Thursday, August 18, 2011

Katy and Bailey's Book Selection of the Week




Katy was getting a bit impatient after last week's vacation from books on CD. She likes her morning story. Bailey is very specific about the stories he finds worthy of his time. He prefers TV to audio books.

While Katy and Bailey both disliked the movie versions of Harry Potter, Katy really enjoyed Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I was busy working on a swap project that needed to be mailed this week, but Katy insisted on poking me every time the story stopped.

Bailey continues not to be a Harry Potter fan. Movie or audio books versions still cause him to vacate the room.

I am curious about what Katy found attractive about the story.

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Review: Purina Pet Gear Carpet and Upholstery Pet Stain & Odor Eliminator

I received the carpet cleaner to review last month and then surprisingly we had a fairly good month. However, as I suspected our luck would not hold and we had a chance to try out the carpet cleaner a few times before I wrote my review.

I had gone through the traditional rug products on the market when I received the chance to try this product. We have been dealing with stomach upsets do to eating things that dogs should not eat and Katy still struggles with remembering that dogs only use the bathroom outdoors even when overly excited. The traditional products have left stains on our rugs regardless of whether we catch the stain immediately, or if the stain is attacked after it has set in to the rug.

Purina's Pet Gear Stain & Odor Eliminator has provided us with more success. We have had one vomit and one urine stain that we caught fresh. In those two incidents, the stains are gone. The smell of the product was more pleasant than many of the traditional cleaners we have tried.

We tried the product on dried stains with mixed results. On old stains, it is not the answer. While it can lighten the older stains, it does not eliminate them. On newer dried stains, it had better results. One vomit stain that happened while we were out on one of our vacation trips was dry by the time we returned. As soon as we came home, we started working on it. It left a light stain after one cleaning. We could not find the stain after the cleaner dried, when we returned to try working on it again.

As winter approaches and we have more dirt and other pet stains I am sure we will have more uses for this product. We will be purchasing this product when our sample bottle is finished.

Pros:

Stronger cleaning ability than previous rug cleaning products I tried.

Pleasant smell always welcome during unpleasant cleaning tasks.

Requires less scrubbing than other products.

Cons:

Still not strong enough to clean the messes we do not catch right away.


Disclosure: I received this product free to review, but received no additional compensation for my review. I was not required to write a positive review in exchange for the product. The opinions expressed in this review are my own. This disclosure is in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Monday, August 15, 2011

Dog Friendly or Not


We have been searching for dog friendly places to take the dogs. We follow the adventures of dog bloggers and are always thrilled about the various dog friendly places they find to bring their pups.

We were excited to see a sign for a dog parade as part of a local festival we have been considering attending for a few years, but never seem to get to with our conflicting fall obligations. A festival with a dog parade must be dog friendly, right? Not so much. The parade has a limited period where the dogs are welcome and ends before the festival area. Dogs are not welcome at the festival. Therefore, if you come for the parade, do not plan on attending the festival unless you drive (or walk if you live close enough) home first with your paw friends, and return to participate in the human areas.

I was disappointed. If you are going to designate something as humans only, so be it. However, if you are going to invite dogs, make it friendly to the dogs you invite. After Katy's positive experience with the dog walk we were thinking this might be a fun activity. However, parking can be challenging in this area and driving there with the dogs, doing the walk and driving them home and coming back for the festival seems foolish. If we attend the festival, the dogs will likely not be attending. We will have to find some other options.

Thursday, August 11, 2011

Mom and Dad Visit Historical Lexington and Concord



Mom and Dad were off seeing the state with Grandma and Grandpa yesterday and even forgot to send Sugar a link to his birthday greetings. Mama apologizes to everyone and promises to work on catching up her commenting, next week. With Dad on vacation, it has been rather busy.

Mom and Dad went off to visit the historic sites associated with the Battles of Lexington and Concord yesterday. Oddly, the main place was in Lincoln, not Lexington as Mom learned when she started researching the federal park system. Something else Mama learned as she had thought they were state parks, they are in fact Federal National Parks. Poor Mama, she may know her history, but she is lousy with directions and guessing at federal and state jurisdiction over parks.

When we heard the word park, we thought this was an opening. However, Mama explained there would be musket demonstrations and thus not dog friendly. Later we also heard her mention that not all the sites were dog friendly, although they did see some dogs. Perhaps a walk by the bridge at some point would be an interesting historical education for us. We do not have to visit the visitor centers. We can just soak in the history like the other dogs that were there visiting. Dogs can appreciate history, too.

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Sugar the Golden Retriever's 10th Birthday




It's Sugar's Birthday and he has asked us to help celebrate his decade long life. Since we are such huge fans of birthdays of course, we could not resist. We were asked to post his birthday badge on our blog. Please stop by Sugar's blog and add your birthday greetings.

Next, we decided to put out the crochet birthday candle on our table to honor the event.


He wanted a smiling picture, but he is going to have to settle for a happy Sheltie picture.



Happy Birthday Sugar!!! We hope you have a wonderful day.

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Resting Tuesday




Can you believe after leaving us all day that this is what Mom and Dad think today should look like for all of us? Today is our day with Mama and Papa and we plan to make the most of it, once we can get Dad out of bed.

They have more Grandma and Grandpa trips planned for the week, but let's face it Grandma and Grandpa have more energy than Mama and Papa. Our humans need rest between relaxations. So today is resting Tuesday. The weather will determine what tomorrow brings. However, we have a special post prescheduled for tomorrow.