Stoutpup

Greetings! Dog-a-Thon 2008 totals are still rolling in, but our individual totals for the day came to $570.00! Thank you to everyone who participated in sponsoring us, your contributions make a difference! Even better, I have noticed that donations are STILL coming in online and in the mail, and this is wonderful! All these contributions go straight towards the The Humane Society for Tacoma and Pierce County. The closest I can get to a total for the entire event is for online contributions from firstgiving: 365 people have raised $74,082 for The Humane Society for Tacoma and Pierce County . My guess is double this for the number of people who collected off line. I hope there is some Tacoma News coverage that will surface soon for this very important event .

This year there were lots of lovely dogs! We saw a few Great Danes, Some Chinese Crested Powder Puffs, a few sable Huskies, Basset Hounds, Beagles and the list goes on. A dog lover’s paradise! Our Team Mixed Bag ‘o Mutts had a collective total of at least $4000.00. Way to Go Mikki & Puccini and Margaret, Fiona & Neva! You can see a little slideshow Margaret has posted from the event.

Lucy did really well on the 1 mile walk. She gets pretty tired these days, she’s no longer the 4 mile girl she was when she was 2! Also she gets more cranky than she used to. After a while she was over all the hub bub and actually snapped at Bosco the Bulldog and a nice Boxer. Wrinkle discrimination? I don’t know. It was embarrassing!

After the event we celebrated with lunch and a beer at the Spar, with Jeff and Andrea. The perfect ending to a perfect morning!

Thank you Corey for taking these the great pictures of the event featured in this post.

Special Thanks to Mom Cristina, Chica Fernandez, Julie, Dawn G, Dawn AJ, Mom Sue, Laura, Dee Dee, Andrea and Jeff, Dad Larry, an Anonymous Donor (Mazzy), Corey, Lucy and Deezy.

I’m not much for sports but the article here talks about two of my favorite things - Bulldogs and Design. As part of their rebranding, Louisiana Tech has redone their bulldog logo for consistency and fit. Apparently the athletics department was just using a bunch of random bulldogs as their logo (in paper documents at least) up until last year. As a designer, that baffles and fascinates me, but I like this article because it talks about the process of choosing just the right look for the Louisiana Tech bulldog.

Creating a new bulldog logo proved to be more difficult.

Buskirk said Tech considered about 12 basic bulldog concepts, with three or four variations of each concept.

Minor adjustments — as simple as removing a wrinkle, or reshaping the tongue, or adding teeth — were made until the logo looked just right.

He said by the end of the process, 50-60 different bulldog logos were considered.

“We looked at photos, we looked at an actual bulldog, people sent in photos, we looked at paintings,” Buskirk said. “It was really difficult. Some people wanted a real cartoonish bulldog, someone else wants a real aggressive one.”

The final bulldog logo features a white bulldog head with a red collar. “TECH” is written on the color in blue letters. A gray bulldog with identical features will also be used.

“We were trying to come up with a bulldog that fit Tech,” Buskirk said. “Well, what is Tech? It’s a lot of tradition, a lot of class, and that bulldog is an elite bulldog. He’s at the top of the mountain, not slobber-jawed with drool dripping down.”

I can’t think of a better way to spend the day than looking at 50-60 bulldog logos. No two bulldogs are the same. And Louisiana Tech gets it!

Hey people, here’s another reason to leash your dogs in public places and keep track of their crap. Read the article >>

This year’s annual Dog-A-Thon at Fort Steilacoom Park in Lakewood was a great success! With the help of our wonderful friends and family, Lucy and I were able to raise $565.00 exceeding our individual goal of last year’s $500.00. According to the News Tribune, about 1,500 people and 800 dogs turned out for the Dog-A-Thon. The event raised $159,883, exceeding last year’s amount and this year’s goal of $150,000. I am proud to say that Mixed Bag o’Mutts (our team) contributed a collective total of $2130.00 to that amount. I want to give a heartfelt thank you to my awesome team mates (Mikki & Puccini, Andrea, Laura & Buddy, Margaret & Fiona and of course little Lucy).

Puccini took first place in the ‘Tallest Dog’ category, but Chica lost her title for ‘Biggest Dog’ to a (barely) larger dog, a Mastiff. Lucy entered the cutest dog category and didn’t even make the final 5. If a bulldog can’t place in a local cutest dog contest, then I don’t know what! It was a hard call for the judges because there were so many great dogs there.

You can read the article, and see a picture of Chica in all her glory here. I’m hoping Corey will post some of his wonderful photos from the event soon too.

Special thanks to: Cristina & Robert, Dawn & Tim, Julie, Larry & Brigitte, Dee Dee & Frank, Jill, Brandon & Juliana, Sue & Frank, and Shaun. We love you guys. Slobbery bulldog kisses.

Talk about dog friendly towns… My beautiful talented friend Julie moved to Chicago earlier this year and recently I went to visit her. I just got back and am still reeling from the doggieness of it all. It seems every person that lives in Chicago has a dog! There were so many salons and specialty stores for dogs I did not know where to turn. My coup de etat dog purchase was a bumper sticker that says “My Bulldog is smarter than your honor student”. Ha Ha. Take that!

My coup de etat de fashion purchase was a sky blue corduroy coat donning flower appliqués. We did a lot of exploring, visiting cafes and restaurants in Roscoe Village and beyond. I missed Lucy — but luckily Harley (the beagle) was on hand to warm my bed at night, burrowing under the covers and snuggling close.

Of course in Roscoe Village there are many old timey bakeries, but one that caught our eye was “The Bulldog Bakery”. It was a modest Bakery, but we found just what we were looking for — Bulldog statues and pictures along with tasty pastries we ate for breakfast - no actual Bulldogs but that’s probably against code. Also in that neighborhood was a great clothing shop named “My Closet” and a famous bakery called “Dinkles.” And of course “WISHBONE”. A must go, with great breakfasts!!!! We discovered a great wine bar (named VOLO) in the neighborhood and some great local artist art galleries and boutiques. That was just a small slice of what we saw in Chicago, but Roscoe Village will always hold a special place for me. Armitage was where I bought my coat.

We did some of the major sight seeing like the Shedd Aquarium (very cool!) and shopping on State Street. Shedd Aqaurium is the largest indoor aquarium in the WORLD, and should not be missed by anyone who loves penguins, Beluga whales or aquatic life in general. There was a Komodo Dragon exhibit while I was there. The whole aquarium was truly an awesome and humbling experience.

And last but not least, we ate at a wonderful Latin Restaurant called Carnivale. It was beautifully designed and the food was fantastic, not to mention the awesome Mojitos. Check it out next time you’re in Chicago!

After a long dry summer in Washington, it has finally rained…for days…and continues to do so! That’s okay. It means Lucy doesn’t have to mow the lawn, but if she did, she would be properly attired with her little paddington bear outfit. Here she snoozes on the couch. Bulldogs hate the rain and will do everything in their power to not go outside if it’s wet, including poop in the house! Bad Lucy! Very bad. You have to watch them like a hawk. Turn your head when it’s raining for five minutes and a bulldog will run into another room where you are not and sneakily crouch!! Another problem that the rainy weather poses is the fact that there is no toy-toy playing outside. So all rain and no play makes a very frustrated bulldog. Here you can see that Lucy has turned into a wresting maniac because she has not been able to get her ya-yas out by chasing toys outside. She does this every day when Corey comes home.

I recently watched the movie “If Lucy Fell” starring Sarah Jessica Parker and Eric Schaeffer. It was on cable and I couldn’t resist — remembering how I had gone to the theater by myself to see this film, something I used to do a lot in Tucson. I have always loved the movies and I guess have always had a fondness for all things Lucy.

It’s once again Fall in Tacoma and I stole this picture of curious Lucy looking out the living room window at something she heard outside. This picture is so full of childlike wonder — I love it. We were in the middle of a bulldog clothing change for a photoshoot I was working on and as I turned to get the next Lucy outfit, I found her gazing at the street naked as can be. So funny to me. She’s like a kid.

I love my friends’ stories about the funny things their children do. Almost always I catch myself relating a similar story about what my dog did that was so childlike and as hilarious to me. Then I think. “Oh, I hope my friend did not think I was comparing her kid to a DOG.” Of course I am not comparing a child to a dog, but the things they do are so similar sometimes it makes me laugh. It’s only because (I think) on some level I can relate to the (at times)frustrating humor of it all. Animals are so human-like!

Anyways, we were doing a photoshoot because I have made all these reversible dog bandanas for my Aunt Louise’s craft fair to benefit my cousin Gabe’s Scholarship Fund. I wanted to show my merchandise in use. I tried to take pictures of the dogs outside because the lighting was better, but Lucy was crazy and would not sit still. In the above picture she is acting like a maniac, but I like the picture because you can see her little baby teeth, and she sort resembles a rabbit with those front teeth– not a Velveteen Rabbit (see previous post). But alas, she is the singing Warner Bros. frog because when I brought the photoshoot inside, she would not do a thing, just sort of started melting into the crack of the couch.

Lucy turned 3 years old this Halloween. It’s really hard to believe how time has gone by so quickly. I don’t remember my life BL (Before Lucy). Oh well. If Lucy looks possessed in this picture, it’s because she is! Possessed by the raggedy frisbee, that is! I didn’t buy her any toys this year, because really she’ll find any old ratty thing and think it’s the best thing ever. The more pitiful looking the toy, the better. Here’s a home video to prove it. This puff of a toy is also 3 years old, but it used to resemble a gingerbread man shape and has been sewn up more times than I care to count.

I guess it’s like the Velveteen Rabbit. Those of you who do not know that wonderful story will have to look it up! For an early birthday present Lucy got a Velveteen Warthog from her Aunt Dawn. It’s not really Velveteen, but as much as Lucy loves it daily, it is sure to become a REAL warthog with REAL warthog tears any day now. Lucy has gotten over the initial shock of the toy and now can relax with the thing in the same room instead of going nuts and forcing me to take the toy away.

While Lucy was celebrating her birthday at home in Tacoma, her littermate, Beauty, was also celebrating somewhere in her Washington home. I can see the resemblance of these two sisters. Here’s a picture of two other sisters on a recent trip to California. We are at Pt. Isabel where all the dogs run free to roll in mud. I saw a crazy eyed Frenchie at the snack bar - one eye blue, one brown.

Lucy and I want to give a shout out to Tim! Happy Birthday!

This weekend we loaded up the VW Beetle with our own little Beetle shaped dog in the back seat and took a ride to Buckley. While we didn’t find the truck parts we were initially in search of, we did find a fabulous Pumpkin Patch complete with Corn Maze and Monster Truck Rides. We decided to pull over, get out and let Lucy to choose her own pumpkin. You can see by the pictures that Lucy felt quite daunted by the task, or maybe it’s because as soon as she got out of the car she took a giant dump bewteen the rows of pumpkins and then felt embarrassed. I don’t know, but we got our big round pumpkin with the perfect stem and it’s waiting to be carved at our 4th annual Pumpkin Carving Party held at Jeff and Andrea’s.

On the drive home I took the world’s most boring home video ever.

Incidentally Lucy always has double happiness on October 31, because not only is it the best holiday of the year (Halloween!) it’s also her birthday. She’ll be 3 and has asked to dress up like a devil bulldog this year. So be on the lookout for Devil Lucy. LucyFur, that is.

Lucy has just discovered the new software “Comic Life” (Plasq.com) that has come bundled with her new Mac Pro. So far the Comic Life software is about the only good thing she has to say about this new computer, because even for a bulldog with no opposable thumbs and a limited skillset, the computer’s perfomance is not up to standards. Lucky for Lucy she’d much rather be creating comics of herself than actually working. Good thing, because it’s damn near impossible until she figures out what’s wrong with evil mac II which was purchased to replace evil mac I. You can check out her debut comic here and her 2 page followup  here.