Dia duit, Kuro!

And they called it puppy love ...

... and I has it!!

ZOMG!

Mr. Kuro arrived on a jet plane from Scotland last night with his sister JoJo. He was born on the 24th of December so is just around 3 months old. He is full of piss, vinegar and SUPER PUPPY ADORABLENESS! I drove in a snowstorm to retrieve him from the airport.

No, for real. I did. Why is it snowing at the end of March?

Then I spent THREE HOURS in Customs waiting for the bright sparks to figure out where the paperwork was (not, you know, in the giant envelope taped to the top of the crate with the words "PAPERWORK' printed on it or anything. No, that would be too obvious)

Unfortunately, he is not mine. I am, as the criminals say, "holding it for a friend."

Le sigh.

Kuro stays with me until next weekend, when he goes on to his for-real home, who will ostensibly bring out the latent sheepdog in him, and he will go on to fame, glory and Sheepie Domination.

In my house, he would just get snuzzled relentlessly. So it's for the best, really.

Parting is such sweet sorrow. It's a double whammy this week, as the Dust Man leaves for his forever home today as well.

Mr. Pants has been wiggling and waggling his stumpy little rump at me every morning for 2 months now. It's going to be hard to see him go. But he is all growed up now.

He's come a long way from this:

Ironically, Dusty Pants is the only dog in the house that welcomed the arrival of Kuro of Scotland. They are right now playing tug-o-war on the sofa while everyone else pouts at me. Tweed looks like he wants to kill himself, Piper keeps flashing Mad Teeth (tm) and Wootie just keeps *sighing*. What a bunch of jerks.

Farewell, Mr. Pants.

Thanks for Stealing The Wootie Toy

Whoever stole the Wootie toy (purple disc) from my pile of stuff on the beach at Spanish Banks on Friday while I was taking a photo - thanks ever so much, you jerk! Seriously - who steals someone's frisbee? That's pathetic.
------------

I know many of you blog readers are local, as I run into you from time to time and you greet my dogs by name, or offer your condolences on Briggs' passing. It's always a little weird, btw, but pretty gratifying as well.

Anyway, those of you who walk your dogs at Bridgeman can maybe tell me what this is?

It looks to be an altar, and we found it down one of the paths leading to the river. It's very touching, but we can't figure out what it's for. The monetary offerings in the statue's pool suggest it's an offering, the little dog statues suggest it's a tribute to a beloved dog. If you know what it is we were looking at, post a comment and let me know.

I'm insatiably curious.

Jenn says "Who gives a shit about some nickels in the moss? THROW SOMETHING THROW SOMETHING THROW SOMETHING THROW SOMETHING!"

Tweed is intrigued by what might be thrown for Jenn. Piper is intrigued by the possibility of biting Tweed. It's a funny picture because Tweed has *no* idea Piper is stalking him.

Meanwhile, Dusty contemplates Life With The Food Lady and muses on why no one has adopted him yet. Yes, the mystery is still unsolved. Poor Dusty :(

And Wootie is just enjoying some down time. As Dusty matures, he sometimes leaves Woo alone for minutes at a time. It's very relaxing in the house now, for 360 to 480 second increments.

But outside, the 5 step Wootie Elimination process resumes:

Step One: Stalk Target At Sea

Step Two: Target eludes capture by narrow margins

Step Three: Target makes a break for land. Pursue!

Step Four: Attempt to take target down

Step Five: Target fights for his life

This is usually about the point where I yell at Dusty to leave Woo alone, because if I don't step in and stop them, a) the bark screaming is deafening and b) Wootie usually ends up like this.

(At times like that, I bet Woo wishes he was as BIG as the Giant UnWootie who shows up at the beach from time to time.)

Then Dusty pouts.

-----------------------

So if you glance over to your right, you'll see along the side of the page links to sites and blogs that I like to peruse in my spare time and hope that you might like as well. I try to add new links often. I do hope, however, you are reading the tales of my BFF Finn who has moved to Nicaragua to work full time at an underfunded, understaffed and overwhelmed clinic for street dogs and strays there.

The clinic is called Casa Lupita - it is run by a single woman with help from two peace corp folks and Finn. There is no staff veterinarian, so they do what they can with luck, skill, patience and some scotch tape. The dogs there are undervalued and in a bad way.
Finn writes me and says: "There's a street in Managua called Puppy Street - I've never seen it but people keep telling me about it. Just rows and rows of cages where you pick out your puppy. Street vending puppies. Not for food, just for pets but it's supposed to be horrific. I told Donna I wanted to go take pics but all I could take would be snapshots.

"Another woman got her dog from a puppy pen on the road between Masaya and Granada. Never seen it but apparently it's just this big pen with all these puppies in it by the side of the road and you pull over, pick one out, pay for it and go. And these are the owned, loved dogs."

Eep. Dusty should be feeling pretty lucky right about now. It could be a lot worse than being fostered with the Food Lady for two months.

I thought about ways I could help Casa Lupita, and I asked if it would help if I visited them for a week, helped them out, maybe took some photos they could use - for calendars, or PR or what have you. The answer was a resounding "yes." And that would be great ... if I could actually afford to go to Nicaragua.

So here's how you can help me help Casa Lupita; if you are in the Greater Vancouver area, contact me to book a photo shoot for your dog. Five shoots pays for my plane ticket to Granada. Double that number and I'll be able to afford the time off work - I work for an NPO on contract, so when I don't work, I don't get paid.

If you don't live in the Greater Vancouver area but would like to help, send money via paypal

Anything I received beyond my costs to get there I will give directly to Casa Lupita so they can buy supplies for their clinic. I know they can use the money.

And Now For Something Completely Different

If you are in Toronto in April, go see this:




Carts Of Darkness

It may change your life!

---------------

And to keep this on topic, Woo says he's down with The Extreme Sports.
(Sometimes little Lazy-Fatty surprises us all)

Still Life With Eviscerated Stuffie

I don't even know what this used to be.

So they can't all be dogs-in-hats blog entries. This post is a random sampling of several days worth of pictures.

Yesterday we went back to Secret Doggie Heaven for a walk.

... made a new friend called Chase (Piper thought he was very attractive. Then again, so did Tweed)

... ate some dead stuff.

...and Jenn performed for us a little tree-blessing dance peculiar to the native dogs of her municipality

Jeezus! Dusty! Leave poor Wootie alone!

The we came home. Tweed plotted ways he could bite Donut without me noticing. He pretends like he's not going to do it, but he totally does it. Donut knows it too.

The day before yesterday we went to the beach.

We made some friends there too. Like this little Hussy.
No, for real. That's her name ... Hussy.


And then there was Stella, and her mini-m ... err, same-size me.

And then there was the white pittie whom I didn't get a photo of because she wouldn't sit for me. And her owner said "I trained her in French, so no one else could give her commands."

Yeah. Cuz he's the ONLY person in the world who speaks French. Although I did say "assis" and "coucher" and "even "parlez-vous francais?" to her and she didn't respond to any of that either, so I guess he did a really good job making sure she didn't respond to commands...in any language

Jeezus! Dusty! Leave poor Wootie alone!

Woo says even though there are no dogs-in-hats in this entry, it can still be silly:


Recently I was missing my Briggs dog, and I started this thread on a border collie community board I've been involved with for many years. It was very cathartic to not be alone in missing a great friend. Please hug your canine companion today, for me, and remember to appreciate him or her.

I also started a Flickr group for Immortal Dogs; those special dogs we have loved and lost. Feel free to join and add photos of your immortal dog.

Well That Ain't Right

For some people, the universe just drops opportune shit right into their laps. This happens to me sometimes ... like the bag full of baby/toddler hats I found in a random box at work. My work has nothing to do with kids. I can't explain it.

But I CAN exploit it.


Children Of The Corn

What? The hats fit their little pinheads like they were meant for them.

Srsly.


I did get the Death Stare from Wootie though.

I think he took his cue from Miss Piper

Wha' choo talkin' bout Willis?


Dusty got inducted into the Stuff On My Dogs game too.

"Hey catface ... is this woman for real?"


I dunno. Tweed has a good sense of humour about the whole thing.

Piper ... not so much. She is just so earnest.

Freudian Kitty wants to know why such a diagnosis should disturb you.

I dunno. It's just not right. I don't know why I do this to my poor dogs.

ha ha. yes I do.

sick.

"This sucks donkeys"

Tweed has a soft tissue injury of the knee.

It's GOOD because he does not have an ACL tear.

It's BAD because he has been downgraded to on-leash exercise only for 10 days. He thinks this sucks, and is not shy about making his feelings known to all. Poor Tweed.

He should shut up though. It's not like he was abandoned in a Costco Parking lot or anything. Poor, poor Lars.

And he is taking it out on Dusty. He thinks Dusty should leave now and borrowed Piper's Mad Teeth (tm) to get the message across. Poor Dusty.

Although Dusty doesn't just sit there and take it either. He's growing up.

Dusty says NO!

Besides, Dusty has other friends. Like this 'puggle'

(You may not know this, but 'puggles' are notoriously difficult to photograph. We were at the beach with a 'puggle' named Dupris (this is Cookie Uncle's fault. I never show up at the dog beach with a 'puggle.' I don't know why he thinks it's okay for him to do that.). Then there was another 'puggle' that appeared randomly and I tried to get a photograph of them together. C'est Impossible.)

The 'Puggle' Out-takes

So anyway Tweed's lack of activity is making him a little paranoid:


I feel for Tweed. I'm not saying Dusty is wearing out his welcome or anything, but you know, he doesn't need to be everywhere, all the time. You know?

I mean, really. Is this necessary?


Ha ha. My dogs are so emo.

WOOsh.