I normally buy my dog’s food at a local doggy boutique, but with my hectic schedule this semester, I found myself dangerously low on food and with no time to run to the store. Lucky for me, I remembered that MrChewy.com carried the Acana grain-free food I recently switched to, and I had been offered a $50 coupon code** to try out the site. “Eureka!*” I exclaimed as I put in my order late on a Monday night. On Tuesday morning, I received this email update:

By Wednesday afternoon, this package arrived on my doorstep from the FedEx guy. Rufus and Turk made sure the package was safe before I opened it…

Once they deemed it “safe,” I opened up the package and let them explore further…

After going through the whole customer experience with MrChewy.com, here are my thoughts:

PROS: Nice variety of high quality products, fast delivery, competitive pricing, and frequent email updates on the status of my order.

CONS: They were out of stock on the flavor of Acana I wanted, so I had to order a more expensive flavor.

While it did suck that they were out of stock of the Acana flavor I wanted, it really wasn’t that big of a deal to me because the more expensive flavor was still cheaper than the local doggy boutique I usually buy from. So, would I order from MrChewy.com again? Definitely! While I prefer to buy locally whenever I can, MrChewy.com came in handy when I was short on time and craving convenience. Plus, Mr. Chewy convinced a cat to work in his customer service department…and I can totally get behind that!

One more reason to give MrChewy.com a try? Well, they will make a $10 donation to rescues like Best Friends Animal Society and North Shore Animal League for every new order they get from a customer referral. Oh, and they give every customer you refer 10% off their order, too. Seems pretty cool, right? So, if you want to give MrChewy.com a try, enter in my special code: OURW7081 and receive 10% off your order and know that $10 will be made to an animal rescue, too!

* I did not actually say “eureka,” although a “huzzah” may have escaped my lips…

** I was offered a $50 coupon code to use on MrChewy.com in exchange for a blog post reviewing my experience. While I did utilize the coupon, it in no way affected how I wrote about my experience. Regardless of the perk, I wrote how I truly felt about my customer experience.

See that beautiful smile? Thanks to your generous donations, Kimba was able to receive the highest quality care at a local veterinary clinic. She stayed in an isolation unit to prevent her illness from spreading to other dogs at the clinic and received daily breathing treatments to aid in her recovery. During her week stay at the clinic, we are happy to report that she gained a full pound, which may not sound like a lot, but for her little body, it made a huge difference! Compare this photo from her original shelter profile:

To this photo from last week:

While she is clearly still in need of some serious weight gain, she already looks so much healthier!

Here is an update from her foster mom, Athena: “She is so so sweet and loves to put her head in our laps and lean against us – she even started giving us kisses! She is always excited to see us and wags her tail. Overall she is just so sweet and gentle – she just wants to be loved. I dont know how she ended up the way she did, but she is one lucky pittie, with a whole lot of people rooting for her.”

Thank you again for all of your generous donations! It truly took a village to save this pittie, and we will continue to follow her progress in her foster home and until she finds her forever family!

* Photos of Kimba courtesy of Rachel Mason Photography *

** Oh, and the name “Juno McGruff” didn’t stick – so back to Kimba it is! **

Sometimes we will find a stick to death together, like this one…

Sometimes we play hide-and-go-seek…. shhhhhh! She doesn’t know where I am!

Oh, I guess she did know…

Sometimes I just let her chase me around the yard…

And sometimes, I even let her catch me…

I’m not saying I have a crush or anything, but I wouldn’t mind if Ginger, Jr. stuck around for awhile…you know what I mean?

XOXO,
Turk

Rufus was a little bit more amenable to modeling his “Carmel” collar…

I even managed to persuade them to come outside with me for a mini photo session – although they were not nearly as cooperative as Ginger Rogers was!

We love our Sirius Republic collars – hopefully we’ll be able to order matching leashes soon! If you have been thinking about ordering a Sirius Republic collar, consider entering code RPHA27 to designate 20% of the proceeds to Heart of America Humane Society to help us save more dogs like Ginger Rogers and Ginger, Jr!

What is your favorite Sirius Republic fabric?

Turkey brought his backpack for this walk and practiced walking nicely next to me instead of dragging me along.

Ernesto proved that 4 mile walks through the woods are not just for the big dogs – he held his own among all the pooches that towered over him!

Ginger Rogers graced us with her glorious presence and, along with Echo, held it down for the elderbelles!

Echo the Elderbelle led the pack for the whole walk in her pretty pink jacket…

Julie showed off her beautiful handmade blanket and made some of the other dogs jealous!

Zeroh worked to overcome his fear of bridges…

Even though it was chilly, we had a wonderful time wandering in the wilderness, encountering deer and surveying the beautiful surroundings.

Thank you to all who attended this week’s walk – next week’s walk will be on Sunday and we are heading back to an urban setting, so keep an eye out for the event email! If you haven’t already, like KC Pittie Pack and Friends on Facebook for more updates on future walks!

* A big THANK YOU to Amy from Fido Fetch Photography for joining our walk and taking these beautiful photos of our group! We would love for you to join our walks anytime! *

** All photos featured in this post courtesy of Amy and Fido Fetch Photography **

I’ve only been living with my foster mama and daddy for a couple days, but it’s a good thing I got here when I did – their backyard is FULL OF… wait for it… STICKS!!! You may not be aware of this, but my job as a dog is to protect all humans from the evil stick monsters. This super cool girl you may know, Stevie Wonder, started the campaign against sticks on the East coast and I am just trying to carry on her legacy, Midwest style. I started my assault on the sticks post haste…

Seriously! Can you believe how many sticks they had?! How they survived this long without me boggles my mind!

But as long as I’m here, I will death sticks like it’s my job!

XOXO,
Ginger, Jr.

* If you are looking for someone to protect you from sticks, check out Ginger, Jr.’s Petfinder profile *

So, without further adieu…meet the little lady we are affectionately referring to as “Ginger, Jr” for obvious reasons.

Ginger Jr. looks so much like her namesake that I honestly could not think of a better name for her. G.Jr. was found as a stray and has been pretty stressed out living in the shelter. After hearing that Ginger Rogers’ adoption was going to be finalized, I scooped up G.Jr. from the adoption event so I could give her a chance to de-stress at our house.

G.Jr. is 1 or 2 years old and some kind of pit mix, although we are not sure exactly what she is mixed with. She appears to be potty trained and is picking up on our rules pretty quickly, but this girl has major puppy energy that we have not been around in quite some time! She has the puppy flop down cold, bunny hops all over the backyard, and is the biggest nerd I’ve ever met. Seriously.

Oh, and don’t let those piercing green eyes fool you – left to her own devices, she WILL steal your shoes, dig up your pepper plant, or systematically hoard all of your tupperware lids in her crate. Like I said, she’s a nerd.

* If Ginger Jr. seems like your kind of girl, check out her info on Petfinder *

Meet Jenny and Aaron. I met Jenny while Ginger and I were touring Brookside and she took one of my fliers after squishing Ginger’s face and declaring her “ADORABLE!” I didn’t think much of it, because, come on, who hasn’t met Ginger, promptly squished her face and called her “ADORABLE?” Everyone does that – it doesn’t mean a love connection was made, right? But the next morning, before my Arboretum hike, I was surprised when I got a call from Jenny asking if I could bring Ginger to meet her husband and their three dogs to see how everyone got along. I squealed and did a celebratory jig calmly made arrangements for our meeting. After a stellar meet-and-greet at the park, we quickly moved to the home visit, where Ginger promptly made herself at home. Before I knew it, Ginger was on a one-week trial adoption period!

Now, I’ve been down this “trial adoption” road before, so I didn’t get my hopes up when Jenny and Aaron took Ginger home the first day. Or when Aaron emailed me to tell me that Ginger had “houdini’d” her way into their cupboards for a twinkie. Or when Jenny texted me to tell me that Ginger was getting more and more relaxed every day. I also didn’t cry. Not once. Which is weird. I bawled uncontrollably for days the first time Ginger went on a trial adoption, and I bawled for almost 24 hours the second time. But this time – no tears. Weird, right? I kept telling myself that it was because I knew Ginger would probably end up back at our house, like she had before, so why waste any energy crying? Daniel, however, reminded me that there was no reason to cry when I knew that Jenny and Aaron were perfect for Ginger and bonus, lived only a mile or so from us AND sent me almost daily updates. But I just couldn’t bring myself to believe it might be true….

Then, this weekend, we finalized the adoption! My beautiful, goofy, loving elderbelle had found her forever home with Aaron & Jenny, and their pugs Kali and Princess, and corgi mix Karma. Ginger has her own sunroom to sleep in, with her very own couch.

With the introduction of Ginger came the introduction of T-R-E-A-T-S to learn the rules, so Kali, Princess and Karma don’t mind their new sister one bit!

Jenny told me that the pugs are ready to cuddle with Ginger, but she is still a bit unsure of them (of course a 60 pound pit bull would be afraid of pugs)! Karma and Ginger get daily walks together to help them bond, and Ginger spends every day upstairs on her very own dog bed with her daddy because he telecommutes! Oh, and on day one, Ginger claimed her spot on her daddy’s lap while they watch TV. Yeah, Ginger is living the good life…apparently Santa was just a little late granting her wish for a family, but boy, when he finally got around to it, he totally delivered!

Congrats, Ginger girl … I already wrote you a sappy goodbye letter so long ago when I first thought you had found your forever family, and we’ve been through so much more since then. But luckily this time, it’s not “goodbye,” it’s “see you around,” because your mom and dad are awesome and promised to let me hang out with you whenever I want – I can even take you on walks with the KC Pittie Pack from time to time. So, no tears for you, my girl – you hit the big time, and I can’t wait to see you shine!

While at The Roasterie, I dropped off a little flier with Ginger’s info on their community board, and struck up a several conversations with people about Ginger when they came over to pet her. With each person, I handed them a flier and told them to pass it along to someone they knew who was looking for a wonderful dog like Ginger. Ginger acted like the sweetheart she is, schmoozing each person who passed by, then going back to her bully stick and sitting politely.

After about an hour, we headed over to my favorite candle shop, 5B & Co. Candlemakers, to peruse their clearance Christmas stuff and to have Ginger practice sitting and waiting politely for me. Naturally, every person in the store came over to meet her, and I handed each of them a flier and asked them to pass it along to someone they knew who was looking for a great dog like Ginger…

I wasn’t sure if anything would come of our little outing, but I figured it was worth a shot to expose Ginger to people who might not see her at the weekly Petsmart adoption events. But I could not have prepared myself for what happened next…