To give you some perspective, Brewer – in red – is 30×20 inches large. Buddy, licking his tongue, is 16×24 inches, and shelter-pup Heinz is 14×21 inches.

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Turns out Lawson now lives right around the corner from us, in Sandwich, MA! Those Sinatra-blue eyes are turning heads everywhere.

Lawson was found among his litter mates under a porch in Tennessee. With just a little tug, he’s in a much better place now!

This is Bromley’s friend Atlas who now lives in Arlington, VA. I grabbed this shot of him on the beach during his first trip to Cape Cod.

Miss you, Atlas!

If anything, bringing our own Brewer – a lab/hound mix – home last spring has been a major advertisement for how gorgeous a shelter dog can be. If you really want a pure breed, there’s most certainly a rescue site out there for you!

Just look at this face!

Don’t think he didn’t have any holiday fun, though…

Kevin and Guinness on our snowshoe hike – she loves catching snowballs!

And then there is Matti, almost-but-not-quite invisible against the snowy background.

Well, we adopted Brewer from Tennessee this past spring. In the south, as well as in rescue situations in general, you never know that the animal has been cared for in the same way you would care for him. Brewer tested negative for worms when he arrived, but it takes about six months for new cases to show up in tests. Unfortunately, he tested positive this month.

It turns out, dogs don’t just die, and that’s a huge PHEW! But it does involve some pretty harsh treatment, and once we go ahead with it next week, Brewer will need 24/7 care and probably sedation over the following 4+ weeks. As the worms die, they can potentially cause clots in some pretty dangerous areas. So we have to keep our little rambunctious toddler at peace while Santa’s jumpin’ down chimneys over the next month.

Anyway, we’re lucky to have our vet friends a mile away and a few weeks to be home from work. Let’s just hope Brewer’s first snow comes sometime in the next few days!

Since Bromley first came home and sat with his regal paws crossed, we’ve given him the name “Sir Bromley”. He also immediately took on the Karate Kid moniker “Bromyalsan”. Most recently, “Bromallama” and the shortened “Llama” have even led to the name of our favorite trail as the “Llama Loop”.

Brewer gets “Brew”, “Brewski” and “Brewdoggity” most often. For his unending bladder capacity, and because he’s from Tennessee, we sometimes call him “Two-Gallon Jed”. And due to the dramatic improvement in his now-chocolate-brown coat over the six months since his rescue, we’ve been known to call him “Shiny Tim”. Last but not least, Brewer’s ability to slip out of his collar in a millisecond has inspired the name “Brewdini”.

Our guests have all left and there’s still a weekend ahead. We’re looking forward to spoiling our boys with attention for two more days at home!

Happy Holidays!

Well Gary carefully wrapped up the receipt today as we walked out of the store. We thought we might need to use that 30-day guarantee, cause there-ain’t-know-way-in-hell-this-thing-has-ever-met-the-likes-of-the-husky-doberman-mix-we’ve-plucked-for-10-years Bromley.

BUT… !!!!!

You should have seen the sheer excitement and astonishment on each of our faces the minute the FURminator touched Bromley’s coat. This thing is SENT FROM GOD. Buy one now. Buy one for your mom. Buy one for your boss. SPEND THE MONEY.

If we had five minutes to talk to our dogs, Bromley and Brewer, what would we ask them? What would we say to them?

What a loaded question! Each dog has his own unique personality and idiosyncrasies. We might want to know what the attraction is to eating feces, why one particular patch of grass tastes better than the other… What’s your favorite food, what’s your favorite spot to be rubbed? Does Cesar Milan really know what he’s talking about? Do you understand that Dad is yelling at the Red Sox/Patriots and that he’s not really mad at you?

But I think I’d probably end up with more to say than to ask. I would want Bromley to know how much I have counted on his smell and licks through life’s adventures and challenges of the last 10+ years. I would want Brewer to know that we will rub his tummy for the next 10+ years and never leave him alone in another shelter.

What about you? What would you say with only five minutes to talk to your pet??

One of the incredible things I’ve learned in week #2 is that we’re a VERY dog-friendly office! Today is one of about 6-10 days a year declared “bring-your-dog-to-work-day”, but I’ve seen dogs here several other days as well. To top that off, we’ve had volunteer humans and dogs in this week to teach us about NEADS, a program for Dogs for Deaf and Disabled Americans.

(Yes, I just wrote that correctly and I too am trying to figure out how to get that acronym from that phrase)

This afternoon we’re playing doggy bingo. What’s that? Well,for a five dollar contribution to NEADS we pick a square. The square matches up with the squares on the lawn, and a dog (“with a very full bladder”) will be released on the lawn. You know where I’m goin’ with this.

I like my new job.

“A lot of smelling butts and trading slobber,” reports the Morris Daily Herald in Illinois.

For $10 bucks, the humans get a beer and the dogs do too – a Wet Snout Stout or a Dogger Lager dog beer actually made from broth-based liquids that are infused with vitamins.

The article makes a good point: Humans want to spend time with their pets after being at work all week!

Phase 2: Get lab to enter water, gradually over head in pursuit of stick or ball

Phase 3: Get lab to stop splashing and begin the correct and efficient use of webbed paws while swimming

Phase 4: Lure dog onto boat with tennis ball

Happy to say Brewer’s first boat ride was a big success this past Saturday evening! He loved the flats at Sandy Neck during low tide, and he sniffed his first striped bass. He even rolled over on his back for a rub on the way back to the docks.

Success!!