Wine & Wags

We made it down to Wine & Wags today. Here are some pictures of the afternoon:
This was the wine garden.

The Oregon Humane Society was doing an outreach adoption event there.

If only my garden could look so good. I did attend a seminar on pet-friendly fertlizing and pesticide use. I also learned that I need to treat the brown spots on my lawn, courtesy of Kendall, with pelletized lime to adjust the pH back to normal.

It was a beautiful sunny day - finally.

Yesterday we went to the Lake Oswego Festival of the Arts. We didn't take Kendall but should have. There were lots of dogs there. It seems like you need a little white fluffy dog in order to live there. We did see a couple of Cavaliers.

More summer fun

Last night's concert at Oak Knoll winery was very nice. I can't say I loved the music, but the setting and the weather were just about perfect. Turns out that the concert series isn't new - it's just new to me. This is their 5th season of concerts. As I mentioned yesterday, they run every other Thursday through early September. I'm sure we'll be back.

Kendall enjoyed the concert much more than she does camping. She's definitely the leisure model when it comes to dogs. She loves all of the people and the fact that it's not dirty or rainy. She was wagging her tail most of the night.

Another event happening this weekend is Wine & Wags at Garden World in Hubbard. Here's the description from the event web site:

Local shelters and rescue groups throughout the Willamette Valley will be on hand with more than 30 adoptable dogs. There will also be pet-friendly gardening seminars, dog obedience and trick demonstrations, vendors of pet-related goods and services and a "doggie lawn" in the center of the nursery. The wine garden will be open noon-6 p.m. both days.

It's both Saturday and Sunday. See the event web site for more information. We're planning to go sometime this weekend. Maybe we'll see you there.

It's Here!

Summer outdoor concert season, that is. This is probably my favorite part of summer. I love going to the parks, packing a picnic, and relaxing in the cool evenings while listening to some music. It doesn't even matter who's playing. We've seen the good, the bad, and the ugly. As long as it isn't listed as opera, I'm usually game for any concert I can find.

I found a new series this year that takes place every other Thursday at a winery in Hillsboro, about 10 miles from us. Oak Knoll Winery is hosting "Toast to the Tunes" from 6 - 9 pm. They have food and wine available. I emailed them on Monday to ask if they were dog friendly, and here's what they said:

"Yes, our summer concert series are dog friendly.  We do request that you respect other people enjoying the concerts and pick up after your dog.  We’re looking forward to seeing both of you soon!"

So, pack that picnic, leash up the dog, and head out to the concert. We'll be the ones with the smiles on our faces.

Happy Summer.  

Happy Summer!

According to the calendar, summer starts today. You'd never know it if you went outside here. It's been unusually wet and cold this spring. We've had record rainfalls and even set records for low highs. I'm ready for the sun to come out and make it warm so we can do all of the fun things that summer usually brings. Here are some things we're looking forward to this summer:

1. outdoor summer concert season
2. camping
3. barbecuing
4. bike rides
5. trips to the farmers market
6. a visit from my mom
7. trying out the new air conditioning we just had installed
8. evenings on the deck

How about you? What are you looking forward to?

Happy Summer!

Little Tenderfoot

As I mentioned earlier, we spent the weekend camping at Stub Stewart State Park. The nice thing about camping at this park this time of year is that the camping pads are all gravel, so you don't have to worry too much about lots of mud.

One thing we didn't count on was the fact that it's early in the season and Kendall's not had a chance to toughen up the pads on her feet. It's been a really wet spring here in the Pacific NW, and while we walk her twice a day and go to the dog park, her pads aren't as toughened up as they could be.

We went for a long walk on one of the paved paths in nearby Vernonia. When we got back to camp, Kendall was walking very gingerly. We checked her feet for anything that may have been lodged in there, but I think she just walked too much. I googled sore pads and came up with a few things. What do you all do when your pup's "dogs are barking?"

This happened on our Washington road trip last year, too. That was the end of the season and her feet should have been toughened up. I thought about getting her some booties for those times that this occurs. Lindsay over at Life with Big Dogs did  a great review of booties last year. Anyone ever tried booties on your Cavalier?

Lupines Galore!

We just returned from a weekend of camping - in the rain again - at Stub Stewart State Park. It's Oregon's newest state park and only about 45 min. from us. The lupines were in full bloom. No dog pictures in this blog post - just lots and lots of lupines. Enjoy.

There were a couple of little birds building a nest in the brush right next to our site. I caught him with a mouth full of grass.

Portland ranked #1 dog-friendly city

From the KATU web site:

PORTLAND, Ore. - Portland is top in the nation when it comes to being dog friendly, according to a recent ranking in BellaDOG Magazine.
The magazine crowned our city as #1 because of its dog-friendly restaurants, natural landscapes and numerous dog parks. And here is the magazine's recommendations for the best spots and resources:

• Recommended off-leash dog park - Gabriel's Summer Park
• Recommended dog-friendly restaurant - Lucky Lab
• Recommended Portland dog resources - PortlandPooch.com and PDXDog.com.

Here's a look at the rest of the list:

• 1 - Portland, Oregon
• 2 - Las Vegas, Nevada
• 3 - St. Petersburg, Florida
• 4 - Miami, Florida
• 5 - Tampa, Florida
• 6 - San Francisco, California
• 7 - Jersey City, New Jersey
• 8 - Albuquerque, New Mexico
• 9 - Jacksonville, Florida

A Little Trickster

Sunday was the Pets on Parade event in Lake Oswego.

We attended as a representative of the Delta Society. As a group we walked in the Grand Parade, but Kendall and I participated in the "Entertainers" category of the event. She has a little routine of tricks she does when she gets a treat. So far she can sit, down, bow, spin, shake, roll over, speak, and stand and we're working on Bang (you're dead). Her bag of tricks won her 1st prize in the category. She even got a trophy for winning.

There were dogs of all shapes and sizes there.

There was even a pony in the parade. There was also a police dog there who gave a demonstration.

Some random pictures from the day:

Meeting Spencer's Mom

One of the highlights of a recent business trip to Washington DC was a visit with Whitney of The Preppy Pink and Green Puppy blog. We have left lots of comments on each others blogs but had never met in person - until last week. We had a great time out for drinks at McCormick and Schmicks.

Bark in the Park 2010

As promised, I finally got got back on the computer this evening to post some pictures. Way back on May 7th, we took Kendall to the last Bark in the Park at the Portland Beavers baseball game. They're no longer going to be based out of Portland, OR after the end of this season. Usually they schedule two per season, but for some reason, there is only one this year. It was scheduled really early in the season and wasn't very well advertised, so attendance was really low.

The seats that the company where I work have are right behind the dugout of the opposing team. Unfortunately, there isn't a lot of room by your feet, so Kendall doesn't fit behind the wall very well. We went down and hung out in the beer garden where there is a lot more room.

The seats were a little low for her.

This is a fun picture with the Drop Top Amber dog in the background.

We're going to miss going to the baseball games once or twice a year.

Blame it on the iPad

I can't believe it's June 13th already. Where did the time go? I realized today that I haven't posted in awhile and you can blame that on my iPad. Turns out that since I got this thing I hardly ever look at my laptop when I'm home. I spend all day on the computer and the iPad is a great way to keep up with Facebook and message boards without really breaking out the computer.

I also found that I'm less likely to pound out a long email or make a blog post with the small onscreen keyboard. I haven't figured out yet how to post pictures. Don't worry. I'll break out the computer soon and post all of the pictures I'm storing up.


Posted from my iPad.

We're now official!

Last week I received my badge from the Delta Society. Now Kendall and I are officially registered as a Pet Partner therapy team. I did some visiting of some facilities around us to find us a place to start visiting. I went to one that had a wonderful program in place and already had a couple of Pet Partner teams coming in to do visits weekly. The nursing home where I decided that we're going to do our volunteering is one that doesn't currently have any teams visiting and is quite a large facility. I thought that their residents might benefit a bit more from having us visit.

Our first visit is Thursday! I went today for a tour and to meet some of the staff. I'm on my own on Thursday. I don't know exactly what that's going to be like, but my plan is to just go in and let Kendall sniff around and get comfortable with the place. It'll probably be a very short visit. I did meet a nice woman today who loves dogs. We'll be sure to stop and say hi to her.

We're going to visit twice a month for the next six months and see how it goes. I'm excited but a bit unsure. I'm sure I'll have lots to pass along.

Spring Fling 2010

This past weekend we went camping at an annual gathering of vintage trailers and friends. It poured down rain! It poured and poured all day on Friday as everyone was arriving and setting up. It was held in the field of some very nice friends of ours. As the day wore on it got muddier and muddier and the ruts got deeper and deeper. They had to bring out lots and lots of boards so that people could drive in on them. Sometime Friday night/Saturday morning the rain tapered off but picked up again on Saturday night. I usually take lots of pictures at these events, but the weather didn't cooperate too much. I have lots of great pictures in last year's post. Many of the same trailers were there, as well as some new teardrops, too.

Rather than focus on the weather, I decided to focus my few pictures on the dogs that were there camping.

This is Pepper, a tri-color Cavalier, who is missing the brown coloring. He's blind in one eye, but don't tell him - he doesn't know it.

This is Mandy.

This is Corky. He's a golden retriever/cocker spaniel mix.

I don't remember this dog's name, but he sure looked comfortable hanging out in his own chair. Don't you love the coat? It makes him look like Count Dracula with a cape.

Kendall wasn't too thrilled with the entire camping in the rain and cold thing. She was much happier in the trailer, wrapped in her blanket, with the heater going. She's more the leisure model than the sporting model.

This is more like her type of camping - hanging out in her bed on the deck by the fire pit. I can't blame her.

There were quite a few more well-behaved dogs there, but I didn't get around to take pictures of everyone. Maybe next year.