Time for The Dog Show!

I just saw this video on MSNBC about a guy who took people who own shelter dogs, trained them (the dogs, not the people) to do tricks, and then set up a little performance. So cute. And it takes place in Chicago! Once again, my belief that Chicagoans are some of the greatest people on Earth is confirmed.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Rainy Day Dog.

It's a cold, dreary, monsoon-like day in DC. It definitely fits the somber mood, but not what you want for a day with outside memorials going on.

Though we all should be doing it every day (if I'm on the hook for this, I'm bringing you with me!), I make a concerted effort to celebrate the many great little things in life on September 11th-- the person who holds the elevator door, finding a good parking spot, spilling on your dark cardigan instead of your light tank, that sort of thing.

The one great thing about rainy days is that Alice refuses to go outside unless she's wearing her new yellow raincoat. I don't know why-- this little dog will do anything to play in the dog park river, but a little bit of rain, and she refuses to walk out the door. Plus she doesn't really like wearing her coat. But force her into that little yellow duckie and she doesn't seem to notice as much that the sky is dripping.


Another great thing about rainy days: perfectly formed wet puppy prints.


So tell me: what was good about your day?

Found: Another Unicorn!

And this time, it's got the added bonus of being a winery.

I really will write about our trip shortly, but I had another picture that I wanted to share first. On Friday, we decided to spend a day visiting wineries. While driving back to the Inn, we passed a sign saying "Unicorn Winery-- 1.6 miles ahead". Detour!

The vineyard is dreamy-- rows and rows of vines, a beautiful pond (complete with koi) and a tiered deck. And the map to the winery cracks me up.


So that's where all the unicorns are!

Even better, you'll never believe who was inside: a puggle named Sammy! The girl working the store was a puggle owner. Unicorns, good wine, and puggles-- seriously, heaven on Earth.

Sammy's owner was an unintended puggle person. A former Rottie owner, she heard of a woman getting rid of her puggle and decided to give a little dog a chance. In her own words: "Sammy's the best dog I've ever had."

Unfortunately, the trip was not without incident. Alice was utterly confused as to why we weren't at home, nor were we staying with people and dogs she knew. As a result, she was pretty stressed out all day. When she got in the store, she and Sammy played nice for about a minute, tearing around the store at full puggle speed. But when Sammy followed Alice's lead and jumped up on me, Alice flipped out and growled at her. We sent Alice to puggle prison after that.

On the upside, Sammy's owner was barely phased, we came home with several bottles of great wine, and Alice has returned to her sweet self. All is now well, plus we have a map to find all those elusive unicorns.

Found: Bail Bonds.

Alice, The Human Male, and I just got back from a WONDERFUL trip to Locust Dale, Virginia (aka "Wine Country"). We stayed at a fabulous B&B called The Inn at Meander Plantation, which I mention with hesitation simply because I plan on going back as soon as possible and staying in the Groom's Cottage again, and I don't want to have any competition for it. I'll write more about our trip later, but I did want to share one picture.

Not far from the Inn is a nice little town called Culpeper. There were quite a few cute little stores, as well as a place called The Stable with some of the best barbecue and baked beans I've ever had (plus one of their waiters is a completely charming looker. I almost asked if I could get him for take-out, too).

Right across the street from the Culpeper Court House is a bail bond... store? place? office? emporium? Having never been arrested (knock on wood), I'm not sure what it's called. But in case you find yourself in Culpeper and in need of some bail money, now you know where to call.


Either that, or you can call and ask if The Stable will deliver to the jail. Trust me, you'll be equally as happy.

Science gone terribly wrong.

Let's just say you're a mad scientist. One day, you're sitting around your evil lab and decide it'd be awesome to merge this handsome guy:


With this beautiful dog:


And what do you get?


NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

Best Western Hotel has a new thing called the "Inseparator", which allows you to take your picture and combine it with your pet. I heard about this on Mark Ramirez' blog, Dog-Owned Life. I haven't looked into why Best Western has this on there, but I'm guessing it's a promo that they now allow dogs.

Have fun!

Adoption Day fun and an unexpected visitor.

First and foremost, thanks very much to all of you for the Adoption Day wishes! It's been so touching to see what you all wrote to Alice. Just a little over a year ago, this little dog had nothing. Now she has friends and family who love her. Can't ask for anything more than that!

Alice's Adoption Day was pretty darn fun for all of us. It started the Tuesday night, when I couldn't wait any longer and gave Alice a gift from Mamala-- a new Mousie. Unfortunately, I was an idiot and deleted the little video we took of her receiving Mousie. She literally bounced all over the house with it-- just precious.

The next morning, I gave Alice my gift: twelve tennis balls. I'm pretty sure Dog Heaven comes with multiple tennis balls.

Later in the day, Alice and I went to Wiley Wagg, her special dog store. We got a couple different kinds of treats, a hedgehog toy, and a smiley face cookie:


And like many an Alice treat, it ended up in bed.


For lunch, Alice had two containers of turkey from Jason's Deli. If you ever come across one, stop in-- they make terrific sandwiches and were more than accommodating with Alice.

The whole day, Alice wore something very special: a beautiful pink Adoption Day bandanna. Mamala made it specially for Alice, and she got many compliments on it from people. One of the girls at the dog store flipped out over it.


Once The Human Male got home, she got her present from him: a McDonald's cheeseburger. I so wish I had pictures of this. She didn't gobble it down (or shove it between the pillows on the bed) like she does most delicious treats. Instead, she ate it slowly and stared at it with awe, like it was a unicorn-- a cheese-covered unicorn. It was like she couldn't believe something so wonderful existed and was traveling into her mouth.

All in all, it was a terrific day. Little Alice ended it by crashing out on the sofa.

Around 3:30 this morning we had a surprise visitor. I got up to use the bathroom and found a humongous cricket in the bathroom. This summer's been super awful for bugs (bad by even Southern standards), so it wasn't too much of a shock to realize that I had company in the bathroom. But I have to say, it did make me cry for a totally different reason.

The first night we brought Alice home, we kept her in her crate, not knowing how she'd react to trying to sleep in new surroundings. She was a little bit huffy, and it'd wake me up (I'm a light sleeper). There was also a cricket outside that was louder than all get-out. Around 3A, Alice got the reverse sneezes. I got her calmed down and went into the kitchen to get a glass of water. That's when I noticed the cricket had gotten noisier. Well, maybe not noisier, but more that he was in the house. At that point, I gave up on trying to sleep, so I turned on my work computer and started emptying the dishwasher as it was booting up. As I bent down to get some dishes out, I saw the cricket... on my leg. Needless to say I screamed, woke up The Human Male, set Alice off, and probably ticked off our neighbors as I opened the front door and yelled at the cricket to get off. The poor cricket toddled away, shocked.

Last night was the first time I'd seen a cricket since then. Maybe it was just 3:30A logic, and obviously it wasn't the same one, but I felt like that was a sign, there was a purpose to his check-in-- maybe a "God is in small things" moment.

I let the cricket show himself out this time.

The best $20 I've ever spent.

Today is a very special day: Alice’s adoption day! One year ago this afternoon, we brought Alice home from the shelter. This is the first picture I took of her after she walked in the door.

I was working that day, and I discovered quickly that it’s hard to anything but play while a puggle’s staring at you.

I was so nervous when I brought her home. I didn’t know what to expect. The shelter wasn’t sure if she was potty-trained, so I was fully expecting her to weedle on the floor. Or chew on the cabinets. I absolutely expected that we’d lose our security deposit.

All she did was find a spot on the carpeting, rub her face all over it, and then dropped and rolled on her back (for the record, it took her about a week to start going to the bathroom normally. In that time, she wee’d on the rug once or twice, but conveniently mostly kept her accidents to the bathroom rug. What a smart girl).

After she was done rubbing her face, she laid down and took a nap.

I’d never had a dog with big ears before Alice. It never occurred to me that they’d flop over her face when she slept, or that that was one of the cutest things ever.

I have to say, Alice looks a lot better than she did when we brought her home. Having a family has been good for her. Here she is today:

In the past year, Alice has done quite a bit of traveling. She’s been to fourteen states, plus DC.

She’s had her picture taken in front of magical and mythical creatures.

She’s gone to parades, yappy hours, fundraisers, and festivals.

She graduated from school.

She’s gone sightseeing.

She's played in snow and in a river.

She’s been a model.

She met Wonder Woman.

And she got into a book.

Though laid out her adventures sound cool for a little dog, I’m pretty sure that The Human Male and I have benefited more. FAR more. I’ve learned so much from Alice in the past year:

• Everyone deserves more patience than you think
• Messes are inevitable
• It's okay to get dirty
• Unconditional love doesn’t take years to develop
• Giving a little bit of love to something else can make a world of difference
• Crazy dog people are some of the greatest people out there
• The best things in the world don't need to cost a lot-- like a $20 adoption fee
  

We have many more adventures planned this year: a visit to wine country, the release of Alice’s book, and holiday trips are already on the docket. I’m excited about those, and for the adventures we haven’t planned yet. And I’m excited to experience them with Alice. The world just looks rosier when your hand’s on a leash.

This is the first picture I saw of Alice:

Here she was on the day we met her:

And today:

Happy Adoption Day, little Snugs.

Wags 'N' Whiskers and a lot of fun

I'm on vacation this week. One of my goals is to not check my work e-mail, which means I have to stay away from my computer-- the temptation's too great. But I did want to share some pictures from this weekend's Wags 'N' Whiskers event (and several trips to The Curious Grape's events during the week). We had a really great time, and the weather (which was supposed to be stormy and nasty) was absolutely picture-perfect.

We also met some WONDERFUL dogs looking for homes: a great Boston/Wire-haired terrier mix named Austin (who looked like he could be Alice's brother) with Homeward Trails; and Ladybug,who's at the Washington Humane Society and is the biggest, sweetest doll I've met in a long time-- I bent down to say hi and she kissed my face and asked for a hug. Austin still isn't online, so I'm guessing he's got a home, but someone really needs to adopt Ladybug. If we could have pit bulls in our building, she'd be home right now. I just love her.

All in all, it was a wonderful way to spend a Saturday.

Dogs, Cats, and Wine.

I've mentioned about 783 times in past posts that I LOVE The Curious Grape, a wine store in Arlington, VA. There are so many reasons to love them. First, they're super nice and know wine so well that you could walk out with anything and look like a vineal rock star. Second, they have a tasting bar that's always open (and this is in addition to larger half-hour seminars they have regularly). Third, they're having a sale on Mondays through September where if you buy a chocolate bar and a bottle of wine, you get 15% off your purchase. But you have to buy both. Fine, twist my arm.

The thing that I love the most about them is that they're dog people. And I don't mean tolerant of dogs. They loooooooove dogs. They keep a container of treat at both the check-out and the tasting bar (which are probably seven feet apart). They've been known to pour some wine for a tasting, then run over and give Alice treats when she comes in. It's enough that they let her in. The fact that they treat her so nicely can get me feeling like the store's a little dusty.

All of Northern Virginia's pretty dog friendly (and recently got named one of the top-ten most dog-friendly cities/areas in the U.S.), but our area's a little nutty about it. For at least the past two years, they've closed off the main street to host a little pet party that benefits a local rescue group. This year's event is being held next week. And to celebrate, The Curious Grape is having special tastings and discounts on dog and cat-related beers and wines starting tomorrow. 10% of the beer proceeds and $1 from each dog/cat-related wine will be donated to local rescue groups (I believe I read that it's going to the Lost Dog & Cat Rescue Foundation, a group that's run by the owners of a restaurant called the Lost Dog Cafe. As a note, The Human Male and I WILL be trying out this place in the future and will report back-- the menu sounds insanely good and one of the locations has pictures of their adopted pets all over the walls).

Okay, so you like my dog, make me buy good chocolate to go with my wine, and now you're donating money to rescues? When you're done twisting my arm, pinch me.

Hot Time in the City.

Ever wonder why Congress takes a long break in August?

Because August in DC is also referred to as "Hell's Sauna".

For example, the temperature right now is 92. Hot, but definitely tolerable (and actually pretty pleasant). But on top of that, there's the humidity. It's actually low right now at 54% (it's been in the 60-77% range lately). And then there's the dew point. Currently it's at 73 degrees. That's not good.

All told, it feels like 100 degrees outside, with the air akin to walking into a wet towel.

Everyone left in town after Congress leaves loses their will to live in August. You give up trying to maintain good hygiene. The little bit of clothing you're wearing is sopping with sweat, your makeup runs off your face, and your hair is both simultaneously limp and huge-- not sure how that one happens, but it does. You actually forget what it feels like to not be damp. If the guy squished up next to you on the Metro smells like a wild goat died in his pocket, you actually feel badly for him instead of being grossed out. And if you can make it to work and back home, you've succeeded for the day.

This being our first summer with Alice, we weren't sure how she'd react to the heat, but since she's part-pug and it being so darn hot, we knew we had to be cautious with her. We never take her on driving errands anymore, and there definitely haven't been as many trips to the Dog Park (though when we go, it almost always results in a dip in the river, which is fine by her).


A while back, it was so hot one day, Alice only had the energy to flop around the house. Oddly, her belly generates a huge amount of heat (heaven help you if she decides to spread out alongside you at night; you'll catch on fire), so she lays on her side, just splattered.






We pretty much just started leaving the air conditioning on all the time after that. And like a plant getting water, she perks right up and gets wonderfully obnoxious again.

Something else we've learned cools puggles off? Popsicles.


Last Sunday morning, it was too hot and humid to get out of bed. So we had popsicles in bed for breakfast. Alice thought that was just about the best thing since tennis balls.



Growing up in the Midwest, I could never imagine saying this: I'm kind of looking forward to the fall and cooler weather. Seeing how homebound Alice is, I think she might be looking forward to it, too.

Though the popsicles might need to stay.