pets i know

wednesday web pet: kiss kiss!

i hope you can afford it!

Erie Tails - getting crafty

i have a craft room. YES, when you live alone in a two bedroom apartment you have to give the extra room a name and since this is the room where i shove my sewing machine and fabrics and scraps of paper and economy sized bottle of Elmer’s glue, it is called the Craft Room.

however, over the last couple weeks Erie Chippewa has stopped snuggling in the bed with me at night and has started to sleep almost exclusively on the couch in the Craft Room. so much so that i have just offhandedly started to refer to the Craft Room as Erie’s Bedroom. as in, ‘Erie? where are you? are you in your bedroom?’. i do this when i cannot find him - which is often and he is always in there snoozing.

last weekend however Erie let me sleep in a lil extra. i thought that was a nice thing to do until i heard some rumblings. when i finally got out of bed and walked into Erie’s Bedroom, i found that SOMEONE was getting a lil crafty. this is what i walked into…

no, i don’t just have the cabinet open and shit spilling onto the floor everyday. little buddy Erie decided that his early morning Saturday activity would involve chomping on paintbrushes, ripping apart back issues of Architectural Digest and drooling on notecards. when i yelled at him he did what every nerdy dog would: he came when called, sat down right in front of his handiwork and smiled. so i had to laugh and snap this picture…

it’s so hard to hate something that you love so much, even when you really want to. i have given up though and realized that i will pretty much love Erie and think he is funny no matter what he does. however, let it be known that he is going to have to apologize to the children i might never have because i certainly am NOT giving them any second chances. the first moment that they screw up, i am going to immediately start hatin’ on them. sorry kids!

Crazy People Make Me Happy: an afternoon IM

always looking out for the best weird pets around, Richard surprises Amanda with an IM on Thursday afternoon…

RICHARD:

AMANDA: the woman is clearly a fucking maniac. and i am willing to bet she is completely single.
RICHARD: theyre not her pets
AMANDA: doesnt matter. either way, i like it.
RICHARD: hahaha
AMANDA: that fox is really cute.
RICHARD: totally. eagle just wants to eat everyone
AMANDA: haha. he looks mean. she was probably mauled shortly after the video was shot.
RICHARD: probs
AMANDA: i’ll put her on the blog

wednesday web pet: it’s 3pm

EVERYday, EVERYmonday-friday at about 3pm i am ready to pass the hell out.

some people get 2pm headaches that require them to drink a Coca-Cola, others get a surge of energy after lunch that allows them to accomplish things that might be worthwhile, i on the other hand am ready for a serious nap.

if i don’t already slouch enough, by 3pm i am sliding down in my chair so far that my butt is nearly touching the ground and my stomach actually looks flat because it is almost completely level with the floor. it doesn’t matter what time i go to bed or what time i wake up in the morning, by the time Dr. Phil is halfway through, so am i.

being a good napper runs in my family. my Grandpa still now wakes up at noon as dozes throughout the day. until recently my Dad would come home from work and nap on his lunch break everyday. my Mom is a great napper and has passed it down to me and my sisters who hold trophies as top-ranked nap champs.

thank god i have Erie who is a good napper too.
i can’t wait until i have a donkey and i can pass out on a bail of hay with that buddy. just like the baby and horsie above.

kitty can stay at home though.

Summer Buddies - is it July yet?

i really want summer to hurry up and get here.

more than anything i want to go to the lake for the 4th of July. most days of the year i actually wish for it to be the 4th of July rather than the day it really is, so this is nothing new.

i want to ride the A train for an hour to the beach and swim in the ocean, douse my hair in Sun-In and get a bunch of freckles. i will probably also eat a ton of tacos, which isn’t always the right thing to do in a bikini.

i want to pile Erie into a rental car and drive him to the woods to go swimming in a secluded lake. if this sounds romantic, it is not. unless Erie meets a gay little dog in the woods that he can marry.

i also - and i hope i don’t regret saying this - i really want the market to start up again. working with Alexis every weekend, making fun of people, hanging out with Crazy Chinese John, weasling snacks from other booths - you really start to miss working outside when you are stuck in basement bar all winter. the best part about working the market though is all the pets that show up. most of them are being pampered tortured in posh high-rise apartments in the Finanacial District and only get to come out of the house when their owners wander down to the Seaport to buy a $60 jar of honey.

we met two of these pets last year (pictured above). clearly i caught them at the right time - they had escaped their owner and had taken up camp and started to build a bonfire in a sunny spot in the middle of the parking lot. not yet experienced campers, i will give them a pass, as it is clear they are on their way to living out their short lives as independent canines. good for them, i hope that Alexis and i spot them again this summer.

also this summer i hope to meet a buddy like this…he looks fun, right? i bet he is good at flying kites too.

Wigging Out: i think i look like this

my hair is the longest it has been in 15 years. past my shoulders.

after copying Natalie Imbruglia’s haircut in 1995 - http://1.bp.blogspot.com/—BrCB4l7qGI/TtC6CMad2BI/AAAAAAAAASc/-RxU8zgDVWs/s400/Natalie%252BImbruglia%252B2.jpg - i have been unable to grow my hair past my chin without convincing myself that the weight of it was giving me migraines and contributing to my overall self-assessed ugliness. so as soon as a stray hair would tickle my neck i would run to the bathroom (usually at 3am and sometimes a lil drunk) and give myself a haircut.

thankfully - maybe - this streak has ended. my hair is growing out and i am only trimming lil bits when i am super bored and sober. i guess maybe my 30s will be the decade of giving up.

anyways, now that my hair has grown out i can tolerate the creepy neck tickles and sleeping with a ponytail smashed up against my face (and i even got a perm a couple months ago!) but i DO think that i look like a serious weirdo with long hair. that is why when i found the pic of the doggie above i thought, ‘HEY, that kinda looks like me!’ and i am happy about that.

here are some other dog wig pics. they all look good. better than you look right now probably…except the one with the dreadlocks. NO ONE looks good with dreadlocks.

ponytails and perms aside - i still do not own a brush or a comb. and i don’t plan on it.

pup on the street - Mr. Butterfingers

earlier this week my Mom was in the hospital for two days (she is fine - she was attacked by a crocodile at the zoo and had to get a pegleg). while Mom was stuck in the hospital bed eating Jell-O and complaining about her roommate who was coughing up a lung more than half the time, my sisters and Dad were keeping company bedside, cracking jokes and taking videos as Mom pretended to sleep because she didn’t want to talk to them.

anyways, when it was time to go home my sis Nikki walked to the parking lot. upon getting in her car she spotted something completely AMAZING. here is our text conversation, pics included:

NIKKI: Found this guy outside the hospital
AMANDA: LOL AMAZING!! going on the blog tomorrow!! he’s SO fat already. hahah
NIKKI: i know he was loving life it was a whole one too we started and watched him eat it all

NIKKI: And there is the end of it
AMANDA: alexis and I are LOLing at work! she said, ‘what a litterbug!’
NIKKI: Haha i know we want to know how he even got that butterfingers

(the end)

i love his gut and how he is leaning up against the tree so perfectly. and how you can see the orange inside of the candybar. and how his lil hand is cradling that Butterfinger like he has chomped on a million before.

this guy is clearly making out. if we could all be so lucky.
good for him!

wednesday web pet: Penny’s Mouse

hey guys, MEET PENNY!

Penny is today’s web pet but she is a real friend, not just some random i found on the internets. she is a real friend with a real blog.

Penny lives in Portland with petsiknow good pal Maggie.
when Maggie leaves the house Penny causes mischief with her mouse.

you should all follow Penny on tumblr at http://pennysmouse.tumblr.com/

between Erie’s Sit-Up Man and Penny’s Mouse, Maggie and i will be peeking under couches for the next 15 years or so.

in a pretend world Erie and Penny would be fast friends.
also in this pretend world NYC and Portland are neighboring cities and Erie doesn’t want to eat cats for dinner.

Raccoon Dog: fake things really do exist!

did you know these were real?
i didn’t.

if you are a regular petsiknow reader you will remember my post from a couple months back when i said i HATED raccoons. well, that still rings true. however, after being informed on the existence of raccoon DOGS, i guess i can say that i kinda like raccoons now.

take a peek at the video. they are pretty awesome.
who wouldn’t want a gentle pet that only eats Twizzlers and will scare the shit out of all your friends and family?

also, please find amusement in the following bits of info i found on the raccoon dog wiki page:

“They do not bark like foxes, uttering instead a growl, followed by a long-drawn melancholy whine. Captive specimens have been known to utter daily a very different kind of sound when hungry, described as a sort of mewing plaint.”

and my favorite…
“In late 2006, MSNBC reported Macy’s had pulled from its shelves and its website two styles of Sean John hooded jackets, originally advertised as featuring faux fur, after an investigation concluded garments were actually made from raccoon dog. Sean Combs, the label’s founder, said he had been unaware of the material.”

it is now lunchtime. otherwise known as ‘the hour i use everyday to search Craigslist for good deals on new pets’. usually it’s mini donkeys, today it is raccoon dogs.

pup on the street - Chicago Cuties

i spent this past weekend in Chicago - hanging out with two of my sisters, being silly and avoiding EVERY SINGLE SOLITARY drunk person on the drunken St. Patrick Day packed streets.

while tip-toeing around barfing teenagers and stepping over passed out leprachauns, we were lucky enough to peep a cutie pup in Wicker Park. he was lounging on a La-Z-Boy in a store window and looking really cute with his still pink puppy nose - not unlike Erie’s, which has yet to change in his (semi) adulthod.

here is the guy we spied -

the trip was super fun but in a way was - as nerdy as this sounds - bittersweet. as it was the longest that i have been away from nerdy Erie. i am happy to report that he didn’t eat my entire apartment.

Erie’s adoptive father Andy graciously took hold of the dog-sitting duties and i felt good with the two of them cuddling up in my bed and listening to my landlord beat up her husband for the days i was gone.

Andy sent me this pic - apparently while i was gone all Erie did was sit on a smelly shirt i left behind and gnawed on a bone…

upon my VERY EARLY return to NYC (after walking up at 3am to go to the airport!), Erie and i went straight to the dog park, where he sat up on the table next to me the whole time, not even wanting to play with his pals…

i guess to this little dude his Mom is better than the cutest new puppy around.

wednesday web pet: on thursday

DINNER FOR ONE.

NO, not like THAT, you sickos!

Trek, Frodo and Starter: cool corgis!

check out these awesome friends!
and not only are these corgis friends, they are petsiknow family -

on the left is Trekkie - Erie’s mama!
in the middle is Frodo - Trek’s boyfriend!
and on the right is Starter - Erie’s floppy-eared uncle!

this pic was taken at the home of Ruth - affectionately known as Mother Ruth - the wonderful woman who raised Erie - otherwise known as Babe Ruth - before he came to live with me.

if anyone is interested in adopting a Cardigan or has any questions about the breed, Ruth is the lady to go to! i can’t say enough wonderful things about her and how much care and time she put into making Erie the best little puppy ever.

check out her website Fairlane Cardigan Corgis at -
http://fairlanecardigancorgis.weebly.com/index.html