West Village Dog

Charlie & Sailor

Several weeks have passed since the new additions to the family have arrived home to my parents house and they are already a part of the family.  Charlie is a Bernese Mountain Dog and Sailor is a Golden Retriever.  My parents were finally ready for another dog and decided to get two instead of one.  They both wanted a puppy of each breed and after many months of being on lists of certain breeders, their two new little girls were born on the same day!  Both pups are 12 weeks old today.

Although I do not support “buying” dogs from breeders, as there are so many amazing dogs that need loving homes in shelters, I do respect that my parents wanted pure bred dogs (puppies) of these specific breeds (and there was no talking them out of that!)  I did assist them in researching rescue organizations of both breeds but  didn’t find many available puppies that needed to be rescued.  As one can imagine, puppies are always the first to be adopted.

I am loving watching these girls grow and their personalities develop.  I am pretty positive that Sophie, on the other hand, wishes they were already big so that she could have some buddies to wrestle with her!

Sophie and Sailor

Sophie and Lo preparing for the walk!

The rain wasn't stopping this little one!

Team SMK!

We spent the rainy Sunday morning with lots of pups all in the name of raising awareness and money for research on Cancer in both people and dogs. Our team, SMK has raised over $1,800 with more on the way!

Thank you to everyone who donated!

I am participating in a DogWalk at Riverside Park here in Manhattan on May 3rd. I think it is fantastic that the American Cancer Society is having a walk focused on both Dogs and Humans with Cancer. I know myself and my family had a very hard time understanding and dealing with the disease when our beloved Dog Murphy was diagnosed. It will have been almost 3 years ago this coming month since she passed away.

Please visit our team’s site and if you can donate (even a little) it will be helpful!

http://main.acsevents.org/site/TR?px=10743160&pg=personal&fr_id=19024

I am aiming towards a $1,000 goal!

Jess, Murph and me

Waking up to the sun brightly shining through my window in the morning gives me hope that the Winter’s chill is slowly but surely headed into hibernation.

Last Fall I discovered a program called Outdoor Bound (not to be confused with Outward Bound,) which is based here in New York City. After perusing the trips they offer on their website, I was pleasantly surprised to see a few hikes/trips that can include your dog! Any dog owner will tell you that leaving your dog at home while you head out for a hike almost seems pointless. This was the perfect answer. This great program offers day outings such as: bringing your dog to a beach to let them run while you do some wine tasting, 6 & 9 mile hikes around lakes in the Poughkeepsie area of New York and many others. The guides will pick you up in a van and drive you to the destination and lead the hike.  It is all too easy!

Sophie loved our hike. It was all off leash. I was nervous at first that she would take off and not come back, but the guides assured us that the dogs had all already formed a pack and would stick together and not run away. They were right. Sophie stayed very close to us while still managed to run and play with her new “pack.”

I look forward to trying the wine & beach excursion this Spring.

Here is a link to their website and some photos from the hike:

http://www.outdoorbound.com/index.php

Taking a break for some lunch...

Two other dogs on the hike took advantage of the lovely lake!

The idea of “buying” a dog from a pet store makes my blood pressure rise quite a bit, I can’t lie. Then to see that pet stores actually put dogs on clearance/sale…well that just makes me a crazy person.

Sometimes I try to pretend as though the people who are buying the dogs are just completely uneducated and actually think they are doing the right thing . So, I am going to try to provide some links as I come upon them of information that might make a person think twice before they purchase a dog from a pet store. I found a great article that breaks down ten reasons why NOT to buy a dog from a pet store. I encourage everyone to take a look.

http://hattrick-dals.home.att.net/10Reasons.html

We were told by the locals in Exuma, where we rescued Sophie, about the meaning behind the name “Potcake.” They told us the name came from the stories of the locals on the island who would feed the stray/mixed breed dogs the caked remains from their cooking pots.

There are efforts being made to help control the population of these strays by spaying/neutering but it is very hard to keep up. The feral dog population of the islands is growing, and many litters of puppies are being found, some all alone without their litter mates or Mother. They are being found all over the island from locals backyards, construction sites, even the airport! There are a few websites I have found that are trying very hard to find homes for these little ones and are even willing to pay the cost to fly them back with tourists visiting the island in order to get them to new homes in big cities. See some links below for these great websites:

www.potcakeplace.com

www.potcake.org/

www.potcakefoundation.com/pg1.html

I knew very little, actually had never even heard the word “Potcake” until our trip to Exuma, Bahamas. Our intentions for the trip were not to come back with a puppy, but that is what happened. Sophie was being kept in a pen on a beach by an inn keeper with about six other Potcakes, we estimated that she was about ten weeks old. We never met the Inn Keeper, only a guy who was paving the small street next to the Inn. He said the Inn Keeper was taking care of the puppies and trying to find them homes. There was a $1 fee to take one and we would have to go to the local “vet” on the island to get the paperwork that said she had had her shots in order to bring her back to the States. He gave us her paperwork and we were off. Our bohemian potcake was headed to the big apple to make her debut!