Pets

PoP:

I am happy to report that the lost cocker spaniel, Coco, has been reunited with his relieved owners. Please convey my appreciation and gratitude to all your readers. Having grown a little jaded at the big city life, I really was amazed and touched by the outpouring of support and tips from a mere lost dog notice. Special thanks goes to Ms. M, who called and generously offered her time and assistance in distributing flyers and who was instrumental in locating the owners. Thanks to Parkwood for the spot-on tip, Julie for her offer to foster, and basically all your readers for showing me what a wonderful little community we have here. I’ve lived in Petworth for less than a year, and this experience has shown me I made the right decision in moving to this part of town!!!

“Nita”

From a reader:

“Would you be good enough to post information to help reunite an owner with his/her pet? I was dog-walking today around 2:00 p.m. and another dog joined us at the Kansas Avenue / 13th Street intersection. I looked for the owner nearby but didn’t see anyone. The dog had a collar but no ID tags. The dog attached itself to my dog and kept following us, so I walked back and forth on the block hoping it would tire of us and go home. When that didn’t work, I knocked on the doors of homes with open gates, and asked people out on their porches if they knew who the dog belonged, but no luck. The dog was really enjoying running around but that included, unfortunately, running into the street so I put it on the leash to be safe and took it to Friendship Hospital for Animals to see if it had a tracking chip, but no luck there either. It is well groomed and seems to be healthy (and really would be a worthy candidate for your “coolest pet” competition). The vet said it appears to be a cocker spaniel mix. To make sure it goes to the rightful owner, callers should be able to describe the dog’s collar, should know whether the dog is neutered/fixed, and identify the dog’s: 1) gender; 2) age; and 3) color. Callers can reach me through my cell at 202-309-4544. I can keep the dog about a week, but after that I’ll probably have to bring it to the Washington Rescue League, as I am a cat owner.”

Check out Eric’s personal blog here.

If you aren’t a dog person, you simply aren’t going to get it.

It’s one of those things that when you mention it to non-believers, you find yourself offering all kinds of explanations and caveats.

Doggie day care.

Now, when I was a kid, our dogs were pretty low maintenance–or at least that’s the way I remember it. Unless something was hanging out of an orifice or the animal was bleeding (profusely, at that), the family dog seemed to get along just fine without fussing over it too much. Then again, I also have memories of being a young child sitting in the front seat of my parents’ car with them smoking, with the windows rolled up, and none of us wearing seat belts–so we probably aren’t the best model to use.

Before we got our French bulldog, Lolly, I openly scoffed at doggie day care, thinking it was for all the crazy dog people who anthropomorphize their pets into “fuzzy children.” Then one day–I think it was shortly after the puppy decided to chew on a wall for entertainment–we decided to give it a try.

Once you see a dog coming home from a day at doggie day care, you become a convert (we take Lolly about once a week for a full-day). It’s like they’ve been to a spa. They are relaxed and calm. It’s obvious they’ve spent the day working stuff out that a walk around the block or a quick butt-sniffing with the neighbor dog can’t accomplish.

We moved to Petworth from Rockville about two months after we discovered doggie day care and were really worried about where we’d take Lolly. Then I saw a brief mention in a PoP posting by Intangible Arts about Little Rascals, a new dog day care and indoor dog park at 5917 Georgia Avenue. Story continues after the jump. (more…)

Meet Blakeley and Rex (Miniature Schnauzers). They live in Petworth (Up in North Country).  Finalists announced August 15th.

Back in January we had a coolest pet in Petworth contest. I’ve recently been approached to start up a new contest including all the PoP neighborhoods – Petworth (if you didn’t enter last time), Columbia Heights, U Street, Logan Circle, Shaw, Mt. Pleasant, hell wherever you live. So without further ado the first entry is “Kilo” from Park View.

You can send your photos to [email protected] for the next two weeks and I’ll pick the finalists and you guys will pick the winner with the fancy new poll feature. Good luck.

How could you walk by this and not take a picture…