you buy at the store.
• While your houseplants might stink for a few minutes, that scent will go away within the hour. So don’t be afraid to water your houseplants liberally with it.
• In my garden, the plants that get the most fish water thrive the best. I concentrate on my honeysuckle, roses, tomatoes, willows and peach trees. The growth and flowering is unbelievable.
• I have so many fish tanks that I can’t even use all the stuff up. So I keep my plastic bottles and fill them with excess fish water. This is a good idea for wintertime, so you can store up the fish water to use on houseplants whenever you wish. Yes, the bottles will be smelly when you open them. So don’t open them unless you need them! Remember, that smelly stuff is pure gold.
• I even give out extra bottles as gifts to friends with houseplants, and have sold a few extra bottles at garage sales. Anything to not pour good, free nutrients down the drain!