Chicagoing: Miss M Goes Renegade

There is never a shortage of things to do in Chicago, and this past weekend Renegade Craft Fair dropped itself down smack dab in the middle of our neighborhood. This event gathers Etsy vendors from across the nation showing their innovative, unique and unusual wares beneath a half-mile of tents.
Since E had "business" to attend to, I had to choose only one dog to attend. Miss M loves getting attention in big crowds, so I decided to make it a Girls' Day and brought her geared up with our Pets Eye Camera to document her perspective:

The event skews towards the trendy, tattooed and unusual with plenty of skulls, mustaches, and bug-themed artwork. Of course, there were a lot of bikes in art ranging from T-shirts, to prints, to onesies:

And loads of bikes being ridden (just not by Miss M):

 

We saw this patterned tepee, and Miss M was tempted to jump inside:

 We loved the posters by Jay Ryan, but didn't pick any up this year:

We met a friend all the way from Pittsburgh selling beautiful handmade porcelian jewelry from the RedRaven shop. Unfortunately, being so low to the ground, this was all Miss M could see:

There was a weird marching band, which Miss M quite enjoyed until she heard the trumpet:

Our favorite was this shop selling handknit scarfs, hats, and sweaters for your dog. 

Their model is a Boston Terrier, so unfortunately they didn't have much in Miss M's size. They do make custom work for bigger dogs. Should we get the the snow bean hat for Miss M? The blue baron hat for Mr B? Or maybe Mr. B should go vampire?
Miss M had a great time out meeting people, wiggling, and giving out plenty of kisses. And when we got home her camera caught Mr. B with E attending to their "business"... watching the Bears home season opener.

Pooches: Mr. B the Escort

Chicago is a very walkable city; the only problem is we need to take extra precautions after dark. Even if I'm only walking a couple of blocks, I don't like to do this alone at night.
The other day I was going to meet a friend at a cafe mere blocks from our place. It was easy enough to walk there when it was still light out; I just had to figure out a way to get back in the dark. I didn't want to spend money for a taxi, and I didn't want to drive--parking is very difficult and expensive in the city.
I was wishing I was just like Britney Spears, who walks around with a big protective body guard, then I realized I had this guy:

Chicago recently passed laws to allow dogs to accompany their owners on outdoor dining patios, so I figured this was the perfect opportunity to bring Mr. B who could later escort me home at night.

Just like a true professional, Mr. B sat quietly next to me the whole time.And I felt very safe walking home with him. It turns out, the people I find scary and questionable are actually scared of me when I'm with Mr. B. When they saw us coming, they made sure to step out of our way and even cross the street. Which is funny because in the light he just looks like this:

Pooches: The Positive Pit Bull Bubble

 When I first adopted Miss M four years ago, I was very aware of the negative attention she received. People gave her evil looks. They would snatch their dogs and children out of our way. And, some people would even say mean things.

 Thinking about this now, I feel a lot has changed. Even with our 2 dogs, we don't seem to have as many negative experiences. More often we've had curious people approaching us asking about the dogs. They bring their children and dogs to meet us instead of moving out of our way. And on nearly every walk people will tell us we have beautiful dogs.

 I  don't know whether we're getting this reinforcement because we do live in a pit-friendly neighborhood with a lot of responsible pit bull owners. Or maybe I'm not noticing the negativity as much because we get so much support from this online community.
Am I just in a protective "positive pit bull bubble" where I'm not noticing negative statements about pit bulls? Or do you think that overall sentiment has changed? How are pitbulls viewed in your community?

Chicagoing: Labor Day in 10 Pictures

Here is Ms. M, worn out from our most excellent Labor Day adventure. This past Monday marked the last day of our great summer vacation, so we spent our Labor Day trying to tire out the pooches. A woke up early to pick up some breakfast, while I slept in and eventually sauntered out onto the porch and hung out with the pooches. Ms. M was so excited for breakfast, that she was trying to grab the breakfast from A's hands as she walked up the stairs.

Since the weather has cooled off a bit, the pooches are really antsy and the problem is that they will spend more hours indoors now that we have started school. So right after breakfast we took the pooches on a walk around the neighborhood, where Mr. B spotted his long lost best friend, Monsieur Cat.

Mr. B was so excited to see his old chum, that he would keep spinning around as we tried to continue our walk. Eventually Monsieur Cat grew tired and walked away, but poor Mr. B was not done reminiscing about the good ole days.

After our walk, we then all hopped into the car

and headed off to the dog park, where the Ms. M played catch and

Mr. B just zoomed around like the little rabbit that he is.

All of this running, eventually lead to some crazy tackles,

but the pooches were okay. After a good run, the pooches hopped in the car and Mr. B documented our exciting ride home

as well as the aftermath of our morning and afternoon adventure, passing out with Ms. M on the porch.

Schwang Swag: Finding the Perfect Large Picnic Blanket

Knowing how miserable the coming months will be here in Chicago, we're always taking the opportunity to sit in the sun and do things outside with the pooches. We have already perfected the art of having the spontaneous picnic with our dogs but at the same time, I've been searching for the perfect large picnic blanket to accommodate all of us at once.The blanket we use works well, but I have always dreamed of being able to stretch out and recline without my limbs hanging off into the itchy grass.Unfortunately, most of the cute, big blankets I have found have been way too expensive.
I think the answer may have been obvious to other people, but it wasn't until I spied a group doing this at Millennium Park that I realized how comforters can actually be the perfect picnic blanket:

A full-sized comforter will accommodate all four of us with room to lay and stretch out. Plus the extra padding can be super-comfortable:

 

It turns out Dwell Studio for Target even has some really cute options. If you watch the in-store sales you can usually get a really, really good discount. They have enough stuffing to be comfortable, but they're still thin enough to easily toss in the washer making them appropriate for daily use.

The only downfall is that it is too cumbersome to bring on our daily walk; we would have to plan to use it when we're not walking longer distances. Right now I have it rolled like a sleeping bag, but I wonder if I can find some way to keep it more compact?

But the big benefit is that we can enjoy having the pooches sitting on the blanket with us. It's just unfortunate it took me the whole summer to figure this out.

Pooches: Dogs & Yoga Mats

I mentioned before how I'm in the midst of training for the Chicago Marathon, and I had high hopes that the pooches would want to run with me. Unfortunately, with the hot and humid summer the dogs have been doing more sleeping than running.
In yet another attempt to foil my training, Miss M has also been hijacking my yoga mat. Every time I unfurl the mat for my after-run stretch, I turn around to this:
I think there is something about the spongy material that she just really likes. Needless to say, she is quite stubborn and it's really hard to move her off. She also thinks when I'm lying on the ground stretching, this is the perfect time to sit on me.
I have made some modifications and started to use her as a type of "yoga brick"; since my legs are so tight I can barely touch the floor, so it's nice to have her for balance when I attempt to touch the ground.
I think a yoga mat would actually be a good "bed" for dogs who might chew a regular bed, or have accidents in their crate. It would be really easy to wipe down, and still provide padding. I tested it out in Miss M's bed, and she sprung right in so she could lay on it. She still refused to move:At the same time, I've seen her practicing her moves around the house: "Downward Dog"Probably so she could pretend she's a natural on the mat:

Doggystyle: On Pooches & Raingear

We have been very lucky to have a nearly rain-free summer. It wasn't until yesterday we had a morning shower and we had to pull out the pooches' raincoats for their morning walk.
Since we live in the city without a yard, we don't have any option but to go for a walk whether it's raining, sleeting, snowing, or just plain cold. What I have learned is if we dress appropriately it really isn't that bad.We picked up these Ruff Wear Sun Shower jackets for the pooches to wear during downpours. If we can prevent the pooches from getting dirty in the first place, it decreases the amount of time we have to spend later cleaning our place and cleaning our dirty dogs. We like that these jackets cover the undersides of our dogs, especially because we encounter so many puddles, mud, and random Chicago grime. We are partial to the Ruff Wear line because they do fit over big pittie chests, and they have adjustable straps. Miss M especially likes that these have a hood to protect her delicate and dainty face:
We have had these coats a couple of years, and we did find an online sale where we were able to pay significantly less than the listed price. We even keep the coats on our coat rack right next to the pooches' leashes and seat belts.
At the same time, the walks are much more fun when I can keep dry also. In addition to my trenchcoat, I wear Tretorn's Plask Rainboots. They are super comfortable, and great at keeping me dry. While they discontinued my specific style, I did spy Tretorn's Langta boots which look really nice. Coincidentally, E bought Tretorn's Strala Rain Boot which work tons better than his traditional Vans at keeping his feet dry.
Miss M especially hates getting wet, and whenever she's wet she likes to try running and zooming around. The raincoats save us from this excitement, but I wonder whether other dogs react to being wet in this way?

Pooches: Daily Walk in 10 Pictures 09.01.10: Downtown Chicago

We were lucky enough to have last weekend's daily walk in downtown Chicago. While we're less than 2 miles from downtown, we rarely take the pooches downtown because we know they would be too tired to walk back home.

Right before we boarded the boat for the Mercury Canine Cruise, we took a quick stroll around downtown. It's pretty rare to see dogs as big as Mr. B and Miss M downtown; most of the downtown dogs are smaller to accommodate high-rise pet size restrictions. Being oddities, they got a lot of pets, stares, and waves.
While crossing the bridge, Mr. B took this photo, with his Pet's Eyeview Camera, to showcase Ms. M's boating attire.

Since we hardly come downtown, we wanted to capture some great landmarks of Chicago such as A's old place of work: the Wrigley Building.

While A was taking this picture of the pooches along the Magnificent Mile, Michigan Avenue,

Mr. B caught this great photo of her on his camera.

Here is his view of Michigan Avenue.

Before we knew it, we had to head back across the bridge to catch the boat, but

Mr. B had to sit and wait on the bridge,

so he took this nice picture of the Chicago River,

while we waited for Ms. M to walk across the bridge. Poor Ms. M, she was really freaked out by the bridge, she crouched down and walked really slow like she was going to fall through.