Random Puppy Pics

Time for some major cuteness! I snapped a couple of photos of Quigley hanging out in his favorite spot at my parents' house - atop the AC vent - and he doesn't have the crazy demonic green eyes so I thought I'd share.


Of course, once he figured out I was looking at him, he immediately rolled over for a tummy rub. He's getting to be as much of a TR whore as Funk!



A few days later Quigley came to hang out at the condo while my parents were out and about. I made the mistake of getting off the couch to get a glass of water and when I returned, this is what I found:

What cracks me up is that they both use the pillows as if they were people and not dogs! It's hysterical. The dogs were in no hurry to make room for me upon my return, either. I had to be pretty aggressive and even at that they sort of just skooched down. I got a half-cushion. I am so whipped. It's sad.


(This photo was taken several days after the photos above but I love how Quigley is sleeping on Garfunkel's head. I had to include it! I hadda!)

PPR Reunion '10

This past Saturday was the annual Pound Puppy Rescue reunion get-together and this year it was held in Fremont, at the Niles Community Park. Robert and I kept waffling on whether or not to take Garfunkel because while he is usually good at the dog park with other dogs, he's not so good with people and even less good with rambunctious kids. Plus, since I quit working and his routine has thus been abolished, the Funk has been having a hard time. He doesn't really know what's going on or what's going to happen - am I leaving? am I staying? am I going to abandon him forever? what?!! - and, as such, his behavior of late hasn't been the best. We were still trying to decide what to do about the picnic when Robert took Garfunkel to the dog park Saturday morning. I don't want to get too specific and thus tar and feather poor Funk but let me just say that his outing didn't reassure us that he'd do too well at the PPR function. So we decided to bag it. Then, about and hour-and-a-half into the picnic, my mom called to sort of let me know what was going on (they adopted Quigley from PPR so they took him on over to the shindig to reunite with his family) and to let me know that the one guy from our litter who was supposed to show up hadn't yet done so (great). The phone called stirred up our indecisiveness and Robert and I began hemming and hawing... again... about what to do with the Funk. Ultimately, we decided to run down to the park and catch what little was left of the festivities. We did miss out on a lot of the dogs (and people) but there was still a handful of folks there when we arrived. And while Garfunkel still refused to get into the water, even as he watched other dogs frolic and be merry, I'm happy to report that the rest of his behavior was pretty darn good. (I think hitting the picnic at the end was a wise move on our part.) We didn't get to see Funk's litter mates or foster family but we did get to see Quigley's, and that was nice.

This is Quigley's mama, Gracie

Here's 2 of Quig's 3 brothers, Sammy and Charlie, Gracie and Quigley

Charlie is a big boy - he's about 1 1/2 times as long as Quig or Sammy and about 17 pounds (Quigley weighs about 11 pounds, I think). As you can see, both of Quigley's brothers are all black and Quig is the only puppy who looks like his mom. And, boy, does he! I just love his coloring, especially his little eyebrows. What a cutie. :o)

Gracie with Sammy and Charlie

Here's a 5-week-old litter that was brought to the picnic. SO. CUTE! I love the little pink paws.

I didn't really get any photos of Garfunkel at the picnic because he kept running around like a maniac but here is what he looks like as I sit and type this post:

I'm a sucker for puppy tongues.

You Know the Tag Speaks the Truth

I took a few photos of the Funk yesterday (so that I could pass them along to the lovely woman who made his new name tag) and since he just looks so gosh darned handsome, I decided to post'em.


Can't make out his tag? Here it is: I was actually looking for a tag for Quigley (I wound up buying him this one from the same seller) but as soon as I saw this, I knew I had to buy it for Garfunkel. It is just TOO true. The woman was really sweet and excited that I bought the tag because no one else had yet to buy one. In fact, in perusing her shop just a minute ago, I think she's since quit making them! :o( What a bummer. Everyone who sees Funk's tag thinks it's perfect for him so I'm glad I snagged one when I had the chance!

Later in the day, Garfunkel was despondent that Robert had the nerve to leave our company and use the restroom so he did what he usually does when he's depressed - he buried his head in something. On this particular occasion it was my backpack. Garfunkel just loooooves to show us how sad his life is by burying his head - in pillows, shoes, whatever - when he's unhappy. He's so dramatic, it's hilarious.

Funk's Rope-a-Dope

I recently bought Garfunkel a box of bully sticks from All Natural Bully Sticks (50 for $77 - a STEAL!!!!!!) and while shopping on their site, splurged and bought a large sweet potato chew, too. The Funk loves all things sweet potato so I thought this sucker would provide oodles of entertainment and nutritional snacking time. New toys and treats always burn a hole in my pocket, though, so I wound up giving Garfunkel the chew on Tuesday night.

Look at the thing! It's HUGE!!! Should last a while, right?



Well, it turns out that Garfunkel is the proverbial 'get-him-an-awesome-gift-and-he'd-rather-play-with-the-box' kind of guy - he bypassed all the sweet potato rings and went straight to gnawing on the rope knot at the end of the string.


Here he is, completely ignoring the sweet potato portions of the chew and focusing intently on unknotting and demolishing the rope.


Look at this!!! He completely de-strung the chew and ATE the entire rope!



Of course, we saved all the sweet potato rings for later use... But the original intent of the chew toy was completely lost. That was the most expensive one-night-only rope toy I've ever bought.

The Last Piece of the Puppy Puzzle!

YAY!!! I was a bit snarky about Sneezy's owner in an earlier post but the dude came through. Late yesterday afternoon I got an e-mail from the last remaining Snow White family member:

"I adopted Sneezy, his new name is Timber. As you all have probably noticed, our dogs are genetically confused. Timber had a hard time deciding what type of dog he wanted to be with the size of his ears and his body hair. In the end, he took on the shape of a German Shepherd with a terrier face and a Husky style tail. He is the most loving, energetic and curious puppy I have ever owned. He has the strangest disposition in that he loves to watch TV and he is capable of recognizing any animal including those which are animated. He too likes to bark at statues of bears and other animals. He is approximately 55lbs and has an incredible personality. He has a 6lb Pomeranian as his best friend and he is incredibly gentle and protective of him. Timber loves to play at the beach, digging in the sand and running out into the waves, and likes to swim in any body of water, small or large. His only downside is that he is very verbal and likes to let me know he is bored, anxious, or excited, by whining at me."

Wow! I keep saying it over and over (but this is the last puppy so it'll be the last time) but I just cannot get over how diverse the SW litter turned out to be! They all looked similar as puppies but yowza did they grow up differently! (I don't think puppy Timber looks anything like adult Timber, do you? There's just no hint of terrier-like features at ALL!) The ears, the coats, the tails, the weights and personalities are all different. Garfunkel definitely has the shape of a German Shepherd and I can see his body in Timber's. But where did all the terrier-like beard faces come from?! Crazy. And how did the two smallest dogs wind up to be so darn big?! (Though I think Cooper is the biggest; he just looks huge in his photos!) Garfunkel IS a bit of a whiner, though, so he and Timber certainly share that little personality trait. And the big, bat-like ears. :o) Oh, and the protective nature - Garfunkel is very protective of little Quigley when he thinks someone he doesn't know is messing with his friend.

So, to wrap up, here's a final collage of the Snow White litter. Amazing.

Almost a Complete Set

Weehoo! Ask and ye shall receive. :o) Here are some photos of Garufunkel's sister, Doc, who is now Bella. According to her new family, Bella "is the sweetest puppy ever. She has beautiful markings and she is very loving. She's approx 50 pounds. She gets a little scared at new things, like ceiling fans. And she really doesn't like statues for some reason. But she has not been a trouble maker at all. She knows what her toys are and she only chews her toys. :-) She loves the water and being sprayed by the hose."

I'm really baffled by the sizes of the puppies. How did Bella and Grumpy wind up so much smaller than the rest when they weren't the runts of the litter?! Weird. And I'm surprised Bella likes water since Garfunkel does NOT. Well, that's not entirely true - he does love to chase the spray from the hose when Robert sprays down the patio. But he does not love swimming pools or baths and he only likes puddles every once in a while. Physically speaking, though, I think Bella most closely resembles the Funk. They definitely have the same kind of tail and, more than any of the other puppies, Bella's ears are most like Garfunkel's. Right?

The 4th Funk Sibling

This is Grumpy, one of Garfunkel's sisters. I think her family kept her name Grumpy since the e-mail they sent last week doesn't mention a new name. Then again, their e-mail was pretty lame so maybe they just left it out! Here's their description of Grumpy: "She has been so much fun to have around although she is a big trouble maker. We've lost about a dozen socks and often find kitchen utensils hiding in our backyard. She is over 50 lbs now." Not super informative - and the photo isn't showing me much of the puppy - but it's better than nothing! And though the description is brief I definitely see shades of Garfunkel in there - he just LOVES to snag a sock from the laundry basket or hamper and either toss it into the air over and over or try and goad us into chasing him. I'm surprised Grumpy is so small (relative to her siblings); Dopey and Garfunkel were the two runts of the litter and they're both 60 pounds now.

So, now we've heard from Grumpy, Dopey, Happy and Sleepy but we have yet to hear from Doc or Sneezy. Sneezy's dad flaked on the pick-up event so I doubt we'll ever hear from him but I would like to know how Doc turned out, since he was the only grey-and-black pup of the litter.

More Funk Siblings!!!

Yay!! Two more Snow White families e-mailed Robert yesterday about their puppies!

This is Schatzi, formerly Dopey and our 2nd pick if we didn't snag the Funk. She definitely seems the most like Garfunkel, personality-wise:

"Her fur is wiry and coarse around her neck, shoulders and down her back like a little mullet. She is a sweet, goofy dog that loves to give kisses [check]. She's not the most graceful dog but extremely loving [check]. Schatzi is quiet protective of the family [check]. She is a little reactive on leash at times but off leash does great playing w/ any dog [check]. She is approx. 60 lbs and 23 1/2 inches tall at the shoulder. She plays constantly w/ our other rescue dog and our boys. She loves to de-stuff any toy looking for the squeaker and to tear the fuzz of tennis balls [check and check]."


And this is Cooper (né Sleepy):


"He has a bit of a beard, a very smooth, soft coat that is thicker across his shoulders and down his back, like a cape. The goofball part is right on. His pack includes dogs, cats, guinea pigs and tortoises. We live in Santa Cruz and walk to the beach each morning. We went to the reunion and met Mama who has a lot of Chow in her. Cooper has a couple of Chow-like black spots on his tongue."

The Chow thing is good to know - we were told by PPR that they thought the mom had some Chow in her and Garfunkel's DNA test came back with a small percentage of Chow. However, because he has no purple on his tongue - and the DNA test seemed sort of bogus anyway - we weren't 100% convinced the Funk has any Chow in him at all. But it sounds like Cooper's (human) mom can confirm that Snow White does indeed have some Chow in her and Garfunkel's tail is awfully curly...

I'm just glad Garfunkel doesn't have a beard or a predominantly wiry coat. The hair on the back of his hind legs is a bit wiry but that's it; overall, he's pretty darn sleek and smooth. Yay!!! I know I'd love him just as much if he were my bearded dog... but he's not and by comparison I think he's the most handsome of the bunch. I'm just sayin'. I don't know where Garfunkel's ears come from, though - both Cooper and Schatzi have sort of horizontal-lying ears while Jasper's ears are pretty perky. No one has wonderfully wonky ears like the Funk. :o)

Garfunkel's Brother

When we adopted Garfunkel, all of the foster families exchanged e-mail addresses in order to keep in touch, arrange play dates, etc. Well, of course, nobody in our group did much of anything; one family e-mailed the results of their MARS panel but aside from that we haven't heard a peep from anyone. So, imagine my surprise when Robert forwarded an e-mail to me earlier this afternoon from one of the Funk's litter mates! Jasper (who was Happy) is "a goofball, and extremely cuddly... [with] an almost waterproof wiry coat, a scruffy beard, and huge brown eyes. He's not a large dog either; his back is about level with [one's] knees." Check him out!



Robert sees more similarities between Garfunkel and Jasper than I do... Though, it's hard to say anything with any degree of certainty because the angle of the 'now' photo is so odd. It's hard to tell how big Jasper really is or what the contours of his face really look like. But the Funk definitely doesn't have a wiry coat (thank goodness!! Sorry, Blackards.) and Jasper's ears aren't really anything like the Funk's. (Garfunkel's ears are sooo much better. They have personality!) The hair around Jasper's muzzle is much, much longer than Garfunkel's, too. But the shape of their mouth looks fairly similar; I can definitely see Garfunkel in Jasper's bottom jaw (and teeth!). And while I wouldn't classify Garfunkel as "extremely" cuddly, he DOES like to snuggle every so often. He also tolerates our unsolicited hugs and kisses extremely well. :o) I'm just bumfuzzled at the physical diversity in the litter - crazy! I would love to see what some of the other puppies look like so I hope Jasper's family's e-mail spurs others to share. We're definitley going to.

A Dog's Birthday

Yes, I am one of those sad ladies that makes their pet a birthday cake. Did you really expect anything else of me? I didn't get him a hat or a sweater or throw him a party so I do have some boundaries. But everybody deserves a special birthday treat, be they 2- or 4-legged! So, I hopped on the 'net last night to find a few dog-friendly cake recipes and settled on this one (though I substituted apple for carrot). It was a snap to whip up!

Here's the batter:



And the finished product:


I iced it with a little plain yogurt:



Garfunkel thought it was delicious! He licked and sniffed it tentatively for the first few seconds but then decided it was a good treat and devoured it whole:



He liked it so much we caved and gave him seconds...

Don't worry - he got to work off all that cake with a nice long birthday walk in the drizzle. Garfunkel's been a little stir crazy with all the rain so Robert was a good man and braved the elements to give the Funk an extra-special birthday. :o)

You Say It's Funk's Birthday...

HAPPY 1ST BIRTHDAY, GARFUNKEL!!!

You are an awesome dog. Hugs and belly rubs galore today!!!!

Puppy Pictures!

Robert bought me a fancy shmancy new camera (a Nikon CoolPix P90) for my birthday and, while I haven't yet read the encyclopedia that came with it, I have been fiddling around with it for the past few days. I'd been bemoaning my missing camera battery while also expressing a longing for an SLR camera for ages so I guess Robert finally got tired of hearing me whine and bought something to appease me. (In fairness to myself, I wasn't actually whining that I wanted HIM to buy me a camera... Just that I wanted to save up some money to buy an old refurbished SLR camera someday. Do I know anything about proper photography? No. But I want to be able to take cute action shots and close-ups of Garfunkel. I'm weird! This is why I didn't want to spend thousands of dollars on a new or even relatively new SLR camera. A funkomatic refurbished one would've worked fine. In my mind, anyway. Most likely, however, had I actually gone that route, I would've been disappointed with the results and had no recourse. Then Robert would still have to listen to me complain. But at least it'd be a different complaint, right? Silver lining, people!) Anyway, my point is that I have a new camera and I took some photos. They're not great because, as I said, I know nothing about taking good photos OR my new camera but here they are just the same.




This is Garfunkel as seen from overhead. Like my puppy slippers? Me, too.




Garfunkel's canine always hangs out over his lip when he lies down. It's so darn cute!!! Love.

Oh, and notice his super awesome birthday collar. Nice, eh? Since this month is home to a big birthday for both him and me, I bought him a celebratory collar to wear all month. Whee!



Ugh. This would've been cute if it wasn't so damn annoying! I had Monday off and Robert worked from home in the afternoon. (He had some morning meetings in Pleasanton and rather than drive all the way to Menlo Park for 5 or 6 hours he worked from home.) Garfunkel is a-OK with hanging out with me all day because that's our routine. He knows that I might take him somewhere fun but most likely I'll hang around the house when I'm home alone with him. So he's content to hang out in the arm chair or play a few rounds of Loofah Dog with me. But when Robert is home, Garfunkel can't stand it. He desperately wants Robert - and only Robert - to take him somewhere or play with him or something. Unfortunately for Garfunkel, Robert had a phone meeting on Monday afternoon and spent 2 hours shut up in the office. Therefore, the Funk's extreme excitement at Robert's early return quickly turned into unmitigated panic and despair at being able to hear Robert but no longer see him. He wouldn't play with me. He wouldn't eat. He wouldn't chew on a bully stick. I went to my parents' house and picked Quigley up in the hope that a playmate would bring the Funk out of his funk. No dice. Garfunkel not only refused to play with Quigley, he also insisted on sitting or pacing outside the office door while mewling. I shouted and gesticulated wildly at him for so long (to no avail) that Garfunkel wound up being afraid of me for some reason and kept hiding under the kitchen table every time I'd take a step toward him. Once Robert finally emerged from his cocoon, Garfunkel wouldn't let him out of his sight. He sat on Robert's feet at the table. He followed Robert into the bathroom. And he insisted on sitting right next to Robert the entire time Robert worked in the bedroom while Quigley and I played in the living room. Absolutely ridiculous! Garfunkel is the WORST host. Really.


Who wouldn't want to play with this adorable little guy?! C'mon!




Look at that little sleepy tongue. Hee hee!



I felt so bad for Quig. He so wanted to play with Garfunkel but was rebuffed at every attempt. He played with me in between naps on the couch but it just wasn't the same. :o( And he's such a love bug! It was fun having a little guy that could hang out on the couch. We cuddled and played all afternoon. Suck it, Garfunkel!

A Little Garfunkel, A Few Heroic Pets

I feel a little reluctant to post yet another story/article about dogs because, as my sister so helpfully pointed out last weekend, dog posts have overtaken hot men posts on the blog. The horror!!!! I don't know what's happened to me... Or why my hot men haven't been more in the news of late. So just know that a hot men post is in the works.* Or very soon will be. I can't give you guys the wrong idea of what's important now can I?

While I wait for hot inspiration to strike, however, I will share a somewhat ramble-y story with you. The dog park where we usually take Garfunkel has been closed the past few weeks due to inclement weather so Robert has taken to walking the Funk around the neighborhood. A while back he met up with two other Meadowbrookers that had black Labs that play (off leash) together in a little grassy area in the complex. So Robert's become friends with the two dog owners and they often text Robert to let him know they're meeting up or they wave from the sidewalk below our patio and Garfunkel's resulting pig squeals alert us that it's his playtime. The last couple outings, however, Garfunkel has taken to chasing after a cat and not coming back when called. His two little friends seem to do just fine with outside distractions but Garfunkel cannot seem to let a cat... or a passerby... saunter pass without tearing off to molest it. Kimmie's dad and Trooper's mom both agree that Garfunkel has way more energy than their respective pets - even though they're all roughly the same age - and Robert's very disheartened at Garfunkel's behavior. He works with the Funk on recall a lot but when push comes to shove and the dog's distracted, he's just not going to do it. Garfunkel is so good at other commands and, honestly, he really isn't a hyperactive dog (he loooooves snoozing on our bed at all hours of the day). We just can't seem to curb him of his chasing instinct.

Robert and I were talking about it (again) last night after a particularly disastrous play date and I told him about Ricochet, a dog I'd read about on one of my puppy blogs. Ricki was raised from birth to be a service dog - seriously, there is video on her site of her owner starting to train her before she could open her eyes - but as she matured she became more and more interested in hunting birds and other prey. That, of course, put the kibosh on her service dog career; Ricki is now a SURFice dog, surfing for particular charities and/or specific disabled athletes. What's my point here? Well, that some dogs really do have Achilles heels that may prevent them from doing certain tasks. If a woman who started training her dog at 13-days-old can't break her dog of its hunting habit, we certainly aren't going to have any success with Garfunkel!!! Now, I'm not saying that with more (aggressive) training Garfunkel won't learn to come back 9 instead of 7 times out of 10. I'm merely saying that it's possible that his hunting/chasing drive is stronger than other dogs' and he may never, ever learn to come back EVERY single time he's called. Or maybe I'm delusional and full of crap. Who knows?

The other point to my story is to link to this story in USA Today about heroic pets, of which Ricki is one. See? It's all come full circle, people. Or almost, anyway.


* Sam Worthington is my new boyfriend so most likely he'll be the subject of any upcoming posts. Now, I normally don't like jumping on the current hot man bandwagon - I loved Ewan and Christian WAY before anyone else, dang it! - but his hotness cannot be denied. I toyed with making him my boyfriend after Terminator: Salvation but waited to see if his hotness would endure. Seeing as it was the best thing about Avatar for me (though I did like other things about the movie and the movie as a whole... calm down, Biji and Robert), I'd say it has. Whew!

Holiday Photos

Well, today is the crappiest of all days - the day I was forced to head back to stinky ol' work after a two week vacation. :o( A vacation I didn't get to truly enjoy because of my sickness(es). [I know you know that already but I'm wallowing in self pity here for a moment - indulge me, won't you?] Plus, today is the 1st day of the winter quarter here at The Bay so things are craaaaazy. I've already had 6 disgruntled students find their way to my office and me no likey! I am also woefully behind in all my regular entertainment blogs so I'm feeling a lot of (self-imposed) pressure to catch up. I'm frazzled here, people!! And I think I'm just going to have to stay behind, entertainment-wise. I told you 2010 wasn't doing much for me. Pleh.

To make matters worse - or, at the very least, not any better - I misplaced the battery charger for my camera sometime after getting back from Hawaii and so had no camera with which to take oodles of holiday photos! My parents let me borrow theirs a few times, though, so I was able to take a smattering of photos. Nothing to write home about, really, but here they are:


This is my mom with Quigley* about 5 minutes after bringing him home on Christmas Eve.


Quigley catching a nap. Little dude is only 3 pounds!!! He is TI-ny! But a spunky little guy; he plays really well with Garfunkel and vice versa. It's so nice that my poops has a new friend to play with everyday!



I really like Quigley's coloring - gives him a bit of pizazz, I think. He's just the cutest little fluff ball... and he loves to give you kisses! If you don't like puppy licks, don't get near this little guy. I have to say, though, as much as I like Quigley, I am a wee bit reserved around him. Everyone thinks he's so cute and everyone thinks my poor Funk is a maneater. :o(

I'm jealous on Garfunkel's behalf and very protective of my little poop. He's cute, too!! And well behaved (... most of the time)!! Really! Big dogs** are so prejudiced against. They do the same things little dogs do but because their teeth are bigger and their barks are deeper people automatically assume they're uncontrollable beasts that would rip your throat out as soon as look at you. Gah! The topic gets me very worked up... Sorry. Moving on.



Robert and I headed over to the Trouts' on the 28th for some fun and games with the Gerbes, Saitos and Kidders. We started with Battle of the Sexes, which we all took very seriously. As you can see in these two photos, the men took aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaages to pick just the right question to try and stump the ladies. Didn't always work - we ended the night with a 1-1 draw.


Waitin' for the guys...





I say this every year but it's always a good time with Christina and her family. We get spoiled in the winter because she's here for both Thanksgiving and Christmas. Now that it's the new year, I don't think she'll be back for quite a few months. Boo.


* Quigley was a name I offered up to my parents because my mom loves her some Tom Selleck. Magnum was a no-go but Quigley turned out to be a keeper. (In case you don't immediately get the reference, Tom was in a movie that three people - my parents and aunt - saw in 1990 called Quigley Down Under. Oh, Alan Rickman - what were you thinking?!)

** I should probably qualify this statement as not ALL big dogs are as prejudiced against as particular breeds like Dobermans, Am. Pit Bull Terriers, German Shepherds, Rottweilers, etc. People don't seem as intimidated by misbehaving Golden Retrievers...