Dogs in the Big Apple

Did you know that former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani used to have a yellow lab? (This photo is taken from the book New York Dogs, by Andrea Mohin.)

All last week, my human family members and I were on vacation in New York City. Cabana stayed at Bucky's house, where I hear she had a great time, playing tug with Bucky and demolishing all his stuffed toys.

We thoroughly enjoyed NYC, living on the top floor of a charming four-story brownstone, taking the subway all over Manhattan, visiting museums, shops and attractions. The only downside to our trip was, of course, that Cabana couldn't be there with us. So I consoled myself by reading lots of books about dogs and by nerdily (is that a word?) taking photos of passing dogs.

Although we didn't cross paths with Rudy Giuliani or his dog, during the first few days of our trip, I photographed every dog I saw. But then, I thought, wow, this is really stupid, so I stopped doing it. I was a bit embarrassed while taking them and felt sheepish since I hadn't asked anyone for permission, so I took the photos really fast, hoping no one would notice.

Now, looking through these dog photos, I am surprised at how much they convey and wish that I had kept taking them. I thought the photos would look too random and boring, but instead, they show the grittiness of the city, the traffic, the people, the movement, the hurrying. I had planned to use the photos to make a little collage to share on my blog, but the photos are so interesting (to me, anyway), that I want them to be viewed singly and at full-size, rather than as a tiny 1" square in a collage. So I made the slide show below.

Even though these are random dogs that we don't know anything about, they each have their own unique character and story. I recently read that city dogs have to be much better trained than country or suburban dogs. After all, city people can't just throw their dogs in a big backyard or let them run loose while they're at work all day. When neighbors literally live on top of you or on the other side of your wall, barking is just not acceptable. And you can bet with all of New York City's fines, that someone is going to get on your case if you don't bag up your pooch's poop!

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Have You Missed Us?!

I hope the answer is yes! We took Cabana on vacation with us all last week, down the California coast to the San Luis Obispo area and to Los Angeles. It was a great trip, and Cabana was a trooper. She is a wonderful traveler, adapting to all the different places and situations we threw at her--some with a bit of difficulty, but always doing her best to please us.

There's so much to tell that I will break the trip up into several posts, starting tomorrow. For now, here's Cabana on a morning hike in the hills of Santa Margarita, a little town about 20 minutes from San Luis Obispo. We stayed in a beautiful home on 350 acres of open preserve, and Cabana and I enjoyed finding new trails to explore everyday. In this photo, we ventured up a steep incline and found ourselves on what felt like the top of the world--the view was breathtaking!

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What Cabana Did on Her Summer Vacation

We had a whirlwind of a week! It was a lot of fun, but it's also nice to be back home and catch up on blogs!

My husband's brother came from out of state, along with his wife and 4-year-old son, Adam. Adam and Cabana took to each other in the first 2 minutes. I don't know what they're doing in this photo--peekaboo maybe?

The first part of our vacation was in Santa Cruz, where we stayed in a rental house just minutes from the beach. Cabana loved and adored every minute we spent at the beach, running like mad on her flexi leash. She dug holes in the sand, ogled other dogs, and dashed through the waves.

Those retractable leashes, though, do not retract as fast as they should--especially when they're a bit water-logged! A couple of times, we had a massive tangled mess, and it was all I could do to keep Cabana still enough to untangle her.


Here we are at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk--a great place for puppies in training, since "regular" dogs are not allowed! We did see one other service dog there, and both dogs were equally distracted by the other. Still working on that one, ad infinitum!!


Onto the Monterey Bay Aquarium! Cabana and I had front row seats for the penguin feeding, and Cabana, although interested, was very well-behaved, even while being completely surrounded by children who wanted to pet her.

Unfortunately, Cabana had an accident while we were at the aquarium, although I blame myself entirely. I forgot to relieve her as we were leaving the beach house, and when we got to the aquarium, I tried to get her to pee. But Cabana wouldn't go, and the rest of my family was waiting for us--so I gave up. After we entered the aquarium, the time slipped by quickly as we went from exhibit to exhibit. Then, just as I was thinking I should take Cabana out, she peed on the floor. :(

Cabana hasn't had an accident in at least 5-6 months, so I felt bad for making her break her almost-perfect record. But hey, pee happens!


I don't know if it was to appease me, but our relatives said they wanted to take a tour of Guide Dogs for the Blind! They really enjoyed Cabana and hoped to get a chance to pet some of the baby pups. So even though we missed Fun Day, we got to have our own mini fun day! This puppy caught my eye because he was such a chubby chunk--what a sweet baby!


Also on the tour with us was a working guide named Donna, along with her partner Amy and husband Dave (they gave me permission to include them in this post). Donna was so good at her job!! I confess that I found it a bit difficult to see Cabana doing that someday, unless she undergoes quite a change in the next few months. Our tour guide used a few inevitable adjectives for Cabana, like "high-energy", "high-spirited" and "live wire".


But I know that Cabana CAN be disciplined and self-controlled, because she was ALWAYS so sweet and gentle with 4-year-old Adam who is a bit high-energy himself! It was absolutely endearing to watch them together. Above, they are sitting together on Cabana's dog bed.


Tickets to the boardwalk and the aquarium can be expensive--but wouldn't you know, they had the time of their lives with a couple empty plastic bottles and a big bucket of water.


As they say, "Priceless!"

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Snow Dog

We spent the weekend at Lake Tahoe, and Cabana had a blast. In fact, I think watching Cabana enjoy herself made the trip even more fun for everyone else.

On the first day we arrived at the cabin (not really a cabin--it was a very nice 5-bedroom house), there was snow on the ground with a few bare patches. We tried to get Cabana to "do her business" on the bare patches--but there were just too many distracting sticks and pinecones. Cabana likes to eat any debris on the ground, so she was too busy snatching them up and chomping them into mush to do any pooing or peeing. She wouldn't relieve herself on the snow either, which was also distracting to her. Finally, we wised up and got her to go at the top of the driveway where there was nothing for her to put in her mouth. Beyond that challenge, it was smooth sailing.

I brought a flexi leash, so Cabana could tramp around in the snow to her heart's delight, while we could stay on dry ground. She loved walking on the snow, digging in it, and eating it. In fact, one day, she ate so much snow that she threw up her lunch--poor thing!

Our friends who came with us on the trip also enjoyed Cabana. Cabana is definitely a people person and loved all the attention and affection.


Here she is on the hearth in front of the fire. Looks a lot like an LL Bean advertisement, doesn't it?

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