Apartment puppy

I've seen this little guy out and about near my apartment building a few times now on my way to work in the mornings. This time I managed to have my camera with me and to get a photo before a driver waiting near his car shoo'd him away.

Office dog

Miro, the office dog, come by for his afternoon snack.

Puppy Sighting

Wandering around Insa-dong, we came across 2 puppies and a mama-dog. The puppies were already bigger than the mama-dog. Unfortunately they scampered across the street before I could get a photo of all three of them.

Miss Zoe the Great White Beast

This was the best shot I could get of Zoe. She's not too fond of the camera and doesn't pose like other dogs I've known. But she is a sweetie, and has a most unladylike bark.

Aoyama Kennels

This is the front of Aoyama Kennels, one of those rent-a-pet centers. In the window are pictures of all the cute little doggies you can rent for the afternoon and take for a walk.

A Basset Hound with Patience...

I didn't realize such a thing existed.

Great Pyrs at Jax Beach

On one of our Friday happy hours, we saw a woman walking, really more attempting to walk, a couple of Great Pyrenees. If you don't already know, Pyrs are these giant white dogs that are gentle guardians. They're bred to protect herds of sheep and work on farms in the Pyrenees Mountains. They are absolutely beautiful dogs, with the softest fur. My mom has one, and when she's had a bath (the dog, that is), she's just incredibly soft. Of course, she does roll in the dirt at the first opportunity, resulting in leaves hanging from her tail.

The one on the right in this photo is just a young pup. I believe their names were Glacier and Ice, but it's been a few weeks since I saw them and I can't remember for sure.

A Dog's Work is Never Done...

Loved this photo of a dog!

Modern Dog Grooming

If you need a laugh...

... and you either own a dog or have owned a dog, then this is the book for you. Emily Yoffe's What the dog did: Tales from a formerly reluctant dog owner had me laughing all through the book. She mixes personal experiences with the beagle she and her family adopted from Beagle Rescue Education and Welfare (BREW) with experiences of other dog owners, some beagles, some non-beagles. She chronicles the time it took to make Sasha, their adopted beagle, a decent canine companion that no longer felt the dining room table was an appropriate place to take a nap. She also includes some descriptions of the wide variety of beagle personalities that came through her household as fosters.

I think anyone who has had a dog, lived with a dog, or currently has and/or lives with a dog can relate to some of the stories in this book. None of her stories particularly stood out, but as I was reading, I certainly was laughing.

And I certainly was thinking of some of my own dog tales, from the time Molly decided that she'd check out Mom's newly redone bathroom and locked herself in and managed to get out through the window way at the top of the wall after shredding the laundry basket and turning on the faucets so the bathroom flooded to the time I came home to a twelve-pack of coke sitting on the floor with coke cans with bite marks and coke squirting out all over the kitchen in giant arcs (the dogs sported sticky mohawks, by the way). Or the time that Nicky decided she was going to help herself to some poor kid's sandwich while we were at the park (he was waving it around right at her nose level). Or waking up nose-to-nose with Alex under the covers and then realizing, hey, he wasn't under the covers when I fell asleep. Or my roommate's whippet that would come in and poke me so I'd lift the covers for him to crawl into bed with me.

I think the one thing I learned from this book, or actually it was simply reinforced, was that living with a dog always provides lots of entertainment, and that it takes lots of time and work with a dog to make sure they are decent canine companions and realize that you're the boss. I do look forward to the time when I have a house with a yard and can get my own dog.

White Cloud

Meet Zoe, a Great Pyrenees. She's a bit camera shy and I've had a hard time getting a good photo of her. Usually some sound or other distraction happens and away she goes, or she turns her head at just that moment when the camera clicks. In this photo she's just had a bath and has been combed out, so she's nice and soft and fluffy. Great Pyrenees like to be outside, so this is not her usual state. Usually she's got dirt and leaves hanging off of her because she's an outside girl at heart.