Animal Lovers' Bucket List Item: Visit Best Friends

As I mentioned in last week's post about our dog-less (but not dog-free!) vacation, we spent one day at Best Friends Animal Society. And it was pawesome!

A Dog-Less Road Trip - But Not Totally

Remember I posted recently about Rita's car anxiety and the triple-whammy I was going to try to use on her for our upcoming road trip? Well, I didn't have to triple-whammy her, because at the last minute things worked out for her to stay and play with Reg. (Yay! She loves Reg and hadn't seen him in a while!)

Reg & Rita - Reunited!

Running Negative Splits With the Dog

If you don't run or swim competitively, you might not know what negative splits are. (No, they're not banana splits minus the banana.) A negative split is when you try to complete the second half of your workout/race in less time than it took to do the first half.

Normally, you're nice and fresh for the first half, so that's your faster half - but not if you run with Rita. Rita always seems to want to run a negative split.

My adorable running partner. (Note the sandy nose.)

Is There a Dog-Lover Gene?

I think there must be a dog-lover gene. I have no scientific evidence, but I do have photographic evidence!

I give you... me with our pup Bailey* (many moons ago)...

When Car Rides Turn Scary - Pups with Anxiety

Rita is great about riding in the car - at least when we're just running errands. She hops in the back seat, raring to go, and never tries to come up front. In fact, I've left an open bag of treats in the front seat when I run into the store for something quick, and she's still just sitting quietly in the back when I return.

But lately, when we go on road trips, she gets worse and worse anxiety each time. Here she is hiding under the bed we put in the backseat to keep her comfy:

"The evil things won't find me under here!"

Furry Ninja: Is My Pet Trying To Kill Me?

This seemingly innocent fuzzy-faced pup tried to kill me a couple of weeks ago.

So cute. So innocent looking. But a silent killer lurks within....

Q&A with Author Barbara Techel - "Wisdom Found in the Pause"

Some of you may already know my guest today, or you might remember her previous visit to Pooch Smooches (especially since it was a very memorable post called "Poop Happens"). Please welcome author and all-around lovely person, Barbara Techel!

Barbara has a new book out called "Wisdom Found in the Pause: Joie's Gift." It's available on Amazon as an e-book or paperback.

Today I'm interviewing Barbara, and you can find my review at the end of the post!

Barbara & her special-needs pup, Joie

You Can't Beat a Beach Vaca With Your Furry Buddy!

As you guys know, we took a week off from the blog a couple of weeks ago to celebrate our 20th anniversary. To celebrate, we traveled up the coast with Rita to Los Olivos and Cambria in central California.

Rita is still getting really stressed in the car (probably a subject for another post) so she was exhausted after our drive to Los Olivos. She collapsed on top of her squeaky chipmunk.

Feeling Hot Hot Hot

I love the fall. It's my favorite season! ...except in San Diego when we have the worst heat of the year. Like now. Bleh.

Actually, by the time it's really Wordless Wednesday, we're supposed to have cooled off a lot, but the last few days have been miserable. It's bad enough to have the post-vaca blues, but post-vaca blues + a heat wave is really no fun!

Wordless Wednesday: Happy Feet

I wanted to use this photo for today's post, but didn't know what to say about it, so I Googled "feet quotes." Because, hey, there are quotes about everything, right?, so why not feet.

I really liked the first one that came up!

Don't Forget: Remember Me Thursday® on 9/22

According to the The Humane Society, only 30% of pets in US households come from rescue facilities. And there are huge numbers of pets out there just waiting for their forever home. That's why Helen Woodward Animal Center (where I volunteer every Monday) started Remember Me Thursday®, which takes place this year on September 22.

Remember Me Thursday® is a global awareness campaign advocating for orphan pets to live in forever homes, not die waiting for them. The goal is to "shine a light on all orphan pets waiting in shelters and rescues right now."

Life's a Beach - Part Deux

I used to have a long-sleeved, pink "Life's a Beach" T-shirt when I was in college. I LOVED that shirt and wore it constantly. Then someone stole it out of the dryer in the dorm laundry room. (People suck sometimes.) Anyway, I've lived the vast majority of my life near a beach and I've always loved that phrase.

When I wrote the title for this post (it started as just "Life's a Beach), I wondered if I'd already used that title, given my love of the phrase. Turns out I did... over 4 years ago - and it was a sad post. It was just a few days before our girl, Abby, died and we knew the end was imminent. Hence the "part deux" in the title. (I'm all sniffly now from re-reading that old post, so let's get on to some fun beach pics of me and Rita...)

Life's a beach, part deux is all about the smiles!

We'd only been at the beach like one minute, and her nose already had sand on it.

"What?"

Yeah... Pretty Much...

I'm a pretty easy-to-please person. It doesn't take much to make me a happy camper. One of the things I really love is just hanging out with my pooch and loving on her.

A Super Scary Thing At Our House

Every once in a while, Rita freaks out over a new thing in the house, which she decides is super scary.

A while back, it was this tiki man.

I guess he is a little scary.

Wordless Wednesday: Here's the Scoop...

Get it? Here's the scoop.