When summer arrives

Today might be a bit chillier than yesterday but despite a temporary weather relapse, Bilbo is making it clear that summer is here to stay.

A bed-hog no more, once it gets warm Bill likes to pick a cool patch of floor to spread out on.

Pick One!

In all the recent excitement I still haven't managed to choose a Silly Buddy collar for silly Billy. I have two problems in making this decision:

1. they are ALL so great - how can I just pick one (and once I have, will I become addicted and just keep going back for more)?

2. Billy has to keep reminding me "I is a BIG TOUGH BOY, purleeeeease don't put me in girly colors mom..."

So, here's my top 5 and you need to vote on which are too girly for my whiney baby  tough boy dog.

1. Even though spring is in the air, I'm loving the fall colors in this one

2. Teal for me (my favorite color) but masculine little owls for Bilbo (can little owls be masculine?)

3. Let's face it, if there's food involved it's pretty apt for the bottomless pit...

4. No doubt about it, this is for one dapper little man. But is Billy suave enough to carry it off?

5. Do I need to get a fluffy white girl poodle???

Last day

I've worked for the same organization ever since moving to Chicago just under 6 years ago. I recently accepted a new position and yesterday was my last day. It's been a tumultuous few years but I had the opportunity to create and work on programs that I was immensely proud of and tens of thousands of people enjoyed. More importantly I worked with an amazing team of people who, over long nights and many weekends became as much family as colleagues. My new job is a wonderful opportunity with people I'm thrilled to collaborate with, but I'm very sad to be leaving my "boys" behind.

They gave me a fun send-off and, since my new office is only a few blocks away, once the dust has settled no doubt I'll be back to take advantage of all the music they've got lined up for the summer and beyond.

Of course, I've still got a couple of boys of my own at home so there's no rest for the wicked...

No car

Not only do I not have a car but neither dogdad nor myself even have a driving license so we either have to  impose on our friends or find creative ways to accomplish errands. I once took the metra out to Elmhurst and carried a solid walnut side table back on the train and the bus. I do love it though so it was totally worth it!

I can't wait for Billy's harness to arrive so he can start helping out with his cart. In the meantime this is the procession that made it's way from dogdad's house to mine a couple of mornings ago.

We actually had a great walk for the most part as both dogs seemed to decide that we were on a mission and they had to march along quietly. The only hitch was the neighbor's off-leash dog who isn't so much a problem in himself as he's pretty fearless and Billy doesn't mind spunky little dogs. However, his owner started screeching and running and yelling and even hit the poor little guy with newspaper she was carrying - even BUSTER got over-excited. I'm afraid that I snapped at her to stop her acting so foolishly, though she at least had the grace to look chagrined. I wish I'd taken a bit more time to talk to her though and next time I see her I'm going to suggest a playdate in the backyard so she panics a little less when her dog comes running up to mine. Maybe I'll then have a chance to hint that if her dog has no response to recall and she's terrified of him meeting dogs then she might want to consider keeping him on a leash. This is not the first time it's happened, although aside from a tendency to want to over-excitement, they've never had a bad meeting so why she is still so panicked I'm not sure.

After all that excitement the boys settled down for a good snooze.

Silly Owner and What's in Your Purse (Part II)

I started to write a very rambling post about what a lunatic I was today but, to be honest, some things just don't need to be shared so I'll paraphrase: took Buster to the vet (thanks to Two Pitties in the City for opening my eyes to the possibilities of taking cabs with pooches in tow!) and locked myself and Bilbo out of the apartment. Buster's leg is healing well so we can start doing longer walks, but he may have a thyroid problem which would explain why he's not been finishing his food, has been ever so slightly more lazy than usual and still has a great big bald patch from his operation. Yipers.

No good Buster pictures today because the battery ran out on my camera, but here's a fuzzy yet ridiculously cute one of the boys snuggling.

To return to the odd contents of my purse, you'll remember the ducknecks that the pooches devoured last week? The same day that I picked those up, a box arrived on my desk at work.

Yes, there was a box of live critters sat on my desk. You see, my birthday present from dogdad was a wormery (see where this is going?). The idea was that the wormery would arrive, I'd set it up and read the instructions, start gathering the supplies I needed to create the patio vegetable garden that my wormery was going to fertilize and once everything was ready, the wrigglers would arrive. Dogdad didn't quite take that timeline seriously and decided, regardless of instructions, it wouldn't really be a problem to order everything at the same time. So here they were, a box of worms, newly arrived via UPS and I had no wormery and NO idea how to take care of them! Best plan I came up with was to dump them in a mixing bowl with some shredded newspaper and potato slices for munchies.

They seem pretty happy to me so far. The big box that finally arrived today was the wormery for these little guys so early tomorrow morning I'll be picking it up from dogdad's house and setting it up in my pantry, full of wrigglies!

How many times do you come home with desiccated bird parts and a box full of redworms?

Sox Pride

Before we get on to part two of "What's in your purse", it's time for a brief seasonal diversion. Baseball season is upon us and, although I didn't get to a whole lot of games last year, I've always enjoyed flaunting my sox pride and spending an afternoon at the ballpark - REDSOX pride, that is! Gasp!

I won't bore you (at least not right now!) with the tale of how a Brit living in Chicago became addicted to Redsox baseball. Suffice to say it's an international tale of a German hotel, long October nights watching games on the internet in London and a certain '04 team. Anyway, it's done, it stuck and no-one has managed to convert me to a Chicago team yet. They've certainly tried...

With that said, I have a confession to make. I'm going to be rooting for Whitesox pitcher Mark Buehrle this year.

Mark and his wife Jamie are wonderful and outspoken supporters of rescue efforts in Chicago, so in honor of the start of baseball season I made a rather public betrayal of my Redsox pride with the following declaration on facebook:

Baseball season is here! Though my Sox are of a crimson hue, did you know that the White Sox' Buehrles are big supporters of dog rescue here in Chicago? So for every strikeout #56 gets this year I'm donating $1 to One Tail at a Time - & to show MY Sox pride, for a Redsox batter I'll make it $5! And if some of those Whitesox fans out there can't match me, well, you're just not much of a fan are you?!

A number of One Tail supporters have already stepped up to meet the challenge so, with my Redsox cap firmly planted on my head, I'll take a deep breath and give a little cheer for every strikeout from #56!

Jamie and Mark Buehrle

What's in your purse?

If anyone had rifled through my purse on the way home from work the other day they would probably have retreated in horror at its contents. More on item number two later, but can you guess what item number one is?:

Demonstration please Billy...

We visited the other two pooches on our walk and they each got one too. Yum yum.