Sorry, Bobby, you’ll need to ride on the Condensed Bus

When I left my house at 1:45 for a meeting, it wasn’t raining. 10 minutes later, after parking my car downtown, I got caught in a deluge. This wasn’t just runoff — it’s been raining for the last couple of days here. It caught us all by surprise. I needed to cross the street I filmed here. What fun it is, showing up drenched for a meeting at an art museum :/

I love, love, love this ad. So much is said in 30 seconds, it kind of blows me away. The look on the dad’s face goes from mortified to embarrassed to relieved to absolute love in a matter of seconds.

This ad gives me hope. It encourages me to keep believing that the world is changing for the better.

I wish Renault still sold their cars in the US. I’d be first in line to buy one, just because of this ad.

via sexgenderbody and HT to @penguirl for pointing it out

It's not nearly the kitty prison it might seem

Six posts into my new blog and 5 of them are about dogs. Yes, I’m a big dog person, for sure. But don’t worry, cat loves. I like the kitties too.

Every week my friend Jan and I go the the Austin Humane Society to “interview” cats. We write bios for their web site to encourage people to adopt them.

AHS is a really great place. It’s a no-kill shelter, and the animals their get great care and tons of attention.

Gizzy got adopted before we even wrote her bio

It’s hard, sometimes, not to go home with another animal, but so far I’ve resisted. I can’t say the same for Jan, who recently fell in love with a sweet kitty and had to bring her home.

To be honest, if I were sure my dogs would handle the addition of a cat, I’d probably get one.

Hopeful Dog is Hopeful

Any guesses as to whether or not Tip got a bite?

Just what I need, a new lovable lug

Over the past 2 months I’ve had as many as 8 dogs living at my house. I have 3, and Tina has been visiting with anywhere from 3 to 5 of hers. In between Deb visited with her dog. There’s been the occasional kerfuffle, but mostly it’s been awesome.

Nonetheless, when Tina left with her pack yesterday, it was a bit of a relief to be back down to just my 3.

This morning at 6am, my pack started barking. A lot. I assumed at first it was some critter crossing the fence that’s withing view of my bedroom windows, but  quickly ruled that out. By 6:15 I was wide awake, got up, and let them out. They immediately ran to the back of my house and resumed their rather frantic barking. It was still dark out, so in the interest of not totally pissing off my neighbors, I went outside to calm them down.

I saw a large creature across the street. I could only see his eyes and a vague outline of his body. I was pretty sure it was a dog, although it seemed big enough to be something else, but nothing else realistic came to mind.

Once he saw me petting my own pooches, he trotted across the street and introduced himself.

The loveable lug gets *way* too comfortable

This was one big dog. I’d guess 90-100 lbs. All black, obviously a lab mix, but a mix with what I didn’t know. Rottweiler? Newfoundland? Maybe just a huge lab? He had some purple on his tongue, so there was certainly some Chow in the mix.

Anyway, my pooches loved him, and he loved them. They played for hours. I posted info about him on several lost-pet sites, tweeted about him, and sent info to the neighborhood mailing list, to no avail.

I had to leave around 11. I got home as early as I could, around 3:45, by which time he was gone. I hope he found his way home.

I’m not at all sad he wasn’t here when I got home. NOT AT ALL. Nope, not one bit. Not even a little.

Maybe he’ll show up again tomorrow…

Trucker & Tina – best pals

It’s never easy saying goodbye to a beloved pet. Finding a way to make the last couple of days good goes a long way, though.

I met Trucker, one of 5 dogs belonging to Tina, a couple of years ago. He was the epitome of a “loveable lug”. Big, gentle, slow-moving, on the awkward side, he was happy to be at the back of the pack. He had lots of nicknames — Gramps, Bud Light, Bubba — and they all fit.

When he arrived in my home once again a couple of weeks ago, it was meant to be a transition. Tina is moving from Marfa (her home for the last 6 months) to New York. She planned to take 4 of the dogs, but for a variety of reasons it seemed like a bad move for Trucker, so he was going to stay with me.

Trucker in better days, with Jack Maverick

And I was looking forward to it. Dogs don’t get much more low maintenance than Trucker. He did have a tendency to wander, so Tina got him a collar that worked with my invisible fence just in case, but I really wasn’t too worried about things.

He had been behaving oddly for a couple of weeks before arriving, though, and really went downhill not long after he got here. After many difficult nights, we took him to the vet and came home with a diagnosis of kidney failure and a brain tumor. His time was up.

We got some drugs to make his last couple of days bearable and allow Trucker, Tina, and me to get some desperately needed sleep.

Trucker thoroughly enjoying his last meal

This morning, Tina and I took him to Longview Park, Trucker’s favorite place in the world. Friends Adam, Jenny, Sal, Rick, and Jilli were there to. For about 45 minutes he was happy as can be, trotting around and seeming to forget his aches and pains and confusion. Sal and Jenny brought him a burger and fries, which he enjoyed immensely.

Everyone said their goodbyes, and a little after noon today, he died peacefully and painlessly with Tina, Adam, and me holding him.

Bye, Trucker. You were an awesome dog, and we’ll all miss you.

Bye, Trucker

Celebrity Yorkie Jilli Dog

Jilli Dog is quite the celebrity. She’s been on Live with Regis and Kelly, has been featured on Animal Planet, and has played poker with Bette Midler. It just so happens that her trainer, Rick Caran, is the brother-in-law of Tina Rosenzweig, who’s been staying with me for a couple of weeks.

Jilli has a big show in Dallas later this week, so Rick brought her to the San Jose Hotel for a dress rehearsal. Unfortunately she was feeling a bit under the weather, so we didn’t get the whole show, but we did get to see her say hi, dance around a bit, and shoot some hoops. This is one entertaining little Yorkie. Everyone loved her, and she loved everyone right back.

Jilli Dog scores 2 points

Miller & Louis & Jilli Dog

There are tons of videos on her web site if you’d like to see her in action. I’ve heard from a couple of trainers that little dogs can’t really be trained. Jilli definitely proves the claim entirely wrong.

Vegetarian done right

Tonight I made Quinoa Risotto with Mushrooms and Thyme. I think of Risotto as a rice dish, so I figured it must be one of those Italian terms that refers to the cooking method rather than the ingredients. Nope — risotto is rice, period. Whoever came up with this recipe simply took liberties. I’m glad they did, because it was delicious.

My assumption that risotto might have a different meaning stems from an experience I had in Italy 10 years ago. I was in Florence, at a restaurant off the beaten tourist path. The menu, of course, was in Italian, and while I’m an adventurous eater, I found myself looking for familiar terms.

The first course I ordered wasn’t vegetables and pasta like I expected, but some kind of mixed organ meat platter. When I saw Carpaccio on the menu, I was thrilled. What better place to sample one of my favorite dishes than here? I anticipated a lovely plate of thinly-sliced raw beef.

But no.

Turns out carpaccio means “thinly-sliced and raw” but not necessarily “beef”. The dish that arrived clearly wasn’t dead cow. I look to the waiter, who spoke no English, pointed to the plate, and asked “Moooo?”

He shook his head no, put his hands in his armpits, flapped his elbows, and said “Quack, quack, quack!”

Great. Raw duck. Naturally I had to at least try it. And it was fabulous. Served with a bit of olive oil and arugula, it was some of the best raw meat I’ve ever had. It made me grateful to be willing to experiement.

Kody has a rough life

A picture a day. Every day. Maybe some words too. Going with a picture gives me some incentive to delve further into photography. Every day gets me in the habit of blogging. Will it work? We’ll see.

It’s fitting that the first picture is of one of my dogs. This is Kody, resting comfortably on the couch, enjoying pillow goodness courtesy of Tina Rosenzweig, who’s staying with me for a while prior to her move to New York.