July 25, 2012

Wordless Wednesday: Some Veggies are Scary

I believe we've established that I'm not good at the wordless thing, so here's a modicum of words and some pics for "Wordless Wednesday."

I pulled out some veggies the other night for dinner. Later I hear "THERE'S AN INTRUDER"-type barking from Rita. I figure it's someone on the street, but she won't let up, so I go out to the front of the house and she's standing in the kitchen, hackles at half-mast, barking like crazy at... the eggplant on the kitchen counter.
"Must. Kill. Evil. Eggplant."

July 23, 2012

Bloggers Unite for Dog Rescue: How You Can Help

As I said last week, today is a special global event: Bloggers Unite for Dog Rescue to bring attention to the importance of dog adoption and related issues. The event is being sponsored by Blog the Change for Animals (BTC4animals.com), Blog Catalog, and Dog Rescue Success.

For my part, I thought I'd bring attention to dog adoption issues by writing about the Helen Woodward Animal Center where I've been volunteering for about 6 or 7 years now. At the end of the post, I'll also list some ways you can help too! There's even a super easy-peasy one!

July 20, 2012

Celebrating the Print Version: Enter the Giveaway!

I briefly mentioned the other day that the paperback version of WHAT THE DOG ATE is now available! Hooray! I can hold my book in my hot little hands. (And now you can too! Links for purchasing are at the end of the post.) So, I'm doing two things to celebrate:

Donating proceeds
I've committed to donating 10% of the proceeds of all print sales for the rest of this year to Best Friends Animal Society. I had a hard time deciding who to choose, but decided on Best Friends because I admire what they do (I'd love to visit them some day!) and love their mission: "To bring about a time when there are no more homeless pets." I can't even imagine that - what would it be like if there were no dogs and cats to rescue?? Wouldn't it be wonderful? 

So, if you buy the book in print, know that part of the money will go to help animals in need. And we're not just talking dogs and cats here! No - you'll be helping chickens, ducks, goats, horses, parrots, pigs, pigeons (adopt a pigeon??), rabbits, sheep, and one burro and one mule. (Someday I would love to have a burro or a donkey! But that's probably not going to happen in my lifetime...). Burros... those are asses right? So, buy my book and save an ass!

A Giveaway
The other thing I'm doing to celebrate is giving away a goodie bag to one lucky winner!

July 18, 2012

Wordless Wednesday: Rita's Got Mail

Wednesdays are normally my usual blogging day (since I'm generally a one-post-a-week gal), but since I've already done some other posts this week, and since I'm still getting things together for my official book announcement, I thought I'd just do a quick "wordless Wednesday" post.

Obviously I'm not very good at the wordless part... But I'm going to try to keep them to a minimum. So, here is "Somewhat Wordy Wednesday":
Rita's K9 Kamp winnings have started to roll in! And she loves it!

July 16, 2012

Monday Mischief: Counter Surfing

Winner!
We recently won a sample pack of Honest Kitchen food and treats, thanks to the folks at Fido Friendly magazine and Honest Kitchen. I won it by correctly answering a trivia question about Honest Kitchen on Fido Friendly's Facebook page. I just happened to know the answer off the top of my head, because I'd been thinking of switching Rita to Honest Kitchen and had been on their site a few days before. But then I got lazy and didn't order any food.

Well, now that we won the sample, and Rita has discovered how delicious it is, we'll definitely be making the switch. Rita really loves the treats too; here she is counter-surfing for one of the Pecks treats:


I recently discovered there's a regular Monday blog hop called "Monday Mischief" co-hosted by Snoopy's DogBlog, Alfie’s Blog, Luna Dogs Life and My Brown Newfies.
Snoopy's Dog Blog

Rita is not actually all that mischievous...

July 15, 2012

Blog the Change for Animals Event

Wanna help a pup in need? 

Today, July 15, lots of dog bloggers are bringing attention to the upcoming "Bloggers Unite for Dog Rescue," a special online global event that will take place on July 23, 2012. The goal is to bring attention to the importance of dog adoption and related issues. The event is being sponsored by Blog the Change for Animals (BTC4animals.com) and they are partnering with Blog Catalog, and Dog Rescue Success to help save the lives of dogs in need.

Blog the Change

So, this is just a little heads up that on July 23rd, bloggers from all over will be posting about various dog rescue issues...

July 11, 2012

The Post I Wasn't Planning To Write

The first half of this post, I wasn't planning to write. But then I did write it. And it's long. But there's lots of pictures. :)

The Six Months Point
Yesterday was the six month anniversary of the day we lost Abby. (Or the day we helped her get fitted for her wings, as I like to think of it.)

I really didn't plan to make a big deal about it. I'd kind of been dreading it, which is silly because why is 5 months and 29 days after we lost her any different than 6 months after? Anyway, I'd planned to get through the day without spending much time dwelling on it.

But Abby had other ideas. She put many little signs in front of me all day yesterday!

Here are a few:

In the morning when Rita and I were heading out for our walk, I pulled Rita's leash and harness out of the drawer - only somehow Abby's old harness came out instead of Rita's walking harness. Of course Rita was very interested in it since it smelled like Abby. (Sometimes I wonder if Rita is thinking, "Where is that other dog that lives here?" since she plays with Abby's old toys and sleeps in Abby's old bed.)

Giggling in the daisies
Pouncing on bugs.
Later in the day I went to leave a comment on someone's blog, and I had to sign in to my Google profile. I've changed my profile pics in almost all of my various social media places to be me/me & Rita now. (It was sad, changing them over, but some folks on Twitter commented on what a pretty dog I had, and I had to explain that she's an angel pup now, and that we have a new dog. I figured it was time for Rita to have the spot light.) Anyway, when I logged in to leave my comment, somehow my old profile pic of Abby's face came up instead of my new pic (the one in the upper right corner here) of me & Rita. Just a little surprise of her face saying hello.

In the afternoon I finally got around to going to Michael's to buy frames for some pictures/paintings I've had sitting in the closet for months. Of course, one of them was the 8X10 of the pic below of our little familial unit, so I was carrying that around the store with me for a long time, looking at my gorgeous girl.

"Let's play!!"

"I'm ready for my close up, Ms. DeMille. I mean, Mama"
Running like a maniac

There were at least three other things too last night, so finally I was, like "Ok, I get it! You want me to pay attention to you and make a fuss!"

All hail the Princess
"Mmmm. Frosty Paws...."
Our girl always was really good at demanding attention! She did it pretty much every night! In the words of that crazy skank from "Fatal Attraction," she was not going to be ignored. No, never. (Carrying on with that "Fatal Attraction" thought for a moment... both Abby and Rita would also probably be really into some bunny stew... But they are not crazy skanks. Ok, they're crazy. But they're not skanks.)
Sparkly girl


"This. Place. Is. Awesome!"

So, that's why I've plastered some of my favorite pics throughout today's post: to remember (and make a fuss over) what a special girl she was.

"Nom nom nom"










And Now For Something Completely Different
"That looks good..."
When we last left Elmo & his Boy, George (hehe, see what I did there?), they were enjoying their spa day. Things got a little hairier on the Fourth. It started out fine during the day, when we enjoyed typical Fourth-type foods, including some watermelon, which George bogarted.

That night, we decided we needed to be home in case Rita was afraid of the fire works. Since this is her first Fourth of July, we weren't really sure how she'd react. You may have seen in the news about the "Big Bay Boom/Bust."

From our living room, it sounded like a rocket ship launching into space. And Rita was OK with that. But not Elmo and George. Nope, they hid under the guest bed and covered their eyes. (Or "eye" in Elmo's case. Notice, though, that he covered the space where his other eye used to be. Old habits...)
They really did have something to fear when Rita came along...


Rita would love it if they could stay forever. ("Forever" meaning until she's done killing them.)

"I'll take this! Thank you."

"I'm going to kill you, Elmo!"

"No, Mama! Must. Kill." "But, Rita, he has another Tour stop!"
Rita in the "MonkeyButt Bunnies - It's All About the Ears" cape
She got a treat for enduring that!
It's time for the boys to get back in their box and head to their next stop. By-bye, Boys. It's been fun. 

Next time...
Stay tuned for lots of news about the book (in print!!! It's HERE - but only available for purchase direct from CreateSpace so far; it'll be at Amazon soon!), and some links to guest posts and whatnot. 

July 6, 2012

What the Dog Destroyed?

"Stop doing weights, Momma!"
Calling All Destructo-Dogs! 
We have been really lucky with Rita not being a destructo-dog. Of course, we were a bit worried since her foster mom said she "ate" a love seat, but, honestly, other than attacking my 5-lb weight the other day, this is the most destruction she's ever caused.
Puppies will chew...



So, when we were approached by Liz of the Indestructible Dog Gear blog to participate in and help spread the word about her contest to win an UnbreakOBall, well, I entered Abby instead. Click HERE to submit your own destructo-dog story, and be sure to scroll down to read "The Tale of Abby & Barney: A Love Story."

This is really a cute contest - you submit pictures of your pup as well as the destruction, and write up a little description of what happened, and Liz embellishes it to highlight "The Culprit" (in this case Abby), "The Victim" (Barney) and "The Verdict" (you'll have to link over to see Abby's verdict!).


The contest runs through the end of July, and you can win an UnbreakOBall for your pup. Liz said that depending on the response, she and the makers of the UnbreakOBall might turn this into a running monthly "Indestructibility Contest"! Liz hopes to build up the biggest collection of doggie destruction evidence on the Internet, so get out there with your destructo-dog stories and help be part of the fun!

In other news...
We'll return to the final installment of the Monkey Me Elmo Tour next time, so stay tuned for news on how the Fourth went for Elmo & George, and also to find out where they are going next.

As for book news, I got the "proof" copy of What the Dog Ate today. It looks like a real book! My photo of it is not great and the title looks a bit blurry, but in real life it looks good and Charley (aka "Kona") looks extremely handsome on the cover!! Now I have to go through it carefully this weekend and make sure there's nothing funny with the formatting, but it should be for sale very soon(ish), as long as I don't find anything to change.




July 3, 2012

Spa Day for Elmo & George

Last time I introduced you all to the silliness that is the Monkey-Me Elmo Tour. I think the boys are enjoying their time here in San Diego - especially since we are one of the more pleasant places to be right now, at least in terms of air temperature.

See how there's that lovely little "72" down in the lower left corner? We're actually even cooler than that. If we got up into the 70s in my neighborhood today I'd be surprised. I even had to wear a jacket this morning when I walked Rita. But back to the boys, since "It's All About the (bunny) Ears" and not the weather...

They kicked off their visit with a cocktail while watching the sunset.
Chillin' with a martini (you can just barely see the sun)
...and here you can see Rita lurking... (Cue the Jaws music.)

...and then getting closer...
...and closer....
...and attempting to abscond with Elmo.

Luckily Elmo was saved from Rita's clutches. (But not by George, cuz he was half in the bag already...)

Next the boys insisted on a spa day. Apparently they heard about Barney's spa day and didn't want to be outdone by a stupid singing purple dinosaur. So we started with a lovely steam shower.
Cuts down on cucumber expenses when you only have 1 eye.
It was all very relaxing. Until Rita showed up...
Look at the horror in Elmo's one good eye. (George is oblivious.)
George remains oblivious while Rita nibbles Elmo's head...

...and attempts to abscond with him.
Tripawd Warrior Princesses in Pink
Elmo was again snatched from the jaws of the beast. But not by George.

Then (bi)Curious George insisted that he wanted his nails done. Thankfully Elmo offered to do the manicure (monkicure?). George also insisted on wearing the Tripawd Warrior Princess crown while his nails were done. And he wanted them painted pink, but I had to draw the line there. A temporary borrowing of the crown is one thing, but I told him in no uncertain terms that pink is reserved for Tripawd Warrior Princesses so he settled (begrudgingly) for a coat of clear polish.
 There was talk of massages but I put the kibosh on that.


Don't they look well rested and ready to rock on roll on to their next tour stop? We just have to get through the 4th of July holiday and barring any mishaps, they'll be ready to travel again!

Brief Book Update
I ordered the "proof" copy of the print book today for What the Dog Ate. It's on its way here, and if all looks good, then it will be ready to start selling!

Also, if you want to read a little something I wrote about birth order, check out my friend and fellow author Tracie Banister's blog here. There's still time to enter to win an e-copy of What the Dog Ate.  

Happy 4th of July all!