RSS Feed

Author Archives: Donna Black-Sword

Yaxley defends his adorableness

Posted on September 5, 2011 by Donna Black-Sword

There’s some buzz going around about Hurricane Irene. I’m hearing about impending cancelled flights and folk are scrambling to change their travel plans.

Oh [bad word here].  I just got to DC yesterday afternoon after struggling with United and their cancelled flights and there’s still a whole nuther action packed day of BlogPaws ’11 tomorrow.  Word on the street is that if you don’t get out of DC by noon tomorrow, then you’re in it for the long haul.

I have absolutely no plans to change my flight, I say. We’re going to skip out of here on a 10ish flight tomorrow night. And it’s that simple.  Don’t be jazzing me up with all this hurricane talk.  I’ve been looking forward to this whole conference for months and it was just way too much like work just to get here yesterday.

So yeah. During a break in my hotel room, I turn on the news channel. See the projected hurricane path in all its glory. The Husband calls with his concerns. My resolve starts to melt.  ugh.

My peripheral vision catches a paper as it’s slipped under my door. The hotel bill, I think. But no, it’s the emergency procedures in case of a power outage in the hotel.

Power outage? I’m on the 17th floor of the Sheraton.

With a dog.

Being a deep thinker, here are my options as I see things:

Plan A 

Keep my late night flight tomorrow and risk it being cancelled. I could finish the conference. But I could also be stranded at the airport. For who knows how long. With a dog.

Plan B

Change my flight to a Sunday departure and risk it being delayed until Monday. That means I’m toileting a dog in 70 mph hurricane winds (aim downwind, Yax honey).  And let’s not forget the power outage warning. 

Plan C

Leave DC tomorrow afternoon to get Yaxley and me home safe and sound.

Alrighty then. United.com, here we come.  Fine, we’ll catch a flight out tomorrow early afternoon, darn it all.

But tonight is ours. Yaxley and I decide to make the most of it.  We’re going to the movies!

Yax and I are off to see a premiere showing of Disney’s Spooky Buddies. Five golden retriever puppies in a Halloween adventure. Dressed in costumes! Score!

Spooky Buddies is the latest in a series of puppy adventures. Now how did this get past me? How could I not have known about the Buddies franchise?

(Image courtesy of Disney)

These are talking golden retriever puppies, for goodness sakes. Check your glucose levels, folk. We’re headin’ for a sugar rush.

B-Dawg, Budderball, Rosebud, Buddha, and Mudbud. Ridiculously adorable, the whole lot of them.

(Image courtesy of Disney)
(Image courtesy of  Disney)

Now I’ve survived sitting through some rather horrific kid movies (any Pokemon moms out there?) and have even taken a CCI pup to see a film.

But I’ve never been to a movie where the audience interacted by barking at the on-screen action. Now people, that’s what I call a good time. While Yaxley and his new corgi friends were sharing a nylabone, other dogs were watching the pups on screen and wanting to join in on the chase. Silly and fun. No thoughts of Hurricane Irene for a couple of fully entertaining hours.

The writer/director, Robert Vince, was on hand afterwards for a Q&A.  Ah, I’m in. I think I’m in  love with these Buddies. Nieces and nephews be forewarned; guess what you’re getting for Christmas? No, not a puppy. DVD’s, kids.

As if things couldn’t get any better, the Disney folk brought in a golden retriever pup in B-Dawg’s character. Live and in fur and available for a photo op. Completely jazzed, Yax and I took a number and stood in line only to find out that the photos are with people only. Sadly, no dogs allowed in with B-Dawg.  And since the camera insists on adding fifty pounds on me in every photo, we gave our regrets.

But you guys have to see this puppy. Just look at this, let your mind drift. You can almost smell the puppy breath from here.

Animal handler, Mark Forbes, with B-Dawg.
(photo courtesy Brad Smith Photography)

Oh, and yeah, that guy is the animal coordinator for the Buddies. That’s Mark Forbes, a much in demand animal handler in the film industry (Dr. Doolittle, 101 Dalmatians). Sure, he’s a famous guy and a pretty nice fellow, too. And that’s why I won’t hold the no-dogs-near-the-puppy rule against him.

But still.  Yaxley is just a bit unhinged about all the cooing over the bunny ears and all. He is insistent on maintaining his honor as the best looking dog in the room.  Any room, he says, it doesn’t matter. He needed the photo op to prove his point.

So we get one better. Yax puts his good looks up against all five golden retriever pups, plus a ghost beagle.

Hello, ladies. Look at the puppies, now back to me, now back
at the puppies, now back to me.

Sadly, they aren’t me, but if they were just outside
in the rain,  they could smell like they’re me.

Next post – chased home by a hurricane.

ADDENDUM Sept 16 2011

Ok, so it’s come to my attention that not everyone gets my Old Spice Guy reference in the Yaxley photo caption above. This, my friends, is where I was going with thought.

Hello, ladies. Look at your man. Now back to me . . 

Well played, Old Spice ad people. Still makes me laugh.

3 Comments

Posted in BlogPaws, Old Spice Guy, Spooky Buddies, travel, Yaxley. Bookmark the permalink.

Dog Pawty by Martha

Posted on September 3, 2011 by Donna Black-Sword
You had me at cheesecake

So Yax and I get a lunch invitation to the PetSmart Suite Pawty at BlogPaws. Not sure how we scored this prestigious invitation. Because of my influential blogging style? Of how I reach out to my modest yet dedicated readership (thanks, Mom!)?  My good looks? My dog’s good looks? Nah, all unlikely. Best guess is that Yax and I were just picked at random.

But another person’s randomness is our good fortune, cuz we had a blast. We rubbed noses with other celebrity pet bloggers, like the adorable Preston (of Preston Speaks). We, of course, means Yaxley. Being a supporter of appropriate personal space, I stuck with the more socially acceptable handshake among my peers.

The famous and photogenic Preston.
Check his blog out at Preston Speaks
Sure, I’m cute. It’s not like I can just
turn it off or something.

And the PetSmart folk showed us the new line of Martha Stewart branded stuff. We were among the first to see the new cat toys and bedding, and we got a great look at the dog toys for Fall.

Dog toys for what? Pay attention, now.  This is Martha Stewart stuff.  Of course there’s a Fall line. And it’s some cute and clever dogs toys, too.

Martha has Halloween covered as well, with not just dog costumes, but matching toys to go with the theme of things.  A witch costume can be matched with a frog squeaky toy; the vampire has a fanged bat companion, the skeleton, a skull ball. I think you see where this is going. Cleverly played, Martha.

Monster dog costume. Or maybe it’s a myopic dragon. I dunno.

Being a professional victim, Jager suffers the annual Halloween dress-up.  Sometimes it’s absolutely wrong, and still ridiculously funny, like Halloween 2009’s Banana Dog.

Aw, come on. It could’ve been worse.
Not sure how, though. Give me a minute
to think of something.

Other years, I may experience a change of heart and allow him a costume where he doesn’t have to carry his dignity on a stick. Halloween 2010 brought us the fearsome Jager Warg. (any LOTR fans out there?)

On to Gondor, you ferocious and smelly warg,
I’ve a craving for hobbit stew.

Apparently Martha knows me better than I thought with her snappy little dog costumes. I chose the devil costume from the selection available and, being the rebel that I am, picked a fanged bat dog toy to go with it.

Sadly, the thing doesn’t fit Jager. So a heads up on sizes, folk. Looks like a Large is really a Medium.  Because Jager looks like he’s wearing a red sock with wings.  It’s just a little bit too tight, kinda like an evil bloated tick.

Keeping in mind the poor dog’s dignity, I’m not even going to post a photo of it.  Yeah, that’s how bad it is.  Worse than Banana Dog.  But here’s a shot from PetSmart’s website. If you got a pug, this would be pretty cute.

To promote the Martha Stewart Fall line, PetSmart was generous in offering some of their dog toys to the bloggers at the Suite Pawty.  Yaxley picked out his favorites and we’ll run through a review of them here.

Scored me some squeaky toys
Goggles the Raccoon

Goggles’ info tag claims this round headed fella as a fleece tug toy for healthy teeth and gums. Of the toys we brought home, this was the paws down favorite for Yaxley and Micron. And the critter lasted through some energetic playtime fully intact.

Downside: not a good toy for the office. Apparently the robust squeak can be heard at about a hundred yards away. So says a co-worker through an instant message.

Otherwise, the raccoon critter gets a Thumbs Up from me.

Squeak that thing, Yax!

The Bull Rope Toy

A cow says [squeaky squeaky squeaky]

This one was more my choice than Yaxley’s. I liked the rope legs and pictured my dogs grabbing a rope each and playing tug with each other.

What I didn’t picture was the two of them dressing the thing for the butcher shop.
A cow says [ow]
Darn that squeaker. After they dehorned the hapless bovine, the dogs eviscerated the thing looking for the elusive squeaker. And I don’t think it’s a bull anymore, know what I mean?
On the plus side, the legs are still securely on it.
If you have aggressive chewers, then this one gets a Thumbs Down.
Squirrel and Acorns

So after the unfortunate cow disembowelment, I’m feeling a little cautious with this guy.

A couple of reasons, one being that the acorns look small enough for my big dogs to choke on.  And the other concern is that my immature mind can’t get past the removable acorn thing.  Sure, it’s a clever idea, that the dog can pull the acorns from the tree rat’s belly.

Those are his acorns, people.

 But honestly, and you may not really need to know this about me, when I had the squirrel in one hand and those two acorns in the other, my brain went south. [Insert random middle school joke here.]

Sorry, Martha. It’s just how I roll.  So points for the “added strength for aggressive chewers,” but we’ll have to pass this one on to a smaller dog that won’t choke on the squirrel’s, um, acorns.

Ok really. It’s not just me, is it?

Mugsie the Hedgehog
Another winner here with Mugsie. Like the squirrel, Mugsie is identified as a toy for aggressive chewers, a “plush toy for chewing and teething.”  A close second favorite of the dogs, right after the raccoon.  Even Jager likes this thing.

Instead of a squeaker, Mugsie has a sound chip that makes a chirring, chirping kinda sound that the dogs find interesting to engage. Over and over.  

Make it chirp again, Yaxley.
Ok.
Yea! Again!  
Ok.  
Chirp it, Yax!

And so it goes for the evening. In spite of the rapt attention it garners, this critter makes it fully intact through the night. The sound chip had them so mystified, the hedgehog saw the next sunrise with ears and nose still in place. Just a bit stiff from the lab slobber mousse job.

A Thumbs Up for Mugsie and his sound chip.

Takes a licking and keep on chirping.

Now I’m sure it didn’t escape your attention that I went all out for the Fall line photo shoot. I found some dead leaves in the yard and set these toys up on our rustic (read: rotting) back porch steps. Martha would be so proud of me, doncha think? When I’m done here, I’m off to knit a table runner out of dryer lint or something.

Next BlogPaws post will be on a movie screening just for us bloggers. Puppies and a Halloween theme. How did I not know about this before?  And why did I not get down there earlier for the open bar?

1 Comment

Posted in BlogPaws, PetSmart, Yaxley. Bookmark the permalink.

Speaking of attitude

Posted on September 3, 2011 by Donna Black-Sword

Just as everyone has a story, we also all have a past that includes the occasional misdeed. Whether by choice or circumstance, some of us have endured more challenges than our neighbors.

Our adventures in puppy raising will bring us a handful of doggy behavior to work with.  Our pup may react to a sudden noise (grocery carts banging together) by jumping aside. But we’re told by the CCI trainers, it’s not so much the reaction as the recovery. If the pup is startled, but can collect himself and continue on with his handler, we consider that a good recovery. The dog has a strong character.

It’s not so simple with us though, is it? We can easily take some wrong turns in life. But, you know, it’s how we handle adversity that reveals our true character. Redemption is our recovery.


Applause for the “fear of heights” story



Yaxley and I are in the grand ballroom at the Sheraton for the first morning of BlogPaws ’11.  We’re introduced to keynote speakers Joe Panz and Big Ant. These two fellas are founding members of the Long Island-based animal advocate group Rescue Ink.  Impressive, well-spoken, seriously tattooed and maybe just a little bit intimidating. They have presence, as we say. As they talk and share stories of their work, we relax knowing that we’re all in agreement of the same goal here: educating people to save animals from abuse and neglect. Rescue Ink exists to protect those who can’t protect themselves.
These guys are willing to go into situations considered too risky for animal welfare employees. Joe Panz says they will conduct an animal rescue by any means necessary, keeping within the limits of the law (his lawyer makes him say that, he says). But why?
These otherwise tough guys with their own pasts of misdeeds are working towards their own redemption by being there for those who need them. These are good-hearted men who are visceral in their love of animals. They tell us about helping folk find the resources needed so they can keep their pets. And we heard a story about how they educated a fellow who was throwing cats off a building by instilling a new and profound fear of heights into the guy. 
But do I really agree with their means to an end? Yeah, I dunno. I’m still working that through my head. I’m not a city girl; I know I haven’t seen the depths of how cruel people can be to the helpless.  No argument then, that we need tough men and women like the Rescue Ink crew to be our voices. Thanks, guys, for doing what many of us just simply don’t have the intestinal fortitude to do. There’s just no excuse for animal cruelty.



Joe Panz and Big Ant of Rescue Ink.
It’s OK, Yaxley honey. They’re on our side.

Yaxley kinda has that “mommy?” look on his face with Big Ant holding his leash. After this shot, the two of them scooped him up and ruffled his ears. I had expected this to be the usual celebrity photo opp, with “OK, Next!”, but these guys just loved all over the yellow dog like they had all morning.  Nice.

Next blog post: Lunch!  Well, more than that.  We were invited to a Pawty!

Leave a comment

Posted in BlogPaws, travel, Yaxley. Bookmark the permalink.

When dogs can fly

Posted on September 3, 2011 by Donna Black-Sword

I admit it, I love to people watch.  At the mall, restaurants, airports. All of us come with our own ready made stories, but we only show part of ourselves when out among the public arena.

So I entertain myself by making up stories for them. While I’ve got a little extra time at the Dayton Airport for my flight to Washington, DC there’s an open opportunity to check out my seat neighbors at the gate. 

I’m thinking that young guy a few seats over has three little girls at home; they’re just about a year apart in age. He’s bought them the complete American Girls doll collection. Because he doesn’t trust his wife with the credit cards since the great Zappos fiasco, he has to go online and pick out the accessories that will make his little pink princesses happy. However, he is feeling a little unsettled about the impending estrogen level that will hit his household in the next five years. He’s been considering the National Guard.

There’s a big fella at the next gate. AC/DC t-shirt and jeans, looking like he needs a cigarette. He loves the place he just bought out in farm country, but earlier this year he was traumatized by a squirrel who was surprised while hiding a food stash in his mailbox. The rodent actually jumped out and landed with four clawed paws on his chest, then used the poor guy’s noggin as a springboard to make his get-away. The fella made the poor choice to share this drama with his buddies at work. To show how much they care about his emotional rehabilitation, his friends are randomly stringing up stuffed animals in the guy’s locker so he’s greeted with a some kind of furry UFO when he opens the door. After ten years of abstinence, he’s now taken up smoking again.

And the 30-something dressed so nicely in a suit. Her untucked blouse is longer than her blazer. New kicky style or a result of the open barn door incident at the presentation she gave to the sales group in Chicago? She’s certainly not embarrassed to be on the cell phone in the ambiance of flushing toilets, but she probably needed both hands free to do that last zipper check before she walked to the lectern. Zipper paranoia is now her constant companion.

Then there’s that chick with the yellow dog. Well, that would be me. I have a story, as well.  I can make up stuff about our adventures, but here I think the truth will do just fine.

Yaxley and I are on our way to our first BlogPaws conference. A couple of days of hanging with fellow pet bloggers and attending sessions on how to do this blogging thing better. We’ve heard that there are somewhere about four hundred like-minded folk registered; many are bringing their pets.

My flight out of town has been cancelled twice so far today. Due to weather probs, I’m told. So, I’m a little edgy about my afternoon flight actually happening. Although, I’m making a conscience effort to keep from appearing visibly unhinged. I’m walking through the Dayton Airport with a dog and I want to show that, yes indeed, I do expect the have this dog on the plane with no trouble from anyone. Cowboy up, girl.  Show some attitude.


Luggage is larger than it appears. It sure as heck wasn’t
this small when I was dragging it through the airport. 



And it worked!  The TSA experience went smoothly, even though Yaxley’s collar bling set off the metal detector. He was hoping for a good solid pat down (don’t forget the belly rub), but it was not meant to be.
United Airlines gave us a warm welcome at the gate. The flight attendant fit us neatly into the bulkhead area and the young lady who was bumped back to my original seat was very gracious about it. I actually had this bulkhead seat selected, but that was two cancellations ago and I frankly just gave up trying.
How did Yaxley handle this adventure, you ask? Well, he was a rock star at the airport. Strutting his stuff right through TSA and to our gate. Talk about attitude. He wasn’t even trying. It just comes natural to this yellow pup.
He curled up by my feet and slept through most of the flight. Well, that would be true if my feet were on the floor. It was one of those itsy bitsy planes. There was only room for the dog or my feet, not both. So, the dog trumped. Yaxley only lifted his head near the end of the trip when the landing gear thumped into place. During the work week Yaxley is a true road dog on the drive to the office. Actually, he said the flight was a lot like my driving. Funny guy.
I’d never been to the Dulles airport and my surprise at the ridiculous size of the place turned into dismay as we took elevator after elevator to get to the ground transportation area.  Really, Dulles?  Five elevators to get to the train, then two more?  Each elevator only takes you down one floor? Scrapping my original plan to find a cheap shuttle to the hotel, when we finally made it out of the labyrinth I opted for the comfort of a cab. My former facade of confidence had by now transmogrified into a bring it on state of mind. Just try to say something about the dog in your cab, Mr. Taxi Guy, and see what that’s gonna get ya.  But I smile and just say the hotel name. He wisely nods, tosses the suitcase in the trunk and we go.  I remember that I’m now in DC and a dog is probably not even in the top ten of weird things that’s he’s driven through town.



We made it



Safe and sound at the Sheraton. The hotel gives us a tidy little gift bag, about the size that could hold a small jewelry box. I look inside to see two plastic capsules holding a poop bag each. And a pair of latex gloves. Ah, a warm welcome. 
nom-nom-nom



Just a heads up, Sheraton gift bag person, that while I can be counted on to pick up any and all #2’s presented by my dog, I do not, however, intend to perform any medical procedure on the stuff. Latex gloves?

Things are looking up at the BlogPaws registration table where we receive a huge swag bag of gifts from the pet company vendors in attendance. Yaxley has been doing such a perfect job all day, I give him the pink stuffed bear in the bag. I know it’s doomed.  A short-lived pleasure, but maybe Yaxley can carry the happy memory for a little while.
We sit, we watch. No imagined stories here, though. The real stuff is just too good. Yaxley is a social bridge for me as people come over to ask about who he is and then we talk about CCI for a while. We meet other pet passionate folk and learn about how they are saving one life at a time with their animal rescue work. I meet a super nice lady that turns about to be a Hill’s sales rep. I confess to her my allegiance to Eukanuba, but we agree we can still be friends. 




Nice place, says Yaxley.
Now grab those gloves, Food Lady, I gotta go.



Because the BlogPaws folk know their audience so well, there’s a dog park set up in one of the large conference rooms.  Professional pet sitters are on site to keep an eye on your precious pooch for those who want to go out to dinner and such. 
Yaxley has been on the job since the morning, with no real break all day. He’s done an absolutely stellar job; I’m very proud of how he’s handled the day’s adventures. I hang out in the dog play area to watch him release some energy and just be a dog for a while.
Yaxley has claimed a toy and the coveted
bed as his very own.
That was about all the fun we could fit into one day.  More BlogPaws adventures coming up in the next posts.

1 Comment

Posted in BlogPaws, travel, Yaxley. Bookmark the permalink.

Mighty Mr. Micron makes his mark

Posted on August 18, 2011 by Donna Black-Sword
My favorite kid

You never really stop worrying about your kid, even after you’ve sent him off to college. Ask any mom who’s been there. You just worry about things in a different way.

How ready is he for the real world, all the good and not so good? Is the kid well equipped to handle new adventures — and those tricky challenges that come with change? Did we offer up enough valuable life experiences to tamp down any naivete?

But you know, the simplest way to summarize my biggest worry as a mom is . . .

Did I do my job?
  
Dropping my favorite kid off in a dorm room with people we’ve never even met before was a truly unsettling experience. Sure, I know that this kid is old enough to drive, vote, defend our country, and now, as he told me, fully capable of living his life independent of his mother’s overprotective grasp. I do know this.

Because we worked hard to get him ready.

Over the past eighteen years, this clever young man had learned the basic life skills of preparing meals, doing his own laundry, and thanks to Scouting, can survive outdoors in freezing temps and even start a campfire in the rain. All good marketable skills, although not all are critical for life on campus.

So yeah, I worried about him. But not too much. He was absolutely ready for this next step. And this life event was all of three years ago. My successful young son is walking head on into his senior year this month.

Mini Mr. Micron

This past May, I was reminded of personal growth through life changes when we returned Micron to Canine Companions for Independence so he could complete his training as an assistance dog.

Although we only had eighteen months, not years, to prepare this fuzzy fellow for his adult life, we did try to get him out and about so there wouldn’t be an excessive amount of Holy Cow experiences for him.

Micron was there for the daily office grind. He found out how mind-numbingly boring grocery shopping can be, which could only be trumped by another miserable scrapbook trip to Hobby Lobby. But new adventures could be a blast, like the RV vacation to Pennsylvania. And visits to family in assisted care facilities got a lot of positive attention. The farmers market was always a good time. So many festivals in town, so little time, Micron says.

When the time came for Micron to go to CCI college we were feeling rather confident he was prepared for this next step. We had showed him the world.

We did our job, we said. With a long hug and some tears, we sent him on his way. Go do good stuff, we said.  Make good choices, now.

So, as they say, life is what happens while you’re making other plans.

The Mighty Mr. Micron returns

When the call came three months later that Micron was being released from CCI, I experienced a mental hurricane of mixed emotions.

Darn it all, we worked so hard at this. Eighteen months all for nuthin?  Deep breath, let the dust settle in my head.  Ok, I know the success rate of these dogs has been estimated at less than fifty percent. CCI sets very high standards for their assistance dogs, so in truth, less than half of the puppies in the program will graduate. I know this.  It’s information that’s covered in the puppy raiser interview process. 

I also know Micron. He’s a happy, lovable velcro dog. He is a little light in the work ethic department though.  He is so much dog, such a big personality, that my hopes for him were that he might be placed as a facility dog so all that Microness could be shared with a lot of folk. A room just feels better if Micron is in it. He exudes positive energy like heat waves, if you believe in such stuff.

But in the end, a CCI career was not for him. In CCI speak we refer to these dogs as COC’s.  Change of career.

So what happens now, you ask?  Well, the Mighty Micron becomes a highly trained pet.  As his puppy raisers, CCI is generous in offering us first dibs, so to speak.

Food Lady!  Didja see it?  Micron’s back!

Not what we worked for, not what I had hoped for his destiny. But having Micron in my home as my very own personal cuddlebug and fuzzy friend?

Well, that’s one helluva consolation prize, I’d say. I’ll graciously accept it with a huge smile on my face.

I just adore this dog.

Doggy smiles

6 Comments

Posted in Advanced Training, change of career, Micron. Bookmark the permalink.
← Older Posts
Newer Posts →