I’m at the Maker Fair today, and forgot to post something from home, so y’all get a little something live from the fair: Duchess the 5-month-old standard poodle. She is in training for an important job, and I think she’s doing just fine. Even if she does get a little tuckered out sometimes.
I am devastated. I took a bunch of pictures of the most adorable little toy Australian shepherd, Sadie. And every single one of them turned out blurry. Every single one! But I promised that I would link to her glorious Facebook page here, and so I have. Perhaps I’ll run into her again sometime, and can try to get a few more pictures.
Fortunately, I found someone who was willing and able to console me after this terrible experience. Gertie, a 4-month-old dachshund puppy who absolutely adores having her picture taken, cheered me right back up. And despite her extremely wiggly nature, I think you’ll agree that her pictures came out just fine.
This is the one second that Gertie stood still. (Also, check out that funny-looking shadow!)
Those concerned forehead-wrinkles do it to me every time. Also, you gotta love the little collar-flower. (Ugh. Is that an intentional pun, I wonder?)
What a sweet little face.
All right, Gertie, mission accomplished. I’m all cheered up.
Jorge would like to meet you. And smooch you. No matter who you are.
Still fund-raising for the Benefit for Glenn Farr. If you haven’t already, do consider donating, or buying a Dogs of SF product from the store.
Apparently that coloration is called ‘blue fawn’. Never heard of that before. Also… those EARS…
And that little roll of skin right over the schnozzle!
Wow, lots of dog goings-on in the next few weeks.
Sunday, May 19th: ‘Animals on Broadway‘ Walnut Creek, Broadway Plaza. Pet walk, adoptable dogs, best-dressed pet contest, owner-pet lookalike contest, vendors, and so forth. All for a good cause: fundraising for Tony La Russa’s Animal Rescue Foundation.
Thursday, May 23: ‘Marina Pooch and Pinot‘. San Francisco, Chestnut at Laguna, Moscone Playground, behind the bleachers. Meet and greet for dog lovers in the area.
Sunday, June 2: The ‘Million Dog March‘ which I have already mentioned. No dog owner should even dream of missing this. (Seriously? The biggest dog walk in the world is about to happen in your back yard. How could you not want to get in on that?)
Our second Irish setter! Cricket (I love that name) is just barely ten years old, and still zipping around.
They really are beautiful dogs.
When I was younger, I had mid-back-length hair, and the wind used to blow it into my mouth. I can only imagine what it’s like to have the wind blowing your EARS into your mouth.
I’m adding ‘Cricket’ to my list of possible dog names. Too cute.
I did some shipping last week, and, naturally, the way I choose my store is ‘the one with the awesome dog’. So I was happy to meet Baobao (Chinese for ‘treasured one’), the resident Pomeranian at the ‘Handle With Care Packaging Store‘ on University Avenue in Berkeley.
My first glimpse of Baobao. That is a piece of decorative packing tape on his butt… you’ll get a better look in a second.
Baobao immediately led me a merry chase, while the shop owner watched me with a sort of bemused fascination. Which I’m quite used to.
All the way around the shop… and then right behind the counter.
Baobao (which I persist in typing as ‘Bapbap’) really likes this perch.
Silly tongue shot. Almost as good as a dognose closeup.
Have I mentioned that y’all are awesome? So far we have three donations and two purchases from the DogBlogStore in support of the Benefit for Glenn Farr. (Which, for a blog of this readership, is pretty good! I’m not expecting to be the next Bill & Melinda Gates foundation.) Please do consider a small donation or purchase if you haven’t already.
Ollie! Ollie is an adorable happy rescue dog who happens to be owned by a dog walker named Matt, owner (and, with one other person, operator) of Matt’s Mutts. They do dog walking (and cat visits, I guess?) in many of the neighborhoods that Autumn’s business (SF Pup Scouts) doesn’t cover, like the Mission and the Sunset and parts of SOMA. So I can mention him here, since he’s not a competitor, right?
Saw this pup outside a SOMA dog park. He was being very obedient but was clearly sad that he couldn’t join in the play inside the park.
This changed as soon as someone looked likely to pay attention to him. (Dad was a little distracted scrubbing poop — from someone ELSE’s dog — out of the back of his car. The hazards of being a dog walker.)
This pup makes a great ambassador for the business.
…as long as you like smooches.
Not only is this our second Chinese crested, he’s actually best friends and next-door neighbors with our first Chinese crested, Mr. White, even though I ran into the two of them in entirely different parts of town. And, if you take a look at Mr. White and Simon, it’s hard to believe the two are the same breed. I’m told that if you know the two of them well, they act amazingly similar, though. And if so, then I’m willing to grant Simon provisional ‘awesome’ status, because Mr. White is fully awesome.
A big thank you to the people who have donated to the Glenn Farr Fund, and the couple of you who have even bought my blog products. They will be shipped out shortly, and as mentioned earlier, the profits go to help a musician who has had some terrible luck. If you haven’t donated and/or bought a tee shirt (or whatever), please consider doing so… any purchases will continue to go to Glenn until the end of May, at least.
I have seen a few Chinese cresteds of the powder puff variety, but never one with such a gorgeous, uniform coat. NEVER would have guessed the breed. (Autumn, of course, did.)
They have got super-soft fur, too.
They are definitely not a timid breed.
First of all, if you haven’t already seen my post regarding the fundraiser and the new tee shirt design, please check out that post.
Found this diminutive gentleman on my way home from work a few days ago. He was perched right near a crosswalk, and was chirping so loudly and regularly that I thought he was the crosswalk indicator for the blind (which chirp in San Francisco), until I looked and realized that the crosswalk lights were red in both directions. This strikes me as dangerous.
Edit: I am overwhelmingly outvoted on the bird identification. In my defense, the pictures I saw of a house sparrow online did not have the lovely brown color of this guy’s back and wings (it was mixed black, tan, and grey instead), nor the same distribution of black on the throat and grey on the cheeks. Further picture-studying has revealed that (shock!) birds do sometimes look different.
I grew up surrounded by black-capped chickadees (Massachusetts). Their call (or, at least, their alarm call) is much different than the one these guys have.
I have a couple of announcements for this evening. First off, I have a new and exciting shirt design for the DogBlogStore: my Schauzers Gonna Schnauze tee shirt.
Awesome, right?
Second, Autumn and I are helping a friend of ours get back on his feet again, in an unusually literal way. An Irish music buddy of Autumn’s took a horrible fall (more than a story, onto concrete) while trying to fight off someone breaking into his building. And then the intruder fell on top of him. It’s had some terrible effects (concussion, nerve damage, broken bones) and he currently can’t work, play music, or even stand up very well. He’s in the process of getting disability, and thankfully he is now part of Healthy SF, so he has a lot of help with medical bills, but for the moment he’s got no income, and is in very real danger of losing his apartment and ending up homeless. Which, in his condition, would be even worse than usual.
Autumn is helping to set up a benefit concert for him at The Plough and Stars, on Clement Street, on May 25th. (More details are here.) She’ll be playing there, along with a bunch of other people. I heard a rumor that there may also be some dancing and some drinking involved, but don’t tell anyone, okay?
I’m going to help out too: in addition to a donation myself, I’m going to dedicate 100% of the profits from the DogBlogStore to the ‘Help Glenn Farr Not Lose His Apartment Fund’, from now until the end of May. (Yes, this means I will be suspending my 10% donations to the SF SPCA until then.) So if you want to get a nifty tee shirt, hoodie, or canvas tote, and help out a person who is in need, please pick up something from the DogBlogStore. (Also on this page is a paypal donation link in the event that you wish to help out Glenn but a) you do not like my designs, b) you do not like tee shirts, hoodies, or tote bags, or c) you do not have a torso. Although if you fall under c), then I should probably be having a benefit for you!)
Thank you for putting up with my shameless fundraising. I now return you to your regularly scheduled dogblog.