{30jan2010: Kona}

Update on Darwin's brother, Kona.  So that day I saw his craigslist ad I passed it onto my coworker, Darwin's breeder, and his wife and to the other owners of Darwin's siblings.  I posted it here on my blog, and I posted it to the Marymoor Dane group page.  I announced it in the office.  I pretty much told anyone I could. 
I emailed Kona's owner and called them to get as much information about him as I could. 
Kristie, Boo Radley's (Darwin's brother) owner, was just as concerned about Kona as I was.  We were emailing back and forth about what we could do to help him.
The great news is she managed to convince her husband to let them foster Kona and work on some leash issues and help find him his forever home.  She has a friend that may be interested in taking him, but if not we'll keep spreading the word about him to help him find a great home that gives him the love he deserves.  Kristie is totally awesome and generous (and her husband too)!  And I'm glad that as much as I wanted to do something to help Kona, that they are able to actually take him in temporarily and make sure he's well taken care of!
I'm excited because til he does find his new home, Darwin's playdates with her brother Boo will also be with her brother Kona!  

{29jan2010: dog pile!}

After getting so worked up about Darwin's brother's situation (more on that later) I distracted myself by making brownies, and then working on Darwin's entry for Biggie's Dog Pile Contest.  She was at daycare all day, so it was prime time to pile as many things on her as I could.  With her being a big dog, her toys are all pretty big, so I scavenged to try and find smaller things near by.  
Here was one attempt before we ate dinner:

I tried to get our baguette on her too, but the tomatoes were too distracting as they are one of her favorite treats.  
In the end I was able to get at least 17 (visible) objects on her and I was sooo happy!

Here's our list of objects we sent to Biggie:
1. red tug toy
2. red bone
3. bite me bone
4. stuffed pig
5. green rope
6. favorite sheep
7. beanie baby armadillo
8. fish
9. red and grey rope
10. tan pig
11. pink bone
12. reindeer
13. tomato 1 (yes a tomato)
14. tomato 2
15. pink rope
16. dad's sunglasses
17. pink leopard disk toy


There's technically 18-19 on her, but they are under everything and you can't see them from this view so we'll stick with the 17.  I was quite the happy camper that I got her to stay still for so long.


See that yellow toy in her mouth?  After I took everything off her and put things away, she fell asleep like that... with the toy in her mouth.

All that staying still and daycare really wears a girl out!

{28jan2010: new home needed}

I like to torture myself by going on craigslist from time to time and looking at the pets available.  Today I went on and found this ad.  I looked at the picture and thought, "he looks just like Darwin's dad.  I wonder if it's her brother."  So I emailed the person who placed the ad and it turns out, yes, it is Darwin's brother.  
Now I don't know this person, and I don't think I've actually met this brother, but I feel the need to try and help find him a good home because he is Darwin's brother. If we had the space I'd take him in an instant, but we don't.  So the best thing I can do is pass this ad along and hope there's maybe some Pacific Northwest blog friend or reader who is interested in giving this guy a home.

I've emailed the owner to try and find out more information about him, like his name, and to get more pictures.  But in the meantime, spread the word please to any dane lovers you may know so we can help him find a forever home.

***It bothers me a bit that I found this ad because over the last couple weeks I've been trying to contact the people who bought Darwin's brothers and sisters to plan a reunion and to just see how the other pups are doing.  I had a name and number that I tried to call/text a few times and never got a response from them, and now I see this ad.  The number in the ad isn't the same as the one I called, so maybe they changed their number, but it's so disheartening to see that after not even a year they are trying to find him a new home.  Who knows, maybe they have a really good reason so I am trying not to get too upset about it, but... it's her brother!


***UPDATE*** OI. so the reason they are "rehoming" him (Kona) is because they "completely underestimated his size" and they think their house is too small for him.  OI.  There's no way their house can be smaller than the condo we are in and we make it work.  We are trying to save up for a bigger place, but for now we live where we live, and Darwin will live here too.  We are not about to give her up just because we live in a small place and she's a big dog.  OI.  This is why you research and put a lot of thought and consideration towards the animal you choose to adopt/buy/rehome before you take them home!  We knew we were in a small place and knew she would grow to be basically the size of a human (we actually wish she'd grow just a little bigger!) and sat down and discussed that (and other things) before we decided to keep her.  You just don't go out and see a cute puppy and bring them home because they are small and cute and cuddly.  OI.  grrrrrrr.  ok.  enough.  off to email everyone and anyone I can to try and find this cute guy a home who doesn't "underestimate" a great dane's size.

{27jan2010: mostly wordless Wednesday}

playdate edition
{brother sister cuddle time}

{brother sister play time}

{22jan2010: dog day Friday}

It's dog day Friday in the office and I decided to give Darwin another shot at coming in when other people are here. 
She spent the morning shredding paper... almost got to a few things that didn't need shredding!  Oopsie.  That would not have been good.
{Is there something on my face?}

Here's her work for the day with a giant flat of her baby picture from her puppy shower watching over:

After a while I decided I had enough with the mess to clean up so I sacrificed my monkey to entertain her.

I remember when the monkey was bigger than her!

She was just about 2 weeks old then!  awwwwww.
We went out for a walk at lunch time to Mud Bay so I could pick up a bone which I figured would be better entertainment than paper.  With so many new scents to smell and pee-mail trail everywhere, Darwin had to stop everywhere to sniff.

After the store we walked down to the pier where we practiced some sit-stays.
{There's a bird up there!}

We got back to the office and I kept her busy with the best $4 I've spent in a while.  A knuckle bone!

Except for all those crumbs all over the place!

{22jan2010: dog pile}

I've been trying to practice Darwin's entry for Biggie's Dog Pile Contest.  She's not one to lay still very long, and even when sleeping when I try to put stuff on her, she has to see what's going on.  And if she notices a toy she wants to play with it even if she's tired.  Makes piling very difficult.  
Day one of trying I managed to get up to 12 toys...

and then.... 
{ooohhh, toys, I want to play!}

So I ended the attempt by doing this:

The second time we tried it was more of the same:
{I'll take this guy if you don't mind!}

I finally managed to get her to stay still enough with a record breaking 13 toys!

I'm sure that bite me bone is exactly what she's thinking.  
We have a few more days til the entry deadline, so I'll give it one more try and we'll see if we can get more than 13.  I think I need to look for smaller objects to place on her, then maybe I can get a few more.  :)

{20jan2010: wordless Wednesday}

{18jan2010: weekend review}

The thing that sucks about deadlines at work that fall on a Monday, is that it gives the "extra" time on the weekend to keep working. 
That's how Darwin and I spent almost all day Saturday, at work.  Jason took Darwin to the park in the morning, and then dropped her off with me at the office while he went snowboarding (bastard).  She was surprisingly pretty well behaved while she was here, laid down and slept most of the time.  And when I took her across the street to pick up lunch and tied her to a tree outside, she didn't whine or bark, but stood there staring at me waiting for me to come back.  I was most impressed.  When we got back to the office she was a bit restless and did this:

She decided to pull out old paper from the recycle bin and help shred it.  It was a mess to clean up, but it kept her occupied for a good amount of time!

Sunday we headed over to Marymoor, and met up with her brother Boo!  As we were walking in the park we saw him and his brother Gino walking further ahead of us.  At first Darwin didn't see them, but as soon as she did she took off running to go play with them.  It was great seeing them romp and wrestle and run in such a big space.

For their first birthday coming up in a few weeks we're hoping to have a reunion with some of their other siblings.  That should be lots of fun to see how big the others have gotten!

{14jan2010: doggy daycare status}

Just a quick update on our doggy day care adventures.  Since we've gotten back from the Christmas/New Year holiday, we've been back to taking Darwin to daycare at least once a week.  This week since it's been raining, she didn't have a playdate with her brother so she got dropped off for a second day of daycare.  When we dropped her off on Tuesday, she was better about quickly getting out of the car, going into the daycare, and not getting too anxious when we left.  When Jason picked her up that night they said she was still pretty jumpy/anxious at the end of the day.  
Today we dropped her off in the morning and OMG my little girl is growing up (at least for the morning anyway)!  We got her inside and into the "air gate" area that leads to the play area, and for the first time EVER she did not jump up at the door for us or whine and instead calmly walked to the back area to go in the play area.  I WAS SO PROUD!  I was so shocked at how this puppy who was so scared to be left there for the day was now totally cool with it.  We'll see what the report is when we pick her up, but I say that's a good sign of her finally settling into the daycare routine.  WOO HOO!

{13jan2010: not so wordless Wednesday}

Darwin says thanks for the new toy from Japan Aunty Wendy!

Actually, this needs a few words.  Darwin NEVER lets me balance anything on her head or nose.  She was pooped enough on Saturday night to actually let me put the fish on her head.  I made Jason take a picture of the second try because I knew she wouldn't let me do it many more times.  I tried again on Sunday morning and sure enough, no such luck.

{11jan2010: dog park weekend}

Now that college football season is officially over (thank goodness) til next fall, it means Jason is free to go to the dog park with us on Saturdays.  To start off the (college) football-free weekend, we took Darwin to Westcrest Park in West Seattle.  
As soon as we got there there was a bigger female fawn dane that Darwin played with for a bit.  

It was pretty rainy all week so the ground was nice and muddy, which Darwin loves to run through, but she also managed to slip alot in the mud trying to make quick turns and one time ended up face planting and getting a mouthful of dirt.

We met this cute little bulldog who was obsessed with a stick... barked at anyone who came near him though he really wanted them to play tug.

Jason teased him by stepping on one end of the stick so he couldn't run away with it.

A black lab found another big stick and Darwin was more than happy to try and steal it away.

She also participated in a game of three way tug with another lab and a pit bull pup.

Her Marymoor friends Bettis and Kendall showed up too!  It was the first time Bettis and Darwin actually played together!  Usually Bettis wanders around and doesn't really play, but this day he was having a lot of fun harassing Darwin.  At one point they both jumped up and chest bumped each other, resulting in Darwin falling down.  hehehe.
{Come on Darwin, let's play!}

{Ok!  I'll play!}

hahaha I love Bettis' face in this one.

{hahah Darwin, I got your ear!}

Someone else wanted to join in on the fun:

After all that playing, Darwin was ready to go home, which she's taken to letting us know by first staring at us, then jumping on us.  What a brat.

Sunday I took her to Marymoor where we met up with the dane group and she got to play with some of her best buds.

{10jan2010: Mango Minster}

I'm sure everybody who's anybody is already aware that the relentlessly huge Mango is hosting his prestigious second annual Mango Minster.  Check out his page for all the details.
There is quite the range of categories that can be entered, from Cat Dogs to Sporty Dogs to Cracker Dogs Insane Terriers.  Being that there isn't a Spoiled Princess Dog category, Darwin will be entering the Hard Working Dog category.  
Here's her entry photo:

{09jan2010: recipe}

Back when we first decided to keep Darwin our coworkers threw us a puppy shower and one of the gifts we received was a Three Dog Bakery Cookbook.

For Christmas I decided to make some cookies for Darwin's friends and used one of the recipes from this cookbook. Remi's mom asked for the recipe we used so I thought I'd share it with all our blogging friends. It was a super quick and easy recipe and I like the fact that I knew what Darwin and her friends were snacking on.

Simple Simon's Birthday Bones
adapted from Three Dog Bakery Cookbook
makes 30 large bones

2 cups whole wheat flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 cup natural peanut butter
1 cup skim milk

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
In a bowl, combine flour and baking powder. In another bowl, mix peanut butter and milk. Add wet mixture to dry, and mix well.
Turn out dough on a lightly floured surface and knead.  Roll out to 1/4 inch thick and cut shapes.
Place on parchment lined baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes or until lightly brown. Cool on rack then store in an airtight container.

It's a great cookbook with lots of recipes for cookies and cakes and "real" food like meat loaf and lasagna.  Darwin's 1 year birthday is coming up next month and I'll probably make cupcakes for her and her friends with a recipe from this book.

{08jan2010: apple treat}

One of Darwin's favorite treats is an apple.  It's more fun to give her the whole round apple so she can push it around, but because seeds are bad for her we take the time to core them before she gets them.  Usually when one of us heads to the kitchen and reaches for an apple (we have to keep them on the fridge cause if she can see them on the counter she'll stand there and whine and carry on til she gets one) she'll eagerly follow us and pace frantically til we core it.  We've taken to putting peanut butter in the middle because it's funny to watch her work at eating it especially when the peanut butter gets coated on her tounge. 

Here's a video of her latest apple eating adventure:
The video is a bit long, but the funniest part to me is around the 4:22 mark when her tongue just seems to get stuck hanging out of her mouth.  hehe.

{07jan2010: playdate}

Darwin, her brother Boo Radley, and his brother a chocolate doodle, Gino

{07jan2010: 11months}

Darwin is 11 months old today!  One more month and she'll be a year!  Time sure does fly by!
Georgia from Daynakin Great Danes sent a cd with pictures of Darwin and Toro, the ridgeback, of the two of them playing.  Here area few of the pictures.

Darwin is off today for a playdate with her brother Boo Radley today!  Great way to spend their 11month old birthday!

{05dec2009: she's back}

Don't mind the scrape on her nose.  Her report card said she scraped it burying her bone in her bed.