Parent Teacher Conference

Barksdale's being put on blast. Apparently Barksdale is being a bigger asshat than Ender on her walks. Who would've imagined. Anyway, she's currently on probation right now until we figure out what her problem is.

Well actually we know what her problem is. Her type A, domineering, and pushy behavior. The result of such behavior may potentially be more money as this is the news we received today:

"I don't mean to alarm you, but one of the things we're discussing is whether it's appropriate to have Barksdale in a group, or whether she needs 1:1 walks instead."

As of right now, our task is to make sure she plays nicer with Ender. If she doesn't get better, we might have to shell out the big bucks for one on one walks.

Therefore, I have put winning the lottery on my "to do" list so I can send these dogs off to get them professionally trained. Ha!

Bread Please.

I woke up early one morning over the weekend to walk the dogs. I was all set to start something in the slow cooker when I discovered I was missing an onion. The bf was still sleeping and Whole Foods is actually just down the street, so I decided to slip out quickly to pick one up.

We've been giving Ender a little taste of freedom now and then and since I was only going to be gone for a little bit, I left Ender the living room. When I came back, I discovered an empty bag on the floor surrounded by some crumbs. It turns out Ender ate A WHOLE LOAF OF BREAD.

I seriously would not believe it, so I looked around the entire living room looking for a loaf of bread. When I couldn't find it, I had to wake the bf up and ask him to look for it. But we never found it. When I came to terms that Ender did indeed eat A WHOLE LOAF OF BREAD, I slightly lost my shit and though omg, the bread is going to expand and he's going to explode.

After googling this, I felt a little bit better about him not dying, and ended up quarantining him in case he barfed or got hit with the runs.

Turns out, he was completely fine.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! We have the privilege (seriously took me like three tries to spell that until I gave up and used spell check) of pet sitting over this holiday and lets just say we weren't expecting so much spunk from such a small little package. But again, one look at her and I do start getting the "you looking at me?" vibe. And for someone so low to the ground, she runs pretty fast. I guess I would also be pretty terrified if Ender was chasing me.

Go Bears!

In the honor of the big game today...Go Bears!



FYI, that is my sweatshirt he is wearing..hahahah...

OMG

How does he not fly away?



Available at the Oakland Animal Shelter!

http://www.petfinder.com/petdetail/17228949

Doppelgänger

I was looking through Doggy Lama Pet Care's dog walking pics and I came across a photo which I believe shows Ender's doppelgänger. Well unless it's really Ender, then my bad.



I've started calling the dogs using one name. It's usually when I'm yelling at them. It'll usually go EN-...DALE!?!? or BARKS-...NDER!?!? This must be how parents feel when they have more than one kid.

Thursday

Thursday. It's so close to Friday.

Anyway, there was a huge rottweiler/hound/shepherd mix on the BART this morning. It made me laugh because the train was already crowded and it took up so much space and he looked absolutely miserable. But again, it might just be his hound face which comes across as "ugh, why am I stuck on the train with these foolios."

Anyway, I came across an interesting article today in sfgate describing one family's experience when their dog bites a stranger. It's a good read.

The Yang family dog bites a stranger, leading to a chain of unfortunate events

Oh, Hey There!

If this doesn't make you smile, I don't know what will:

Custody Cases Involving Pets

I came across this article and found it to be a fun read. I know that people are attached to their pets but when I read about how much people actually spent on fighting for custody, I just think holy moly!

http://www.weinbergerlawgroup.com/blog/child-parenting-issues/10-most-bizarre-custody-cases-involving-pets/

Poop Mania

Poop mania has once again hit our household. I haven't figured out what it is yet, but we are holding off treats until this wave has passed.

Here is Barksdale's Report Card:
"Barksdale pooped in the car about 3 minutes after we left your house, FYI."

Ender on his walk this morning, pooped out a whole baby carrot.

Ack.

Pit Bulls and Parolees

I will just put this out there now - I love reality television. It's like candy for my brain. Therefore, I tend to give these shows at least a one episode chance before I move on.

I recently caught an episode of Pit Bulls and Parolees, where the rescue organization was contacted to go to Auburn to evaluate a dog that was part of a larger pack that got loose and attacked someone at the park. The particular dog they were evaluating, although part of the pack, was not part of the attack.

The episode also shows the rescuer visiting with the owners of the dogs. This was the part that absolutely killed me.

As the rescuers approached the house, a nice bungalow located in an upper middle class neighborhood, they started commenting about how this does not seem like a place where vicious pits would be raised or about how it didn't look like a place where animals would be trained to attack.

Anyway, the owners opened the door, which I guess caused even more confusion with the rescuers, because the owners seemed like "gentle, kind people who cared about their dogs." They have the obligatory sit down where they shoot the shit, where the entire conversation consists of the young adult son speaking about how sad it was that he came home and his dogs were gone and the mom talking about how they had the dogs since they were puppies and it was so sad they were no longer going to be with them.

Never once did they say they were sorry for the situation, just that their dogs jumped the fence and it was a terrible accident. Never once did the rescuer ever bring up the fact that, as pet owners, they are not only responsible for protecting the welfare of their animals but also ensuring that, oh I don't know, their animals don't go around trying to kill people.

I'm sorry, but does sitting in a nice house in a nice neighborhood next to a Tiffany's lamp automatically absolve someone of irresponsible pet ownership? Apparently it does because I'm pretty sure their asses would be in jail if they were poor and not white.

I know that Cesar Millan gets a lot of shit, but one of the things he always does is call the owner out, regardless of race or class. He regularly points out that not doing anything (no discipline, exercise, training, socializing etc) can result in a dangerous dog.

Here's a quote from an article regarding the incident:

"She had hoped to evaluate the animals away from the barking of other dogs. But the three dogs would not respond to commands or accept treats or a leash."

I think this quote reveals a lot that the show failed to shed light on or even discuss, that sometimes the failure to teach proper behavior can be just as dangerous as teaching a dog how to fight.

Restaurants are going to the dogs

I am not going to lie, I've considered faking Ender/Barksdale as a service dog so we can take them on public transportation into San Francisco. Apparently people have been getting bold about bringing their pets into restaurants, including service dog fakery, as told by this article:

http://insidescoopsf.sfgate.com/tjjacobberger/2010/11/12/restaurants-are-going-to-the-dogs/

Vacuums

I hate vacuuming. I've hated it since I was a kid and will forever hate it. However, there comes a time, that time mainly being surrounded by tufts of Ender hair, that even I will pick up a vacuum (albeit handheld). We also have a regular vacuum that we (I mean the bf) sometimes uses. A few weeks ago, while at Home Depot, the bf stumbled upon a Dyson Animal vacuum and have been entertaining the idea of getting one. Although wishlisted, I haven't had a chance to really delve into a specific model or make to purchase.

droool....



The most pressing question I have is, what's the difference between a regular Dyson and a Dyson Animal? Besides, oh, a couple of hundred bucks?? However, if this vacuum can, instead of blowing the dog hair around, vacuum it off of hardwood floors, without having to use some kind of hose contraption, I'm sold.

And does it make me a greedy person for wanting both the handheld and upright vacuum? I'm the a handheld type of gal, but if we get the upright, we can get this handy dandy contraption.

Raccoons

Wowza, I came across this article and am now even more wary of raccoons.

Raccoons attack Alameda woman walking her dog

A few months ago, the bf and I woke up early morning to some terrible screeching. I had thought it was something car related but later that day, the bf told me that it had been a bunch of raccoons attacking something. As if I don't get wigged out seeing one raccoon in broad daylight already. When that happens, half of me is thinking, oh man, I hope the dogs didn't see that. The other half of me is thinking, I hope the dogs saw that so they can protect me when that raccoon starts chasing me.

Living in an urban environment, I feel like I am somewhat accustomed to some rather brave rodents. At Berkeley and UCLA, there were some rather aggressive squirrels running around campus. In fact, one of my friends has had her bagel stolen twice while she was not looking. I made it out okay, but I am in no way prepared to face down a group of rabid raccoons. I'll leave that up to Barksdale.

What a Weekend!

It all started Saturday morning with a swollen muzzle. The bf noticed that Barksdale's muzzle was a bit puffy Saturday morning. We decided to just keep an eye on it, as some of her allergic reactions kind of just disappear after a few hours. Later that night, I was at dinner with some friends, while the bf was out picking up some take out. When he came back, he noticed that Barksdale's face had swollen up to about three times the normal size. He gave her two Benadryls, but decided to take her to the emergency vet, who gave her two additional Benadryls and a shot of some sort.

She was looking better Sunday morning and the day passed rather uneventfully until she barfed Sunday evening in the bedroom. And then had a follow up barf in her crate. In between all that, Ender barfed as well.

Sigh.

On a random semi-related note, for people who think that getting a dog from a backyard breeder because it might be cheaper, wait until the medical bills start rolling in. I don't know her exact lineage, but let's just say it's the bald spots, dandruff, food and skin allergy kind.

Where do you buy your pet supplies?

The bf's co-worker just got a new dog and have been trying to stock up on all the necessary supplies before they bring her home on Friday. When the bf told me that they were going to Petco/PetSmart for their supplies, I reacted with a whaaa??! Nothing against Petco/PetSmart except for their high prices without the warm mushy feeling of supporting local business or sustainable practices. But let's face it, my ideologies only go so far and I will gladly exchange them for lower prices. In case there are any readers that live in the Bay Area, here are the places we like to frequent:

Pet Club
This is the Costco of pet stores. We try to buy everything here. Shout out to my friend Anna, mama of Kali, who told us about it. She was also the one who told us about Nature's Miracle. Anyway, everything here is cheaper. Period.


Pet Food Express
We find this to be a good alternative for Petco/PetSmart. They are a locally based chain that have some pretty good business practices. Apparently that's still not good enough for the City of San Francisco because they've only recently been granted approval to open a third store in SF. Small boutique pet stores were worried that Pet Food Express would price them out, to which I respond, yeah right I go to my small pet boutique to buy a 60 lb bag of dog food.


Small Local Pet Boutique
Oh but what do I go to my small local pet boutique for? Well window shopping, killing time before the movies, convenience when, ahem, I'm shopping for clothes, and scoring hard to find items. Here are the two we most frequent:
Dog Bone Alley in Alameda
George in Berkeley
If I ever win the lottery, I will only shop at small local pet boutiques.

The Grocery Store
Trader Joe's
Oh how I love your dog treats. And you have groceries. Yay.
Whole Foods
They sell Chuck-it balls. Enough said.

Baby Ender

If we are to ever encounter a puppy with paws as big as Ender's were, we now know to run the other way.

Thanks for Ruining My Life!

This post is dedicated to the bf's co-worker, K. He was one of the very few people we knew who were our age, living in the city, and had a dog. He rescued his first dog, a little pittie, and expounded on the greatness of dog ownership. He instilled confidence in us and our ability to care for an animal. When the bf saw Barksdale at the pound, K had already adopted his second dog. So again, we turned to him for advice. K assured us that having two dogs was no big deal and that it was quite fun. I thought, if K, a bachelor, could do it, we can totally do it!

Two dogs later, I like to blame him for ruining my life everytime we see him. All in jest, of course. I think. Anyway, since the bf is against dressing the doggies up, here are K's two lovely doggies - Dot and Pesto!