Rooster the dog and his friends

Pet Photos with Santa (2018)

For those who celebrate Christmas, getting a photo with Santa might have been something you did as a child! I know there are a couple photos of a young me scared out of my mind of the Santa right next to me. But this trend isn’t limited to young children and families. Over the past few years, there has been more than a few people who’ve gotten a photo of their pet and Santa! All across the…

Each year, the days after Thanksgiving in the US center around shopping for the holidays. Black Friday seems to start earlier and earlier each year; Small Business Saturdays are a push to support local businesses; Cyber Monday is often for online shops. But Giving Tuesday happens on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving (so tomorrow!). For the past few years, nonprofits have used tomorrow as a way to…

Happy (early) Thanksgiving to all in the United States! For many around the country, tomorrow is a wonderful day filled with family, friends, food, and feeling grateful. For those who are celebrating tomorrow with pets, there are a few things to keep in mind throughout the day!

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Take A Hike Day 2018

Take A Hike Day is celebrating each year on November 17th and today is a great day for being outside with your four-legged friends! Because it’s mid-November in the Pacific Northwest, it will be a bit cold this weekend but with proper layering, hikes this weekend should still be fun! Plus, there are so many dog-friendly hikes you can go on, including a few that you can do last minute!

Before you…

Over the last couple of years, California has been hit by several major wildfires. The latest wildfires have displaced hundreds of thousands of people, roughly fifty people have died in one of the fires, and there has been a bunch of property/forest damage. Some people have also been sharing their terrifying journeys trying to escape while completely surrounded by fire.

Watching from hundreds of…

As the winter holiday season grows closer, many people are making plans to travel to see family and/or friends. Traveling can be stressful this time of year as more and more people are on the roads or traveling via planes or trains. But traveling can also be a whole lot of fun, especially if you take your pets with you! With the right planning and preparation, vacations with pets can be a great…

Washington’s Proposed Temporary Ban On Whale Watching Tours.

The population of the resident Salish Sea orcas has been a big concern for many around the Pacific Northwest the last several years. These animals are an iconic and vital part of the Salish Sea but their numbers have been dwindling over the decades. Currently, only 74 resident orcas call the Salish Sea home, including Tahlequah, the orca who carried her dead calf for weeks after it died.

Tahlequa…

Art Projects With Animals.

Recently, I decided to get a print of Rooster’s paw. As he gets older, I know we have less time with him and I just wanted an extra something to remember him by (in addition to all the photos I’ve taken!). So with some research and a trip to a nearby crafts store, I managed to make a couple of prints from Rooster’s paw! I used a nontoxic, washable ink pad for this first time around, which made a…

Adopting A Senior Animal.

Did you know that November is National Adopt a Senior Animal Month? Adopting rescue animals can be a wonderful, rewarding experience for everyone involved! You, as the person, gain a new fluffy family member and the animal will have a loving home. If you’re looking into adopting a rescue, consider adopting a senior animal! Despite many misconceptions, there are so many reasons to consider getting…

Today is Halloween, the spookiest day of the year! There have been so many exciting and fun Halloween events all around the Pacific Northwest this year and a few more happening today! What are you and your pets planning to do today?

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Ingredients

1 cup pumpkin puree*

1/2 cup peanut butter

1 3/4 cup flour

Parchment Paper**

Optional: red and yellow food coloring to make the treats just a bit more orange!

Optional: different cookie cutters, including pumpkins!**

*Make sure get pumpkin puree! You can get canned pumpkin but it’ll be essential to get just pumpkin and not pumpkin pie filling. The pie filling will have too many added ingredients that aren’t good for your dog!

You’ll also need parchment paper to roll out the dough and to put on the trays. You can also get cookie cutters at many different places, including different craft stores!

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350f.

Mix all the ingredients together in a big bowl. I started mixing all the ingredients (plus two drops of both red and yellow food coloring) with a large fork but used my hands to kneed it after a short time.

Roll out the dough between two sheets of parchment paper using a rolling pin. I had a small space to do this so I divided up the dough into sections to do this.

Once the dough is about 1/4 inch thick, peel off the top parchment paper and cut out some cookies!

After cutting out the treats using your cookie cutters, place them on baking sheets and bake for 8-10 minutes! I used some more parchment paper under the cookies while they baked so they were easy to remove after they were done.

Final steps: let cool and then enjoy! Treats should be enjoyed within a few months of making them but they can be stored in an airtight container until they’re gone.

Both Milo and Rooster love these cookies! Milo is always so excited about treats but he seemed to especially love these ones. They’re easy to make and with only a few ingredients, great for your dogs too!

Pet Halloween Costumes and Treats.

Halloween is just around the corner and so much fun can be had during this time of year! From pumpkin patches to apple picking to corn mazes and so much more, autumn in the Pacific Northwest is, in my opinion, a truly wonderful time of the year. And one of the most fun parts is dressing up for Halloween! Whether you’re dressing up to trick or treats with your kids or you’re going to a party or…

Rooster may be moving a lot slower but we’ve still done some fun things over the past couple of months! We’ve gone to a couple parks right on the bay a few times and Milo even joined us on a few of those trips. We also celebrated Rooster’s unofficial 14th birthday on October 9th with some whipped cream! Rooster was very grateful for his puppaccino, once he figured out what it was. We also watched as a volunteer pumpkin grew in my neighbor’s yard and Rooster got his photo with it before it was cut!

Rooster’s Bucket List: Dog Bar, Beach Time, and Flower Power

His bucket list is an ongoing adventure, as he’s not able to do a ton of activities in a single day (or even in a few days). I’ve realized in this bucket list adventure that he seems really happy to do one big outing (like go to a park!) and then go home for a nap in the sun. Completing this list has become less of doing one-off events and more about regularly doing the things he loves the most.

National Wildlife Refuge Week

This week [October 14-20, 2018] is National Wildlife Refuge Week! Celebrated the second week of October each year, this week is a celebration of the wildlife refuges around the country, as these spaces around the country provide a safe habitat for thousands of animal and plant species and an unparalleled outdoor experience for people. There are some slight differencesbetween wildlife refuges,…

5 Facts About Weasels in the Northwest.

Up until last October, I had no idea that there were wild weasels in the Pacific Northwest. I don’t know why but it just never occurred to me that these animals lived in the wild here but it’s true! There are a couple kinds of wild weasels that call the Northwest home. Here are some fun facts about these animals:

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Indigenous Peoples’ Day.

For decades, Columbus Day was celebrated in many parts of the United States every second Monday in October. The day was to celebrate Christopher Columbus, the man who sailed the ocean blue in 1492 and “discovered” the new world. His “discovery”, however, was of a continent populated by millions of people already, as thousands of indigenous tribes called North, Central, and South America home long…

World Animal Day and the Blessing of the Animals.

Happy World Animal Day! Today is a day dedicated to the many animals that also call earth home and there are events all around the world today to celebrate. Today was initially startedby Heinrich Zimmermann, a German writer and magazine publisher, in 1925. For the first few years, the day happened annually on March 24th but by 1931, the day was changed to October 4th to coincide with the feast…