My front yard is currently in a tremendous state of disrepair, due to a nasty trio of invasive ficus trees, an endangered water main and a threatening note from the homeowners association about the one brick that was out of place. It looked a bit like an archaeologic dig once the landscaper went after it with a mini excavator. Hey, that almost reminds me of something..... da da da da, da da dum.... ... Read more »
Brody
I slack therefore I am.
A few things: 1. You all have sent in some truly horrible fashion. Thank you for this. It's amazing. Submission deadline is tomorrow but it will probably take me the weekend to actually go through it all, so I'll announce the winner next week (if I can pick one, if not I'll make you all vote). If I wore it all at once I would look just like Helena Bonham Carter at the Golden Globes. Delightful. 2. Remember the AKC Eukanuba show I was fortunate enough to attend in December? It's airing ... Read more »
Life as a pillow
The news is filled to the brim with stories of pets who show us each and every day the extent of their loyalty, of their dedication to being there for us. I can only aspire to be deserving of it. Brody is almost 2 now, and probably similar in age to Emmett when I adopted him. He's still got lots of goofy puppy in him, but he is slowly maturing into an intuitive and loving dog. I need to remind myself whenever I start to make comparisons that Emmett introduced himself to my 5 foot tall mother ... Read more »
Poor Chickens
Ah, 2011. Here you are and you're a salty one, I can tell already. I can tell the way a dog can tell by sniffing the air that there's a poodle in heat 5 houses away, the way a shark can smell a drop of blood from 5 miles down the coast. 2011 wants to be a game-changer. In some ways, at least here, it already is. I'm not a resolution-setter, normally, but with the start of a new decade it certainly doesn't hurt to set down a few goals in writing. More Pet Doctor Barbie, for one. I got Kitty ... Read more »
Well thank God that’s all over
Christmas is a bit of a surreal experience for me. That is by design. I was brought up in a house that transformed the day after Thanksgiving from a normal abode to a tinsel-filled glittery elftravaganza of kitsch, Rudolph figurines, and a sudden lifting of the No Sugar After 4 pm Rule. In short, December was magic. Now that I have a 6 year old and a 4 year old, I'm beginning to understand why my mom worked as hard as she did to create that. It is kind of awesome to see a little kid shriek in ... Read more »
On the fifth day of Petmas (pm)
My Brody gave to me: Five Chewed Up Things Four Strings of Lights 3 Puppy Loves Two Playful Hounds And a dog having antler envy! It wasn't my intention to capture him in these pictures, but as I walked around taking photographic evidence of all he has destroyed, Brody kept sitting down and grinning as if to say, "Nice, huh? You like that?" ... Read more »
On the First Day of Petmas (pm edition)
On the First Day of Petmas, my doggie gave to me: A dog having antler envy! ... Read more »
Can see this coming from a mile away
Tonight I attended an orientation for new Girl Scout troop leaders. I thought it would involve some construction paper ideas, handing me a pile of beanies and wishing me luck. Oh no. Oh NO. Starting a Girl Scout troop is like applying to vet school. There's reference checks, medical histories, asking for when I got my last tetanus shot...it's nuts. And the cookies. Oh, the cookies. Mandatory cookie training is December 11th. I'll let that sink in: mandatory cookie training. What have I ... Read more »
Down to the wire: This experience in interpretive blogging
Tired ... Read more »
All the world’s a vacation
When you're a dog, life is pretty good. You get up, eat, run around, eat some more, play, go to sleep. Lather, rinse, repeat. There are no job responsibilities, no mortgages, no bills to pay. Life is at is most simple and best when it is the same, day in and day out. So when dog owners go on vacation, they find themselves stumped at how to top perfection. For all its pretty packaging, high end "dog resorts" are usually some variation of the same formula: staying in a kennel with twice a day ... Read more »
CSI San Diego: Ichthycide
8 am: Call from residence. Hysterical woman claiming discovery of dead body. Police dispatch to scene. 8:10: Arrive on scene, met by disheveled homeowner. Led me to kitchen and pointed to metal dog food bowl. Called for backup. ... Read more »
Happy Halloween! It’s the Concert of the Year!
In honor of Halloween we have a HUGE concert double header here at pawcurious! Kicking off the show is the number one act for little monsters everywhere- put down the telephone, leave your poker face behind and get ready to bark your head off! Here she is- let's hear it for the grand dame of grand dogs!! ... Read more »
Security Beastie
With Halloween approaching, it's only natural to start thinking and talking about things that scare us. How I long for the days of my youth and a good healthy scare- werewolves and zombies and vampires and all of that, made-up monsters who retreat into myth at the end of the day. But as we all know, that mythos is a cover for the real monsters that lurk out there- rare, fortunately, but flesh and blood humans with something wrong in the head. And they terrify me. When I was a senior in high ... Read more »
On Safari: Famine
It takes all kinds of creatures to maintain homeostasis in a stable ecosystem. On the savannah, the laboceros and the goldenbeast have achieved an uneasy tolerance. Despite limited resources, the denizens of the plains have managed to carve out their own niche, and peace is maintained. Usually. ... Read more »
Under the harvest moon
When I was little, there were two things I wanted to be when I grew up, neither of which ironically enough was 'veterinarian.' One was a palaeontologist since I loved dinosaurs so very much. The other was an astronaut. I could stare off into space for hours, transfixed by the infinite nothing stretched out before me. My life is very terrestrial these days, involving neither digging for fossils nor soaring into the clouds, but little things can take me right back to where I was as a kid. When ... Read more »
Creatures in the Blue Lagoon
In a small lake somewhere close to the Canadian border in the Pacific Northwest, the mallards slumber. Until the loud hairy Goldenbeast arrives, that is. ... Read more »
The Pawcurean: Sweet Potato Salad
I think we spend so much time panicking about what not to feed our pets that we're forgetting to focus on what they should be eating. Well, that's the million dollar question, isn't it? What should my dog be eating? It's not an answer you'll get a lot of agreement upon. In fact, if you're into trolling internet chat rooms and like to see bloody melees, I highly recommend going to a raw diet message board and posting how Old Roy rocks. Or vice versa. This is a topic people get downright ... Read more »
Holiday Road- Part One
We survived our 10 day vacation- 5 on the road, 5 at the lake. I'm not sure the proportion of driving to vacation is one I'd consider optimal, but all things said and done I'm really glad we got the chance to make the trip. For all intents and purposes, we covered the entire expanse of the I-5 from Mexico to Canada: 1400 miles and change each way. The dogs look so excited and happy at the start of the trip. To be fair, they always look this way. ... Read more »
