Pooches: Daily Walk in 10 Pictures 10.20.10

 Now that we have found some time and the weather is cooler, we were able to go on a nice walk around our neighborhood. To start off our venture, Ms. M had to be annoying and find a nice walking stick to chomp around with.

True to Ms. M's form, she quickly grew tired of the cigar smoking look

True to Chicago's form, a rat had to cross in front of us, while we were walking both pooches in the middle of a Sunday afternoon.

True to Mr. B's form, he had to freak out and start crying like a little piglet. And like Ahab, he was on the lookout for his Moby Rat.

It is very convenient living so close to public transportation. We have four major bus stops two blocks from our place and a major EL stop is less than a 1/2 mile from our place. 

Too bad for Ms. M, they don't let pooches on the EL. It would be nice if they let our pooches on the EL. We would be able to see more of the sights, without worrying about traffic and/or parking. Plus Ms. M would be able to meet a ton of people, that would be forced to pet her because we would be in a confined space. 

One empty store front had this crazy movie theatre that had Mr. B complete mesmerized. His ears were up and his head kept tilting and we couldn't get him moving on our walk.

Our neighborhood is one of the most bike friendly areas in the whole city. Everywhere we go, we see bikes locked up and sometimes during day, we see more bikers than cars on the road or at an intersection. This parking sign is very indicative of our neighborhood.

We also have this great bike shop, Copenhagen Cyclery, that carries some amazing dutch bikes and couple cargo trikes. My dream one day is to own a cargo trike and ride with both pooches around the city in the cargo bay. From this picture, it looks like Mr. B has the same dream. Happy Wednesday.

Pooches: First Pit Bull Sighting

Since we've been working on increasing pit bull awareness, I was thinking back to my first pit bull impression. My friend's dog, little Ms. M, is the first pit bull I have ever met. Back then I thought she was the biggest and most muscular dog I have ever seen. I was actually terrified the first time my friend asked me to stop by his house to feed her. I kept checking under the bed, expecting her to leap out any moment; instead I just found her laying nicely in her bed.
It is funny how all of that changed when I met A and Ms. M.

My first several days with Ms. M were actually quite scary. It was the first time I ever had to spend a lot of time with a big dog and to make matters worse, Ms. M loves staring at people. I kept thinking she was going to eat me the moment A left the room. Eventually, I got over my fears, and Ms. M and I became BFFs, and even a personal guard dog:

That was until, we adopted Mr. B. Since we had Ms. M we always think of him as being a small dog or sometimes an oversized rat. So it is funny to hear people comment on his size. Actually it is funny to hear people call both Ms. M and Mr. B big dogs, when they are the perfect size to us.

Pooches: Our "Grassroots" Pit Bull Awareness

 Being someone who originally never wanted anything to do with pit bulls, I know how important it is for people to get beyond the media tales and actually meet pit bulls in person. In light of National Pit Bull Awareness Day, this coming Saturday, we decided to kick start our own "grassroots" campaign to get the pooches out there so people can see for themselves how congenial, well-behaved, and smart pitties really are. We took the pooches to the streets to meet the people. People are always impressed by how nicely the dogs wait on the sidewalk and don't move even when dogs walk by and people nearly step on their tails. While waiting for E outside the bicycle shop, we meet our first "customer": a woman stopped to ask what kinds of dogs they were, and she was surprised to hear these were pit bulls.

The pooches turned heads as we walked down the busy restaurant-filled strip on Division. A couple in outdoor dining asked what kinds of dogs they were, two groups of people stopped to ask if they could pet them, and another girl stopped to tell us about her pit bull she has at home.The pooches were happy to get so much attention.

Dogs are allowed at outdoor patios, so we stopped at Angels and Mariachis. The food here isn't the best, but it's a fun place to get drinks and people watch; they also have a  great discount coupon on restaurant.com. The pooches waited patiently as we ate:

Though Miss M kept eyeing the food:

The waitress even commented that they were some of the best behaved dogs that had ever dined there. Another couple stopped to pet them and said Miss M's ears were as soft as velvet.
With the weather on our side the next day I took Mr. B out to the Wicker Park Farmer's Market. This market isn't that great, I really like the one over at Clark and Division, but it's a nice walk for the dogs and I do like hanging out in the park afterwards. We got 2 more questions about what type of dog he is, and Mr. B even got petted by some little kids:

A lot of people stopped to talk to us on our way back. I think they're surprised because We don't look like what they envision a pit bull owner to look like. Mr. B got petted by two more groups of people.

We know a couple of cities are having events for pitbull awareness day: Pittie Rescue Family is part of a huge event in Nashville (check out the Miss M and Mr B tees!), and there is more information about the Richmond event here (with a cameo by Mr. B in a turtle outfit!).
We try to do our small part by getting the dogs out there as good ambassadors. Has anyone else seen any good pitties out there?

Pooches: Eighteen Hours of Sleep or Miss M's Personal Marathon

I've heard that dogs need as much as 18 hours of sleep a day. While this sounds incredulous, when I really thought about it, I could see how our dogs are really only awake 6 hours a day. Especially Miss M who is totally lazy. We took these photos of her in the back of the car right after the Chicago Marathon. She had such a fun day of getting attention and being petted, it was her personal marathon to try to stay awake a bit longer. Sleep overcomes her:

She struggles to stay awake:

She's out:

One last attempt to stay awake:

And she's down for the count.

DoggyStyle: Our Dog "Closet"

When I first adopted Miss M, her only worldly possessions were her collar and 3 toys. We actually lived well like this for awhile where I didn't buy her anything else. It wasn't until that winter, when she was so cold she would shake uncontrollably and refuse to go outside that I decided to go outside my comfort zone and buy my dog a winter coat.

And it was that one purchase that opened the floodgate of buying dog goods. Suddenly I was now comfortable buying snow booties for her webbed feet, quick dry towels for her baths, a doggy backpack for her travels, and a collapsible bowl to put inside it. When Mr. B entered the picture, we started buying two of everything.

 Not to mention all Mr. B's costumes to make him an "approachable pit bull".

And while you see us having all kinds of fun with our dog accessories, we also became overwhelmed with finding places to keep everything. Living in the city, space is at a premium and suddenly we were overwhelmed with all this extra stuff. After miserably living in among what resembled an aisle of PetSmart, we realized hooks and storage bins were the solution. We picked up a couple of similar bins that we kept on the ledge next to the entrance  to keep all their stuff sorted while still looking presentable.

 I was lucky enough to find these on sale at Target, but I also like this from Target, this from Target's John Derian collection, these from CB2, and these from The Container Store.

 They keep their possessions organized and out of the way, so we don't have to feel too bad about having so many dog things.What are some other solutions you have found to store your dog stuff?

Chicago Marathon: From a Spectator's View in 10 Pictures & 2 Videos

While A was running the Chicago Marathon, I got the pooches into their costumes, packed supplies (water, portable bowl, treats, two bones, digital camera, Flip camera, batteries, map of the course) and headed off to our first spectator spot at the corner of Superior and Wells. We signed up for runner updates, and I received a text that A passed 10K at 9:48 AM, so I expected her to pass by us around 10:45 AM. The pooches and I settled on a spot and met a bunch of spectators.

Spectators and runners alike loved the pooches. Runners would point at the pooches, scream out compliments and some even stopped to take pictures. The pooches were mini-celebrities, spectators were taking pictures of the pooches or even with the pooches. Several people were even preaching to me about the bad rap that pit bulls get. Sadly though, we waited until 11:30 AM and never saw A pass by.

It was pretty hectic trying to drink my coffee, handle two pooches, scan passing runners for A, watch Mr. B knock of my coffee, pulling Ms. M as she tries to drink my coffee off the ground, take pictures for the blog, make sure Ms. M and Mr. B does not run into runners, and move out of the way as people try to take pictures with the pooches. So we packed up our stuff and I got ready to drive to our second spot at Damen and Jackson, but as I passed over the highway and saw the bumper to bumper traffic I decided to join the traffic and go straight to our final spot at Michigan and 13th street. Luckily we found parking several blocks from our final cheering area.

Mr. B sat vigilant and scanned the runners for A.

While Ms. M could care less and hung out, met people and drank some water.

By 12:30 PM, it was really hot, but there were so many spectators out cheering on the runners.

Mr. B took some great shots of the spectators with his camera.

Eventually we saw A on the course and the pooches were ecstatic. After seeing A, we walked over to our rendezvous spot near the finish line. There were so many people trying to find runners that they closed off the finish line to spectators and we had to find another area to meet A.

So we sat out by Roosevelt and Michigan, away from the crowd and watched all the spectators cheering the runners at the last 0.2 miles.

Mr. B is keeping a watchful eye out for A, while Ms. M is busy meeting other spectators.

In the following video, it has been over an hour at our first spot and we still didn't see A. As you can see a lot of runners were walking, which made me and another spectator concerned that we missed our runners.

Chicago Marathon: From the Runner's View

The Chicago Marathon is an amazing event where the whole city comes together as a community to watch and cheer on 40,000 people crazy enough to run over 26 miles. It's an amazingly scenic course with neighborhoods pulling together entertainment and support.This year I ran with a disposable camera to show what the runners see as we run the course.
The race starts at Grant Park in the heart of downtown Chicago:

There are so many people it takes 20 minutes just to cross the starting line. People wear old sweatshirts to keep warm in the morning and toss them right at the start. Since it was already 65 degrees at the start of the race, there wasn't the usual amount of sweatshirts being thrown around. This was good for not accidentally getting hit in the face with a sweatshirt, but a bad sign that it was going to be a hot and hard marathon.
The race winds through downtown and heads north towards Wrigley Field.

It looks just like a huge sea of people. The first 7 miles are actually a mess where everyone is trying to dodge and break through masses of runners. You're supposed to start according to pace, but nobody really does this and for miles you'll have bottlenecks, people going too slow, and people trying to dodge around. I learned it's too early to waste my energy dodging around so I try to run a slower first half.

The spectators are one of the best parts of the race; I honestly don't think I could do it without crowd support. They line the course with signs, costumes, and words of encouragement. I have my name written on my top so people can actually call out to me by name. It feels like you're part of a big parade and I just have to be careful to keep the fist-pumping and high-fiving to a minimum because I know I'll need that energy later.

Boystown, at mile 8, is one of my favorite areas. Filled with male cheerleaders, live bands, the twirling gun brigade, and incredible crowd support. They even choose a theme, this year it was Superheroes:

Usually there are a lot more runners in costume. I've seen full out gorillas, lots of wings and wigs, and even firemen in full gear. With the heat this year, I didn't see that many costumes, but I did see this guy dressed as the Eiffel Tower:

The race heads back downtown passing singing Elvis, people sitting on sidewalks in bathrobes and full on breakfast spreads, and lots of crowd enthusiasm. It's really easy to go with the excitement and use up your energy too quickly. I saw a lot of people already starting to walk at mile 3, but by Mile 11 a lot of people had already started losing energy: From this picture it looks like nearly everyone is walking.

The next few miles are brutal, heading west with absolutely no shade. It's at this point I always start to lie to myself and say just to get through the next 5 miles and I'll only have 5 miles left--anyone who can do math can see how wrong this is, but with my exhaustion, somehow it makes sense.
I run the entire thing because I know if I stop, I won't be able to start again. The only exception is I do a brisk walk through the Gatorade stations. I've learned that Gatorade can be slippery, as can some of the banana peels being thrown on the course:

We wound through Pilsen for mile 19.

The crowd support is amazing with the restaurants and people coming out from their homes to give runners pretzels, ice cubes Twizzlers, the occasional spray from the hose, and entertainment by these huge guys:

Mile 20 we they gave us sponges soaked in water.By then I think it hit over 80 degrees. I saw one sign on the course saying it was 96 degrees. I don't know if it was right, but on the shadeless course it definitely felt that way. A lot of people were walking, or had stopped completely and were stretching on the side. You can see how much the crowd had panned out:

 The next highlight is heading through Chinatown. You hear a big roar, see the dancing dragons and race through hoards of screaming spectators. This year the heat even slowed down the dancing dragons:

And it's after this that things really start to get brutal. There is a slight incline as we head towards Comiskey and literally everyone around me was walking. This is terrible for morale, not to mention I had to dodge and weave through everyone walking.
Besides lying to myself about how few miles I have left, the other thing I do to deceive myself is smile big. I figure, if I'm smiling I can't really be in pain. Plus, the spectators love a happy runner and I get a lot more cheers. I was cursing my lack of training, as that last mile was the worst I think I have ever experienced in a race. Then I saw some familiar faces:

The pooches came out in costume to support me and the 39,999 other runners. I was so fatigued I could barely hold the camera straight:

E said I was looking good, but I still had about 1 more mile. The worst part is the final .2 is on a hill. So many people are shouting and cheering us on. I had to pullover to snap a photo of the finish:

This made me remember why I love marathoning, even though the heat made everything move in slow motion. E and the pooches were very proud of me, and Miss M loved licking my salty legs:

The pooches actually had their own exhausting experience serving as spectators. It is really exhausting to have the pressure of finding your runner, moving to different locations, and keeping the runners motivated. Tomorrow E is writing a post from the spectator's point of view.
 And someone was so proud of their marathon experience, they proudly wore the finisher's medal all night: