Wordless Wednesday: Cover Reveal for "Rescue Me, Maybe"!

Here it is - the cover for my new novel, which will be out in mid-September. I hope you like it!

Rescue Me, Maybe - due out in September!

Wordless Wednesday: Sleepover Aftermath

Remember when I mentioned that Rita and Reggie were going to have a sleepover at Reggie's house? It was a success! (Hooray! Good news, since we trade dog-sitting for each other.)

It was a success... but that doesn't mean it wasn't a little nutty. It was reported to me by my sis that Rita was "good as gold," and Reggie was.... well, a little excited about the whole deal. My sis has no photos of the sleepover. Well, she does - but they're all blurry.

I have some of the next day when I went to pick up Rita.

"Please. I've had enough!"

Wordless Wednesday: Cookie Break. Or Not.

There's a house on one of our favorite walking routes that leaves out a bowl of water and a container of cookies for the pups. We usually stop with Rita to enjoy a cookie on our way home.

"This is my favorite walk route, Momma!"

Wordless Wednesday: On a Walk in Bird Rock

As I mentioned during K9 Kamp, we do a lot of walking. And we don't usually get bored, because we have lots of different, nice routes we can take. One of our favorite walks is to head down to a little neighborhood known as "Bird Rock." It's called this cuz there's a rock. And birds sit (and do other stuff that rhymes with sit) on it. [Sorry this is wordy - you don't have to read it. You can just look at the pics!]

Rita in front of Bird Rock - with no birds on it at the moment

Wordless Wednesday: Operation - Tired Puppy

My sis was hosting her book club, so asked me to bring Rita over to help tire Reggie out. (Remember when I introduced Reggie - my new nephew?)

"I still have to grow into my ears and my paws."

Wordless Wednesday: The Preferred Part of a Pig

A while back I posted about what's the best part of a dog. (I said it's the ears.) In keeping with that "what's the best part" theme, we recently let Rita decide what was the ... well, not best (we only gave her two options) but better part of a pig. I present:

Ear vs. Pizzle
We gave Rita the option of either having a pig's ear or a porky pizzle twist. Would she agree that the ears have it? Or would the pizzle proudly point a path to preference?

It was a tough decision...

"Decisions, decisions. Calculating weight-to-porky-goodness ratio..."

Wordless (ha!) Wednesday: KONG Premium Treats Giveaway

If you've been around a while, you know I have a hard time being wordless... and this is going to be another one of those wordy-Wordless Wed. posts. But hey... you could win stuff!

We were approached by JAKKS Pets, partners with KONG for the KONG Premium Treat line, about doing a review and giveaway. Rita said, "Sign us up!" Momma said, "Hang on... let's read through everything."

Once the Momma found out the treats are USA-made (very important - don't buy treats made in China!) and use good ingredients (all-natural, no animal by-products, and no wheat, corn or soy!) she agreed with Rita.

So, the lovely folks from KONG Premium Treats sent us 3 treats of our choosing to try, and now THREE lucky winners will win the same - a prize pack with 3 fabulous treats:

A prize package with a trio of treats!

Wordless Wednesday: Are You Going to Our County Fair...

Okay, sing along with me, to the tune of Simon & Garfunkle's Scarborough Fair: 

Are you going to our County Fair? Bunnies, dogs, a hydrant of wool....

 

Yep, my sis and I are not only going to the fair, but we entered lovingly hand-crafted bunnies and dogs for the Home & Hobby competitive exhibits. Specifically, we entered "sets" in the needle-felting division. (Oh, no wait - technically it's the needle-felting class, which is within the overarching "Felting" division, which is within the "Needle & Textile Arts" category.) Whatever it is - we want to win.

I've been wanting to enter something for years, and this year we are finally doing it. They wouldn't let us enter together - except for quilts, only one person's name can be on an entry - so we decided to each enter an item (even though we made both of them together). My sis entered our tableau of bunnies: (click on any pics if you want to see them bigger)

Wordless Wednesday:That Was a Dumb Idea

We recently took Rita with us to Santa Barbara for a few days. (That wasn't the dumb idea. It's coming.)

My sis lives there and we wanted to visit and check out the Amgen Tour of California. (Drug scandals notwithstanding, we're big pro cycling fans and this is a very cool week-long race that shows off the beauty of our state.) One stage was ending on the Wednesday we got there, so we knew we'd be able to see an exciting sprint finish, and the next day's stage was starting from the same spot. Always fun to go to the start and see all the big US and European cycling stars at the team buses before the race. (Yes, I'm a cycling groupie!)

We stayed with my sis, who has a cat. Rita HATES cats. (This also wasn't the dumb idea.) But she apparently likes cat toys... She immediately tried to steal a mouse toy:

A terrible - but hysterical - pic. See the mouse's tail? 

Wordless Wednesday: The Almost-Perfect Doormat

Remember the other day when I posted about bilingual dogs and the need for dogs to learn French? Well, a couple of days after that, I came across an almost perfect welcome mat for our house:

Wordless Wednesday: Name Game Challenge

Last week, Pamela at Something Wagging This Way Comes mentioned a fun photo challenge going on at the Raising a Super Dog blog. The blog follows the adventures of Euka II, a puppy in training for Canine Companions for Independence. The challenge was to take of a photo of your pup with his/her name spelled out in kibble.

Obviously for service dogs, this is an important lesson - that not everything on the ground is there for their own enjoyment. But I wondered, could Rita (definitely not service dog material due to her fears/issues) handle the challenge? We've been working on our down/stay, so I decided to try it. 

As you can see, success!

Wordless Wednesday: Rita Must Be a Good Dog...

...cuz it says so right on the box we got today! Yep, Rita won something again! This time from Good Dog Takeouts treats from Jeffie's month long birthday party over at Talking Dogs Blog.

It's no wonder Rita thinks every package that comes to the door is for her - more than half the time, they are!

"Oh, for me?? Give me a hand, Momma!"

Wordless Wednesday: Jealousy

Today's word is jealousy, cuz I bet you are gonna be jealous that I got to get my hands on this little fluffball yesterday! Meet my new nephew, Reggie!

Reggie with his favorite aunt! (Sure my other sis will have somethin' to say about that.)

Wordless Wednesday: Spa or Gulag?

Rita generally doesn't like to be brushed, so when Daddy came at her with the brush** this weekend, she went belly up. 

Ugh. You try to get a little shut-eye in the sun. But no....

I Have Been Remiss - Part II: Winnings!

Okay, I know it's wordless Wednesday, so I'll try to not be too wordy and mainly show pics of what we won, but I have to give shout-outs where they are (over)due!

First off, we won several books!

"I don't always read, but when I do, it better involve a dog." ~ Rita

Wordless Wednesday: Uninvited Visitors

In just the last couple of days, we've had a lot of uninvited visitors. First there was this little guy:

"May I come in? No? Okay, then, I'll just poop and be on my way!"

Slightly-Less-Wordy Wednesday: Staycation

A couple of weeks ago, the hubs suddenly decided to take a week off. We didn't have time to plan much, and we had some things to do around the house, so we decided on a "staycation." We'd only done this once before, and the last time it was pretty much a disaster. We took off the week in 2003 when the massive "Cedar Fire" hit San Diego. The fire hit the second day of vacation, so we spent 3 1/2 days basically trapped in the house (because the sky was orange and the air unbreathable) while we watched the terrible, depressing news. (At one point we even had our cars packed and ready to evacuate.) Luckily this time was much more successful!

A staycation is pretty much ideal when you have a dog. (No worries about how the pooch will adapt to the new locale.) And we had fun being dorks and pretending we'd rented our house from VRBO. ("Can you believe these people left us all these projects to do? Jerks!")

We basically pretended we were retired. We slept in every morning, enjoyed our coffees, and then went for long walks on the beach with Rita:

Had the beach to ourselves!

Wordless Wednesday: SPRING!

To celebrate the first day of spring, I thought I'd share pics I took of some of the beautiful flowers in our neighborhood on a recent walk with Rita. And... we have a winner in the What the Dog Ate's birthday giveaway!

But first... Spring has sprung:

A California poppy

Wordless Wednesday: To The Beach!

Snapped a few shots of Rita on the way to the beach the other day. These are taken after we turned on to the little one-way road that leads to Fiesta Island, or Disneyland for Dogs as I call it. I just held my camera over and snapped, without looking, but they still came out kinda cute.

This one is taken w/ window up, no flash

Wordless Wednesday: Breakfast With a Side of Oxytocin

Unfortunately, my hubs has a very stressful job. He also has trouble managing his stress. Rita apparently knows this, since she suddenly decided she should sit between us while we eat breakfast on the sofa in front of the news. (Sorry about the picture quality - took it with my iPad, shooting in to the light. Should know by now to always have the camera handy.)

Administering the proper dosage of oxytocin

She's supposed to be over on "her" side of the sofa, on her towel. But since the hubs can use a dose of oxytocin before work, I don't mind a little dog hair. (Besides, our house is practically covered in it anyway.) You can read about dogs and oxytocin here, but here's a key nugget: "Oxytocin, which is sometimes dubbed 'the cuddle hormone,' helps reduce blood pressure and decreases levels of cortisol, a hormone related to stress and anxiety." Keep that stuff coming, Rita!

You might suspect that she only chose to sit there to have access to our breakfast of peanut butter toast and yogurt - but you'd actually be wrong. She's totally gone off peanut butter, and if I offer her a bite or my plate when I'm done with it, she turns her head and acts like I've put the most disgusting thing ever in front of her. As for the yogurt, she might lick a bit off a spoon when you're done, but she does NOT want to lick the cup. (She's so odd.)

Do you try to extract some cuddle hormone from your dog?