Keep Your Pet Cool

This summer has been extra hot! Not only am I suffering from the heatwave but so is Winston when he goes outside. Luckily our house is air conditioned but as soon as that flat Pug face steps into the heat you would think he was dying. Here are some tips to keep your dog/cats cool the rest of the summer.

* Hydration is key! Always have plenty of water available for your pets. Dehydration is easy in such high temperatures and if your pet spends a lot of time outside make sure you keep a big water bowl outdoors as well as indoors.

* If you like to lounge in the outdoors and your dog likes to be right next to you, like Winston is always glued to my hip, make sure you have a shaded area for them and even a kiddie pool for them to lay in.

* Instead of walking your dog in the afternoon during the hottest part of the day, do it really early in the morning or wait until night when the sun has gone down. A good rule of thumb is if you can't handle the heat of the asphalt on your bare feet then your dog can most definitely NOT handle it on their sensitive paws.

* For your cats give them a big box to lay in. The cardboard stays cool and they also have a little play area. I always save a few boxes from Costco and let the cats have free reign of them.

* If you don't have air conditioning a simple hack is to put a tray of ice cubes in front of a box fan and let it blow on them. It mimics air conditioning and will cool down your cats or dogs. I have even taken a cold wash cloth and rubbed Winston's belly with it or used an ice cube. A good investment though is a Cooling Bandana which you can find anywhere from Petco to Walmart. Winston loves his and it instantly cools him down on extra hot days when we go to my parent's house that doesn't have air conditioning.

* In general when you go anywhere with your dog make sure you have water with you and a bowl. These are my necessities when taking Winston places.

Have a fun summer but also a responsible one!

Happy 4th of July

Winston would like to wish everyone a Happy 4th of July and remind you to keep your pets hydrated and away from fireworks. Be safe tonight and make sure your pets are safe!

Things Keeping Me Sane This Month: June 2015

I feel like a vampire right now...sequestered indoors with all the lights off. I planned on having a blog post up yesterday but I had a horrible migraine hit me around midnight (Wednesday) and was very sick and pretty much continued on that way for 12 hours. Once I started to feel somewhat human again I had no energy left and mindlessly laid on the couch binge watching Netflix. Now I have succeeded in giving myself a sinus infection from puking so much the past day. Awesome! Things could be worse though so I am just sitting here with a box of Kleenex while all three of the boys lay on the couch with me sleeping. Enough whining! I wanted to just do a simple post today and share some things with you guys that I am totally adoring right now and that are currently my favorite so far this month. I will also tell you why they are my favorite. Some are products and some are books/tv/movies. Here we go!

#1. MasterChef - This show is on it's 6th season and I have watched every single one. I love it. It's a nicer version of Chef Gordon Ramsey than Hell's Kitchen (which I also love) and I just find it fun to watch all these home cooks put into these crazy tests and situations. It's a nice way to relax for me and zone out for 45 minutes.

#2. Working Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner by Judy Melinek, M.D. and T.J. Mitchell - I read the description of this book on Goodreads and I knew I had to read it even though it sounded really morbid. It is morbid but it always instills the message of live life to the fullest and it's just such a captivating read. I don't want to give much away but it had me laughing at some parts and then cringing in others. I thoroughly enjoyed every page and definitely cried during one chapter. Books like this that are out of the normal every day reading for the average person remind me why I love to read so much. 

#3. The Weeknd - Where do I even start?! His voice...sweet baby Jesus. Perfection. I don't find him particularly attractive but his damn voice is what makes women faint. Not all women but the women who know what a sexy voice is. I better quit before my husband divorces me.

#4. CoverGirl LipSlicks Smoochies Lip Balm - It's the perfect balance between a lip balm and a lipstick. I have at least 5 of the shades and my favorite is the darker shade Text Me. I can actually pull it off without looking gothic! 

#5. Organic Dark Sweet Cherries - I eat these like candy. They are so delicious! I add them to little smoothies I make with coconut milk and pomegranate seeds...best thing ever. I think I could just live off cherries but then I would probably weigh 500 pounds because they are so sweet and sugary. Whatever, no regrets! 

Well sorry for the tiny boring post. Hopefully I will feel like a normal non-sick human in a day or two and then I will post more interesting things. What have you been enjoying this month? Let me know! 

Winston Wednesday: Apple Banana Pumpkin Oh My! Muffins

Are you ready to spoil your dog? Here is a great and easy recipe to do just that! It has been Winston approved as well. I spoiled the cats on Monday with some homemade treats so I figured today I would make Winston some special treats. I literally looked in the pantry and pulled out what seemed like a good ingredient and went with it. So I had no idea if this would work out or not but I gave my makeshift recipe a try and it worked!!! I was thrilled and so was Winston. Now I am going to make it easier for you than it was for me by adding in little tips. So here you go, my made up recipe for my made up treats, which I am calling:

Apple Banana Pumpkin Oh My! Muffins

(Makes about 12-13 muffins)

* 2 cups of oat flour

* 1 Tablespoon of baking powder

* 1/4 cup of pumpkin puree

* 1 ripe banana (smashed)

* 1/4 cup of unsweetened applesauce

* 1 Tablespoon of peanut butter

* 1 cup of water

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and get a cupcake/muffin tin ready by greasing it with non-stick cooking spray (I always use coconut oil spray). Set aside for use later.

2. In a large bowl combine pumpkin puree, banana, applesauce and peanut butter.

3. In another bowl combine the oat flour and the baking powder.

4. Slowly add dry ingredients into the wet ones mixing in a little at a time then when it gets too thick add small amounts of the 1 cup of water. Alternate adding the water and then the flour mixture until its all mixed into the one bowl together.

5. Once it is all mixed together pour it into the cupcake/muffin tins and set it in the oven on 350 degrees for 25 minutes. 

The final result. Not the prettiest things but Winston will be the judge of how they taste!

Winston's final verdict was captured on video just for you guys. Let me know what your dogs think of these if you end up making them! 

Meow Monday: Homemade Tuna Bites

Today I decided to spoil my cats just a little extra than I normally do and I was thinking of either making them a toy from scratch or some treats and I settled on treats! This recipe is really easy and I honestly had all the ingredients already in my pantry which was nice. I found the recipe on Pinterest and figured I would give it a try. Although every post on Pinterest makes everything look all beautiful and professional...I don't have the patience for that. This is the link to the original post which I changed a bit by omitting catnip and renaming because I like my name better: Design Sponge Here is my messy take on the whole thing and Charlie and Jasper's reactions which good lord Charlie would not leave me alone once the can of tuna was opened up where as Jasper was a little gentleman and kept his distance.

Homemade Tuna Bites

(makes about 3 dozen or 2 if you make them larger)

* 1 (5 oz) can of tuna, packed in water
* 1 cup of oat flour
* 1 large egg
* 1 tablespoon of olive oil

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper which you can set aside for right now.

2. In a mixing bowl or food processor combine drained tuna, oat flour, egg and olive oil.

Charlie was making it difficult to do anything.

3. Mix together well. It seems really thick and kind of dry but it is easily manipulated.

All mixed together

 4. Roll the dough into little balls and place them on the parchment paper. I then decided to just press them down to flatten them a little by using my thumb because I wanted to make sure they cooked nicely. They look huge in this picture but they are quarter size.

Charlie waiting for the first batch to go into the oven

5. Bake the treats for 10-12 minutes at the 350 degrees. 

All done! 

I then let them cool down and started another batch and once I was done I put them in this little container to keep in the fridge.

You can store them in the fridge for up to 7 days

Once they had cooled down it was time to let Charlie and Jasper test them so I brought one to Charlie who was sleeping on the couch and immediately Winston stole it! So I had Charlie come into the kitchen for better results. As for Jasper he pretended not to want it but as soon as I left him alone he gobbled it up. 

Well I hope you guys enjoyed this little post today and there will be a new one going up on Wednesday so make sure to check back! :]

20th Annual Pug Gala

What a magical day! I wish I could spend every day at a Pug Gala. It's such a fun environment with all the cute, sweet Pugs and seeing how happy they all are just melts my heart. Of course Winston was extremely excited and wanted to make friends with all the Pugs and their owners. The Gala was held indoors on the state fairgrounds and wasn't off leash like Puggerfest in Oklahoma but it was still fun and I know Winston and the other Pugs didn't mind too much. They were all so happy to be out and about seeing one another. There was a fashion show and a talent show which were adorable. I tried to take a picture of each contestant of the fashion show but there were a lot of people and I only have my iPhone so the pictures are not that great. As for the talent show the winner was an adorable Pug who "sang" and it was adorable. My phone had died at this point so I don't have any video/photo. As for the rest of it there was lots of Pug socializing and some agility training demonstrations which were fun to see. I did feel bad for the agility Pugs though because they were all nervous because of the large crowd. I got a few videos of some of the Pugs running the course. The whole Pug Gala was hosted by the Seattle Pug Rescue which is a GREAT non-profit organization. Please check out their website if you are not local and think about donating to their amazing cause. I will link to them and a few other awesome places below. Another shoutout I wanted to give was to Sculpturesoap who uses earth friendly ingredients in cool sculptured soaps like Pugs! Here is a sampling of some of their soaps:

Go to their website Sculturesoap.com to check out the entire catalog

Now please make sure to check out Seattle Pug Rescue and see how inspiring and amazing they are! Now let the pictures from the day begin :]

Winston during the ride home...he was exhausted!

I am again very sorry for the horrible picture quality but wait it gets worse! Here are now some horrible videos of Pug agility! :] First though I have one more shoutout to do which is to this company called PupCakes which makes healthy gourmet snacks for dogs and Winston loved them! They even make and sell Bake at Home mixes which I think is really cool. Here is a picture:

Go to PupCakesMuffins.com and order

Now enjoy these low quality videos! And the hilarious ball pit video which Winston did not enjoy at all. Most of the Pugs were wary of it.

Well as you can tell hopefully it was a lot of fun not just for me but for Winston too! Except for the ball pit. He wasn't a fan. Please share this blog post if you enjoyed it and leave a like or comment. Come back Monday for a new post! :]