Like many pet lovers, I waste a lot of time asking myself the question, if I were an animal, what would I be? It's really not as easy a question to answer as one might think. The obvious first answer, of course, is to look to which kinds of animals you own. There's certainly a correlation there, as anyone who has spent time looking at a veterinary exam room can attest to. The short, squat bulldog owners. The wiry, nervous bird owners. The little wrinkly elderly with the little wrinkly ... Read more »
Kekoa
Scenes from a holiday
The holidays are exhilirating. Well, for most of us, at least. Some find them merely exhausting. While others use them as a time to indulge in the most ironic of activities, such as opening a "Good Dog" ornament from under the tree and chewing it up. Indeed. Hope you all had a great one! ... Read more »
CSI San Diego: The Scapegoat
When I saw the box of popcorn chicken sitting all alone on our still undecorated Christmas tree, I was befuddled. "Is that a KFC Christmas ornament?" I asked. The kids shrugged noncommittally, which I took as an affirmative. How would I know? I haven't eaten there since the Clinton administration. This was Grandparent work, make no mistake. It wasn't until the next morning that I realized that it was not a KFC box-like ornament, but an actual empty box, trash, that one of the kids had stuck ... Read more »
Keep off the grass
A couple of months ago, we started having problems with our sprinklers. Because we live in what is basically the desert, this means that within one month most of our backyard was dead. Not that the grass was ever in great shape to start with, I suppose. Anyway, we are slowly trying to put it back together, starting with two little patches of what has been dirt for a very long time but was at one point grass. For now, it is again. "Do NOT," my husband said, "under ANY CIRCUMSTANCES let ... Read more »
Time to party- we got sweet and sour here!
Are you all ready for the concert of the year? I said, are you READY?! Let's get this party started with the one and only KOTY PURRY! I know a place Where the grass is green and cleaner Dogs get to run And they have lots of bones and water ... Read more »
Sleepypod Yummy Bowls Review
Back to School Week continues with a stylish offering from one of my favorite designers of modern pet accessories: Sleepypod's Yummy Travel Bowls! I have a dog who, despite his low-maintenance background as a retriever, is much too fussy to actually drink water from a bottle and prefers it to be delicately decanted into a bowl. Preferably chilled. Whenever we go for a walk, this means I have to remember to bring his travel bowl. This offering from Sleepypod is my new favorite, for a few ... Read more »
It’s always the dog’s fault
Yesterday was a long day. A long day, filled with TSA lines and loud kids and turbulence and bad pretzels. But I was OK with that, because at the end of the day I had a very rare Night To Myself. No husband, no kids, just me, the pets, and maybe a John Hughes movie or two. I got home at the end of this Very Long Day to find that Kekoa (I assume) had an accident. I sighed, blamed my husband for obviously not following proper Kekoa Escort Protocol in the morning, and cleaned it up. She had ... Read more »
Koaisms
Kekoa is a quirky dog. I mean, all pets (and people, now that I think of it) are quirky in their own way, but she's quirky in that extra-special "I've been down a bit of a cobbly path these last few years and my insecurity is showing through." After a year and a half, I thought some of those behaviors might mellow with time but if anything, they're gotten worse. It's nothing destructive, nothing I can't handle. Just definitive behaviors that I haven't found the time or inclination to get to ... Read more »
Wordless Wednesday: I’m Ready for my Close Up
She's getting to be as much of a ham as Brody. ... Read more »
Happy Fourth!
Give me your burgers, your corn, Your soggy shortcakes yearning to be eaten, The yummy refuse of your grill galore. Send these, the castoff, crumbs and chips to me, I lift my mouth unto the golden bowl! A very joyous Independence Day from Lady Liberty and...er....Lady Liberty. ... Read more »
Happy Fools Day and Happy Birthday to a little someone special :)
I love April Fool's Day. I'm terrible at pranks, though. I'm the person who can't make it through the first two lines of a joke without dissolving into peals of laughter, ruining the timing and the whole thing. I'm the one hovering behind you as you're about to sit on a whoopie cushion choking down chuckles loud enough to make it pathetically apparent something's up. In short, I'm a terrible comedian. After several years of decreasingly original attempts to fool my husband into thinking I've ... Read more »
Smartypants Showdown
Brody is many things. Beautiful, yes. Feisty, without a doubt. Fun? Every day. Loving? Like a Care Bear. He is all that and more. Smart, though? Well, I don't know that I would put him on the Lassie end of the spectrum. He was more refractory to training than any dog I've had save Nuke, the elderly agoraphobic irradiated coonhound. It took me 6 months to get him reliably housetrained, despite following my trainer's guidelines to a T. He just didn't seem all that concerned with doing things ... Read more »
Koa Go Bragh
Today I had to take the kids for a haircut, and in the way kids do, the stylist at Fantastic Sam's got to know everything there is to know about their lives. "Who's Brody?" she asked my son. "My dog," he replied. "He's a Golden Retriever." "Oh, you have a dog," she said agreeably. "How cool." "I have two dogs," he corrected her. "Brody and Licorice." That one was new to me too, so I leaned in closer. "Licorice?" she asked. "What kind of dog is that?" "She's a labrador," he ... Read more »
The Girl with the Curl (with apologies to Ted Geisel)
Yesterday was a hectic day. Apollo had his dental, and of course everything went fine, at least from my perspective. From his perspective, he was unceremoniously deprived of breakfast, stuffed into a carrier, and dumped into a moving vehicle next to Brody for a terrifying ride into town. THEN he was poked, prodded, shaved, rendered unconscious, only to be awoken, groggy and disoriented with a funny taste in his mouth. THEN he had to go in the car again. Brody went to doggie day care, to ... Read more »
Wordless Wednesday: Convo me
Someone left a handful of conversation hearts in my purse. There are some clues as to who. ... Read more »
So Cal sledding
While so many are digging themselves out from snowdrifts the likes of which have never been seen, we're hanging out, like we always are, in the 75 degree weather. Don't get me wrong, there's not much to complain about when you can get out and enjoy the outdoors almost 365 days a year, but there are certain things I miss about not having a winter. Ice skating, for one. My children have learned to improvise with a pair of socks and the hardwood floor. Add a strong Golden with a hardcore tug ... 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 »
Koa the *Star*
A couple of weeks ago, Kekoa and I were asked to go on the local news station to talk about the Nulo Campaign to Fight Pet Obesity and how owners can help their pets make a New Year's Resolution to take off a few pounds. They had us on the morning after Christmas, so instead of laying in a semi-gingerbread and eggnog coma on a pile of wrapping paper as I am wont to do on December 26th, I packed Koa up and headed down to the local news station at 8 am sharp. We got buzzed in by a ... Read more »
