Portland - To Aire is Divine

Portland

June24th

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Fuzzmeister

Posted in: Airedale Fun, Portland

SUMMER IS HERE – FINALLY!

I’ve almost forgotten what a day without rain is like. Almost. Not quite, tho. I am SO HAPPY that it’s not cold and rainy today!

Mama and I are reconsidering my h-aire-do at the moment. Now that it looks like the worst of our cold and rainy days may be behind us for awhile, I think a little more deforestation is in order. A little manscaping. Nothing too drastic, just enough so that I won’t feel like I’m always carrying around an extra fur coat with me everywhere I go.

Love,

Bogart

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June22nd

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What a Week it Was

Posted in: Airedale Fun, Portland

Time flies when I’m not blogging…

I’ve spent the past week still doing normal, everyday dog things, like watching this little bird’s excellent worm-catching technique (lots of worms out here in rainy Portland)…

Checking out new and exciting flowers in full bloom from all of our recent rain…

Mind the bumblebees!

And avoiding enraged crows intent on preventing me from walking past their special spots. This one was SERIOUS, not only was he squawking his feathery head off, he dive-bombed me and mama several times. His aim is flawed, thankfully.

Here he is working out the coordinates for yet another unsuccessful diving mission. Ha ha my winged friend, VICTORY IS MINE every time you miss me and one of those times you may fly a little too close to my waiting mouth and then who’s your daddy, eh?

This just made me and mama laugh. It was a mini trailer.

Still love me?

Hehehe – you silly humans are POWERLESS TO RESIST! I will not deprive the world of my fuzzy mug for such a long time again, I know your delicate hearts cannot stand it.

Love,

Bogart

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June13th

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I am not a Poodle

Posted in: Airedale Fun, Portland

But I DO love them…

Especially the girlie poodles. I am also not a doodle-anything or anything-doodle. Despite the fact that many humans have never seen anything as cute as me and most assume that I am a “something”-doodle.

With another day of sunshine promised by the weatherman, we thought we’d get in a full day of walking – so it’s off to the eastside!

On the eastside walkie, one of my favorite places is this parking lot. It has a spectacular pine tree which always produces the most excellent cones in large numbers.

I can catch a few, and relax for a moment to contemplate the rest of my walkie.

And of course I can get in a little exercise – you know, circuit training…

A little back and forth, side to side action.

Some flexibility training…

And some cardio.

Then a few moments of relaxation.

Before we head out to Laurelhurst Park!

Come on mama, you’re lagging behind!

Pond is still green, still full of ducks and geese.

And Airedales posing majestically.

We will definitely miss this park. While a little far away from where we live, it’s always worth the walkie.

And of course the folks who put out the free bucket of doggie water.

Thank you Portland for a great summer day!

Love,

Bogart

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June12th

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Sun Sun Sun Till Your Mama Takes the Stick Away…

Posted in: Airedale Fun, Portland

That large yellow ball in the sky is visible today – I’ve almost forgotten what it looks like – and we are all out and ready to explore!

This is the first day of 80 degrees since last September here in Portland. So we’re all a little summer-crazy.

Along the Eastside Esplanade, I spotted the stick of my dreams. Yes it was floating in the stinky Willamette River. Yes it would be rather impractical to carry home. BUT I WANT IT – a boy can dream.

Everything is so very green from all of the monsoon rains we’ve had lately – and today I get to enjoy it.

Just a handsome boy in the city…

Every time we come here I try to find different places to walk and new things to see. I am a very visual canine.

This little boy found a snake, and I was intrigued.

Just a garter snake, but it was pretty cool to look at. I’m sure I wouldn’t be happy if it was in my house, but in the great outdoors, and with someone else holding it, it was neato.

My normal paw soaking area was literally under water! With all of the rains we’ve had, the water levels have risen. No worries, I can still soak my hot paws.

And of course, stop to pose majestically.

The water is grungy, but it’s cool and feels good. And there are so very many sticks here!

No I don’t want to go yet! And I’m going to let everyone on the east side of the river know!

Hehehe

Notice the guy in the blue shirt in the background – he was stunned by my dulcet tones and my perfect pitch. Not to mention the amplification of my big boy bark at top volume!

The result of 15 minutes in the Willamette:

And the piece de resistance…

Love,

Bogart

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June11th

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Mama if that’s movin’ up then I’m…

Posted in: Airedale Fun, Portland

Mmmmovin’ out.

Mama has been a very, very bad blogger – yet there is a real reason this time (other than her usual laziness).

In another month or so, we will be packing up our lives here in Portland and heading east – to Philadelphia! Mama says that she just found us an apartment, and hopefully someone will want to give her a job (I’d prefer that she stay home with me all day every day and cater to my needs, wants, and desires, but hey, someone has to bring home the bacon). Mama is from the NY area and well, we’ve been pretty lonely here in Portland since Dad passed away. So it’s finally time to bring good friends and family into our lives again.

I’m helping out by packing – first the most important bits, my stick and pine cone collection.

So soon it will be off to (hopefully) greener pastures. We’re all really excited and really scared out of our minds. It’s going to be an epic road trip and a huge change for all of us. But mostly, WE’RE EXCITED

Love,

Bogart

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May30th

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Gratitude and Respect

Posted in: Airedale Fun, Holidays, Portland

Presented without commentary… Bogart and I found a field of American flags out for the Memorial Day holiday… 1000 flags for 1000 brave souls lost.

Respect.

Love,

Bogart

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May29th

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East Side Adventures

Posted in: Airedale Fun, Portland

East Side Esplanade here we come!

I like to avoid all of the bike riders by walking off of the main walkway when I can – plus it smells far more interesting down here.

Hard to see in this photo, but you will notice that it is not completely grey today – we are experiencing a “sun break” for a few hours and I cannot tell you how fantastic this is. So fantastic that mama and I decided not to wait until our normal evening walkie time to run out and walk in the sunshine. This is a photo of the waterfront village, the part of the Rose Festival that I was walking through yesterday that was deserted. More intrepid folks wandering around today.

What’s that? Some-thing or some-one is yelling at me.

It was this little bugger. He was singing and taunting me from his perch on the SE Washington sign. I thought he might try to “let loose” his frustration, so we didn’t walk directly under him.

Mama didn’t plan on us taking a dip in the dirty water, but hey, we were in the neighborhood so why not?

Splishing and a splashing means I’m gonna have to get a bath at home tonight… but who cares?

Looking handsome – ruggedly handsome.

It doesn’t matter where I am, there will always be either a stick or a cone for me. This lovely piece of driftwood needs to be mine.

Mine Mine Mine

Can you hear me, Portland? THIS STICK IS MINE

Arrrrrrrrrrooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!

I mean, I’ll carry it home (at least most of the way mama)… all of this walking has made me HUNGRY

Love,

Bogart

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May29th

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Raining on the Roses

Posted in: Airedale Fun, Portland

When ya gotta go, you gotta go…

Ah, the many days of rain have put a damper on everything around here – even I am starting to grow weary of getting soaked every time I have to pee – and the Rose Festival is no exception.

The Fun Zone is not only not fun…

It’s not educational either (you must MAINITAIN forward movement – what’s mainitain?)

All of the rides look so sad – the Tiger Express isn’t roaring, and the lumberjack bears aren’t, well, lumberjacking.

And I think the water slide doesn’t even need any added water to be slide-y.

The Fire Brigade is grounded – no one to save from fire in the rain…

And the Flying Tigers aren’t flying either.

Motorcycles don’t run really well in the rain.

We were looking for the live animal area – on the news this morning we saw that there are tigers and lions here – but I imagine because of the rain they were cuddling inside somewhere. Maybe another time…

Love,

Bogart

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May25th

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Feeling Clean + Green

Posted in: Airedale Fun, Portland, PSA

The nice folks at Clean + Green sent us a can of their carpet and upholstery cleaner, made especially for pet stains. As you can imagine, we have our share of those. Oddly, we received the can a few weeks back and there has been no VOMIT, POOP, or PEE in the meantime (well, not in any inappropriate places, that is – otherwise we’d explode).

Luckily, just as mama was about to give up, this appeared courtesy of Kafka (yes, it’s cat puke):

And he was kind enough to “produce” on the off-white carpeting that covers our place. Purrfect. So we first cleaned up the “extra” bits per the instructions, and then soaked the new stain:

After waiting for about 15 minutes, most of the stain was gone, with no scrubbing:

After another round:

The stain was almost completely gone. And mama can confirm that the smell was gone as well.

At the get-go, we weren’t expecting much. Mama has tried almost every product out there that claims to get rid of pet-related stains. We were really pleasantly surprised.

This product worked really well on fresh stains – it was a bit more challenged by older ones (yes, we have a few of those around as well). It definitely faded them (even one that wasn’t pet-related) and didn’t do any damage to the rug itself which was great. The can itself is large but empties rather quickly (after soaking the one new stain 2x and trying out 5 smaller older stains), but maybe mama soaked them more than necessary – if you have a lot of stains to remove, definitely get more than one can. I’d say that this was a really tough test for this product, as our carpet is both lightly colored and fuzzy and therefore difficult to clean (I can hear mama whining about it now), and it performed well and as advertised.

The bottom line is that Clean + Green is a definite Buy Me product, super to have around for “accidents” – especially ones that you find quickly. It’s completely safe and non-toxic for pets (a BIG plus), and I saw some at my local pet store the last time I was there. Take a look for yourself at their website, you can buy online too!

Love,

Bogart

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May23rd

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Rose-y Nose-y

Posted in: Airedale Fun, Portland

Preparations are well under-way for the Portland Rose Festival coming up next week:

It looks like it’s going to have all sorts of rides, events, and things for the humans to make themselves sick on.

I am not much for these sorts of things, they’re usually really crowded and have lots of little children screaming.

I understand the appeal of the shiny, light-up things, but not of being thrown around and around right after eating greasy carnival food.

And of course, dogs don’t like to fly (unless it’s straight up in the air after a tasty pine cone, or I hear that frisbees also can induce some canine aire-time)…

One of these days we have to walk over the Steel Bridge – it’s the coolest looking one here, but it’s never been open for walkers whenever we’ve wanted to walk across. It’s raining today, so maybe next weekend…

Your intrepid Rose Festival report – completed. More to come when it’s actually in full swing!

Love,

Bogart

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