An eventful weekend

First a couple of belated internet shout-outs and some thanks:

Bilbo and I won a prize in Two Pitties raffle! We have to choose a Silly Buddy collar and I was going to post a shortlist to get some help with the decision but I can't even narrow it down to finalists because they're all just too great. Billy is particularly excited because he thinks he's far too handsome for his boring black collar.

Two One Tail dogs, Howard and Grey, were featured on WGNTV:

(UPDATED: for some reason the video that I embedded disappeared when I published the post so here's a good old-fashioned link instead!)

Then the lovely Two Grad Students and a Pittie made us their "Fabulous Follow" for Saturday. Which is doubly fabulous because they moved this weekend and yet still managed to keep blogging about their NYC adventures. Now that's impressive.

Back in the physical world I kicked the weekend off with drinks at Logan Square Bar and Grill. Seeing as there was a decidedly doggy trend to my plans for the weekend, I couldn't resist trying out a "raging bitch" pale ale which turned out to be delicious

However, it also turned out to be rather strong. I trotted home around 1am and stopped at the store on the way to pick up chicken for some Billy training the next morning. Unfortunately, the raging ale had befuddled me just enough to momentarily forget about the chicken and jump in the shower first. Sniffer dog was not fooled of course and by the time I popped out of the shower, three raw chicken breasts had magically jumped out of the packaging and down his throat. Luckily since he's already on a raw diet this had no ill after-effects!

When my alarm went off at 6am the next morning getting up wasn't the easiest task but I had a PITTIE Party to go to! I was volunteering down at Chicago Animal Care and Control for a very early morning event to showcase their pits for local rescues.

Puppet

I was stationed with a handsome young guy called "Puppet". I imagine the name was probably a little more fitting a few months ago when he was still a pup as, by all accounts, he filled out overnight.

He's an absolute darling and came to Chicago Animal Care and Control as a court case dog last September. He's in the Safe Humane program I wrote about in February, and has been doing a great job with his obedience training.

Puppet works on a new trick

A total of 30 dogs were pulled that morning, 19 of them pitties, which was great morning's work though sadly our boy Puppet wasn't one of them. He'll make someone a fabulous companion eventually but I understand how tricky it can be for rescues to place the energetic boys, especially when they're just so very staffy-looking. He's bright as a button and eager to please so I'm predicting agility or obedience trophies in his future. Luckily, he has Safe Humane on his side so even if it takes a little while he's got a team behind him, and at least he got out of his cage for a morning to run around and snuggle:

(Apologies for the sloppy editing job - this is what happens when I have a crazy weekend and try to catch up in one giant post)

Being the great crew that they are, One Tail at a Time pulled a court case dog into their program that morning and are on the case to find a home for the lovely Widget

After we were done with the open house I hopped on the bus home where I'd originally intended to pick up Bill and head out for a training session on leash manners in the park with the help of doggy buddies Alfred and Bruce. What I omitted to mention earlier was that I'd been woken up at 4am that morning by the sound of elves having a bath in my kitchen. Or, erm, a huge leak in the kitchen ceiling that was making a puddle on the floor! Dogdad picked up Bilbo and monitored the situation so that I could keep my volunteering commitment but I had to skip training, head back to the apartment to see if the ceiling had fallen down and wait for the landlord's son to finally turn the water off.

Hmmm, not so much. About three feet from this burgeoning crack, water was also dribbling down the light fixture over the sink. On the plus side, it was dripping straight into the sink so I didn't have to rummage around for any more buckets. On the other hand, there was water draining down an electrical wire. Luckily the drip stopped by the time I had to leave although not before it managed to double the size of the chasm in the ceiling and short circuit the stove, condemning me to take-out and cheese sandwiches for a week or so.

Of course, renting has it's advantages so I made sure the landlord's son had a set of keys (did I mention the landlord was in Ecuador?) and sloped off to see Jane Eyre at the cinema with Dogdad! We discovered a dog bakery nearby, which was rather exciting because they sell freshly-made treats in bulk - bringing me one step closer to Zero Waste! After which it was time for tapas and sangria, yum.

Sunday morning brought the reason for the weekend's jollification, as I turned 31! Which was marked by another early morning as Dogdad and I headed down to Animal Welfare League for a bout of volunteering.

I spent a lot of time with this lovely beagle lady and it was very hard to return her to her cage, though I know she got out for plenty of loving again when the afternoon volunteer crew arrived.

This cutesome pitty puppy was one of four dogs pulled by Alive Rescue, which is just as well as someone was starting to look a bit smitten...

Dogdad originally agreed to come down to AWL only because it was my birthday, and he hasn't wanted to volunteer in the past. However, we hadn't been in the building for ten minutes before he turned to me and said that we should come every week. I know we won't be the only ones returning to help out.

All of that snuggling with shelter pooches only got us to lunchtime at which point I hopped a train to work, did a quick change and hosted a concert. Then another train, some catch-up time with our own dogs and out again for another birthday dinner. Phew.

Oh, and just in case that wasn't enough activity for one weekend, I topped it off by handing in my notice on Monday morning because I'm starting a new job in a couple of weeks!