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Flashy Friday Week 2!

Flashy Friday! Week 2 -  "Spin" Whew! A whole week between posts, sorry guys! Like I've mentioned before we're pr...

Monday, November 23, 2015

Handsome Eddie

Meet Eddie!

Look! We gave him his own tags!
Their is something so wonderful and refreshing about a senior dog. They are like a warm blanket and cup of coffee in the doggy world. I just want to sit on the couch and hang out with him all day.
If it weren't for the fact that we also have three young'ins living with us I'd probably do just that! Especially with the temperature dropping, and the threat of snow we heard about this morning on the radio.



Handsome Eddie is such an easy keeper. Wouldn't it be nice if we could find him a forever home for his Christmas present?



While he waits for his forever home we're giving him the best life possible, he's enjoying being groomed by Ziva, and he takes his door guarding job very seriously. Any potential intruders beware! Between Dante, Ziva, and Eddie barking (nope Mikey doesn't seem to bark!) it sounds like the house is going to come crashing down!
However he is such a lover, Eddie has spent some time with my neighbor's kids, and little girls of a good friend of mine. He's very gentle with children and takes treats with the utmost of delicacy.

Eddie is currently available for adoption, his anxiety has come way down as he has settled into our house and the Relaxation Therapy we have been doing has been making a huge difference!

I know many people want puppies, but really? Puppies are so much work! It ends up being a give and take, do you want to deal with teething, potty training, indoor manners, chewing, destruction, or in an adult dog maybe a bad habit or two?

Adult dogs are perfectly capable of giving lots of love, and while they may not have puppy breath they are big and snuggly just the same! And so relaxing to be around, like I said - a warm blanket and a cup of coffee kind of dog. I don't have to worry about what he's getting into because he prefers his bed to shenanigans. He follows me around like a giant protector - he's a big dog! People don't realize it until they meet him in person but he is very tall.


He looks a little funny in certain angles because he has some old man bumps, but they are perfectly harmless and the vet gave him a clean bill of health!


I am very thankful this Thanksgiving, for such wonderfully behaved dogs. Although we have a very full house, I can proudly say that everyone is getting along beautifully!






Friday, November 20, 2015

How Do You Exercise a Bulldog?

Fit Dog Friday!

Our New Fosters Part I HERE.
Meet The New Crew part II HERE.

"How Do You Exercise a Bulldog?"
This has been driving us crazy, hubby is out of town so no running - this here mama hates running! I'll stick to my zumba thank you!
Bicycle? Nope, too wet and he's still not good on a leash.
Fetch? Nope he's not interested in a tennis ball...
Tug? For sure he'll tug! Nope, not into tugging with me either...

What is this magical new toy?!  It's a Jolly Ball!!!
And he's certainly a jolly bulldog with it!
It took me a few minutes of helping him figure out how to play with it, but he certainly figured it out! And I got him to tug with me a little bit.


Dante even loved the silly jolly ball! Dante has never played with one until now, so after playing with Mikey by himself I took Dante out alone. I asked him to sit, took the leash off, released him, he grabbed the jolly ball and took off with it! I wish I had a video, Dante went nuts! He ran in circles shaking it the whole time, and got even more excited when I would throw it. It was so cute!

Now we're working on teaching Mikey to play with others, it's a bit slow going. He's certainly got a bulldog personality, he quickly became obsessed with the jolly ball. He'll let me take it from him, but when Dante tries to play with him it can turn serious pretty quickly. On a good note, no one has been hurt and we very carefully monitor play time. As soon as we see the game changing to a more serious note we end the game and redirect both dogs to something else. I'm hoping in time he'll learn to play with Dante for longer periods!


A video posted by DZ Dog Mom (@dzdogadventures) on

Happy Fit Dog Friday! Both Eddie and Mikey are fitting in great at our house! No problems, and Mikey hasn't had an accident for 4 days so I think we're past it! **Crossing fingers, knocking on wood...not jinxing myself.**



Last night was the first night I let Mikey sleep on the bed with us, I've been having him sleep in his crate just to get him used to the routine. He did awesome, took him a few minutes to settle then he slept like a big baby! And he has such a cute little snore.. My kitty even slept with us like normal despite the fact that Mikey was on the bed. Eddie prefers the dog bed/floor, I think he is more comfortable spreading completely out. And our bed is super tall, Mikey has such short stubby legs he can't quite make it so I have to lift him. Dante and Ziva jump up just fine, but when Ziva's tired I have to lift her too. Hahaha! The things we do for our dogs, right?

His poor eyes are still red and a bit gooey.
Mikey is still getting his coconut oil massages nightly, and the eye drops. So far his skin isn't getting worse but i'm also not seeing it getting much better. But we're sticking to it!

We've certainly got our hands full, but at least everyone is doing great!

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Today is the last day for our giveaway! 
The drawing ends tonight at midnight, winners will be announced and contacted tomorrow!

http://www.dzdogs.com/2015/11/rejenease-for-dogs-giveaway.html


Thursday, November 19, 2015

Send Some Snow!

Happy Throwback Thursday!

I was just looking outside, sipping my eggnog latte and watching the gray clouds roll around with light rainy sprinkles...and thinking about that gorgeous white stuff. Yep, snow!

I hope we get some this year, Ziva has never been snowshoeing! We took Dante a little over a year ago, but that was before we adopted Ziva.

So cross your fingers, I'm wishing for a white Christmas!

HERE is our fun snowshoeing story from 2014!



If you've never been - snowshoeing is such a blast! It really isn't that hard, and it's fun to get out in the great outdoor and enjoy the beauty that winter brings. I should mention, the Ruffwear boots that Dante is wearing in this first picture didn't work out for the snow. The velcro kept getting clogged and they kept falling off. So we'll be ordering new boots if we have the chance to get out this year! I've been looking at Muttluks Dog Boots, and Pawz brand boots to try. Have you guys had any personal experience with either?

And our family is bigger this year!
It's my twin niece and nephew's first Christmas! We'd like to hook them up to Dante & Ziva and have the dogs pull the twins around in their convertible bike trailer, you can replace the wheels with ski's, how great is that!



I love my family.
Cheers to hot coffee!!


http://www.dzdogs.com/2015/11/rejenease-for-dogs-giveaway.html


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Wednesday, November 18, 2015

Full House!

It's a Full, Full House!


Well my week has been a bit crazy to say the least! On a good note, everyone is doing great!

First order of business, Buster found his new forever home!



And in case you missed it, we have a new crew! Two new fosters named Eddie and Mikey! Our first post is HERE.

Handsome Eddie
Eddie our senior boy had his vet exam on Monday and his results came back good! He has all sorts of lumps on his body but the vet said they are just harmless fatty lipomas, she tested the ones that we were concerned about and they all came back good! We also did a full senior panel blood screening and urinalysis, I've been concerned about his kidney's since he drinks massive amounts of water but she said everything is normal! If anything his liver count was just a bit high, but we don't need to check it again for another 4-6 months that way we can just monitor if it's going up or staying the same.

Both boys had some pretty severe anxiety for the first couple days, but it has reduced quite a bit at this point. We're working on Karen Overall's Relaxation Protocol and asking them to lay down when they are pacing and panting heavily. It is definitely making a difference especially for Eddie, Mikey is going to take a little longer I think.

Ziva is not a fan of the nervous breathing, but when they are not panting heavily she is happy to be around them. And she's quite being a snarky jealous brat. (I say that with love of course.) Day one and two, she paced around my feet like a little golden shark and grumbled anytime the boys got too close to me. So what I ended up doing was allowing her to be near me but any grumble resulted in her being sent to her bed until she could be nice again. And last night she was beginning to snuggle with them!

Eddie and Ziva
One thing we're working on with both boys is their leash manners, among other things. Haha!

Mikey pulls so hard that the hair is rubbed off of part of his neck, thankfully that wasn't us - but that does mean that we are re-teaching him how to walk. I've never personally been a fan of the no pull harnesses, but as a teaching tool it is working really good for both of the boys! I'll try weaning it out as they get a bit better on the leash, but Mikey is learning to redirect his attention to me and we've now had two successful walks where he was loose leash most of the time though still not in a formal "heel" position. But I'll take it!

Eddie being so old, and again not wanting him to injure himself and me not enjoying being dragged down the street by a determined 80 pound dog - also has a brand new no pull harness!

Our first walk with my girlfriend i'm sure looked like madness to any onlookers! I was being dragged by a snorting, snuffling, low riding bulldoggy while she was being hauled to and fro by a heavily panting straining against his collar giant dog! I'm so glad we've at least got that under control now.
This morning I walked Eddie and Mikey together, and they did pretty well considering we've only been walking for a few days together. At first it was chaos, I'd ask for a sit at the door - Dante and Ziva would immediately sit. Eddie would sit, Mikey would sit, Eddie would pop up! Then Eddie would sit, and Mikey would pop up! I finally using cheese was able to get them both to sit at the same time, opened the door, and BOOM! Eddie and Mikey immediately launched out the door with me attached to the leashes.

Then the sitting began again, we have a gate on our front porch (installed thanks to Jack). And again I require sits before the gate opens. On a good note they got the second time a bit quicker and we were off!

"Did you say sit? I do not know the meaning of this word..."

The first 15 minutes was spent continuously untangling myself from both leashes since they refused to stay on the sides that I wanted them on. So we'd stop, I'd untangle, put them both on my right side. Start walking, Eddie would come to random dead stops while Mikey and I kept our pace and then I'd be yanked on due to him stopping like an anchor to smell things. Clicking at him to keep walking, we'd start again, Eddie would dart to the other side, then i'd be spinning in a circle with again both leashes getting tangled. Stop, untangle the leashes.... What a kick! Although I can't say I was very amused.

By the end of our walk though, both boys had settled into a nice pace and were no longer pulling me all over the place and causing leash tangles.

Big shout out so Dz Dog Aunt! She played with Dante and Ziva in the off-leash field for me this morning while I walked the boys.

"Who's trouble...I'm not trouble."
At this point we're thinking Eddie is good to go to a forever home! He'd love to be able to just have a cozy bed and someone to love him, his anxiety is a lot lower than Mikey's and he's making great strides in his manners. 

Did you know November is Adopt a Senior Month? 

On the flip side, Mikey has a lot of anxiety still so he is currently unavailable for adoption. Our goal with Mikey is to create a stable dog, improve his manners and leash walking skills, then seek out his forever family like we did with Jack. 

Poor Mikey also has some allergies we'd like to get figured out, he has some pretty serious looking owies on his tummy and near his genital region, crusty red eyes, and super red skin in his ears, between his toes, and around his mouth. We've got him on a grain free salmon diet to see if he'll clear up, i'm giving him coconut oil massages on his skin, and I just picked up some eye drops from my vet to see if we can clear up his red gunky eyes.

We want both Mikey and Eddie to be setup for success in the same way we helped Jack, so we'll be taking our time finding awesome families! 

Jack by the way is doing great!!
Since he was stable when his new family adopted him, he settled in very quickly with his new family and he loves it! He's getting lots of belly rubs, snuggles, and he goes on daily runs with the family's older son.











We also have a wonderful angel sponsor for both Eddie and Mikey! She is going to be donating money every month until both boys are adopted to help cover their food expenses, toys, treats, and veterinary care!

We're very excited to be able to help these guys. 


And in case you haven't done it yet, our giveaway end Friday so be sure you enter! We are giving away 6 products so that mean their will be 6 winners! You can enter by clicking HERE.

http://www.dzdogs.com/2015/11/rejenease-for-dogs-giveaway.html

Our "Not so Wordless Wednesday"
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Monday, November 16, 2015

And Then There Were Four.

Foster Time!

It is Mischief Monday right?

Well I guess that is appropriate based on how my weekend went. Oh! Where to start!


A little over a week ago these two boys found themselves homeless when their owner passed away unexpectedly. I know I always said we were capped at 3 dogs but I couldn't get their sad faces out of my head! It reminded me too much of our first foster that we rescued from an abusive family member when her loving owner passed away.

These two boys spend the last week at our local animal shelter while it was straightened out who had custody over them. The owner had no real family, and her next living kin said, "No" to taking responsibility or care over the dogs.
Thankfully though she had a friend who wants to find awesome new forever homes for the boys and she has some connections with Luvable Dog Rescue, though Luvable couldn't take them - they were able to issue a shout out for help! And that's where we came in.

I was told the boys were very friendly and good with both cats and dogs.
So after speaking to hubby and Dz Dog aunt (who is currently living with us while she finishes school) we came up with a plan of action.

Having only 24 hours to decide if we were taking them before the shelter assumed custody I grabbed some leashes and an awesome girlfriend of mine and we were off to do a personality evaluation!
Initially I was thinking I'd have to decide which boy to leave behind, this broke my heart. After meeting them both I was totally smitten and decided that temporarily at least I could foster them together.

Meet Handsome Eddie! He's a 9 year old mutt mix, just a good old heinz 57 mutt. He's bigger than you think though! He's the tallest dog in the house and weighed in at 80 pounds!


And Mikey! He's about 2 or 3 years old and for sure a boxer mix, but mixed with what? Maybe American Bully, or just Bulldog. He's short with a boxer face and he's so sweet! He's practically Dante's mini twin!

Dante on the right, Mikey on the left!
The first night was kind of rough, both boys had massive anxiety that made Ziva especially grumpy. And they were super dirty, so after spending at least an hour and a half walking all the dogs and doing slow introductions with everyone it was bath time.

Turns out that Mikey loves the water! He kept trying to chomp it! Eddie was not thrilled about the bath, but afterwards they were squeaky clean and the dirty greasy dog smell and feel was gone.



Look squeaky clean!
They've had the weekend to settle in a bit, Mikey is kind of crate trained. Eddie is not but he's learning. Mikey has had a few accidents in the house so we're working on potty training, I'm thinking all of his recent stress has set him back because according to what I was told he should already be potty trained. And thank goodness they are both cat and dog friendly!

I'll have better pictures up soon, it was a busy weekend to say the least. Right now we're working on setting up a foster family for Eddie, he has a hard time getting up on my stairs and I think he'd be happier in a lower energy house. Both boys are learning basic manners such as sitting to come inside, having their feet wiped before entering the house, sitting in general, laying down, and going to their crates. I also picked up some easy walk harnesses because they have clearly not spend any time on a leash. I like using the gentle leaders but Mikey's nose is to snub for it to stay on and he pulls so hard against his collar i'm worried about him injuring himself.

On a good note, looks like I have a friend who is willing to take Eddie! Tonight Eddie has a vet appointment, and if the vet gives us the all clear i'll be setting up when he leaves with my friend! Poor Eddie has some lumps that are quite concerning so please wish us luck!

Mikey is also going to need a vet visit, it's just not as pressing of an issue as Eddie's.

Another awesome piece of news? We just found out that their is a lady who is willing to sponsor Eddie and Mikey! This means she's going to chip in monthly to help cover the costs of their food, treats, and veterinary care until they are adopted!

Meet the new crew!

Meet the crew! I always said we were capped at 3 dogs... Well we got "brothers", Eddie is a 9year old Heinz 57 mutt, Mikey is a 2yr American bully/boxer mix. They are such sweet dogs, very dog friendly, very good with my cats, decent indoor manners and are learning the rules pretty quick! They're learning crate training (Mikey's got it!) And we're dealing with some mild anxiety. But no reactivity issues! Sadly their owner passed away, I stepped in to prevent them from being turned over to the shelter but I can't have 4 dogs its just a bit too much for me so we're looking for homes or a foster to take Eddie. 💓💓💓💓 If you know anyone in lane county Oregon let me know! #fosterdogs #fostersavealife #doglovers #adoptdontshop #rescue #rescueadvocate #packlife #bullylovers #bullylife #fostermom
A video posted by DZ Dog Mom (@dzdogadventures) on


Stay tuned! More to come soon!
And remember we're running our giveaway until Friday! 

http://www.dzdogs.com/2015/11/rejenease-for-dogs-giveaway.html


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Thursday, November 12, 2015

Rejenease for Dogs - Giveaway!!

Giveaway for our Readers!

**This is a sponsored post, DzDogs was provided with these products in exchange for an honest review. That being said, we only sponsor products that we support and use ourselves!**

Flyball is so much fun! Being dedicated to the health of our dogs we take their nutrition and exercise needs very seriously and we are careful to read all the ingredients in their treats and food.



When we first adopted Ziva the rescue was concerned that she might develop joint issues as an adult because she was limping frequently after playing with the other dogs. After bringing her home though we never saw any signs of a problem, but we wanted to be careful. And after talking to our vet we decided that even though our dogs are young (and not currently showing any signs of joint issues) to do some home preventative care in the form of supplements such as healthy oils and glucosamine.





A Fit Dog is a Happy Dog!




Glucosamine is a natural compound found in the body that is used to keep the cartilage in joints healthy. Many humans use glucosamine to ease joint pain caused by osteoarthritis, TMJ, lower back pain, knee and elbow pain/injuries. It comes two main forms; Glucosamine Sulfate and Glucosamine Hydrochloride although these forms are similar, most studies have been done using the glucosamine sulfate form.

Recent research done in 2010 has shown that glucosamine taken in tandem with omega-3 fats has proven to be more effective in reducing the pain and inflammation associated with osteoarthritis.

Which leads me to the company - 
Finest For Dogs!

In exchange for a review they sent us their two products, Rejenease for dogs, and Omegease.


Rejenease

Rejenease is a Glucosamine supplement made in the U.S. to improve your dogs movement, per ounce it contains:
  • Glucosamine 1600 mg - joint health
  • MSM 1000 mg - joint health
  • Chondroitin 1200 mg - improves joint elasticity and flexibility
  • Hyaluranic Acid 10 mg - lubricates joints
One of the things that drew me to this company is that Finest For Dogs uses Human Grade ingredients that are tested for quality and purity in independently owned labs. They guarantee their product so if you don't notice a difference or if your dog doesn't like it then you get all your money back, and its made in the U.S!



We tried Rejenease in tandem with their second product Omegease which is perfect since according to recent studies glucosamine seems to be more effective when take with omega-3 fats. Omega-3 fats especially EPA and DHA are primarily found in fish.

These fats are awesome in that they have been proven to be a natural anti-inflammatory, they improve skin and coat conditions, thicken fur/reduce shedding, increase endurance and heart health, boosts the immune system, helps to lower blood pressure and triglyceride levels with can lead to heart disease, and they are used to treat arthritis by decreasing joint stiffness and pain.

Omegease

Omegease per 1 pump (about 4 ml) contains the two primary Omega-3's:

  • EPA 640 mg
  • DHA 420 mg
The anchovies, sardines, herring and mackeral in this oil are caught using environmentally friendly and dolphin friendly methods. That right there caught my eye!  The oils are also cold pressed in order to not lose their health benefits and the oil has a very light almost non-existent scent. Big plus!

One thing to note, we've tried fish oil in the past. However it gave Dante really bad gas....I mean send you outside and runaway... BAD GAS. Poor dog, so we took him off of it. But knowing what I know now, it wasn't very high quality stuff. Dante has been on the Omegease for a month now and he hasn't had any gassy issues.  Hooray!!

And both Dante and Ziva love it!


Another thing that I love about this company is that it is a small company.

If you have any questions at all about either of these products, the owner is named Steven and he previously worked as a pharmacist before venturing into the pet supplement industry. He's extremely helpful about answering questions!


I've also made a link so you can check out their E-book HERE:





Contest Closed!
Congratulations To:

Jill
Sandy
Stella
Kate
Mallory
Sarah

Details should be arriving in your inbox!



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Sources Here For More Reading:
Glucosamine For Joint Pain
What is Glucosamine?
Effects of Glucosamine: A Meta Analysis
Omega-3 Fats & Glucosamine.  Published 2010
NEJM - Glucosamine, Chondroitin Sulfate, and the Two in Combination for Painful Knee Osteoarthiritis. Published. 2006
Omega-3 Fatty Acids

Wednesday, November 11, 2015

Happy Veteran's Day!!

Happy Veteran's Day!!

A big thank you to all of our Veteran's who have served, both past and present. 

To  all of the military families who do not get to spend the holiday's together, our hearts go out to you we know how tough that kind of separation can be.

Today and all season, thank a Vet. 


Monday, November 9, 2015

Pibble Play



Happy Mischief Monday!!

This weekend was all rain. See this face?  Yup, NOT AMUSED...


So we decided to break out some good old fashioned indoor mischief to take the dogs minds off of the fact that our favorite field is slowly turning into a giant sludgy pond.


Battle of the rope part 1!! They play so amazingly well together. Dante and Ziva share everything together, we've worked really hard with them teaching appropriate play, they are gentle, they stop when the other dog doesn't want to play, they respect each others space, really they are perfect together. But it came with us working on it, teaching then and setting boundaries. If one dog doesn't want to play or share we would back that dog and the instigator would receive a time out. If they got in a tiff over a toy, then the toy was removed until they could play nicely again. If they have treats we do not let them steal from each other. If you set these boundaries in the beginning you avoid a lot of problems. But we also chose Ziva as our second dog because she was a very complementary personality to pair with Dante. #bestdecisionever 🐾💓🐾💓🐾💓🐾💓🐾💓🐾💓 #pibbleplay #dante #ziva #tug #tugtime #playtime #playmate #bestfriends #adoptdontshop #furbaby #lovemyfurbabies #lovemydogs #bestdogsever #pitbulllove #pitbulls #pitbull #bullymix #bullybreed #breedambassadors #breedawareness #boxermix #pibbles #apbt #bullyhub

A video posted by DZ Dog Mom (@dzdogadventures) on



And then I got into a bit of mischief myself. Normally I wait to decorate for Christmas until after Thanksgiving because I love both holidays and think they deserve their own time. But this year it just seemed fun to start slowly bringing out decorations a little at a time.

We'll definitely wait to go pick out our tree until after Thanksgiving though!

We all love the fireplace, it makes the living room all snuggly....


What about you? 
When does your family decorate for Christmas?

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Friday, November 6, 2015

Fall Fun!


It's finally started raining in true Oregon fashion. I wake up and snuggle closer to Ziva while listening to the rain pound on the roof. In one day we'll have fog, misty rain so fine you can't hardly see it, and giant raindrops that soak you in a matter of seconds. To say the dogs are not impressed would be an understatement.

See this face? That would be Ziva telling me in no way is she going to be talked outside to go potty in the WET grass.  "Not a chance mom."




At this point my dogs know what it means when I drag their silly selves outside and tell them to, "go potty."  We had a minor potty strike a couple days ago, but they know they can't outlast forever. So they've finally started running straight into the grass, going potty, and then running full blast back into the house in a bowling for mommy fashion. I'm lucky if I can get them to stop and let me wipe their feet!

Well the past two days we've had sunshine, so we've been taking full advantage of field playtime.





And thank you to daylight savings....ugh... can't we just get rid of it yet?

Anyways it gets so darn dark so quickly that we're getting tons of use out of our NoxGear vests!! We reviewed the doggy vest last month HERE, but they also have human ones and we have both. All i'm missing is a vest for Ziva! (This is not a paid promotional post, we purchased these vests on our own and just love them!)

The other night we were out walking, and I could hear some little voices on the sidewalk up ahead of us but since they were wearing all dark colors we couldn't see them until they were practically right next to us. All I heard when I first saw the little girl was, "DOGGY!!!"  Thankfully my pups love children and are not shy about it, I usually have them ask their parents still before running up to us but she was so quick next thing I know she's wrapped her tiny little arms all around Dante's neck and he was just loving it!  I was quick to let the mom know my dogs love children and are very well behaved because she panicked when she swiped and couldn't catch her toddler in time.

The little girl's older brother love the vests and definitely thought they looked like TRON vests from the movie. After a bunch of love and kisses with the kids we moved on.  I hope I inspired the mom to look into getting at least one vest, or in the very least putting some blinky lights on her kids for walking home in the dark.

Now you see the whole dog...
BOOM light up vest in the dark!!
If you don't have a vest we highly recommend getting one, they are USB rechargeable, retro-reflective, waterproof, and comes apart easily to be washed! And they are not very expensive, in fact NoxGear is having a 25% off sale right now for fall. You can visit them at: www.Noxgear.com

Anyways - light or dark, rain or shine, get out and get some exercise to fight off those seasonal blues! It's fun to get all wet and muddy sometimes!


Have a happy Fit Dog Friday!!
How do you fight off the seasonal blues?


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