Tomokee goes hiking

Tomokee loves walking anywhere with good sniffs and enough vertical things (fence posts, trees, random bushes) to trigger marking behaviour. We went to Windy Hill in Portola Valley. There's a strong vertical climb up followed by lunch, then a meandering descent. Here, our friend Bob has just taken over driving T-dog.

During the descent, there's a nice creek for Tomokee to go splashing in and many other dogs for him to meet (he was very well behaved and really liked a dog appropriately named, "Two Socks"). The downside of having Two Socks ahead of us was Tomokee wanted to continue to play and so exhibited all the gentility of a GE diesel-electric locomotive... my fingers went numb holding him back.


When we got back to Bob's house, Tomokee was getting attention from Bob and spouse Nancy. While we were chatting, he just flumped himself down in the street with his head wedged against Bob's leg and, shortly after this shot was taken, began gently snoring. What a lug... a loveable lug, at least.

Daschund Day

The first Saturday of every month is daschund day in downtown Los Altos. Local daschunds (and their owners) gather together in one of the plazas, do whatever daschunds do when they are together, then take strolls around downtown. One of their favorite places to visit is the local Five Paw Bakery. Several of them are shown here in front of the store.

Coprophagia (Yeeesh)

So, Tomokee has a little "problem...." a poop-eating problem. This usually abates as beasties leave puppyhood. We think the problem is decreasing, but it's hard to address when we find the hound munching on a class-A growler. To try to make this behaviour less attractive, we've tried the "Deter" product and adding pineapple to the dog's food. He seems to like both.

Now, one of the things folks mentioned is that pineapple makes the dog's poop "taste worse." Who does these taste tests? Is this some sort of reality show (Fear Factor?) fodder? Maybe this explains the faces David Caruso makes on CSI Miami ("That, Frank, [pregnant pause whilst bronze sunglasses are installed, using both hands as oculists recommend] had pineapple in it [head tilted, grimace]!").

At least the frequency of this behaviour is decreasing. Whether any of this has anything to do with these treatments is unclear. We just hope it's something that passes as T-dog enters adulthood.

Seafood

We've discovered that Tomokee likes shrimp tails. Go figure. Hopefully, he is not allergic to shellfish.

Another stint at the boarding kennel

We went on a short trip to Las Vegas this week, so Tomokee went to the local PetsHotel. His "Pawgress Report" seems better this second time around. At least he was not "loud all my playtimes".

Now, you're probably wondering why I have posted a photo of Bruce Willis. Well, I was wandering through the Miracle Mile Shops (which used to be the Desert Passage Shops), when I saw many persons-in-black (a.k.a. PIBs) wandering about outside a theater wearing VIP badges. They did not look like typical convention goers. Well, shortly thereafter, Bruce Willis emerges from the theater complete with entourage. He was nice enough to stop for a photo-op, and I was lucky enough to get one good picture. I believe the woman on his right is Carmen Electra, and the man in front is Andre Agassi. They were all there for some announcement about the re-branding of the Aladdin resort as the Planet Hollywood resort.

Field of Food

On Saturday morning, we went to a doggie Easter egg hunt sponsored by the local Five Paw Bakery as a benefit for the Palo Alto Animal Services. A good time was had by all, including about 200 dogs. The "eggs" were egg-shaped dog biscuits scattered throughout the open field. The event raised over $900 for the animal services organization.


Here's Tomokee sitting by one of the boundary markers for the egg hunt.

The mighty hunter has found a biscuit!

And, finally, Tomokee and a fellow egg hunter are sizing each other up.

Slurp slurp

Tomokee just loves yogurt. I don't know if he has a favorite flavor. Here's a video of him licking the container.