Crazy Kitty

Saturday was sunny and I wanted to get outside so Chris and I were going to take Ellie to pick blueberries. Unfortunately, the season is over and all of the blueberries were over-ripe so we left empty-handed.

Later that day, I was walking Ellie up his street by myself when we spotted an orange cat. Ellie immediately became excited at the thought of a new friend to play with/chase. The cat did not return her sentiments, but was standing with an arched back, poised to defend itself.

Reenactment

As I slowly walked Ellie up the sidewalk in the general direction of the cat, the cat began to slowly walk towards us, hissing and with its back arched. Ellie became even more excited to be getting closer to her new friend while I became more nervous and decided to retreat.

Walking back the other direction, I noticed that the cat continued on its path toward us. I realized that this thing was ready to fight with Ellie to defend its territory! I picked up my pace until we got far enough away that the cat stopped following us.

So I'm glad to conclude this blog post by saying that Ellie is unscathed after that day.

What probably would have happened: Cat charges Ellie to tell her to go away; Ellie gets in play stance and tries to play with the cat; cat swats at Ellie and scratches her face; Ellie realizes that she is being attacked and fights back. Both animals come away severely wounded. Stacy has to explain to cat's owner what happened.

Reenactment

Give us a click!

Friends, we need your help! Please click links that I post on Twitter labeled with #yinsider. And share with others who would be able to help!

Background: I'm in a contest running against 9 other people that has to do with the Yahoo! trip that I took a few weeks back. Each week, we share trending news topics and at the end of 6 weeks of link sharing, they tally up the number of total clicks each person got to determine the winner. Basically, whoever is most influential or best at sharing the news is the winner. The grand prize is $5,000 and a new laptop!

If you guys help me win the grand prize, I will donate $1,000 of that to a pet charity!

Please share any of the links that you find interesting (using the shortened bitly link so the tracking doesn't get lost). Thank you so much for the help!

Weekend outdoor adventures

On Sunday I decided to get up and outside early before the day got too warm, so I took Ellie to Marymoor dog park bright and early in the morning.

When I first got Ellie, she loved to play with other dogs and go say hello to every dog and person she saw. These days, she seems more interested in claiming the entire 42 acre park by leaving her mark.
She marked...

Said hello...

And marked some more.

On the way back, we went to a blueberry farm where I picked around 2 pounds of blueberries to make some yummy treats! Ellie was very good and hung out in the grass while I picked.

Ellie's Adoption Story

Disclaimer: This post is my entry into the BlogPaws Blog Carnival Contest sponsored by BISSELL Homecare, Inc. I'm hoping to win it for my favorite shelter! 
 
I love telling the story of how I met Ellie because it was such an exciting time in my life.

I have been a dog-lover my entire life, and have never lived without a dog until I went off to college. Even then, I made frequent trips home to visit the family dogs. I was fortunate to move in with my sister and her dog during my Junior year, but knew that when I was close to graduating that I'd get a dog of my own.

Ellie quickly adjusted to her new home

The time finally came and I was ready to adopt a dog and I quickly learned that it was really difficult to find the type of dog I was looking for. After volunteering at a shelter for about 6 months and seeing dogs come and go (with whom I completely fell in love) I had no idea how hard it would be to find the dog that I would dedicate the next 10+ years of my life to.

I was on Petfinder.com daily, looking at dogs within a 50 mile radius.
My criteria:

• Female
• Young (around 3 years or younger) but not too young (preferably past the puppy stage)
• Short hair
• Medium build

One morning while I was interning, I was checking Petfinder which had become part of my morning routine, and I saw her. "Keiki" was what the shelter called her, and they included a YouTube video of someone petting her. In the video, she rolled over on the grass and let the person rub her belly. I was instantly in love!

Unfortunately, the shelter didn't open until 2pm so I had to wait a few hours before I could go there and snatch her up before anyone else could. I begged my boss to allow me to leave early that day and thankfully he allowed it.

When I got to the shelter, my heart was pounding. I was so nervous and excited to meet this dog, and hoped that no one else had adopted her already.

Well as you can see, the rest is history as she is here with me today, my little Ellie (I really couldn't put up with the name Keiki, and she had only been given the name a few days prior so I knew it would be fine to change it).

I delightedly shared my success story on Petfinder's forums a few weeks later along with a photo which has somehow made it onto their official Twitter background! How cool is that?!

Ellie is part of @Petfinder's Twitter background!

Yahoo! for New York

Photo by Chris

As I mentioned previously, I got an amazing opportunity to go to New York and learn from the best of the best at Yahoo! about social media. I was very fortunate to be able to bring a "plus one", Chris, my boyfriend.
Unfortunately, I didn't know until we got there that he wasn't allowed to come to the learning sessions with me, it was for "insiders" only. So I guess each of the 9 plus ones would have to hang out on their own all morning of Thursday and Friday until our sessions were over.

Highlights of the trip:

1. We got lots of awesome Yahoo! swag and learned a bunch about writing for the web thanks to the author of Yahoo!'s official style guide, Chris Barr. (see photo 1)
2. Yahoo! took us to dinner and a Broadway show, "Rock of Ages" which was so great. I've been rocking out to 80s music ever since.
3. I got to try lots of different yummy cupcakes and get inspired.
4. The weather was beautiful-- oh yeah, except for the part where we got stuck in Hurricane Irene. It poured all night and was windy all day. (see photo 3) Then it went back to being beautiful.
5. Our flight on Sunday night was canceled due to the weather. We couldn't get another one out until Tuesday night. We silently delighted in the fact that Irene prolonged our vacation so we could enjoy the rest of New York.
6. I woke up early to be on the Today show. Got my 15 seconds of fame! (see photo 4)
7. Tuesday's flight was delayed which made us miss the second leg of our flight from Chicago to Seattle, so we were stuck in Chicago for the night. Luckily, Chris's best friend (who plays for the White Sox I might add) lives in Chicago so we stayed at his swanky apartment.

While it was a little stressful missing 3 whole days of work that I wasn't planning on missing, I absolutely loved getting those two extra sunny days in New York to explore and play tour guide for Chris.

Photos:

Photo 1: lots of Yahoo! swag

Photo 2: the view from Yahoo!'s 43rd floor

Photo 3: Central Park is closed due to Irene!

 

Photo 4: My appearance on the Today show!

Click here to see more pictures and read about my cupcake experiences in New York.