New Website Up!

It's not quite done, but I want to get it crawled by google ASAP so it's mostly up. :) It's called Corgi Chaos. It's essentially the same store I have on Cafepress, but I found a lot of other peoples' designs i wanted to offer as well. I didn't get the domain name I wanted, which technically I COULD get since I've had a store called corgi chaos for years... but I'll just wait for this guy's domain to expire and then buy it as it's not worth the trouble at this point.

Fun week!

February 10th (Sunday) we had a gas leak... the gas company came out and turned our gas off. It was about 4 degrees outside. After a quick trip to wal-mart and lots of towels around all the aquariums, we managed okay. It never got below 62 in the house. I took the cold sensitive dogs to my parents' house. Roofus, the sheepdog, was in sheer bliss. He loves cold. I had to move all the birds into the kitchen near a big space heater.

The next day when I got an emergency plumber to fix the problem, the gas company said they wouldn't turn it back on until the following day. Mickey called them back and they were out ninety minutes later. :) You don't appreciate things like heat and hot water until you've been without them! My hot shower that night was absolute heaven.

My Cladiella coral (aka colt or blushing coral) came out fully two days ago. I was pretty happy about that. I haven't seen it fully expanded in what seems like a couple weeks, at least. My duncan coral, though, has taken to not being fully extended. That just started yesterday, not sure what it's deal is. I want to take a photo of it for a photo contest, and I'd rather he was out completely. I've been fiddling with macro mode and I got a few neat shots.

Popper starts flyball tonight! I'm excited. We have jumps and stuff at home, but we don't have the room to put all four out at the same time, and it's too cold to do it outside. He's really wimpy about cold weather (he has dingo fur after all, very thin) so I worry about him at the place... it's not heated at all.

Here's a cool photo of Merlin I got last week. Isn't he cute? I wish he would bring the ball back. He's a very nervous dog, I'm not sure how successful we'll be, but at lessons the woman doesn't even try to get him to get the ball. He's already a pro at coming and going over the jumps, so really it's kind of a waste of our time if we're not going to introduce the ball. He gets the ball every time at home, so he needs to be exposed to it in class as well.

I've been adding flyball designs like crazy, some breed specific. Go look! Buy stuff. :) Keep my pooches in flyball class!

Moving Corals Around

Aside from being harassed by five stir-crazy dogs all day (it's been POURING rain for several days now), I moved a lot of my photosynthetic corals from my seven gallon nano to my ten gallon nano. I recently got an awesome Current USA Orbit fixture with lunar lights that blows away my piddly lighting on the bowfront. I left the pulsing xenia in the seven for now; I want to see how the other corals react to a 4x more wattage light. Normal tanks have 4-5 watts per gallon - my tank has 8! They're chilling on the bottom right now, I'll see how the are tomorrow.

I can't wait till flyball friday... Mickey is going to run Merlin so he gets used to be handled by him, and I'm going to take some photos and videos. If I get some good ones I'll post them. I am a fairly decent photographer so I think we can assume I will get some nice shots. ;) Popper starts flyball the following friday. I feel bad for Roofus but he's a giant breed dog, in addition to being clumsy, and I just see flyball as being very bad for him! I definitely need to walk him a lot that day so he isn't so depressed when the other boys leave.

I bought two Honeywell air filters after my last bird filter bit the dust. It wasn't working well anyway - with all my critters, I could dust, and two days later, it would look like I hadn't dusted in a week. How obnoxious! God knows what was going on in our lungs. After I plugged them in it took about fifteen minutes and I felt WONDERFUL. If anyone is interested, they are the Silent Comfort, model 18155 I believe.

I've been working on the store a lot. Sometimes it feels like it's an uphill battle. :(

New year, new stuff!

I hope everybody had a great holiday season! We added a bunch new designs and many new dog breeds, like the finnish lapphund, catahoula leopard dog, carolina dog (american dingo), estrela mountain dog, and a couple others. We also have a new cartoon dog design that you can find an example of in the catahoula breed section. It's absolutely adorable, if I do say so myself.

We also opened a new store just for bird lovers, Feathered Frenzy! It's got even more designs and more species than our Menagerie Mayhem store.

Our corgi is taking flyball lessons right now at Dogwood Agility. It's a blast! We weren't really wanting to do agility, and he is absolutely obsessed with tennis balls so we figured it was a good alternative. Unfortunately, hardly anyone in Columbus does flyball unless you take hundreds of dollars of THEIR obedience classes! Merlin is already fairly obedient so I don't see the need in wasting my time and money doing that. He is enjoying flyball (though he was really scared at first, being a timid dog) and next session we're going to take Popper too! It's a great way to exercise your dog and bond even closer, and I highly recommend it. Yes, you can probably expect some new designs for flyball! I want to post some photos of merlin doing flyball, but I have to ask the instructor if we are allowed to take pictures first.

Crazy couple of days!

It's been a little nuts around here the past few days... one of my eyes had a corneal abrasion, which i think was from me scratching it all the time (I have really bad eye allergies), and then i had a funky lens which tore the crap outta my eye. So I had to be one-eyed for a couple of days, which set me back on the store and other tasks, because i'm pretty much blind without my contacts.

I had my Christmas present delivered yesterday, Mickey bought me a Story and Clark piano. I thought I had gotten really terrible, but now that I can see again I am pretty good :) I LOVE my new piano.

And my Pandora, (whiteface lutino cockatiel) has yet ANOTHER feather cyst! It's getting obnoxious and expensive to have these things surgically removed every time. Sigh. But that's the price of having pets!

Almost holiday time!!

Well gang, I quit my job at the pet store and now I am an online employee FULL TIME with my own business. Scary? You bet. I compared it to going skiing, riding up the ski lift, and then having to glide off on your own. You might fall and make an ass of yourself as you get off, you might go a little while and then crash, or you might have the time of your life skiing down the mountain.

I've been super busy getting the site ready for Christmas. For me, Christmas prep starts in July. Right now, it's crunch time trying to get everything up. I added some more stuff to the rarer breeds, like the Ibizan Hound. Lots more anime designs since those are just so friggen cute!! Hope you enjoy. If you have a specific breed request, just email me, it's not a problem at all... a lot of the stuff on there is because someone asked for it. :)

Don't forget as you get ready for thanksgiving to keep an eye on those pooches! With lots of people and food around, it's easy for the little guys AND the big ones to get into trouble! Some considerations: getting stepped on, helping themselves to food off the counter (HUGE no-no!), licking the hot oven (yes mine have done that before), escaping out the front door with so many comings and goings.... the best thing you could do is put the dog(s) in a secure room (baby gates are great!) with a nice doggie bone or other chew treat.

It's been a while!

Wow, it's been a while since I've posted in here! I've been so busy with the store, I haven't had much time for typing. Well, I've definitely gotten a lot of things accomplished. Right now I'm getting ready for Christmas on the store -yes, you heard me right! I'm adding lots more ornaments and greeting cards. Now we offer single pack cards - so you don't have to get ten of something you might only need one of!

I just wanted to take a second to tell you about a new pricing structure that our printer has thrust upon us... from now on, double sided t-shirt prints will cost more. That sucks. We are trying to delete all double sided shirts from our website, but it's quite likely we will miss a few. Please let me know if you come across any so we can take care of it. It's entirely possible we may decide to keep a couple up - but these are going to be few and far between!

A Sad Day

I had a woman come in today that was in a month or two ago with this situation... She said her canary was very sick, sitting on the bottom of the cage with its feathers ruffled. I said, get it to the avian vet asap. Then I had to hear a line about how last time it cost her $90, he treated the bird for something it didn't have, when it wasn't really sick, it was just lonely, yadda yadda. Whatever. I've heard it all before. She said she could actually take the bird out, snuggle him, and put him back. This is a canary we're talking about. I told her to stop talking to me and get the bird to the avian vet now, if it was that bad it was in dire need. She told me it couldn't be that bad because he had been like that for THREE WEEKS!

Needless to say, she elected to try a store bought remedy. I explained to her that it would not help her pet, that instead, it would make it more difficult to treat the bird when she finally did wise up and get it to the vet. Nobody listens to me. They all know better. And now a poor defenseless little bird is dead because she was too cheap to get it to the avian vet.
Sadly, this woman has other birds. She says she doesn't want any more, and I hope to God she never does get any more. Because they will all die slow, miserable deaths. I don't understand how someone can proclaim to love something dearly and then not provide a basic need, to watch it slowly suffer in agony, which could be prevented, but still professing that they love the animal.

This is one reason why I hate working at a pet store. If you can't afford the pet - give it to someone that can. If your pet is sick and you don't "feel like" taking it to the vet or have "other things to do," do us all a favor and jump off a cliff.

Not the merriest time of year

Everyone can yak on about how this is a time of sharing, giving, brotherly love, yadda yadda yadda... all I can say is, you must not work, nor have ever worked, in retail. Christmas is possibly the nastiest season of them all. People are hurried, rushed, and it's your fault. They tend to be snappier, ruder, more impatient, and it's all your fault. I get more grinches this time of year than all the other months combined. Sometimes people insult you personally, sometimes people act like you have personally wronged them. But I can assure you that customers can be HUGE jerks... and when you're dealing with hundreds of people a day, it really starts to wear you down.

Parrots DO argue with each other

Havoc, my severe macaw, is just learning to talk, and lives in my great room. Pickle, my quaker, lives in the bird room, which is adjacent to the great room. If no birds are out for fly-time, I leave the bird room door open. The coversation between Havoc and Pickle went like this:

Pickle: "Pickle, Pickle, Pickle!"
Havoc: "TICK-LE. TIIIICK-LE."
Pickle: "PICKLE PICKLE PICKLE!!!"
Havoc: "What? TICKLE."

Proof that birds do argue. I hope she didn't convice Pickle his name is Tickle.

The answer to the age-old question....

.... do birds burp?

Yes, they do. And it smells like rancid seed.

OSU Stomps Michigan

Ok, really, it was a very close game. OSU gets kinda weird sometimes when it plays Michigan, the whole psychological thing and all.... But Tressel was hired for one thing and one thing only - BEAT MICHIGAN!!

I took the day off work because 1) I'm an alumni and I shouldn't have to ever miss a televised game 2) uhh it's MICHIGAN 3) no way was I driving to work on campus during a home Michigan game 4) it's MICHIGAN.

Personally, I think all the stores around campus should close the day of the Michigan game. Really, they aren't even justifying staying open with the piddly amount of business they do. Hopefully I'll never work a Michigan game again... think it's too early to put in for a personal day for next year?

dumb and dumbererererer

This seems to be a blog where I complain a lot about retail customers... but really, they're the most fascinating people! You've got to wonder how people like this have existed for so long on their own.

#1
For some *odd* reason, my employees felt this guy needed a fish expert and sought me out. Well, they were wrong. What he needed was a heater for his aquarium. He had a three gallon (yup, 3 gallons!) aquarium HALF full of water (yup, 1.5 gallons!), and wondered why his fish kept dying. He had a couple of mollies! Well, I informed him of the fact that his winter-cold apartment and inky dinky tank were too small for anything, but he could try goldfish. His response was he thought mollies were goldfish. I just KNOW i'm going to end up putting "these are tropical fish that require heaters" on every single tank.

#2
A woman waited on me to finish with above guy. Said she had purchased a relatively expensive automatic litter box a few months ago and it was already broken. She assumed the motor had burnt out (good lord maybe her kitty needs to see a vet!!). She complained about having to buy another kind of litterbox in the mean time (cheapos are like $4). She didn't have the receipt, which pretty much ended it for me as I can't do anything without some kind of proof she got it at my store (and you wouldn't believe how often people try to cheat us!). I recommended she call the company and see what they could do for her in terms of replacement or troubleshooting. Without batting an eye, she informed me that I would call the company for her, and she would try whatever they said, then call me back later to update me... Uhhh ok... Now, if it hadn't been for the fact that we had just went through a really boring seminar on customer service, I would have told her no. And, in fact, I will do that from now on, as I do have certain tasks I have to get done every day and help customers that need help I can provide.

So I call up their 800 number and explain to the guy that this chick is apparently phone shy and that I will have to be the go-between. He asks model number. I don't know! Woman points to her model, I have someone bring it to me, read it off. Operator is annoyed I don't have it in hand. Ohhh, buddy, don't start a pissing contest with me, I guarantee I'll win! So he goes through this reboot procedure, expecting me to do it along with him, which I will NOT do because I am not taking that enormous litter box out and then finding all the little parts I lose and sticking it all back in the box. I write down all the information, along with their number, and hand it to the woman who is just standing there waiting for me. Well, now, she doesn't believe that'll work. Ok, well, I don't care, try it anyway. She wants to know if she has to send it back to them if she has to pay for the shipping. I point out the number I just gave her AGAIN and tell her that they can answer those questions as I haven't the faintest idea.

I am FASCINATED by the people that come into the store. Some treat us like slaves, some like heros, and still others don't even acknowledge our existence. I think I could just sit up in the office and watch people all day long. Retail really sours you on people, though. You get about one bad egg a day, it could be someone trying to cheat the store, somebody using you as a scapegoat, or just some jerk that gets a kick out of tormenting people. I know I'm certainly sick of people. I am definitely a homebody, and sometimes I think if I never saw another person again it might be too soon!

Havoc learns cute new things

I've done really well not making this a blog soley about the cute antics of Havoc, my severe macaw... who sadly is STILL on layaway as I had a few unexpected expenses. However, today, she learned a few new things...

She now flips over on her back so I can rock her like a baby. She doesn't wait to make sure my hands are there to support her - she hangs from my chest and just drops. Thankfully I am pretty watchful!

The other cute thing is I left the office today, with her happily chewing on a pen cap, to do something very quickly and come back... just after i hit the door, i hear her cry, "HAVOC!!!" and poke my head back in to see her running towards the door.

Awww! She didn't want mommy to leave!

On a not so amusing note, I found that Biff, my female plumheaded parakeet, has learned to EXACTLY make the same annoying quaker scream that my quaker parakeet, Pickle, makes. Joy. Now there's two of that god awful sound.

Flea Market Birds??

You may or may not know, but I am getting out of the bird breeding game... since becoming a manager at the pet store and my online store becoming successful, I just don't have the time to devote to the little babies anymore without my own pets losing out. So, I'm selling off all non-pets.

Among other birds, I'm trying to sell a few of the more rare kinds... specifically, a very expensive, very rare cockatiel (I nearly had to have one shipped from Hawaii, they are so hard to find!!), and a pair of fischer's lovebirds, one lutino, one split to lutino. It is almost impossible to find anything even SPLIT to lutino around Ohio. I know, I've looked. I had both of these birds flown in from a special breeding facility in California who is well known in the serious breeder community to raise *the* *best* *lovebirds.* I had each flown in at different times. Between vet checks, shipping, etc, I have about $600 invested into this pair of birds. I'm asking $225 with their cage, toys, and nestbox. (a normal fischer's runs about $75, split $100, lutino $125-150, whereas you can get a peachfaced lovebird for about $40).

Sounds reasonable, right? Problem is, a lot of idiots raise lovebirds. These kinds of people are found in every type of pet - dog, cat, reptile... the ones that are just breeding to breed, to make money, and the animals may or may not be kept in great conditions, are probably overbred, and live short, miserable lives. Kind of like people that sell animals at flea markets. That's disgusting. You'll burn in hell (should such a place exist).

These cheapo type people think that good quality birds are overpriced. All lovebirds should be $50 or less. Indeed, you can find a pair of lovebirds for probably $80. However, my birds are fischer's lovebirds, not peachfaced, which are not as common. These are a particular mutation that is hard to come by in this area. These are from the best breeders in the United States.

I am TIRED of reading e-mails from interested parties that want me to cut my "unreasonable" price down. If you can find anybody selling what I'm offering for less, TAKE IT with my blessing!! You won't. I know of one other breeder in Ohio that raises fischer's, and they have only split lutinos, not full. In asking a reasonable price for my animals, I am ensuring they go to a loving home with people who are getting what they pay for, probably know what they are doing, and most definitely do not sell them at flea markets. One person today wanted me to breed my birds for her to buy the babies out of the nest. GROSS! That's just terrible to do that to the babies. When I raise an animal, I love it start to finish. I am responsible for that soul and I want to entrust it to somebody who feels the same. Shame on you people for wanting me to lower myself and treat these animals like meat.

If you want crappy birds that are unhealthy and genetically weak, then go buy somewhere else. I have standards.

Retail Store Etiquette

This kind of crap happens to me all the time. I'm pretty sure the jerks don't realize how rude they are (but then again, they probably do) so I'm going to point it all out so you can hopefully avoid this stuff. Remember: I may be smiling and acting polite on the outside, but you have no idea what I'm really thinking!!

1) Don't stab me with your credit card. A lot of people just THRUST out their card and poke me in the soft part of my hand. Don't do that. Gently hold it out please. I will get it. I won't drop it. I promise.
2) Don't put your money on the counter if I am holding out my hand for it. That really makes me want to throw the change at your face.
3) Don't move your hand away if I'm giving you your change or receipt in an order that you don't want to receive it in. God forbid you take an extra second to move your change to where you want it. I didn't like playing hot hands as a child, and I don't like playing it now. Take it how I give it to you and move on, I've got a line.
4) Don't ask me if a different store has a certain product. Do I look like I work at that store? Why would I help out a competing store? Do a little research yourself.
5) Don't buy $20 worth of pet stuff and then tell me how spoiled your pets are. I drop more than $20 a DAY. My favorite are the people that buy shitty pet food and then tell me their pets are spoiled. They're not spoiled, they are malnutritioned. Huge difference.
6) Don't bitch about prices to me. I don't set them. I don't care.
7) Don't bitch about us not having a certain item that you want. I don't order them. I don't care.
8) Don't tell me long drawn out stories about how happy your betta is to wiggle around when he sees you coming. That's stupid. And I don't care. I will initiate conversation with you if I feel it necessary.
9) Don't complain to me about the size of the animal's cages - that kind of stuff needs to be taken up with the owner or corporate or somebody waaaay more important. I can't do anything about it and it just makes me feel like I'm a big lump of crap. Go to the top of the food chain.
10) Don't try to return things you bought at other stores. We're actually aware of what products we sell, and what we don't.
11) Don't call the store to get prices on a million items. Come in and shop like normal people. No pet store has a staff just to go around and check prices for people who call. Usually it's the cashier, who usually has a line of people to ring up.
12) Don't assume you know more than the salesperson. I agree, pet store people are notoriously stupid. However, I have not met anybody who has known more about birds than I, except my professors at college, of course. I had to lecture somebody the other day who started to complain about the size of a bird's cage - even though it's bigger than the minimum size AND she gets out ALL the time! Also, I would say I am an expert on fish, turtles, and dogs. So if you're coming to me with a cat question, you've got me. But don't just assume that pet store people don't know what they're talking about.
13) Don't infer that I am lucky to have the job I have. I am terribly overqualified for my current position, and every single time I walk in the front door it is a reminder of how horrible it is to work in this economy with a house payment, car payment, bills, and some fuzzy dependents. And you trying to make me feel like I'm lucky really makes me want to chop my head off.
14) Don't ask to see the manager just to hand her an application. She hates that, it wastes her time. I hate that, it brings her close to my register so she can find something to complain about. Plus, my hands work perfectly well at grabbing and filing an application.
15) Don't ask for the manager if you have a pet question. Ask for whoever is an expert in that area. I don't know how many managers our company has that don't even OWN pets. It's a lot though. We've got one at our store, one at a nearby store..

Ok, I am really tired now. So I'll stop. I'm sure I've got a lot more though. Can you tell I really hate customer service? That's gotta be some of the hardest money ever earned. Well, have a nice night all!

Greenies are not evil.

Wow, a post with nothing in it about the store! :)

So, I'm sure a lot of the dog lovers have heard about the recent Greenies accusations. That said, let me tell you all this. I have worked in pet retail for years. Every time they have a slow newsday, they run that story. It's true. And for the next few weeks, we get a lot of Greenies returned, and after a few months, Greenies sales go back to normal. Every time I tell a customer that this story gets run a lot, they look at me like I'm stupid. WHO WOULD KNOW? You, or the person who sells them? I get absolutely nothing out of selling you Greenies, why would I make something like that up? They also run the story about dogs that need adopted, about puppy mills, and about "designer" (in other words, mutts) dogs. They rotate them pretty regularly, but you hear all four stories in a year, every year.

Now, back to Greenies. I feed my dogs Greenies. I am not stupid, uneducated, or foolhardy. In fact, I find that most of the people that refuse to feed Greenies after watching the news have not researched it farther than that. Let me be the first to tell you that there is no such thing as an unbiased media source. I don't watch the news if I can help it - they make everything out to be ten times worse or ten times better than it actually is. It drives me nuts. They can take something like a person tripping over a tree root into this long, horrible story. So, number one, don't trust the news. You have to sift through many, MANY different sources, from both sides, to find out what you think. That means you've gotta use your noggin. You may not arrive at the same conclusion I did, but well, this is my blog and only my opinion is going to be represented. So nyah.

Again, keep in mind that I have a degree in Zoology, and years of experience in pet retail, dog kennels, dog training, and at a vet's office.

Greenies are not evil. Greenies help prevent tooth and gum diseases that could otherwise cause your dog illnesses and even death. According to the Greenies people, the recent case is the first one they've been contacted about. So if there are all these problems with Greenies, why are they just getting official complaints NOW? I'm not saying Greenies are perfect. If anything, we've learned there is no perfect dog treat. Greenies are not 100% digestible. Duh. Nothing is. If it were 100% digestible, then your dog wouldn't poop. And dog food companies would make food like that. Can you imagine how great it would be for a dog not to poop because it has absorbed everything in its food?? Yeah, it's not going to happen people.

If your dog swallows a big chunk of anything, you're going to have problems. That's why you've got to supervise your dog when you give it treats and chews. They're like little kids, always getting into trouble! Case in point? My sheepdog, Roofus, at about four months, got a lamb bone (from the pet store, $1.29) for a chew. The next day, he had an intestinal blockage. $620 later, he was ok, but sheesh. Did I sue the bone people? Did I rant and rave about unsafe bones? No. My other dogs did, and continue to, do fine with those bones. Now I know not to give Roofus any of that kind. He does well on Greenies, which he only gets occasionally as they are really expensive and have a very high protein level.

Nothing is safe, watch your dog.

Yes, I've seen the photos of dogs getting Greenies removed surgically. I've also seen the photos of dogs getting pieces of the sofa removed, keys, pennies, remote controls, carpeting, etc removed. SUPERVISE YOUR DOG. If he can't chew that stuff, don't give it to him or give him the Lil Bits they've got. If he likes to chew your sofa while you're away, lock him in a crate until you get home or restrict him with a baby gate. Pet owners are not helpless, you need to use common sense and do what's best for your pet without bashing everybody around you.

The whole Greenies thing actually reminds me very strongly of McDonald's and the coffee thing - the person suing them because the coffee was too hot and they got burned (loser). Yeah, coffee is hot. Now McD's has signs up all over saying how hot the coffee is. Trouble is, Greenies has always put "Supervise your pet while chewing" on every single bag of greenies. I guess you could beat people over the head with a jumbo greenie, but I somehow think they still won't get the point.

I'm just tired of people harassing me about Greenies when they don't know what they're talking about. After the tenth customer of the day it gets pretty old. I'm sorry you don't like Greenies, I really doubt I'll change your mind. But it doesn't make me stupid or uninformed, quite the opposite. Some people at the pet store actually DO know what's going on. Too bad the customers don't.

New Dog Scuba Diving Designs

I have recently started making dog scuba designs. Of COURSE I started with corgi... don't ask why. There's just something about those nubby little legs!! I love to scuba dive and I didn't see any reason why doggies shouldn't be able to do it too - on shirts, of course! So far I have the dalmatian and the corgi. Hopefully I'll get a beagle and sheepdog up soon, perhaps the border collie. How do I decide which breeds to do? Well, I usually start with the breeds I own, and then if one catches my fancy or if I sell a lot of a particular breed, I'll do that one next. These are some cute designs, I've got powder blue tangs (Dory from Finding Nemo), a boxfish, a red crab, some great looking coral... Check em out at http://www.cafepress.com/menageriemayhem/1236846

I also added a few new doggie tees! A "Property of Obedience School" shirt, "Obedience School Dropout," and "It's my party and i'll bark if i want to!" t-shirt. I'm always looking for cute or catchy sayings for these shirts so keep checking back for more. :)

St. Patrick's Day Design!!

Nobody gets sicker of St Paddy's Day than I do. Suddenly everybody's Irish, and it's beer, beer, beer. So, I decided to make a St. Patrick's Day design that actually FEATURED something irish - an irish wolfhound! I personally love these guys, because they are big and hairy with their outta control hair! My new design shows him inside a circle, holding a beer mug, and around the outside it reads "Famous Seamus Lager." I want to feature this product on more irish breeds, but right now I am concentrating on the bird section. The Mid American Exotic Bird Society (http://www.maebs.com) has their big Columbus bird expo in two days!! I'm donating a few of my "Be" line t-shirts, so I am trying to get as much done as possible before the show. I'll be at the expo, cya there!

Dog breed silhouettes

I've been working on a lot of dog breed silhouette merchandise for the past few days. These products are only found in the "by breed" sections, and I'm doing them in no particular order. So far I have about twenty four breeds done, including the yorkie, porcelaine, harrier, borzoi, otterhound, and many others. The products these designs are currently available on are the white t-shirt and bumper sticker. Right now the design is an "i", then a heart, and then the dog breed silhouette.

Here's a humorous story for you about my real life pet store job -
It's been VERY cold at work... we come in each morning, and it's 64 degrees. Obviously, we're cold. The animals are cold. Finally corporate decided to do something about it, and sent an HVAC guy. The guy pokes around, and we find something very interesting... we don't have a gas meter! We haven't had one probably since we've opened; our gas bill is always the minimum. So that's why it is so cold - we live on solar energy and from the store next door. I really have to wonder why nobody at corporate wondered about these $12 gas bills in the middle of January. At the same time, I wonder if someone DID notice, and decided since we weren't actively complaining, to just ignore it. I bet on the latter.

Another story...
Took the boys to the park today. It's a park that has offleash hours for your dogs. I was walking along to the back where the rest of the dog owners were (they meet in a different section of the park each day to avoid disturbing other activities), when this dad playing t-ball with about a dozen kids over to the side started yelling at me to "leash those dogs!!" I had several good responses that I yelled back, including "why don't you leash your kids?" Unfortunately, Roofus chose that moment to run over and poop by them. Sigh. So I march over to clean it up. Unfortunately, the boys all ran over with me, and of course, puppies and kids, well, the dogs were overrunning the kids so I just turned away and the dogs followed me. I never did get to clean up the dog poo. Oh well. I tried. I still don't know why you would go to the park during offleash hours and yell for people to leash their dogs. That's kind of... stupid.