Harry Hors D'oeuvres: Birthday Pupcakes

As promised, Harry's cupcakes, or should I say "pupcakes", were served on his actual birthday February 18th.  These treats bring such joy to Harry's eyes it's ridiculous.  Anytime I get one out he sits, he lays down, goes back to sit, lays down again, as if he's attempting to do any command I might ask of him in the fastest way possibly so as to speed the process of cupcakes to mouth.  Unfortunately this hasn't brought about new tricks that I wish Harry could do...like talking, giving me his paw, or folding my laundry.

I got the recipe for the cake here and modified it so I could make cupcakes instead.  Making them cupcake sized allowed me to keep these treats around for the whole week instead of Harry binge-ing on an entire cake in one sitting.  So here we go...

For the pupcakes, you will need 1 cup of flour (wheat or white), 1 tsp baking soda, 1 egg, 1/4 cup peanut butter, 1 cup shredded or grated carrots, 1 tsp vanilla, 1/3 cup honey, and I used lowfat cottage cheese as frosting.  You'll want to start by preheating your oven to 350 degrees.

Dog recipes are so easy peasy, you just put all the ingredients in one big bowl and mix them together.  Oh and by the way, I grated my carrots by chopping them up first and throwing them into my Ninja blender.  It saved a lot of time, but if you don't have a blender or food processor, I suppose you could use a cheese grater!

Once mixed, line a cupcake tray with liners.  You don't need to spray anything - the vegetable oil in the cake prevents the papers from sticking.  I found that I could get about 10 cupcakes out of my mix.

Fill your cupcake liners about 2/3 of the way with cake batter.  These do rise, but not as much as you'd expect a box cake mix to rise.  Put in the oven and bake for about 30-40 minutes.  Mine were done in 35.

While the pupcakes cooled, Harry helped me clean up by licking the bowl.  He wouldn't do it in front of me even though I said it was ok.  It was only when I walked away that Harry was brave enough to indulge in cake batter.

The coast is clear!

I topped Harry's birthday cupcake with the lowfat cottage cheese pictured earlier.  Although it sounds really gross to me, he found it tantalizing.  With a few blobs of purple human frosting and the touch of a birthday candle, Harry's pupcake was complete!

We indulged Harry with the birthday song which he thoroughly enjoyed.  His face was mesmerized by the presentation of fancy treat accompanied by fire and song.  The birthday tradition probably looks insane to first-timers, but it didn't go unappreciated.



With my help, Harry blew out his candle and dug into his deserved pupcake.  Tentative at first, Harry began by licking the frosting off his cake first.  Then full on cake swallowing ensued.  He literally barely chewed, and the remaining two cupcakes he ate that night had to be broken up first because we were afraid he'd choke.  Yea...I let Harry have three cupcakes on his birthday.

All in all it turned out to be a pretty good first birthday for Harry.  And if you're wondering what the cakes tasted like, they were almost a peanut butter flavored carrot cake.  Pretty good for dog standards I'd say.  Harry has been having a cupcake for breakfast every day this week before we leave for work.  I'm pretty sure he's not going to want to stop celebrating.

Nom NOM nom Nom

Happy Birthday Harry!

Today, on February 18th, Harry turns one year old.  Now, we're not 100% sure when Harry's actual birth date is, but given that he arrived at his shelter on May 18th and was an estimated 3 months old then, we figured that his birthday was three months prior on February 18th.  This means that Harry is an Aquarius....which is actually quite shocking considering he hates water. 

We had Harry's birthday party on the 17th at his favorite place, the Schuylkill Banks dog park.  Harry didn't care that it was 26 degrees out, and proudly let Mom (me) put on his birthday flair.

Following a birthday photo shoot and several birthday kisses, we headed to the park.  Harry has never squealed so much on a car ride - not out of nervousness, but out of excitement.  Within seconds of coming within inches of another fur-beast, Harry's "Birthday Boy" pin was long gone, but Harry didn't mind.  He set about his manic sprinting calling attention to the fact that this was his party, and he came to rock it.

The party was packed, averaging about 20 pooches.  Dogs big and small wished Harry a happy birthday and engaged him in some sprints, wrestling, and games of tag.

Things got a little PG-13 and out of Harry's age range when a few of the older dogs started humping each other.  Harry attempted some air humping but luckily his Dad and I pulled him out of the crowd before he embarrassed himself. 

Like most dog parties, Harry's birthday party had to come to an end.  After over an hour of running, panting, and air humping, Harry was ready to say goodbye to all of his friends.  With all of the 'happy birthdays' he received from friends and strangers, Harry certainly felt acknowledged and loved.  Cake is being done tonight - we'll have a recap and recipe later - so you'll have to stay tuned for Harry to blow out his candle! 

Although we haven't had Harry for a full year yet, it still meant a lot to celebrate his first year of life.  Having Harry for as long as we have - about 8-9 months - has changed our lives.  I never feel lonely, somebody is always there to cheer me up, I have a running buddy 24/7, and I couldn't ask for a better snuggler.  Here's to another year Harry!



Harry Hors D'oeuvres: Lovebugs

With busy season in full swing for the boo and me starting a new job, things have been pretty crazy at our house.  It's apparent that Harry's feeling a bit ignored, and with Valentine's Day being tomorrow, I had to do something to show him that I still cared.  What I really wanted to do was take Harry with me to the Puppy Love Valentine's Day Party at the 23rd Street Armory.  Proceeds benefited the PSPCA, and at only $40 a ticket you could bring your pooch, have some drinks, eat great food, and socialize with other pups.  They even had a photo booth!  Alas, I worked a little late and didn't have a human date to go with me.  So I decided to bake Harry treats instead!

I got the recipe for what I'm deeming "Lovebugs" at AllRecipes.com.  You'll need 2 and 1/2 cups of whole wheat flour (always can sub regular), 1/2 cup pureed (canned) pumpkin, 1 tsp cinnamon, 1 teaspoon salt, 2 eggs, and 2 tablespoons of peanut butter.  First step, as always is to preheat the oven.  In this case you'll need to go to 350.

This recipe couldn't be simpler.  You just combine all ingredients at once and mix them together.

The result should be pretty dry, but if you need a little bit more moisture to shape your dough, add a teaspoon of water at a time.  A little goes a long way.

I decided to make little Mama Lucia meatball sized "bugs" for Harry, but you can always roll the dough out to 1/2 an inch thick and cut into shapes.  Since I don't have a heart shaped cookie cutter on hand, I took the path of bugs.  After all, if anything Harry is the world's biggest love bug.  Spread out whatever you decide to shape your treats into on a greased pan about an inch apart.

Bake your lovebugs for approximately 40 minutes at 350.  You might need to vary the time depending on your oven, but the result you want is a hard little bug.

Harry observed the entire process seriously and helped me clean off my hands after handling the dough.  He even helped me clean the dishes afterwards as I loaded the dishwasher, which I believe was his Valentine's present to me.  The treats were actually quite tasty...I had a few...yea.  I'm the mom who eats her kid's cookies.  But given that they weren't liver or chicken flavored, it was a safe risk. 

Having Harry means I'll never be lonely on Valentine's Day.  It's one of the many good reasons to adopt a pup - so if you're thinking about it, there are plenty of adoptables that need homes! 

Puppy Bowl IX

I may not be a football fan, but I'm certainly a puppy fan.  This past Sunday was spent visiting family and getting our Puppy Bowl IX on. Harry and I were especially psyched about the puppy line up. Augusta, a plott hound mix, was expected to make an appearance plus Cash, a pit mix, was representing Philadelphia.  Harry and I spotted these pooches using Animal Planet's website, where we also got to see the players before game time in the locker room!

Day of, Harry settled in with a bone and kept an eye on the screen. In the first quarter, two daschund Bassett hound mixes names Harry and Sally made the first plays of the game. Sally scored the first touchdown of puppy bowl nine only a few minutes in!  Harry had a bit of a crush since Sally's teammate was also named Harry...so much in common.

The game slowed down after a few serious plays, but Harry and I stayed entertained by Meep the Bird who was live tweeting and by watching the hedgehog cheerleaders. Puppy bowl did a great job of seamlessly incorporating their sponsors right before the Bissel Kitty Halftime Show. Speaking of sponsors, our favorite puppy bowl commercial has to be the Subaru dog commercial.  We were thrilled by the addition of the cool down tub, enhanced with underwater vision, but not so thrilled with the random screaming by the hicks in Animal Planet's hit shows.  It was too rehearsed.

Our only let down was that throughout all the subs and all the quarter starts, we never saw Augusta!  She was in the very beginning of the bowl when the pups were loading up in a Subaru to get to the game, but she must have sat bench.  Marta won the MVP, Most Valuable Puppy, award for her fierce speed and inexhaustible energy.  Harry would've given her a run for her money. 

Not only is the bowl a huge opportunity for shelters to get their pups on TV and adopted, it's also immensely entertaining...and worth DVR-ing without deleting.  We've already watched it twice.  Although Marta won the 2013 award, Harry will always be my MVP...dawwww.

DIY Tutorial: Crate-Tag

In an effort to de-clutter and organize myself in the resolutionary month of January, I attacked my craft cabinet over the weekend.  Wouldn't you know that a little doo-dad piece of wood that I bought all the way back in the summer was hiding in there?  I intentionally bought the little wood-slab dink thingamajigger back in August to make Harry a name tag for his crate.  Other projects took over and it was forgotten, so I immediately utilized my discovery for its intended purpose!

I gathered my materials for my project haphazardly.  You'll need that little wooden slab, which was in the basic wood crafts aisle of AC Moore for about 50 cents.  Also, some wood stain, a brush or sponge to apply said stain, paint to write your fur-friend's name, and if you want to attach your sign like I did you'll need a tiny drill bit to make holes in your sign.  The drill bit cost me about $5 at the local hardware store, but you might get it cheaper at Lowes or Home Depot.  Not pictured are a rag for wiping stain, a drill (duh), and a working surface (newspaper, cardboard, something to protect your surfaces). 

First, you'll need to drill little holes in the corner of your sign.  Attach the drill bit to your drill and line up the holes you want to drill evenly on both sides.  Be careful not to choose a spot too close to the edge that might snap your wood.  Drill and apply pressure until you go all the way through.

Place your wood (bahaha) on a protected working surface and paint wood stain on with a brush.  Follow your stain instructions, but for mine I let it sit for a few minutes. 

Use a rag to wipe the excess stain from the wood.  I've been using one of the boo's unmatched socks for my recent staining projects.  Make sure to dispose of your soiled rags appropriately...apparently stain soaked rags are extremely flammable. 

After the stain is dry, proceed to paint your fur-baby's name.  I used puffy paint.  In hindsight, I probably could have gotten a really nice rustic effect making Harry's sign authentic and shabby chic by using a brush and stencil.  But I have been extremely impatient as of late, and I didn't want to spend time cutting a stencil out with an exacto knife.  Sorry Harry.  You got puffy paint.

Once dry, secure the sign outside of the crate using twist ties or wire.  I used some leftover wire from making these bird nest necklaces for X-mas.  Following this step, convince your baby to crawl into the crate and pose for pictures.  Maybe do this by baiting with a tennis ball, promising loads of treats, and repetitively saying "dinner?". 

So far, the sign has resisted chewing, so I think Harry likes it.  What Harry doesn't like is spending more than 8 hours of sleep over night in his crate.  Notice on the right in the above picture?  That was once a Nylabone that Harry has chiseled into what I call his prison shank.  I speculate that one night he's going to stab one of the guards (aka me or the boo) with his nyla-shank and break out of his crate. 

 

Snow in the Country

This past weekend Harry joined my family and I for a trip up to our family's wooded hideaway, Kimrie Pines.  Nestled in the country, two and a half hours up north, it was a decent road trip for Harry.  For two and a half hours I held him through his nausea, anxiety, sporadic farts, and loads of involuntary drooling.  Once we arrived, there was white stuff on the ground that Harry wasn't familiar with.  After some thoughtful sniffing and his fur-cousin showing him the ropes, Harry discovered that the white stuff is super fun.

After hours of playing in the snow with his fur-cousin Jager (a handsomely humongous German Shepherd), the two slowed down for some snow investigation.  Harry wasn't giving snow much thought besides running in it, but Jager the snow-pig liked to roll in it, eat it, and bury his face in it.  Not a big fan of getting entirely wet, Harry settled for tasting snow, and eventually showed off by catching snowballs in his mouth.

Harry learned about sledding from his human-cousin and about making snowmen from his human-Aunt.  He also had his first snow hike when he followed me off into the woods for a walk.  Not on our property, but on others nearby, hunting is legal.  There were several instances of the echo of a shotgun which put Harry's danger sensors on alert.  It was like watching Bambi's mom when they got too close to the "meadow".  Of course we were perfectly safe, but watching Harry's pointing instincts, holding one foot off the ground was entertaining.  Surprisingly, and to my delight, Harry stuck by me without his leash on.  Part of me was expecting him to run wild but he stayed close, inspected a few yards ahead of me, and then came back or waited for me to catch up. 

Playing for hours in the snow didn't tire Harry out completely.  He still spent plenty of time afterwards playing hide and seek with his human cousin, pretending to be the evil frog guard of the frog princess castles (my niece's intense story lines), and getting on the nerves of Jager.  Our drive home was much calmer since Harry couldn't keep himself awake to get nauseous.  He did however, blast a toot every time my Dad hit the brakes or pulled a sharp turn probably out of anxiety.  This made for a chilly ride home as the windows rolled down every ten minutes to clear the air of Harry's rancid nerve farts.  Our visit tired Harry out for about a day and half, as he spent the majority of Sunday sleeping in his now flattened out destroyed bed and the couch.  Since there's been a forecast of snow later this week, we might be able to have a chance to play in the white stuff without the road trip of gas and drool!

Doggy-Deals: Fab.com's Pet Thursdays

Did you know that 81% of pet owners consider their fur-babies members of the family?  And 58% call themselves Mommy & Daddy?  And that 77% buy their fur-babies birthday gifts?  Well according to a Kelton research study posted in USA Today I am guilty on all accounts.  When my co-workers talk about their human babies getting sick, I relate by telling them about Harry's latest crazy colored poo.  Maybe I'm a whack-a-doo, but I see no harm in treating my Harry dog like a child.  I'm not pushing him around in a stroller like the lady down the block does with her pint size Shitzu, but I am being a good Mom. 

That said, I find it extremely hard to not buy every single thing that comes in my inbox on Fab.com's "Pet Thursdays".  I guess it's because I'm just such a good Mom, heh.  Often times I use their advertisements as inspiration to make something similar for Harry, but there are some things that even I can't craft or come up with.  For example...

Yes, there is wine for dogs.  I've seen beer for dogs, and ice cream for dogs, but this is the first wine I've come across.  Direct from Yappy Hour Vineyards, (doesn't that make you giggle?) Char-dog-nay is an alcoholic free wine that you pour over your pooch's dry food for a fancy treat.  Other varieties include Grrrrr-lot, Pinot Tailio, and Bark-deaux.  The ingredients aren't real wine based - because as all dog owners should know grapes are fatal to pups.  Instead they're composed of chicken bouillon, garlic powder, and water.  I really just want a bottle of this to display in my wine rack and get laughs.  I'm already picturing my waitress-days' wine presentation to Harry over his bowl.

Every harness, leash, and leader I come across claims to be "pull-free".  I doubt such a miraculous tool really exists, but the Bungee Puppy Leash above claims to relieve you from dislocated shoulders by adding an elasticity between you and beast that still makes him feel tugged back while providing shock absorption for your non-elastic arms.  The leashes come in sizes small, medium, and large based on your dog's weight.  The heavier your dog, the more bungee strength necessary.  As an alternative to choke collars and those freedom leashes that let your dog zoom off with the click of a button, I think this might do the trick with Harry.  Alas, I bought that abdominal electric shocking tool when it came out, so perhaps I can be sold on any idea.

Extemely cute, but not terribly affordable, The Life of Ryley offers fashionable accessories for both humans and their dogs.  I'm a sucker for their cross stitch variety, but the Rugby Collar above on sale at fab.com for $26 hurts the wallet a little less than the original prices of $34 on their website.  Because I like to change Harry's collars out seasonally, I doubt I'll end up investing much into Ryley's wardrobe, but I'm loving the preppy style.  The above gives you a little bang for your buck considering it's enhanced with leather.  And now I kind of really want it...

Harry shredded one of our IKEA pillows a few weeks ago, spreading feathers and what I'm assuming he thought was magical joy all over our living room.  It was shocking considering how much Harry loves fluffy things.  His couch position usually is on top of two to three pillows, snuggled up into a comforter.  And when we travel, Harry is best in the car when laying on a pile of folded towels.  The above dog pillow retails to dog-lovers and dogs alike, and it actually matches our living room quite nicely.  The retailer, BumperPet, sells handmade accessories for fur and non-fur friends out of their online store, but is featured on fab.com on sale.  This pillow goes for $27, normally $32.  Not a crazy discount but it's something.  BumperPet also makes custom pillows by breed.  Sadly, Harry only fits into the "DOG" category since he's a muttly mutt.

FYI, I'm posting all these awesome pet products because I like them, not because I'm getting paid to...although that would be a SWEET bonus.  If you know anybody who wants to give me money for blogging about their dog products, send me a line.  In the meantime, Harry and I will lust after the aforementioned.  Have a great weekend!