goin' to the dogs

I took a few minutes today and packed up this box.


Not so thrilling you say? Well, you would be heartily thrilled if you had four legs, fur, a tail and all you needed to make your day was a soft plush toy covered in neon colored fake fur that squeaked and squawked.

I mentioned to a couple of the art groups I belong to that I was putting together a donation of goodies to send to Bernie Berlin's A Place to Bark. Kate L. and Kate C. brought a bunch of stuff and combined with what I had set aside, we ended up with a big pile of all this:



You will notice that these lovely items are laid out in the back of a car. The reason for this? Here's why:

Oh sure, he looks all sweet and innocent but faced with a mountain of plushie squeak toys? This westie will freak out and it will take hours for him to come down from the high of what is basically the equivalent of what winning the lotto would be for me and you.

(No worries, when I was picking up the goodies for the donation, little man got a couple new additions to his toy basket. Problem is that he never destroys his toys. He's nine now and still has toys from when he was a puppy that are in good shape. He's obviously my dog since he's building up quite the collection. Except instead of fabric, his stash is bizarrely shaped mystery creatures that he likes to bash with his snout to make them squeak in horror.)

So knowing how much happiness Dooley gets from a new toy, I was really happy to be able to pack all that joy into a box and send it out. I met Bernie when I was working in Open Studios at IQF in April, she was an artist there as well. She runs a no-kill rescue at her home in Tennessee and is always looking for items and donations.

Go check out her blog and see all the good stuff she does and if you have some goodies that might help make a poochie's life sunnier, send it on over. I'm sure she - and the dogs - will love ya for it.