Adventures about pet therapy, dog rescue and urban life in the 'Burbs
From our house to yours, we wish you a “Yappy Howloween.” While Sam is totally done wearing any costumes after the weekend’s festivities, Elsa was not equally as game for a shot in the limelight. This witches hat appeared for a brief second, just long enough for the shutter to release. Then it became a ‘toy’ and we all know what happens to Elsa’s toys. 😈 We hope your celebration is full of smiles.
Live, love, bark! 🐾
Over the weekend, Sam ‘pawticipated’ in the Lutheran Fall Festival hosted by the hospital for staff, volunteers and their families. Normally we have our own get-together but this year we decided to be a part of the hospital’s event being featured in a Pet Parade complete with ‘Howloween’ costumes.
It’s well-known that knuckleheads Standard Poodles were originally bred as waterfowl retrievers. It’s a known fact that Sam hates water. He will walk around puddles on sidewalks. Imagine my surprise when I could hardly keep him away from the ‘duck pond.’
Perhaps his DNA leans more toward ‘fishing’ than retrieving.
Sam had a good time seeing his favorite therapy friends and making new ones. One of his besties is a toy poodle, named Teddy. Teddy was a puppy mill survivor who lost an eye but has never lost his heart to make people happy whenever they see him…all six pounds of him.
Not one to shirk his therapy duties whenever there’s a crowd, Sam got busy visiting with all the children attending. And of course, investigating all the sweet treat smells, which to Sam are just as nice as little girls.
Sam adores firemen. Always has. As soon as he spotted this guy, he couldn’t get over to him fast enough. ‘Course, seeing our newest therapy teammate Zoey there probably helped too. She’s such a cutie and is going to make a wagnificent addition to our ranks.
We love attending these kinds of events because of all the terrific people attending. Sam thought he’d try his paw at face painting because he loves little girls and is so creative. Not. But a kid’s lap is just too tempting to not try to investigate. They invariably will deliver a nice ear scratch. Maybe he’s not as dumb as I think he is??
No pet therapy event is complete without little Bindy. This tiny scene stealer with her hanging out tongue is always a therapy hit.
It was really good seeing our buddy, Oreo especially since he’s been under the weather lately with bladder stones. As you can see from his smiling face, he was glad to be back in the saddle. Oreo is also a therapy dog at Denver’s International Airport and brightens the day for DIA’s many travelers.
Two of the longest-serving pet therapists were also in attendance. Beau and Mandy compete in national dance competitions in addition to bringing smiles to patients. They dress up nicely, don’t they?
Coco, the Mountain Dog looked dashing in her pirate costume.
It was a lovely day for a festival with a good turnout of some of the program’s favorite pooches and peeps. Even Sam tried his level best at ‘Bee-ing” good for his autumn ‘pawtrait’ taking.
Live, love, bark! 🐾
It’s Halloween week-are you ready for visits from big and little goblins? 
The neighborhood Knucklehead wasn’t too sure about posing with these seasonal decorations from the neighborhood shopping district recently and it required several attempts. Of the dozens of photos taken, this was the best one of the lot. The others were horrible photo-fails. He kept looking over his shoulder at them as if they were going to either (a) pet him or (b) scare him out of his fur.
If you follow us on Instagram, you may have seen some photos I posted of Sam while he “pawticipated” at an event for hospital staff and volunteers as he strutted his stuff in the Pet Parade along with other members of the pet therapy team. We’ll share photos from that event tomorrow. Till then, have a ‘wagnificent’ Monday.
Live, love, bark! 🐾
Woo-hoo, we made it to the end of the week! It’s Flower Friday again, hosted by our fur-iends over at LLB in our Backyard. Not much is left blooming these days but we did manage to see a spectacular specimen when we visited West Pines earlier this week. Pyracantha is a large, broadleaf evergreen shrub sometimes known as Firethorn because of its many thorns found on the branches and at the end of the leaf clusters. With narrow, deep green leaves in summer, they become tinged with burgundy in the winter.
Clusters of single, white flowers appear in late spring on the previous year’s wood but it is the pea-sized berries that make this plant exceptionally striking during this time of year. The berries last well into winter for beautiful garden interest. It thrives best in full sun but can tolerate some shade. Pyracantha is a waterwise plant that does well in Colorado’s dry climate. You won’t want to plant this baby any where near where baseball could be played as they tend to swallow up balls with absolutely no mercy, due to its extremely dense, thorny nature (note those thorns in the bottom right corner-um, no thank you to any playing near that hedge!).
Pyracantha makes for a nice backdrop though for a certain knucklehead posing while waiting to visit West Pines patients and staff. Never mind that frou frou collar. We were trying to be festive for patients but everyone thought he was sweet like candy-corn. #costumefail Hopefully we’ll find a better costume for Saturday’s Pet Parade for the therapy dogs. Sam’s not much for dressing up as you may have surmised from his pose, which seems to be channeling, “Seriously mom, don’t take a photo with THIS stupid collar on-the other dogs will make fun of me” look.
Wishing you a wagnificent weekend.
Live, love, bark! 🐾
Thank you to everyone who left a comment on Monday’s post for the bandana drawing. Sam here. Because Elsa sort of hinted she was rather amenable to bribery, mom made her sit out the actual drawing and only let her snoopervise from a distance. I, on the other hand, thoroughly read each of the comments before picking a winner. Drum roll please….
And the winner is…
Sue and her pups, Shadow and Ducky at In My Heart Forever. Woof-woof! Congratulations, your reversible bandana is on its way. We think those pumpkins will look smashing on either one of you.
We had a lot of fun with this contest, and mom is thinking she’d like to do another one soon. This time we’ll be sure to include a prize that our kitty fur-iends can enjoy. Mom was sorry she neglected to include something for them this time. And she says I’m the Knucklehead?
Live, love, bark! 🐾
Sam drew a bit of a crowd yesterday in the ER Dept. Two more doctors and another nurse joined the group right after this photo was taken. Dang, if only he liked people, although this might actually qualify as a harem in some books.
Happy mid-week. We’re back at West Pines today hopefully bringing more happiness.
Live, love, bark! 🐾
Greetings, poodle fans. Sam here. I’m off to the hospital for he next couple of days but wanted to make sure you saw our post yesterday and commented to be entered into our first contest. I’m personally snoopervising the contest to make sure my Ninja sister doesn’t have a heavy paw on the scale of fairness when we pick a winner for the reversible Halloween bandana. Contest closed tomorrow so hurry and go here to leave a comment. Best of luck!
Live, love, bark! 🐾
Last week you may recall that the Management met with the Ranch Hands to discuss safety protocols. While I’m sure the status quo will return in no time making winter walks dicey again at some point, I’m happy to report they have been on their best paws during our walks. No assassination attempts have occurred but then again maybe it’s because the weather warmed up and gloves haven’t been needed in the balancing act of leashes, filled poop bags, squirrel alert, etc. We’ll continue to keep our fingers crossed.
That said, Management has been offered and accepted a(nother) new role around the Ranch. Some of you already were aware that we recently launched an e-shop and several of you have already purchased products from our K9 shop for which we are grateful. In case you haven’t checked it out, I hope you’ll consider swinging by as new items are being added all the time as we gear up for the ‘howliday’ season. The Ranch Hands decided the new title was a good idea and promptly dubbed me the Ranch’s CEO/Pet-trepeneur. Like all good companies, when you want to make someone feel good without giving them a raise, what do you do? You give them a new title.
So what does a Pet-trepeneur do exactly? I’m still learning the ropes of the new position but the Ranch Hands say I’m supposed to create products, try to maintain the website(dear Lord), advertise and market our little corner of the ‘Net and of course, handle customer service. The dogs tell me that last part includes baking organic, healthy dog treats like we used but I’m waiting for a marketing analysis report to come back. Yeah, that’s the ticket…marketing analysis. LOL
So to launch the e-shop properly and as my first official act as the new CEO/Pet-trepeneur of the Ranch, the dogs thought we should offer a contest just in time for Halloween; one of our reversible bandanas. This particular bandana comes in two sizes, regular and small. How can you win one of these reversible 100% cotton bandanas? Leave a comment and the official Prize Committee will choose a winner. Who’s on the Prize Committee, you ask? One Knucklehead and one Ninja. We’ll do this all very scientifically (till I can figure out the Rafflecopter plugin – oh boy, another digital cluster) going old school by printing each comment and having their busy-body noses decide sniff out a winner. Should be interesting so leave us a comment to be entered into our first official give-away. Sam and Elsa said they will accept bribes but rest assured, I put the kibosh on that. Knuckleheads! Good luck, ‘effuryone.’
P.S. We’ve added a few Howliday items and will hopefully add more this week. Just 63 sleeps till Christmas. Don’t mean to rush to it before Halloween, but they’ll be here before you know it.
Live, love, bark! 🐾
My goodness, what a difference a week makes in the garden. Early this week we experienced the first snowstorm at the Ranch. Nearly 4 inches of the fluffy white stuff fell which, in and of itself, did not kill everything in the garden. But the two nights of frost at the beginning of the week pretty much made many trees dropped their leaves let alone, had flowers pretty much gave up the ghost and say, “I’m outa here.”
Lest you think the mountain high desert otherwise known as Denver is without any autumnal beauty, you’d be mistaken. Colorado is well-known for its bright golden Aspens but there are other plants with bright foliage color more associated with Eastern US landscapes. Native to Northeast Asia, Japan and central China, right now one such plant is taking center stage. Dwarf Burning Bush is often thought of as an invasive species, especially east of the Mississippi due to more than adequate rainfall which makes for easy seed dispersal and naturalization. With Colorado’s general lack of water, invasiveness isn’t much of an issue. Eastern US State Extensions bureaus however often suggest eradication. Widely available throughout the US and it is especially popular here in the Centennial State.
Dwarf Burning Bush (which isn’t all that dwarf actually) requires moderate water, full sun, and ample room to grow. Pruning is not necessary and flowers are mostly inconspicuous to non-existent. They are most noted for their show-stopping flame red color in autumn.
We hope this week’s entry in Rosy and her brothers’ blog hop provides you with an appreciation for all things autumnal. Have a great weekend. We hope you have warm and sunny conditions like we plan to enjoy. After teens and low twenty’s early in the week, no doubt there will be some leisure strolling through crunchy leaves in near 70’s temperatures. Whatever you do, we hope your weekend is pawsome.
Live, love, bark! 🐾
Over the past weekend it seemed apparent I needed some serious comedy after a weekend hospital visit to rejuvenate so I spent some time cruising through the On Demand list of comedic claptrap and came across Horrible Bosses (2011) with Jason Bateman, Jennifer Aniston and Jason Sudeikis. No, I did not watch much of the Bronco game…remember I said comedic, not horribly tragic (could there be a worse team in football right now?). This fun release is 106 minutes of pretty mindless silliness that made me smile at some of the lines. Having worked for my own version of a Horrible Boss back in the day, I began to wonder if I was being a horrible boss to the Ranch hands after handing out today’s safety memo at our morning ‘Editor’s meeting.’
To: All Ranch Hands
FROM: Resident Horrible Boss Management
Date: October 17, 2018
It has come to the attention of management that adherence to promulgated safety concerns are being ignored. Safety of management on daily walks is paramount to the continually providing of benefits (meals, treats, romps in the snow, endless patience on potty breaks during winter weather, etc.). See New Rules and Poodle Rules for specifics.
Henceforth it would be most appreciated if (a) Sam, you didn’t walk in front of management on walks and (b) Elsa, you would not walk behind management’s back to get back into simpatico balance while Sam executes his “let’s cut in front of management” move, simultaneously.
The weather has gotten significantly cooler and gloves are now the accoutrement du jour for walks, please note it will take time getting used to holding two leashes, two poop bags, while keeping everything upright without slipping on wet leaves (or worse) with gloves. No doubt management will make the necessary adjustments with time and practice but your cooperation during the transition would be appreciated.
Please contact Management if you have any concerns or questions. Remember the door is always open to the bathroom since personal boundaries were abandoned years ago. Thank you.
Signed,
The Ranch Manager
What do you think the odds are that the Ranch hands will think I’m a horrible boss and do you think there’s any chance they’ll comply with the latest safety request? Yeah, I thought the same thing. Maybe I should remind them that I’m not a dentist.
Live, love, bark! 🐾