This dog clearly loves being part of a dog pack, valuing the security and sense of belonging that only a pack can provide.
I’m sure she loves running around too.
Brooklyn is a perfect name for this pup. He’s got a little attitude, and perhaps a bit of a crusty exterior, but is a total softy at heart. (Although he has no concept of personal space whatsoever.)
These two have identical stories: in each case I ran into them, took a bunch of pictures, and almost none of them came out even vaguely decently, because it was really too dark out to be taking pictures of dogs… but they were so cute that I just couldn’t resist. I really hope I run into them again.
The first one is Cooper the 5-month-old miniature Australian shepherd, and the second and third are of Kody (aka Kodiak), the 5-month-old husky.
I ran into Marco last Tuesday and had this major feeling of déjà vu. (Ooh, schmancy accent marks.) When I got home I looked up ‘Marco’ but didn’t find any dogs by that name on here. But when I looked up ‘basset hound’ things fell into place: Marco totally reminds me of Verne, but without the footie pajamas. (He also reminds me of Donny the Land Shark, a little bit.)
Anyway, Marco is awesome.

I have been trying to include whole people in my shots a bit more, lately. Unfortunately, in this case, I got two pictures of the bottom half of Marco doing the trick, one picture of Marco doing the trip with the bottom 2/3 of his mom, and two pictures of Marco and his mom after he’d finished the trick. Perfect.
I heard these birds squawking long before I managed to see where they were perched. There were LOTS of them, and man, were they loud.
(I just realized that the title could be mistaken for some kind of political statement about Trayvon Martin, or about the new movie about the Oakland shooting, Fruitvale Station. Black birds, black people, something like that. Just to make it absolutely clear: the collective noun for a group of crows is a ‘murder of crows.’ I try to maintain the blog as a politics-free zone, both because I think everyone, no matter their politics, should be free to admire cute pictures of dogs and because it’s a real relief to have somewhere in my life where I don’t ever have to think about politics.)
I don’t remember this pup’s name, but I do remember that I ran into her right outside of Yoshi’s Jazz Club, on Fillmore, right after I had dinner there. And it was so dark that I wouldn’t have ordinarily bothered to even try to take pictures, but she was just so fluffy and sweet and happy that I tried my flash out, and I’m glad I did!

I have to give a big ‘thank you’ to this pup’s mom, who tolerated some random guy accosting her after dark in a not-so-great area of town for long enough for me to take pictures.
I found this article fascinating: apparently this fellow was, more or less, the first professional dog-walker in the world.
On the very day of the Italian festival, Autumn and I ran into our very first Spinone Italiano: Gavina (3), named after a Catalan word meaning ‘white dog’. I do not know why this breed isn’t more popular: Gavina was an absolute delight.
Edit: Grr. I am not having much luck with the whole ‘posting on time’ thing. So annoying! I wonder if I should just give up and find another hosting provider.

Gavina was tied up outside what is possibly the best truffle-maker in the city, XOX Truffles.