Upcoming Events
I will be working the Happy Tails booth at McLean Day tomorrow. Then for the fun of it on my day off, I'm attending the Perfect Pet Resort's Pet Expo.
Next weekend I'm heading to Lex's parents' beach house with the girls. :)
Then I'm dogsitting (& housesitting) a cute, happy little Eskie (American Eskimo Dog) named Kobi May 26-June 1. He lives across the street from Lex, so I'll see my best friend a lot that week. And I'll be really close to work. YAY!!! :) (I HATE my nearly-hour-long commute sitting in beltway construction traffic with no A/C)
The bachelorette party for my coworker Crystal is hopefully May 29. Yay! But I think I'm going to end up the D.D. :(
Brian and I are going down to Richmond June 5-6 for Crystal's wedding. Woo-hoo! Wedding bash followed by a night in a motel! (Not to mention 2 days in a row of NOT WORKING!)
Then as soon as I get back, I start dogsitting (& housesitting) a funny, cute Tibetan Terrier named Jackson for 2 weeks. I'll be taking him to work with me.
Then I'm moving into Brian's house by the end of June. (Yay?)

More Cute Doggie Pix
Gibson splish-splashes in the pool.
Labs love the water!
Hera watches from above.
Belle and Jackson take a break.
Movie: Fun with the ball in the pool!
Tyson, the skateboarding bulldog (not a Happy Tails dog, but cute anyway)

Lingerie Poll
Which of the following should I get for Crystal's bridal shower gift? (She likes pink. She's petite/thin and spunky.)
EMBROIDERED HEART BABYDOLL
CHARMEUSE AND LACE CHEMISE (i would get it in pink w/ no dots)
ROSE TRELLIS EMBROIDERY CHEMISE (Robe not included)
SHEER LACE-TRIM BABYDOLL
SATIN HALTER CHEMISE (I don't think this is the ideal cut for her body type, but I'm not sure.)

Doggieboys Can't Hang
We scared away the new boy on his first day.
We are an entirely female staff. It's not that we won't hire boys. We just don't tend to get qualified, compatible male applicants. We've had 2 or 3 guys there since the business opened 2 years ago, but they didn't work out. This new one was hired because he seemed to be a match for what we need in an employee and my boss also thought it would help with the cattiness problem we apparently have.
So our new boy was 22 and had manager experience, which is more than many of our applicants can say.
Anyway, I trained him for most of the shift, then he shadowed another girl for the last couple of hours. As first days go, he had a fairly easy one. He had nice people to follow, a light dog attendance day, way less cleaning than normal, and no incidents. There were a few challenging and annoying dogs and a lot of barking and jumping. He seemed really bothered by how dirty they were getting his clothes. And I'm sure he wasn't thrilled with witnessing Oliver the yellow lab projectile vomiting because he ate too much dog shit. I tried not to scare him with all my warnings about things not to do if you don't want to get bit.
He seemed to be earnestly listening to every bit of wisdom I was trying to bestow upon him and was quick to take initiative despite being overwhelmed by the chaos and newness of the whole experience of supervising a big room full of active dogs. He was doing more after one hour than I've seen several new girls have the confidence to do in a week. I was encouraged and pleased.
At the end of the shift we asked him if he had had fun, if he was overwhelmed, if he liked it and if he'd be back. He answered yes, no, yes and yes. He had the next day off (Tuesday) and as he left, he said "See you Wednesday."
Three hours later he sent us a very nice email, "terminating his employment." Nothing against the people or the dogs, he just didn't feel the job would work out for him. Sorry for the short notice, but aware that his first week was training, he felt it was best to just end it now.

Mr. Pickles is Leaving!!!!!!!!!
Nooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!! I am woebegone. Utterly bereft. Depressed, totally bummed out and immensely sad.
I was so happy that my disgusting, snarfly, hairy, stinky, fat, adorably loveable, super sweet, easygoing, hilariously funny, happy goofball Winston (Mr. Pickles) was at Happy Tails today. I played with him and cuddled him and carried him around talking about how he's my favorite dog and how much I love him.
Then his mom came to pick him up and dropped the bombshell. They are moving to North Carolina next Friday.
:( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :(
I think I am going to need therapy to get over this loss.

Stephanie!
Everybody welcome Stephanie to my blog! I just gave her the address so she can come visit. She is my awesome co-worker who made our website & took the pictures I just posted & helps me make our e-mail newsletter look the way i want it to. And she's a really cool person too. And she helps me find crazy and cute dog products on the net. Since she has a nametag on in the picture, I hope it doesn't hurt to tell you that she's the one w/ the nifty blonde braids in the picture of Happy Tails girls. Meet her dogs, India & China.

Pet Fiesta Pix!
A semi-candid shot of me interacting with a visitor to the Happy Tails Dog Spa booth at the Pet Fiesta.
Three fine doggiegirls.
Gettin' sloppy kisses from my dog-godson, Klondyke.
Klondyke begins one of his 25 tricks.
Still holding still.
Sarah's beagle, Joe.

May
is National Masturbation Month! Visit Good Vibrations for help. ;)