Little Dog, Big Dog

We're just not used to little dogs around here!

Lucy is doing wonderfully well so far and I continue to be astonished by how well-adjusted she is. We went for a bath at Soggy Paws where she won everyone over with her unbearable cuteness. We saw the lovely Katie who bought her a pretty new pink harness.

The beagle nose was on overdrive and she made sure to check out everything in the store. We came home with a mini antler chew to try out in the crate. Incidentally, she improves every time she goes in and has already started to wander in from time to time without being tempted by chicken. I thought we might have some barking on our hands when I left her in there to go to work but she hasn't made a peep since Sunday night.

Being used to my big pushy boy, it was a surreal experience to walk back from the store with a little peanut on a pink leash. When we walk together, her speedy trot along beside him has made many people chuckle at how cute she is.

She's still very shy but has already warmed up enough for a bit of a snuggle.

And she's learning new things all the time.

She hadn't quite finished all of her frozen kong so Bilbo sneaked it out of the crate and showed her how to throw it around the apartment until everything falls out, at which point they teamed up to scarf up all the bits. This is why I have a steam mop.

Bilbo is working on his patience so he's learning this week too. He doesn't quite understand why she doesn't know how to play yet but I'm very proud of the way he's listening to what he's told.

Poor sausage. I couldn't help but chuckle at the way he leaps back into a bow, as if to say "But I just want to play, honest, mom!"

Getting to know Lucy

Well, we've discovered that crating isn't her favorite thing, though luckily she settled down once I turned the door towards my bed and got in so she knew where I was. I think we're going to have a bit of upset when I leave for work soon, but I have a stuffed kong ready to pull from the freezer with yummy yoghurt and chicken in it so hopefully the secret weapon will do the trick!

This morning's walk wore the little lady out as we went for a nice long stroll in the park. She was very brave for the most part and exceedingly tolerant of Bilbo's antics. We posed for some photos by the water

Even though Bilbo kept ruining the shots by barking at the geese she was quite happy to curl up to him and offer back up.

After all that excitement it was time for a nap but she's still wary of just falling straight asleep and spends a while swaying on the spot trying to pretend that she's still awake.

Eventually, it's just too comfortable to resist any longer.

Meet Lucy!

She's a three year old beagle who has spent her life to date in a puppy mill and is now having a whale of a time learning about grass and home-cooked meals and curling up for a nap on a soft bed. She arrived in Chicago this afternoon with over 40 puppy mill rescues through Best Friend's "Pup my Ride" program.

Heather from One Tail wrote about her arrival here and it even made the news! Lucy is pretty worn out by all the hoopla and has been taking a leaf out of Bilbo's book and getting in some good nap time.

So far, I've been completely astonished by this little lady. Knowing what the worst case scenarios can be like I was secretly pretty nervous, wondering how Bilbo and I would manage with a puppy mill dog. Bilbo was a perfect gentleman of course and has been as gentle as can be with her all evening. He's always liked the little dogs best and when the stress of meeting them leashed up, head-on in the street is removed, his doggy manners are actually pretty great.

As for Lucy she's quite the social butterfly considering the situation she's come from. She's curious about everything and is already proving that the way to a beagle's heart is through her stomach. She had her nose pressed right up against my leg when I was cooking her dinner just in case I got distracted from the task at hand. She did a great job walking on her leash, tackled stairs with only a little hesitation, ate up all her food and checked out every nook and cranny of the apartment - making sure to get her little paws up on chairs to see what was going on above eye level! Bilbo is already taking on big brother status and she's quite happy to follow him around. When he barks she goes and stands by his side as if to back him up, she'll hide under his legs when she's feeling a little unsure, and she even worked out how to pee outside by going in the same spot.

I have to remind myself to let her take her time. The two things that I want to do the most right now are to throw her in the bath (stinky lady!) and to give her a big cuddle. However, I'm going to give her 24 hours to get acclimated before doing something as scary as a bath, though she did have to suffer through doggy wipes before coming inside. I imagine a good snuggle will come sooner than I think since she's already leaning in for a bit of a scratch behind the ears.

She's been giving a lot of eye contact already (maybe she just wants to keep an eye on the scary tall one...) so I imagine she's going to be very trainable as her confidence grows. She's one smart pup and we're excited to have her here!

Midsommarfest and farmers markets

Despite the torrential rain of the past week, summer's arrival is clearly evidenced by the way outdoor festivals are springing up all over town. I spent yesterday morning at the One Tail at a Time table at Midsommarfest in Andersonville and got to hang out with this little cutie, Lokia.

She's such a sweet little peanut that I'm surprised she hasn't been adopted yet, but hopefully one of the people she charmed the pants off on Saturday will put in an application. She even won a prize for being second prettiest pup in Andersonville (Second? Ha! That lady's a winner if ever there was one) - you can just see her ribbon in the photo above as someone kindly straightens it up for her.  I'm going to guess that part of the reason she hasn't been snapped up is that she's too busy trying to love on everyone to actually stand still and have a good photo taken. Many of mine looked a bit like this one.

Now that summer's here and she'll have plenty of chances to get out and about to work her magic no doubt the perfect home will turn up.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch... Bilbo woke me up this morning from the longest sleep-in I've had in ages. I was astonished to find that it was already 9:30 am! As I got myself wound up to start the day I discovered that the Fido To-Go truck was at Logan Square so I hurried Bilbo, Buster, Dogdad and myself up there, excited to get some pooch ice-cream for the dogs. Only to find that they'd already left. Bummer.

However, the farmer's market on the boulevard was in full swing so I picked up human breakfast and a couple of treats for the dogs.

Ever, the grumpy old man, Buster couldn't quite understand why I would want him to pose for a photo BEFORE pouncing on his treat...

When we got home he promptly threw it up all over my jeans.

I then spent part of the afternoon at floor level in my apartment making sure there was nothing dangerous or scary for the puppy mill pooch who is arriving in about 20 minutes! The scariest thing would probably be the size of Billy's head. He spent the afternoon following me around and nibbling at my chin, trying to work out what on earth I was doing down there.

We know it's a girl, 3-6 years old, and it will either be a beagle, shih tzu or poodle. Any guesses? I'm going to leave you in suspense now as Bilbo needs another walk before she arrives.

Stuff Bilbo eats

Discovered under the bed: the reason that Bilbo had an upset stomach last night:

Apparently vaseline is now a canine foodstuff. Does anybody else out there hear those stories about dogs with picky eating habits and just think, wow.

Coming up!

Now that our season has closed at work (with a great review and a sold-out concert) I can get stuck in to the real business for the summer - lots of doggy activities!

Tomorrow I'll be at the One Tail/ Court Case Dogs booth at Andersonville's Midsommarfest hanging out with adoptable pooches. We'll be on the east side of Clark St between Berwyn and Summerdale. The weather promises to improve by midmorning and I'll be around until 1pm so if you're in the area come and say hi! One Tail will be there the whole weekend so make sure to swing by at some point for some guaranteed furry cuteness.

Since I just can't get enough of those incarcerated canines, I'll be at an event with the court case dogs again on Saturday, June 18th. Weather permitting, we'll all be mingling picnic style out in the backyard at Chicago Animal Care and Control (2741 S. Western Avenue) from 10am - 12noon. Fingers crossed there'll be some happy pooches transferring out of there to rescues. Come out and meet these great pooches and help spread the word. I wrote about the program in an earlier post and if you're interested in getting involved there's another orientation tentatively set for August 14th - email elizabethotat@gmail.com to stay updated.

I'm hoping to get some sun tomorrow afternoon so Bilbo and I can go to the park and take some photos to enter into One Tail's summer photo competition. We've only got until June 14th to get an entry in but we've got our eye on one of those doggy gift baskets or maybe even the grand prize of an ipad2. If you think your pooch can outshine the other contestants, enter quickly! Or just join in the fun by "liking" their page and voting for the people's favorite. An extra bonus of joining is that once they hit 3000 fans there's going to be a merch giveaway, which means a whole lot of Bilbo going round.

Speaking of a whole lot of Bilbo...

His carting harness finally arrived while I was in the UK and tonight was my first chance to try it out. Eventually I managed to turn this

Into this

However, most of the time Bilbo was trying to do this

Or this

Which wasn't entirely helpful. In the end I managed to get the brake rails roughly cut, although the whole thing could do with a bit of trimming and fine tuning and I need to attach some kind of loops to the cart so that I can clip on the traces. However, I think we'll be able to begin practicing pretty soon!

If you haven't guessed, this is one of the mystery projects I started way back. This one had to wait for the harness to arrive and I won't be unveiling part two fully until the landlord has finished renovating the basement and removed all of the junk from the backyard so we can use it again!

All that said, we'll have to see how much time we have on our hands/ paws because there's a new foster pup arriving from a puppy mill on Sunday!

Random Bilbo

I just finished a mammoth week and a half at work so with barely two brain cells to rub together and too many sad stories in the blogosphere here is simply some random Bilbo. Nothing exciting and no point to be made. Just my squishy-nosed dog doing the types of things he does that make me smile - such as simply being there.