RSS Feed

Introducing Euka II: She’s not a tuber

Posted on October 7, 2012 by Donna Black-Sword
Kiss me, you fool.   
Photo courtesy of Chris Kittredge Photography

(Social media disclaimer. As I talk about Eukanuba, it is as an employee of P&G Pet Care. However, anything I say in praise of Eukanuba supports my personal belief that we make some great pet food now. ‘Tis totally true.)
 
LOOK AT THIS FACE!, I’m saying way too loudly for cube farm environment. We have rules about such behavior, but we don’t call them that. It’s “open office etiquette” we say, like Emily Post works here at P&G or something. One doesn’t disturb one’s cubemates with loud exclamations while waving an 8 X 10 photo over one’s head.

Never being the kind of girl with an understanding of etiquette skills, let alone reasonable table manners, I’m compelled to bring everyone’s attention to a photo of Euka II that was just forwarded to me by email.

And just look at that face, why don’t ya? Here’s our next CCI pup in training at two weeks old. She’s looking directly into the camera with her newly opened eyes and just daring you not to kiss her square on the mouth.

This is Euka II, I explain to Everyone. She’s our next CCI office puppy.

What a cute baby, agrees Maria, my Spanish speaking cubemate. You know what we call a yuca, don’t you?

A yooka? I ask. With a long u sound? Isn’t that a southwestern flower or something. I thought that was yucca.

Photo courtesy of Chris Kittredge Photography

No, that’s different. A yuca is like, um, she patiently tries to explain to me. It’s a food important to South America. Kind of like a sweet potato. It grows underground, you know?

Ooh, a sweet potato, I think. Holy cow, that’s perfect! I look at the photo in my hands. Right, the stinkin’ adorable Euka is our little Sweet Tater. I’m seeing her roly poly puppy body with brown-sugar-cinnamon-on-top sweetness. Yummy enough to melt butter.

Actually, says another cubemate. It’s usually called a cassava. It’s really a tuber.

What’s that you say? A tuber? Oh, ugh. The thought balloon over my head audibly pops. Well, doesn’t that just suck the romance right out of it?   This puppy is not a tuber, I think.  Naw, I’m sticking with the Sweet Tater image.

So this precious little package of puppy goodness is Euka II, the fifth born of the Eukanuba sponsored E litter for Canine Companions for Independence. She is, of course, taking her noble moniker from the Eukanuba brand. But there’s more to it than just that.

Euka II is also the namesake of Euka, our recently retired VP of Canine Communications at P&G Pet Care.  More about Euka can be found at this link. But she was kind of a big deal around P&G. From the news release announcing her retirement after nine years of loyal service to the company . . .

About Euka

Since joining the team in the summer of 2003, she’s been the official greeter of office visitors, represented IAMS and Eukanuba at corporate events and industry activities, supervised numerous shelter makeovers and visited school children to help educate them about the importance of animals and how best to take care of them. In 2004, her celebrity really took off when she became a national “cover dog” by appearing on Fortune Magazine with P&G CEO at the time, A.G. Lafley.

To learn more about and follow the happenings of Griffin, P&G Pet Care’s new V.P. of Canine Communications, visit Facebook.com/IAMS or Facebook.com/Eukanuba.

It’s an honor, it would seem, to be carrying on the name of Euka here at P&G. And I’m a little crazy jazzed that this little celeb-to-be will be my charge soon.

We do know that Euka II won’t be stepping into Euka’s paw prints in the executive suite. Her replacement, the esteemed Pawl Griffin, has taken on the role of VP of Canine Communications. Instead our Euka II will be hanging with me in Pet Care R&D to learn about her career as a service-pup-in-training.

I shall call him Squishy and he will be mine
and he will be my Squishy.  
Photo courtesy of Chris Kittredge Photography

Three weeks down, five to go, until I can schmoosh my face in hers and get a good whiff of that wonderful puppy smell. Or start her training.  Sure, we’ll do that too.

Until that magical time, I’ll be cyber stalking the E litter on the Eukanuba Puppy Channel. Have you looked at this in the last couple of days?  The whelping area has been expanded to include a playground for the pups. They’ve found their legs and are learning to play with each other.

You know, I do declare myself with having earned a Master level at multi-tasking. Well heck, what mom isn’t an expert at performing multiple feats? But a warning to even the best of us. I tried running this Livestream and preparing dinner in the evening a couple of times and it kinda ends badly.  If you consider pizza delivery as Plan B as a bad thing.

So forewarned is four-legged. Or something like that.

There’s our lil tater in the right in the center of the action.  (screen shot from the Eukanuba Puppy Channel.)

6 Comments

Posted in E Litter, Euka II, Eukanuba, puppy cam. Bookmark the permalink.

Wordless Wednesday: Frankenweenie-fy your pet

Posted on October 3, 2012 by Donna Black-Sword
What a handsome devil, that Bodine. I believe we’ve captured his true essence here. A look into his shadowy soul
It’s an entertaining Facebook app to promote Tim Burton’s Frankenweenie movie that allows you to scrape away that last layer of dignity from your pet and monster them up. And just in time for Halloween. Sa-weet!
Bodine pre-frankenweenied

Bodine’s leaning on a Who Dunit book with a just-ate-the-canary look on his mug. Who dunit indeed, says Bodine. Not me.
 




5 Comments

Posted in Bodine, Wordless Wednesday. Bookmark the permalink.

Introducing Puppy #4 Euka II

Posted on September 30, 2012 by Donna Black-Sword
[screen shot from livestream]

(Social media disclaimer. As I talk about Eukanuba, it is as an employee of P&G Pet Care. However, anything I say in praise of Eukanuba supports my personal belief that we make some great pet food now. ‘Tis totally true.)

Not a creature was stirring, not even a . . . ah, hold it right there, missy. There is indeed a tiny critter moving about. See the little polar bear pup up and about on her new legs? Two weeks old and already full of awesome stuff.

That’s our little neon pink pup, Euka II.  CCI puppy #4 for this dog fur besotted household. While her littermates are sleeping off their last binge at the milk buffet, Euka II is exploring her new world. She’s not even here in Ohio yet and I’m already obnoxiously proud of her. I mean, just look at her!  She’s obviously advanced, right?

We still have a few weeks (augh!) until she shows up to shed on my clothes. There’s so much for Euka to do before she’s eight weeks old, from opening her eyes to learning appropriate play with her sibs.

So I’m afraid I’m left with voyeurism, puppy style.

At the Eukanuba Puppy Channel Mom Taya and her extraordinary E litter are livestreamed. I can stalk this precious package online until I get a sugar buzz. Or until I get caught at work, heh.  Oh well, it’s impossible to be stealthy anyway. Because every time I open the livefeed, these puppies are doing something so stinkin’ adorable that I’m pulling co-workers from their chairs to Come Look at This!  And I may or may not have done this very thing to the company VP the other day. Right, it may not have been those exact words.

So if you’re viewing the livestream, keep an eye our for our little tater. Euka II is fifth in the birth order of the eight pups, so she is sporting the neon pink collar. Each pup is assigned a color according to their birth order.  CCI explains identifying pups in more detail on their blog. From CCI’s blog post Color-coded Pups:

Once the pups are cleaned and dry, colored yarn is placed around their neck. When the puppies grow older, the yarn is replaced by a color-coded collar.

The following color scheme is followed, indicating first to last born: red, blue, purple, neon green, neon pink, brown, light pink, turquoise, orange, dark green, black, yellow, gray, burgundy, and nude (yes, the fifteenth born gets no color!).

First born, Emma.

Eukanuba’s Facebook page offered up a naming contest for some of the E puppies. So red puppy, the first born, is democratically named Emma (photo on right).

Eukanuba fans also had the chance to vote on blue puppy (boy), and purple and brown puppies (both girls).  Winning names will be assigned later this week, just keep an eye on Eukanauba’s page for the results.

Now, there was plenty of discussion held on Euka II’s name, but not a fan vote for this tiny beauty. There is a back story to her moniker, besides the obvious. We’ll cover that in an upcoming post.

But I have to go now. It’s time for the puppy cam to be on. If you happen to see me on the Livestream chat, do say hello. My Livestream handle is Donna_puppyraiser.

[screen shot from livestream] Not sure which color-coded pup was the one on her back with
feet twitching in the air. But really, does it matter?
Good grief that’s just sugar cookie sweetness. [sigh]

2 Comments

Posted in CCI, Euka II, Eukanuba, puppy cam. Bookmark the permalink.

Yaxley changes his career path

Posted on September 29, 2012 by Donna Black-Sword

What do you want to be when you grow up?

Alrighty ladies . . . who played with Barbie dolls when you were a kid.? A show of hands, now. No, it’s ok, nobody can actually see your admission here. Oh hey, remember those GI Joe’s we had in the 70’s? They were the same scale as Barbies and were all manly in their fatigues. These guys sported a fuzzy low fro and absolutely wicked facial scar. Ok, now who had a GI Joe instead of a foppish Ken to marry your Barbie? Oh yeah, it’s this kind of stuff that made us the women we are today.

Hubba, says Barbie.  
Yeah, I’d have his baby.

I actually recall that life changing moment when I realized Barbie’s ridiculous proportions. Stubby tween fingers are fumbling with the tiny snap on her mod pink and orange paisley miniskirt, when it occurs to me that I’ve never met a women who looks like this. With her big perky girls casting a shadow over that wasp waist, she had us believing in something that would never develop.

Not my mom, her friends, my teachers. Not even those cute girls on Hee-Haw.  No woman alive looks like this.  And that means I won’t have a body like this either. Curse you and your sweater-stretching bosom, Barbie. You betrayed us all. 

I don’t remember crying over this coming of age knowledge; this loss of innocence. But I did realize that there would have to be some rework on that trophy wife career plan. Yep, better crack open that pre-algebra text book after all

I still think about what I want to be when I grow up.  I no longer wish for Barbie’s impossible proportions as much as I just want clothes that don’t hurt when I sit down. Oh, and I want to be taller. And thinner, too. Definitely thinner. Ah, if wishes were horses . . . oh yeah, and I want a horse.  A friesian. [sigh]

We can plan all we want and maybe even try to get a preview of our destiny. At ten years old, it never occurred to me that I wouldn’t someday be shaped like my statuesque Barbie doll. At fifteen years old, it became clear I would never reach more than a couple inches over five feet tall. Married at twenty, survival was the word of the day, not college. Those romantic dreams of an exotic career turned into an office job in finance. Yet today, as I slip into what is likely the second half of my life (yikes!), I feel like destiny has been kind to me.

I’m not exactly where I thought I would be. But right here? It’s good. And you know, I rather like it right here.

Yaxley changes his career path

On matriculation day

So our little Lord Yaxley decided after a month at Advanced Training at Canine Companions for Independence that this career as an assistance dog is just not for him.  He said his passion is to be a family dog.  I’m really good at cuddling, he says. And I’m pretty handy with little kids, too. I think maybe I could be a nanny like that dog in Peter Pan.

A dear friend and co-worker has adopted Yaxley. A young family with a little boy that Yaxley can have for his very own. It’s a beautiful arrangement that seems to fit together so very naturally. He’s moving in pre-loved as she has been close to Yaxley as he grew up in the office.

When Luke cries in his crib, she says, Yaxley goes into his room and lies next to the bed. He gets there before we do.

So he doesn’t try to avoid the crying and all the noise? I ask.

No, she says. Yax is by the crib with a concerned look on his face. Like, what took me to long to get there?

But, she adds, he does steal the binkies that Luke drops. Sometimes I find one in the backyard.

The little stinker. Well, that’s just Dog Rules, right? If it’s on the floor, it’s mine. I know, I know. A service dog would retrieve the binkie and give it back with only a hint of dog slobber. But now he’s a beloved pet. We’re back to fundamental Dog Rules.

Micron and I are happy to see Yax on the days he comes into the office. The two fellas started right back up where they left off. Hogging attention and stealing chew toys from each other, the stuff of best friends.

So today Yaxley isn’t exactly where I thought he would be. This wasn’t the destiny I had envisioned. But now that this is where he is? It is perfection. It is peace of mind. It is right.

Yaxley is indeed right where he belongs.

9 Comments

Posted in Advanced Training, change of career, Yaxley. Bookmark the permalink.

Wordless Wednesday: Well, they look like tennis balls

Posted on September 26, 2012 by Donna Black-Sword

Did you know that dogs aren’t completely color-blind, in spite of whatever childhood wisdom you’ve been carrying in the back of your noggin all this time?  Study of their eyeball rods and cones and things that I don’t even pretend to understand have suggested that dogs have a bit of color blindness rather similar to what some humans experience.

Simply put, because I am indeed a simple girl, our canine friends don’t see reds and greens the way we non-color blind human beans do. These two festive colors are perceived as a sort of gray instead. So when you toss that red ball into the lawn for a hearty game of fetch, your dog is looking at you with an expression of thanks a lot there, dude. I’ll be relying on that superior sense of smell to find my toy.

And that may explain why apples remind Micron of tennis balls so much. And maybe why taking him to our local Apple Fest last weekend may not have been the best of my brain children.

Let’s see some self-control there, big guy.





10 Comments

Posted in Micron, Wordless Wednesday. Bookmark the permalink.
← Older Posts
Newer Posts →