Week one was a success. The morning strolls were perfect. I even got hubby to tag along. Waffles met Rascal, a poodle mix his size, who belongs to a neighbor. They’ve played together a few times in the park. Then Sunday morning, not only Rascal was at the park, but also a dog the same size named Ku’uipo, which means sweetheart in Hawaiian. Waffles had so much fun, he was grinning from ear to ear.
Waffles tilts his head when he wants to tell me something.
You know what else was a blessing this week? Waffles began to sleep through the night! Yay! Also, I saw my first baby quail of the year!
The week was so beautiful. I have to share a few photos I took in the neighborhood:
Palo Verde in bloom.
A Jumping Cholla with blooms. You want to keep your distance from this cactus!
Fairy Duster plant in our front yard.
A neighbor’s Aloe plant with beautiful yellow blossoms. We have Aloe, but none have flowers.
Now for a special treat for Waffles:
Waffles gets a treat, a carrot, but doesn’t know how to eat it.
I’m babysitting my grand dog as my daughter is off to Paris and a destination wedding for a bestie in Portugal. (What’s up with all these destination weddings? A topic for another day.) She flew from SF to Phoenix to drop off the pup. Plus, we got to spend two days together.
I was looking forward to walking Waffles around the neighborhood. I miss walking a dog. But as life would have it, my daughter called me a few weeks ago and said Waffles was limping She waited to see if it would go away, but when it didn’t, the vet diagnosed Waff with a soft tissue shoulder injury. He’s taking meds for inflammation and his activity is curtailed.
FYI, my daughter has a soft tissue shoulder injury due to her career as a distance swimmer in college. My husband has the same issue with his shoulders from his school years playing football and wrestling. My daughter said she’s convinced with our family history, Waffles injury is genetic.
How I worked around Waffles shoulder injury.
I ordered a cheap pet stroller from Amazon! I’m now pushing 20 pounds of Waffles and a few pounds of stroller for two or three miles a day. I’m feeling it in my forearms, triceps and butt. It’s my sort of rucking.
If my husband was embarrassed about being seen by neighbors with his rucksack that I wrote about HERE, you should have seen his face when I unveiled the stroller with Waffles inside! We are walking separately FYI.
To be fair, hubby is walking at 5:30 a.m. and I’m going at 7 a.m. because Waffles wakes me up at midnight and 4 a.m. to go outside. I’m trading Waffles nights with hubby from now on.
Waffles seems to like it and he sits quietly taking in the sights. I let him out in the park so he can sniff, mark trees and do the rest of his business. He can spend 20 minutes with his nose buried in the grass sniffing dogs, bunnies and birds who were there before.
After Waffles leaves, do I continue with my rucking and put weights in the stroller, or will the neighbor think I’m nuts?
How do you think Olive the cat will react if I take her in the stroller for a walk?
Or, will the Waffles smells end any chance?
What do you think makes waking with dogs more enjoyable than walking alone?
A lake 15 miles from our house. Our guest took this photo on her bike ride.
When we have guests, we like to take them to the lake. It’s a beautiful drive through Tonto National Forest and so surprising to see water in the middle of the desert. The lake was created by a dam and thankfully the lake was as full as I’ve seen it thanks to a ton of rain. Also I heard that Arizona is building up the dam to hold more water.
My friend who is visiting is an avid cyclist and Saturdays are her days for a major ride. I told her about the lake and that I’ve seen lots of cyclists make the trek with huge hills. It was a 40-mile bike ride. We followed by car with her husband and puppy, to make sure she was safe.
Here are more photos:
This is where we like to go in the summer to cool off with a dip in the lake.
There were people camping and fishing.
A photo taken by my cycling guest during her ride to the lake.
Our friend’s four-month old puppy Karenina.
We also managed to get in a hike.
How do you like to entertain your guests? Where do you take them in your area?
Last week I wrote about our pets we adopted on Thanksgiving in years past. This year, we visited friends and met Buddy. I would have taken him home — if our friends allowed it. Buddy was a rescue dog who is seven years old. According to our friends, he was being abused by his owner. The owner’s daughter already had several dogs and cats and couldn’t keep him. I’m not sure how our friends found him, but they are fortunate they did.
He was the most delightful, happiest little creature I’ve ever met. He was so happy to greet us. Happy to sit by us. Thrilled to go for a walk. His entire little body vibrated with his happiness that he shared with us.
We’ve spent many Christmas and Thanksgivings with our friends of 30 plus years. They moved to Arizona before us and have a new home two hours south of us. It’s the first time we’ve visited them in their new home by Tucson and we laughed and shared stories the entire weekend — with Buddy enjoying every moment.
Here’s a view of the dramatic mountains near Tucson while out walking with Buddy.
Did you enjoy your Thanksgiving weekend with family and friends? Who was “Buddy” during your weekend?
A photo of my daughter’s pug who was used in social media marketing for her college swim team. The swimmers on the sports marketing team posed Waffles around the pool wearing goggles, on the blocks and lifeguard stand.
As I think about Thanksgiving, it dawned on me that our last two pets, Olive and Waffles, were adopted Thanksgiving weekend. What a joy they’ve brought to our family.
My son left for college in 2011 and my daughter and I visited the animal shelter in Palm Springs looking at kittens. It was right before Thanksgiving that Olive came home with us. Because my son is allergic to cats we waited until he moved away to college to adopt Olive. We kept Olive hidden in our daughter’s bedroom for the four-day weekend and didn’t think my son would have any reaction from his room down the hall.
Olive’s baby picture taken around Thanksgiving.
Everything went smoothly. I cooked dinner for my kids, husband and dad. I remember a wonderful weekend spending time with family walking downtown and playing in the park.
Then my son called to let me know he was back at school safely. While we talked on the phone, the kitty snuck out the door into the backyard.
“Quick, get the kitty!” I yelled to my daughter.
“WHAT?!” my son said. “I knew it! I knew there was a cat in the house. I had allergies all weekend.”
Today, he can visit our home in Arizona with Olive inside, and doesn’t seem to suffer. I’ve installed an air filter in the casita and the new house doesn’t have the same issues as our 1930s Palm Springs house did for allergies like mold and a grassy back yard.
Then came Waffles. It was my husband’s idea to adopt Waffles as a companion dog for our daughter. She came home from college for Thanksgiving weekend, along with our son, and met Waffles for the first time.
My kids and Waffles
I cooked for our family, my college roommate, who was visiting from Seattle with her mom and brother. Plus a former coworker of mine — and dad of course. Waffles was a hit with everyone — except Olive. I remember my college roommate’s brother thanking me over and over for a home-cooked Thanksgiving. They had planned to eat in their hotel restaurant.
Waffles was beyond cute and so tiny!
Pretty kitty Olive as a grown up.
Waffles as a middle-aged man, snaggle teeth and gray hairs.
Have a happy Thanksgiving with family, friends and your furry friends.
What is it about Thanksgiving and adopting our pets? I’m thinking our prior two, Sherman and Angus joined us in the fall as well.
My kids at the beach with Angus, our best dog ever.
Angus was the best dog ever. That’s hard to say, because I’ve loved every dog in my family since I was a young child, through married life and kids. But Angus was special.
We got Angus from Guide Dogs of the Desert after being on a waiting list for several years for one of their “rejects.” I’ll never forget driving to pick him up with my husband, first-grade son and toddler daughter.
Angus appeared, wagging his tail with a stuffed sheep in his mouth.
My husband immediately fell in love. After Angus was in the car with the family, I ran back into Guide Dogs’ office.
“If he doesn’t work out after a few days, can we bring him back?” I asked.
The woman at the counter looked at me like I was speaking a foreign language. She said, “Here’s his shot and birth records.”
“Oh!” I said stunned. Angus shared my son’s birthday.
When we brought Angus home, he was seven-months old, had some guide dog training, but failed because he was pretty wild. He did make it on the cover of Guide Dog’s brochure, though, because he was so handsome.
Our daughter spent the next few months living on countertops, the coffee table and sofa so she didn’t get tumbled by the wagging tail.
We soon learned that Angus was trained to open the fridge to help a blind person find their OJ or other items.
Angus thought our fridge was a self-service appliance for butter. Counter shopping got him treats like a loaf of bread and once while cooking dinner, I turned around to find a steak missing.
I’d walk by the kitchen to see Angus on his hind legs counter shopping and he’d quickly drop to the floor. “Who me?!”
One day, I couldn’t find the large kitchen trash can. I eventually found it behind a tree in the backyard.
Often, I came home to find the bathroom trash which was wicker with a wrought iron leaf pattern around the top — connected to Angus’s collar. Again, the look of “Who me?”
Angus on the wide chaise lounge. We spent many nights sitting together watching stars.
Angus was a working dog. It was his joy to pick up our newspapers in the morning. He’d go out the kitchen door, through the garage, to the street to pick up our two papers. Sometimes, when he was feeling extra, we’d get the neighbors’ papers, too. The newspaper job evolved to Angus leaving payment for papers.
Driving the kids to school, I’d see my husband’s tighty whities out on the street — in exchange for the newspapers.
We lived one block from downtown Palm Springs. Across the street was a hotel. I can’t tell you how many times we’d get a call from a hotel employee telling us Angus was working the pool guests for snacks.
You have to understand that Angus wasn’t allowed to roam wild. We had a walled-in yard with a gate. But Angus knew how to get out.
Once we were downtown walking with friends from Seattle. We returned after dark to see cops and strangers outside our house. The strangers said Angus was downtown barking like Lassie, trying to get someone to follow him. They did and ended up at our house, afraid because the lights were all on, with the gate and French doors open wide.
They called the police, because they were afraid maybe something deadly had happened. Everyone including the cops were relieved we were okay. An officer threatened to write up Angus for a ticket, but that didn’t happen.
For my son’s second grade birthday party, we held it at the city pool and he asked for donations for Guide Dogs of the Desert. He raised more than $1,000. I wrote a story about it that was published in the Los Angeles Times. You can read my story HERE.
Angus was with us until after he was 15 years old. We knew it was time when he’d get lost in the garage trying to pick up newspapers. He also fell into the pool several times. He had trouble standing up.
Why were we keeping Angus alive? It wasn’t for him, that’s for sure.
My husband said he’d take Angus to the vet. Then my daughter, who was a senior in high school, said she’d go. That left me feeling like a coward. I had to go, too.
Once in the examining room, we all petted and loved on Angus. The vet took a needle and injected it into his front leg. The syringe broke in half and the medicine sprayed all over the room.
We finally said good-bye to Angus. A nurse came in with a baggie of his hair and asked if we wanted it.
It was Waffles the Pug’s seventh birthday over the weekend. Since I’m in a low mood due to health issues in my family and I can’t focus, I decided photos of Waffles were in order to make me smile — and you, too. Who doesn’t like cute puppy pictures?
Seven years ago we got Waffles as a Christmas present for our daughter. Waffles became an unofficial mascot for her Utah swim team and they allowed him to come to swim practice. The sports marketing team posed him for social media posts. He’s been a joy to everyone, especially my daughter.
Waffles is a love bug, but does have one annoying habit. He puts whatever he can into his mouth. He’s uncontrollable like a two-year-old. Consequently, he’s given us plenty of scares. Once he found an adderall on the floor at a friend of my daughter’s. That was a night in the ER. Then he ate poisonous berries in our backyard. Trip to ER. The worst though was when he swallowed a piece of wood that got lodged in his small intestine. Surgery. Good thing my daughter has dog insurance!
Through all the fun and the drama, I can’t figure out where seven years disappeared.
Waffles in the sweater I bought him for cold Utah winters.
Waffles in one of his Ute posts.
Waffles in Carpinteria celebrating his first birthday at the beach.
Waffles in his puppy glory.
Waffles with his momma when we met him.
Waffles hanging out with our daughter in our backyard.
My daughter and Waffles. Graduation from college.
What do you think is more adorable — puppies or kittens and why?
I read that naming pets after food is a trend in 2023. I guess my daughter was ahead of her time?
