18 Saturday Feb 2012
Posted in Bowdu the shiba inu, Bowpi the basenji
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Yes, dogs need attention, exercise, training, grooming, etc. But sometimes it’s nice having dogs that are just comfortable doing nothing. Allows the humans to get stuff done on occasion.
29 Friday Jul 2011
Posted in Bowdu the shiba inu, Bowpi the basenji, Videos
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I think we’re ready to call it a week/month…
Here’s one from the archives.
29 March 2010
That was Bowpi’s first week with us.
She still sleeps a lot, still snores, but now she does this in every room of the house with soft surfaces.
06 Friday May 2011
Posted in Bowpi the basenji
02 Monday May 2011
Posted in Bowpi the basenji
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Photo taken 1 May 2011
Ready for another week?
(Nope.)
13 Wednesday Apr 2011
Posted in Bowdu the shiba inu, Bowpi the basenji
06 Thursday Jan 2011
Posted in Bowpi the basenji
Photo taken 3 January 2011
I have no idea why her hackles are up.
We are lucky that unlike some Basenji, she is not an aggressive waker. Even so, I would make sure to call her name and slowly bring her back to consciousness if I saw her back bristling like that in her sleep and needed to move her.
24 Friday Dec 2010
Posted in Bowdu the shiba inu, Bowpi the basenji
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Or at least on the futon.
Photo taken 4 April 2010
22 Wednesday Dec 2010
Posted in Bowpi the basenji
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Photo taken 27 November 2010
10 Friday Dec 2010
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animal shelters, free stuff, hello kitty, iiwaken, japanese stationery, kuranda beds, mutts, origami, pit bulls, rescue, san-x, shelter animals, shiba inu, sleep, stationery, tuapa
I had a rough theme for this week’s entries, shuttling back and forth between Here and There, Local and Global, the idea of using small acts to make a world of difference, even when immediate change is perceptible only in private… yadda yadda. Things didn’t cohere quite as I intended, but that’s why this blog is always a work in progress.
Over the months, I’d been collecting goodies for a House of Two Bows giveaway, but it didn’t occur to me until this week how I was going to execute it. Not until I stopped by my local animal shelter and spoke to their volunteer director about their donation needs did I finally realize how I wanted to end this week.
Photo taken 8 December 2010. Adoptable pound puppy Rusty. What can I say? I’m a sucker for red dogs.
My local animal shelter could use spare towels, blankets, bath mats. Durable chew toys and rope toys — big, black Kongs and whatnot. They’re doing okay with food, though they could sometimes stand to have more limited ingredient and hypoallergenic foods on hand for dogs with allergies.
They could also use a few more beds for the dogs in their care. While Rusty the pittie above has his own bed, not every kennel is currently equipped to keep its resident off the cold, concrete floors.
So they’re asking for donations of Kuranda beds, which can be ordered online and shipped directly to them. This is where you and the House of Two Bows comes in…
We’re giving away one GRAND PRIZE package which consists of:
In addition, several runner-ups (at least three) will receive:
All you have to do to participate is leave a comment to this entry below and answer the question: Where do your pets sleep? If you don’t have any pets at the moment, but would still like to enter, you can just answer where you think you’d like them to sleep.
In order to be eligible, please make sure to fill in the e-mail address field when leaving your comment. AFAIK, your e-mail address will not be made public, but that way, I can contact you if you win.
Entries will be accepted through next Friday, December 17th. One unique entry per pet will be accepted, though comments will have to be separated to count (yes, that means multi-animal households are at an advantage!). Unfortunately, comments for future or not-yet-existent or imaginary pets must all be consolidated under one entry. Winners will be chosen at random. They will be e-mailed privately after the close of the giveaway for their names and mailing addresses.
Why am I doing this?
Because I’m an inveterate packrat, and I go through periodic purges where I try to rehome a bunch of my possessions. Because I’ve been doing this blog nearly every day for months now, and I’m curious as to who’s reading. Because it’s fun to do giveaways, especially around this time of year. Because I love mail, both sending and receiving it. Because blogs have long been a medium for me to try and connect my personal life with the world that surrounds me in concrete ways, and this seemed a fun way to make that philosophy manifest.
Photo taken 30 November 2010
Ultimately, I’m doing this because I want to try and inspire a little bit of generosity in the world, a way to pay it forward, as it were. Our own dogs get to sleep in relative comfort, every night.
Bowdu has his place at the foot of the bed, which he prefers…
And Bowpi has learned to stretch and expand into available space on the human bed, a habit which we actually find rather endearing. In their sleep, they appear to be such angels (perhaps why I have so many pictures of sleeping dogs!). In their dreams, they are the epitome of “blissful ignorance,” for they can remain unaware of a less than cozy world.
At the House of Two Bows, we may not be rolling in cash, but we’re doing okay. While we don’t have an answer for every pleading pair of eyes, and neither are we expecting everyone else to save them all, I think the least we can do is try and help others get to be okay, too.
Adoptable Schnauzer-Poodle, Buddy
Then we’ll work on being more than okay, one step at a time.
19 Friday Nov 2010
Photo taken 6 November 2010
Photo taken 12 November 2010
Within a day of being late with their monthly dose of Comfortis, I found a tiny little flea on Bowpi, which I quickly nabbed and smashed to death in a fold of Scotch tape. Ugh! Don’t they know it’s November already?! We may very well be on flea medication all year here, now that we have two dogs and a compulsive fear of allergies (Bowdu’s only gotten flea drops 3 ~ 6 months of the year before). I suppose this nuisance is in exchange for not having to deal with snow.
Nevertheless, temperatures do drop here in Northern California, as they have the past few days. Nights when it gets down to the high 50′s/low 60′s indoors, Bowpi’s been extra snuggly under the covers. Her favorite spot is smack-dab between the Doggy Daddy and me. We deem this fair and appropriate. Both of us benefit from her heat, and she gets the additional security of a human torso enclosure.
This is one of the biggest differences between Bowdu and Bowpi that might be generalizable to their breeds. While both Shiba Inu and Basenji are primitive dogs that are supposed to be “aloof” (particularly with strangers) and “independent minded,” Bowpi seems to have a much higher threshold, indeed, a desire for human touch. Sometimes when people, even guests, are sitting on the living room couch, she’ll jump up and eventually sneak her way onto an open lap. One minute she’s just leaning against you, and the next thing you know, she’s got you weighted down with 22 pounds of persistance. It’s actually somewhat awkward, since she’s a leggy, angular creature with all sorts of anatomical corners that don’t fit nicely against human surfaces. At least she accepts being shifted and adjusted without complaint!
Bowdu, on the other hand, is much more nonchalant about physical attention, and often gives the impression that he’d rather do without it — especially when he’s sleeping. This is why he gets his own bed, whereas we haven’t bothered getting one just for Bowpi. Her previous owner said she won’t sleep in a doggy bed by herself, though she likes to share.
And Bowdu sure as hell isn’t known for being a good sharer.
Anyway, he’s got enough fur to maintain his own body temperatures. The furless humans are happy to keep sharing Bowpi’s warmth, but not her bugs. We’ll be having another dose of Comfortis, please.
