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Got cukes? My friend Genevieve does. That's why I started thinking about dog pickles. Tilin the winecountrydog picked a peck of cukes and pickled 'em. How many pickled cukes did Tilin corgi eat?
I think my corgi dog buddy pawlitico and I will chew the cukes for now and skip the pickling.
We dream about chasing cukes with a bit of Spinning Dog Pickles ale. 'Tis a bitter ale, said to be a lovely gold color and hoppy in flavor.
But its beyond our paw reach, as is Mutley's Revenge. The Spinning Dog Brewery and its Victory Pub are in Hereford, in the UK.
"Pickles" is still a popular dog name. A very famous Pickles was the London dog who found the World Cup trophy after it was stolen. The theft happened prior to the 1966 FIFA World Cup in England.
Pickles found the precious football trophy in a suburban garden hedge while out walking with his guardian/owner (who later collected a £6,000 reward). Pickles was invited to the celebration banquet when England won the trophy. He actually got to lick the plates clean.
In 1973, poor Pickles died in a tragic way. He choked on his own lead while chasing a cat.
I've added the story of Pickles to my list of reasons why humans should not leash us dogs by the neck. I wear a harness for walkies. My neck is where I wear my ID collar.
My neck is not where humans are supposed to attach a leash and jerk me around. I can't consult a canine chiropractor on a daily basis.
Go forth and pickle.
By winecountrydog
Again I was awakened by monsters in the sky. As a wine country dog with sensitive ears, I strongly DISLIKE hot air balloons.
They breathe fire like dragons and hiss like giant monsters. They're worse than crackling amps. I beg dog-ma to make them stop. All I can do is bark uncontrollably.
Go hiss your burners somewhere else, you stoopid balloons that almost land on my head at eight o'clock in the morning!
Dog-ma sez I'm a dog who's "inordinately concerned with moving objects in the sky — versus on the ground, where Welsh Corgis traditionally do their herding." She thinks I'm sound-obsessed 'cuz one of my ears was damaged when I was a tiny puppy, before she rescued me.
Whatever. Hot air balloons upset me more than anything else. If I could bite their wicker baskets and pull them to the ground, I'd tear holes in their envelopes. Doggoneit.
Snoopy the Flying Ace dislikes hot air balloons, too. He has to put up with being hissed at in his museum and airport doghouses in Sonoma County wine country. His friend Woodstock actually likes the balloons. What a silly bird.
Snoopy, please get the Sopwith Camel out of the hangar so we can scare away the hot air balloons. We need to be ready to take off from Charles M. Schulz Sonoma County Airport any time a balloon tries to come near our dog-n-people-houses.
The stoopid balloons had better fly higher when they're over wine country houses!
by winecountrydog
Today's the birthday of Carolina, a special dog-mom who, like her dog, lives on in our memories. We're remembering Carolina and Wishie, her "assistance" dog, by re-pawing dog-ma's story about them.
In dog-ma's words, here's the little story.The first time I walked through Carolina's front door, Wishie spotted me. He was my friend Carolina's arthritic Boston terrier.
I'd hardly taken a step inside the house when Wishie — outfitted in a dark-red sweater to keep him warm — came rushing right at me in a determined but unsteady run.
I fell to my knees on the living room rug. My heart raced. I reached out my hand to my adorable new friend. I forgot why I was at the house. And I didn't care, because I wasn't ever going to move from that spot. Wishie was radiating too much charm and love.
Wishie liked hitching a ride on the foot platform of the mobility scooter Carolina drove. Carolina's legs didn't really work because of a spinal cord injury. Wishie's legs didn't work well because of his arthritis. And Toby, Wishie's little terrier housemate, liked to hitch a ride, too, because he was half-blind and timid.
One night, we all went out to dinner in San Francisco. On the way into the restaurant, Carolina had Wishie and Toby tucked away on the foot platform of her scooter.
Somehow Carolina got the dogs into the restaurant. I then noticed a woman at the next table who looked very unpleasant. The woman looked down and saw the dogs, then looked up at Carolina. Uh oh, I thought. But the woman's serious expression dissolved into a huge grin, and she started talking away with Carolina.
I later asked Carolina whether people ever reacted negatively when she took Wishie into places with no-dog policies. She responded by sliding Wishie's special dog collar off her scooter handlebars. She leaned over to me and held out the collar for me to see the big tag hanging from it.
The tag read Official Assistance Dog.
I giggled and said, "Oh, c'mon. What kind of assistance dog could Wishie be?"
"He's a Seeing Heart Dog," Carolina replied.
Many different breeds of dogs — usually bigger than Bostons — make great assistance dogs. Big Golden and Labrador retrievers are trained as service dogs and skilled companion dogs at Canine Companions for Independence in Santa Rosa, California.
If you're a hearing-impaired human and need a signal dog, paw-leeze keep in mind that we Welsh Corgis are very good at signaling.
Pawdon me, though, if I assert that nobuddy could be a better Seeing Heart Assistance Dog than Wishie.
by winecountrydog
July 29, 2008, is the 50th annniversary of the National Aeronautics and Space Act (NASA).
I wasn't born when U.S. President Eisenhower commissioned Dr. T. Keith Glennan as the first administrator for NASA in 1958.
Fifty-one years ago, in 1957 — when the space race first began — a Russian part-Samoyed terrier dog named Laika became the first dog to go into outer space . . . and to die in outer space.
Laika died from stress and overheating, it is said, almost certainly the same day after being launched into space in Sputnik 2. There'd been never any intention by the Soviet space agency to bring back Laika or the space capsule.
A compelling retelling of "the story of Laika" is found at MoscowAnimals.org, an animal welfare site run by Mayhew Animal Home to benefit homeless Moscow animals. In the footer of Laika's page are these words:"Laika represented for some the pioneering spirit which took us 'where no man had gone before.' For others, she symbolised the ruthless exploitation of innocent creatures for dubious benefits.
Perhaps this is best summed up in the words of Oleg Gazenko, a leading member of the Soviet Space Programme's scientific team. Speaking at a Moscow news conference in 1998, he said: 'The more time passes, the more I'm sorry about it...We did not learn enough from this mission to justify the death of the dog.'"
Interesting reading about Laika: Ted Strong's Laika page and Laika on Wikipedia
We dream about chasing cukes with a bit of Spinning Dog Pickles ale. 'Tis a bitter ale, said to be a lovely gold color and hoppy in flavor. 
In 1973, poor Pickles died in a tragic way. He choked on his own lead while chasing a cat.
