Week 2

We are now knee-deep in the rainy season here in San Francisco...which means for all those un-neutered pets out there, it's balls-deep. And today it was raining cats and dogs in the city. This all-day, all-night storm of Biblical proportions seemed to cleanse the squallid Babylon that is Avanzino Park, where I walk the SPCA dogs. All the usual suspects (I use that term literally) had abandoned this outdoor den of iniquity for drier pastures, and the dogs and I had the park to ourselves. Slogging along in solitude and soaked to the bone, it struck me that I was fully enjoying myself. This came as a surprise because in the driving wind and rain, it would follow that one would be in total misery. But I was happy. It dawned on me that I've learned "how to be miserable," or more accurately, how to relish potentially miserable conditions. I learned this from a book: the excellent, excellent guide The War of Art . Check it! Incidentally, it's 1 of the 3 books that changed my life. The other 2 are Pat the Bunny and Everyone Poops--thanks to the writers' strike, both of these are set to become major motion pictures this coming year!

Now that my opening monologue is out of the way, let's meet our featured dogs. Today I walked 2 dogs from last week, getting to know them a little better, plus a great new guy:

Oso...the confirmed hottie we met last week.

Kody...the soccer dog.

Curly...a world-class sprinter (and jumper, but we're working on that).

The best news first. Today the shelter halls were pretty empty on account of the hideous weather, but a resident of a local beachfront community came in and met Curly. Then I walked Curly, and when we returned to the shelter, he'd been officially adopted. I walk the dogs on Friday and post these entries on Monday, so by the time you're reading this Curly is surely enjoying running on the sandy beaches of Pacifica, CA.

As I mentioned above, Curly is a jumper. This means he's inclined to jump up on you when the excitement of the moment overtakes him. Our motto with dogs like Curly is "four on the floor." We work on this with the dogs every day, rewarding every "sit" until the jumping stops for good. On the day of Curly's adoption, his sitting was on the rise and a marked downward trend in occurrences of his jumping was observed. A marked downward trend...hey, that sounds like our economy!
Now, onto our dogs who are still available for adoption. Kody, whom we first met here in Week 1, continues to impress me. Today in his room he sat for me on command through the other side of the door. See fig.'s 1 and 2, below.

And on a chair, no less! Throw in a St. Bernard and a collie and Kody'll be ready to pose for a painting of poker-playing-dogs.

I was surprised to see Oso still around today, as such beauties usually get adopted in a heartbeat. Come in and meet him now if you're ready to bring home a big, sweet-natured bear of a chow! Before our walk Oso showed off his crate skills.

As if that impressive display weren't enough, behold Oso not even trying to chase or lunge after the birds in the top of the photo below during our walk. Definitely not a leash puller. If my grandmothers were still with us today, they could walk this big guy with ease. What a well-trained boy!* *"Just like you," Valerie tells me.

As of 1/25/08:
Oso...AVAILABLE FOR ADOPTION pending a dental checkup.
Kody...AVAILABLE FOR ADOPTION.
Curly...ADOPTED!

Week 1

This here is Week 1 of DogBlog. It's also my first day of the new year back at the SFSPCA, having been on vacation in Washington, D.C. and Baja, Mexico. Did you know that in Baja, every town is allotted 1 stray dog by the government? And that each of these dogs loves to saunter into the middle of the road just as you drive into town, forcing you to slam on the brakes every time? This tradition is observed religiously by every dog we encountered.

Almost every dog who was here at the shelter last month in December '07 has been adopted. Here are three new dogs I got to know today:

Oso...A big fluffy chow.
Kody...A high-energy yellow labrador retriever.
Banta...I forgot her name as soon as I got her out the door so I decided instead to call her Borat during our walk.

Have you ever noticed how the attractiveness index of a person or an animal can rise based on repeated external validation? Allow me to demonstrate. The following event took place as I was walking Oso in the park near the shelter:

Lady in the park, raspy-voiced: "Oooh, that's a cute dog."
Me: "He's available for adoption."
Lady: "I'd rather adopt YOU!"
[I continue jogging past with Oso, trying not to laugh.]
Lady: "I'd rather adopt you, 'cuz I think you'd be easier to taaame!"

Many have tried. None have succeeded. Farewell and good luck to you, Lady in the Park.

Moments later, as we were crossing 16th street on our way back to the shelter, a woman we passed in the crosswalk saw Oso and cried out, "Oh, you are gorgeous, aren't you!" So there you have it, folks: bring Oso home and you'll have yourself a confirmed beauty!

Many of our labrador retrievers at the shelter (and sometimes other breeds as well) I call "soccer dogs." These dogs will dive through the air to catch a flying soccer ball, catch it with their front paws, and stop the ball on the ground. Then they will nudge the ball to you or wait for you to take it and pass it back to them. It blew my mind the first time I witnessed this. Kody is a verified soccer dog. I discovered this on our first lap around the soccer field when he dove for a ball coming towards us from the other side of the fence. If you were to bring Kody home, you'd have yourself a loyal new teammate!

Banta is a big dog with a lot of poise. She is also a housebroken dog and very well-behaved. At the moment she is recovering from spay surgery and then is going to her new home--she was just adopted!

As of 1/18/08:
Oso...AVAILABLE FOR ADOPTION.
Kody...AVAILABLE FOR ADOPTION.
Banta...ADOPTED!