{"id":1017,"date":"2012-12-03T05:00:43","date_gmt":"2012-12-03T13:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/morningnewsinverse.wordpress.com\/?p=1017"},"modified":"2012-12-03T05:00:43","modified_gmt":"2012-12-03T13:00:43","slug":"going-to-the-dogs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/?p=1017","title":{"rendered":"GOING TO THE DOGS"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Suzanne Sparrow Watson<\/p>\n

\"Raes<\/a>My husband and I have lost our minds. We recently decided to add to our family. \u00a0No, we’re not that\u00a0<\/em>crazy (or young). \u00a0\u00a0In February we will become parents to a 12 week old Cavalier King Charles spaniel. The picture at left shows the litter at 8 days old. We don’t know yet which one will be ours, but I’m hoping it’s the smart one. \u00a0I am aware of the pitfalls of a new puppy – we can say goodbye to sleep, sanity and our clean white carpeting. On the other hand, if “Puppy Breath” was sold as perfume it would be a best seller.<\/p>\n

I haven’t owned a dog in 25 years so I thought I should become familiar with the modern dog world. Conveniently, PetSmart\u00a0was sponsoring its annual Holiday Pet Festival near us this past weekend. It offered an opportunity to see (and pet) dogs, peruse the latest dog supplies and hopefully pick up some tips. \u00a0And it was free. \u00a0The perfect storm.<\/p>\n

The festival was held at West World, which is a HUGE exhibition center where they hold the Barrett-Jackson car auction and other large events. I figured they would cordon off a small portion\u00a0of it for the dog soiree. But as I entered the building it became clear that I am horribly, crushingly, out of date when it comes to the dogs and the vast array of “stuff” available to them.<\/p>\n

Twenty-five years ago my dog had a collar, leash and feeding bowls. \u00a0I fed her whatever canned dog food was on sale at the supermarket. \u00a0On a good day she got a piece of a hot dog or whatever scrap happened to hit the kitchen floor. \u00a0Apparently my \u00a0laissez-faire\u00a0<\/i><\/b><\/span>approach to dog ownership would now warrant an emergency call to the SPCA.<\/p>\n

The “fesitval” made it clear that today’s dog requires vitamins, special organic, gluten-free food, freeze-dried liver treats, harnesses, and a bed that would have to pass muster at the Ritz. \u00a0And though not required, it was strongly suggested that if you love your dog at all you should purchase\u00a0a dog massage, a day at the doggie spa, blinged\u00a0out collars and sunglasses. \u00a0I won’t even go into the ridiculous costumes being offered but really…some of these outifts would embarrass Lady Gaga.<\/p>\n

All in all it was a fun day. \u00a0There were small dogs and large dogs,\u00a0and dogs that looked like they wanted to be\u00a0anywhere\u00a0<\/em>else:<\/p>\n

\"small<\/a><\/p>\n

\"large<\/a><\/p>\n

\"bored<\/a><\/p>\n

But my favorite was the dog who decided, right in the middle of the arena, to “do it’s business”. \u00a0Big time. \u00a0And guess what breed it was? \u00a0A Cavalier King Charles spaniel. \u00a0I think I’m going to need a bigger shovel.<\/p>\n

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by Suzanne Sparrow Watson My husband and I have lost our minds. We recently decided to add to our family. \u00a0No, we’re not that\u00a0crazy (or young). \u00a0\u00a0In February we will become parents to a 12 week old Cavalier King Charles … read more<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3,6],"tags":[100,122,194,195,196,197,198,199,200,410,656],"class_list":["post-1017","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog-info-up-dates","category-blog-updates","category-opinion","tag-bored-dogs","tag-cavalier-king-charles-spaniel","tag-dog-beds","tag-dog-clothes","tag-dog-collars","tag-dog-show","tag-dog-spas","tag-dog-treats","tag-dogs","tag-large-dogs","tag-small-dogs"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p31aN0-gp","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1017","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1017"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1017\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}