Showing posts with label Rita. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rita. Show all posts

September 1, 2015

Our Dog is Calling the Drought Police - We Gave Her a Bath

Rita LOVES the drought in California. Because of it, she hasn't had a bath in ages! She was terribly over-due so we had to give her one this past weekend. (Siriusly, Rita - we had no choice!)

Since I knew we'd be giving her a bath when we got home, I let her indulge in one of her fave things to do on a hot walk - dunk in a puddle.
Filthy dunking puppy

August 25, 2015

Less-Wordy Wednesday: A Little Library

I found a little library in our 'hood. So fun!

I was out walking Rita the other day, and someone had put a "little library" on one of the side streets by our house. It had just started, so there weren't too many books then, but I did get Room, which I've been wanting to read.

August 16, 2015

Mad Dogs, Englishmen, and Us

Do you know that saying that "only mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the noonday sun"?

Well, you can add us to that list.
"I wouldn't say I'm *mad*, just annoyed."

August 11, 2015

Wordless Wednesday: Wild-Eyed

As you know from Monday's post, Rita's cousin Reg was here for four days last week. Usually he is the one trying to get Rita to play, but sometimes she tries to entice him first, which is what she was doing here when she flung herself into her bed and struck this "come and get me!" wild-eyed pose. 
Nutty girl.

August 9, 2015

Monday Mischief - Busted for Pooch Smooches

Back long ago when I first started this blog, we had a very kissy dog.

This girl right here, angel Abby:
"Turn the camera off so we can make out."

August 2, 2015

Monday Mischief - Custom Bedding for the Dog Part II

Remember when Rita took it upon herself to customize her own bedding? (In a nutshell, she purloined a no-longer-needed twin mattress topper that I didn't know where to store and "customized" it to fit her fuzzy little form.)

July 26, 2015

Monday Mischief: Rita and the Breadsticks

From the title of this post you might suspect Rita got into a package of breadsticks and ate them.

Nope. Our girl would never do that. Siriously, never.

She won't even eat one breadstick.

Here is a (not very good) picture of her enjoying a bite of a breadstick.

But she won't eat a whole one.

July 14, 2015

Less Wordy Wed: The Dog Doesn't Want To Be A Bother

Usually Rita sleeps later than I do and I'm up before her, but the other morning I came around the corner and here she was, waiting patiently by the backdoor to go out:

This is what she does when she wants to go in or out. She waits.

June 28, 2015

An Experiment Goes As Expected

Last week, Jodi at Heart Like a Dog, who frequently writes cute posts about the funny or sweet things her dogs do that make her smile, wrote about how her boy Sampson stops eating his Kong and stares at it, "knowing someone will help [him] get the goodies out..."

She said that he will "either bounce the Kong until he gets the pineapple out, or he just stops all together. "

I commented that "Rita would look at me like I was insane if I put fruit in her Kong." Jodi asked if I'd ever tried pineapple, conjecturing that Rita might actually like it. I said I was "100% certain Rita will give me a look of disgust if I offer her a piece of pineapple." And an experiment was born.

June 16, 2015

Less-Wordy Wed.: Celebrating the Dog's Birthday!

Rita turned four on Tuesday. Well, we don't really know her exact birthday, but June 16th is the day we celebrate. Based on the age Baja Animal Sanctuary guessed at for her, we figured her birthday was around mid-June, and since 6/16 is her angel-cousin Lou's birthday, it seemed like a perfect day to pick for Rita.

Rita wanted a party with pony rides and a clown (to bark at) for her birthday but we decided on something a little more low-key.

We started the celebrations on Sunday night, when the whole unit went to In-N-Out burger and Rita got a Flying Dutchman! (Which is 2 burger patties with cheese. Yes, I know - so decadent, but she only gets one on her gotcha day in January and her bday in June.)

June 14, 2015

Monday Mischief: Pom Wonderful - and Pom Confusing

This weekend the hubs came in and said we had 7 pomegranates growing on one of our trees.

This was news to me, for 2 reasons:
1) I didn't know we had a pomegranate tree. We've lived here almost 5 years and never seen any fruit on the trees so we didn't know what they were. Turns out we have two pom trees! Yay! Pom wonderful! 

2) I thought pomegranates were only in season in winter, since we always only get them from our CSA in January. (I Googled it and according to the Pomegranate Council they usually only grow in No. America during late summer and early winter. Maybe our tree is confused since our weather was so hot in winter and has only just lately felt like early winter!) Pom confusing!

We all went outside to check it out. (I apologize that these are blurry!)
"Hmmm. What's this?"

June 11, 2015

See Beautiful: Volcanic Edition

A couple of weeks ago when I posted about the hubs swimming with an Iron Dog, I mentioned we'd gone to the Big Island for my Big Birthday. Today I thought I'd share some of the beauty of Hawaii with you!

We spent a few days in the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park and it was amazing! (It would have been even more amazing if the rain had let up a little more often.)

Here's a picture of the Kīlauea crater during the day (during a rare break from the rain!).

May 31, 2015

The Shortest Path To Treats

With our 2 previous dogs, they never wanted their walks to end. Bailey would dawdle along, sniffing and exploring for ages if'd you let her. Abby, who we used to always take to the bay, would dance out into the water just out of reach when it was time to get in the car and go home.
Abby evades capture just out of reach in the water
So with Rita, I taught her that getting home from a walk was a good thing by giving her a treat when we get home.

And now of course she wants to race home!

May 21, 2015

My Dog Loves Life! #FuelTheCure

Today I'm joining Oz the Terrier and Sugar the Golden Retriever who are hosting the "Loving Life Contest and Fundraiser" along with Zuke's treats to support the Dog and Cat Cancer Fund!

You know that (unfortunately) dog cancer is an issue that Pooch Smooches is passionate about, so I was happy I remembered to participate, because for each blog post in the hop Zuke's will donate $5 to DCCF!

You can join in too - but time is running out as the contest/hop ends May 22. All you need to do is create a post showing your pet loving life and include #FuelTheCure in the title. (Complete rules and info for the contest are here on Oz's site.)


We're also happy to participate because Rita LOVES Zuke's tasty treats and I love that they donate a portion of their sales to DCCF, which helps pet parents afford cancer treatments for their sick furry family members.

So, in the spirit of the hop, here are some pics of Rita loving life and doing some of her favorite things!

Rita loves to go on walks...

May 19, 2015

Less-Wordy Wednesday: Rita Refutes the "Lazy" Label

Rita was miffed that I called her "lazy" in my post last week. She insisted that I "roll tape" to show how crazy she gets over her Unbreakoball. (We'll get to the tape in a minute, Rita!)

Ages ago (probably before most of you found PoochSmooches), Rita won an Unbreakoball. She LOVES it. I don't know why she gets so nutty over this toy! It's like nothing else we own.

I don't bring it out often because it's hard plastic and a bit scratched up, so that plus hardwood floors is not a great combo. And she can't play with it in our yard because we live on a super steep slope, and if it rolls off the deck, it's a goner.

But I got it out the other day and she immediately went nuts.

These pics are all a blur cuz she runs by so fast with her prized possession.
Cracks me up how she hooks a tooth in to carry it around.

May 10, 2015

Our Dog is Lazy: Recumbent Fetch & Another Inventive Game for Lazy Dogs

We are coming to grips with the fact that our dog is lazy.

I've mentioned before that Rita's not really that into playing fetch. Oh, she'll run after the ball/toy a time or two, but then she just takes it to her bed.

May 3, 2015

Monday Mischief: Our Dog's a Drama Queen

This past weekend, the hubs and I went away for one night, so my sis came and dog-sat Rita for us. 

After some initial barking when my sis let herself in the house, she was greeted with two kisses from Rita. (Rita is VERY stingy with kisses so getting two is a big deal.)

Once Rita got over being happy that it was her auntie who came in and not a burglar, she started waiting for Momma to come home.
Rita camped out by the garage door

April 26, 2015

No Mischief at Grandma's -- Well, Maybe a Little

My mom has a collection of teddy bears. But Rita never tries to snag the ones that aren't "hers."

My mom has one little lavender-colored, bean-filled bear that Rita is allowed to play with. It sits on a little stool in my mom's bedroom, and Rita runs to get it first thing when we go visit Grandma. It always makes us laugh when she runs to get it right away, like it's the whole reason we're there!