Dakota's Mom shared this very fun graphic produced by Matt Beswick for Pet365. {Click here to view Matt's full post.}
Who knew that George Washington had so many dogs? (I assume not all at one time...) And both G.W. and Queen Elizabeth had dogs named Vulcan?? What's up with that? (And doesn't that seem like sort of an imposing name for a cute little corgi?)
Anyway, I thought I'd share the story of how our pups got their names:
Bailey was named after Bailey's Bay, which was near where we lived in Bermuda. We thought we were being so unique and original! But suddenly there were Baileys everywhere, because there was a popular character on... I forget... a show we didn't watch so we had no idea. Maybe 90210? Something like that...
Abby's full name was Abby Louise, because that used all the letters in Bailey's name. Awww. Miss that girl!
Rita was named after Rosarita Beach, the beach in Baja Mexico where
the rescue group found her. When she came to us, her name was Peaches.
(Which was a funny coincidence, because there is a minor dog character
in What the Dog Ate named Peaches.) Anyway, Mike makes a mean peach
margarita, so in addition to being named after the beach, she’s also
named after peach margaritas.
A pearl in the poppies
After reading Dakota's mom's post about how she found that Dakota means “trusted friend,” I decided to look up what Rita means: “Pearl.” This is another funny coincidence,
because I joked with Mike when we were trying to come up with Abby's name that I wanted to name her Pearl
so that I could be “Mother of Pearl.” (I know - I'm a dork.)
I guess we picked the right name for Rita, as she is definitely our special
gem!
How did your pup get his/her name?
Very Brief Book/Writing News
In book news, I got another nice review on Chick Lit Central.Also, I had another idea for a book that I like and think could be a lot of fun to write - so I'm now working on three, yes three, different books at one time. And making myself crazy(er). Going to try to focus and finish one!!
This Monday Mischief is actually mostly about me and some mischief Mike's admin asked me to join in - but Rita benefited from the mischief as well!
Last week I participated in a scavenger hunt that was a team-building event for my hub's Finance department at work. The hub's admin was the one who invited me to be one of the "things" they scavenged for, so he didn't know I'd be there.
The hunt took place in downtown La Jolla, full of nice restaurants and shops and always bustling on a Friday afternoon - especially in the summer. I was told to hang out reading What the Dog Ate on the bench outside Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. There were 6 teams, and even though the hunt was to last all afternoon, they were told that my particular clue was only good from 2 to 3 (so I didn't have to sit there forever).
The clue was something like: "The dog ate my homework" is one of the most common excuses in America. Stop by this 3000 mile mountain range for a sweet treat, where you'll find a La Jolla author who can tell you what else the dog ate.
When I got there, the bench I was supposed to sit on was otherwise ocupied by a homeless guy. Luckily there was a tiny little wall about 6 inches off the ground in front of the shop, so I sat on that and pulled out my book and tried to make the cover obvious.
It's time to announce the winner of my giveaway of Peggy Frezon's Dieting With My Dog, and the winner is... Danielle Murgia! (Yep, that's right... If you checked Peggy's blog this morning to see who won What the Dog Ate, the same lucky lady won both books! What are the odds? But Rafflecopter is totally random, so, it's just Danielle's lucky day. Maybe she should pick up a lottery ticket today!)
I'll email you shortly, Daneille, to get your address. Congrats on the double win!
Speaking of being lucky... I won two books myself this week!
For this week's (mostly) Wordless Wednesday, I figured we'd focus on the cuteness of Rita. (And, okay, I admit... there's some book-related wordiness at the end.) But mostly, there are a LOT of cute pics - and even a painting! - of Rita:
"This is cute enough, right? We can stop now, right?"
It's Monday Mischief time again, so this week we've got a video of Rita being mischievous with another little something that we won. Yes, we won something again! We've been so lucky lately! Remember a while back I posted about the UnbreakOBall contest and encouraged folks to enter? And remember I included the link to my entry for Abby versus Barney, which Liz from the Indestructible Dog Gear blog turned into: "The Tale of Abby & Barney: A Love Story"? Well, Abby was named the "Indestructible Dog of the Month" for July (whoohoo!) so Rita received an UnbreakOBall in Abby's memory.
My copy is on its way, so I haven't read it yet, but the book tells "the honest and heartfelt story of
one overweight woman and her chubby spaniel, struggling to lose weight
together. Their wonderful results will inspire anyone who wants to get
fit and healthy…with their furry best friend."
“Peggy Frezon has written a charming and delightful tale. Dieting With My Dog is sweet, funny, inspiring and adorable, just like Peggy and Kelly!”
–Julie Klam, bestselling author You Had Me at Woof: How Dogs Taught Me the Secrets of Happiness
Now that the Olympics are over, we have the post Olympics blues... We have had to resort to entertaining ourselves with our own sporting events around here - like Pancake Catching, Puppy Pouncing, Open Water Swimming, and the Sweet Potato Chase.
Open Water Swimming
Remember last week I posted about Rita's first swim, and how we didn't have our camera? Well, this past weekend I remembered to bring my iPod Nano along, so we caught some videos of her in the act. (Luckily we went both days of the weekend, as the video from the first day was mostly of the hub's finger...)
So, here she is, our own little Rita Lochte: (it just occurred to me that Ryan has the word for "lake" in his name; he must have been destined to be a swimmer.) Note - please ignore my high-pitched squeaky voice in this video. She was probably trying to swim out to hold me underwater to make the squeaking stop....
Hi all - Rita here. Today it's time for Monday Mischief. Momma thinks I am a good girl, so she doesn't really think I get up to much mischief. (She's soooo wrong!)
Momma made this video of me yesterday -- it's supposed to be a game of catch with Momma using pieces of a leftover pancake from their breakfast to get me to learn to catch. (You can't really hear the sound very good - but it's mostly just Momma saying "Are you ready?" and then laughing at me. Nice, Momma. Real nice.)
Today I'm very excited to have Kona here for an interview. Kona doesn't get to have his say in the What the Dog Ate, so it was nice to sit down and chat with him and see what makes the big guy tick. So, let's get started.
Q. Hi Kona. Welcome to the blog. Let's start with some basics. What breed of dog
are you?
A. I’m a
chocolate Lab. I am very handsome. My Momma says so.
Q. Are you a purebred
dog?
A.No. Why would you ask that? Do I look
doughy? Are you suggesting I'm a flabrador? I think I’m kind of muscle-y. I mean, I’m not pure muscle, but I have a lot
of muscle. I do have some doughy parts, but man. Pure bread. I like bread, don’t get me wrong, but that just seems
like a mean question. [Looks down and shakes head.] [Muttering] If this is how this interview is going to be, I'm outta here. I thought this was going to be a puff piece. Man, talk about hard-hitting questions.
Q. No, I’m sorry. I
didn’t mean to offend you. You’re very muscular! [Kona sits up and
smiles.] I meant, you know – where did
you come from. Do you have papers?
A. [Tilts head.]
Papers? You mean like the papers you pee on? I haven't done that since I was a puppy. Geez. What is this??
It's Monday Mischief time and this morning Rita's mischievous idea was to plop down in a puddle on our muggy morning walk. Swell. The girl can sniff out a puddle at 50 paces. She finds puddles that I don't even notice and suddenly plops down or pounces with her front legs into them. And the muddier the better! Unfortunately I didn't have my camera, but fortunately, she dried off before we got home.
So much to catch up on in this post! But it's mostly pictures...
More Goodies for Rita
Last time, I posted about the winner for my giveaway (Baba HooHoo!) but Rita's winnings also continue to come in! Remember all the stuff we won during K9 Kamp? Well, this week we got two more items. First, Rita got some stuffed squeaky bones from Flint & Lars:
The hub's reaction was "wow, some of these look really good!"
These we didn't win (I actually paid for something for Rita for once!) but to celebrate Abby's third birthday, Rita got a bag of hedgehogs:
"It says here these are wheat and gluten free. Interesting..."
"I'm goin' in!"
He's a little dirty - she ran outside with him, afraid I'd steal him!
Looks like she's checking out his (nonexistent) hedgehog naughty-bits in this photo.
In addition to her new toys and treats, Rita has a new friend. The hubs has (luckily) been getting home at a more reasonable time all week, so we've been going on a 20 minute walk most nights to a little park by the ocean where pups and their humans gather. The pups meet to play, the humans to watch the sunset. Rita's new little friend is named Bee. Rita loves Bee!
Teeth, claws, and blurry-quick movements to the contrary, Rita does actually play really nicely with Bee:
Bee is a tiny thing & she often hides between anyone's legs.
And they both share their water nicely - even with other random pups:
"No, no, after you!"
A Mini Cover Model
In needle-felting news, my sis and I felted a Charley - the cover model from my book! I was worried we wouldn't do him justice since Charley is so handsome, but I think he came out cute.
Real Charley & Mini Charley
Mini Charley & Mini Abby, Charley's Angel
Book-related News
I've had several reviews, interviews, posts, etc. lately. Here's a list if you want to check any of them out (most of you have already seen these since I posted them on Facebook/Twitter):
A wonderful review on My Tail Hurts from Wagging So Much. (I made her stay up too late.) :)
I got to answer fun questions on Coffee with a Canine (have a look if you want to know the one thing I would ask Rita if she could answer a single question in English).
I got my first blurb! A "blurb" is when a published author gives a lovely little sound-bite for your book. The wonderful Elsa Watson, author of Dog Days, called my book a "a cheer-me-up read, the story of a smart woman
putting her life back together. Maggie is the character women have been
waiting for - she's clever, funny, and REAL." So, that immediately went up on my Amazon page for the book! Hooray, and thanks again to Elsa!
You'd think with all this good book news, sales would be a little better, but - not gonna lie - they haven't been great. They've been just OK. Nothing you could live on... unless, maybe you were a pet hamster. A pet hamster could probably live pretty comfortably on the proceeds - could maybe even be like the Kardashians of hamsterdom - but that's about it. Anyway, hoping for some momentum to build, but in the meantime, it's nice to hear from folks that they've enjoyed the book.
If you want to make an author's day - send them an email telling them how much you liked their book!
OK, it's supposed to be Wordless Wed., and I'm changing it to One Word Wed, but of course I can't limit myself to just one word... But the main word for today is Winner!
Without further ado, the winner of the big giveaway is (do you hear the drum roll??): Baba HooHoo!! (Isn't that the cutest login name?)
Here's how she won... I used Randomizer.org to generate a random winning number which was 23. (I like #23 since it's my birth date.) Baba Hoohoo had the 23rd comment slot, so she's our winner! And now a signed copy of the book, Smooches treats, The Honest Kitchen cookbook, and an adorable pink & brown bookmark hook all tucked up in a cheery pink tote bag will be winging their way to her!
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.
As I said last week, today is a special global event: Bloggers Unite for DogRescue 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!
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!
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!
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:
Today, July 15, lots of dog bloggers are bringing attention to the upcoming "Bloggers Unite for DogRescue,"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.
So, this is just a little heads up that on July 23rd, bloggers from all over will be posting about various dog rescue issues...
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.
