Monday Mischief: Rita's First Ice Cream Cone

Since July 31 was National Mutt Day, and August 1st was the day we used to celebrate angel Abby's birthday (she would have been 5 this year; read more about her here), I took Rita to McDonald's for her first ever ice cream cone.

As you can see from the intense stare, she thoroughly enjoyed it.

"OMD. Where has this been all my life?"

Wordless Wednesday: Dream!

Rita dreams of jerky treats. Plentiful. Chewy. And handed out with great regularity!

In Other Dreams...
I finished my manuscript for my third novel. (It's about a dog-mom, but that's all I'm sayin' about that for now.) I sent it off to my agent on Friday.

Monday Mischief: Good & Bad Mischief

Good Mischief
This weekend we had a lovely family brunch at my bro's house.

FitDog Friday: Keep the Dog Hydrated with a "Cleanbottle"

A while back I saw someone having a wee rant on Twitter about seeing lots of folks out walking/jogging carrying water bottles for themselves and not for their pups. 

Now... what made that person assume the water bottles weren't for the dogs? Sure some dogs prefer to drink from a bowl, but there's no reason a dog can't drink from a bottle. 

Angel Abby demonstrates how:

Wordless Wednesday: Underdog!

At our house, we watch a lot of sports, and we usually like to cheer for the underdog. (Of course, with the San Diego Padres and Chargers, you're always rooting for the underdog, even when you're just rooting for the home team.)

There are other types of underdogs we like, too, though, like corgis!

They fit so easily under things! Here's Reg, who insisted on sitting under my legs when he came over for a play-date. 

Monday Mischief: Wrongfully Convicted

Rita here at the keyboard...

I want to tell you about a recent miscarriage of justice!

My cousin, Reggie, and I were wrongfully convicted. We were thrown behind bars without the benefit of a trial before a jury of our peers!

Here we are in the hoosegow. (You can kinda tell by this shot that Reg gets wrongfully convicted a lot, so he just takes it in stride. But me... what did I do?? I never go behind bars at MY house!)

But... but... but... what did we I do wrong??

Know Kids Who Love Dogs? Two-book #Giveaway!

At the Doggie Street Festival on Saturday, I met two fabulous ladies who've both written great kids' books about dogs. Since we don't have any ankle biters young kids in our family, I decided I'd do a giveaway. Both copies are signed by the authors!

Rita gives both books two dewclaws up!

Less-Wordy Wednesday: Doggie Street Festival

Last Saturday was the Doggie Street Festival here in San Diego - a BIG adoption event with lots of different rescue groups, vendors, and (for the first time this year) an "author pavilion." 

I figured I'd tell you about it mostly in pictures, since it's less-wordy Wednesday!

Here's my spot at the pavilion.

Monday Mischief: The Stick Wins (Or Why My Hardwood Floors Look Like Hell)

Last week Rita violated one of our lone rules here - the "no sticks in the house rule." We solved the issue by moving her bed outside for stick chewing al fresco.

Well, we long since had moved her bed back inside, of course. So, today she snuck the stick back into the house when I wasn't looking.

I look over and she's on her bed, attacking the stick. (Sorry about the blurry photo, but it was a swift and aggressive attack!)

"You are MINE, evil stick!"

Follow-Up Fri.: A Fair Follow-Up + Puppies for Sale!

A Fair Follow-Up
Remember when were a little bummed that we didn't win the blue ribbon this year (awarded for first place in the needle felting "class") at the fair? BUT, on the plus side, we won the Big Green Ribbon for a "special award" for the Best Theme entry??

Gotta  love a big, shiny ribbon!

Wordless Wed.: Caption These Cute Rescue Pups II

Today it's more pics of cute rescue pups playing at Helen Woodward, the shelter where I volunteer. The little one is Charlie, the big one is Sparkles. 

I just love Sparkles. She's so cute! (Even if she is making a demon-dog face here. She really wanted Charlie to play!)

Wanna try and caption these pups? Here's mine. (It's wordy...)

"Sparkles, what big eyes you have!" "The better to see you with, Charlie!" "And what big teeth you h..."

Monday Mischief: A Blatant Violation

Rita is mostly a very good girl - doesn't steal socks or undies, doesn't counter surf, never chews things she shouldn't. Of course, it's easy to be good when you live in a lax house like ours. But... we do have ONE rule: No sticks in the house!

Rita loves to find a stick when we go on a walk. Usually I'll toss it for her a time or two, and then she forgets about it. But the other day, she found a fine stick that she insisted on bringing all the way home. She trotted the entire length of our street (about 3/4 of a mile or more) with it in her mouth, tail proudly wagging. 

So, of course she wanted to blatantly violate the "No sticks in the house!" rule.

July Comes In Like a Lamb (Lung): Review & Giveaway

Okay, I know it's March that's supposed to come in like a lamb (or a lion...) but this month it's July! This month's going to come in like a lamb (lung ... or trachea) for one lucky winner!

When Flea at Jones Natural Chews (y'all know Flea right? If not, check out her blog!) approached us to do a treat review and giveaway, I said we're in!

10 New Vocabulary Words for Dog Lovers

For Monday Mischief today, I'm being mischievous myself and stealing an idea from Pamela at Something Wagging This Way Comes. Er... not stealing- just paying homage while adding on to the vocabulary words she posted that only dog people know.

Her post inspired me to share some vocabulary words the dog people in my family use.

Vulturing: (Pamela also listed this word, so we'll start here; only she had a slightly different definition.) Verb; the stooped shoulders and glaring stance the dog assumes when you are in the kitchen and NOT filling her dinner bowl.

#FuelTheCure Blog Hop, Contest and Fundraiser

When we heard our buddy Oz the Terrier was hosting a #FuelTheCure fundraiser to help raise money to fight pet cancer, we had to join in!

Oz is hosting along with Zuke’s (Rita loves Zuke's treats!) to help raise money for the Dog and Cat Cancer Fund. The fund: works with vets to help families in need get cancer treatment for their pets, offers research grants to scientists, and promotes prevention by raising awareness and encouraging early testing for canine and feline cancer.

Wordless Wednesday: Caption These Cute Rescue Pups

I've been editing editing editing book #3 and am brain dead (and still 90 pages to go... ugh), so I'm going to be mostly wordless today. Shocking, right?

I took these pics of these cute pups playing at Helen Woodward, the shelter where I volunteer. The little one is Ricky, the big one is Gus. They have a great time together!

Since I'm brain dead, I can't even come up with captions, so I'm leaving that to you! Take it away... Pick a pic and hit me with your cute, funny, endearing, or clever caption! (Or if you're brain dead too, just comment on how cute these pups are!)

Pic 1: Ricky appears to be telling Gus what's what:

I Don't Wanna Walk! (And a Winner!)

Rita can be so weird sometimes. 

Like, today, it started with making waffles for breakfast, and she wouldn't take the bite I offered her. (She's super picky. What a nut.) 

Then I attempted to take her for a walk, and she insisted on dragging me back home after only 5 minutes. This from a girl who normally LOVES her walks.

Rita in her usual walk-loving-mode

Follow Up Friday: Fair is Fair...

I haven't done a Follow-up Friday post in a while, but there's "Fair is fair" news to catch up on, starting with our entries for this year's "Fab Fair"-themed county fair! 

Unfortunately, our fair visit this year was a mix of good news/bad news, so overall it was just, eh, fair.

If we're friends on Facebook, you already know that instead of doing the Dance of Joy, we were doing the Trudge of Dejection around the exhibition hall... 

So, let's start with the bad news... We really had high hopes for another blue ribbon this year, but it wasn't to be. 

We got 3rd place in the Needle Felting division for our Meet the Beagles:

Third place?! But look at ALL that ADORABLENESS?!

Go Wild This Summer with BookBub's Best: 5 Book #Giveaway!

MEET THE FABULOUS FIVE!

Read on to see how you can win these 5 books!

Can You Find Happiness at the Drive-Thru?

Rita is not a super smiley dog. Mostly she just sits with her mouth shut and observes, so when she looks smiley I love it!

Monday was Rita's 3rd birthday so to celebrate we went to the In-N-Out drive-thru and got her a Flying Dutchman. This made Rita HAPPY.

No Monday Mischief Here - Just a Birthday Giveaway!

Monday is Rita's third birthday (Whoohoo! **blows noisemaker**), which is a Super Big Deal since our sweet angel Abby never even made it to 3. (Poor Ab.) So, to celebrate - we did lots of fun things on Sunday, and we are having a giveaway today!

We celebrated on Sunday since The Daddy has to work on Rita's actual birthday. (Actually... we have no idea when her birthday is. But the rescue guessed her birthday was somewhere in June. We were going to pick the mid-point, but that's my brother-in-law's bday, so we picked the 16th - which is her angel-cousin Lou's birthday, so a pretty special day!)

We went for a lovely walk. (I confess, this pick is from Saturday, but we did almost the exact same walk on Sunday...)

A lovely day for a walk!

See Beautiful: Orange You Glad It's Summer?

Okay... technically it's not summer until the 21st, but most schools are out and the weather's heating up, plus isn't Memorial Day weekend the unofficial start to summer? So, close enough!

Now that that's out of the way... I have to confess... I don't really like summer all that much. Since we live in the Land of Lovely Winters, I prefer every other season over summer, when it can get too hot for nice long walks/hikes with the pup. Neither Rita nor I like to get overheated, so... we just try to get through summer. Plus, since the hubs and I don't have kids, we always go on vacations in the spring or fall when it's quieter, so it's usually a long, hot wait for vacation!

But... I wanted to do an "orange you glad it's summer" post because of this, the scene on our front porch recently.

Animal Mummies - A Fascinating Exhibit

Recently a quorum of my sisters (a bunch were there but not all... I have many) and I went to see the Soulful Animals: Animal Mummies in Ancient Egypt exhibit at the Bowers Museum in Orange County, CA. It was fascinating! I wanted to share some of the history and some pics I took at the exhibit. (Pics were allowed as long as you didn't use a flash.)

The exhibit was based on some of the millions of animal mummies found at 31 cemeteries throughout Egypt. 

Shrew mummy

How To Needle Felt a Dog: There Will Be Blood

If you've been following the blog, you know my sister and I entered some needle felted dogs in the county fair last year (and won 2 blue ribbons!) and we've entered some this year as well. Some folks mentioned they'd like to know how to felt their own dogs... so here goes:

How To Needle Felt a Dog

Subtitled: There Will Be Blood. (Yes, you will stab yourself, at least the first 1 or 2 times you try felting.)

Wee Background
I come from a family of crafty folks. When my sis and I first saw Domenica More Gordon's dogs on TV, we knew we had to find out how she made those adorable dogs. (...since we couldn't afford the £500+ price tag!) That's how we discovered "needle felting." 

Since our dogs are not as fine-tuned as Domenica's, we like to call them "caricatures" and we've custom made many pups over the last couple of years. 

My sister's Husky-mix and my bro's angel Golden

Monday Mischief: My Momma Experimented on Me!

Rita here. Sit back, get your popcorn, and lock the doors, cuz I have a scary story to tell!

The other day, Momma insisted on brushing me 50-strokes. I don't like being brushed very much, so that was not super fun but I tolerated it. 

Then we went for a long walk, and I looked like this after:

Wordless Wednesday: Rita's New Leash & Avoiding a Tired Pun

Rita got a new leash... (not on life. Man, while I was trying to write a title for this post "a new leash on life" is ALL my feeble brain could come up with). She just got a new leash. Period. 

It's a little bit girly, and a little bit bad-ass (cuz it has pink skull & crossbones on it), just like our girl. Here she is sporting it, nice and pooped after a walk.

What Do The Beatles Have To Do with Wooly Dogs?

Remember our blue-ribbon winning entry from last year's Fair??

Pups at the Park

Well, we're hoping for another blue ribbon (or two...) this year!

Monday Mischief: Dynamic Duo Review-O

Today's mischief involves posting something a little different. I've posted about books before on the blog, but never about a book that doesn't have a dog in it.

"Wait, what??? No dog???"

Don't worry! There are still pooch pics! Read on!

Isn't that a great cover?!

The reason I'm sharing a non-doggy-book post is because my IRL friend Liz Fenton and new online friend Lisa Steinke are publishing their debut novel, Your Perfect Life, in June! (Hopefully someday I'll also get to meet Lisa in real life!)

It's Wildfire Awareness Week in CA. Yep, We're Aware!

I'm guessing you've seen on the news (or my Facebook posts) that San Diego county experienced a rash of fires the last few days. At one point there were 9 of them!

Here's a fuzzy pic from my phone showing the news graphic of the 9 fires.
(BTW, we're fine - we live well west of where the fires are.)

Ironically, this is all happening while it's Wildfire Awareness Week in California. Yep, you could say we are aware now! In fact, even though we aren't close to the fires, I was afraid to leave Rita home alone, just in case a fire would break out in our canyon. (It's happened before, although they put it out quickly!)

Wordy Wednesday: How We All Ended Up Exhausted

Just looked back and in almost a month I've only posted 3 times. I mentioned the blog would be quiet for a bit, and originally that was for a good reason. I was feverishly editing my new book! (More book news below.) But then the good reason for the blogging break turned into a sad reason.

A begonia on the hospital room windowsill

A Quick Catch-up and Puppy Mischief!

If you saw my last post, you know my mother-in-law passed away, so the hubs and I have been away from home for over 2 weeks. (Luckily we made it there in time to spend a couple of days with her.)

Rita stayed with Reggie (her cousin) while we were away. She was (reportedly) a good girl (except for not wanting to share her chew bones!), so I have a little Reggie mischief to share.

Reggie sent us this photo while we were in Montreal:

Give Cancer the Paw: A Tribute Post

This post is a brief tribute to these two beautiful girls that we lost to cancer.

A Quiet Blog for a Bit

I've missed you guys! Hope you've missed us, too. Know I haven't blogged much recently, and other than this post I probably won't have a chance to blog again until our May 6 Give Cancer the Paw hop. 

BTW, hope you'll join that! 

Oh, I Could Write a Blog Post About Your Easter Bonnet #TBT

Don't you love old family photos? I mentioned last month that my bro had uploaded a bunch of old pics and I thought I'd share some in honor of "Throwback Thursday" (TBT) and the upcoming Easter holiday. 

With a nod to Irving Berlin and his Easter Parade, here's a sonnet blog post about some Easter bonnets.

First, we have my mom in this fine floral number. If you've got an empty basket, some faux flowers, and a hot glue gun, you too can dazzle with this look!

Wordless Wednesday: Garage-Sale Dogs

Okay, no this isn't a post about dogs for sale at garage sales. (That would probably be a subject for a Blog the Change for Animals post...) This is about all the dogs my sisters and I met when we went to the annual garage sale event in my sister's 'hood this weekend. So many sweeties! 

Our first stop was to say hi to Marley. Isn't he a cutie? (I was there the day his momma found him - he was a stray. Hooray for Marley hitting the Doggy Lotto!)

#BtC4A: How To Get Your Puppy-Fix Without the Chewed Shoes

Puppies are pretty much the cutest things ever, right? (If you thought, "No, I'm pretty sure it's babies that are the cutest things ever" you are probably reading the wrong blog...) Sometimes you see a friend post a picture of their adorable new pup on Facebook or they email you a picture, and you think, "Oh, I'd love a puppy! They're so cute and cuddly!"

But then you come to your senses, because you know that puppies = chewed shoes, chewed furniture, chewed wires, inappropriate puddles on the carpet, middle-of-the-night trips out to the yard, etc. etc. etc. Let's face it - they make puppies that cute to take the sting out of what little pains in the butt they are.

But... today for Blog the Change for Animals, I wanted to let you know there's a way you can get a fix for your puppy addiction without the chewed shoes!

#SeeBeautiful: Ode to Spring - Dew Bee Dew Bee Dew

Today, it's the This Moment: See Beautiful hop, so for those of you emerging from this seemingly never-ending winter (aka "winternity"), here is a wee ode to spring, ala Sinatra... Dew-bee, dew-bee, dew!

DEW

#WOOF: 3 Things to Love About Reactive Dogs

It's time again for the monthly WOOF (Working Out Our Fears) Support blog hop, where reactive dogs and their owners come together to share similar experiences. This month's theme is "What I love about my reactive dog."

I easily came up with the three top things I love about my reactive girl, Rita.

1. A Reactive Dog is the Perfect Dog for an Introvert
Our first dog, a beagle, was not super interested in strangers when out on a walk (unless she could sniff them). She just wanted to sniff and do her own thing, so we rarely interacted with our neighbors. Which was perfect for introverted me.

Then we got Abby, who loved everything and everybody in the world and wanted to say HI! Not good for introverted me, forced to finally interact with all those neighbors.

Luckily, now I have Reactive Rita. 

Less-Wordy Wednesday: When I Get Home

We have a frosted panel in the door that leads from our garage into the house. So, usually when I get out of the car, this is what I see:

Monday Mischief: Rita Says #BooMonday!

Rita is not a fan of Mondays. She likes the lazy, sleep-in, late-morning-long-walk weekends!

Rita, Queen of All the Duvet

FitDog Friday: Creative Games From the Mind of a Beagle

Happy Anniversary to the FitDog Friday blog hop! There's lots going on for the celebrations, so check all that out at the end of this post.

I haven't joined in the FitDog hop for a while, partly because I've been trying to focus on getting book no. 3 done and partly because you can only write so much about walking the dog. We're boring, Rita and I. We mostly just walk and walk and walk. She's not much of a one for games. She'll play for a couple of minutes, but then she's done. 

It makes me fondly remember our beagle, Bailey, who was a great lover of games. 

Oh, she enjoyed the usual stuff too, like walking and hiking, ...

Less Wordy Wednesday: Crazy Dog Lady Art

{Before we get started... I made a lot of tweaks to my blog template this week. Let me know if anything looks stupid on your end!}

A few weeks ago, I worried that my inner child was actually a cat person, when a found photo of my childhood bedroom revealed a wall full of cats. 

I thought maybe I'd show you what my walls (and shelves) look like now, so you can see that I am in fact a card-carrying Crazy Dog Lady. In order to keep this from looking TOO crazy, I'm not including photos of my own past/present pups. This will all be "dog art".

So, ready for the doggone dog-art tour?

When you first walk in the door, you are greeted by my felted angels, Bailey and Abby. (Yes, the Abby only has 3 legs.)

Less-Wordy Wed.: Note to Self(ie), Games of Bitey-Face + Selfies Don't Mix

The other day during a Reg & Rita play date, the dogs were resting next to me on the porch, so I thought I'd try to get some selfies of the 3 of us. 

The break in the action was too brief though, and I ended up with this

Yikes!

And this:

Monday Mischief: A Message in the Mischief

On our walk this weekend, we noticed these two cars parked at a neighbor's house:

On closer inspection, they had a message for pup owners (or bad boyfriends?):

Less-Wordy Wed.: What the...? Am I... A Cat Person?

Not that there would be anything wrong with me being a Cat Person... It's just that I'm trying to make my way as the Dog-writer Lady. I'm practically a card-carrying Crazy Dog Lady.

But, you know how a lot of folks know who they are/what they wanna be from a young age? Not me. For a long time, I didn't know what I wanted to be "when I grew up." Like, I'm talking, even in my 30's... I always wished I was one of those kids who knew all along.

Then, the other day, my brother uploaded a bunch of old family pics on the web and shared them with me and my sisters. And amongst them, I found this pic of my room when I was a kid:

Click to big-ify

Notice anything funny? (Other than that the slide somehow was reversed, as obvious from "Smithsonian" backwards across the tiger poster.)

#WOOF: Frustrations and Successes with My Reactive Dog

Today I'm joining the WOOF Support blog hop. WOOF (Working Out Our Fears) Support is where reactive dogs and their owners come together to share similar experiences.

I've mentioned before that Rita has a lot of fears ("Have you seen this man?" - may need to re-run that post some day. It was funny, IMHO, and I think 4 people read it.) and, when on-leash, is reactive to dogs (and motorcycles, and crows, and sudden surprises, etc.). Back when we used to go to the off-leash park, she was fine with most dogs, but on-leash, it's a crap shoot.

If you also have a fearful/reactive dog, well, lucky you! And you may want to read all the posts in the hop, because we're sharing: "Successes, Frustrations and Everything in Between"

Wordless Wednesday: A Chew Review with Words Few

Hope you don't mind me being a weeeee bit wordy to do a quick review of a new bone we tried that Rita really likes - Benebone.

My sis, Reggie's mom, turned me on to these. Rita is very picky, but I ordered one (via Amazon) to give it a try. It was a hit! I like it because it's well-designed and the Y-shape gives her something to hang on to. Rita likes it because it tastes like BACON!

Monday Mischief: Found and Lost and Found

Found
Back in late 2012, I found this perfect tag for Rita, which I posted a pic of on the blog.

As you can see, it says "Insert Treat" with an arrow pointing at her mouth - very appropriate for her!

Lost
Well, this week, I noticed it was missing. I was bummed, but figured it broke and fell off on one of our walks, and I mentally added it to the always-growing To-Do list.