It has been known for quite some time (in my family) that Chloe is part goofball.  First of all, she LOVES squeaker toys!! The more obnoxious the noise, the more awesome the toy!  One of my friends was kind enough (or evil enough) to give Chloe an obnoxious squeaker that looks like a land mine.  Needless to say that is her new FAVORITE toy!!!  I am reposting an earlier video of Chloe squeaking it incessantly, so that you get an idea of how annoying it is.  Every times she plays with it though, it just cracks me up because I don’t know what it is about that toy that is so fascinating!  Turn down your volume if your dog likes squeakers!!!

Here is a video of her fetching her squeaker toy. Even though it is only a minute long, I threw it over and over again about 20+ times before she tuckered out!

And of course after exerting so much energy, you need some water!!! She LOVES the hose. For a dog who dislikes baths, the ocean, large bodies of water (except for puddles see prior post) this fast streaming water is so interesting!! You will see her try to “bite” the water. I wanted to make sure she didn’t get soaked (or my phone for that matter), so it is a short clip of how she interacts with the hose. When we go to my parent’s house for Thanksgiving, I will be sure to have my dad turn on the water so I can film her full-on hose play! Not to be confused with horse play!

And did I mention that my parent’s also have a goofball of their own? It is Asieke the cat!  He grew up around both dogs (before Chloe moved in with me) and seems to have developed some “doggie habits”.  Totally busted!!!  You see that is Rocket’s food bowl…she is not as tolerant as Chloe is when it comes to food stealing.  Good thing she didn’t catch him!

Some of his other doggie habits include: chasing toys when thrown, sometimes retrieving said toys (fake mice are preferred), panting when he gets exhausted,  playing with the dogs, eating dog food, digging holes in the lawn (after watching Chloe do it), sometimes pooping on the lawn (after watching the dogs), and sleeping in Chloe’s bed with or without her present.  But don’t get me wrong here, he certainly asserts his kitty dominance when he jumps on the bed or in people’s laps and gives smug looks to Chloe and Rocket.  Maybe Asieke takes after his older cousin Chloe in his goofball tendencies?  However, he HATES the hose and HATES the noises squeakers make.  Guess he is still just a cat after all…

We took our first walk of the day a bit later than usual (more like early afternoon as opposed to early morning), but as fate would have it we met a sea lion!!  It is rare for sea lions to come on our beaches, so it is most likely lost or sick…or so I thought.  Being from So Cal, having a sea lion come on the beach is a RARE thing, so for me it was quite unexpected!  Especially since I go to the beach almost 2 times a day and have been for the past month.

This is what happened:  Chloe and I had finished contemplating life, satisfied with what epiphanies came our way and were turning around to head back down the beach.  As I was walking along the edge of soft and hard sand, avoiding the rising tide, I was doing my usual.  Looking around at the waves, keeping an eye on Chloe when something big and brown to the left caught my eye.  It was a sea lion coming out of the waves!!!!  I was scrambling for my phone to capture a photo or a video, not noticing that it had caught the attention of Chloe as well.  As the sea lion finally conquered the near shore tumbling waves, it too was staring at Chloe.  Yes, there was some serious animal kingdom staring going on.  One not knowing what the other was, trying to decide whether or not it was a threat…

Being a marine biology lover meant I knew I was certainly in a predicament.  The curious human in me wanted to see for myself the wild thing up close, but the scientist in me knew that those things bite, and bite HARD they do.  You see, when I was in high school I attended some Sea World Adventure camps (week long) where I got to go behind the scenes and learn about the differernt exhibit areas Sea World had to offer.  On “Mammal Day”, the sea lions were one of the places we visited.  They look cute and playful when you watch a show, but they bark LOUD and they BITE hard.  The phrase “their bark is worse than their bite” is certainly NOT true in their case.  Plus, they can be spooked easily and then that leads to unpredictable behavior…  So, after the mammal stare down between dog and sea lion was over, the sea lion decided to approach us.

And because they can bite when threatened, I thought that these girls should have reigned in their dog since he seemed interested in the massive creature and continually barked at it… Chloe only stared and afterward I made sure to keep us far enough away (75 feet) to make sure she wouldn’t wander back over there on her own.

Chloe and I seem to have the most interesting adventures when we go to the beach…

So today was the BIG day!!!  Chloe and I walked for 60 other dogs (listed on the back of my shirt) at the K9 Cancer Walk in Los Gatos, CA!  This event was hosted by the Morris Animal Foundation:

The K9 Cancer Walk program raises funds and awareness for the Canine Cancer Campaign… Participating in one of these walks is a great way to memorialize a beloved dog lost to cancer and create a brighter tomorrow for your current companion. Half of all dogs will be affected by cancer—but together, we can beat this disease.

To Los Gatos: We had to take the scary 17 freeway full of winding, sharp turns, and people driving way too fast, so I wasn’t sure if we were going to even make it! However, this trecherous drive did have its silver lining or more like redwood lining…We got to drive through some wonderful redwoods along the way! With the windows rolled down you could just smell the warm sun and the essence of redwood drifting through the air.  A mere 40 minutes later and we were in Los Gatos!!  Finding Vasona Park was rather easy and it was certainly a beautiful setting for a K9 Cancer Walk!

Walking in:  So at first we weren’t sure what kind of place this was exactly with clowns everywhere!  We then figured out it was for their team spirit… still kind of scary!!

Checking in:  Chloe got a special bandana when we checked in. It was a yellow one that said “SURVIVOR” because she is a cancer survivor!  I got a snazzy blue shirt!

Metting the other Tripawd Members: Chloe and I were getting ready to check out the booths (in order to get free stuff) when lo and behold, we saw some people wearing Tripawd Bandanas! It was Spirit Cherry’s family with their new poodle Avvy!  They told me that they might actually start calling her Chloe, so that would be cool!  Even though Avvy herself is not a tripawd, she walked for Cherry and all the other tripawds who couldn’t be there!  Avvy’s family told me that she will be getting her “big girl” cut soon.  No more snowball Avvy!!!  I have to say, she was quite soft!

The Pugapalooza:  Shortly after meeting with Avvy, we spotted another person sporting a Tripawd Bandana!  It was Karen with the pugapalooza!  Obie is the one sticking his tongue out and Tani is in the blue (Spirit Maggie’s sister).  So adorable those pugs!!  By the way, Karen was on the ready for spreading the word about the Tripawd website!  We spotted a pug with a left rear amputation and Karen was generous enough to give them a Tripawd bandana and a card to check out the website.  Now that is some good advertising!!!

We also got to meet Travis Ray at the GSD Rescue tent! I didn’t get to snag a picture of him because he and his owner were making rounds… However Chloe and I both got to meet him briefly and were glad to meet such a sweet dog!

Here is a movie of the Tripawds before the walk!

The procession of walkers!  Eek more clowns!

Chloe and I walking.

Chloe and Avvy walking.

After we finished the walk we met Honey’s family!  They were all very sweet and wanted pictures of Chloe and the back of my shirt (which has Honey’s name on the back).  Soon after, we got to meet the biggest tripawd we had ever seen, Cemil!!!  Here is a picture of the whole Tripawd Pack!

So we spent some time getting to know all the other people and doggies (in the shade of course!), which was awesome!  It really is nice to meet the people behind the doggie avatars… yes they really do exist!  All in all, we had a great time walking for all the dogs listed on my shirt and we will be sure to do this again next year if they have it!  And did I mention that many people wanted to take pictures of Chloe?  She was quite the star at the walk!  Who can blame her, she is a cancer surviving Tripawd!!! And she’s adorable!    Lastly, we had a group of 8-12 yr old girls come up to Chloe to pet her.  One said “Awww, she only has 3 legs how sad…”.  I said, “No, not sad. Its a good thing because she is a cancer survivor and is cancer free again!”.  This seemed to do the trick since they immediately turned their frowns upside down and one exclaimed, “She’s soo cool!!!”.  Being a tripawd is nothing to be sad about!! It is something to celebrate especially if they are cancer free like Chloe!!!

But we aren’t done yet: Here is a picture of all the free stuff we got! Chloe will be stylin’ with all those nice bandanas!

This is what Chloe had to say about cancer: