We met 2 Ellies!

I took Ellie to the dog park today, and wouldn't you know, we saw not one but TWO dogs that looked so similar to Ellie! I got pictures of both, but unfortunately I didn't realize that my phone cover slid up so the second two pictures are a little fuzzy.

The first dog we saw had an identical body but slightly shorter/smaller. Her face was a little different, but still very alike!

Hey, you look like me!

We ate grass together

Then we saw another dog that looks like Ellie! She was a little bit bigger and much more muscular as she had about 30 pounds on Ellie! Fun times at the park running into twins. :)

Afterward, we went to Dairy Queen so I could pick up a couple of Blizzards for Jon and myself. I also grabbed a doggy cone for Ellie which she delightfully devoured.

Meditation

Sometimes I need to take a minute to myself and think about life. I like to imagine that I'm on a sunny beach with thousands of tennis balls and all of life's troubles just wash away.

Cannon Beach - part 2

Must finish up with more pictures from our weekend trip! It was awesome-- Ellie got lots of ball time. I bought lots of salt water taffy and fudge. We went in and out of the shops and it was so nice to see such a pet friendly town; there were doggy water bowls outside of almost every store!

On Saturday, I unexpectedly ran into Carol from FIDO Friendly (who I also met at BlogPaws) on the beach! She was so nice to send a picture that she took of Ellie:

Ellie in action - Thanks Carol for the picture!

And the rest of the pictures from the trip:

Jon and me :)

The beach - it's beautiful!

Ellie plays with baby!

All tuckered out in the blankie I made her

Cannon Beach - part 1

We made it to the beach! After 5 hours of driving, we are finally here and it is windy and rainy, but still tons of fun so far! Ellie was amazing on the car ride and I can't believe that she only made one small peep the entire time, considering she whines the whole way every time we go hiking.

Anyway, we made it out to the beach and tossed the tennis ball around for Ellie and she greatly welcomed the opportunity to stretch her legs. Her face got super sandy and it was very cute. :)

Ellie consumed a lot of sand this weekend!

Happy dog!

Special Delivery

So I'm sitting at my desk, working and minding my own business, when one of my coworkers appears with a cardboard box.

"Ellie, you got a package!" he says.

I turn around... huh?
Apparently the box was addressed to her. Hmm... I wonder what she's been ordering online while I'm away. No wonder there have been some mysterious charges on my credit card... (kidding of course lol).

Sure enough, the box is addressed to her and I have no idea what it could be. So I open it up, and it's a giant tennis ball! I took it out of the package and tossed it and Ellie went nuts, and of course tried to find a way to rip it apart.

Turns out, it was from Jon. So he not only surprises me with flowers delivered to work, but also surprises Ellie with toys delivered to work. I sure am a lucky girl!

Mom is boring, so I'm gonna blog

Me and mom are back at work together! She is soooo boring, I keep whining at her to play with me and she just tells me "go lay down". Ugh!
But the good thing is that she brought me back tons of awesome toys from BlogPaws! There was a green alligator toy with 16, yes 16 squeakers in it! I just killed the last one this morning. :)

Anyway, I wanted to get on here because my doggy friends in the shelter are in need and I found one of mom's papers that says I can help!
It said that if I write about Pedigree's Adoption Drive in my blog, then they will donate a 20 pound bag of dog food to a shelter! I used to be in a shelter, so I know that they are in need of donations.

Here's the info if you wanna post about it on your blog and get some food donated too. I think you should!

(Click to see the large version)

Learning and Head Tilting

Today was a whirlwind of BlogPaws classes in which I met lots of people and learned a LOT. There was a very moving speech this morning by Mike Arms that had the entire room in tears. (You can watch it here.)

Mike Arms speaking (note the cardboard doggie cutout!)

It was also fun to see that those who couldn't bring their actual dog, cat, or ferret brought photos or cardboard cutouts of their pets! See the photo above!

After the conference, I had a bit of time so I got on video chat with Jon who had gotten Ellie back from my sister. So I got to video chat with her as well and it was so hilarious-- she recognized my voice but was quite confused about the whole process because she kept tilting her head from side to side. Loved it!

Then I went out to dinner with Angie (@catladyland) and Janiss (mom of @sparklecat). It's a warm night so we ate outside and got to see the town and people-watch. After, we got gelato which was amazing! It's been a great day and I'm sort of sad that it all ends tomorrow!

The city

So many choices, and this was only half of the display!

BlogPaws Day 1!

I made it safely to Denver and am sitting in my hotel room, up a little too late as I'm sooooo tired but I have to post pictures so far.

Me in the elevator :)

So I arrived at the hotel and was immediately more excited because of the dog sitting outside, the pictures of dogs inside the hotel, treat jars on the counters, and BlogPaws paw print stickers all over the floor!

Look! A BlogPaw!

The event began and we first just mingled around all of the booths and met lots of people and the sponsors. Not to mention, collected a LOT of free stuff (who knows how I'm going to fit this all in my suitcase on the way home...)

Then there was an opening reception with dinner and a few introductions and a performance! It was awesome! Afterward, I hung out with my fellow video contest winner, Angie (@catladyland) and Janiss (@sparklecat's mom).

Soooo tired, k more tomorrow!

The performance!

Me and Angie

I'm going to BlogPaws, follow me live!

I just printed out my plane ticket for BlogPaws -- my flight is at 11:25am tomorrow! I am super excited, and I really want to share the whole experience with everyone which is the purpose of this post.

I will be tweeting live throughout the event via @doggylove86 and @Trupanion so make sure you're following both! I will also try to post blogs as well.

Unfortunately, Ellie will not be accompanying me to the dog-friendly hotel. She is going to have sleepovers with her friend Goldie and will still be coming to work in my place (maybe she'll get some stuff done for me!)

An old picture of Ellie and Goldie

Snuggly blankie

Happy Labor Day weekend! Gosh I love long weekends... there is so much time to do what I need to do (clean) and also do what I want to do.

Jon and I took Ellie hiking yesterday to Rattlesnake Ledge. We also brought my sister and her dog Goldie. It was my sister's birthday so we treated her to a birthday Blizzard at Dairy Queen afterward. :)

Action shot of Ellie and Jon hiking

I have been wanting to buy or make a blanket for Ellie because she always snuggles with blankets when they are left on the floor. So today, I made a trip to the fabric store and bought some fleece to make Ellie her very own blanket!

It was really easy to make, except for the part where Ellie kept coming and laying down on the blanket while I was working on it! At least she took to it right away :)
Now I'm off to finish making my homemade boiled bagels-- YUM!

Ellie kept bringing her toy on the blanket while I was trying to work on it

Ellie burrito!

The finished product!