Costume Contest! October 6, 2012

Puppies. Puppies Everywhere!

The weather is specially different in Texas today as it is a high of 54 degrees sandwiched by days in the 70’s and 80’s. Even more special is the great event here in Fort Worth known as Bark-tober Fest where they hold their annual Howl-oween Costume Contest for mans best friends.

My lovely and I took Miko in her cute ladybug costume that I bought for fun last Halloween. For those wondering Miko is about a year and a half years old and a spit-fire ball of energy. This event would be one of the greatest she would experience so far and hopefully expend some of that energy she has!

The park, which is about a half acre big, was swimming with dogs and their humans. One side is normally dedicated to the larger dogs while the other would occupy the smaller breeds of dogs. The entire side where the larger dogs play was comfortably packed and to add to the fun there were booths of all sorts lined up with all sorts of fun goodies for our furry counterparts and a few bounce houses for the kids to play in.

We arrived earlier than the costume contest was to start so we took our little girl to the small side and had her run around before the event started. Yipping and yelping she excitedly joins the other dogs making several friends and annoying a few others (haha).

Now, Miko LOVES (loves doesn’t even describe it enough) water! But today she almost died from it as well. Whenever we go to the park she goes straight for the community water bowls, buckets and tubs for all the dogs and rapidly drinks water and bathes herself in the buckets or tubs. Here is a video to one of her typical escapades. 

So, obviously we always carry a spare towel in the car for these moments of triumph :)

Today though, she goes up to one of the buckets, full of water this time (usually they are half empty), and dives right in. We think it will fall over soon, like always, or she will get herself out, but in a quick turn of events she starts struggling to find her way out as her front end is deep in the bucket and her back end is flailing about. We are close by and jump to her rescue. Our hearts pounding we grab our towel and have her put up on the table.

She is just fine! In fact I don’t think she even realized she was in a very dangerous situation!*

*Dogs are amazing in this way, they are constantly living in the moment. To me, I believe humans have a certain delay in response time, but for dogs its literally boom-boom-boom, they are 20 moments ahead of you already.

She is just wagging her tail, excited to be toweled dry and ready to join the other dogs in the chilly weather once again. I was so relieved as it was one of those times where I felt like one moment everything is okay and the next you can immediately see the helplessness. I was just glad we acted fast and Miko is safe!

Everyone was worried and watching, but once they saw her big smile and how quickly she recovered they all laughed and started exclaiming how energetic and happy she is.

Life can take you by surprise as today has, but luckily it ended well for us all.

After moving around for a while and visiting with all the cutie-pies that pranced over to lick our hands it was time for the costume contest! The contest went so well that only pictures can describe its greatness, enjoy!

Here are the finalists of the contest:

Third Place went to……

SLASH!

Second place went to…..

The Mariachi Band!

And finally. What we have all been waiting for. First place went tooo……

OSCAR THE GROUCH! :D

We met so many great people and so many beautiful and diverse pups today. I will say that this event was an extraordinary highlight of the season and I hope you enjoyed it too!

Manifest? …Check. September 26, 2012

So. There is talk and then there is action. Talk is ever-present in this day and age, but action is for those with the courage and guts to get real results.

As you may or may not know, one of my many goals has been to receive dual citizenship with Italy per jure sanguinis. Jur sanguinis is a way to obtain an Italian citizenship if you can prove you have blood lineage from an Italian citizen. I am hoping to qualify through my maternal Great-Grandfather who was born and raised in Italy.

The other day, already having the necessary resources (the internet of course haha), I set my mind to accomplishing the next step. Turns out, first I needed to verify when my Great-Grandfather became naturalized in the US and the cheepest way to do that was to send a request form directly with the USCIS for only $20. Unlike other websites where they are graciously willing to take a check for $200+ for the same info.

Though the start was short, I was very relieved to put my first foot forward. Now I am waiting for the result before I can actually start running with it.

Have you ever gone through the passport process? For your current country of residence or even from a foreign country? I would like to hear your experience, whatever or wherever it may have been :)

Personally, I have had to go through 2 passports here in the US because I lost my first one :( First time I needed a passport was when I went to Germany with my best friend at the time. The second was for a trip to Guam with my boyfriend since him and his family are from there. I haven’t lost that one yet! Yay for me!

Another project of mine that I have been working on for the last few weeks is officially completed. I am going through my pics to make a tutorial out of later. I think that would be especially neat to share with you :) Muahaha! Now you have to come back to check out my blog later ;)

Have a bright and brilliant day… or night!