I caught the following a while ago and it definitely inspired an ‘Awwww!’ moment from me:

Wow, it has been a while, hasn’t it? I promise (again) that I will try and update this site for everyone on a more regular basis! Yes, I admit that my ability to to consistently post has been an epic failure. However, I’m working on correcting that so that we can share in our pet stories!

Speaking of ‘Fail’, has anyone seen the Fail Dogs site? It is absolutely adorable! It is a view into the world of how dogs fail at various activities. Trust me, it isn’t something bad and it isn’t something that will get your blood boiling. In fact, you’ll probably notice many things that your very own pooch does. The site is composed of pictures of dogs do a number or hilarious things and the only narrative to appear is the word ‘FAIL’ to describe what the ultimate outcome will be.

The picture to the right reminds me of something that my own dog, Tobey, would do. In fact it even looks like my dog! As a dog walker we’ve met clients who do this all the time - you walk along and you think you’re going to have a spectacular walk and then all of a sudden BAM! Your puppy decides that it was much more comfortable laying in bed and snoozing for the rest of the day. Oh, dogs. You just can’t help but love them.

Some people would say that the Fail Dogs is a direct response to the LOLCats that were made popular by icanhascheezburger. If you’ve been on the internet within the past few years then you have undoubtedly run across the LOLCats. According to WikiPedia:

A Lolcat, or LOLCAT, is an image combining a photograph of an animal, most frequently a cat, with a humorous and idiosyncratic caption in (often) broken English—a dialect which is known as “Kitty Pidgin”,^[1] “lolspeak”, or Lolcat. The name “lolcat” is a compound word of “LOL” and “cat”.^[2][3] Another name is cat macro, being a type of image macro.^[4] Lolcats are created for photo sharing imageboards and other internet forums. Lolcats are similar to other anthropomorphic animal-based image macros such as the O RLY? owl.^[5]

When I take care of your pets I’m paranoid, and that’s really not such a bad thing. For both of us, really. Why? Simple - if I’m paranoid then I do a better job for you.

The above sentence may sound a little weird but let’s loook at it in this context - I am a trusted member of your inner circle. You allow me to come into your house and care for your little one, placing their life and well being in my hands. In order to earn that trust, I must work hard and be honest with you 110%. This is the basis of our trust relationship and it works well.

HOWEVER, I also realize that blind trust only goes so far. I would be remiss to think that you wouldn’t check on me ‘just to be sure’. That’s why I’m always cognizant of the fact that you, as a pet and home owner, have several tools available to you to make sure that I am honest. For instance:

• Hidden cameras - Face it, ‘nanny cams’ are available for consumers. They can be hidden anywhere and be activated by someething as simple as motion. As your pet sitter, I have no idea whether or not you use them and if you are monitoring me and how I interact with your pet. Trust me: this is a good thing. You have a family member and a home to protect. It is my duty as your service provider to be honest and behave appropriately in your home. Since I have no clue if you’re using a hidden camera I make sure that I do nothing to upset either you or your precious pet.
• Alarms - This is one of the best possible ways to keep track of time spent. If you have an alarm system in your house you may be able to run a report when it is disabled and enabled. This is a good approximation of when your pet sitter enters and leaves your home. I say approximation because your sitter may have arrived but had taken care of some business (getting your mail or packages, watering outdoor plants, retrieving or taking out garbage cans) before dealing with your alarm.
• Neighbors - Everyone remembers Mrs. Kravitz, the busy body neighbor from Bewitched. Believe it or not, she can sometimes be your best friend. What is better than an eye witness to how your pet sitter treats your pet and your home? If you are in good standing with your neighbors then it is in your best interest that they know who is entering and leaving your house while you’re gone. Again, it is my duty to act as a professional at all times. If your neighbor suspects that I am doing otherwise then I would expect them to tell you immediately so that you could come to me directly.

I wouldn’t take it as a personal slight if you took advantage of any of the above monitoring tools/techniques. If I was the person using a service such as mine, I would want to know as well. Sooner or later you should reach a level of trust with your sitter that you don’t feel that you need to do any of the above.

Last night I was downtown having dinner with a friend of mine. During the evening hours, Washington, DC, is transformed from the hustling, bustling business district to a more casual atmosphere. After dinner, as I walked to my car I checked my email on my phone. I was shocked and saddened to hear that our little Bogey had passed.

You may remember him from our Spotlight On Cal & Bogey article last year. He was a sweet little guy. and he is sorely missed. The news hit all of us like a mountain of bricks. I sat in my car for a while, sobbing uncotrollably and thinking about our short friend, his family, and his sibling Cal.

I will always remember him as my little RocketDog. He enjoyed a good laugh, a nice wrestle and a cold slice of cantaloupe on a warm day. He exuded a personality much, much larger than his little body. He was a wonderful client and a good friend. I’m positive that he was truly a valued family member.

It is my understanding that Karen, Bogey’s mom, made that very, very tough decision that many of us pet owners have to make at one point or another: rather than let her precious little boy continue suffering she decided to let him rest and put him down. Nobody ever wants to be faced with that decision.

We’re all selfish in one sense since we all want our little ones to live forever and be with us. On the eve of this Thanksgiving, I am so thankful for having met the little fuzzball. And I’m so grateful that I got the opportunity to take care of Bogey and his brother Cal.

Bogalicious, RocketDog, Napoleon. Bogey. You will sorely be missed. Even more, you will always be loved by your family and friends at Woofie’s.

View Cal & Bogey’s photo album at the Woofie’s Gallery at http://gallery.woofies.com/v/cal-bogey/.

I am so sorry that I have not been updating this site as often as I would like. The entire ‘real life’ thing gets in the way of the more fun aspects of this job

Thanksgiving is rapidly coming upon us. Goodness! Just over a week away as I write this! During the holiday season it becomes common for me to reflect on the year. While there have been great times and meeting new clients, I often find myself drifting into a melancholy whenever I think about the friends that we’ve lost this year.

Kahlua

We said good-bye to Kahlua this month. It was heartbreaking for us. She was an absolutely gorgeous Dobie, wearing her age well with a little bit of white about her face. She was the elder stateswoman while her sibling, Molson, was the gangly clown in the family. With a calm, easy going demeanor Kahlua easily stole our hearts when we met her. The expectation when you meet these dogs typically used as guards is that they will be mean and agressive - a stereotype that normally hurts the perception of the breed. Kahlua was proof that those stereotypes are baseless. She was gentle and loving. You just wanted to hold her and baby her because you knew that, as an older girl, a lot of attention probably went to her little brother. Woofie’s was lucky enough to see her on her last day. Saying good-bye is never easy.

Rascal Boo-Boo Bowers

Many of you may remember our spotlight on Rascal BooBoo Bowers. His companion, Joan, left us a lovely note on his spotlight. It is with a heavy heart that I now inform you, dear readers, that BooBoo has passed and has left this world. It happened the way it does with most of our beloved pets - unexpectedly. One day he seems fine and then it feels like you’ve blindsided by a truck. That silly little man is missed dearly. He was always such a joy to walk and he was always so dashing with his grooming.

Over the years we’ve lost many clients to sickness or old age. As a dog walker/pet sitter, it doesn’t really get easier the more you experience it. As with many of you owners, we develop close bonds with your babies. Sometimes it is easy for us to take them for granted. Other times we realize that their time on this earth is considerably shorter than ours. At woofies, we try to give your precious family members as much love and attention that we can in the short amount of time that we spend with them. The emotional attachment becomes very, very strong between walker and pet. When one of our clients passes on it hits us like a ton of bricks; we feel an ache in our hearts and sense of emptiness, too.

This year, I am thankful for all of our clients. I am lucky that I get to meet them, even if I only get to walk them once. I am thankful that these little beings, be they cats or dogs, fish or turtle, bring so much joy and enrich our lives so much. And please be assured this holiday season - we will care for four legged family members as if they were one of our very own.

Ok, I’ll ‘fess up: I moved away for a few months. I know, I know. You couldn’t tell because I kept posting here and it seems like I never left Northern Virginia. However, it is true. I lived in North Carolina for six months. It was, to say the least, uneventful. The differences in lifestyle was more than I could take - I actually missed the hustle and bustle and congestion of this area!

One thing that did hit me, though, was how different it is living in an apartment vs. living in a single family home. I know that several of you dear readers live in apartments. I lived in one for the six months that I was away. During that time it made me realize that I am walking my dogs more than when I lived in a single family home. I was lucky enough to be able to walk them during my lunch hour, too. Our schedule was almost chiseled in stone -

• an early morning walking when I woke up
• one walk right before I left for work
• during lunch
• as soon as I got home from work
• right before bed time

each walk was anywhere from a half mile to a mile long. Now, compare this with our habits now that I’m back in my single family home in Northern Virginia:

• an hour after I wake up
• right before I leave for work
• as soon as I come home
• right before bedtime

The main difference is that I would just open the door and let my pack run out into the backyard. This is not to say that I don’t exercise them. I chase them around and I tire them both out in the morning and in the evening; playing catch and romping around our yard for a good 20-30 minutes each time. However, it isn’t the same as when I lived in an apartment and had to walk my dogs.

Am I doing my dogs a disservice? The first person that tells me to hire a dog walker will get a karmic bop on the head!

Ah, yes. It is that time of the year when some of the spring litters are starting to come around. Here’s a hint for all of you puppy owners to be: sleep with a towel for a few nights. That’s right. Sleep with a towel and get it good and stinky with your scent Ok, maybe stinky is a “strong” word to use. However, this actually serves a purpose and it isn’t some cruel joke that your friendly neighborhood dogwalker is playing on you.

First things first - if you’re getting your puppy from a breeder then ask if you can give them a puppy towel. This is the towel that you will be sleeping with. Why on earth would you want to do this? Two reasons:

1. When the puppy is given the towel with your scent on it the little pooch will become accustomed to your smell. When it is 12 weeks old and ready to go home with you then your scent will already be a familiar smell
2. To cut down on the trauma and separation anxiety of being separated from its natural mother and litter mates, when you pick up your puppy the towel will have the smell of its canine family. Rather than being thrust into the company of a strange, new family your pup will have something to remember its brothers and sisters and its original puppy pile.

Good luck to all of you who are getting new dogs. Also, if you are looking for a new canine companion why not consider bringing in an older dog into your home? Old pups need some lovin’, too!

Meet Nora the Cat. I am not about to wax poetic about this adorable feline playing the piano. Let me just say that her playing is about as on par as some works of Philip Glass. You don’t know who Philip Glass is? Glass is a musical ‘minimalist’. I went through a phase in college where I thought that I would experience every type of music. Mind you, this was before the advent of mp3’s and ripping and sharing music. This is when you bought music on CD - those shiny round things you put in those players, remember? - and paid between $10 to $15 for one.  In my zealous campaign to  experience the world of music (jazz, New Jack Swing, hip hop, torch songs, broadway musicals, country AND western, taiko drums, etc.) I bought a Glass CD for $15.

And I got 90 minutes  of four notes being played over and over again, changing octaves two or three times.

Ergo, I applaud you, Nora. You go, kitty.

I am the proud owner of both dogs and cats. I’ve had pets as family members for as long as I can remember and I’ve loved each and every one of them with all my heart. One of my favorite things about owning pets are the numerous sounds they make. Dogs and cats are capable of making noises that you never thought you’d hear coming from their bodies.

Quackers.
I know of several cats who illicit a behavior similar to the one that my cat shows: She quacks. This is normally done when she sits her big, fluffy butt either on top of her litter box (which is next to a window) or on my desk (also near a window). As birds fly by or flop about the shrubs outside the window my kitty sits there smiling and…quacking. It is fascinating to watch, especially when you’re used to hearing ‘meow’ or ‘purrrrrrrrrrrr’ coming from this cat. Instead, you wind up hearing what can only be described as cat quacking. She sits, watches the birds and makes noises like someone twisting a balloon into animal shapes.

The birds, evil creatures of temptation that they are, mock her by flitting about the branches. A few have also taken to flying head first into the glass of my window. It isn’t uncommon for me to hear my cat chirping and then the sound of a thump:

cat: quack-quack-chirp-chirp-quack!
bird: THUMP! flit-flit-flit!

The Sounds of Comfort
Dogs, on the other hand, are all about the comfort. I have two dogs who both make the oddest noises. The large dog makes old man noises. When he’s super comfortable he stretches as long as he can get and then he grunts. Think as if you were stretching out in your bed right after you woke up from a nap and you stretched That’s what he does, all four legs stretched as far as possible and then ‘Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrunnnnngh!’.

As a side note, he makes the same comfort noise when you rub the insides of his ears. He leans into you and groans in ecstacy.

My other pooch likes growl/yawn at you after he wakes up from a nap. It is absolutely adorable! His little mouth forms into an ‘o’ and lets out a mix of ‘aroooo’ and ‘grrrrrrrrrrowl’, often accompanied by him scratching his stomach with one of his hind legs as he stands in front of you.

All of this is funny and cute…until night falls and you’re trying to sleep. The first time that I heard the comfort stretch and groan in the middle of the night I thought that an old man had snuck into my house and made himself at home. In the pitch black of night all I heard was ‘Uuuuuuuuuuuuungh!’ and then lip smacking. That just about made me jump out of my skin!

Another night time noise? When the large dog scratches he barely has any control over his leg. When he scratches his ears that rear foot comes forward and thumps on the floor. This makes the sound of someone rhythmically beating a drum. And again, this happens at night. I’ll be dead asleep and then hear: thump-thump-thump-thump-thump-thump…jingle-jingle-jingle! The jingling happens when he’s done and shakes his head. All of his tags act as little bells stabbing my brain in the middle of the night.

And through it all, I still go back to my initial statement: I love my pets with all my heart. This is what makes them “them”.

Ouch. Just…ouch.

Earlier this year two walkers for Woofie’s suffered injuries. One to her foot and the other to his shoulder. What you really don’t realize is how important these appendages are to pet sitters. The foot problem left one walker out for almost a month. How, exactly, would she be able to continue her job if surgery rendered her immobile? The answer: she couldn’t. In this profession it also becomes a cold hard fact that if you can’t get up and out for the day then you don’t get paid. And, unfortunately, all the love and affection that we have for all the pets doesn’t pay the bills. If it did then all of us pet sitters would be billionaires!

So there is one injury that seems like an obvious candidate to sideline a sitter. The other injury is a little more deceptive - the shoulder. Many times when we walkers take the dogs out we don’t realize how much of a toll it takes on our arms. Granted, after some parts of the busy season some of us have some pretty toned arms! But when we encounter a client that pulls relentlessly our upper bodies compensate to maintain control.    And where is one of the greatest weak points? You got it. The shoulder.

When the shoulder goes the constant pulling and tugging causes a great deal of discomfort. This is especially true if the injury occurs to your dominant arm. Moving about, picking up a small dog or cat or even putting on a leash can cause pain. Compound that with a dog that gets excited and tries to yank the sitter around and it is akin to having someone take a file to your nerves and muscle in your shoulder and grind them apart. The lack of mobility is an absolute detriment to this profession.

Luckily, everyone has regained their health. Feet are fine, legs are good and arms are all intact and strong. But many people don’t realize that an injury to any of these can have a very dramatic impact on both the quality of service as well as the income of ther sitter. This is something that both the clients and the walkers take for granted.

For all you walkers out there: Go out and be safe.