Dog of the Day: Ozzy the Miniature Australian Shepherd Puppy

Ozzy the Aussie is 4 months old, and he has already mastered several tricks. Some of them were taught to Ozzy by his dad, and some, such as ‘scamper’ and ‘be utterly charming’, he has picked up on his own.

(It helps if you don’t think of it as ‘tax day’, but rather as ‘ridiculously adorable puppy day. See? Isn’t that better?)

Blue Merle Miniature Australian Shepherd Puppy

As I recall, Ozzy saw something small and fuzzy (squirrel? cat?) on the other side of the fence, and was utterly psyched to go chasing after it, until dad distracted him. Mean ol’ dad!

Blue Merle Miniature Australian Shepherd Puppy With Gorgeous Blue Eyes

That stare. It would be intimidating if he weighed more than, what, 15 pounds?

Blue Merle Miniature Australian Shepherd Puppy With Gorgeous Blue Eyes

The very slight head-tilt and the one ear up. And the one paw forward. Could this pose be any cuter?

 

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Dog of the Day: Jazzy the Airedale Terrier

Jazzy is 8, and the name ‘King of Terriers‘ fits him like a glove.

Airedale Terrier with Dark Grizzle Saddle

I have a couple dozen pictures of Jazzy. Some of them are blurry, some of them are crooked, some of them are pretty good. But they all have one thing in common.

Airedale Terrier with Dark Grizzle Saddle

Every single one of them was ten out of ten on the happy scale.

Airedale Terrier with Dark Grizzle Saddle

I don’t know, maybe he was just especially psyched that day, but I like to imagine that he’s just always like that.

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Caturday Supplement: Bunday Bunny Butts

No, no, not the dog kind of ‘bunny butt‘. These are real bunny butts! And today is Bunday-on-Caturday.

Incidentally, sorry things have been a bit lazy the past week… I’ve been sick. Feeling a lot better now though.

Young Rabbits

These guys were in a little hutch on Valencia Street, for adoptive purposes. Methinks they’d already been handled enough for one day.

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Dog of the Day: Landis the Poodle

Name: Landis. Age: 7 yrs. Occupation: fighting crime. (I think the darker areas around his eyes make him look like he’s wearing a superhero mask. Just me? Oh. All right, then.)

Grey Standard Poodle

He also has the ‘noble dog’ pose down pat.

Grey Standard Poodle

So. Poofly.

Grey Standard Poodle

If I ever have a poodle, it’s gonna be one of the big ones. They are awesome.

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Dog of the Day: Martin the Corgi Mix

Half corgi, half something else: mom and I both hazarded a guess at maybe Sheltie, but he’s 100% corgi-shaped, so it’s tough to say. But as with every corgi mix, he’s 150% awesome.

Orange Sable Corgi Mix With White Face

He has the most random ears ever. Which is awesome.

Orange Sable Corgi Mix With White Face Sticking Out His Tongue

That fur sure is pretty. And it’s definitely not a normal corgi color. Apparently it’s called ‘orange sable’.

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Dog of the Day: Pekingese

Saw this pup on the bus, just chilling. Neither nervous and high-strung nor overly sociable. Greeted everyone who stopped to say hello, but didn’t get too wiggly. All in all, a very well-trained lapdog.

Tan Pekingese in Someone's Lap

I wonder how much Pekingeses shed? Seems like the type of fur that finds its way EVERYWHERE…

Tan Pekingese in Someone's Lap

Among the more serious-looking of breeds.

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Bringing Your Dog to Work: It’s Apparently Awesome

How did I not hear about this sooner? It seems that someone did a study on the health effects of bringing your dog to work. They studied different people in a dog-friendly workplace, including those who didn’t have dogs, those who had dogs but didn’t bring them in, and those who brought their dogs to work. They found the following:

  • All three groups started the day at a similar stress level, on average.
  • People with no dog had their stress level climb gradually though the day
  • People who had a dog but didn’t bring it in performed identically.
  • People who brought in their dog had their stress level decrease through the course of the day.

So there you have it: dogs are the magic de-stresser. (I suspect cats would work just as well (maybe even better! ack, heresy!), but there are fewer cat-friendly workplaces, because, well… mixing cats and dogs at a workplace? Could be bad.

Come on, companies, get with the program!

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Dog of the Day: Duchess the Whippet

No, you’re not imagining things, this is our second Duchess in three days. You definitely won’t be mistaking one for the other, though.

Tan-and-White Whippet

Those eyes. I am always put in mind of deer.

Tan and White Whippet

So aerodynamic.

Tan-and-White Whippet

The crumply ears. You just want to uncrumple them, just to see what happens.

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Caturday Supplement: Meowing in the Rain

On my way to work, I ran into a woman giving her cat an airing. It was raining, but she was carefully staying under the building’s overhang, so the cat didn’t seem more than a little bit dubious. I think there was some training going on, but of whom I’m not sure. There were definitely treats involved.

So I introduced myself. This is Crumpet, the 10-month-old rescue kitty. She was found in a trash can at about 6 weeks of age, and turned over to the SPCA, who found her a loving home. She’s still getting used to the idea of other people, but she’s getting there.

Silver Mackerel Tabby Kitten With White Paws

I think mom was starting the process of leash-training Crumpet. We shall see how that goes.

Silver Mackerel Tabby Kitten With White Paws

She didn’t seem TOO stressed out, anyway. Certainly not too stressed to eat!

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Double Dog Day: Alex the Husky Puppy and Duchess the Jack Russell Terrier/Poodle Mix

Duchess is one of Autumn’s Pup Scouts dog walking customers, and since Autumn was out of commission today (possible flu, definitely something nasty) she asked me to walk her. So I took her up to Huntingdon Park, where she happily gamboled around, tried to leap into the fountain, and played with all the other dogs.

Alex was there too, and he is utterly adorable. He was playing with Duchess. They seemed to be having a blast, but I tried to keep her back a little bit (and kept her leash on her), since this is the first time I’ve ever walked Duchess and I wanted to be kind of conservative. Still, they were clearly enjoying themselves.

And then Duchess leapt over Alex, and sat on him for a second or two, and then he wrestled her around and pinned her down (not aggressively, just play-fighting) and then she got up and took a few steps away, and I noticed that she had somehow gotten the leash off. (Uh oh!)

Well, she wasn’t running away, so I wasn’t too worried, but I went to pull the leash up so I could put it back on her, and I discovered the true extent of her talents. The leash wasn’t attached to Duchess’s gentle leader any more… it was attached to Alex’s collar. By the same D-ring that his own leash was attached. So now Alex had two leashes on him, and Duchess had none.

I would not have believed it if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes. I promise you that, in the amount of time this happened, I could not have done this with my own hands. This dog bears further watching; she may end up being the next Harry Houdini.

5-Month Old Silver Husky Puppy

Some huskies start out goofy and only get goofier as they get older. I bet he’s one.

Silver Husky Puppy with Heterochromia and Black Jack Russell/Poodle Mix

They really did seem to like each other a lot. I hope she runs into him again sometime.

Black Jack Russell Terrier/Poodle Mix

A little blurry. I will have to shoot some more pictures of her sometime, and fully capture her cuteness.

Silver Husky Puppy with Heterochromia

Husky-tongue. You can ALMOST see his different-colored eyes in this one.

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