Oh my I totally forgot to talk about the doggies at the shelter. I think I am writing too many blogs!

On Saturday I took my friend with me since she's an animal lover.

Oscar

Oscar has been with the shelter over a month now. He was super easy to walk.

Crissy

Sorry for the delay it was my busy weekend and week. This week my friend and I walked two pairs of doggies, Bonnie and Clyde as you see above and Jewel and Max. I also walked Tyler who has moved to a different cage this week. Oh man, he must hate the leash used on him. He was still trying to bite it off like last time I walked him.

Bonnie was a little bit more of an explorer while Clyde was just a kind gentleman. But they both were very vocal when they came across other dogs. shhh. Do you both know how small you are ?

Jewel and Max were super easy to walk...though their harnesses were another story. I actually put Jewel's harness upside down. ha ha. No wonder she looked funny. A senior volunteer helped fixing it. She also showed us how to help a dog breathing better when he/she had an allergy and had hard time breathing like Jewel. You basically use your finger hold/close his or her nose to force them to breathe through their mouth. After about 15 seconds they will breathe fine.

Anyway, don't forget to help FOHA, a no-kill animal shelter if you can.

Wish Upon a Wedding, A charity that grants weddings and vow renewals to people diagnosed as having fewer than five years to live.

A Story of Shelly and Jay

The Annual Potomac River Watershed Cleanup is the regional attempt to keep the Potomac River clean. Every watershed around the river got cleaned this morning. Half of my office helped cleaning Upper Snakeden Branch in Reston. The water from Snakeden branch goes to Lake Audubon, then the Potomac River and Chesapeake Bay. If I heard the volunteer leader said correctly, we got 40 bags of trash and recycle from all the watershed in Reston area which took 2 full trucks to load them up. Isn't that disgusting that we got that much trash ?


Photo: The oily part of Upper Snakeden branch.


Photo: Trash we collect today. We found an engine and a piece of furniture dumped on the trail.

Here is the information from the 24th Annual Potomac River Watershed Cleanup website as of 5:30 pm April 14, 2012

Volunteers: 2705
Sites Reporting: 115
Sites Registered: 344
Tons: 54.72 tons
Tires: 483
Recyclable Beverage Containers: 56,000
Plastic Bags: 10,409
Cigarette Butts: 10,906
Top Brand Names reported:Pepsi, Deer Park, Budweiser

Several months ago Fairfax County found that our office neighbor had their sewer line connecting to the storm drain. That storm drain takes everything down to the lake nearby. There are a lot of parties involved in construction from architects, engineers, building inspector, contractors, subcontractors, tenant and landlord. How come nobody noticed it ?

Use water responsively, shall we ? So we can enjoy it as long as we live. Below is the photo of Lake Anne this evening. It is one of the five man-made lakes in Reston. It is pretty, isn't it ?

I loved this weekend. It's busy but I had a chance to do everything. I cooked. I volunteered. I made a new friend. I paddled on the Potomac for the first time. I saw parts of DC I had never seen before. Weather was nice. Trees were beautiful.



Crissy was as friendly and smart as ever. She loved being pet and playing catch ball. She waited patiently when I got water in a bucket for her. But she almost launched to another dog coming out from the run while we were just sitting on the lawn. The other dog acted a little bit crazy so I think she was scared. There was a visitor interested in her but unfortunately she didn't get along with their dogs. You will find home, Crissy!



I am sure Tyler had gained weight. I had a hard time snap the harness clip together. He was a little sad this weekend. He didn't play much and basically acted like a walking machine. Hope he didn't get sick. Above is the photo of his cage. His eyes always had begging look.

I made a new friend, Jane, this week just by walking Dooley and Martina with her. She had been volunteering here for a couple years. We always see her walking a pair of dogs by herself. Still not sure how she handled that!

In front of each cage there usually were a note about the dogs and sometimes a short story about their personality or their history. One of the dogs was given up because he ended up overweight and that was against the housing complex rules. I just don't know what to say.

There have been a lot of new doggies coming and going during these two weeks. I have been so busy but I decided I would make time for them this week. The trail was absolutely gorgeous with new leaves coming out and flowers still blooming. The weather was cool. All made walking dogs even more enjoyable.



This week I made a new (human) friend. Her name is Brandy. She has tattoo. She wears purple eyeshadows. She takes kick-boxing class and looks pretty tough. But she is super nice, energetic and love dogs very much. She would like to try walking a pair of dogs and we both happened to be in front of Dooley's and Martina's run so she asked me if I would like to walk them with her. Why not right ? I probably mentioned before that Martina needs to be walked with Dooley. She's very scared of people. To my surprise she didn't hide too far from me this time. It took her just a minute to come closer and I managed to put a harness on her pretty easily. But man! she's a different dog outside. She ran, jogged, led all of us through the trail. Then a senior volunteer asked us if we could walk Riker and Troi, the brother and the sister. So I also walked them with Brandy. Troi was sweet as ever while Riker didn't care much. She stopped playing a couple times just to came to us to be pet. You have to see them walking together. They're so elegant like royal horses trotting down the street.

I didn't have a chance to take photos of the four though.



I wanted to walk Miss Molly first but somehow her harness was impossible to decipher. So I moved to Tyler instead. (I am so sorry Molly.)



And Crissy is going to be my new favorite. This girl knows how to catch a ball and bring it back! She's a 9-month-old pitbull terrier. She has bright white color with ear tips and nose in pink. Her eyes are blue. A little bit hard to get a harness on her but the walk and the play was very pleasant.

If you're in DC area, please help FOHA. It's a no-kill animal shelter.

I forgot to mention last week that Spencer had gone home. Wish you luck my stubborn doggie. Nola had also gone home as a bonus dog. (It means a person first decided to adopt her in addition to another dog he or she is adopting.) Thank you!




This week we got a lot of new faces. Some of them were not allowed to be walked such as Chris. I saw his photo the other day. He was super cute. Chris was only 10 months old. FOHA took him out from a high kill shelter as a stray last october. He was staying with a foster home for while. I played with him a bit. He's a little shy but seemed to be well behaved. He kept licking my fingers, laying in his stomach with his front legs straight out with his head low down on the floor. And he already got the first application!

I got there a little late. So there was only Tyler left for me to walk.




So here is Tyler this week. He was barking at other dogs a lot. You're way smaller than other, Tyler! Other than that he was a great dog to walk. He could sit still when you told him to do so. And good news there was a lady interested in adopting him so she brought her dog in to walk with him. They seemed to get along very well.

I could have taken other dogs out for a second round such as Miss Molly. But there were a lot of volunteers and I had my painting projects to finish. So I decided to go home. Next Saturday my two other friends and I will finish our giant painting. So hopefully I have a chance to be at the shelter on Sunday.

Don't forget you can see the photos up close from These Dogs at Blogspot.

Have a great weekend~

This week my friend and I stopped by at the shelter around 1pm because of my swimming class late morning. (Wow I swam 8 laps! Well..okay....with flippers.) We dropped off bags of Diesel’s toys, blankets, food and medicine since it’s still hard for my friends to do this themselves. Diesel was like a baby to them. (Look at the painting of Diesel and Read about him from my 365 Day 42)





Sunday was really quiet at the shelter. By 2 pm most of the dogs were already walked so not many left. One of the rules is try to walk every dog before starting the second round. The active siblings, Riker and Troi, were our first walk. Riker took the lead just like last time (with me running after) while Troi was trotting behind. Though from time to time she stopped to sniff around only to find out that her brother was way ahead then she would speed up dragging my friend along with her. But Troi was super cute in the play area. She played. Then she would come back to us and let us pat her. Riker ? He was just running around like boys. :P



I must be destined to be with Miss Molly. She got here when I had my training at the shelter. I walked her almost every weekend. And today late afternoon she hadn't been walked. Poor thing. If she can stop pulling people out of her run and barking at other dogs, she will be awesome. My walk with her was great. She hardly pulled me. We walked along side by side most of the time.

Next week I am sure I’ll go back to my Saturday schedule again.

Such a windy day today. Making it unnecessarily cold!




Poor Spencer still didn't like the leash and being dragged into any enclosed space so much. He jumped and tried to bite the leash off. He would sit tight when he was right in front of the run or the office. I had to take him back through the back door instead. It's sad to see him or any dog end up in the cage especially after seeing him so happy rolling around on the yard or running free in the play area.

At least there was one application pending for him. He will be at home soon!



My friend walked Louise the other week so I gave her a try since there were so many new faces here and I didn't which one I should pick. Louise had pretty blonde and grey hair. It's hard to meet her eyes with the bang. She was a curious one and almost got into trouble by jumping into a car trunk to get treats while there was another dog in there. PHEW~ I almost had a heart attack.



Dear Molly, you would be superb if you weren't into arguing with other dogs too much. She was fun to walk except when she headed to others or pulled me straight out of the run and sped across the lawn like a jet.




Tyler made my day. He was 7 years old and needed to wear a harness because he was quite small. I had been avoiding walking a dog needing one because I didn't know how to put it on. But Tyler had the sweetest begging eyes. So once I met his eyes I couldn't turn him down. After being in a cage with him for full 5 minutes, got him lick on my face, had him jumping around me I got it on him! (I had missed his left leg at first though.) He was very calm waiting for me to put the harness together. I think he knew what I was doing. He was very smart. He knew that tapping a seat meant sitting with me. And he loved treats very much.

And now I could walk any small dog at the shelter! Nola was already walked when I got there. I hope people will find out soon how good she is and adopt her.

Stop by FOHA and help them if you can.

* Click on the name to see more photos of them from These Dogs.

I missed walking dogs for 3 weeks since I was in Thailand and on the deadline for my commissioned painting last week. There were so many new faces. It's kind of nice to see the shelter sending many dogs home but at the same time it's sad to witness the newly abandoned ones.

I was late to meet up my friend at her place this week and there was a training for dog walkers. So each of us walked only 2 dogs. My smart boy, Kelsey, went home 2 weeks ago. My friend's favorite, Penny, went home today with a new hair cut. Molly was still here but she had been walked so I just said hi to her and gave her some treats.





I walked a super cute newcomer, Spencer*. Spencer had the weirdest combination I had ever seen as you can witness on the photos I took. I don't know why he's here and I would like to find out. He didn't like the leash at all. He was trying to bite it off and jumping out of it from time to time. So I let him walk as much as he wanted. Poor thing. He was so scared to go back to his run that a senior volunteer had to carry him back.





Another newcomer I walked named Nola*. A so-so looking dog but super sweet. Nola must be an expert of time savings. She was trying to sniff everything on the left and the right while being walked. We walked in zig-zag pattern through the trails. That must double the distance! She also walked around my friend and me. We almost wrapped by the leash I was holding. Since the weather was so nice I decided to just sit at the lawn with her just to hang out.

Can't wait to walk them again next week!

* Click on their names to see close-up photos from These Dogs at Blogspot.

A little bit delay on this post. I was trying to finish my work, checking off my (sister's) shopping list and running out of time before I left for vacation. Today is my first day I can sit in front of a computer since I arrived.

Even with the cold weather it was a pretty day. I picked up my friend at her place on my way to the shelter since we would like to meet up. Honestly I had never thought walking dogs in snow would be this nice. The trails were covered with snow and the main road was a bit icy. But the good thing was it wasn't so muddy so my boots stayed clean. I walked Zippy, Kelsey and Molly this week. Zippy went home that day. Poor Kelsey, though he was still up and running, energetic as ever he was sick. blood in his stool for a couple days now. Molly still had red eyes which I started to wonder what she was allergic to. So I wrote down a medical report at the office as required. Hope they both feel better by the time I get back. My friend had a chance to walk Penny. She was gorgeous. You can check her photo at "These Dogs."

I posted photos of the trails around the photos. It was gorgeous, wasn't it ?

Even it's 37'F high today after I walked the first dog I already needed to take my outer jacket off. I was sweating.


I went to Kelsey before Molly today since I knew the walk with him would be more manageable compared to hers. Surprisingly he ran more than usual today. So after the first trail I let him running around in the play area. We did a lot of chasing today and he seemed to enjoyed it. No tug-of-war since he kept chewing a rag ball.


Molly pulled me out from the run and across the front ground really hard and fast. A group of people were basically staring at us. Probably wondering if I would survive. But hey Molly knew how to fetch a tennis ball and she wasn't arguing with the other senior dogs nearby that much and she very well behaved on the second trail.



Zippy, my new favorite dog, was walked earlier today. So I had to find a new doggie to walk. Janai living not too far from Kelsey was my pick. She was a 3 years old mom. Her owner had to abandon her after Janai had puppies and it's too much for the owner to handle. So here she was. poor thing. She was very sweet. Loved hugging people. If you called her name, she turned to give you a hug.


This log was left on the trail. So pretty.

While I was writing this blog, there was a Dog Competition - Incredible Dog Challenge on TV. The world record for Diving Dog was 31'-8". wow. I had never known that a dog can jump that far. And it's amazing to see the dogs on 30 weaves race.

Hope my next weekend won't be too crazy. Work is overwhelming at the moment. I would love to walk the dogs before I will be out of town for 2 weeks.

Ugh. I had too much early dinner.

I wish winter will be like this forever. Sunny with a bit of cloud, high 60'F/18'C.

Alice had gone home on Friday according to FOHA newsletter this week. I would say there were about 10 empty runs at one of the buildings at the shelter when I got there. Today there was a volunteer training which meant many dogs got the second walk (such as Miss Molly). It's great to see more people come to help. Hope they will stick around.


I started with Miss Molly. She still had an allergy and was on eye-drop treatment. Not much of scratching today. She was no trouble at all. A bit of pulling here and there but way less than the first week I walked her. (It was more like she walked me that day.) She didn't even argue much with the senior dogs whose runs facing one of the play areas. She just jogged along the fence looking at those.


Kelsey, Miss Molly's neighbor, was as nice and smart as he was last week. He was such a good dog for a family to have. I started wondering why he was at the shelter. He was one of the few dogs I knew that really listened and reacted to what you said, never tried to get to other dogs and he knew how to play. On top of that he looked into you eyes and smiled. (I am still not able to get a shot of his smile. Every time I took my iPodTouch out he just wanted to taste it.) He didn't pull as much. Today he wasn't in a mood to play tug-of-war with me so we were chasing each other around in the play area instead. Man, he was fast.


Zeva was very outstanding among others with her bright white color and the neon pink collar. She was easy to walk most of the time since she hardly ran until she saw other dogs in front of her. She would try to chase them and that was the hard part of my walk with her. The other volunteer heard Zeva panting from behind (because I had to pull her back so hard) and he decided to let me pass. Another unique thing about her was that she kept moving forward while pooping. And she did that twice!


Zippy was new to the shelter but already made it to my top 5 favorite dogs of all time. She actually looked very similar to the cat we and my neighbor in Bangkok taking care of. (We don't want to call her a street cat because in fact she is very rich by owning two places. She can sleep, sunbathe and eat at either place when she wants.) Zippy knew how to play fetching a tennis ball! Finally I found one! She looked at you and listened to you just like Kelsey. She was very thin and seemed to be afraid of cars so I was curious about her background too.

Poor Dooley. He hadn't been walked until I found out from another admin staff about the new note in front of his run. The note said that he and Martina, his extremely shy neighbor, needed to be walked together. In fact it's only Martina that was needed to be walked with other compatible dog. Dooley had no problem being walked alone. (He didn't care much about you anyway, ha ha.) So I decided to walk him since his eyes were just begging. So I walked him, my fifth dog of the day. And it actually was a bad idea because Dooley was very independent as I mentioned in other posts. You couldn't tell or force him to do what you want him to do. And I was so exhausted at that point so I didn't give him my best. (Sorry Dooley.) Today he just wanted to pick every pieces of treat left on the ground of parking lot. (Because people kept the dog treats in their trunks and gave it to any dogs passing by. It's like buffet down that road.) So we just hung out there without walking at any trail. The only way to make sure he pay attention to you was staying low to the ground (since he was so short and hardly lifted his head up) and looked at him in the eyes. But that still wouldn't guarantee that he would do what you said. He was great greeting with other people coming to play with him. Hmmm...maybe he didn't like me that much.

I hope next week weather will be nice like this.

Until then.