Cool Treats, a Fashion Show and a Potcake Playdate

It's hard to believe that Boca and I will be leaving for BlogPaws - a three-day pet blogging conference in Phoenix, AZ - exactly three weeks from today. Our trip is being generously sponsored by Open Farm, the first Certified Humane kibble. I've been reading several books about pets, ethics and animal welfare recently, and I'm glad there is a pet food option that has these things in mind.

Patio Weather

Winter lingered into May, and then summer arrived seemingly overnight. 

Ginger Gardens

You get very independent when you live alone. You get to be a real individual.

~ "Big Edie" Beale, Grey Gardens 

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Boca Goes Shopping to Benefit Animal Welfare

With BlogPaws fast approaching, I've been taking Boca on as many outings as possible to prepare for our road trip next month. We'll be driving over 1500 miles through the southwest, and our trip to the conference is being generously sponsored by Open Farm. Many of my choices in life are made with animal welfare in mind, and what I feed my dogs is no exception. Open Farm is the first Certified Humane dry dog food on the market, which means the standards of care for the animals are much higher than a typical factory farm. As someone who tried to reduce the number of animal products in my own life through a mainly vegetarian diet, these standards are important to me. 

Quality Testers

My friend gave me some new throw pillows for my purple sofa, so of course the first order of business was making sure they passed muster with The Ginger Sisters. 

Pet-Friendly Spring Cleaning Giveaway with PL360

Spring was slow to arrive in Colorado, but now that warm and sunny has taken over cold and snowy, I felt motivated to shake out the cobwebs and freshen up my house, and was happy to partner with PL360 to promote an awesome spring cleaning giveaway.  I've been using plant-based, pet-safe PL360 products regularly myself since winning a similar giveaway myself about a year ago.

Rosie: Tribute to a Rescued Mother

Rosie is dog I transported for Paws on the Ground a few weeks ago - we were rear-ended at the start of our journey so our fearless leader came to pick us up as we were both quite shaken and the three of us continued to her new foster home. We've saved 60 dogs since becoming a non-profit at the beginning of the year, and most of the dogs and puppies aren't with us for long. Many I haven't even met, but some capture your heart almost instantly, and Rosie was one of those. Puppies are not really my thing - I've always adopted adult dogs. For that reason, it's funny that I've ended up deeply involved with a primarily puppy rescue, but all of those puppies have mothers, and we help the mothers needing homes whenever we can. 

Ruby Reviews: The Honest Kitchen Proper Toppers

This month, The Ginger Sisters were excited to try Proper Toppers, the newest offering from The Honest Kitchen. I know I wasn't imagining them looking longingly at the package on the counter when I told them we couldn't open it until we got pictures... 

Staying to Play - A Surprising Training Discovery

Although this weekend's outdoor activites were thwarted by yet another spring snowstorm (I referred to yesterday as Gray the First), I was able to get in a fun Frisbee game with Ruby before the green was whited-out again. I've been incorporating the long line and flying disc into any outdoor training with Ruby, because it's the one thing I've found that she finds highly motivating, even in the presence of her many triggers. Recently, we even had a great experience with two different dogs being walked around the perimeter of the lawn we play on, where Ruby briefly looked at the dogs and then returned to obsessing over her Frisbee. For a dog so reactive she knows the sound of the doors of the places where dogs live opening from inside our house, this is huge. It was around that time I decided I needed to order the things (Booda's TailSpin Flyer if we're being specific) in bulk from our favorite online retailer. They are magic!