Dear Mischa,

You know that I love you; and, while my love for you is not constrained to the physical properties of your outward form, it most certainly does include them. You are such a beautiful dog, and one of the many reasons to celebrate you is your self-cleaning coat ( Read more... )

I'm in the UK, mostly just to visit family, but I stopped off via elfasi and megadog on the way down to the Southwest.

Elfasi was of course his usual congenial self, and his dog Chorizo was delightfully pleased to see me (more people! oh joy! oh joy!). During the night the dog must have come over at least a dozen times to trample on me, nose at me, lick my ( Read more... )

Dear Mischa ( Read more... )

In three years with Mischa, we've never once washed him. Mischa doesn't believe in being washed; in fact he gravely mistrusts the whole idea of humans and water. He won't come within ten yards of the garden sprinkler, and if you dare to pick up anything as ghastly as a hosepipe then he'll disappear as quickly as you can say "tail between hindlegs ( Read more... )

Dear Mischa ( Read more... )

"Running" with Mischa has become a misnomer. Now that we're a well-established pack, I can at last let him off the leash when we're nowhere near road traffic, farm animals, cats, leashed dogs, large expanses of mud, bicycles, gardens, nervous pedestrians, open buildings, Anatolian Shepherds, or other risk areas. (I invite the gentle reader to ( Read more... )

Dear Mischa ( Read more... )

One of my most visceral pet hates: lights that work on a motion detector ( Read more... )

Nepalese national dog day. What a wonderfully enlightened concept!

Though not, I guess, as enlightened as consistent care and occasional love. C'mon, Mischa, it's time for your second run. (He's flaked out on his side behind my chair. Awwwww.)

"Ladies and gentlemen. Good afternoon, and welcome aboard Alaska Airways flight 359 to Seattle Tacoma. May I invite you to take a good look outside at the gorgeous hot sunny weather. And say goodbye to it, because the weather in Seattle is heavily clouded, forty-three degrees Fahrenheit [7°C]. Typical Seattle weather ( Read more... )