poodle (and pooch) parade

on sunday we headed out to the annual poodle parade which as it turns out wasn't exclusive to poodles, there were doggies of all shapes and sizes all over the place!

Hannah with mckenzie, max and cooper poses for a picture while we waited for our turn on the red carpet
gino goes head to head with a french bulldog

we got bored while we waited, there must have been 150 dogs all lined up to strut their stuff, so I thought it would be a good idea to get a cute group photo of gino, charlotte, cooper, mckenzie and max sitting all in a row... here's how that turned out

this was the only cat at the parade - a sphinx cat at that (hairless) and their owners really got into it all dressed up as vampires... I must say I like their umbrella though - I have never seen an umbrella built for 2 (or 3 in this case)

Hannah and Max (awww)
and it was their turn on the red carpet
lots of dogs had to be helped up those stairs, but not little Max, he's a determined little guy
they worked the catwalk and did a trick where Max jumps through Hannah's leg and the crowd was very impressed!
quick stop for the puparazzi (I'm so funny... :P)
dog modeling is so exhausting...
Cody and Gino were up next and he was almost the biggest dog there (so many small fluffy types)
all for the reward of the treat though, hey Gino?awww
ok that's enough now...
this poodle was dressed up like Mr T, I think
we won a $30 gift voucher to a local pet store in a raffle - yay mckenzie!

and now it was Coop's turn, and we were determined to show up clever Max with a combo of tricks :) first high 5
then shake
dance
and then through the leg - yay!
quick photo opand then it was McKenzie's turn which her trick was just making it through without getting too scared (the poor skittish girl)... family portrait

and then they're outta there!
it was so hot so we didn't stick around for much after that, so we cooled down with some frozen yogurt yumminess

Sleeping together

Here's what I discovered last night when I was searching the house for Cody so he could help hang our new window. Awwww. I crept off, grabbed the camera, snapped this, and then shouted "Get up and hlep me!!!"

Sweatier and smellier

I'm sad because I haven't been posting any blogs lately and even though Kate is 100 million miles away on another planet (Australia) she has managed to post tons of pictures and stories. In my defense, the reason I haven't posted anything is because I somehow caught pneumonia last week and have just now recovered enough to get back on the computer. I hadn't actually realized I was deathly ill until I went to the doctor on Thursday after about 4 days of chills, fever, and complete exhaustion. I was walking around with severe dehydration and a 101.2 fever and actually asked "can I go back to work?" after being tested for swine flu and then informed I had walking pneumonia. What dedication! Cody took very good care of me and told me yesterday that I looked "a lot" better. When asked how bad I had been looking he described me as looking pretty gross and smelling even worse due to the buckets of sick sweat pouring off my body and head. Sadly, this was a disease that made me suffer, but didn't make me lose any weight. On Sunday I mustered enough energy to leave the house for about 90 minutes to visit the Campbell Farmer's Market in search of healthy fresh fruits and vegetables. Prior to my illness I had been on Atkins for about 10 days and also did not lose weight, but did develop sweet, sweet meat breath, so I'm off that and on to more normal foods again. Anyway, here are some pictures from the farmer's market where I plan to go next week because of the amazing number of vendors and the great variety of fruits, vegetables, and other delicious specialty foods. In my opinion, this farmer's market is way better than the one in Los Gatos. Yes, we're back to blurry pictures, but that's only because I was delirious at the time I took these. Oh, and we've now decided almost 100% against getting a new puppy after Gino tried to murder the most adorable 3 month old English bulldog ever invented. He became jealous when I was petting this little cutie and then he tried to bite his face off - I was mad a Gino for the rest of the day and don't think he's nice enough for a new friend in the house. :(

Palm Desert

Our trip to the desert for the 4th of July weekend was such a good adventure for me and Gino. On Saturday we slept in and then went exploring the desert cities. We found this gorgeous park filled with flowers that had several ponds. A delighted Gino jumped right into to cool down from the 107 degree heat.

Gino swimming with ducks and carp

We stopped for a drink and then kept driving and checking out the scenery. Along the way I actually ended up finding the Salton Sea which I thought would be pretty cool to visit. Me and Cody watched the movie recently, but I didn't know where this place was until I drove past this sign. Once we got there though I quickly realized that 5 minutes spent at the actual Salton Sea was infinitely more depressing than the entire movie. It was so barren and lifeless that we quickly gave up on spending any time there, especially after Gino had a bad reaction to something he saw and laid in the sand writhing and whimpering like he was traumatized forever. Perhaps it was this fish that caused his sadness.After a long drive back to the hotel we went for another swim and then I got ready for dinner. I ended up in Cathedral City off Hwy 111 where I saw this place called The Red Tomato and Original House of Lamb. Who could resist an awesome name like that? I went in, had a look around, and immediately fell in love. The decor was so old school and the waiter was super sweet (I think he could tell I was having a bad week since he left me the rest of the bottle when I ordered my glass of wine). I ordered the rib eye and sat at my table eavesdropping on the wiseguys at the table next to mine. They were so OG I felt like I was in a gangster movie. The bread basket came and had garlic butter and also a relish of tomato, cucumber, garlic, and spices - it was delicious and I plan to re-create it at home. And they had homemade strawberry shortcake! YuuuummmmmmAfter dinner I picked Gino up and we went down to the Civic Center in Palm Desert to watch the fireworks. Gino has never seen fireworks before and doesn't usually have to spend time with such a huge crowd so I wasn't sure how he'd do, but he didn't even flinch when the first fireworks went off and we were able to enjoy the show without tranquilzers for either of us. The only bad part of the trip was the next morning when I woke up at 4am to find Gino laying lifelessly next to me in the bed. I tried shaking him to wake him up but there was absolutely no reaction! I freaked out and started yelling his name and slapping him around when he finally opened his little eye to peek at me like "huh?". Cody said Gino's done that to him before too - I guess he's just a really, really heavy sleeper, but oh my god! that was scary. Since my heart was pumping and I was fully awake we decided to head back to San Jose early to avoid any holiday traffic and got to enjoy watching the sun rise over the desert as we made our way home.

Thelma and Louising it Old School

Gino watching the cop pull us over - he didn't bark once!

Gino and I took a little road trip this weekend to get out from under the stress at home and we're now sequestered in our hotel. the Best Western Resort in Palm Springs, that allows dogs for no extra charge! It took us about 9 hours to get here, but it was definitely a good idea to hit the road and spend some time just zoned out on the road escaping. I'm already a crazy dog-obsessed lady, but after this trip I am definitely over the edge with my love for dogs, and for Gino in particular. First, let me CONGRATULATE him on not puking, not even once, the entire trip! Yay Gino! and second, I would like to thank him for getting me out of my speeding/cracked windshield/broken brake light ticket I was about to receive on Hwy 5 within the first 2 hours in on this trip. Yes, mommy was speeding (89 MPH) and got pulled over, but Gino was so adorable the cop let me off with a warning. It could have been my incredibly low cut shirt with my girls hanging out in the heat, but I'm giving Gino credit since that's who the cop said swayed him. We're about to go down to the pool for a quick dip to take a break from him trying desperately to bark with an electrocuting anti-bark collar on and me drinking wine in the incredibly tiny tub. More updates on our adventure to follow!

unphotogenic eh?

gino

Updated w/raw chicken video!! BARF

After all of the years of issues I've had with my dogs and cancer we decided to switch Gino to the BARF diet a few months ago to see if we could make sure he's just as healthy as he can possibly be. My aunt's breeder has advocated this raw food diet for years, but it always seemed too complicated and like it would be tons of work so we never really tried it and have always fed the girls high-quality commercial dog food. Once our last Giant Schnauzer, Ezree, died at the age of 6 from intestinal cancer we made the decision to have all our future dogs on as natural a diet as possible. And while I'm not saying the commercial dog food caused her cancer, I am saying that losing a dog like that is a sad and terrible thing to experience and I want to do everything in my power to promote my pet's health.

I have some familiarity about how the BARF diet works and what types of food to feed the dog. My friends Kelly and Fernando have had their Giant on the diet ever since they got her and they were a great source of information. They even belong to a raw food co-op. I also read several articles about how to transition a dog from commercial food to the BARF diet and noticed there was a lot of debate about weaning slowly versus going cold turkey. For Gino we tried cold turkey and after a day of some confusion on his part about what this gigantic turkey wing and chicken gizzards were doing in his bowl, he took to it without any problems.

As for the cost and convenience factors we haven't really noticed any major changes in our routine other than I stop at the grocery store more frequently to pick up his dinners. I spend a little bit more each month on food, but it's not really noticible. I try to shop for a variety of raw meaty bones and other meats. When we first started the diet I noticed that the cheapest meat was pork ribs, but they are so super fatty I don't like to buy them anymore. Now we buy pork neck bones, lots of chicken, and whatever other stuff is on sale. We also had some questions about exactly how much to feed him, but it's mostly been by trial and error and I think we've got a good idea of how much he should eat. This week we've also introduced vegetables to his diet and he LOVES eating his carrots for breakfast. Changing to the BARF diet has made me feel really good about taking care of my dog - he literally flies down the hall at dinner time and is so excited to eat. If you're interested in doing this for your own dog feel free to send me an email with any questions you have. I'm not an expert on the diet, but I should be able to answer any questions, or point you in the right direction.

*6/3 - post updated w/a picture of his raw chicken dinner and extreme bone-crunching, close up video of him eating it. Enjoy!!

Gino the Unphotogenic Dog

Gino really is a very cute and precious Labrador Retriever but for some unknown reason he refuses to pose for the camera and is incredibly difficult to photograph. So, I am giving up on trying to take cute pictures and am settling on ones where he is at least facing the camera. Enjoy his adorable facing the camera-ness.

Some pictures from the boat

I'm still recovering from our super fun long weekend out in Bass Lake and wanted to make sure I post at least a couple of pictures from our trip before too much time went by. Above is Gino playing in the sand with a very big stick. This must have been taken before his tail stopped working because you can see it is still in working condition in the photo. By the time we left Bass Lake he was swimming like a champ and you'd never guess he had just learned how to swim days earlier. He's such a strong swimmer (I know, duh, he's a Lab) that we even donated his bright green lifevest to our friend Adam's pitbull, Caution, to use on his daily swims.

Here are Kate, Bryce, and Christina at my friend's bbq. This was taken right before we had to load our stuff, unload our stuff, haul our stuff up a beach, then load our stuff once again.

Here is Kate smiling for the camera with a stubborn Cooper in her clutches and Cody and Gino driving the boat w/Kate, Cooper, and a small portion of Bryce's awesome green stripy pajamas in the background. Gino is camera shy so it took a few tries to get him to even face the camera.

We'll definitely be back a few more times this summer - hopefully in Cody's new boat.