Oscar and Mojo's New Year's Resolutions

Both Oscar and Mojo promise to be better dogs in 2010. Here are their top ten resolutions!


10. Leave the cat's food alone, both before and after the cat eats it.


9. All shaking will be done before entering the house or car, not after.


8. Neither the carpet or mommy and daddy's bed is a towel for cleaning our faces after dinner or to dry ourselves off after being outside in the snow.


7. Just because dead things on the ground smell good doesn't mean I need to roll on them or sniff for extended periods of time delaying our walk.


6. Mommy and daddy's underwear is not food nor is it a toy to play tug o' war with.


5. My parents have an alarm clock, they do not need us to wake them up five minutes before it goes off.

4. Just because the pantry door opens, it does not mean that that daddy is getting a treat for us.


3. I Mojo, promise not to scoot my bum on mommy's carpet whenever my anal glands are bugging me. I will politely ask to go the vet to get them expressed before I resort to this.


2. Other people who happen to be close by on our walks are not imminent threats that I Oscar to need to guard against and attempt to attack as we go by.


1. It is not necessary to seek out the carpet when we are about to vomit. The hardwood should do just fine.



Happy New Year from the Poooh Busters team and Oscar and Mojo!

Lost Dog?

The other day Mrs. Big Nate and I were sitting at our local Extreme Pita enjoying a Grilled Chicken Pita with Diet Pepsi. Gee...I wish I got paid for these advertisements!

On the announcement board there was a posting with a picture of the cutest puppy. The title of the poster was "Lost Dog". We both gave a little "awww" and immediately started to feel sorry for the poor owners who had lost this little puppy and they probably haven't even owned the dog for very long.

As we read on to get more details, we saw that the dog was not actually lost but was stolen. I can't remember the exact wording but it was something like "taken from outside the 7-11 in Shawnessey". We both looked at each other and started to get angry.

First of all, the dog isn't lost, it was snatched. Furthermore, it was stolen from outside the 7-11! The owners actually brought this puppy with them to the store and left it tied up outside while they went in for Slurpees and a chocloate bar? Nothing make us more angry than seeing a poor dog tied up outside a store. In almost every occasion where we have witnessed this, the poor mutt always appears stressed out and scared.

Think about it, the dog is tied up so it can't escape from this strange place, it's left alone to fend for itself and has no idea why or for how long. There are always tons of peole coming and going. If it is a gas station 7-11, there are cars and trucks rumbling by at very close range.

Strange people and children feel drawn the poor dog and want to go up to it and pet it. The dog is stressed and may not react normally to people and kids approaching it. Now the owner can face trouble that comes along with a dog biting someone on top of it all!

So now I don't feel sorry for the owner who "lost" his dog, I feel mad that they would do this with a puppy no less! Now I feel like they deserved to lose their dog and hope that the person who took him thinks the same and now the dog is in a better home than where it came from.

These are the initial thoughts and feelings we had at the moment but really we do not wish this on anyone. The owners abviously care about the pooch as they took the time to do up flyers and distribute them around the neighbourhood and local businesses.

Let this be a lesson people! Don't bring your dog to the store and leave them tied up and alone while you go in to get your smokes and bon bons!

Oh The Humanity!

The humanity of it all!

This snow is driving us crazy!

I'm sure your pets aren't much up for these days either. Mrs. Big Nate and I have had some pretty easy days as of late. Mojo and Oscar just don't seem to want to go for walks much lately. Hmmm...I wonder why? Could it be, oh I don't know...SATAN? (Just a little reference to Saturday Night Live's the Church Lady, but I digress).

Anyway, the snow and cold weather is here in full force and making a mess our city streets. This makes it quite difficult for us to get around, even in mid-day! So every once in a while if we are having a particularly hard time of it, we may either miss your service due to the roads being so bad or to the volume of snow that falls. That especially, makes it hard for us to do a proper job of removing that waste from your yard.


Have no fear, you are not being charged for the missed day and we will resume service the very next week or as soon appropriately possible.

We certainly apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you and your poooches!

We hope everyone is having wonderful time so far this holiday season. Mrs. Nate and I hope to get some skating in at our community rink. The area is so pretty now with all the Christmas lights up.


Please don't hesitate to contact us any time if you have any questions regarding our winter and cold weather service poilcy.

What's the Deal?

Some of you may be asking, what's the deal? Where have you been? No new blog posts as of late! Well I have been quite busy over the fall season. Not just with Poooh Busters but with Canine Correction, and a few personal projects. Not to mention, losing weight (planned meals and a fitness regime), rescuing a dog and a cat, my Mom's passing and on and on...

I am happy to report that Poooh Busters has in all this, had a stellar year so far. So much has happened in 2009 it's hard to know where to begin. How about a point form list? Apparently, lists are a part of my personality profile.

January 2009

• The team started off the year with very bad weather and lots of snow.
• We handed out our new complimentary 2009 calendar to our loyal customers.

March 2009

• I decide to step forward and become a larger presence on the Poooh Busters Team.
• The Team geared up for the annual Calgary Pet Expo.

April 2009

• We worked hard at the 2009 Calgary Pet Expo and announced the winner of our pet expo draw for a free year of pet waste removal service.
• The field team, Roland and Erin, struggled through more bad weather and snow dumps but provided service with a smile when they could.
• I decided to create a blog for the company in order to increase my online presence and as an attempt to keep our customers up-to-date on the happenings of the team.
• Mrs. Big Nate and I decide to adopt a rescue dog named Oscar from a crappy and now defunct resue society. Dog good, whole experience, BAD!

May 2009

• Me and the Mrs. attend the Humane Society's Annual Dog Jog. We raised over $600 on behalf of the team!

June 2009

• I decide to increase the Poooh Busters newsletter from one page to two pages.
• The team gets a call from the Federal Government stating that we must now start collecting GST...booo, hisss!
• I decide now is the time to get in the online game and create a Twitter account and a Facebook group.
• Our family loses our beloved cat, Monster. We still miss her dearly.

August 2009

• Poooh Busters launches their first month of collecting GST and becomes a truly recognized, small business.
• Roland asks me to start looking into how we can provide enhancements to our website allowing clients to pay online.
• My wife and I adopt a little kitten from the Humane Society. Chloe is a handful and we love having her in our family. Well everyone except Mojo.

September 2009

• We launch our first crack at online payments through Paypal.ca. It was a bit of a learning curve at first but we found it to be very beneficial to our customers.
• Poooh Busters and Canine Correction strike a deal and aquire Pet Ala Mode. This company provides personal dog walking and professional dog sitting services. All business is handled through our company but Caroline provides the service. Welcome aboard Caroline and Cam. Here we GROW again!

October 2009

• I worked very hard to set up online payments with a company called BeanStream.com. We were aboe to integrate our site into their payment system so payments are now seamless. No more Paypal in your face! And with that we were also able to implement Interac Online. The only drawback is that it is still very new and not all banks are online with it yet. Currently only BMO, TD, RBC and Scotia participate. If you bank with another company like CIBC or ATB, you're stuck using Visa or Mastercard.

November 2009

• The field team buy a new house and move head office to SE Calgary! Roland and Erin are very excited to have purchased a home together and are moving there as I write these words. Congratulations!

Well it has been a very exciting and eventful year so far. Still another 6 weeks to go. We are already planning for the 2010 Pet Expo and we are getting close to producing our complimentary calendars. The calendars feature the Poooper of the Month for each month in 2009. We love this little project and hope everyone finds the calendar fun and useful.

I'm going to try and keep up on my blogs and updates more frequently. So till next time, take care!

No excuse not to spay and neuter your pets!

Alright I have to get on my soapbox today. It was brought to my attention that an incident occurred recently where there are two small dogs living together in the same household. One attacked the other and cause severe damage and injury to the other one. Guess why? At least guess why the onwers though it happened.

They blame it on the fact the attaking dog is a bitch in heat. Something triggered the attack but the root cause is because the bitch is not her normal, tolerant self while in heat. The vicitm dog is fine and recovering nicely but at what cost to his or her mental stability towards the other dog, not to mention to the owners who had pay a hefty sum to their vet to repair the damage and provide mediciations?

What's the lesson here people? Spay and neuter your animals immediately upon receiving them or as soon as safely possible depending on their young age. This incident just another reason to get this responsible act done!

Let's see what other reasons could there possibly be?

1. Health risks with pregnancy and birthing

• try watching a birthing video first and see if you still want to go down this road
• the mother may need a cesarean section

2. Even one litter sounds like a good idea until considering what adding 12 new puppies to your family really means

• you and you alone are responsible for the entire litter
• can you guarantee quality home for all the puppies/kittens?
• if not are you prepared to own more than one dog/cat afterwards?

3. The cost of the extra veterinary care

• check ups, shots, and deworming-for 12 dogs
• the puppies may need substantial veterinary care

4. The state of current dog and cat overpopulation epidemic

• one female dog and her offspring can produce more than 4,000 offspring in only 7 years.
• for cats, that number is more like 400,000
• only one puppy or kitten of every nine born will find homes, the rest will likely be euthanized

5. Offers several key health benefits for the animal

• spaying your pet before her first estrous cycle, or "heat," greatly reduces her chances of developing breast cancer and eliminates the risk of uterine and ovarian cancers
• neutering your male can increase your dog's longetivity; why did Spot cross the road? He loved the ladies on the other side.
• 80 percent of dogs hit by vehicles every year are unneutered males
• testicular cancer and prostate problems commonly afflict unneutered male dogs
• neutered males are far less aggressive because they are less territorial (apparently so are female dogs)

There are really not many excuses to not spay your pet. Any shelter and most reputable breeders will require that you agree to have the dog spayed or neutered. Even if your have an older adult dog or cat, it is never too late to spay or neuter. The health benefits decrease the longer you wait, but a little benefit is better than none at all.

So to those who say "it's not natural" or "I want to breed my dog ", I say grab a brain, get realistic and be a responsible pet owner...NOW!

Pardon my venting but I'm quite passionate about this subject and the recent news of this attack has really made me feel the need to get this message out to anyone who will read it.

Taking Online Payments Sooner Than We Thought!

Things moved a bit faster than I expected! I was able to create a payments page on the Poooh Busters website and add a few links to get to it throughout the site.



So if you are a customer of Poooh Busters and wish to make a payment using your credit card, please be sure to visit our Payment Page and start using our very convenient online, credit card processing.



As I stated before, we are using Paypal to process our payments for us so it is very secure and we never see your credit card number or personal information. Just please be aware that when going to our customized payment site on Paypal, it may appear as if you need a Paypal account to continue but you don't. Just click the "Continue" link beside the credit card symbols. See example.



Poooh Busters wants to thank all it's loyal clients for the conitnued support and patronage!

Taking Online Payments Soon!

Well Poooh Busters is moving into another new era of online technology. We are going to start using the Paypal online payment service to process payment transactions!

We are doing this for a couple of different reasons but the main one is for the convenience of our customers. It's always easy to get on our computers and fire off a payment while you're thinking about it. It's fast, convenient and immediate!

Right now when payments are due, our loyal clients are asked to do crazy things like leave a cheque (or even cash if they prefer) in the backyard somewhere, the BBQ, the mailbox, etc. This is not really a safe thing to do. The envelopes get lost, stolen, blown away, rained or snowed on, or chewed up by the dog (yes that has really happened). Not to mention, our customers have to try and remember to leave the envelope out on pickup day. That can be a difficult thing to do given our very busy lives and schedules. And you have to dig up an envelope in the first place. I know I don't always have one lying around when I need one!

So Roland and Erin at Poooh Busters asked ole' Nate to come up with a way for our customers to easily make their payments without the risk involved with leaving cheques or cash stashed away in the yard somewhere. I looked into a few options and Paypal seemed like a good idea for present moment and situation. Poooh Busters is still not big enough to get into accepting credit cards just yet. There all kinds of hoops to jump through as a business to get to that point as well as the fees involved when processing transactions. Also our business account at the bank does not allow for personal email money transfers, so that option is out too.

Paypal.ca allows us to process credit card transactions immediately without any hassle. As we move forward, we will also be able to accept interac online but we're just taking this first step for credit cards until we get our feet wet and test the waters.

Well there you have it! Our latest news is exciting and we can't wait to give it a try. Once everything is finalized and I get a new payment page added to our website, we'll announce it here, on our news page and in our monthly newsletter. Probably throw it up on Twitter and Facebook just to be safe.