Teaching Dogs to Potty: My First Foxie

Visiting my dad in Virginia this week has made me a bit nostalgic for the old family dog. Of course he was a smooth coat fox terrier too, and the reason that I turned to the breed again when it came time to adopt my own pet. However, Duncan, the first foxie, did not prepare [...]

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Cautionary Tails: Dog Bite Fiasco, Finale

Finally: the last installment in my three-part tail and some helpful pointers for anyone dogwalking in Brooklyn, aka the borough of the beast that bit my dog. Here are parts one and two if you missed them.

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Cautionary Tails: Dog Bite Fiasco, Part Two

Note: Thanks to everyone who got worried and wrote in. I mentioned in post one that this was last spring but if you just read this post and missed that, you might have thought my dog was still hurt. Sorry for the alarm. This is a true story but it is 9 months old. Raleigh [...]

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Cautionary Tails: Dog Bite Fiasco of Last Spring

In this, the first of a two part series, I shall share the true tail of how Raleigh was attacked and bitten by a Great Dane. As usual, I will start with a disclaimer. I am told Great Danes are gentle giants and I not writing to slam the breed. I don’t know any personally [...]

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Cautionary Tails: A Bad Name For a Dog

Yesterday Owner told you all about how we got our name. And while it may not all have worked out the way she planned, we have been really happy with it. (But let’s face it. We started life as Dolly, so there was no where to go but up). We know that letting your Owner [...]

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Epilogue: Snickers Satisfies

About a month after the Snickers saga, I got an email from his new Owners, Natasha and Jeremy, which gives this story a happier ending than the one I wrote yesterday. Once in New Jersey, Snickers became Mason. Here is what his new mommy and daddy said: Mason is a great dog!  He is such [...]

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Cautionary Tails: Foster Dog Story Finale

If you are just joining this story, it would seem you’ve caught the tail end. Please start here and then go here. Once Snickers had pissed on everything in my home and pissed off everyone in it, I was feeling pretty bad. Taking him back would mean that he would be put down, so the [...]

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Cautionary Tails: Foster Dog Story Part Two

In this part two of three in this series, I shall relate a tail of destruction. For background please see my earlier post, Part One. After the car ride of vomit, you would think things could only get better. Snickers would now have love and affection, a park nearby, and an escape from the confines [...]

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Cautionary Tails: Foster Dog Story Part One

I have been reluctant to write this post for many reasons. I think it is best to start with a disclaimer: If you have the opportunity to foster a dog, DO IT. You will be saving a dog’s life and no matter what happens to your apartment, your life, and your sanity, you will eventually feel good about it. Even really good about it.

There was a time, a quieter calmer time, in which I did not yet own Raleigh. I had been thinking about adopting a dog for a really long time, but I was nervous about having my first dog all to myself and wanted to try it out. So I contacted the ASPCA in New York and asked if I could foster a dog. I figured that if I came to love the dog I brought home I would keep it, and if it didn’t work out I would pass it along with no hard feelings.

I should mention that it was 2007 and I was living in a tiny apartment with two roommates who needed a little convincing on this issue. Somehow I got through that and a very short application. Within a few days, I was called up to the ASPCA to pick up my dog, a pit bull mix.

I should have known when they told me the dog’s name that something was off. There are a lot of dumb dog names out there. And then there are the ones that make you just say, “Hey Dog,” in public, because the thought of yelling them out in a crowd is just too embarressing.

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you, Snickers.

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