Easy Advent

Having designated this year as a completely handmade Christmas I have a giant pile of Christmas present projects cluttering up my apartment. That didn't leave me with a lot of time to get creative with my advent calendar but luckily I had the basics already covered thanks to Astrid over at Red, Red, Completely Red. I participated in her second annual advent tea swap and received some delightful parcels of different teas in the mail. I picked up some mini wooden pegs from Joanns (why is it that miniaturizing makes everything cuter?!), printed off some advent numbers and clipped them all up to some twine hung across my kitchen window.

The pooches get to join in too as, on the back of the numbers I've written some training for us to work on each day. Some are new tricks, others are behaviors they already know but can always do with some reinforcement or extra challenge.

Billy's list: down-stay, pray, beg, leave it, drop it, bow, sit-stay, under arrest, roll over etc.
Flower's list: down, sit-stay, touch, twirl, crate etc.

1000 Moments

I'm sure we all have those days where more seems to go wrong than right. Recently I've been feeling like I've chalked up more losses than gains this year and it can be overwhelming when the hits just keep on coming. Some of those losses I've shared with you but for the most part it seems my mini life-crises don't need to be plastered around the internet.

That said, the best lessons are usually to be learnt when everything is going wrong and, after a few very tough months, I'm hoping I've hit my "last straw" and am ready to eke out a little wisdom from the floundering.

The last straw of course is the one we nearly all go through at some point - the breakdown of a relationship. It seems they get harder as I get older (aren't I supposed to be wiser by now?!) but the extra twist this time around is new to me. Billy is my first dog, but before there was Billy I met a grumpy old man called Buster and I loved him dearly. Now that his dad and I have parted ways, the loss of a beloved pet is added to the familiar pain of separating from a partner and the family and friends you have learned to care for along the way.

Of course, Buster isn't gone forever and I know that in time I'll get to see him again. But still I find myself regretting the things I didn't do with him when I had the chance. He was always the "good" dog in my life, just wanting a quiet, comfortable existence with none of the daily antics and struggles that I share with Billy. I feel guilty that I haven't written more about him, regretful that I don't have more good photos and videos. In the past few months, after he recovered from his operation he's gradually shown a more playful - sometimes a bit naughty! - side of himself. It's been such a joy to watch it develop and I'm sad to miss out on more. I almost never managed to catch him playing on camera, it was always so unexpected and so joyous - and usually very short. I caught a little on my iphone just a few weeks ago, the last time he stayed at my house.

After I uploaded this to youtube I watched it again. Billy jumped up and stood with his paws on the windowsill for 10 minutes, waiting for his dad and his best buddy to get home. He could always tell the jangle of Buster's collar from any other dog. It made me cry.

If there is something you've been meaning to do with the dog in your life - go and do it now! We often talk of how short life is. How much shorter is the time we have with these furry beings that share our lives and our hearts. Too often I bemoan the fact that I have no decent photos, actually almost none of any quality, of myself with Billy. Before the end of the year we'll be going to a professional photographer to have our mini-family portrait taken, and on my wish list for Christmas is a gift voucher to have a portrait of Buster and Billy created by Yellow Brick Home.

But the larger lesson I've come to accept recently is that sometimes there is very little to be done about the way life runs. If I wait for the "big stuff" to reach some magical stage of perfection, I'll miss an awful lot along the way. And I imagine I'll be pretty miserable while I'm at it.

Today I bought a notebook. It's bound in soft brown leather with 288 pristine ivory pages. It will sit on my coffee table until I have filled it with 1000 moments to be grateful for. Every day it will remind me that the contents of my bank account, the job I do, my relationship status or any of the other trials I meet are not all that make up my life. Because if all I ever focus on is the big picture I will miss the beautiful details that remind me of everything I have that makes me lucky. Sharing a drink with a friend, the color of the leaves in the park, the kindness of a CTA driver who waits to make sure I don't miss my bus, a smile from a little girl on the train or a warm welcome home from my Billy - if these are the moments that make up my day, I'll have a lot to be thankful for. And instead of a blank page, I see a world of possibilities.

Feeling crafty

Whether it's the inspiration of all the gorgeous fall colors or that fact that, in crafting terms, the holidays are right around the corner I'm becoming increasingly addicted to everything home-made. I'm loving anything you can do with a needle (ok, so that came out wrong), and I'm even reacquainting myself with my long-abandoned kitchen. My favorite cookie and cake recipes are being dug out and dusted off and I've started whipping up giant batches of soup, chili and curry. Some delicious bundles of fabric have been landing on my doorstep and I'm slowly building up my stack of, believe it or not, Christmas presents, which I'm determined will be nearly all handmade this year. I actually started the biggest project back in August!

In the midst of the stitching and baking whirlwind I couldn't quite forget about the pups. With the cold weather coming on my little Flowerpot was starting to get chilly on walks so I took another shot at a jacket pattern. This one's definitely an improvement on the first attempt so I must be learning something. Flower gave it a good test drive in the park, snuffling through the grass chasing bugs! (Excuse the scary looming-giant shadow!)

I'm thinking I might add a love of buttons to my fabric obsession and couldn't resist embellishing her little tweed outfit.

With my exciting new neighbors moving in on Sunday I had to think up some pooch-appropriate housewarming gifts. Poor Fifty's had a bit of a poorly tummy so I'm not sure if he'll actually be able to chomp on his Coconutty Star dog cookies now, but Bilbo went nuts for them and barked and whined his way around the house the whole time they were cooking.

I have to admit they smelled delicious - I even tried one myself - but I'm a sweet-tooth girl so sugar-free goodies didn't quite do it for me. Don't worry, I kept some back for the whining Bilbo too! This recipe did call for flour and rolled oats so although I used mostly rice flour I'm still on the look out for some good grain-free treat recipes. Any ideas?

For Izzy I reached into the fabric stash for some pieces of one of my favorite home-decorator weight prints for a stuffed bone. I bought this one on my first trip to the Needle Shop, a fabulous little store just 20 minutes walk from my house which pretty much single-handedly fanned the flames of my fabric obsession.

Next on the doggy crafting list is a big floor cushion for Bilbo. He loves to lounge across piles of clothes when I'm sorting out laundry so I'm guessing I might get a bit more room on the bed from time to time if I provide him with a bit of comfy floor space. The only problem is, I can't decide on a fabric!

Don't forget to like us on facebook for more pictures of the pups. There are some very cute pooches in Flower's Halloween Fashion Show album so please show them some love and vote for the one you like the best to help them win $ for their favorite animal rescue! 

Flower's Halloween Fashion Show

It turns out that not only is Flower a champion snuggler and a circus-dog in the making she's a kind-hearted little lady with a taste for flamboyant couture. When she heard that Tucker Tells All had donated $55 in our name to her most favorite rescue in the world she decided it was time for foster momma to send a little goodwill out into the blogosphere too and came up with a plan to sneak in a little fashion show while we're at it.

I finished off Flower's Halloween costume this morning and she thinks she's the bees knees! While she'd be very happy to go trick and treating with me and Bilbo (hey, if a girl's gonna do a trick then there'd better be a treat too, right? None of this trick or a treat malarkey), secretly Flower is hoping that her ready-to-go costume will catch someone's eye so that she can spend the holiday with her new family. And lets face it, Billy's costume is currently just a pile of craft supplies and a sketchy drawing so he'll probably embarrass her anyway.

In the meantime, she's building up the good karma with a little competition! We're wondering how many of our blog friends are working on a costume for halloween - maybe you reckon you look almost as cute as Flower-Chihuahua? How would you like the chance to put it to the test? Here are three easy steps to win a yummy treat for your pup and some tasty $$$ for your favorite rescue:

1. Email your favorite Halloween pup photo to bwpawsblog@gmail.com - don't forget to tell us a bit about the pooch and the rescue you're competing for (deadline for submissions, October 31).
2. Like our facebook page where we'll be posting all the competition entries as they come in.
3. Share your pup's photo with your friends and get them to like it - the photo with the most "likes" at midnight on November 2 is the winner!

What's the prize?

If there are up to five entries, the winning pooch gets $25 to donate to their chosen rescue. If there are more than five that goes up to $50. Now, the first photo in the album will be Mademoiselle Flower, but the only thing she's competing for is a forever home. So for every time someone shares her photo on their wall we'll add 50 cents to the prize AND donate 50 cents to One Tail at a Time, up to $25 each.

That's a total of $75 to the winner's choice and $25 to Flower's rescuers.

The winning dog will also receive one of Flower's favorite treats, an antler chew. She likes to steal the giant size from Billy but there smaller versions for the less confused little pups out there too!

Giving away all $100 is a bit of a tall order for our little blog and very new facebook page so we're going to need your help to spread the word and get lots of your handsome pups up there. Billy's secretly hoping that no one enters cos then he gets to eat all the treats himself and I get a new pair of wellie boots so he can tramp around in the mud more often. But I think Flower would be a bit sad if no one joined her fashion show!

The Good, the Bad & the Ugly: A Round-Up

This was originally a weekend round-up and then somehow it became Friday! Where did the time go? So here are the highs and lows of the week:

The Good
One Tail at a Time has some very exciting new Billy logo "I love my rescue dog" t-shirts on sale. I'll post a link once they're up on the site but for now you'll have to make do with a teaser photo.

(At this point the caption should really read "My Rescue Dog loves chicken and refuses to wake up from his nap without it, at which point the squirming makes snapping a self-portrait with an iphone kinda impossible for the lady holding the snacks" but that's just not as catchy on a t-shirt.) I picked up Billy for some alone time on Saturday and we a took lovely three hour walk to Insights Tattoo Studio where OTAT was holding an event so that we could pick up a t-shirt.

It was settling-up time for my baseball bet so I emptied out the jar and marched the contents off to one of the board members. Setting aside a dollar at a time is such an easy way to manage your giving and it was very satisfying to hand over $109 without making a dent in my current bank balance. Grab a jar and give it a whirl!

Tomorrow is Pit Bull Awareness day so go and give the bully in your life a giant squeeze and a smooch. If you're in the D.C. area and don't have anyone to smoosh then you're in luck. Love and a Six Foot Leash is sponsoring an adoption special on four hand-picked wonderful pooches. Check it out and share with your friends.

Alfred and Bruce did some serious snuggling towards the end of their stay which is great progress for them given that usually proximity = play. I attribute this to my excessive laziness which means they had a sterling role model in couch lounging.

As fond as I am of the dynamic duo, I was very happy to get my own Bilbo back on Tuesday morning and I picked up foster Flower later that day. Having Bilbo back is definitely a "good" but I have mixed feelings about the little miss. Much as I adore her, I can't believe the little nugget hasn't got a home of her own yet.

In the middle of a very busy week (see here & here) I somehow managed to miss the news that we'd won Tucker Tells All's comment-a-thon. They very kindly donated $55 to One Tail at a Time in our name, which we're thrilled about. Flower was inspired to pay it forward so check back here tomorrow for her grand plan!


The Bad
I have no idea where my camera charger is so all photos are iphone snapshots. My camera's not that fancy anyway so it isn't the hugest loss of quality but I do have a tendency to play with the settings on my iphone so you could get some pretty odd shots until I find the charger.

Handsome Bill goes Hipstamatic

As mentioned above, the cutest little dancing chihuahua in the world still hasn't found a home. Now that the sun has come out again (the past few days in Chicago have been vile!) I'm planning on taking her out and about further afield to see if she can charm some passers-by. It's starting to get a bit chilly and she's not too keen on the cold so she'll also be sporting a snazzy new coat, especially since, to add to her homeless state, the poor little peanut has a touch of the sniffles too.

Billy is still mildly scabby so, although it's by no means as bad as it was, it seems another vet trip may be in our future if he doesn't clear up properly soon. Sigh.

The Ugly
Oh Alfred. He does like to have stuff in his mouth - a blanket, a bone, a leash, a limb...

I managed to last a whole week without getting him into a situation which demanded a "game" of leash tug but a poorly chosen route came back to bite me on Sunday. I was out with both pooches and carelessly walked past the house with the two giant mastiffs. The territorial beasties promptly charged the fence and I got a bit tangled up in Bruce's leash and failed to whisk my two off quickly enough. The excitement was all a bit too much for the big-headed lug who decided to grab at his own leash and exert every last ounce of his strength to pulling me off my feet. Luckily or unluckily the leash was around my waist at the time so, while it was rather painful, I didn't lose hold of either pup. We put on quite a show for the neighborhood. As Alfred had worked his way up to the loop that was around my waist, it looked rather like he was attempting to disembowel me. At first my response was very poor and I was terribly frazzled and snappy (I had Bruce in my other hand and he started to leap onto Alfred to try and make him behave). When someone called over to see if I was ok I quickly realized that I had to bring down the excitement a few notches and after calming myself, Alfred eventually lost interest and took a seat. I got off pretty lightly in the end and the only injuries suffered by any of us were a few bruises here and there, including this rather splendid 8-incher on my leg.

Since I finished with the bad news, you should probably go and like us on facebook for much more perky pupdate and cute pics!

Educating with Bruce

For at least the first few days of their visit I decided to walk Bruce Wayne and Alfred separately while I got used to their different ways of viewing the world. On one of Bruce's solo flights he helped out with the mission to educate the neighborhood.

Our first stop was saying hi to some kids who called out to us as we passed. Bruce helped me to explain the way that dogs like to say hello and we talked about why you shouldn't run up and pat a strange dog on the head. He was feeling a bit shy so we showed the kids that you have to let the dog decide if he wants to come and be petted rather than trying to grab at him! As my Billy will often get antsy and barky if I stand around chatting too long, it was great to have the option of talking with the children for as long as they were interested, while Bruce was a perfect gentleman.

On our way home we were charged by two loose dogs and I have to confess we popped into a neighbor's yard and shut the gate while I made sure no harm was intended. I recognized the two and they'd clearly escaped from their yard a couple of blocks north of where we were. The male was disposed to be a bit pushy but Bruce had decided not to take offense so we ventured out and Bruce acted as our pied piper to lead them back home. I managed to scoop them both through the gate and shut them back in and two of the family popped their head out as I did so. I'm not sure they'd even realized that the two had escaped but while they were in a grateful mood I said hi and managed to drop some hints about making sure their new little female was spayed. The last thing we need in our neighborhood is an intact pit running free.

I can be excruciatingly shy at times so screwing up the courage to keep approaching people to chat about their dogs can be tricky. Bruce has been a great little helper for starting conversations. When he's not around I've discovered that my best motivation is actually you guys! Now that I've laid out my goals in public its a lot trickier to chicken out of doing the right thing. When I saw this sign on a walk with Billy and Flower last week I decided I had to swing by.

Sure enough, one of my neighbors had ten english mastiff puppies at a yard sale. Sigh. I dropped the pooches off home and headed back to chat about spay/neuter. Whether she was just trying to fob me off or if they're actually thinking about it, the daughter told me they were thinking of having their pair fixed. When I got home I followed up with an email list of low-cost spay/neuter options so lets keep our fingers crossed that they go through with it.

Thanks for helping me screw up the courage to go and talk to them!

Perfect Friday News!

Oh poor Bruce Wayne.

His big brother gets a long post all to himself and Bruce has to wait and wait for one of his own. Then, just as I'm going to get myself in gear and tell you about his adventures in the hood he gets completely upstaged!

I used to have a pair of girls and an Italian Greyhound as downstairs neighbors. As far as neighbors go, they weren't terrible but the persistent 3am weekday parties got a bit exhausting and they used to leave poop and empty beer cans lying in the backyard. Ick. They moved out a little while ago and the landlord did some painting and put in a new closet and then started to look for new renters. Being the helpful tenant that I am (how else do you think I persuaded a landlord who only wanted little dogs to let me move in with a Bilbo and string of fosters?!) I put up the craigslist posting for him and started to spread the word.

My reward for being helpful? The BEST neighbors ever!

(Well, we don't get the two wee ones too, but I'm too excited to go searching
for photos and just poached the first one I found on facebook with all three)

Billy's adorable fostermom, Kelly, is moving in with her sheltie Izzy and a handsome ambassadog you may have heard of, Fifty the two-legged pitbull. Billy may die of excitement as he loves Kelly and I am still doing a wild happy dance over striking neighbor gold like that.

Even Alfred got so excited that he ate a hole in one of my pillows. I've been meaning to try out some applique so I guess he just picked the pillow I'm going to experiment with.

P.S. Don't forget to check back tomorrow for "Educating with Bruce" or he'll never forgive me for stealing his limelight.

P.P.S. Like us on facebook for lots more cutesy pooch pictures and all the latest doggy news.