Tag Archives: vino

Give me your ears, and I’ll lend you a paw…

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As usual, it’s time for some Friday linkage. This week, the theme is helping out. Confused? Stick with me…

  1. Your punny pet name: Corg Clooney. (You know, if George Clooney were a Corgi.)
  2. Check out this post from Oh, Corbin announcing Blogville Pitty Post Day on Monday, June 4. We intend to participate – I hope you’ll join in!
  3. Did you know that Be the Change for Animals (one of my personal blogging inspirations) had a birthday earlier this week? Head on over and wish the team a happy birthday! (There’s even a bit of personal news in there – I’ll be helping out as a staff writer. I can’t wait to get started!)
  4. Because I’m addicted to blogging, I’ve also agreed to help out with the blog for City Dogs Rescue in DC. Here’s my first post!
  5. Is it scattered that I’m helping with two different rescues? I think it’s kind of fun. I also help with the Friends of Homeless Animals (FOHA) Twitter account (which you should totally follow), and participate in FOHA adoption events. Guess I took my own advice!
  6. I’m actually attending a cool FOHA adoption event this weekend. It’s called Sit, Sip & Stay, and it’s at Bluemont Vineyard in Bluemont, VA. Attendees can taste wine while helping FOHA’s medical fund. Pretty neat, huh?
  7. I totally think that all rescues should steal this calling card idea. Thanks to Pamela from Something Wagging This Way Comes for sharing this one with me. (Warning: ear worm within. No, not that kind of ear worm. I think that link should earn me some geek cred.)
  8. Speaking of helping animals, here are thirty-five that could use your help.
  9. The chance to help name an otter? On a website called You Otter Know? Obviously, I’m in. I’m pulling for Sam Otterston.
  10. I guess we all find our own ways to help. This little girl has taken it upon herself to help her dog learn a very important life skill.

It’s not a one-way street, however. Dogs help us too. Like this dog helping his baby friend learn to crawl.

I kind of want a series featuring the adventures of this dog and baby as they grow up together. Rated TV-CAA (Cute, Awesome & Adorable).

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The Grouchy Puppy Principle: Dogs get more beautiful with age

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I’ve been focusing on senior dogs this month, in honor of Adopt-a-Senior-Pet Month.  Today, I have a special treat for you – a guest post from one of my favorite bloggers about the joys of having a senior pet!  

 Editor-at-Large for LIFE+DOG Magazine and Founder of Grouchy Puppy,
Sharon Castellanos writes to educate and inspire people to focus on the
beauty and joy of having a dog in their life.  She shares stories
and interviews that strive to illustrate how we all have it in us to
give fearlessly and influence positively.  She’s contributed to this blog before, and I’m thrilled to have her back again! I was lucky enough to finally
meet her in person during BlogPaws in spite of that whole hurricane thing – take it from me, she’s awesome.

Aged to perfection, this is how I would describe a senior dog. My dog
Cleo is like fine wine, an Opus One. Rather than inside glass, she gets
decanted by having belly rubs, cuddles and brushing. Cleo is a rare dog,
a hard to find vintage. It wouldn’t be fair to keep so much delight on a
shelf getting dusty, or bottled up.

When you decant wine, the process opens up the wine giving you its full
flavor. If Cleo gets enough cuddles her true perky nature comes out. You
get the sense that she is half her age. Often on our walks in the
neighborhood, after strangers stop us to pet her, they ask Cleo’s age
and then react in disbelief. But as an older dog, she a professional at
managing her aches and pains.

In addition to her sparkling personality, Cleo’s ability to put forward
her mission to collect admirers is something to behold.  She sees
someone she likes, or another dog she wants to meet, and watch out. With
laser like focus, Cleo heads straight to her target, either winning
them over immediately, or getting a straight arm or leash, rejection.
Like some wines, you know pretty quickly, once you get a sniff, you’re
happy or your nose becomes wrinkled in distaste.

Fortunately for Cleo, she has mad skills which have only gotten more
refined with age. She wins hearts and virtual ribbons. Her age and
aging, only seems to add to her fan base. Cleo shows others that a
senior dog is a treasure, a rare experience that one shouldn’t pass up
when given the opportunity. With November being Adopt a Senior Pet
Month, consider going “wine tasting”, and check out the vintage dogs at
your local shelter or rescue. You might discover a rare dog of your own.

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BlogPaws Episode 1: The Adventure Begins

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Last week was a busy one.  However, I was on top of my game on Thursday.  I finished my work early so that I wouldn’t be stuck late.  Although I was a tad nervous about meeting new people, this sweet post by Pamela at Something Wagging This Way Comes made me smile and gave me a shot of courage.  By mid-afternoon, I was itching for the workday to end so that I could slide out the door Flintstones style and head over to BlogPaws.  There were no sessions on Thursday night, just an opening cocktail reception.  I’m not one to pass up cocktails and conversation…


However, as is so often the case… a work “crisis” occurred.  (Please let those quotation marks convey my extreme sarcasm.)  Fortunately, I managed to leave the office only slightly later than planned, but then I encountered massive traffic.  It’s the norm in the D.C. area, but Thursday was even worse than usual.

In any event, I finally made it to the hotel.  I parked next to a sign informing me that walking of dogs on the property was prohibited.  For a moment, I wondered if I was in the right place.  However, I did see some dogs (and their people) walking towards the entrance, so I headed towards the lobby.  All doubts were erased when I saw these:

I’m guessing the hotel wasn’t enforcing that whole no dog walking thing this weekend.  Assured of my location, I wandered through the crowd of people to the registration table.  Once there, I signed in and received the largest swag bag I’d ever seen.  Seriously – that thing was epic.

In addition to the swag bag, I received a raffle ticket (spoiler alert: per usual, I did not win anything all weekend) and two drink tickets.  Feeling a little overwhelmed by the crowd (and the fact that I didn’t know anyone in real life, just from their blogs), I headed to the bar and redeemed my first ticket for a glass of wine.  Armed with my glass of liquid courage, I headed into the main room to explore.

I won’t lie – to start with, I felt very overwhelmed and I wasn’t sure what to do.  There were tons of exhibitors, so I browsed and made small talk for a while.  However, I still felt a bit out of sorts – rudderless, if you will.  It felt sort of like the first day at a new school.

Fortunately, my feeling of isolation didn’t last long.  I met some fantastic people – Laurie from Smart Dog and Eryka from Kahuna’s K9s.  These two are locals like me, and we hit it off immediately.  I knew instantly I’d found some new friends – they were fun, clever, and each had an adorable dog with them.  Even cooler, they are both dog trainers who use positive reinforcement.  I can only hope I soaked up some of their knowledge throughout the weekend.

After making these first two connections, I loosened up a bit and the chatter seemed to come more easily.  I met a few other people, including Caren from Cat Chat and Kim from This One Wild Life.  I encountered the lovely Pamela from Something Wagging This Way Comes (and got to meet her husband and Honey the pup).  As a bonus, I saw some absolutely adorable ferrets.  However, the presence of these two confirmed my decision to leave Bella at home – I’m pretty sure she wouldn’t have been able to control her prey drive:

Laurie and Eryka eventually had to head home with their pups.  I considered hitting the road as well after losing my two awesome wingwomen (wingbloggers?), but I decided to head back in for a little while longer (after dropping off that giant swag bag in my car, of course).  I’m glad I did – one of the things I learned this weekend is that I need to embrace my extroverted side at this sort of thing.  (Perhaps I can apply this lesson to work conferences as well, but there are never any cute animals at those.)

Anyway, I headed back inside and ended up meeting a ton of people in the lobby area.  In addition to Caren, I met up with several other bloggers.  Many of them were cat bloggers.  (Among them? The bloggers from The Conscious Cat; The Chronicles of Zee & Zoey; Coffee, Cats ‘n Yarn; Catladyland; and Mr. R.W. Emerson.  I’m sure I’m missing a few people – it was quite the gathering.  Introductions and business cards were flying like Bella after a squirrel.)  Some were new to me, but others were familiar, such as the lovely Teri from Curlz and Swirlz (pictured at right).

In any event, I have to thank those cat bloggers for letting a dog blogger into their midst for a while.  (Perhaps they sensed that I have a soft spot for the felines.)  What a fun group!

I capped my night off with some quality chat time with Caren (who better?) and Felissa from Two Little Cavaliers.  I had a fantastic time talking to these two.  Honestly, it felt like we’d known each other for ages.

When it was finally time to go, I reluctantly said good night and headed home.  After just a few short hours, I knew I’d made the right decision to attend BlogPaws.  I had met some amazing people and couldn’t wait to come back on Friday! 

Stay tuned for more BlogPaws updates… I have lots to share, so I’m not sure how many posts will be in this series.  If you’re not really interested in hearing about BlogPaws (which seems odd, but to each his own), never fear.  I’ll be mixing some other posts in there too.  I’m such a people pleaser…

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I’ll stand by you… words to live by

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A momentary semi-serious interlude ahead…

Last night, I returned home to find a very unhappy Bella.   We had a thunderstorm while I was at work – a fairly loud one.  Bella’s storm phobia appears to have skyrocketed to a whole new level lately – I found paw prints on the dining room table, the dining room chairs… and other evidence of absolute and overwhelming fear.  My poor girl.

Initially, I was worried that she may have hurt herself, but she seemed okay. While I cleaned up the dining room, she had dinner and seemed relaxed.  So although it had been a rough afternoon, things seemed to be returning to normal.

Unfortunately, more storms were on the way.  So, I loaded Bella into her Storm Defender Cape, and we headed upstairs to hang out with some music on in hopes of keeping fear at bay.  (As an aside, the Storm Defender Cape seems to work sometimes, but I ordered the Thundershirt last night in order to see if it will work better.  I need to try something different in light of her escalating fear.  I’ll keep you posted.)

Anyway, as I sat upstairs, sipping my second glass of wine on an empty stomach (it was one of those days, capped off by the dining room incident), iTunes decided to play “I’ll Stand By You” by The Pretenders.  It seemed like a good song to sing to Bella – I blame the wine for this assessment.  (Although I cannot carry a tune in a paper sack, I love to sing.)

As I serenaded my receptive pup with this song, it struck me just how perfectly some of these lyrics described how I was feeling.  I know it’s technically a love song, but stick with me here for a second.  For example, take the following lyrics:

  • “Don’t be ashamed to cry/ Let me see you through/ ‘Cause I’ve seen the dark side too”
  • “Nothing you confess, will make me love you less”
  • “Take me in, into your darkest hour/ And I’ll never desert you, I’ll stand by you”
  • “Won’t let nobody hurt you/ I’ll stand by you”

That’s the kind of unconditional love that our animals deserve.  (Honestly, it’s the kind of unconditional love that some people in our lives deserve too, but that’s a discussion for another day.)

When a dog is fearful or reactive, some people get angry at the dog.  That’s hard for me to take… for all that we treat them like our children, dogs are not just little people in fur suits.  They’re dogs, and it’s our responsibility to try to understand where they are coming from rather than ascribing human reason and emotions to their actions.  It’s natural to be upset when your dog messes something up, but it’s essential to put things into perspective.  How you react to to something like this is within your control – you can choose how to handle it.  Fearful dogs don’t need to be blamed… they need love and a person who will do their best to help them through this difficult time.

Although sometimes she destroys things, messes up the house, or generally makes life difficult, I am fiercely protective of my girl.  I’ll do whatever it takes to help her through the rough times.  I’ve been fortunate in the past to have people do the same for me, and I hope I’ll be that fortunate again should the need arise.

Deep thoughts about dogs inspired by a 1994 power ballad.  That’s just how I roll.

 

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And they called it puppy love…

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Valentine’s Day is just around the corner.  So, today’s No Frown Friday is dedicated to love – both puppy love and the other kind.  I know some people aren’t fans of this holiday, but I’ve always kind of liked it.  I think it stems back to my mom – every year she’d dig out the heart-shaped cake mold and make us yummy cakes.  It was our annual tradition.  Nothing better than eating those heart cakes with my family. 

My hub’s managed to create some fun memories, too.  However, I haven’t had much luck with the plants he’s sent me over the years!  (I don’t think I inhereited the family green thumb, but I’m working on it.)  In any event, it’s always fun.  This year, we’re going to cook a nice dinner, drink some wine, and have a nice evening at home – though I’m sure Bella will try to squeeze her way in between us on the couch!

  1. Today’s punny pet names are based on some famous lovers: Elizardbeth Bennett and Bark Darcy. 
  2. Check out these funny Valentines – my favorite manages to make reference to both Bill Cosby and Pudding Pops.  How can that not be a winner?  The one with the cat (you’ll see) was my personal runner up.
  3. No time to buy a paper card?  Choose one of these awesome ecards instead.
  4. Some pets just wear their hearts on their sleeves (er, paws).  If not, they might want to emulate Cooper of Cooper & Lola this Valentine’s Day.
  5. Has your dog always dreamed of playing Cupid?  Sew DoggyStyle makes it possible.
  6. Speaking of dogs in love, I really enjoyed this post over at Gardening with Wyatt – it includes a perfect video clip for the holiday!

I had a hard time deciding what video to share today, but I decided to go with some Snoopy:

If you want to watch the classic Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown, it’s on tonight!  I can’t wait.

Whatever you’ve got planned this weekend… check out these great tips at Cat Chat for keeping your pets (both feline and canine) safe during the days of wine, roses and heart-shaped boxes of chocolate.

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Supplemental Saturday

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Technically, my Friday was yesterday because I will not be heading into the office today.  Whenever those wonderfully short work weeks arise, I tend to refer to the pre-weekend Thursday as my Functional Friday.  Until today, I’d never considered what to call actual Friday under these circumstances.  After a few attempts (Second Friday and First Saturday are in the reject pile), I’ve decided to go with Supplemental Saturday.  Never fear, your No Frown Friday is still being delivered as scheduled:

  1. It’s Take Your Dog to Work Day.  Thus, today’s punny pet name is office-related:  Bill Lumbfurg.  Better make sure you use the right cover sheet on your TPS reports.
  2. If you start taking your dog to work, then does your dog start to accrue vacation time?  If so, then I guess you better plan to take your pup with you on vacation.  I’m sure he’d appreciate visiting one of these dog-friendly beaches.
  3. If it only takes a few of the sun’s rays to send you on a one-way trip to sunburn city, I do have other suggestions.  Check out a winery with your dog – some wineries actually encourage you to bring your real hound in addition to your inner booze hound.  In addition, some wineries take their love of dog to the next level – for example, Chateau Morrisette, a winery in Virginia, has an entire line of wines called Dogs 4 a Cause.  (Apparently, Virginia is for dog lovers.)

 

Need me to do any work?

(Dug out of the Bella archives just for TYDTWDay)

Finally, I do feel a little bad for only giving you one punny pet name this week.  Luckily, it was apparently a punny week out there on the Interwebs… so if I didn’t meet your pun quotient this week, I urge you to check out these canine literary luminaries. (My personal favorite?  Kurt Vonnemutt.)  The puns don’t stop there – not all of these unusual pet names are puns, but I think Bing Clawsby deserves a mention.  Have a puptastic weekend!

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