{29march2011: Walter}

Darwin's bff Juneau got her a new toy recently... I named him Walter.

Isn't he cute?!  He seems to be a baby toy so he has no squeakers or plastic eyeballs, but he is filled with lots of stuffing. I placed him on the couch for his introduction to Darwin, hoping she'd go easy on him.

I even took a quick video of their first moments together.

Surprisingly it's been a month now and Walter is still in once piece and fully stuffed!  Amazing!

{25march2011: fun with Friday RESULTS!}

Thanks to everyone who took a guess in our Fun with Friday Contest.  After three weeks, the results are in!
Are you ready to find out what makes up this cutie patootie?!

They traced her all the way back to her great grandparents.

They even included pages with descriptions of the three main breeds: German Shepherd Dog,  Labrador Retriever, and German Shorthaired Pointer.

I was kind of disappointed that they couldn't break down the "mixed breed" side a bit more, but I was surprised about the German Shorthaired Pointer!

Sadly, no one guessed her mix exactly so we couldn't award a prize to a correct guesser.  Instead we threw all your names in and Darwin pulled a random winner!

And the winner is:  Mango!

Mango, send us an email (darwinthedane at gmail dot com) with your mailing address and we'll send you your prize!

{23march2011: wordless Wednesday}

Video fun with Rooney edition:

{17march2011: Paws for Japan}

The videos and images coming out of Japan since the massive earthquake (and subsequent aftershocks) and tsunami swept the north east coast of the country last week have been jaw dropping.  I heard the news from my sister who called to see if I had seen it on the news.  After her phone call I couldn't sleep.  I have a cousin going to school and friends working in Tokyo and I stayed up watching tv and reading posts on Facebook and Twitter waiting to hear that everyone was safe (they were thankfully).  The more pictures that I see, especially the before and after images from National Geographic, are shocking and heart breaking.  
I know we all think, what can we do to help.  There are many organizations you could donate to, but please help show the people of Japan that you care about them, and also their pets.  World Vets is currently on the ground in Japan helping in the search and rescue of the animal victims of the devastating earthquake that forever changed Japan.  Maybe you could spare a few dollars you were going to use for a (green) beer for St. Patty's day and donate it instead.

{15march2011: petfinder}

It's Petfinder's 15th birthday and to celebrate they want to spread the news about adoptable pets.


Jason's parent's are sort of looking for a new dog (they know they want one at some point, but just don't know when the right time would be). Every so often I like to jump on Petfinder and do some searching for them. (click on the pictures to go to their Petfinder info)
Like this guy:

Spot


It surprised me how many Great Pyreneese there were too.

Ginner


In Seattle our local Dane Outreach has Obi listed:

Obi




And don't get me started on the kitties!

Java



Willow



Ella




If we had the space, Darwin would totally have a sibling (ideally both canine and feline), but til that day comes I'll just keep window shopping on Petfinder and pass along info to others in hope that someone else can give one of these great animals a home.

{14march2011: styling}

We got an award!  Our dear friends Remi and Sherman and Leroy awarded us with the Stylish Blogger Award!

Thanks Remi, Sherman and Leroy!  You're a few styling dudes yourselves!


So in keeping with the award we need to share 7 things you don't know about Darwin.
1.  Darwin does not like raw chicken.  Cooked chicken she's all for, but try and put a piece of raw chicken in her bowl, and she won't eat till you remove it.
2.  Darwin gets spooked by small (tiny) dogs.  It must be their large personalities, but when we pass a small dog she'll go out of her way to avoid getting too close to a tiny dog.
3.  Darwin is the most high energy Dane we know.  Three hours at the dog park Sunday = ready to go Monday.  All day at day care Tuesday = ready to go Tuesday night & Wednesday.  All day play date with her brother Thursday = ready to go Friday.  Hour walk + hour at the dog park Saturday = ready to go Sunday morning.
4.  Darwin will never be a search and rescue dog.  We play the "hide the treat on dad" game and it's amazing how long it takes Darwin to find the cookie or treat.  It's like she has no sense of smell.  We'll need to video tape it one day.
5.  Darwin's brain has grown from pea size to grape size because she can solve her birthday brain game puzzle by Kyjen in less then a minute.  We'll need to get a more complicated one soon!
6.  Darwin's now eating grain free kibble!  We've recently switched her to Acana Pacifica like her brother Boo eats and can I just say, small poops are lovely!  
7.  When Darwin comes to work with us and we walk around at lunch time, she now prefers to pee as we cross streets.  We'll be halfway through a cross walk and she'll stop and squat right there.  How embarrassing.

And now, we're supposed to pass this award on... but it seems as though almost everyone has got it already, but if you haven't, we'll share it with you!!!

{11march2011: Wenatchee}

A couple weekends ago we headed out to try snowshoeing to meet my yearly goal of at least one hike a month.  After driving for a couple hours, going past the snowy summit of Snoqualmie, we ended up at Wenatchee Park which wasn't as snowy as we hoped for.  We ended up doing a flat hike by the river on hard packed icy ground.... not quite what we were looking for.

After walking for a bit we decided to put on Darwin's boots because we were worried about the hard icy snow on her paws.... boots + ice = very little traction.

As we walked along Darwin found a bag of something (fertilizer? bird seed?) hanging from a tree branch.  The bag was punctured and there was stuff on the ground and Darwin was so tempted to roll in it.  Of course her attempts to roll in stinky stuff happen in such slow motion we are always able to call her off before she gets down and dirty.  (Darwin will sniff at something for a long time, then ever so slowly lower her head as if she's listening to it, and slowly will lower herself down.)

{alllmmmoosssttttt theeerrrreeeeee}

As soon as we tell her no, she's back up and stinky roll free!

{wait for me dad!!!}

Showing off her Sirius Republic collar (it's still holding up well, and I love the 2" width on her).

We walked down to the waters edge and tough girl Darwin got spooked by a rock barely covered by the water.

She spent a while checking it out and circling it, inspecting if from different angles until she finally worked up the courage to get up close and sniff it.

Once she realized we were safe and the rock wasn't going to attack her, she did a "Darwin" and peed in the water.  (I don't know why, but if there's water (a stream, river, lake, puddle) she needs to pee in it.)

We kept walking and made our way to the beach area.

We hung out on the beach for a bit before heading back. 

Though it wasn't snowshoeing, and not a very difficult hike, it was a beautiful day!

***We're still taking guesses for our Fun with Friday contest.  Robin should be getting her results soon so make sure you get your guess in!

{09march2011: mostly wordless Wednesday}

catch up at the park edition:

so ferocious!

Refereeing by the Malamute!

WINSTON!!!!!!!!!!

If you haven't entered our Fun With Friday Contest yet, head over to that post and take a guess!  Guessing will be open til we get Friday's results!