This soulful creature is Brando, Ken Foster’s dog. I’m dying to read this book!

Today, The New Yorkers came out in Italy. So if anyone from Italy should wander onto this site,
WELCOME!
Voglio scrivere in Italiano, ma no posso!
Mi dispiace, tutti.

And…here are some pictures I’ve been meaning to post from a canine cocktail party–a benefit for AnimalHaven in Soho. It was pretty wild.

Cin cin!

TINY DOGS IN CLOTHES

HECTOR AT THE H'ORDEUVRES TABLE

SNICKERS, ONE OF THE GRACIOUS HOSTS

I was just talking to someone about what a great book Kim is–have you ever read it? you have to–when I saw on my friend ndozo’s blog that she had visited Rudyard Kipling’s house,Naulakha, in Vermont…
A spaniel on a camel, an elephant ash tray, a radiator, Rudyard Kipling’s actual toilet!!…I never even knew Rudyard Kipling had a house in Vermont. I knew that Dickens based Miss Haversham on a lady from upstate New York (go upstate! I read it in a biography of Melville) but I had no idea that Kipling wrote Captains Courageous in the Green Mountain State. Thank you, Nancy!

The talented and beautiful Jenna Gates, web designer, mother and dog rescuer extraordinaire, has organized the second annual canine cocktail pawty! I’m going. Don’t be square–be there! It’s for a good cause and there will be dogs and…cocktails! Sunday July 22!
Click or read on for more info…

How Do YOU Pawty?

The NYC Shiba Inus are doing it again! The first Canine Cocktail Pawty was such a hit, that these mischievous dogs have decided to do it again. We’ll be getting together for drinks, hors d’ouvres, off-leash play time, and a raffle. Everyone is invited, regardless of breed or species! Well-behaved dogs attend free. Well-behaved humans pay $40 each.

Ticket purchase deadline extended until Tuesday, July 17th. Get your tickets before it is too late!

What: Cocktails and Hors d’ouvres
Who: All the coolest dogs in town (and their humans)
When: 6pm, Sunday, July 22, 2007
Why: To raise money for Animal Haven
Where: Animal Haven SoHo Adoption Center

Human Catering by Gotham Caterers. Canine Catering by Culinary Crossing.
Ticket sales will close at midnight on July 17th. Tickets are non-refundable. No admission without a ticket. At this time, we do NOT foresee having any tickets available at the door.

Raffle Items will include:

* an iPod donated by Commerce Bank
* a Shiba pendant created and donated by Kelly Vivar
* an original pet drawing by artist Jaqi TG similar to this Shiba drawing
* a Pop Art Pet Portrait by Feron Pet Portraits
* Three signed copies of The New Yorkers by Cathleen Schine
* a $50 gift card donated by Commerce Bank

I don’t really know what this is all about, but I love the graphic and I have a cairn, so any of you in southern California, take note!

Two of my favorite things: design AND dogs. When we were in Key West a few years ago, we saw some cards, which I fell in love with. I googled the maker, Barkology, because I wanted more, and I found a whole empire of smart, funny, beautifully designed caninobilia (I know that’s not a word.) Barkology is a company run by a talented dog lover named Zoe Lancaster. Sometimes I go to the site just to look around and admire. Here is an example of one line of cards called Signature:

There are great t-shirts, too. And hats. And…cats! click here!

And speaking of dogs, which one does tend to do, this beautiful collie is Laurie, my very first dog. The beautiful woman is Randi Kroger, our Norwegian au pair who lived with us with her husband while he was studying engineering. I am on a sled to the right.

Here is another collie we had. He was very sweet and regal looking, but I gave him a terrible name. The Soupy Sales show was my first brush with media irony and I named this wonderful dog…Pookie. Sorry, Pookie. You deserved better.

Some people think collies look too much like Barbra Streisand. Some people think collies have pea brains squeezed into their overbread needle noses. Those people are wrong. When you’re a kid, collies are like happy, smiling, prancing body guards who happily smile and prance up to guard every body they meet. Collies rock.

Just by the way, sincesome of you asked, Hector is fine, he’s just not in New York. He is in Malibu surfing today.

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