Today Is The Anniversary of Tabaatha Becoming A Princess

Since today is the two year anniversary of the day Tabaatha came to live with us and changed our world, I let her take over the blog to tell her story.

Once upon a time, there was a mommy who never owned a doggie. She had bad allergies so couldn’t have one. But after some tough times, the mommy told the daddy she was getting a doggie to cheer them up. Not any doggie, but a lamb doggie. So, the beautiful lamb dog Baarney arrived and life was suddenly wonderful and everyone was happy.

The mommy made 2 rules when she got the lamb doggie Baarney. She said no lamb dogs would ever sleep on the bed, and they would never have 2 lamb dogs. After about 3 months with the beautiful, sweet lamb dog Baarney, he suddenly slept an entire night on the bed and has never left it since. The mommy said it really wasn’t a hard and fast rule so it was okay.

But then when the beautiful lamb dog Baarney was about 1 ½ years old, the mommy suddenly kept talking about how maybe another lamb dog to keep Baarney company would be nice. The daddy and the beautiful Baarney just laughed when the mommy wasn’t looking because they knew what was going to happen. Then, the mommy declared 6 months before her birthday that she knew what she wanted for her birthday. She wanted a new lamb dog. The daddy and Baarney new there was no stopping her so they went along. The daddy made only one request…that they get another beautiful boy lamb dog to go with Baarney. The mommy didn’t care as long as she had a lamb dog. The mommy checked with the breeder lady where they got Baarney and found out that new lambie dogs were going to be born and available to be taken home almost exactly on the mommy’s birthday. She cried and said yes she wanted a baby boy lamb dog and couldn’t wait.

The mommy decided that the new baby lamb dog would be called Waally and his official name would be Waally World of Ewe! The mommy told everyone about Waally and was so excited. Then, one day the call came. The lamb dogs were born but there was one problem. There were no Waallys. There were no boys. The mommy was shocked and cried. She told the breeder lady she would get back to her but they would probably have to wait for a boy because daddy insisted on a boy. The mommy spoke to the daddy and was crying. It looked like no lamb doggie for awhile. But the daddy just laughed and said he already talked to the breeder lady and mommy should go get her little girl lamb dog.

Suddenly the mommy realized she didn’t have a name for her little girl. It needed to go with Baarney. So, after thinking and thinking, the daddy said the name and they knew it was the right name. They knew they were going to have a baby girl lamb dog named Tabaatha.

The mommy talked to the breeder lady and told her she wanted a beautiful tomboy. Someone she could play with and run with yet looked beautiful. The breeder lady said she had the perfect little girl lamb dog. She was beautiful, she was so sweet, she was so smart but…she was full of herself. From the moment she was born, she thought she owned the world. The mommy and daddy just laughed and couldn’t imagine a little puppy being like that so they said yes.

On June 19, 2007, the mommy used some of her frequent flier miles and flew to Reagan National Airport in Washington to get the baby girl lamb dog. The mommy had bought a beautiful pink bag to carry her in, had a baby lambie blanket and a baby lambie toy. At about 9:30 am, in the airport, the breeder lady handed the mommy the beautiful baby girl. It was love at first site. The baby lamb dog Tabaatha kissed and kissed the mommy and snuggled into her neck. The mommy just cried. The baby lamb girl was pure black and weighed 4 lbs and had the best puppy breathe and puppy smell. The mommy had her perfect girl. So the mommy and the baby lamb dog girl spent several hours in the airport walking around and showing the baby lamb dog off. People could not get over how cute she was and also how calm and poised she was. Little did they know that the baby lamb girl already knew she was a princess and this was how princess’ act.

The mommy flew home and the baby lamb dog Tabaatha met her daddy and her big brother Baarney. She loved them both immediately. They took her home and when she walked into the house for the first time, she looked around and immediately said “it’s all mine.” She renamed it the Princess Palace. She played with all the toys. She took over the house and she was officially Princess Tabaatha Ewe Are Bewitching Patterson. The mommy and daddy quickly learned what the breeder meant when she said the baby lamb dog “was full of herself.” But it didn’t matter. She owned their hearts and now they all live happily ever after.

Please Help Save These Animals

One of our good friends who has a rescue organization and lives nearby, alerted us to a horrible situation at the Cherokee County Animal Control in Gaffney, South Carolina. This is a horrible, old filthy shelter that is a high kill shelter. Basically, dogs go in and don’t come out. Three animal control officers were charged and later convicted of cruelty to animals. They were using illegal and inhumane methods of euthanisia and they had no licenses, certifications or permits to even put dogs down.

For 3 months, rescue organizations were allowed in and the adoption rate went from 0% to 59%. But now the the Cherokee County Animal Control has shut itself down to rescues. When the rescue organizations came in, they took videos of the deplorable conditions. They also got the Charlotte Observer involved. So, instead of improving the conditions, the Cherokee County Animal Control shut itself off again. Dogs are going in and not coming out. The same animal control officers that were convicted still work there.

You can go to www.youtube.com and search for Cherokee County Animal Shelter and you will see videos of some of the doggies that are no longer with us because of this shelter.

We all need to help stop this horrible situation. It’s easy and it doesn’t cost any money. Please write or email the Govenor of South Carolina, Mark Sanford. You can email him by going to http://www.scgovernor.com/contact/email/default.htm. When you go here you will get a form. Where the form asks for your "county" just click "out of state." You can also call 803-734-2100.

Let’s all pull together and stop this inhumane treatment of animals.

Our Friend Whiskey Is A Recycled Dog

We want to introduce you to Whiskey. She is one of our pals we met on Doggyspace.com. Whiskey is a "recycled" dog and the little sister to 12, a Newfoundland, and Chappy, a Leonberger. The happy pack and their family live in Santa Cruz, California.

We intereviewed Whiskey and her family and asked them how she came to be living in her furever home and got recycled. It seems that 12 and Chappy's family decided they wanted to add another dog to their pack and wanted a rescue dog. In September 2008, they started their search at two local pounds. After finishing their search for the day and thinking it was going to take weeks to find just the right dog, they decided to head to a favorite restaurant for a snack. As they were driving towards their destination, they remembered that Animal Friends Rescue Project has a once-a-month adoption day outside of a coffee shop. The coffee shop is on the same road as the restaurant. Unfortunately, they found out the adoption day ends at 1pm, and it was almost 3pm. As they were driving past the coffee shop, they saw a truck containing crates and realized Animal Friends Rescue had not left yet! They pulled in and asked the tired volunteer whether they could take a look at the dogs they had up for adoption. The lady could tell 12 and Chappy's family were not going to leave without meeting the dogs. So the lady from the rescue started to pull out crates. Most of the dogs had already been taken back home, but she had a handful of adorable dogs, mostly Australian Shepherds. After meeting many of the dogs the rescue had, 12 and Chappy's family wanted to meet the little one still in the crate. They were informed that this dog had just been rescued from a kill shelter two days ago and had not even had a bath yet. The lady from the rescue asked if they really wanted to meet her. They said yes. The little pup had a fear of all humans, and they had to do a lot of wrangling to get the pup out of her crate. Once she was out, they could all tell that this girl was really scared- none of the other dogs were. But as you can guess, they fell in love with her right away and decided they were up for the challenge of adopting a "hard to place" pup. They named her Whiskey and filled out the adoption application. It was with great joy and excitement that a week later they took Whiskey home. Whiskey is now a happy, loving family member, and they can't imagine life without her!

When we worked on designing our Recycle. Adopt a Dog shirts, helping doggies like Whiskey find new homes and celebrating these "recycled" doggies were our goals. Whiskey wears her Recycle. Adopt a Dog shirt proudly and looks absolutely beautiful and of course is eco-chic since it is 100% organic. And, thanks to the purchase of this shirt by her mom, two rescue organizations benefited. Read My Paws sent a donation from the purchase of the shirt to the Miniature Pinscher Rescue Outreach and Lizard Wizard Animal Palace.

Everywhere you go, everything you read is about ways to go green. We feel that recycling, adopting a dog is one of the best ways to be eco-friendly.

Being A Social Doggie Is So Tiring!

In the old days, long before Tabaatha or my time, doggies met other doggies and were social by going on walks with their owners. They'd meet friends, do their business and come home and sleep and get treats. A true dog's life. More recently, we've seen the advent of doggie parks and doggie day care where you leave your neighborhood and make play dates. You meet a whole new world of friends. You have a blast but then go home, take a nap and get some treats. But now, it's all changed. Being social has taken on a whole new meaning. Being social means being wired!

If you are a doggie with any ambition, then you need to be wired. You need to have your own email account, web site, blog, Facebook account, MySpace, be on DoggySpace, DoggieWeb and if you're looking for a job...join Linkedin. Plus, I know I'm missing the zillion more social networks that are popping up daily. In fact, doggies barely have time to take their walk through the neighborhood. You can't be gone too long because you have friends to confirm, journals to post, meetings on Facebook. Every minute of every day is filled - except for treat time - and it's exhausting.

Since both Tabaatha and I are working dogs, we have the need to be wired. We have this blog, a web site, emails, Facebook account and we're on DoggySpace and DoggyWeb. Plus we have our other actual jobs. I'm a Spokesdog and she's a Top Model. The bottom line...we aren't doing any of it well. It's tough to keep up with everything and every doggie. With all these sites we have about 1500 friends. Try barkin to them all the time.

The other problem is finding time to do our actual work. We haven't let everyone know about our new expanded organic line or our new organic tank tops. We're too busy confirming and requesting friends.

What's the answer. We have no idea. Wait...let me go post that question on Facebook and see what everyone says. All we know that the saying "it's a dog life" doesn't mean the same thing anymore. It means we have more friends than we could ever have imagined, we're everywhere and mom is wondering how this got so out of hand!

We promise to keep up with things a little better as we learn more or better yet, maybe get ourselves a full time personal secretary!

We're Supporting DoggySpace Rescue Groups

Tabaatha and I are members of the most wonderful doggy community there is - Doggyspace.com. We have gotten the best friends in the whole world through DoggySpace. We have also met some awesome doggies and humans who tirelessly work to help rescue dogs and dogs who are in kill shelters find loving furever homes. While we can't help everyone, we are helping two of the DoggySpace Rescue groups supported by our friends. They are the Miniature Pinscher Rescue supported by The Min Pin Gang - Mouse, Scooter, Teenie, Rabit and their Mom. The other Rescue Group is Lizard Wizard Animal Palace run by Brandon, Wishbone & Puppy's Mom. I hope you click on each of their names so you can go and read their stories. They are working so hard to make a difference.

We felt the least Read My Paws could do is give $5 from every shirt purchased to these two great Rescue Groups. In particular, our "Recycle. Adopt a Dog" 100% organic shirts for humans and doggies says its all. Adopting a dog is the best form of recycling. So, now you can go green AND support a great cause. And remember, all our shirts are made in the USA.

Thanks for your help.
Love, Baarney

I Made the Finals. Please Vote For Me!

Can you believe it? I made the finals of the USA Today Marley & Me Photo contest. I'm one of 20 doggies who made the finals out of over 700 doggies who submitted photos. I'm so excited. But, I want to go higher. I want to be one of the top doggies. I can't do it without you voting for me.

Please, please vote. All you need to do is click here. Then, when you see the picture of me helping to decorate the Christmas tree, scroll down below it and click on the "Recommended" button. That's it. That's all you have to do to vote for me. Here's a little trick but don't tell anyone...you can only vote once...per day. Go back tomorrow and you can add another vote.

If I'm one of the top doggies, I get my picture in the December 22nd USA Today print edition. That would be so cool. I know I don't look much like a Marley dog, but lambs have rights too!

Thanks again for helping me out. If I make it, I will sign pawtographs.

Lots of love,
Baarney

Help...Please Vote For Me!

Hi everyone,

With the movie Marley & Me coming out in December, USA Today is having a contest and the cutest dogs...really the doggies who get enough people to vote for them...will be featured in the December 22nd print edition. So, my mommy sent in 2 pictures of me. The one of me decorating the tree and me in my raincoat.

I need your help. I'm doing pretty good for votes BUT there is a doggy, from a New York hotel, who is beating me. She is very cute and under other circumstances I'd probably have a huge crush on her. But she can't beat me.

Please, please help my by voting for me. It's easy, and you don't have to sign up. Just click on the name of the picture below and it will take you directly to USA Today. Scroll down below my picture and click on "Recommended." That's it. Please vote fo both photos. Here they are:

Baarney in raincoat picture

Baarney decorating the tree picture

Please tell as many people as you can about this. I appreciate your help.

Love, Baarney