one of my favorite local places to go lately, the finn river cidery in chimacum is a little bit of a drive over the hood canal bridge and through farm country, but so worth it.
on certain days/evenings they have a somewhat-changing list of food vendors on site to complement their array of ciders. it’s such a beautiful experience to be able to sip your cider while wandering around their gorgeous property.
07.13.19// so we’re terrible dog-parents and forgot it was tavi’s bday until almost dinner time. we shared some pieces of steak with her as a special treat - and she stole part of a swedish cardamom bun from the counter (understandable - she was probably pissed about the sixteen candles situation) so in the end bday girl did get some special bday eats.
on sunday i took her to the dog park and for a walk in fort ward - her two favorite places. the weather was warm (a balmy 70 degrees - most people would call it gorgeous) so i brought a backpack full of treats and extra water. tavi is the only dog i’ve ever owned that seems to get anxiety over not having access to water, something we discovered within the first few nights of bringing her home. she was just this tiny leettle puppy and every night at bedtime we would take her outside to tee and put her in bed where she would promptly start having a fit. we realized she was upset that we had her up on the bed and she had no way to get down in the middle of the night to drink from her water bowl. usually i’m not a fan of letting a puppy drink in the middle of the night lest they throw themselves a piddle party, but it really seemed to bother her so we relented. nothing’s changed today - we have a second bowl that we keep filled for her at night, and she gets particularly thirsty if the weather is anything but cold.
//tavi-isms i don’t want to forget:
she’s a total klepto. i can’t let her near the laundry basket (she steals clothes), laundry piles (she steals socks and swallows them), the dryer (she’s obsessed with grabbing the wool dryer balls.) the bathroom or kitchen counters (she’ll steal anything available.) the dining room table (she steals and shreds the fake eucalyptus cuttings from my centerpiece.) she also loves to hide under our bed with newly stolen items…when we climb under after her to grab whatever it is back she’ll hide it under her tongue, or drop it on the floor and scoot her belly over it to hide it. and then acts like she has nothing. this dog is smarter than most children.
except for the fact that she can’t tell the difference between lemons and tennis balls. she gets all psyched when i bring home a bag from the grocery store. occasionally she gets one off the counter (see above.)
speaking of coming home from the grocery store, she’s become accustomed to receiving new toys regularly. whenever i come home from target she checks my bags to see if there’s anything for her. and speaking of the counters allow me to reiterate - she can reach everything up there.
she goes “shopping” - we take her to the pet store and she’ll walk down the aisles and pick out the toys she wants to take home. it’s about the cutest thing ever.
she thinks ceiling fans are sketchy, and all things considered she may have a point. ditto for vacuum cleaners, and anything that looks part-human, part-machine (motorcyclists, bicyclists, people riding scooters, etc.)
she loves starbucks and is completely affronted if i don’t get her a puppacino. she’s also put together that if the baristas physically SEE her, the chances of them offering one up increases so she goes ape in the back seat whenever we get to the window in an attempt to grab their attention.
she has also decided she deserves nothing less than whipped cream. when we go to another coffee stand and they hand over a standard milkbone as a treat she goes ape until i hand it to her. then she promptly spits it out. if the baristas are paying attention i reach for the treat and play it off like she just dropped it by mistake. but make no mistake, it wasn’t a mistake. she thinks milkbones are crap and we go through this every time. i’m sure those baristas think i have the dumbest dog.
on the note of treats - she’ll perform commands for treats. sit, down, stay, etc. but if i don’t have a treat? forget it. people think she isn’t trained but that’s not true - she knows what i want, but just does what she wants. being trained and being obedient are two different things.
she has eleventy-billion nicknames. octavia. octavia rebecca. tavi. t-roo. t-bear. t-payne. t-money. t-wrecks [the house]. rumblebee. rumblebee tuna. puddleface pup.
she’s the friendliest. she loves to say hi to people, and usually other dogs too. she approaches everyone as though she’s never met a stranger. but she also thinks we bring her to the dog park to meet people (not dogs.) allow me to amend that, she thinks she IS people. full stop.
her little face wrinkles get dry/itchy and she comes up to us and rubs her face all over us (usually smutsching our clothes in the process) when she wants us to scritch her face. we try to apply balm to her face to help, but she’s not a fan. she would rather just have the face rubs.
she drinks from faucets and the hose, which i like when we’re out in public as we can kind of minimize her drinking from a communal bowl. but it’s impossible to use the hose without her jumping in front of it at home. then she gets water all up in her snoot and all over herself so she dives down onto the grass and rolls around trying to dry off, snotting and sneezing all over the place.
she is plain terrified of having her feet touched, and subsequently - her nails clipped. it takes two of us to hold her down and she does this super intense breathing like we’re about to cut her feet off. or like she’s out of water.
despite loving the cold and snow, she won’t lay on the leather couch without a cushion of pillows or at the very least - a blanket. apparently cool leather on the tum tum is a no no.
when she was a tiny pup she stole a tea bag out of my mug i’d just made and swallowed it whole. (see above re: klepto.) i grabbed her and rushed to the emergency vet, picking up j on the way who had gone out for a run. j was so mad at me and was chastising me in the appointment room while we waited, for letting her get into something that could harm her. meanwhile i was attempting to defend myself saying i had eyes on her the whole time, and i had no idea she would lunge for the tea bag - she was just so fast. he was livid with me until the vet tech came in to inform us they were still emptying her stomach in the back, but that she’d eaten way more than a tea bag. apparently tavi had grabbed a sock and also swallowed that whole on j’s watch (something he didn’t even see - also see above re: klepto, re re: socks.) he softened on his position real quick. so we know who the better pet-parent is, and now i think about that every time i make tea. and that’s also how we learned we had to watch the socks because apparently those are her favorite.
as with previous boxers she has a soft spot for ice cream. she gets extra-attentive when i’m getting to the bottom of my bowl.
she is such a snugglebear - she sleeps curled up with me every night, and she wants to do everything with us, and be all the places we are. we love this little water-chugging, mischief-making, cheesin faced lovebug to the moon and back.
proof we were in trouble from day one. i mean just look at her wittle face.
