And here we have pupcake.

Yes, I know I’m spoiling her.  But it actually costs less than some high quality wet food and takes less time than driving to our local pet food store.  And this is only about half of what she eats in a day – the rest is kibble and duck treats.

And it's only $5! Woo!

It may look silly, but this here is the best toy because it is all Ada’s favorite toys in one.  It is a tug rope, a tennis ball, and a rattle*.  She plays tug with it; she plays fetch with it; and she plays shake-the-living-daylights-out-of-it.

* Technically ours doesn’t have a rattle anymore because Ada tore open the head and ripped it out (earning her the nickname Zombie Dog).  But it’s a much quieter toy now so we’re not really upset about it.

With everything you do, you have to figure out what you’re going to do with the dog. Leave her at home? Take her to a sitter?  Bring her with?  Is she even allowed at this event?

Ada at home.

And then you also end up thinking about what your dog needs. Does she need to eat?  Does she need to pee?  Does she need some exercise, socialization, education?

Ada at puppy school.

No doubt, it’s a big life change.  (My mom jokes that “it’s good training” because I guess this is a lot like parenthood, but about 10 times easier.)  We go to parks and beaches every weekend.  We rarely eat in restaurants.  And on the rare evening that we do “go out”, we only stay out for a few hours.

Ada on a walk.

We also eat lunch outside almost everyday (which in my opinion is hardly an inconvenience).

Ada at lunch in the park across the street from my office.

All in all, I think Ada has just encouraged us to live a more active outdoorsy life.  And I think we’re better and happier because of it.

Examples:

• Csta’s Running On Ice
• Hermosa’s A Pirates Life For Me
• Los Perritos Wee Pantaloons

Ada's Grandpa Pan was the Fabio of Havanese.

The only requirements are that it start with “Colina’s” and be no more than 36 characters. Here are a few we’ve thought up:

• Colina’s Princess Ada Banana
• Colina’s Itty Bitty Polar Bear
• Colina’s Lazy Little Lump
• Colina’s Señorita Pantalones Vellosos (too long, but means roughly Little Miss Fluffy Pants)

Suggestions?

Pet dogs on BART:

• must be in a container (or bag?)

Pet dogs on SF Muni:

• cannot ride during rushhour (weekdays 5-9 am and 3-7 pm)
• must be muzzled and leashed
• require fair equal to the owner’s ($2)

I’ve never seen anyone pay fair for a dog or be turned away during rushhour, but it’s probably not worth the risk.

I’ve started feeling really annoyed by all the rules about where dogs can and cannot go.  I feel like most rules were designed to control large aggressive dogs so the rules just seem silly when applied to Ada.  A muzzle?  Seriously?

A great read if you are thinking about getting a dog.

We’re finally ready to get a puppy.

• We got permission from the landlords.
• We read the Dog Bible.
• We picked a breed.
• And now we’re researching breeders and reading about puppy training.

After filling out numerous Puppy Questionaires — with such questions as “For how long have you researched on the Havanese breed?” and “How do you imagine a dog fitting into your lifestyle?” and “What do you feed your dogs?” — we’re now arranging for our first meet-and-greet, and I can’t help but feel like we’re courting.

Most of the breeders are also very clear that they hope you’ll stay in touch.  They want to know how their pup is doing and even hope you’ll come back and visit someday.  So we decided it would be fun to start a blog that’s all about the pup; making it easy to stay in touch and keeping all our puppy-craziness confined to one place on the internet.  Obviously the internet can’t have too many sites dedicated to cute animals.

OMG, in a few weeks we could have our very own puppy! PUPPY!