Sunday Afternoons

I'm not sure if I've mentioned this already but every Sunday afternoon from 2-5pm I volunteer as a cat attendent at P.A.W.S. (Progressive Animal Welfare Society) in Lynwood. While I am there I help answer questions about the cats, clean the litter boxes and help socialize the kitties among other things. The other woman I work with is just as excited and upbeat about being there as I am. Even though we currently have one cat that is deaf, and two cats that lost an eye (one of these cats is a 4 week old kitten) we stay positive because they are no longer living on the streets and at risk of all the many dangers that are out there such as cars and coyotes.

The first week I started volunteering, we helped find 6 cats new homes! The following week it was just 2 and this week it was only 1 cat. The worst part about today was realizing a beautiful siamese got returned after only 12 days because the owner had "unrealistic expectations." Its a cat for heaven's sake! What did you expect from it? We know its been a good day when at least 1 cat gets a new home and thus a new lease on life. However, when I tell most animal lovers where I volunteer they immediately say "I could never do that, I love animals too much." Well, if you truly love animals too much then why aren't you out there helping them? If you can't bare to see them sit in shelters there are plenty of other ways to help them like fundraising or educating the public on spay/neutor programs. I don't know. It just brakes my heart when people take the phrase "ignorance is bliss" to heart.

Next weekend Luna and I are participating in the Seattle Humane Society's Walk for the Animals at UVillage. While I didn't fundraise this time like I did for the Furry 5K in May, I still feel like I am helping out by getting out there and walking. Plus, Luna will have fun visiting with all her Corgi friends from the Meetup group!

Moving On Up!

I got a promotion at work today! Woo hoo! You are looking at the new Assistant Program Supervisor for the preschool. My new job duties will be taking over staff schedules and time off requests along with helping with enrollment and keeping everyone's trainings up - to - date. And of course, I'll still be teaching, but now only 50% of the time. I'm really looking forward to being challenged at work. I've been there 3 years now and I was feeling completely fulfilled by the job I've done revamping the program. I'm still working on my Child Development Associate (CDA) too.

On to the fun stuff! Here are some videos from Luna's birthday party 2 weeks ago that I never got around to posting.

They Say Its Your Birthday....

Luna's 4th birthday was on September 16, but being a Tuesday we decided to celebrate it the Saturday before. Our first stop was the Vet's to pick up some cortisone spray for a nasty welt she gave herself and then we were off to the Mutt Strutt in Everett to benefit the city's animal shelter. It was held at a park not far from our house. She did very well there considering there were so many children and she is still trying to figure them out. We walked away with quite a few goodies and the local 4-H Club cleaned her ears for FREE.

Later in the day Matt and I packed her up in the car and drove her down to Edmonds to The Dining Dog Cafe where she was treated like a queen with pupitizers (hot dogs with cheese and pizza), and a main entree of chicken, mashed potatoes and green peas! She even got to enjoy her treats while standing on the table. She was in heaven! Eating is Luna's favorite past time. The best part was the owner, Dorothy, made her a small birthday cake with her name written on it! I think Matt liked that the best too. We will definitely go there again. I think they are having a Halloween party there next month so Luna will have to show off her new costume.
By the way, the Diet Coke in the picture was for me, not Luna. Rest assure, she was only drinking water that night.

Oh ya, I forgot to mention that we dressed Luna in her birthday collar, yes, she does look more like a clown than a birthday girl, for the big event! When it was time for her cake to be brought out they gave her a birthday hat to wear with paw prints on it. It was great! I highly recommend The Dining Dog Cafe. I think we only spent a little over $10 on her party and it was well worth it.

So whats next on the agenda? Well, we are all signed up for the Walk for the Animals for the Seattle Humane Society on October 4th down at UVillage in Seattle. Our goal is to raise $500. If you would like to donate you can do so online by following this link: Sabrina and Luna's Donation Page We are doing this walk because we adopted Nikita, our first furbaby, from this shelter 5 years ago!

We also have a few Corgi Meetups to attend and Dog-O-Ween that is put on by COLA (Citizens for Off Leash Areas) in October.

Everyone else in our furbaby family is doing fine. We keep the gate down during the day while we are at work now and Fidel seems to be loving it. He's been sleeping out in the dining room on one of the chairs. We've caught him and Luna giving each other kitty kisses lately. Everyone seems to be getting along, even Nikita for the most part....

3rd Annual Corgi Fun Day!

Today was our first experience at the Corgi Fun Day put on by the Cascade Pembroke Welsh Corgi Club. It was at a park only about 5 minutes away from our house. There were tons of Corgis there and lots of fun stuff for Luna to do like an agility course, rally obedience (which we stunk at) and some fun games (none of which we won). Luna did an excellent job showing off her new socialization skills. She sniffed lots of dogs' butts and let her butt be sniffed. She even tried playing with an unneutered male named Jesse. At first Matt and I thought she was attacking him, but then I remembered her doing this at a different Meetup with a Corgi named "Baby." She likes to bop them with her nose, jump on them and run around. Matt had never seen her do this before and he thought it was just hilarious (which it is).

Matt also fell in love with two adorable Corgi puppies that were there. He snapped a few photos of them and a video. Although Corgi puppies are ridiculously cute, we are both glad that we didn't get one! We'd both still be sleep deprived and I'm sure the cats would still be traumatized. Even though Luna will be 4 on the 16th of this month, it has taken the last 5 months to get her and the cats into a groove. As you all know, Vlad loves her and has loved her since the day we brought her home. Fidel is tolerant of her and even shares his favorite napping spot - the bed- with her. Nikita has started to figure out that if he doesn't hiss and spit at her then she doesn't do laps around him barking. They've even slept "butt to butt" on the bed together! Luna, however, is still facinated by him.

Luna did a good job on the agility course they had set up. My goal is to get her into it someday. I also want her to take the Canine Good Citizen test as well, but I want to enroll her in a course first. PAWS offers one so maybe in the winter or spring I will sign her up.

Much to Matt's chargrin, I entered Luna in the costume contest. We didn't win, but I didn't put any effort into it. She just wore a cute little outfit that I had purchased for her at PetSmart. It was funny only because I thought she would do good in a compettition ring since she was a show dog for most of her life. Well, we have suceeded in taking the show dog out of her! All she wanted to do was sniff other dogs' butts and get pets from all the other Corgi mums and dads there - something she wouldn't have done in the show ring! I was annoyed yet proud of her. Luna is officially a pet now. Go Luna!

Next weekend we hope to take Luna to the Dining Dog Cafe in Edmonds for her 4th birthday celebration. The week after that she will get her first professional haircut with us at Scrub-a-Pup in Edmonds. We also have another Corgi Meetup at Marymoor and the Mutt Strutt in Everett. September is a busy month for dogs around the Sound!