{29july2011: found}

Bailey's post from earlier this week reminded me of our own found puppy story I realized I didn't share yet. 
On the fourth of July, Jason took Darwin out for her morning potty break while I was still in bed. I woke up to him buzzing our gate buzzer. I assumed he forgot the keys so I buzzed him in and walked away. As I was walking away, more buzzes come in and I figure Darwin either stepped in poop and needed her feet wiped off or something happened outside so I go out bare footed to see whats up. Jason tells me to grab an extra leash and my phone because there's a puppy wandering around outside. So I hurry in and grab a leash and my phone and go out and find this:

A few month old yellow lab puppy! Someone HAS to be missing this little guy.
So we struggle to get him still enough to get the number off his collar and I give it a try. No one answers. 
We walk around the block and ask our neighbor if she's seen this guy before and she says she thinks she has but not sure where he lives. We hang out outside for a bit where Darwin and STUD(I was calling him Stud because one side of his tag said STUD and the other side had a name - I assumed was the owner - and a number - turns out STUD was just the generic tag and the name on the back was his name) played bitey face in the grass.

I tried calling the number again and this time left a message saying we found your dog, call me back!

I was still in my pj's at that point so we decided to take a chance that STUD was potty trained and took him inside with us while we waited for a call back from his owner. I wasnt sure how long he'd been outside so I gave him some water and food. I was then worried that he just ate and drank and really may pee inside so I took him out again for another walk around the block hoping his owner was outside looking for him. No such luck so we went back inside where he played with Darwin's toys and ran amock through the house. (Have you ever looked at the wikipedia definition of "running amock"... yikes.)

I had posted on Facebook about our puppy find, and our neighbor upstairs said she thinks STUD lives in the apartments across from ours. So we walked over to see an open sliding glass door. OI. Jason knocked on the door, and a girl, still wearing her party dress and makeup from the night before, peels herself off her couch and comes over. She realizes her door was open and then sees that we have her puppy and grabs him. She barely says thank you and closes her sliding door. OI.

You'd think that'd be the end of it, but no. A few hours later Jason was doing some work outside when who strolls over, but STUD. A few minutes later, party girl still in her dress and black tights, walks barefooted across the street to retrieve him. OI.
We don't live on a super busy street, but we do have a fair amount of car traffic. Especially since it was the 4th of July and our block has a pretty decent view of fireworks, there was a bit more traffic than usual of people trying to get parking for parties. This girl should NOT own a puppy.
To end this on a more positive note, here's a phone video of Darwin and STUD playing.

{26july2011: SIB}

***btw, the thing Darwin was snacking on in our last wordless Wednesday post was a knuckle bone!***




For the past 2 years we've been taking a half day on the Friday before the 4th of July to go to SIB (the Seattle International Beerfest). It runs for 3 days and you get to try a lot of different beers. One of the great things about SIB (besides the beer) is that its dog friendly and 100% of the proceeds goes to Pet Cross! Drinking for a good cause! 

We went with a few friends and Darwin's bff, Juneau.

It was a pretty warm day but we luckily got there early enough to snag a table with an umbrella providing good shade for the pups and near the pet booth that had lots of water. Of course Darwin had to wear her party beer beads!

The dogs got tons of attention (as usual) and the humans had a lot of fun trying the beers.

We remembered to bring snacks for Dar and kept her busy by putting them in her treat toy.

Darwin even got relaxed enough and totally sprawled out (she never does that in public).

All those beers and relaxing out in the sun was a great way to kick off the fourth of July weekend!

{20july2011: Wordless Wednesday}

Sunshine at the park edition:

{15july1011: Daynakin}

Woah... blogger looks different now!
Jason and I went to Hawaii last weekend for my cousin's wedding (pictures to come) and while we were away, Darwin stayed at the boarders, Daynakin Great Danes. They are pretty far north from Seattle (about 2-3 hours away), but they meet us half way and it's a comfort to me knowing she's with a reputable breeder who will take great care of her. Georgia takes pictures of the dogs playing, but she said this time Darwin wasn't really interested in playing so she didn't get any still shots of her. She did get a quick video of Darwin and Duke running around though.

{13july2011: wordless Wednesday}

Big Danes in tall grass edition:

{08july2011:Take Your Dog To Work Day}

Two weeks ago it was Take Your Dog to Work Day! From their website:
"First celebrated in 1999, Pet Sitters International’s Take Your Dog To Work Day® was created to celebrate the great companions dogs make and to encourage their adoption from humane societies, animal shelters and breed rescue clubs. This annual event asks pet lovers to celebrate the humane-canine bond and promote pet adoption by encouraging their employers to support TYDTWDay by opening their workplace to employees’ four-legged friends on this one special day."
Luckily our boss LOVES dogs and the one person in our office who isn't a fan was out! Woo hoo! So our boss agreed and even allowed Darwin and her bff Juneau to come in the office.
As you can see Darwin was thrilled to be in.
Just kidding it's been a while since she's been allowed to come to work with us and she LOVES coming in. She loves all the attention and just being with us!
She also loves apples and managed to score a few that day.

We have a few new interns and employees and they were all fascinated that a dog could love apples. So after I had given her one, our coworker gave her another small one so everyone could watch. Then another new guy ate an apple and gave Darwin the core. They tried to give her more but I was worried about too much fiber! 

At lunch we took a long walk with Juneau down the waterfront and to the sculpture park. On the way there Darwin found a toy leopard sitting on the ground so she picked it up and carried it with us.

Our walk included a stop at the pet store for treats and a stop at the butcher in the market to restock our supply of knuckle bones (we usually get a big bag and keep it in the freezer at home). I wanted to find a small food toy to keep Darwin entertained and found this Monster Mouth toy by Jolly Pets. 

She really liked it and it kept her busy for a while! I'd highly recommend it!

By the end of the day Darwin was worn out. Who

{6july2011: weekend road trip part 3}

part 1
part 2


On our last day on Orcas Island we had grand plans for brunching, kayaking and relaxing, but we scratched the kayaking portion pretty early in the day. It turned out to be a pretty warm day and there wasn't anywhere to keep Darwin while we went out for 3 hours so we cancelled at the last minute. Instead we found an off-leash park in Eastsound where Darwin got to play with some new friends.

I have to say for a small little park I liked that it was a grassy field and not wood chips and dirt as a lot of dog parks are and there were lots of toys/balls all over the park.

We didn't stay at the park very long and instead went over to visit Darwin's bff Friday. Little did we know Darwin would be making a new bff.... Skeeter!

At first they were unsure of each other. Darwin didn't like that Friday had a new friend and Skeeter didn't like that another dog was at her house. But soon they were all over each other!

Skeeter even would take flying leaps off of Jason's lap to jump at Darwin.

They even relaxed together in the shade.

All in all it was a fun weekend trip up to Orcas Island. Coming back to "city life" took some adjusting after the slow paced island weekend.

{1july2011: weekend road trip part 2}

(holy cow its already July! we are being featured at Two Pitties in the City for their "how to be a tourist" series. Go check us out!)
If you missed part one of our weekend road trip, check it out here.
Finding a place to stay with a dog can be tricky. It get's even trickier when you have a giant dog! Luckily after a bit of Googling I found a bunch of dog friendly accommodations on Orcas and found one that sounded perfect for us. Once in a Blue Moon Farm is a working farm, but they also have a variety of lodging accommodations. We went for the smallest room (funny considering we have a really big dog), but I loved the name of the room (the secret garden room) and I figured we'd be so busy and wouldn't really be spending a lot of time there.
The farm had chickens, llamas, horses, and sheep. The chicken and llama enclosures were right outside our door. (It's probably good that Darwin got llama proofed during our hike a few weeks ago.)


The llamas were so funny. We'd watch them and they'd stand there and watch us.

And did you know llamas make noises? Here's a youtube video where you can hear the sound. I think that brown llama was the ring leader of the group. When he would towards us, the rest of them would walk towards us. And when he got the zoomies and ran in a few circles the other llamas (and sheep) followed him.

There were also horses on the farm. Darwin and a white one gave each other eskimo kisses.

Darwin and I also checked out this fenced enclosure that had 3 sheep and an old goat with a skin problem.

There's a forest area on the backside of the property that we could hike through.
It felt like we were walking through a scene Twilight. 

While the room wasn't very big, one of the best things was the little garden right outside the door. And though we didn't have a whole lot of time to lounge around, we were able to relax for a bit with some tea (coffee for Jason) and some reading.

It was funny to us how Darwin didn't react to any of the animal sounds (chickens clucking, llamas making their noise, sheep, roosters, ducks) but when she hears the dogs that live in the unit next to us going outside for potty breaks she has to alert us (single barks).