Low-fat dog treats

Ellie has been on a diet lately what with her latest charades and also putting on some weight due to her eye condition. So when I received the offer to sample dog treats from Chewy.com, I was a bit hesitant. I let them know that she is on a diet, and was delightfully surprised when the treats arrived: Fromm Cranberry Liver Recipe

I've been into healthier eating lately, and that means cutting out processed foods and ingredients we can't pronounce. I feel very good about treating Ellie with these little biscuits because the only ingredients listed on the label are wheat flour, cranberries, chicken liver, salt, and garlic powder! Nothing crazy and unpronounceable.

Needless to say, she chomped them right down, but I must also mention that Chris tried them too. I would never do it because dog snacks aren't my cup of tea, but he said they were not bad!

Gimme!

Thanks, Chewy.com for the Fromm dog treats!

Ellie's typical work day

What's on the agenda:

• Potty
• Come inside and kiss Sadie (black doggy friend) hello
• Greet human coworkers
• Sleep on the floor
• Go on a walk with the dog walker and some 4-legged friends
• Sleep in my bed
• Play with Sadie
• Sit in on a meeting (I climb up into an office chair to sit) ;)
• Sleep on the floor some more
• Make out with Sadie
• Whine when it's 4:58
• Go home at 5pm

Ellie's biggest fan

Yesterday, Ellie stayed home from work with Chris because he doesn't work Mondays. He ran a couple of errands so wasn't with her the whole day which is normal.

We just got a new fan in the bedroom, so I took the old box fan and set it up against the wall for now, like so:

But when I came home from work yesterday, I noticed it was all the way over by the bed, like this:

We thought nothing of it and put it back up against the wall.

But a few hours later, Chris came up to me with some tiny pieces of broken metal he found on the floor and asked if I knew what they were. I said no and he threw them away.

Later that night, I was petting Ellie and I noticed her dog tags were missing. Oh no! Then it hit me... I put all the clues together and figured her tags must have gotten caught in the fan (and she probably had quite a freak out-- that thing is as big as her!) and dragged it across the room until the metal ring finally broke and set her free. 

We later found the tags inside the fan and had to shake them loose!

Never a dull moment with a blind dog!!

5K = 5 meals?

Yesterday was the 14th annual Furry5K to raise money for Seattle Animal Shelter, and it was our third time going! I've been running and training for a half marathon in August and for-sure wanted to run this one. Ellie is no longer a runner since she can't see, but fortunately Chris was able to join me and walk with her.

My personal goal was to run an average of under 8 minute miles and I did it! I would have been even faster but there was a huuuge hill in the middle that seemed to go on forever! 

Anyway, we collected lots of loot-- treat and food samples galore, plus a few for us humans and brought it home. Ellie had a great time bumping noses with all the other dogs and was SO well behaved. She must have figured that dog noses would keep bumping her unexpectedly (because she can't see them coming) and to just go with the flow. 

However... after we got home and she crashed out, we had to run to the store to prepare for dinner. We returned to crumbs and treat wrappers spread all over the floor. Some of those samples were freeze-dried meals so Ellie had 3-4 meals worth of food in a very short period of time! My bad for leaving them on the counter where she could reach. :(

Bad dog!

Vacations, Dog Sitting and Sunny Walks

We've been busy enjoying the sunny weather and haven't posted in a while! Last weekend, Chris and I took a prolonged weekend trip to the Oregon coast. While the hotels we stayed in were pet-friendly, we opted not to bring Ellie because we knew that leaving her alone at the hotel while we go out would be no good. Because she is unfamiliar with new surroundings, I could foresee her crashing into everything and stressing herself out majorly.

So we headed over to Rover.com! I found a grad student dog sitter who was willing to stay at our apartment while we were away and it worked out well! Ellie didn't miss a beat and probably didn't really realize we ever left which was great!

Some pics from our trip:

The beach at Cape Kiwanda

MASSIVE mussels attached to a big rock when the tide was out

We drove 20 miles into town (Pacific City) to get salt water taffy and found this at one of the candy shops!

And one pic of Ellie from our most recent sunny day walk when she just had to crash out in the shade for a minute before we could continue. ;)