lost (& hopefully found soon) dogs

i had a different post planned for today...but this happened yesterday....

it's been a couple of months since any lost pups have crossed my path...but fate decided yesterday was the day. i had actually stayed at work a few minutes later than normal, which was a good thing. otherwise, i don't think i would have come across these guys.

they were trotting alongside a very busy street and no one was even slowing down. i pulled over ahead of them, popped on my hazards, and got out. my plan was to get a look at their collars & call the number on the tags. the second i was standing next to my car, they ran up and said hi, happily wagging. so i opened the back door and they immediately jumped in and sat down.

i kept thinking "well that was easy." then i noticed they had collars, but no tags. so i called animal control to see if anyone called in for them (nope) and they suggested bringing them to the shelter. they would be scanned for a microchip and cared for until the owners were found.

the one in the front is probably a pit bull and the other is maybe a shepherd mix. both were SO sweet, obviously someone's pets.

this guy practically curled up in my lap

as of this morning, they are still on the animal control's website. i hope their owners find them soon. i think they only have 3 days before they are adopted out.

dog update

last week i found this dog and took her to animal control - so her owners would find her. and it took all week. i checked the animal control website everyday to see if she had been picked up. finally, friday night, her listing was gone.

then the dog that lives behind us started barking like crazy - an annoyance that has persisted for over a year.

coincidence? i think not.

i didn't know what the dog behind looked like, other than it was small & fluffy & loud. so i tried to get a better view from the upstairs window...and i'm 90% sure that the pup i found is one & the same. kind of ironic, don't you think?

this time when i heard the barking though, i didn't get pissed. i was relieved. and glad that she got home safely. because she was pretty sweet for the short amount of time i cared for her.

lost dog of the month

so far this year, i've found one dog per month. go here to read about january's pick and here to read about february's.

this pup was shivering out in the cold and was pretty dirty & wet. and scared. without a collar. i, of course, got out of my car and trying to convince it to come over to me, without much luck. i think it had been outside for a while because it was pretty finicky.

i called animal control and wasn't impressed with the "help" they offered. pretty much "we'll send someone out when we can." well that's great. since i was right around the corner from my house, i zoomed back and grabbed dog treats and a leash. i made a little trail of treats towards me and the pup would eat and walk, eat and walk, until it was close enough that i could loop the leash over it. i picked it up gently with a towel and set it in my car.

i thought it might have been the same dog i found in february, but tried ringing the doorbell at that house and no one was home. i should have taken a picture of the february pup.

so i drove to animal control and by the time we got there, the pup was nice and warm and super friendly. i dropped her (as i found out) off and am keeping my fingers crossed that she was picked up. keep your fingers crossed too. she's a sweetheart.

reading...

i've been doing quite a bit of reading lately, in between schoolwork and lots of other more pressing things.

i finally finished the twilight series...full of teenage angst? yes. overly dramatic? yes. call it a guilty pleasure read. lots of people were all for team jacob....but i have a thing for vampires :) go team edward! besides, my father-in-law's name is edward, so i'm biased.

i also received a book for my birthday called "the art of racing in the rain" by garth stein. i sped through (haha) this in just under a week. it's written from the perspective of a dog named enzo as he tells the story of his life and his family. i really enjoyed it, although i did cry a few times. made me think of my own pups...

pic from amazon

anyhow, if you're looking for a new book to read, you might want to try it. if you're a dog person, you'll get a kick out of enzo...and will probably start talking to your dog a lot more.

it's raining....dogs?

as i was leaving on my lunch break yesterday, i realized i had left my glasses on my desk. awesome. so i went all the way back up to get them. and as i was walking out to my car a second time, i thought, maybe that happened for a reason....maybe i just avoided a car accident or something. weird. anyway....

i was on my way back to work when i saw this black & white little fluffy dog wandering around. after watching it for a few minutes and seeing that she didn't have a person nearby & didn't seem to know where she was going...i pulled over.

she had a collar, but no tag, and let me approach her. i pet her for a few minutes and the poor thing was shivering and lifting her front paws up one at a time, like the ground was too cold to touch. definitely not built for the alaskan winter.

i debated on picking her up, but didn't want to get my face bitten off in case she freaked out so instead, i led her to my car by her collar. she hopped onto the back seat and sat there staring at me. i looked up the number for animal control and starting driving around our little neighborhood.

lucky for me, this guy was cleaning snow off of his car, and i stopped and asked if he knew the dog. and it was his next door neighbors!! thankfully she was home and fluffy was reunited with her owner.

apparently things happen for a reason. good thing i forgot my glasses.

finding clarity

good morning all! yesterday i ran a couple of errands to drop off my new business cards at some of the shops that carry my stuff around town. i had a chance to catch up with annie (owner of bella boutique & jewelry artist extraordinaire). you know how there are certain people you talk to or spend time with & they make you feel better? rejuvenated? positive? well, that's how i felt after talking with annie.

i've suddenly been hit with the stress of the upcoming shows & haven't handled it well for the last couple of days (ask my ever patient husband). and a lot of little annoying things have been building up...you know how that is. for example, i took our dogs to the park yesterday and they weren't listening well. then they saw a dog they've played with many times before....and ended up getting into a spat over a stick. no one was hurt (fortunately) & i got so frustrated trying to wrangle 130 lbs of excited dog (while the other owner was in shock that her dog would get so possessive over a stick...she wasn't very helpful while the incident was happening). it's situations like that, that i've been allowing to ruin my whole day (or week in some instances).

so i decided to make a couple of small adjustments...
1) get up earlier - so i can start my day more relaxed. this is a big one for me since i'm definitely not a morning person.
2) go to bed earlier (duh) - i try to stay up and do as much as possible...but am amazed at how much better i feel when i actually get a decent nights sleep.
3) adjust my attitude - if i stay in the mindset that everything sucks, well, it will. so i'm going to stay focused on what is in my control, try not to let the little things bother me, and keep in mind that i've always succeeded in whatever i've worked hard for (in this case, preparing for shows)

as a daily (constant) attitude reminder, i also bought some bling:


clarity: "clearness or lucidity as to perception or understanding, freedom of indistinctness or ambiguity" (from dictionary.com)

how do you handle things when you are stressed? any good tips on managing stress?

pets

we've been busy keeping an eye on some pets for a friend of ours - two little (hilarious) dogs named miley & mozzy and a very tolerant cat named nala. here's some pics:

miley the mom

mozzy the spunky daughter

here comes trouble :)

nala the extremely patient cat

alaskan eye candy

here's a video of miley begging while i was eating lunch. she kept talking to me so i tried to capture it on tape...she says something at the end but it might be hard to hear.

all three of these sweet pets are looking for new homes due to an unforseen tragedy that our friend is recovering from. miley & mozzy are looking to move to their new home together. the dogs are very sweet and loving, definitely enjoy attention, and are lap dogs. nala is a sweet kitty and one of the friendliest cats i've met. she likes attention too and purrs a ton. all three of them will try to sit on your lap at the same time. and the dogs will clean nala's ears like crazy. so if you live in the anchorage area and are interested, send me an email: stephanie(dot)tama(at)yahoo(dot)com.

lost dogs everywhere!

i must be sending out an announcement: "lost dogs - come to me if you need help."

bfff and i took our two puppies to the park the other day and as we cruising down there in my little car, we see this dog trotting around nervously in the middle of the road. so we start looking around for her (i think) human and didn't see anyone.

so, i got out of the car and let the dog know i was there. she saw me and as i knelt down with a treat, she came over to say hi. poor thing was anxious, but friendly. i pet her for a minute and slowly took a look at her collar. thank goodness she had a tag (unlike the last encounter)! she was some kind of ridgeback - her back stripe was cool - and her name was sitka. i called the owner (no answer) and left a message.

a few minutes later, this girl was walking her 3 dogs, only one on leash, and she said "oh that's my friends dog. i'll take her." so i called the number back and left another message with the description of the girl and that sitka went with them.

later that evening, sitka's owner called me back and said thank you for calling. he said he talked to the girl, and didn't sound too pleased with her. he really appreciated the call.

i told my acupuncturist this story, along with all of the other dog stuff that's happened, and she said she's heard that suddenly having a lot of dogs (or wolves) cross one's path could mean i'm getting ready to start on a big adventure. interesting.

beagle rescue, part 2

when we left off, vito was busy annoying our house guest, an old beagle...

we started getting ready to go to sleep and vito jumped up on the bed. fred waddled over to vito's bed on the floor, and both passed out in minutes. easter morning rolls around and everyone gets up early (what is it with dogs getting up at the crack of dawn??) bfff takes the crazy puppy for a romp at the park and i took fred for a short walk. he was so excited for that walk, his tail & butt wagging like crazy...by the end, he kept looking up at me like "seriously, is this ever going to end?"

just making himself at home...

animal control called me back and said we could bring fred in and they would scan him for a microchip. i asked some questions, like what would happen to him if he didn't have a chip, if they couldn't find his owners, etc. we packed him up and headed to the shelter. they scanned him and about two seconds later, they found the microchip and had his owner on the phone!!

she came immediately to pick him up and was in tears when she saw him....which made me tear up too. she said his name was cody & she was so relieved and thankful he was safe. we told her he got a bath & ate well & was a wonderful little house guest. she was really sweet and we were so glad he went home with his mommy.

yay for happy endings! we figured that if our dog was ever lost, we would hope that someone would be kind enough to take care of him.

but wait! the story isn't over....

weekend storytime

what a weekend! sorry for the lacking of posting...things have been pretty crazy around here. it all started on saturday night....

bfff & i were getting some grocery shopping done at our local fred meyer. we were perusing the easter candy section and out of the blue, this beagle trots up to me and sits down at my feet. so, of course, i kneel down and pet him. the store manager asked if he was ours (umm no) and then starts making shop announcements. poor guy doesn't have tags on, but he does have a harness and little dirty leash. we can tell he's a bit older and very friendly.

the announcements didn't help, so bfff & i decided to take him to animal control (after leaving our info at the store), because that's the first place anyone looks. i called, but of course they were closed. my friend with the spca said that they have an area to drop animals off after hours, where it is warm and they have shelter from the elements. we drove down there and.....the drop off was closed til further notice. hrm. so, "fred" came home with us.


we gave him a bath, since he was quite a smelly dirty mess, fed him, left messages with animal control & posted an ad on craigslist and hung out for the evening. vito was interested with the old guy and wanted to play but a 70 pound husky mix vs. 30 pound old beagle wasn't the greatest match.

stay tuned for exciting conclusion :)