Our First Shelter Drive-By!

 BlogPaws Be the Change for Pets has been encouraging its members to participate in its Shelter Appreciation Week Blog Hop and Iams Home 4 the Holidays by doing a shelter drive-by and blogging about it.

Momma didn't know what a shelter drive-by was, but she was pretty sure she didn't have time for it.  She tends to stay crazy busy, and this past week was even worse than usual because it was the week before Thanksgiving, so she had lots of extra stuff she needed to do, plus I had minor unscheduled surgery on Tuesday.  (Just a little lump removed from a toe -- no big deal.  But it definitely added to momma's stress and errands.)

But when mom read about shelter drive-bys in the BlogPaws Be the Change for Pets post Action: Support Shelter Appreciation Week, she realized that a drive-by was easily doable, even the week of Thanksgiving.     

To do a drive-by, you just look at the wish list of a nearby shelter, and when you go to the grocery store, pick something up from the shelter's wish list, and drop it off at the shelter.  Momma had to go to the grocery store anyway to get ingredients for Thanksgiving dessert.  So she searched for a participating shelter nearby and found there was one right on her way!  Then she looked at the wish list for the Hanover County Animal Control shelter, and saw that food and rawhide chews were at the top of the list.  When she was shopping for key lime pie ingredients, she just picked up a bag of dog food and a bag of rawhide chews and dropped them off at Hanover County Animal Control.  It was very simple and took maybe an extra 5-10 minutes.

Inspecting the goods

I suppose they meet my approval

On an important mission

Turn here mom

I'll just wait in the car while you drop off the stuff

This is the place

The shelter staff was very appreciative, and I'm sure the doggies at the pound appreciated it too -- especially the rawhide chews.  

Drive-bys are a very easy way to help homeless animals.  If you'd like to read about some other ways my friends have helped homeless animals, go to my post Frosty Paws Giveaway for National Adopt a Shelter Dog Month and read the comments.  It may give you some ideas!

Glam Garth

Back in October, my friend Gemma from Gemma's Little Gems held a giveaway, and everyone knows how I love giveaways.

Gemma is a very little and incredibly cute pup who lives in Australia!  She's a working dog.  No, she doesn't herd sheep or pull a cart -- she has her own store called Gemma's Little Gems where she sells jewelry and gifts.  You should check out her blog and store -- she's got some very pretty things.  

To enter the giveaway, I had to send Gemma a photo of me looking glam.  This is the photo I entered. 

Don't I look glam?

Well, guess what!  I won Runner Up!  And I won a PRIZE!  I LOVE prizes!

Look momma!  I got a package!

I won it.  It's MINE.

This is what I won!

What do you mean it isn't for doggies?
But it looks SO good on me.

Momma really likes the necklace, so I begrudgingly agreed to let her have it.  She says it's a necklace meant for humans, not doggies, and that all the nice jewelry that Gemma sells is for humans.  I think momma just wants the necklace for herself.

Many thanks to Gemma for picking me, and for sending me a prize all the way from Australia!

Fearless Friday

I am very brave.

Okay mom, just please be careful with the paddle

It takes a very brave pup to get on a tippy floating thing with a notoriously clumsy woman wielding a paddle.

Mom wrote a guest blog post all about my bravery for the latest edition of i Love Dog Friendly's blog. You can read it here: Dog Paddle - Learning to Stand-Up Paddleboard with My Dog.

I am Garth the Fearless.

A Chance to WIN PRIZES by Helping Hurricane Sandy Pet Victims!

My pal Mayzie is doing this awesome fundraiser for pets affected by Hurricane Sandy AND she's giving away PRIZES!  

Check out Wag n' Swag for more details and to see photos of the awesome PRIZES -- doggy and kitty swag bags!

Team Garth Raised Over $1,000 for Fetch-A-Cure! A HUGE Thank You to Our Supporters!

Back in October, we decided to participate in the Mutt Strutt to honor the memory of my brother Jake.  (I posted about it in Fighting Canine Cancer in Memory of Jake.)

We wanted to participate and raise money for Fetch-A-Cure because we strongly support their mission to educate humans about pet cancer and its treatment, detection, and prevention.  Fetch-A-Cure is a Richmond, Virginia-based non-profit, and we've been very impressed by what they do and how they do it.  Fetch-A-Cure does great things.

Team Garth started with a modest goal of raising $200.  We weren't very optimistic because, frankly, we really hate to ask people for money -- even for the best of causes.  But we were amazed by the support we got from our friends!  Some made donations, and many others voiced their support of what we were doing.  It made us feel so good!  

Our friend Brenda joined the team, and she helped a HUGE amount.  A number of her friends also sponsored the team.  We quickly reached $200, so we raised the goal from $200 to $400, and then to $600, and when we were over $600, we raised the goal to $1000.  The first team to reach $1000 in donations received an additional $500 from an anonymous donor, and we tried very hard to get to $1000 first.  Another team beat us to $1000, but soon after that we received a very generous donation from my long-time veterinarian, Allied Animal Hospital, and we reached our $1000 goal!

We had a beautiful day for the Mutt Strutt today, and I enjoyed seeing my friends and getting lots of treats and belly rubs.  The nice lady from Wag-in-the-Box even gave me some Bowser Beer (which is quite yummy) and momma got me a 3-month subscription to Wag-in-the-Box!  And to top it all off, Team Garth came in THIRD PLACE in the fundraising, so we won awesome Fetch-A-Cure sweatshirts for all the human team members.

Raising over $1000 for Fetch-A-Cure was beyond our wildest dreams, but we did it, thanks to our very generous supporters.

A HUGE thank you from Team Garth to all of our supporters!  Thank you from the bottom of my big puppy heart!  You guys are AWESOME!

I'm so happy we were able to raise
so much money for Fetch-A-Cure!

I'd say we did very well today!

Fall 2012 Florida Keys Adventure - My Travel Journal, Part V

. . . I'm sad to say I'm on my way, 

won't be back for many a day . . .

Part V: Heading Home

Day 12  - Key West to Vero Beach:

Tarpon, Manatees, and a Very Warm Welcome

After almost two weeks of awesomeness, it was time to head north.  We hated to leave Key West.  We always do.  It was a beautiful day with nice breeze, and we stopped on our way out of Key West to buy a couple new collars for me from the Coconut Retriever guy. (I promise I will model them for you in an upcoming post.)

We stopped at the Home Depot in Marathon and dad was most impressed that they sell lobster traps.  At a Home Depot!

During our mandatory stop at Robbie's, I got to do pelican patrol while mom fed the tarpon!  She said I was very helpful because I scared away the pelicans who otherwise would have tried to steal her fish.  

Mom has totally lost her nerve after last year's tarpon-feeding incident (described in my post Tarpon Feeding 101), but she still enjoys feeding the tarpon, and I think dad is actually glad she has become more cautious.

While mom was feeding the tarpon and I was acting as a deterrent to thieving pelicans, a MANATEE swam by the dock.  We quickly abandoned the tarpon and followed the manatee over to the other dock.  I had never seen a manatee before and mom and dad had only seen manatees once before, so it was very exciting for us.

It's a MANATEE

We got a really good look at the manatee dude

Eventually the manatee left and we watched the people from the fishing boat unload and clean their fish.  It's fun to watch because they throw fish parts in the water and that attracts tarpon and sometimes even sharks.  We saw lots of tarpon and a stingray!  The stingray was acting like a roomba, going back and forth over the sandy bottom and cleaning up all the little fish parts.

This little guy was hanging out in a kayak at Robbie's

Not quite sure what they have against bananas

Once we were able to tear ourselves away from Robbie's, we continued north.  We stopped for photos with the giant lobster and for lunch at Snook's, one of our new favorite places to eat in Key Largo.  Then we went to the UPS Store to see our new friend, and to The Blue Cow Cafe (another of our new favorite places in Key Largo) for some ice cream for the road.  We took Card Sound Road to the mainland but luckily saw no crocs.

Me and dad and the giant lobster

Giant lobster, rear view

Getting treats from my new friend at the UPS Store

It's impossible for us to drive from Key West to Key Largo without stopping many times, and we took several wrong turns on and off the Florida Turnpike, so we didn't arrive at Vero Beach until after 9 p.m.  But they had a water bowl right inside the lobby, and there was a welcome sign with MY name on it!  And my friend Jack was there to greet us.  There was also a goody bag waiting in the room for me!  I LOVE the Vero Beach Kimpton!

The Welcome Dog had my name on it

Who's that good-looking yellow lab?

I LOVE goodie bags!

Day 13 - Vero Beach to Port Wentworth, GA

I loved the view from our balcony
at the Vero Beach Kimpton

But I don't wanna leave!

After an early morning walk with daddy, we all said goodbye to my friend Jack & headed north.  It was a really long day of riding in the car, but that's okay cause I needed the rest after all my adventures!

Sacked out in the car

We spent the night at our favorite dog-friendly Hampton Inn in Port Wentworth, Georgia.

Sacked out in the room

Day 14 - Georgia to RVA

Excited to be almost home

After another long day of driving, we were very happy to be back home!  

Relaxing with a stick on our front porch,
while the staff unpacks

We had a wonderful time and had some amazing adventures.  I'm a really lucky dog that I'm able to go all kinds of places and do all kinds of things and meet lots of awesome people.  But, you know what was the very best part of vacation?  Spending lots of time with my mom and dad!  Pack time is the BEST!

Smiley Sunday

I know exactly what I want for Christmas!!!

Photo by Tim Kondas
Thanks to Scoot Richmond for letting
me sit in the sidecar of this beautiful Stella

Last Day in Key West

Day 11 - Last Day in Key West: 

Fishies, Whippets, and the Catman

After an early morning walkie with both mom and dad, then breakfast, we went to the Key West Aquarium, which is dog-friendly.

We saw LOTS of fishies!

I have big scary jaws too

FISHIES!!!

Okay, how many large inanimate fish
do I have to pose next to?

What's in there?

Something is going splish-splash

I'm not sticking my paw in there,
don't you worry

This is a cool place

In the afternoon, we went to Dog Beach where I played with local whippets Cajun & Tooloulou.  Their daddy, Key West Chris is a local musician and he has his own blog called Key West Music and Happenings (humans can have blogs too). 

Trying to keep up with the whippets was fun but exhausting.  Some people go to the Florida Keys and swim with the dolphins.  But a far more rare and gratifying experience is to swim with the whippets!

Rompin' with the whippets at Dog Beach

Later that evening, we watched the sunset from the Westin Sunset Deck bar, and it was the best sunset yet.  

Me and mom at the Sunset Deck

Dad and I hung out in the bar (we did quite a lot of that, didn't we?) while mom went to watch the Catman perform.  She wouldn't let me come with her because she was afraid I would distract the cats.  But she scored us a Catman sticker for the car.  Mom says the Catman is hilarious and his cats are amazing -- she thinks my kittie friends would love him.

The kitty is getting ready to leap

Yes, that blurry thing is actually a CAT
jumping through a flaming hoop

Now the cat is getting ready to leap the other direction

Our trip was coming to an end, but we would have so many wonderful memories of Key West -- 

the good times

the friends we made

and the large inanimate fishes    

Yep, here's another one

Truman Annex on Dwellable