Stop and smell the roses...

Bruce is an 8-month old brown and white German Shorthaired Pointer mix...Which way does he point? To the ground! In honor of Independence Day, I'm going to turn the Blog over to the dog for this week's installment and let Bruce tell you his thoughts himself, in his own words...

"Let's go!!! Sniff sniff sniff sniff sniff sniff sniff sniff..."

"Sniff sniff sniff sniff sniff sniff sniff sniff Hmmm, interesting sniff sniff sniff sniff sniff sniff Fascinating sniff sniff"

"Sniff s-s-sni-sni-sniiiiiiiiiiff Testing 1-2, testing 1-2, sniff sniff sniff "

"I'm so happy. I hope this walk lasts forever!!! Sniff sniff sniff sniff sniff sniff sniff sniff."

"Sniff sniff Now here's something. What is that? That smells really good...Oh wait, that's me from 5 minutes ago. Sniff sniff sniff sniff"

"Sniff sniff sniff sniff sniff sniff A ladybug crawled here in 1979...in March...sniff sniff sniff sniff"

"That was awesome! Pant pant pant"

There you have it, folks. You couldn't hope for a dog with more zest for life...and all its aromas. If you come in and meet Bruce today, he may even sniff you!

As of 6/30/08:

Bruce...AVAILABLE FOR ADOPTION.

The ground floor

Today is your chance to get in on the ground floor, so to speak. We are about to meet 2 dogs who aren't even available to adopt yet--but they are available to be met. While they are next-door neighbors with each other in Maddie's Adoption Center, they couldn't be more different. So read on and see if one of these gals is calling your name!

Sweet Pea is a lovely 2-year old lab retriever mix. She would be a good potential match for someone with the time and energy to devote to an ongoing training program for her. As she's in our dog-reactive group, Sweet Pea isn't into sharing her dog toys or living the communal life (she probably thinks hippies are wierd), so she'd need to be the only dog in your home. She mostly did fine on her walk as long as I guided her away from any and all other dogs in the vicinity. Spotting another dog equals lunging and barking for Sweet Pea. In fact, I believe there is no known photograph of her looking at the camera, because she is constantly scanning the horizon for canine intruders. However, she's great one-on-one with a human companion...Hence, her name.


Now let's meet Sweet Pea's next door neighbor. Goldie is a 10-year old Golden retriever mix. Her age and her temperment make for one of the mellower dogs we have right now. Goldie is into low-impact exercise involving fairly short walks sprinkled with occasional spurts of jogging. And if you want to bypass the jogging parts entirely, that'd probably be just fine with Goldie. In human years, Goldie is squarely in the shuffleboard-playing era of her life. She comes well-equipped with the basics already, such as maintaining eye contact and overall good behavior. Her thick and luxurious coat of golden fur might be enough to make you fall in love with her on its own, and her easy-going personality is the icing on the cake.

Incidentally, walking past Sweet Pea's room on the way out for our walk, Sweet Pea barked and barked at her, but Goldie held her head up high, nodded in Sweet Pea's direction, and continued onward without a peep. You could just see her thinking, [sigh] "Kids today, with their energy drinks, MTV, and overstimulation..."


So there you have it, folks: go semi-high-maintenance with Sweet Pea or go easy with Goldie.

As of 6/23/08:
Sweet Pea...Not yet available for adoption; AVAILABLE TO BE MET.
Goldie...Not yet available for adoption; AVAILABLE TO BE MET.

[Note: Both dogs are already spayed!]

"C" is for Cookie...

Today we have a text-only blog entry (I forgot to bring my camera this visit). And not only that, but both dogs I walked today got adopted within days, so they were already gone, along with their charts, by the time of my next visit. Hence, this short and sweet recap:

Speaking of short and sweet...Meet Cookie. She's got a black and white spotted coat which reminds me of the "tuxedo" cookies they sell at my favorite bakery. Cookie is very sweet. How sweet is she? She's so sweet that she got a kiss during our walk from a guy who saw her and was enthralled by her sweetness. He petted her as we completed our last lap around the park, and then kissed her on top of her head. How many of us elicit that response from a stranger by just going out for a walk?

Royce is Cookie's roommate. His adoption was already pending when I walked him. It was easy to see how he got snatched up so quickly: he's got as sweet and even-tempered a disposition as Coookie, and he's extremely well-behaved. He kept up just fine on our lengthy run without being overly energetic.

All in all, these were a great couple of canines who are now safe and sound in their new homes!

As of 6/16/08:
Cookie...ADOPTED!
Royce...ADOPTED!

Fuzzy furry fast

It's puppy time again! We started with a litter of 9. Then we had 7. Now there are 3 left! They're Black Lab Retriever mix puppies. And they're fuzzy. I know because I held one. Her name is Alutia. We also have Olympus and Sierra. Spot the trend yet? They're named after mountains. And they're each a mountain of fun!

If you have space in your life right now for a puppy, and are ready for the mountain of work involved in raising one, come on down and get one while they last!

Now let's progress from fuzzy to furry to fast. Felicia, along with her roommate whom we'll meet shortly, is among our spryest and swiftest. She's a Queensland Heeler mix and she's only 11 months old. I broke a sweat just coralling her to put on her leash. Once out of the building, 2 passers-by stopped to say hello to Felicia. As we sprinted past, all I could say over my shoulder was, "She can't talk right now, she's in a hurry." It was all a blur, really. But after completing a few wind sprints around the park, we slowed down and Felicia sat. She even smiled for a picture. I think her smile is saying, "OK, I'm doing it. I'm sitting. Can we get back to the running now, please?" At least in this photo she's eternally sitting, captured in time:


Imagine for a moment. How would you react if you were sitting hunched over a slot machine in a run-down casino in Carson City at 4 a.m., down to your last unfiltered Camel and the last shiny quarter from your debit account whose balance at one time actually contained a comma, you fed the precious final coin into the one-armed bandit, pulled hard, and suddenly a jubilant bell rang out and the sign looming over your head lit up and said, "Jackpot!!!" If you were my estranged step-brother (who lives on the tugboat he used to captain in the Antilles but which is now dry-docked on property 20 miles outside of Carson City), you might rise to your feet and jump for joy. This sensation of boundless excitement is embodied by Felicia's roommate, the aptly-named Jackpot.

Jackpot is a three-year old tri-color Jack Russell terrier. Like his roommate, he's in our "High Energy" category. That's only because we don't have a category called, "Contraband M-80 firecracker." Neither of these two dogs are biters or even badly behaved. It's just that they require a regular aerobic workout program. And they also share in common the fact that once they've been properly exercised (i.e., exhausted), they can focus just fine, sitting, staying, and obeying every command.

It's endearing that even after going for a run, Jackpot's tail is wagging so fast, 'tis but a blur:


So if gas prices are getting you down and you're so over driving to the gym, then never step on another stairmaster again and get-fit-with-Felicia or hit the Jackpot with, uh, Jackpot.

As of 6/9/08:
Felicia...AVAILABLE FOR ADOPTION.
Jackpot...AVAILABLE FOR ADOPTION.

Marketing 101

All those puppies whose progress we had been tracking have been adopted! We have a new batch and these guys seem to be the opposite of the previous couple litters who slept non-stop. These ones play non-stop. Look at 'em go:

As I wrote last month when I featured her in this space, I thought that Tornado had the most fitting name of any dog I've met at the SF/SPCA. Well, while that may be true, we mustn't forget the power of marketing and effective branding in particular. To that end, Toronado is now Tori. Yes, where you once may have pictured in your mind's eye a raging maelstrom of mayhem and destruction, now you can imagine that nice Valley girl named Tori from Beverly Hills, 90210. Or perhaps that lovely and talented piano-playing redheaded Tori. With all these positive associations, we think you'll now find Tori absolutely impossible to resist.

As an observant reader pointed out when Tori was recently featured here (before her name change), it was tough to capture an in-focus picture of her because she moves so fast she's naturally blurry. Now that she's rockin' her new name, Tori posed politely for this pic and showed off her usual sense of wide-eyed wonderment.

I walked her to see what else had changed. OK, she's still sitting squarely in our High Energy category. But she is calming down just a tad and obeying commands after just one or two repetitions. And if you've got the time and energy to exercise her properly, she'll be on her way to being the bestest little buddy you could have...She's already the most enthusiastic!

As of 5/30/08:
Tori...AVAILABLE FOR ADOPTION.