We got back from our Chicago excursion late Monday night. What a trip! We had a great time. Brutus was soooo well behaved. I was shocked at how well he did around all the other big dogs. He really liked all the girly dogs but wasn’t too sure about Odie as he tried to share Brutie’s water and Brutie isn’t “into sharing” things like that with strangers… Silly boy – lol. I got some really cool goodies for the puppers at the EXPO. First of all I picked up 4 drool towels from The Doggy Details. She has the most awesome custom embroidered towels and ceramics. Last year I had towels made for B&R with their names on them. You can see pictures of them on her site! My favorite new one has to be the “this could be your pants” towel or maybe “got drool?” Its a toss up! Then I got a fantastic chartruse, eco-friendly, recycled leather greenbelts collar for Eris from Karma Charms. She looks so good it in. I also got two leather traffic leads from a guy that doesnt have a website but makes the most wonderful and economical leather leashes and collars out of horse grade leather. Having a traffic lead at the EXPO was a back and wrist saver for sure. And the last goodie I picked up was a FREE (can you believe it) Big Dogs Drinkwell. Science Diet gave them away as door prizes and had one left over. During tear down they gave it away and I was more than happy to give it a new home. Holy cow do the dogs love it! I can’t believe how much water that thing holds! Over 2 gallons and it actually filters out the slobber!

On a sour note – It has been one nightmare after another since I have gotten home. First I had a lovely present waiting on me when I got home in the form of a computer virus. I tried in vain for 2 days for remove/repair it and it was a TOTAL BUST! So I spent the better part of yesterday reformatting my hard drive and reinstalling everything. Then to top it off we have had horrible weather. Torrential downpours on Tuesday and Wednesday to the tune of 4″ of water flooding into the basement! It was unbelievable how much water poured in so quickly. We finally got the sump pump to pump it out and are now in the process of trying to dry things out. We did loose several electronic items.

Yesterday I did find time to bake for the dogs. I tried a new recipe which I am going to add to the canine cookbook section. The house smelled like pumpkin pie when I was baking. I didn’t take any pictures of them as well, they look just like the other cut out treats I made.

Pumpkin Oatmeal Spice Treat

• 1/2 cup canned pumpkin
• 1/2 cup water
• 2 tablespoons veg oil
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/2 cup oatmeal
• 2 cups whole wheat flour

Preheat oven to 375. Combine pumpkin, oil, water, cinnamon and nutmeg in a large bowl. Stir well and gradually add oatmeal and flour. Forms as stiff dough. Roll dough to 1/4″ thick and cut with cookie cutters. Bake on ungreased cookie sheet for 40 min. (do not make a double batch as this recipe will fill two LARGE baking sheets and when the dough sits for 40 min while the other two sheets are baking it will become very stiff and difficult to kneed)

Now to the really important part — Pictures of the EXPO

And a couple of Brutus’s buddies