Rottweilers Ate My Laptop

Rottweilers. Computers. Cameras. World Domination. Not necessarily in that order.

Rottweilers.
Computers. Cameras.
World Domination.
Not necessarily in that order.

Won’t be making the best-dressed list again this year

by

I’ve mentioned before how most of our dogs have not had the clothes-wearing gene. The dogs that win photo contests and costume contests obviously have this gene. Not all of them are purse dogs either.

Axel can be convinced to wear a t-shirt, and someday I may be thankful for this fact if he ever needs minor surgery and thus a barrier to keep him away from the stitches for a few days.

I don’t think there is anything that can convince him to look good in a t-shirt, though. By the time I can get a camera focused, it’s always riding up or pulled down too tightly. It’s still sort of cute in an embarrassing-your-large-dog kind of way. But he won’t be winning any contests in the foreseeable future either!

(NaBloPoMo | November ’12: 10 of 30)

Review: MrChewy.com online pet food retailer

by

Finding good brick-and-mortar pet supply stores of both the small independent and big-box discount variety is easy to do in my sector. I live in Chicago, about five minutes from two large chain stores and about fifteen minutes from an all natural pet food store. Could I still benefit by using an online pet food retailer?

MrChewy.com gave me the opportunity to find out: the answer is a definite “YES!”

I got a chance to try it out last month over the Presidents Day holiday with a simulated “emergency” food order. Freya was about to hit bottom on a bag of California Natural Lamb Meal & Rice Large Bites. If you are a repeat visitor, you might recall that Freya has a mild case of IBS and it is one of a very few foods that agrees with her. Happily, it is also one of the more than 70 brands of food currently carried by Mr. Chewy — an excellent variety, with an emphasis on premium and natural foods. Mr. Chewy’s selection of California Natural varieties is actually better than what is available locally. I have had a hard time finding the low calorie and grain free varieties at times.

Mr. Chewy also carries Axel’s favorite food choices: Wellness CORE and Orijen 6 Fish. I had been wanting to try Acana Pacifica as a substitute for the Orijen 6 Fish since it is slightly less expensive, but it wasn’t widely available locally. Since it was in stock at Mr. Chewy, I placed our order for a large bag of California Natural and a small bag of Pacifica. The shopping experience on this well-organized, easy to navigate website was pleasant with no surprises. Out of stock items were clearly marked as such and the toll-free number and live chat link were displayed on every page if I did have a question.

One of the most attractive benefits of Mr. Chewy is their free 1-2 day shipping for orders over $49. This is a huge deal for heavy items like the large bags of dog food. I had previously used another online pet food retailer to send food to Axel when he was on the road with Julia chasing his AKC Championship. While service and selection were satisfactory, the expensive shipping charges were not pretty. So it is wonderful to see Mr. Chewy offering both the free shipping option for orders over $49 and a $4.95 flat rate for smaller orders.

So. Would the food arrive as promised before Freya hit the bottom of the bag? Yes, it did! The order was placed on Monday afternoon and arrived on Wednesday afternoon as promised. It was raining that day, and no one was home when the package arrived. Not to worry, as it was packaged nicely and our FedEx driver doesn’t throw our boxes over our fence.

Oliver Kittyweiler looks a bit offended that no cat food or cat treats were included in our order. Maybe next time!

I did a quick check of local pricing of our most-purchased items. Base prices average about a dollar more at Mr. Chewy than at my usual local stores. However, sales taxes in Cook County and Chicago are among the highest in the country, as are gasoline prices, so the total cost from Mr. Chewy ends up the same or less than a local purchase.

In addition to dog food, Mr. Chewy carries a good selection of cat food, dog and cat treats, dog potty pads, cat litter, and flea and tick treatments. There is a further discount to their already-competitive pricing if you set up subscription ordering.

If that isn’t enough to get you interested, Mr. Chewy also has a referral program that benefits not only shoppers, but animal-related charities as well. If you try Mr. Chewy, enter my referral code KWIL7576 when you check out. Mr. Chewy will give you 10% off your first order, and donate $10 to their partner pet charities. The vom Viersen Rottweilers give Mr. Chewy a big paws up!

For more information or to place your first order, go to MrChewy.com or visit their Facebook page.

MrChewy.com offered us a store credit to use in reviewing their service. I did not receive any other compensation for this review and am not connected to MrChewy.com other than as a satisfied customer. I thank them for the store credit and the opportunity to write this review.

Hurts so good

by

I try to read as many dog training blogs as I can. I always learn something (even when it’s like the old joke about how the only thing two dog trainers can agree upon is that the third dog trainer is doing it all wrong). Sometimes a post really hits home. This one did that, and also made me laugh out loud: Dog Trainer or Victim? from Denise Fenzi’s blog.

She talks about a doctor’s visit where she’s asked a number of leading questions about bruises and scratches on her thighs, and the reaction to her response that they were caused by… dog training, of course!

At almost any given time, I also have bruises, scratches, and tooth marks caused by the only domestic violence that takes place here… Rottweilers at work or play. The sweetest, mildest one we ever owned, Heidi, once almost gave Dan a concussion when she knocked him over out of sheer joy at his coming home from, well, only a few hours out. Good thing it wasn’t a week-long trip or she might have put him in a coma. Axe has no idea how big he is, and neither did Oscar before him.

It’s been a long time though since I’ve heard the pointed question “Is everything all right at home?” when I’m sporting bruises from dog training!

(NaBloPoMo | November ’11: 9 of 30)

When all else fails, there is always a Rottweiler

by

Or two Rottweilers.

My attempt at doing a photo-a-day Project 365 petered out in April. Since then, I’ve gone between days and weeks of taking dozens of photos and other times when I take no photos for a few weeks. I have managed to learn enough about my DSLR to be able to pick which of my two lenses is the better one for a given situation and to figure out the right manual settings more than half of the time.

This, unfortunately, is from the less than half of the time when I didn’t figure the settings out correctly…

…still not a master work, but at least it’s Facebook-able and friends-and-family shareable. I love you, Photoshop. That is all.

(NaBloPoMo | November ’11: 7 of 30)

F’d-up Friday

by

I’m having a tough time getting back into the rhythm of daily writing. As I’ve mentioned before, November is not the best time for me to start any kind of involved personal project.

Today was a particularly aggravating day with no chance to enjoy the unseasonably mild weather. All week, AT&T repair trucks have been working in the alley behind the house, mostly blocking our garage. It has been a real inconvenience, plus I hate to open the garage when strangers of any variety are around. The work day started early and ended late. In between, we were missing several people due to illness or minor emergencies. When I finally got home, it was to the news that one of our neighbors had his home broken into.

I know I have complained about the jagoffs in my neighborhood quite often. The neighbor whose home was broken into is not one of them. He is a very nice older gentleman who certainly did not deserve the headache. Thankfully he was not home at the time, and the only saving grace is that the scumbag criminals did not hurt his dog. Not physically, anyway. I hope she was not too traumatized by the invasion.

I put part of the blame on another neighbor who is definitely one of the jagoffs. His constant yard sales (so many as to be in violation of city ordinances, but of course since it’s not a “real” crime nothing has been done) bring around unknowns and undesirables as well as legitimate neighborhood bargain seekers. I would not be surprised if some of the unknowns were also casing out the area for easy marks.

I’ve always bought into the conventional wisdom that having a dog is a deterrent to break-ins. Now I’m not so sure. I do know that when the Rottweilers bark and growl at unknowns or unfriendlies, I won’t be making an effort to stop them any longer. This is one time that I plan to use the stereotype of killer Rottweilers for good — our good. I truly hate that I feel I have to do that.

(NaBloPoMo | November ’11: 4 of 30)