Dr. Sally Witt radio show

I will be appearing on the Dr. Sally Witt radio show tomorrow (Wednesday, April 29). The info is linked here. Check out an interview we did on you tube: Interview #2.

Fetchapalooza Part II

A few more Fetchapalooza photos. I honestly don't get why black dogs aren't adopted. While I only have one black dog, it's not because I don't like them. I'm not even breed specific. Heck, we don't even really know what Chaco is. Still, it was sad to see that several of the dogs left Sunday afternoon were black dogs. But it surprised me earlier in the day to see one yellowish looking dog with brown spots still looking for a home. Later, her new family came by and they bought her a new collar and leash from TLC Pet Hospital, the table next to me. I told the man I was glad they adopted her, their second dog. Her name is Bella and she is the yellow dog on the left in the photo above.

Fetchapalooza

On Saturday morning, I took my dogs out to run a little earlier because I needed to be at the ABQ Journal (where Fetchapalooza was to take place) around 7:30. As I was coming back to the house with Daisy, I stopped to say hi to an older woman who walks regularly in the morning. She remembered Daisy's name and went to pet Daisy. I was a little nervous because Daisy has this bad habit (thanks to everyone who encouraged Hattie to jump on them when she was a puppy...) of wanting to jump on people. Daisy, however, forgets that she is not 25 pounds anymore and when she stretches, she is about 6 feet long. But Daisy went and stood next to the woman and let her pet Daisy. Whew. Then when I brought Nestle and Hattie out, I saw a woman in the next block. But she didn't have her dog. I knew instantly the dog had to have died but I didn't want to assume. She confirmed my suspicion when I asked and Nestle went to her and leaned on the woman so the woman could pet her. The woman said she needed some dog attention and was glad to see us. So before I even left for Fetchapalooza, my dogs were offering hope to others. All before 8 am on a Saturday! The Fetchapalooza event was incredible. About 630 dogs found homes! I was there for two days speaking several times about Ginger's Gift, talking with people, and watching people with their pets– both old and new. I partnered with TLC Pet Hospital (my vet clinic) for the booth. You can see the crowd coming in. They had to hold people back until all the pet organizations had unloaded and were ready. It was incredible watching people come by with their new additions. I saw two kids arguing over who was going to walk the new dog to the car. My hope is that in several years they still will be arguing about the same thing! But many of these people appeared to already have pets or had pets in the past so hopefully all 630 found new and happy forever homes. Some animal organizations went home without any pets and the event set a national record for adoptions in a single event. Enjoy the photos! I am shameless about posing with the Petco mascots by the way. I buy my food there for Nestle, Daisy, and Hattie as well as Ginger's food when we are in Chicago. We need that free 10th bag!

Too long without a blog and a dog presentation

I didn't realize it had been three weeks since I blogged. I guess the dogs haven't done anything too exciting in that time. I am just back from San Francisco for the American Association of Suicidology conference where I was installed as the new President-Elect, a position I will hold for two years before becoming president. While there, I presented a session on how dogs help people cope with Jennifer Emmert from the San Francisco SPCA. She brought two therapy dogs and their guardians: Carol Hulse and Silver and Jo Kaufman and Kobe. As you can imagine, the dogs were a hit. When people arrived for the session, the immediately went to Silver (Kobe hadn't arrived yet) because most of us had been away from home all week and we were missing our own dogs. I'm including a few photos from the session. Near the end, when Jennifer was answering a question, I sat down in the front row and heard what sounded like snoring behind me. I kept thinking that surely it wasn't either of the women sitting behind me. Then I realized it was Kobe, sound asleep in Jo's lap! The weather has warmed up, finally, here in Albuquerque and the dogs will be taking a swim this afternoon. I convinced Nestle to get in the pool before I left but she only got as far as her paws before she jumped out. I believe the water temperature was about 63 degrees. Brrrrr! She wouldn't be a good hunting dog since she's been too spoiled at our house. The solar cover is on the pool now and I anticipate the pool water will be about 80 when we roll it off later this afternoon.