Who Says You Can’t Take Them With You?

Casper, Angelita & Gizmo in a Stroller!

Last night I stopped by a signing for a very funny book –The A-List Playbook– by E!’s Answer Bitch (Leslie Gornstein) at Barnes & Noble at The Grove.  The book event space (where I hope to have a book signing myself one day soon) is on the third floor.  I got on the escalator behind what I thought was a baby carriage. But as we reached the top floor, I realized there wasn’t a human baby in that carriage, but rather three cutie patootie dogs named Casper, Gizmo and Angelita. Their mommy was bringing them to The Grove for their maiden voyage in their new puppy stroller.

Gizmo seemed a little intent on exploring and getting outside the carriage, but for the most part the dogs were just happy to be in the mix! And while well behaved dogs are welcomed at The Grove, because there is a cafe at Barnes & Noble , dogs are not welcomed anywhere in the store. That is unless you sneak them in inside their stroller-i.e. no one noticed or said anything.

Ranger and Friend Auggie

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No More Puppy Mills! GO Woof Worx

On Thursday night I went to the opening of a great new store called Woof Worx. It’s a pet store, and it sells dogs. If you knew me at all you’d be in shock that I actually put those two sentences together. But it’s true!

Woof Worx

Woof Worx rocks because they are the first (in hopefully a long line) of pet stores which operates under Best Friend’s Puppy-Store-Free Campaign, i.e. Woof Worx has adorable puppies that come from the shelter instead of a puppy mill. Indeed the pups at Woof Worx are creatures not commodities.

Previously, the space located in the Glen Center (a Betsy favorite from way back a little shout out to Santo Pietro’s, Vera’s, Shane on the Glen and Sushi Ko), was occupied by a seriously vile place called Pets of Bel Air that you may recognize from the news. It was busted for it’s inhumane and illegal practices “A fraud and false advertising lawsuit against Pets of Bel Air claims animals the store said were from private breeders actually came from puppy mills and were less than healthy and hardy.”

Thankfully those days are gone and it’s now a gorgeous store that we all must support because, its success will hopefully inspire other puppy stores to follow in its footsteps. And if sheer inspiration doesn’t do it, I’m hoping the growing sentiment against and deserved suspicion of puppy stores will make them obsolete in the very near future!

Visit Woof Worx at
2924 North Beverly Glen Circle
Los Angeles, CA 90077
310.474.1211

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Walking the Walk

Losing Bella and the aftermath there of- -grieving, taking in a foster, contemplating looking for another forever friend has really put me through my puppy paces.  It is one thing to write about these events in the book and on this blog but certainly another to live them.

Bella & Me Feb 28 by Elisabeth Caren

Bella was no spring chicken when she passed; probably around 12 or 13, maybe? And so for about the last year or maybe six months, especially since the loss of my beloved dog from college, Tucker, I had taken moments as Bella and I did our daily routine just to say to myself: Betsy this drink in. Remember this time fondly because life is precious. Maybe I thought doing that, having that memory would help me control the eventual pain that I knew I would face when she passed.

Um, super good, control-freaktastic idea. But it still totally sucks to lose her. And I am sort of a basket case.

But instead of taking it easy and compensating for the fact I have had major problems sleeping, I somewhat-hastily tried to take in a foster dog.  Her name is Tiki; she is absolutely most elegant, beautiful 10-month old German Shepherd girl I have ever met. She was dumped by her family because she requires medicine that cost about 40 dollars a month. And while every penny counts these days, her former parents could afford it, but just chose not to and turned her into German Shepherd Rescue of Orange County which is a wonderful rescue group that everyone should know of and donate to!

Tiki

While I had never thought of myself as a German Shepherd girl, I love the group and this girl needed a foster. But sadly she was a bit too much dog for me. (I should have never gone for a younger dog, something else I write about in the book. Check out the Senior Dog Project for why Senior Dogs rock.) Tiki really needs a home, even a foster home with a yard (she never peed on the leash once in 3 days) and another dog to play with. I just couldn’t provide that for her. But if you know of anyone who might fit the bill please pass on her info. I do LOVE HER!

Ugh, so through heaving tears I brought her back to rescue- but thankfully GSROC is a rescue not the pound and Tiki is safe and will find great home.  That is why it is ALWAYS a good idea to adopt from a group. Dogs will be safe if it’s not a match and dogs have been fostered first so more can be known about them.

All that goodness aside though, having to bring her back made me, on top of feeling devastated about Bella, feel like an ass. What kind of dog person amd I?

And then I realized I’m a human dog person for lack of a better term. I realize, almost as I write this that I am not a perfect dog owner. Far from it and I hope that writing from that place will make more people relate to the book and this blog. Bella while loved more than any dog I know didn’t eat at the same time every day, and that sometime I left her for an hour longer than I should have. And while she went to doggie bootcamp to get along with other dogs, there was no way I would be able to maintain her good canine manners after the course ended because I couldn’t keep her training up for a variety of reasons which can be best summed up with I’ve been a single girl trying to live my life (dating working, etc.) And that doesn’t mean you can’t be a great loving dog owner. You just have to be smart about it and find the right situation for your life.

Clearly a 10-month old German Shepherd was not the right situation and I will find the right one in time. But just like anything else in life, I have realized the hard way rushing through or into something just isn’t going to take you anywhere you want to be. So I’m going to take my time, miss my baby Bella and see what the Universe sends my way.

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To Live is To Love

As much as I knew it would be coming, Bella’s passing has been beyond devastating. Being a quasi-pragmatist, OK planner/control freak– I tried to intellectualize my way around the pain: I made every right decisions, she experienced far less pain than other dogs with Osteosarcoma and she knew that I love her so deeply–blah blah blah. It ends up that there is no way to work around the stark truth that she is literally missing from my life and that just hurts like hell and it feels weird to go on with normal life without her.

Hall & Oates

I find myself totally fine and then something trips me up and I break out into tears. I do however have a new appreciation for some classic sad songs which now dominate my mental ipod (i.e. I can’t effing get them out of my head.) These tearjerker “classics”include She’s Gone by Hall & Oats and When It’s Over by Sugar Ray; music snob I am not.

And people by thy way (probably many of you reading this) been so supportive and amazing. Thank You all truly so much. I heard some extremely helpful things. One that hit close to home was regarding the sadness and how it’s just different. As opposed to other sadnesses a single girl in her 30′s has no doubt experienced i.e. a bad break-up, being laid off or having a falling out with a friend, when losing a dog  there is of course sadness, but it’s uncomplicated. There is a sweetness to a dog and our relationships  with them. Losing it that connection just hurts; in your gut.

So what to do? For some people it doesn’t feel right not having a dog. I have friends who have beloved dogs and years later can’t even fathom getting another. For me I knew I couldn’t be without one for long. So… meet Zsa Zsa my new foster.

Zsa Zsa

She is a sweet German Shepherd girl who was turned into to Orange German Shepherd Rescue because she has an enzyme disorder and needs 3/4 of a teaspoon of enzyme powder on her food to aid digestion. I love people. She was in boarding and needed a foster and  I needed to give some puppy love. So while I have never pictured myself with a GSD, let’s see how we do!

Bringing  Zsa Zsa into our lives will be quite the test for me. My book, The Complete Single’s Guide To Being A Dog Owner, which is currently available for pre-sale (shameless plug) among other things gives the 411 on bringing a new dog into your home. It seems like god’s little joke that as my book comes out and I will hopefully be sharing dog advice with the world, I am now in the position that I must walk the walk not just talk the talk–i.e. I’ve got to put into practice the very advice I have given! OY!

Of course I am only fostering sweet Zsa Zsa but fingers crossed we are a match!

Stay tuned.

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luna and betsy take flight

my cousin called me last week and said, “hi b, want to go to new york and pick up a puppy?” um, well of course i do: A. she said PUPPY!!!! and B. and really most importantly my grandmother who lives in NYC turns 96 years old in a few weeks and i relish every opportunity to see her.
ok back to the PUPPY part. as a rescuer, i am not into breeder dogs. but when you’ve tried to get people to adopt dogs for an extended period of time and they consistently resist, it’s sometimes best to embrace one of my favorite mantras:  “don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good”. meaning i’ve tried to get my friend/family/coworker (in this case my cousin) to adopt for the longest time, and it’s not happening. so at least lets make sure the dog is coming from a good breeder-which it is (one who supports rescue, works hard to keep the integrity of the breed, requires thorough background check, and who cares for their dogs etc.) and lets make sure that dog is raised with tons of love and training so it never has to be rescued or re-homed in the future- which i know it will be.

conveniently, and truly i had the opportunity to have some very important meetings in nyc. so with a work purpose, a puppy purpose and a family purpose i got on a plane on thursday and jetted to nyc.

i worked all day on friday, hung out with my boyfriend on saturday and at 5:00pm a little bundle of golden retriever love arrive at my grandmother’s apartment. her name is luna…the plan was to get her, chill for the night at my gran’s and then get up to go to jfk at 7:30ish for a 10:00 flight. well that was the plan anyway.

when it was time to go to bed, luna, wasn’t all that interested in sleeping-not in her bag, not in bed with me, not anywhere without snooping around an apartment that was NOT meant for puppies. art, oriental rugs, vintage furniture… and where there weren’t fragile items there were dangerous ones- power cords, heaters etc.

i got luna to sleep in her bag for about 90 minutes, all the while i only slept at about 40%. waiting to see if she slept, if she made noises, if she cried. all of which she did until that point when it was clear she wanted to be awake. we went back to the kitchen which i had determined to be a safe zone (confined and easy clean up) and she romped around; played with her toys and generally acted beyond the valley of adorable. soon,  i got to the point of crossed-eyed fatigue and i simply had to figure out a way to sleep without worry about her destroying anything or hurting herself.

staring at a paired down 1950′s kitchen with a cold, hard linoleum floor.  i thought have i totally lost my mind that i am contemplating dragging out the duvet and sleeping on the ground to accomodate not only the puppy but the other people sleeping in the apartment who would surely be awoken by her cries.  so i compromised. i hijacked the 1950′s mattress from the back bedroom and dropped it down onto the floor. i was asleep as was luna, on my head by the way, within minutes.

we stayed that way for about 2+ hours until it was uppy time! ugh. i got up and went back to the kitchen as luna romped and played with her toys. while she made a few substantial pees around, which i over course cleaned up handily, she walked around in cirles squatting intermittently without generating more than a quick squirt of what appeared to be cloudy pee.  this wasn’t marking behavior. it seemed that she really needed to go, but couldn’t. being a girl, it’s quite easy to identify this behavior as indicative of a bladder infection! ugh. they are so painful.

with the prospect of a 6 hour flight in approximately 7 hours, i felt that to be on the safe side luna needed to be seen by a doctor. how horrible for her to have to be cooped up on a plane with a urinary tract infection. i then hesistated for a bit; maybe i was being an overreactive jewish dog guardian. maybe i should just watch her for bit and see. she then squatted and didn’t potty about 4 more times. i knew i had to go.

i got online and googled 24 hour emergency vet and my gran’s nyc zip code. within minutes we were at the Animal Veterinary Medical Clinic. (by the way shout out to them- they were amazing).

i sat in the waiting room for about 2 hours with luna talking to other patients’ worried parents. i giggled with another golden’s mommy and cried with a sweet police office while i helped him make the decision about whether or not it was time to put his dog to sleep. sadly it was.

luna meanwhile was chilling. making friends and giving kisses to the support staff until the vet was available. the vet’s name was alicia and she took amazing care of luna. after a night of extremely depressed cases, a puppy with a UTI was a gift for her. a shot of pain meds and antibiotics we were on our way back home just in time for the alarm to go off to wake us up to go to the airport!

andre, my ever patient, ever wonderful boyfriend drove us to jfk for the flight. walking through the terminal we couldn’t walk 2 feet without an oohh or an ahhh! luna was a star. and i exploited up every bit of that attention to keep her awake; idea being if she’s awake now she’ll hopefully sleep on the plane!

and so she did for about 3 hours at which point it was uppy-up time. thankfully luna and i had the most amazing flight crew on american airlines- shout out to dana in particular! although it is way way way against policy luna spent the second 3 hours of the plane giving kisses and entertaining the passengers and crew.

it was indeed one of the best trips i’ve ever had across the country. especially because on the other end i was able to deliver my newest niece to her loving family!

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