Pooches: Mr. B the Photojournalist

We've been wanting to get Mr. B the Uncle Milton Pet's EyeView Camera, but we were very hesitant because of the mixed reviews on Amazon.com. Despite the poor reviews, we decided to turn Mr. B into a photographer. The camera has a plastic clip that clips onto the collar or harness and the camera hangs down from the clip. The only thing is that since the camera has to hang down for it to be positioned correctly, Mr. B's tongue can get in the way. The camera has a 40 picture capacity and a built in timer with interval settings at 1, 5 or 15 minutes. For our short walks, we have found the 1 minute interval to work well and our long walks we switch between 1 and 5 minutes, depending on where we are; I wish there was a 2 or 3 minute interval. The picture resolution is 640 x 480 and we have read accounts of damaged cameras from pets drinking water, since it's not waterproof. We noticed that most of our pictures come out blurry, since the camera is moving a lot on our walks and some pictures are distorted from Mr. B's drool, but we do get some interesting photos and it's actually quite exciting to download the pictures to see what came out. Here are some of our test shots from Mr. B using the camera at home.
Sitting out on the porch in the sun and really hot weather with Wilma.Laying at the foot of the patio furniture.
Watching Ms. M getting reprimanded for scratching her face to the point that it started bleeding and she now has to wear the beloved cone.
Checking out the paws.
Hanging out indoors after they have been konged. Watching Ms. M as she does what she does best. We would have had more interesting photos, but we decided to come back and take the pooches with us.
Stay tuned for Mr. B's photos for the daily walks.

Pooches: The Extra Summer Room Updates

Being Chicagoans, we spend a lot of time holed up in the winter which make our summers that much more important. During the summer there are multiple street fests every weekend, people flooding the parks and beaches, and outdoor dining on every block.
We wrote before about how we're lucky enough to have a deck that we make into an "extra room" in the summer. Somehow every magazine reads better, and all food tastes better, when outside.
Since we last posted about how we set up our outdoor space we have added some new additions. Here are the before pictures:
And the afters where we actually have plants and nature:
Adding flower boxes makes a huge difference. All the outdoor dining areas have them, as required by law in Chicago, but it does make everything look so much nicer.
We're also growing some herbs: mint, chives, basil, cilantro, rosemary, and thyme; as a result, we've been enjoying many mojitos and caprese salads.
E was brave enough to add some string lights to the top of our deck so we can feel like every night is a European vacation (note the unlit photo):
The pooches love to be outside:Especially Mr. B. He is actually from Michigan, and he used to live in the country. He likes to be outside so much that he will brave rain, heat, and even fireworks just to lie on the deck.
And because this is the city, even though we do live in a high gated area, we always make sure to supervise our dogs at all times.

Pooches: The Bully Breed

Miss M is a definite bully. When we decided to foster, we weren't sure how well she would do with another female dog in the house. Fortunately for us, our foster dog Wilma is quite submissive and Miss M relishes the idea of having someone new to push around and use as furniture.
At the same time, Miss M has been taking this role in stride and has been mentoring Wilma on the roles in the house. With Miss M as her guide, Wilma has been picking up quickly, learning down commands and the appropriate places to lay in the house:
And of course, Miss M loves the power of having 2 dogs under her command:

Pooches: Mr. B's Bone

Poor Mr. B, now that Wilma has joined the pack, he gets more of his toys taken away from him. It was bad enough that Ms. M would use her monster paws to grab a bone that he was chewing or a toy that he was playing with, but now Wilma will just come right up and grab the bone or toy away from him. We thought that our pooch hierarchy would have Ms. M at the top, Mr. B in the middle and Wilma at the bottom, but it turns out that Mr. B is still at the bottom. In addition to his mini me, his other favorite is this fuzzy bone. Just like his mini me, he wants to take his fuzzy bone on the walk with him. This all started when Wilma kept taking the fuzzy bone, whenever Mr. B wanted to play with it.
He was so insistent on taking his fuzzy bone with him, that we couldn't resist. We think it is to ensure that he is the first to play with it when we get back.
Since it was really hot out, he would randomly drop it during our walk, so we would pick it up and throw it all over the place. Mr. B would get so excited, that he would accidentally toss it in the air and hop around when he tried to grab it.
He would eventually calm down and pick up the fuzzy bone.
After awhile it was just too hot for him to carry and he chose panting over carrying his beloved toy.
So he decided to place the bone on his harness and carry it like a backpack,
away from the clutches of the evil step-pooch, Wilma.

Pooches: Daily Walk in 10 Pictures 07.14.10

Though it rained at times throughout this weekend, we found nice windows of opportunity to take the pooches on walks. Our neighbors down the block (all in their 20s and 30s) found a window of nice weather to throw a kiddie pool party in the middle of the sidewalk. Ms. M really wanted to jump in the pool, but we were worried that one slip of her toenail would lead to a disastrous end to their kiddie pool and party. The pack of two pitties in the city is now
a pack of three pitties in the city. Wilma is now walking in stride with the two beasts and
even sits at corners with the two beasts.
With three dogs, sometimes one will stick his huge head and ruin a great picture of the other pooches. This would have been such a great picture of Wilma and Ms. M.
It was great to see all these families having fun at the kid fest part of West Fest. They had bands, games and even pony rides.
There are so many aspects of our neighborhood that we take for granted like this live chicken place, that has been here for years. On random mornings, we will hear roosters crowing and the clucking of hens being delivered.
In the shop, you will see chicken running around the store.
Just a block from us is this fresh fruit truck. Though it would seem that this would be a staple of our neighborhood, seeing that we have a live chicken stop, this truck has only started coming by last year. I'm not sure how fresh their fruit really is, since some of them look like they have Jewel price stickers.

Chicagoing: West Fest Neighborhood Festival

It seems like every year, West Fest keeps getting bigger and better. This is one festival that we try to attend every year. This festival has something for everyone: live music, DJs, dog stuff and kid stuff, plus it is just down the street from us. Ms. M loves going to festivals, because there are great treasures to be found, like this empty beer cup. Lucky for her, but unlucky for us, there were dropped food and spilled beer everywhere on the festival grounds.
While many of the festival goers were people watching, we were busy animal watching. West Fest is one of the most dog friendly neighborhood festival.There are other animals besides dogs, here is Percy the iguana with her owner.
The only sad thing was that it rained on and off while we were at the festival. However, we were able to find a dry spot and the pooches waited nicely, while
it rained and all this was going on around them.
Eventually, Mr. B found a more comfortable spot on the sidewalk.
A is a big fan of carny food, and she really enjoyed the fine dining experience, which included our first ever elephant ear, courtesy of our friend, M.The best part of the festival were all the people that we met. There were so many people that came up to meet the pooches and it was nice that Wilma was so popular and we were able to talk to potential adopters.

Pooches: Reputable Dog Rescue Groups

We have been very lucky not only to adopt amazing dogs, but to have been able to work with outstanding rescue groups as well.We had heard of some people having problems with unreputable rescues, so we are very happy to work with groups that go above and beyond.
Miss M is part of the New Leash on Life family. This past weekend they had an "alumni reunion event" in front of Wrigley Field. We love how New Leash has events to keep in touch with past adoptees, and we really do feel like we are part of a larger family. The event asked families to bring their pooches while they had special treats and photo opportunities. It was fun to see dogs I'd seen on their adoption website living happy lives with their new families.
Another thing we like about New Leash is they work extra hard to adopt out dogs that many people consider unadoptable. They have successfully adopted out many: deaf dogs, Senior dogs, bully breeds, and "bonded pairs". We are so happy that they rescued Miss M mere days before she was scheduled to be put down. She was a gangly, over-excited, mange-ridden dog, but we are glad they took a chance on her.
Another Chicago area rescue we really like is Wilma's rescue group Project Rescue. They are newer on the scene and associated with our doggie daycare. They are huge pitbull advocates and have a wealth of training and expertise. They have been extremely successful with their adoptions and have had their dogs 'flying out the door' and being adopted into new homes. They found us the perfect foster dog match, and they've been doing many great fundraisers allowing them to rescue even more dogs.We also were happy to work with Kalamazoo Animal Rescue, located all the way in Kalamazoo, Michigan, to adopt Mr. B. We wanted an adult male pitbull and surprisingly couldn't find any matches in the city. After locating him on Petfinder, his foster mom returned our request immediately, and we had several in-depth emails and phone conversations before coming out to meet him. Their rescue has so many dedicated volunteers who take multiple foster dogs into their own homes. We are still in contact with Mr. B's foster mom.
These are just some of our experiences with local rescue groups. What are some other positive experiences you've had with rescues?