Life and Times of Tomokee the Dog

Tiled Steps

2012-01-19T20:46:00.000-08:00

We took a hike with Tomokee up the Moraga Steps in San Francisco's sunset district. At the top of the steps is the tiny Grand View Park, which provides great views of the city.

Many of the tiles on the steps were sponsored by residents who got their names engraved onto them. Eagle-eyed Bruce spotted one tile that was engraved with something a bit more unconventional.

Happy New Year

2012-01-03T15:13:00.000-08:00

Tomokee wishes you all a happy 2012!

Happy Birthday, Tomokee!

2011-12-17T17:25:00.000-08:00

Tomokee recently celebrated his sixth birthday. He still zooms around like a crazed puppy at least once a day.

Now who could have done this?

2011-10-05T23:33:00.000-07:00

Carmel

2011-09-28T22:23:00.001-07:00

We went to Carmel-by-the-Sea last weekend and a visit to Carmel always involves a visit to the beach with Tomookee. It was overcast for 2 days, but by Monday morning, the weather was gorgeous.

A sand castle contest was held the day before, and quite a few of the sand sculptures survived the overnight tides. Here's a lovely "castle" that looks like a roast pig.

Next, we have a hammerhead shark.

This one is difficult to see, but it is Neptune, and the other dog is Breezy, Tomokee's running buddy on the beach that morning.

I really like this one. It's a squid, and seaweed is used as the tentacles - very clever!

Here's a turtle, and I believe we can see Breezy again.

This photo is not from the beach. Tomokee is standing in front of one of the shop windows. We were tempted, but did not ask about the "personalized pet perfumes".

Sunny day in the Sunset

2011-09-20T23:58:00.001-07:00

Summer in San Francisco can be pretty darn cold. This is especially true in the Sunset district.
Some of the best weather comes in September and October, and last weekend was the first beautiful sunny day in a while. This view is from the Sunset Reservoir, and you can see the Golden Gate Bridge out in the distance. On days like that, walking the dog is a glorious activity.

Alston Park, Napa

2011-09-09T23:36:00.000-07:00

Our recent summer road trip included Napa, CA, in addition to the Truckee and Lake Tahoe area. In Napa, Tomokee enjoyed his hike in Alston Park. This park is surrounded by vineyards on three sides. It doesn't have any shade, so it can get very hot in the summer months. We went fairly early in the morning to avoid the heat. It's very popular with the local dog owners so Tomokee got to say hello to some fellow four-legs.

Truckee, CA

2011-08-15T23:23:00.000-07:00

We took a short road-trip vacay last week, and the first destination was Truckee in the Lake Tahoe area. On our first day, Tomokee enjoyed a hike around Donner Lake.

We stayed in the pet-friendly Cedar House Sport Hotel in Truckee, and they provided a nice doggy bed as well as a welcoming bag of treats.

The next day, we hiked the Pacific Crest Trail in the Castle Peak area. There was still some snow on the ground, and Tomokee did his "hound-bounding" on some of the snowy paths.

We got as far as Castle Peak.

We also walked along the banks of the Truckee River.

One of Tomokee's favorite places in Truckee is the Scraps Dog Bakery, but we got there too late the first day.

He was quite happy the next day when they were open.

Gopher

2011-07-05T21:51:00.000-07:00

Golden Gate Park in San Francisco has lots of gophers. We can usually see their holes here and there, but it's rare that we actually see one hanging around outside of its hole. Tomokee didn't attack it -- he stared at it in a frozen state just like he does while staring at cats. We think he gets confused by life forms that he's unfamiliar with.

Here's a close up of the little guy. I think he (or she) is cute.

Ocean beach

2011-06-23T23:40:00.000-07:00

San Francisco's Ocean Beach was amazingly pretty last Sunday. The skies were blue and the weather was very warm. Tomokee greatly enjoyed his stroll on the sand.

Adoptiversary

2011-06-13T23:39:00.001-07:00

This weekend was Tomokee's adoptiversary. Tomokee, we've put up with you for five years now!

Tick removal, the twist method

2011-05-27T20:34:00.000-07:00

Recently, we found a couple of ticks on Tomokee, probably the result of a hike in Windy Hill Open Space Preserve. The first tick was a little stubborn but did come out after some tenacious pulling. I decided it was time to search da web for other solutions after struggling a lot more and not having good success removing the second tick. The two pointers that were the most useful were this link and this link.

This first link talks about rubbing the tick in a circular fashion, and the second link mentions twisting the tick as one of the suggested methods. I tried rubbing the tick in a circular fashion for a couple of minutes, but didn't have any success. I waited a bit, then just held the tick's body and gave it a half-turn twist, let go, held it again, gave it another twist, and just repeated this for a minute or so. I was amazed when the tick just let go. Apparently, by doing this, the tick eventually gets tired of trying to hang on and gives up. Patience is the key because it can take a couple of minutes or more, but doing it did not bother Tomokee at all.

I wish we could have video-taped it, especially the part when I kept yelling "eeek! -- it's going to jump onto me!" after the tick landed on floor.

Sleeping posture

2011-05-02T22:46:00.000-07:00

Tomokee has some strange sleeping postures, but this one takes the cake.

Golden Gate Park

2011-04-21T22:16:00.000-07:00

We were walking through San Francisco's Golden Gate Park recently in early spring and came upon this tree with a mass of birds all parked on the branches on one side. I don't think Tomokee noticed.

Christmas must be finally over

2011-03-16T21:07:00.000-07:00

It's never too late to get rid of that Christmas tree. We spotted this on a S.F. street corner recently.

Dog as squid

2011-02-23T23:03:00.000-08:00

Tomokee has some strange sleeping/lounging postures. Here he is with all his legs poking out front. We're not sure how he does that.

Tomokee and furniture

2010-12-23T16:26:00.000-08:00

We don't really know what it is about Tomokee and furniture, but he will often times treat this sofa as a busy box -- he keeps "burying" his beloved tennis ball under the sofa and then digging it back out.

Unfortunately, he also likes to throw his beloved ball inside this black hole recliner -- once something lands in the guts of this thing, it's really, really difficult and annoying to get it out.

Birthday Dog

2010-12-07T23:14:00.000-08:00

Tomokee recently celebrated his fifth birthday. Happy Birthday, T-dog!

He's decked out in his new holiday garb.

Waiting for kitteh

2010-11-07T16:30:00.000-08:00

Tomokee just loves cats. We have written about his love of cats. In San Francisco, there's a cat that sits on the other side of the back fence. This cat does not do much all day except sit. Or perhaps, s/he sits and thinks. Tomokee can sometimes see him or her through the holes in the fence, and he can usually smell the cat's presence. Sometimes he will just stand there at the fence making "ook-ing" sounds waiting for the cat to do something, like perhaps come over to his side of the fence.

Cars, cars, and more cars

2010-09-13T22:32:00.000-07:00

This past Saturday, we passed through Monterey, CA, en route to a getaway in Carmel-by-the-Sea. We stumbled upon the classic cars showing all along Cannery Row as part of their Cherry's Jubilee event. Here's Tomokee in front of a Mustang Boss 302.

And here he is in front of another classic car painted in a great color.

Lion Dance

2010-09-05T20:55:00.000-07:00

A Chinese merchant will often times have a lion dance troupe perform before opening a new business to the public because the lion dance is believed to bring good fortune. The Sunset District in San Francisco has quite a few shops run by Chinese propietors. Tomokee is viewing the lion dance ceremony at the opening of a yogurt shop. He didn't even mind the loud firecracker noises that are a part of the ceremony.

It's not Carmel, but it's still the beach

2010-08-30T14:05:00.000-07:00

Here's Tomokee at Ocean Beach in San Francisco. It's not as pretty the beach in Carmel-by-the-sea, and it's way colder and more windy, and it doesn't have as many dogs, and they have to be on-leash, but it's still a beach. Tomokee is enjoying the ocean air.

Cone of shame, revisited

2010-08-07T22:01:00.000-07:00

Tomokee recently managed to scrape his right foreleg at the inner "elbow", and we made him wear the "cone of shame" so that he would not lick his wound to death. On a prior occasion, we tried a couple of plastic collars, but they weren't that comfy for T-dog. Ultimately, we bought this Comfy Cone, which has been great. He can do all of his normal activities, including sleeping, in comfort. As you can see, it does not stop him from playing ball, ball, ball...

City dog

2010-07-23T22:10:00.001-07:00

Last weekend, we hung around San Francisco, and the trip included a walk through Golden Gate Park. Here are a couple of pics of Tomokee enjoying the view at Stow Lake.
While there, we spotted a pair of muscovy ducks. They're sort of ugly and cute at the same time.

Adoptiversary

2010-06-16T21:10:00.000-07:00

Last week was Tomokee's 4th year adoptiversary. Sometimes it feels like time has flown by and he hasn't been with us very long, and other times it feels like he's been here forever.

Windy Hill Hiking

2010-06-05T21:44:00.000-07:00

We took Tomokee along on a hike last weekend to Windy Hill, one of the few parks in the mid-peninsula bay area that allows dogs. Tomokee had a grand old time, as usual. We hiked from the bottom entrance to this spot at the top entrance, where we enjoyed a spot of lunch.

Scenery

2010-05-14T21:53:00.001-07:00

On our visit to Carmel-by-the-Sea and its environs last weekend, we made a trip to Garrapata State Beach. This is one of the loveliest beaches on the central coast and very popular with photographers. Tomokee is standing on the trail that overlooks the beach.

Open,open,open

2010-05-10T21:04:00.001-07:00

We went on one of our getaways to Carmel-by-the-Sea this last weekend, and of course Tomokee goes along because Carmel, if nothing else, is a dog lover's kinda' town. We were taking a pre-dinner stroll one evening and suddenly T-dog pulls ahead and goes faster, and turns a corner even faster, and then pulls us down these steps and plunks himself down in front of his favorite retail establishment, Diggidy Dog. Alas, the shop had just closed for the day. But, there's no need to feel sorry for him, because we did return the next day and again the day after that and we bought plenty of treats for him as well as a new toy.

2010-04-17T15:26:00.000-07:00

Tomokee got to stay at his favourite hotel, Kaluah Kennel while we legged it to Vegas for the NAB (National Association of Broadcasters) show.

His people had a good (& very lucky) time in Vegas -- good eats, good friends and
some visitations from Lady Luck:

Which ultimately resulted in this cash pile:

Causing T-dog to faint in shock:

And yes, there are complications when you try to drop this kind of cash on a bank. It's a bother I can live with.

Sunday

2010-04-04T00:18:00.001-07:00

Tomokee wishes everyone a happy Easter, happy Passover, and just a happy Sunday!

Charlie the drool eater

2010-03-08T21:25:00.001-08:00

This Charlie. Charlie is some sort of terrier mix that Tomokee met at the dog park on Sunday. In fact, Charlie was the only other dog in the dog park during the whole time we were there. Charlie and Tomokee were having a pretty good play time, although Charlie seemed a bit overwhelmed by the large and loud Tomokee. Once Tomokee gets going, he tends to drool. That's when we discovered that Charlie likes to lick the drool off of other dogs. Once he got going, he just kept licking. We found this behavior sort of odd.

Tomokee:2 Elizabethan collars: 1

2010-01-23T16:48:00.001-08:00

Tomokee recently developed a small irritation on his skin (a "hot spot") that he was licking a bit too much. The vet sold us an Elizabethan collar, which stayed on him for no more than about 20 minutes before he rammed it into things and broke it. Tomokee:1, Collars:0.

So, off to the local Petco I go, and I got another collar. The store didn't have any of these soft foam ones I was hoping for, but this one is good enough for now. It's softer than the first one, and also more shallow, so that Tomokee can still play ball. He's resting comfortably, as you can see. Tomokee: 1, Collars: 1.

However, Tomokee still runs into things while wearing it, and in this case, the collar did not break, but he managed to shear off the attachment for the over-the-door shoe rack. Tomokee:2, collars: 1.

Now if only he could cook the whole meal

2010-01-20T20:36:00.000-08:00

We recently replaced our kitchen range, and this new one has front panel electronic controls. We've been finding the electronic settings in some odd states once in a while after Tomokee has done some minor stove surfing when the stove is no longer in use. (He's smart enough not to do that when there are actually hot things on the stove). Luckily, most serious settings require multiple actions, which he hasn't figured out yet!

Happy Holidays

2009-12-24T16:31:00.000-08:00

Happy Holidays!

Happy Birthday, Tomokee!

2009-12-07T21:52:00.000-08:00

Tomokee recently had a birthday. He's four years old now. He's still a loon, but a much more obedient loon!

Baylands walk

2009-10-29T21:04:00.001-07:00

It was a gorgeous day last Saturday, and we hadn't taken Tomokee on any walks outside of the normal walking areas, so we decided to take him on a stroll along the Baylands preserve. The geese and waterfowl were all out and about and Tomokee enjoyed himself thoroughly, as he always does.

BFFs

2009-10-16T21:27:00.001-07:00

Tomokee enjoyed a play date last night with Agave, one of his best friends forever. Here they are taking a break on our back patio

Tomokee in Carmel

2009-09-23T21:58:00.000-07:00

Last weekend was one of those Carmel-By-the-Sea weekends. I love Carmel. Tomokee loves Carmel. Here is enjoying a walk in the Mission Trail Nature Preserve.
Our next hike was in Garland Ranch Regional Park, where Tomokee can go leashless. Yay!

Of course, every dog must have his day on the beach.

Finally, we outfitted T-dog with a brand new collar from Diggidy Dog.

Tomokee and cats

2009-08-09T21:13:00.000-07:00

Tomokee LOVES cats. Actually, we're not sure if he just loves cats, or he just doesn't know what to make of them. When he sees one, as long as it's not running, he will just stare and stare in a frozen posture. It's actually difficult to pull him away and continue the walk. Here he is "interacting" with Beau from the neighborhood.

Here, he's staring at Athens, also from the neighborhood, who is retreating behind the car.

Golden Gate Park

2009-08-02T21:55:00.000-07:00

We decided to make a trip up to San Francisco and take Tomokee through Golden Gate Park. It's not an off-leash park, but it's still plenty of fun. There are lots of dogs, ducks, seagulls, and other life forms.
Here's Tomokee on the shore of Stow Lake. (I'm always amazed that his rear end does not touch the ground when he sits)

Here he is sitting in front of a tea house structure also on the shore of Stow Lake.

Tomokee as fashion model

2009-07-28T22:45:00.000-07:00

And here is Tomokee, sporting a lovely wool hand knitted and felted tote, stylishly worn as a messenger bag.

I finished this knitted project and persuaded Tomokee to model it for my knitting blog.

Tomokee as Curtis Sliwa

2009-07-23T20:13:00.000-07:00

We've posted this photo of Tomokee before, but we turned into a sign for our recent garden party to discourage people from walking into the house from the patio because we left Tomokee inside for part of the time. We think he looks like a more colorfully dressed Curtis Sliwa.

Since we're doing dog-in-hat photos, I thought I'd take a photo with yet another hat. We're not sure who he looks like here.

They're Italian, you know

2009-07-15T21:53:00.000-07:00

We've always had ergonomic issues with Tomokee's food and water bowls. (That would be human ergonomic issues - not canine ones). The water bowl is too hard to hold and balance without sloshing when it's full. Tomokee is a big-time drinker, so we always fill it almost to the brim. The food bowl is hard to pick up from floor. Last weekend, we were in the Lake Tahoe area, and I went shopping at Dog.Dog.Cat, a fun pet food and supply store. They had these cool bowls on sale. The cutouts make them easy to pick up and carry. They're made in Italy, and anything made in Italy is always cool looking.
Here are Tomokee's old bowls.

Adoptiversary

2009-06-15T21:21:00.001-07:00

Last week was Tomokee's third adoptiversary, which is just an excuse to make him wear another of my vintage hats for a photo shoot. This one is a vintage tam o'shanter.

Scenes from Carmel Valley and Carmel

2009-05-21T21:54:00.001-07:00

On our recent visit to Carmel, we went on a hike in Garland Ranch in Carmel Valley. After that, we enjoyed a leisurely lunch at the Corkscrew Cafe. The cafe is located next to the Georis Winery tasting room and gift shop. The gift shop has a very eclectic selection of merchandise, including the Complete Petrosexual book. I can buy this used for a penny on Amazon, but B.E. won't allow it because he thinks it might give me ideas.

As usual, we stayed at the ever-so-pet-friendly Cypress Inn in Carmel. Here are four whippets lounging in their library. I believe their names are Archer, Buddy, Adam, and Sydney. I don't know which one is which.

Scenes from Cannery Row

2009-05-18T16:56:00.003-07:00

We made a trip to Carmel-by-the-Sea this past weekend -- it's one of my favorite places on the planet. We first stopped off in Monterey and took a walk along the Fisherman's Wharf/Cannery Row walking/biking path and also had a nice lunch at the Trailside Cafe and Coffee House. The weather was just perfect and he water was just blue, blue, blue. The above photos were taken at various spots on the waterfront.

The Great Doggie Easter Egg Hunt of 2009

2009-04-11T21:12:00.000-07:00

Once again, we went with Tomokee to the local doggie Easter egg hunt, benefiting the Palo Alto Animal services, and sponsored by our local Five Paw Bakery. Tomokee is a pro at this, since this is his third annual visit. This time, we decided to do a video -- seeing as this is a good geek opportunity to play with equipment and software.

My only objection to the video is that I look like an elderly person having balance issues. It must be due to the style (or lack thereof) of my pants.

Scenes from the dog park

2009-04-07T21:50:00.001-07:00

The weather's been great -- it was time to take Tomokee (Mr. Loud) to the dog park.

Snow dog

2009-03-10T22:19:00.000-07:00

We went on a snow shoeing trip up to the Lake Tahoe area, and we hiked the Castle Peak trail up to Castle Pass. This is from the same view as our summer hike, but now it's covered in snow.

Tomokee loves the snow -- here he is playing in the North Tahoe regional park, where we did a shorter snow shoeing trek the day before.

Sitting Pretty

2009-02-28T22:07:00.000-08:00

We here at Chez Tomokee have been boosting the economy (someone's got to do it!) by buying a lot of new furniture to replace aging furniture. One of the pieces we are replacing is the hide-a-bed in the family room. We are replacing it for several reasons.
(1) We really don't need a hide-a-bed.
(2) It's just so OHBU (Old, Heavy, Big, and Ugly)
(3) It's never been very comfortable.
(4) Tomokee uses it as his primary sitting post in the family room, throws his ball at it, jumps onto and off of it, and has basically trashed it to the point that it needs to be burned.

Since we are replacing it, I wanted to find a new chair for Tomokee to use. There are lots of dog sofas out there, but they cost just as much as an inexpensive human armchair. It just happened that we found this inexpensive $99.99 new-not-donated armchair from the local GW of Los Altos, which is our local upscale Goodwill store. Tomokee seems to like it -- we put lots of stuff on the hide-a-bed to prevent him from using it and encourage him to try the new chair.

Another beach photo

2009-02-01T22:52:00.000-08:00

The beach in January in Carmel-By-the-Sea was the prettiest I've ever seen it. Tomokee, as usual, is enjoying his beach time.

Carmel Day Trip -- The One True Ring Found!

2009-01-30T19:46:00.000-08:00

We took a day trip to Carmel-By-The-Sea for reasons that will become apparent, infra.

We first took T-dog to the beach, where he romped with other 4-legs and spent quality time with Betty while she worked on yet another knitting project (as shown here):

Notice the dog is, once again, blessing Betty with his Ass (I & II).

We then had a nice lunch and drug the hound around doing various shopping duties and also collected a wedding band we found on the beach during a previous visit to Carmel. It stayed with the Carmel PD (in the tender care of Carmel PSO Hidalgo), but no one claimed it. The pictures are reproduced below so they might be linked to a Craigslist lost&found posting. If you can tell us the inscription inside the ring, we'll work with you to return it.

It's clearly a wedding band for a large man's hand. If it's yours, send email to:

found_ring (at) audiocentraal (dot) com

Whilst shopping, I was startled to see this fine item for sale at a local high-end furnishings store:

We have dubbed this piece, "the lamp of many testicles."

Good luck with that, Spongebob.

Another day, another hat

2009-01-24T19:53:00.000-08:00

Lately, Tomokee has not experienced any blog-worthy events in his life. However, we have had friends and acquaintances tell us how much they enjoy the photos of Tomokee with these strange hats. I have a growing collection of vintage hats, so I think I will try to take more photos of Tomokee wearing them. This one must be from the sixties, I think. It's paisley, dahling.

Mesmerized

2008-12-28T22:22:00.001-08:00

We here at the Tomokee household are not exactly video gamers. However, after playing with the Wii Fit at the home of some friends, we just HAD to get one. So far, we've only purchased the basic Wii unit because the stores are out of stock of the Wii Fit. For some reason, Tomokee is fascinated by the Wii setup process, especially with creating the Mii avatars. We don't know if it's the avatar faces, or the oddly vibrating Wii cursor, or the bloop-bloop-blooping sounds during setup, but Tomokee just stares and stares and stares....

Happy Holidays!

2008-12-24T18:34:00.001-08:00

Happy holidays, everyone!

Mr. Loud goes to the dog park

2008-12-01T20:48:00.000-08:00

We took Tomokee to the dog park on Black Friday, figuring it would be a quiet day, but nooo...., everybody and their dogs were there, all thinking the same thing. Included in the population were five huskies, a couple of whom ran with Tomokee. T-dog was particularly annoying -- just bark, bark, barking at every dog to get them to play, play, play with him.

Happy Birthday, Happy Thanksgiving

2008-11-27T13:29:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday, Tomokee! We're thankful (most of the time!) that you've made it to your third year.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Beach photo

2008-11-06T22:40:00.001-08:00

The weather is getting drearier. It's time for a beach photo. This one is from our most recent trip in October to Carmel-by-the-Sea. Tomokee was thoroughly enjoying himself.

Sign sign everywhere a sign

2008-10-23T22:09:00.001-07:00

This sign was spotted on the front door of a shop in Truckee, CA.

This one was in the lounge of the Cypress Inn in Carmel-by-the-Sea.

So, this dog walks into a bar ...

2008-10-14T21:38:00.001-07:00

These photos were taken in the lounge of the Cypress Inn hotel in Carmel-by-the-Sea. The lounge is called Terry's Lounge, and the bartender wears a vest, as it should be. This was near closing time, so Drago, the bartender on duty, let us perch Tomokee at the bar. And no, Tomokee did not get to enjoy any of the alcoholic beverages.

Are you starin' at ME?

2008-09-26T20:15:00.000-07:00

Tomokee hates being stared at. This includes being stared at by inanimate objects which look like they are staring at him. In this case, the object is a stuffed bison that we encountered in downtown Jackson, WY. If we walk by quickly, he's okay, but if we pause, and he gets a chance to look at it, he goes berserk.

The Tall Tale of Giraffe Boy

2008-09-20T09:58:00.000-07:00

So, our stay at Salt Lake City's very pet-friendly Hotel Monoco (part of the Kimpton group of hotels) provided us with this very nice suite-sized room. When we first got there, we both noticed that the bathroom vanity was substantially higher than normal, but chalked it up as a fashion statement (and it kept Mr. Soap-Snaffler away from the hand soap).

We also discovered these two XXL-sized robes, in giraffe print, in the closet. Now I'm a little lost in mine (see the giraffe-boy photo below), but Betty looked like a 5-year-old in parents' clothing, trailing a giraffy train after her like Morticia Addams.

Betty asked Tage (a friendly bell-person who took a liking to T-dog and vice-versa) why they would only have stocked two such huge robes (and they had a teddy and a couple of pairs of subtrou for sale hung in the closet) and, by the giraffe-print description, he said we had been given one of a select number of "tall rooms" the hotel has for very tall people. Normal rooms get normally sized robes in leopard skin print.

That explained the very high door frames and why my feet didn't stick over the end of the bed.

If you get a chance, give this place a visit.

Hiking

2008-09-17T21:40:00.001-07:00

On the last day of the great 2008 road trip, we did a little hiking on the Castle Peak trail near Truckee. We got as far as Castle Pass, where Tomokee is enjoying the view.

A walk in the park

2008-09-14T21:53:00.000-07:00

Liberty Park in Salt Lake City is a lovely and large multi-use city park. Tomokee enjoyed a walk through the park when we passed through SLC on the great 2008 road trip. Here he is posing by the lake.

I left my lunch in Salt Lake City...

2008-09-11T21:14:00.000-07:00

I don't think Tony Bennet's going to be recording that classic any time soon.

T-dog got a bit peckish, and snaffled the soap from the shower in Jackson. The soap and the excitement of the big city that's Salt Lake got the better of him as he wandered towards Main Street on his way to Temple Square (sadly, non service dogs aren't welcome in the compound).

The picture below captures the end result.

Note the red circle -- that's the soap that got him into this mess in the beginning. Note also that, despite a set of teeth that would make a great white jealous, he has inhaled, rather than chewed, various treats. As our friend Lisa would say (forming the VP-YMCA Y with her hands), "Yeesh!"

Pet-friendly accomodations

2008-09-11T20:40:00.000-07:00

We're on the homeward bound leg of the great 2008 road trip and we're spending one night in Salt Lake City in the ever-so-chi-chi Hotel Monaco. This is a dog-friendly hotel located in downtown SLC. They have a welcome board welcoming the pets that are checking in for the night. Tomokee's name is written on the chalkboard.

The ever-so-stylish rooms are equipped with dog beds and bowls.

The Art of the Deal

2008-09-10T21:26:00.000-07:00

With apologies to the Donald for a great title...

Disclaimer:

On advice of counsel (Betty), I must point out that to the best of our knowledge, the good folks at McDonald's (their registered trademark, not mine, not used with permission or intent to confuse anybody, anyhow, anywhere) I state for the record that to the best of my extant knowledge, they (McDonald's) use no illicit addictive substances (by way of example and not limitation: heroin, crack cocaine or nicotine) in their products.

Background:

The dog has to ride in the back quarters of the Tardis and, especially after a long day's drive, it's not always easy to convince 65 pounds of wiggly hound-mix he wants to climb into the hound-zone. To that end, we used to be able to proffer a dog biscuit to get him to step back there without any auxiliary pushing and shoving. This failed after the first day's travel. We then had success with a human-grade-but-sold-for-dogs buffalo jerky treat product. Three days in, this was no longer a good inducement (the Donald learns quickly, so does the dog). We briefly had success with the remnants of a 9$ (really good) burger from Jakers in Twin Falls. After a couple of unethusiastic boardings (consumption of the proffered bribe is never a slow process), this too lost efficacy.

I told Betty that, in my experience, McDonald's food has an addictive (see Disclaimer, supra) quality that might work for the hound. She seemed dubious at my representation that the double cheeseburger (with which I'm familiar) would prove long-term irresistible.

Our first attempt was a double bust. We went to the McDonald's in West Yellowstone, only to discover that:

A) The staff (like much of the service staff in the whole city of West Yellowstone) was distant yet unfriendly.

B) Betty reported there was no such thing as a "dollar menu" at this McDonald's location.

C) It was too early for any burger products (ca. 1000 hours local time).

D) The lowest priced available item was a disgustingly wilted sausage product on a cardboard (?) bun/biscuit thingie.

This tragically fetid, yet costly (3+$) product didn't work out of the box.

Undaunted, we moved on to Jackson, WY. While the dollar menu at the Jackson McDonald's has changed of recent (see, for example this article), there's still a cheeseburger (not the traditional 1$ double favoured by the hung-over set) for $1.09 with that scent that stimulates some bizarre serotonin-like brain chemistry in humans, at least.

With this new bait in hand, we proffer a small segment of burger to the recalcitrant hound only to be chuffed as he loaded himself handily in the Tardis for takeoff. Subsequent events have only reenforced the observed addictive qualities. Now, whenever the hound sees Betty near the cooler in the back, he pulls for the back of the Rav4 with impressive force. He now jumps in without even being told to do so.

We're happy, the good folks at McDonald's should be happy they're selling product and that dogs are evidencing the same cravings for their products they've engineered for humans. As the Donald might say, were such tiny amounts worthy of his attention, we gots us a win-win here.

The view

2008-09-10T20:45:00.001-07:00

We enjoyed another morning of hiking in the Bridger-Teton National forest today, which has several trail heads located right in Jackson, WY. Here, Tomokee is enjoying the view overlooking the town from the sink-or-swim trail.

On the trail with a happy dog

2008-09-09T21:58:00.000-07:00

Here are Betty and Tomokee headed down the Cache Creek Trail with stunning skies and mountains as a backdrop. At this point we're at about 7000' elevation.

The trail winds along a nice creek. Here, T-dog goes splashing around where he and a new-found buddy named Freddy had been frolicking before. His tail is in full scorpion mode.

Note that the hound is without leash. This is permitted in National Forests during the summer, but not in National Parks. He's pretty good about being off leash unless he finds another very active buddy (T-dog's 2.5 years old, new buddy Freddy's a 3-year old).

A good time had by all.

Travels with Tomokee

2008-09-09T21:43:00.000-07:00

Here's Tomokee in the back of the Tardis, a/k/a the RAV4 (said vehicle being laden with not just the dog, but the dog's luggage (!!), Betty's steamer trunks and my bag, hike pack and computer case). Note that he has a jowl structure reminiscent of the late Senator Sam Ervin of Watergate hearing fame. Here he's getting ready for a day hike to the Cache Creek Trail (not related to the gambling facility of the same name in California) in the Bridger-Teton National Forest.

Fishing Bridge photo-op

2008-09-08T21:25:00.000-07:00

Tomokee is enjoying the view of the Yellowstone river from the Fishing Bridge.

T-dog in Yellowstone

2008-09-07T22:03:00.000-07:00

So, when in Yellowstone, what's the standard thing you hafta-hafta do? See Old Faithful, of course!

Here's T-dog watching from a ranger-free distance just as O.F. starts the spritz-biz. Note the normally floppy, down-hanging ears now disposed closely on the top of the head for safety.

Here's T-dog and Betty looking at a rustic facility that reminds me of that creepy place from The Shining. Just around the corner was a herd of elk...

These two are representative of the about 12 beasts lounging. It explains all the mega-size deer-like pellets we had to keep the dog from snaffling.

Hmm... what is this then?

2008-09-06T20:32:00.000-07:00

Tomokee is studying one of the 25 fiberglass bison scattered throughout West Yellowstone, Montana. We can only let him look at the rear end of the bison. If he stares too hard at the other business end, he goes berserk and barks frantically.

And a very nice trail it is

2008-09-05T22:23:00.001-07:00

Tomokee is standing in front of the plaque at the start of the canyon rim trail at the top of Shoshone Falls, near Twin Falls, Idaho. This very nice paved trail was built to commemorate the centennial of Twin Falls in 2004. We enjoyed a very nice hike on this trail, which goes along the rim of the snake river canyon.
Here's a view of the river from the trail.

Roadtrip fun

2008-09-05T21:06:00.000-07:00

We made good time to Winnemucca yesterday, but nothing there was particularly photogenic.

Today had more good photo ops -- Betty and T-dog trying out the swings in Elko's Main City Park:
Later, we went to Shoshone Falls Park and hiked the Snake River ridge trail. Whilst trekking, T-dog found this sign:

Friend Rob called us wimps for reading & heeding this one. He's right.

On to Pocatello, a knitting shop in Idaho Falls. & West Jellystone tomorrow

He's blessing you with his ass II, the sequel

2008-08-23T08:18:00.000-07:00

So, it turns out Tomokee's backing-his-butt-into-you behaviour is not only for people, but for objects said people might be using. It has to be an animated, people-related item, he does not just go around applying a brown-eye chop to every lump in the house (praised is Zeus!).

What's interesting about this shot is, instead of having red devil-dog eyes from the flash, he's got some sort of chameleon effect going on -- his left eye matches the exercise ball. Here he's getting in the way of Betty using her exercise ball for a back-stretching exercise (a non-Betty example of which is shown below):

Decisions, decisions

2008-08-14T22:52:00.000-07:00

Tomokee LOVES new tennis balls, or least those that are new to him. We recently threw a garden party, and one of our guests kindly brought Tomokee some used tennis balls. We let him choose one -- it took a bit of sniffing, but he actually was able to select just one.

A good dog park day

2008-08-03T21:34:00.000-07:00

We took Tomokee to the dog park today. He did less of his usual bark-bark-bark-play-with-me-bark thing, which was good. He still does not come when called in the dog park, but he will respond to the sit command and stop whatever he's doing and slowly sit down so that we can leash him up. It's not perfect, but it's better than nothing.
He's also willing to jump into the back cargo area of the car so that we don't have to lift him into it one half of his body at a time, which is a site to behold. However, it does require one of us to sit in the back seat, dangle a tasty treat into the cargo area, and yell "ham!" It's not perfect, but it's better than nothing.

Hiking

2008-07-28T21:15:00.000-07:00

We went hiking with Tomokee in Fremont Older open space preseve recently. Here he is enduring yet another photo op.

Play date

2008-07-16T21:04:00.001-07:00

Tomokee had a play date in our yard this evening with Agave, one of the neighborhood dogs. Agave is looking a little grimy because she enjoyed our pond a little too much. (Can you say pond scum?) Tomokee is nice and dry because he's never taken an interest in the pond. All in all, a good time was had by all.

GIVE IT UP for TOXIC-P!!!

2008-06-24T13:38:00.001-07:00

So, Toxic-P is one of the multiple names we use for Tomokee. The picture, above, shows how he came by this particular name.

This was the topic of a discussion held as I was conferencing on a "making of" commentary for an audio drama I direct (assembling the actors' voices, effects and music) just prior to rolling into the "making of" recording. So, it was in these preliminary discussions that the name came up, in sort of a "making of making of" snippet. It's set to a good rapper-esque squeak'n'beat.

Happy Adoptiversary, Tomokee!

2008-06-13T09:10:00.000-07:00

Tomokee has been with us for two whole years! We didn't even kill him two days ago for eating a quarter of our pasta salad from a bowl on the counter. He's advanced from a hyperactive loony teenager to a not-so-hyperactive still-loony adult. Now, if we can just convince him to jump into the back of the car when needed, life would be perfect.

Albino Bumble Bee?

2008-06-08T17:20:00.000-07:00

So, we're chucking the tennis ball around for T-dog and Betty has me run and get the camera. We've seen lots of honey bees and plenty of your standard mil-spec black and yellow bumble bees, but this was a new one on us. Betty, who likes to name things, animate and inanimate has dubbed this fine beast, "Oscar."

If my Googling chops are suffering good karma, this might be a Bombus fervidus (Fabricius) (assuming that the name submitted for blessing by the ESA went through back in '07).

[NOTE: updated 9-Jun-08 --
My Google-fu has failed me on this one. Here's a photo of the fervidus:

and, while it certainly has less black, it's not what we saw.

So, being desirous of a more formal name than, "Oscar," I'll propose Bombus festivus (a bug for the rest of us!)]

[Second update (9-jun-08): The Google-fu chi returns!

I found our friend, a form of carpenter bee known as Xylocopa varipuncta here, with this nice photo:

OK -- the search appears done, but feel free to drop us a comment... we're pretty amazed with the printed-circuit look to the face (and the fact the picture came out halfway decently).

Another (partially) off-leash hike

2008-05-30T15:05:00.000-07:00

Tomokee got another off-leash-for-some-of-the-time hike this last Thursday. Here he's shown with our friend, Bob. Bob is sitting, appropriately, on "Bob's Bench" near the peak of Windy Hill.

T-dog got to see two bunnies (didn't chase 'em, just sniffed the greenery into which they vanished) and a deer (he was on leash for this, fortunately -- I think he wanted to go romp with the deer).

The dog's got a big yawn going because Bob & I were trying to figure out how the Democrats could screw things up any worse, then seeing the "38 page legal opinion" saying something to the effect that Michigan and Florida broke the rules, but leaving 'em out altogether disenfranchises people (which is what the rules were supposed to do, no?) so we'll seat the delegates and let each have a half a vote or seat half the delegates.

No wonder the democrats have so much trouble in presidential elections... their process is opaque yet horribly vague. Yeesh. Politics bores the dog... he'd rather see more critters.

Hiking off-leash at last!

2008-05-20T21:55:00.001-07:00

We took a trip to Carmel this last weekend, and went on our usual morning hike with Tomokee to Garland Ranch. This time we let Tomokee hike without being on a leash, and it was wonderful. He could sniff as he pleased, and he didn't even want to eat the horse poop, as he did the first time we hiked there.
We're still a little hesitant to let him off leash on a beach because he can get a little crazy on a beach. We did do so on the next day at the Carmel beach, but we we kept him on a leash here at the Garapada beach. Most of the other dogs on this beach were on leashes also.

Nail Time!

2008-05-13T20:57:00.001-07:00

Tomokee has these rear double dewclaws with nails that can grow too long. They don't get contact with the ground when he does all his wind sprinting ball chasing exercises. Not too long ago, he needed sedation in order to get them trimmed at the vet because one of them was curling onto his foot bad. To avoid this problem in the future, I now give him frequent pedicures and file the nails down. He responds to "nail time!" and just lays down for his pedicure. He gets a treat afterwards, which is probably the only reason he is so agreeable.

The lawn is still alive!

2008-05-03T21:38:00.000-07:00

We've been re-doing some landscaping recently. We've got a new back patio and walkways -- can you say Connecticut bluestone full-range flamed sawn ashlar? We also now have a grown-up lawn. It's only a small lawn, but we still have to take care of it. This is sometimes difficult with Tomokee around. He doesn't dig or anything, but he does generate a lot of output, and this can be detrimental to a lawn. It's been a week and the lawn is still green. We're proud of ourselves.

Matchy-matchy, revisited

2008-04-20T20:50:00.001-07:00

This photo was taken some time ago, when it was still winter and cold enough for Tomokee to wear his McCloud jacket. I normally don't like to dress like the dog, but this was an exception.

Fur Ball 2008

2008-04-07T20:55:00.001-07:00

We attended the Humane Society Silicon Valley Fur Ball 2008 this weekend. A good time was had by all, including Tomokee, shown here in his ever-so-sharp tux. The pocket on the side contains some business cards that we ordered for him. (yes, you heard right - business cards). We figured it might promote blog readership.

Here are some of the other canine guests. I love the hat on the great dane. I believe the dog in pearls is named Mona.

They created a nice little make-shift lawn area so that the dogs could visit mother nature:

The "king and queen" of the Fur Ball were Steve Wozniak and Kathy "D-List" Griffen.They are rumored to be engaged. I find that just very odd.

More photos of the event can be found here.

Field of doggy dreams

2008-03-22T20:31:00.000-07:00

Today, we went to the doggy easter "egg" hunt sponsored by the local Five Paw Dog Bakery, with proceeds to benefit the Palo Alto Animal Services. We went last year, so Tomokee is a pro at this. He started snuffling the ground almost immediately looking for the egg-shaped dog biscuits. Here he is standing by one of the boundary markers.

This is the scene looking back towards the entrance.

Here are some of the other participants.

And finally,here's a view from the top of the hill at the Westwind barn location.

Every guy needs a tux

2008-03-16T19:38:00.000-07:00

We decided to attend the Fur Ball this year, and Tomokee is allowed to come along. Of course, my first thought is, "he doesn't have a thing to wear!". I decided I wanted to sew something, but B.E. said ix-nay on lame, velvet, sequins, or anything else that would make him look like Liberace. I thought about it, and decided that since he's a black dog, all he needs is a shirt, tie, and cummerbund, and he would look like he's wearing a tux. I think he looks pretty sharp, even if he looks like a bad ventriloquist who's not wearing any pants.

Matchy-matchy

2008-03-07T07:32:00.000-08:00

This photo is from our recent trip to the Sierras. While shopping in Truckee, we visited the Scraps Dog Bakery. The woman working in the store had these boots that just said "photo-op". While there, we bought some cow tail treats for Tomokee, which for some reason unknown to me, are called "Texas toothpicks".

Snow dog

2008-02-27T21:03:00.001-08:00

We took Tomokee with us on a snowshoeing trip to the Sierras last weekend, and he really enjoyed himself. At first, he was a little dubious, like, "what is all this white cold stuff?", but it didn't take long for him to like bounding up and down the snowshoe trails. Here he is enjoying some snow. Note that he is wearing his very stylish camo neoprene jacket. It was quite cold on this particular day in Donner Memorial State Park.
He made some dog friends, including Ziggy here. This was a day earlier in the North Tahoe Regional Park.
And here, he's doing some exploring with a dog named Cody in that same park.
And finally, he's sitting respectfully in front of the E Clampus Vitis plaque in Truckee. Notice that he's wearing his ever-so-sharp apre-ski fleece jacket -- very appropriate for a town like Truckee.

He's blessing you with his ass

2008-02-13T08:01:00.000-08:00

So, Tomokee has this odd behaviour where, instead of sticking his face in yours when you're around his height, he backs his hind end up to you and shoves. He did this a couple of times to Betty who looked up at me imploring and asked, "What is he doing?" Only one answer seemed to fit the activity, so I told Betty Tomokee was blessing her with his ass.

Just for the record, it's not just a "touching you with his rear end..." it a full on back up and shove, as though he were trying to "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall" with just his butt.

He's going to need his own suitcase

2008-02-11T21:39:00.000-08:00

For our upcoming short trip to the Sierras, Tomokee will have more clothing than I will. We got him the neoprene jacket at the vet's suggestion, but I had already ordered this fleece jacket some time ago and it just arrived. He can wear the neoprene in inclement weather, and he can be the dog-about-town in the fleece look. You can just call him McCloud.

Camo wear is always fashionable

2008-02-07T09:50:00.000-08:00

We're planning to take Tomokee with us on a snow-shoeing trip to the Sierras soon, and although our vet said that he probably does not need clothing, we could always have him wear a neoprene jacket to keep him insulated from cold and wet. I look at this as a rare opportunity to dress the dog. We got this lovely neoprene camouflage vest for him to wear. Doesn't he look sharp?

Buff Dog

2008-02-03T07:08:00.000-08:00

We took Tomokee in for a preventative maintenance (a.k.a. health check) at the Adobe Animal Hospital. The vet declared him to be "just perfect" and that he is as buff as a dog can get.

The vet also said that he won't need booties for hiking in snow, and most likely will not need clothing but it never hurts to put him in a neoprene jacket. This means I
won't need to buy him a full winter wardrobe -- I'm disappointed.

Dog park day

2008-01-20T18:13:00.001-08:00

It was time to take Mr. bark-bark-bark-until-you-run-with-me to the dog park again. This time, he got to do lots of running. He ran with a brown dog, the Australian shepherd named Pepper just entering the park, and a Norwegian elkhound named Maloo (sp?), who is the gray furry dog in the photo.
Once again, we brought treats to try some recall training on Tomokee. We brought extra special food, some fat trimmed from a Salt Lick BBQ brisket, but it still didn't work. Tomokee didn't care about the food, but Maloo was sitting by my side for quite awhile sniffing my pocket.

Finally -- something Tomokee will not eat!

2008-01-15T21:14:00.000-08:00

Tomokee is an eating kind of dog. There's not much he won't eat. I caught him sink diving the other day, and he jumped away when I yelled at him. Then I saw him spit something out in disgust. It was some leftover grapefruit scraps. This wasn't just any old grapefruit, it was a cocktail grapefruit, one of the the tastiest grapefruits I've ever eaten. Tomokee just has no taste.

New Year's Day Hike

2008-01-11T08:05:00.000-08:00

We took a hike with a bunch of people and 2 other dogs on New Years Day to Mission Peak. I think we hiked enough to burn off the extra calories consumed on New Year's Eve at Chez TJ. Here's Tomokee on the trail.

And here's a bunch of us at the top. The other black dog is named Jack, and the border collie like dog is named Lucy.