A Scotsman, a bulldog and a blonde walk into a spa…

I’m having one of those months where I think everything important is weeks and weeks away, and then all of a sudden it’s coming up tomorrow and I am caught completely unaware. It’s feast or famine ’round these parts. Take the last two weeks, for example.

So. Two weeks ago, I went up to Los Angeles to shoot a segment for ABC’s The Lookout. It’s part investigative journalism, part consumer reporting, and part entertainment. My segment: costly accounting mistakes. Kidding. It’s about dogs.

More specifically, the segment investigates the American willingness to spend billions on our fuzzy companions. The setup sounds like the setup for a joke: A Scotsman, a chihuahua, a Leonberger and a bulldog walk into a dog spa. But seriously, that is what they did. ABC sent veteran journalist Nick Watt into the poshest dog spa I’ve seen in my life with three dogs and an array of some of the more, shall we say, over the top items available for dog owners.

In addition to meeting Nick- he is as funny in person as he is on his segments- I had the pleasure of meeting some really lovely people who actually made me miss living in LA, including the fantastic Matt from Zen Dog. There is nothing more amazing than watching a good trainer who knows dogs communicate with them beautifully.

My job in this segment is to provide objective commentary on the utility of items such as doggie highchairs and Poop Freeze. As you all know, providing commentary on things like Poop Freeze is pretty much why I exist, so if you want to see how this all turned out tune in Wednesday the 17th at 10 pm on ABC.

And then report back to me on how I did, because I have no idea if I was fine or horrifying. And I won’t even get to see it for an extra week, because Wednesday I fly to Ecuador for a World Vets trip and I won’t be back until the 25th. I’m not complaining that I’m doing that, far from it, but it caught me unawares since I committed to it several months ago and promptly forgot until the trip leader sent out an introductory email with the subject: ONE WEEK TO ECUADOR! and I commenced panic mode.

Otovalo is about 8000 feet up in the Andes, a big change from my trip to Peru and Granada, both at sea level. I’ll be one of several vets participating in World Vets’ 4 times a year high volume spay/ neuter campaign.

World Vets entered into an agreement with the municipality of Otovalo: we will come, we will be there regularly and we will bust our butts and do hundreds of surgeries in a few days’ time. And in return, you promise us you will not poison dogs as a method of population control. It has worked out very well and I can’t wait to get to see it first hand.

From dogs in limos getting dog-friendly pawdicures to a makeshift spay clinic up in the Andes in three weeks’ time. I don’t know how I wound up getting to do the things I do either, but man oh man I do love every minute of it.

Even the Poop Freeze part.