Monday, June 30, 2008

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.

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

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!]

Monday, June 16, 2008

"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!