snowstorm

Nik and her dogs are caught in a snowstorm, lost, but only for a little while. Soon they will run up against a wall and follow it to the front door of a cabin wherein fire and food awaits, tended by the winter wise lady who lives there with a young deer she saved from a certain death at the side of its starved and frozen mother.

kick ass

One of my favorite movies is Kick Ass, about an ordinary adolescent who wants to do good. He fabricates a costume,  broaching the safety of his bedroom (where fantasies run rife) to fight crime where he finds it.

In this film, our hero doesn't have superpowers. He can't cling to the sides of buildings or destroy his opponents with superhuman prowess. His only "super power" is his desire for justice. His own ass is kicked many times over by run of the mill thugs before he encounters his nemesis, and rises to the occasion (quite literally, because, come on, if you don't have super powers you totally need the latest in technology). Right (with technological might) prevails and the world is safer for it.

eukanuba chihuahua dog food review

Maximo, Lulu and I were asked by Dogtime.com to review the dog food Eukanuba Chihuahua. Maximo and Lulu ate enthusiastically every time I fed them Eukanuba Chihuahua, and every time they also interrupted their eating to drink quite a bit of water. The food makes them thirsty!

Enthusiasm in eating is something we all look for when feeding our animals, but this should go together with a critical reading of the ingredients. Let's look at the top three ingredients in Eukanuba Chihuahua.

The first ingredient is Chicken. The second ingredient is Chicken By-Product Meal, which could include anything from entrails to beaks. The third ingredient is Corn, which has a high glycemic index, meaning that when metabolized, it raises blood sugar levels. Used as cheap filler in foods for animals and humans, corn products are implicated in rising rates of diabetes in the United States. 

Maximo and Lulu give Eukanuba Chihuahua Two Paws Up, but I am a label reader and cannot endorse this product while two of the top three ingredients are of questionable quality (such as animal by-products) and cheap fillers (such as corn).  

Thanks go to Eukanuba for the opportunity to review their new product, and to the Dog Food Advisor, the dog food watch dog!

color palette: blue sky & blushing tree

Every morning I sit in front of a large window through which I watch hummingbirds fight over their feeder, clouds stretching across the sky, and the coral bark maple (planted by me, ten years ago) responding in full color, to the season.

Today, the maple looks like Jacob's Coat of many colors. Yellow-green leaves blush as any tree might before stripped of its mantle. The sky is blue, a solemn promise that the chilling nights are but a hiccup before spring asserts itself again. The red in this palette reflects begonias blooming in pots on the stoop.

Oh, October!

strong swimmer

In three seconds Nik will open her eyes, grip the scruffs of the dogs' necks in one hand and with the other swim to the surface and safety. Nik is a strong swimmer, but even so, she struggles to keep them all from drowning in the warm, indifferent sea.

march 13

how lucky we are
sitting here,
listening
to birds fold their wings
to the fountain,
ever renewing itself,
over traffic
planes, cars, trains,
to voices on the wind,
while sky unfolds
her cloudy robes,
striking me dumb
with her inner splendor, now
she is the inside of an oyster shell,
the inside of a pearl.

lulu in the sky with diamonds

walking forward looking back

This is a full color version of one in a series of nine line drawings I created for my SCBWI LA portfolio.

sketch of the day: 07.14.11

how i'm going to make my millions: dog socks!

Order yours by calling 1-800-DOG-SOCK today!

(FYI! Before you get over excited, as I know dog socks are a niche market begging to be filled, these socks were borrowed from a human baby and are not really dog socks at all! )

frankenfinger

Recently i had foot surgery, then I cut the tip off my finger in a dishwashing accident (not covered by my insurance policy). Frankenfoot found a friend in Frankenfinger. Thanks to a neighbor's visit to the Disney store, Frankenfinger got to shed her Sponge Bob bandaid for some evening wear. Who cares if the dress was too tight and her face was turning blue! A good dress should never be underestimated.

how much is that doggie(s) in the window?

Annie, Maximo, Lulu and Paco in the window.

furry house guests

My friend Jackie recently adopted two dogs, Paco and Annie, who were dropped off together at the pound. Annie had passed her prime for birthing babies and they waited three months to be adopted. The pound would not separate them. While browsing the Human SocietyAdoption Site online, a friend of Jackie's saw them and said to herself: Who would adopt two ten year old chihuahuas? Certainly not the kind of people who dropped them off at the pound once they outlived their usefulness as breeders. Later, Jackie visited her friend and introduced her to the pair and got her answer as to who would adopt them. 

Paco's missing most of his teeth and his pink tongue pokes out the side of his mouth for lack of a tooth cage. Annie weighs only four pounds and has long hair. Mellower than even Maximo and Lulu (this says a lot, as my dogs's mellow dispositions are often commented on by friends and strangers alike). My dogs have met their mellow matches.

Initially, Maximo, growled at them when they got too close to his spot in the window, but by the end of the week they all had a spot in the window.

This sketch was done super quickly with grease pencil on trace. Here's to furry house guests!

maximo in the window

my darling maximo in front of the window. grease pencil sketch, march, 2011