Home for the holidays

by winecountrydog Tilin

We wish every dog and cat a prawpurr home fur the holidays and furever. Howl.

These dogs ave got the right idea about celebrating!


But they ought to ask fur some better "people food" than sugary cookies! BOL

Paw-note: We two corgis and our meezer doo not eat Christmas cookies and other sweet noms, but we doo eat "people food." Thanx woofs to mum!

Bodega Bay Birthday ... My Big 13

by winecountrydog Tilin Corgi

My 13th birthday! Lots of pawtying fur two weeks, from mid-November till the end of the month. An extra-long barkday pawty covers all my pawsible birthdates.

Nobuddy knows my real birthdate, only that I was rescued as my six-week-old puppyself at New Year's 1998.

My favorite pawty event was a trip to Bodega Bay on the Sonoma Coast. Furbro Jack and mum did keep me company.

We did run on the beautiful long beach and then watch the sun set.

A little contempawlation of Nature was in order. ...

I noticed that the tide kept coming in and trying to get us. Howl does it doo that? BOL!

Furbro Jack was feeling pawsitively peaceful in the sunset glow.

When we got back to the doghausmobile after sundown, I was feeling arfully peaceful. Wot a swell Bodega Bay birthday!

Paw-note: Thanx woofs to mum fur keeping me going strong fur my 13 years! As only mum and myself doo know, we have had to get me thru some arfully ruff times.

4 November: Cats who nom out loud

by guest author Ani Meezer

Tis November, a time of thanks giving and nomming. Tis therefur appawropriate to introduce you to animals who are pawticularly vocal in expressing gratitude fur their food.

Oh but wait a furry second. Allow me to introduce mycatself: I am Ani Siamese, aka Meezer. I do nom out loud occasionally.

Purrhaps you know me as best furriend of the WCD boyz, Tilin Corgi and Jackie Nippers Corgi.

This furst Nom Nom Nom Cat video came to us by tweet of Judy Dunn, aka twitter friend @CatsEyeWriter. We are grateful. We luv looking at videos of cats who nom out loud.

Grateful Nom Cat Number One (below): This cat does enjoy her sour cream and cannot quit raving about it. Nom nom nom!



Grateful Nom Cat Number Two (below): This cat is furry good at using her paw as a ladle. She does lovely nom-maowing while she drinks.



Grateful Nom Cat Number Three: This cat does not need to nom out loud. He just needs to roll around on the floor to show how furry grateful he is fur the watermelon. MOL!



Now tis time fur us to nom gratefully. The boyz and I are having steamed organic butternut squash, fresh green peas, and raw free-range chicken necks!

Paw-note: Sometimes grateful nom cats begin to growl. In catspeak this is a warning. It means "Back off my noms!" ... A word to the nomwise should be sufficient.

Happy Cardigan Welsh Corgi on British Columbia farm

by winecountrydog Tilin

We are arfully grateful to have lovely photos and a true corgi story to share with you. This story was furwarded to us by British Columbia twitter friend and dog lover @So_OK, aka Dorthea. She received this story in an email from an Okanagan B.C. friend who adopted a Cardigan Welsh Corgi.

"Our wonderful old dog Cleo died on September 11, 2009, at 14 years of age. She was the perfect match for farm life in British Columbia, where there are six acres to call her own and protect. We have learned that you are never really alone if you have a dog in your life. We also learned how important a dog is on a farm (especially during the fall when the bears abound and circle the farm in search of last scraps of food before hibernation). We also learned that we will always have a dog in our lives.

"After several weeks of seeing a ghost of Cleo out of the corner of our eyes and missing the greeting at the door when we came home, and finding bear scat around the house, we started doing the dog quizzes on line to determine what our next best dog might be. We were ready for something smaller than Cleo's 80 lbs of pure alpha energy, and Welsh Corgis turned up again and again as the best match for farm, companion, big yet small dog. We also have friends that have had Corgis and always like them.

"So here we are with a rescue Cardigan Corgi (the ones with the tails) from Alberta.

"Haley, whose name is under consideration for a change as my sister-in-law shares this honour, is 18 months old [in these pics]. Likely the runt of a litter as she is full grown and only 20 lbs, which is too small to meet breeders standards.

"She is a total delight. House broken, crate trained and comes on a dime when she is called. She is totally affectionate, sleeping at our feet and next to us on the couch when permitted. We are introducing her around and looks like she may have some alpha qualities as she protects her space around other females.

"She has barked at the sounds of the bears in the night, and I have heard them climbing nearby trees (they remember Cleo and don't yet know that Haley is just a twig of a thing.) We are smitten and very happy to have her in our lives.

"This winter, with its blanket of clouds over Okanagan Lake, will not be quite so depressing."

May all our furriends, near and far, enjoy romping in the autumn leaves! A Happy Howloween to you all! ~ Tilin & Jack Corgi

Exotic birds as pets: "a tug between love and exasperation"

by winecountrydog Tilin

This video is about parrot personalities and needs. It does show you humans howl hard it is to have a parrot as a pet.

If this video does not convey to you humans the impawtance of understanding the commitment and patience it takes to care for an exotic bird, nothing ever will.

Enough woofed.



We hope that you doo tell anybuddy who is thinking of adopting a parrot or other big exotic bird to watch this video first.

'Translate for Animals': Bridging the gap between animals and humans

by winecountrydog Tilin

Getting our paw-point across to humans is one of our biggest challenges. Therefur, we are arfully excited that Google has introduced 'Translate for Animals', an Android application that will allow humans to better understand us animals.

Unfurtunately, we are not able to embed the video here, so we will just have to give you the link: Introducing Translate for Animals.

Doo let us know wot you think of the application.

BOL

March mosiac

by winecountrydog Tilin

Howl beautiful the spring weather in Sonoma County. Dog-ma did take us with her wine tasting and riding 'round.

Fluffy clouds float above the mountains east of this Russian River Valley vineyard.


Painted lines on the signpost for Richard's Grove and Saralee's Vineyard show us howl high the Russian River can rise when there is flooding.


Arfully lovely trees bloom behind neatly trained grapevines in this Healdsburg vineyard.


Myself did try to walk into Chateau Felice winery in Chalk Hill AVA during barrel tasting event.


Myself did also try to walk into Foppiano Vineyards barrel room in Healdsburg.


We wanted to see the '09 Chardonnay barrels. Dog-ma sez this is first Foppiano Chard in quite a few years.


My pawtner, Jack Corgi, aka pawlitico, does think wine tasting days are grrreat fun.


We did go to other wineries. We always doo. We will return to them soon.

A love story

by winecountrydog Tilin

We had a lovely afternoon picnic on Valentine's Day.


We were out in Laguna de Santa Rosa, in the Russian River Valley. The Laguna is full of water and happy birds after the winter rains.

We wanted to count all the birds we saw 'cuz the Great Backyard Bird Count was going on from February 12 to 15. So many birds take sanctuary here. I pawsonally cannot count that high.


I sat next to my bovine furriends' big pasture, up on the hill away from the water. My furriends were far away, grazing in a distant field. I knew that they'd come over after a while.


Suddenly I felt intense stares at my back. My furriends had walked over to the fence so quietly that I hadn't heard them.


I was so excited. I ran right over to them. I love my big furriends!


We doo nosetaps with each other. It's arfully fun. And usually one or more of my big furriends licks my head.


My paws started sinking in the watery mud and my head was getting wet from the licking. I had to return to our picnic pawlace and dry off.


What a beautiful warm day for visiting furriends we love.

"Missing" San Francisco sea lions interviewed in Oregon

by winecountrydog

By early December 2009, the world-renowned barkers of San Francisco's Pier 39 had disappeared.

Back in October 2009, humans at The Marine Mammal Center in nearby Sausalito had noticed that S.F. sea lion numbers were dwindling. Before long, almost everybuddy in the 1,700-member sea lion colony had gone missing.

It's not true that the sea lions left 'cuz of a dog named Rez who frightened them during an encounter at Hyde Street Pier in Fisherman's Wharf.


By the way, dog furriends, we hope you know that chasing sea lions is not in keeping with the Marine Mammal Protection Act.

The sea lions' sudden depawture must've taken a bite out of tourism along San Francisco's docks. Pawsonally, though, we love howl these flippy furriends baffled humans with their disappearance.

Finally, weeks after the disappearance, humans on the southern Oregon coast repawt that they're hosting many of S.F.'s finest.

Sea lion interviews are being conducted.



Mystery solved! You've heard the answer right from a San Francisco sea lion's mouth: "We're not missing. We're just on vacation."

Apparently they're finding good grub in Oregon's colder waters.

Paw-note: If you talk with any S.F. sea lions, the humans at @TravelCoosBay on twitter would love to get a tweet from you about it.