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Showing posts with label happy holidays. Show all posts
Showing posts with label happy holidays. Show all posts

Friday, December 23, 2016

Happy Festivus!

Break out the unadorned aluminum pole, it's time to celebrate Festivus! I'm a big fan of winter holidays, and this is a particularly silly one. It's a rejection of the holiday consumerism that pervades the month of December, and gets right to the heart of family get-togethers. That's right, I'm talking about the Airing of Grievances. Let's take a moment to talk about the ways in which companies have disappointed The Dog Geek over the last year.
Feats of Strength!

Kong, your Squeezz Crackle ball couldn't handle being squeezed and crackled.

Petsmart, your Puppies backwards-R Us treat spinner couldn't handle even a tiny amount of regular dog play.

Zack & Zoey, you turned out to be a regular Pet Edge brand, and not some adorably personable company with a charming backstory.

Loot Pets, you totally abandoned your geeky premise and sent us a regular dog-themed subscription box. There are tons of regular dog-themed subscription boxes out there, I got yours purely for the geekery. You got rid of the geekery slowly, sending regular toys instead of geeky toys, and fewer items in every box, until your finally abandoned the concept altogether, and that's when you lost a customer. It was a fun six months though, and those first few crates were awesome. The pet shirts never fit right though, you must all have super wide pug-shaped dogs or something.

Sileo, you did nothing for Ranger's fireworks fear. I think we're going camping for New Year's just to get away from the possible fireworks noise.

Company of Animals, your Pet Corrector needs to come with instructions about using it in the vicinity of other pets. It has a very non-specific, area-wide effect, so it "corrects" basically every single dog in agility class when some clueless student chooses to use it for their dog's leash reactivity.

Outward Hound, your dog backpack was awkward and uncomfortable and felt ridiculously cheap and flimsy. Like, I understand making things for a certain price point, but that felt like some serious dollar store shit.

Reviews.com...your research sucks. Bigtime.

Chuckit, your Floppy Tug was surprisingly non-durable.

Zukes, your Power Bones treats show a distinct lack of knowledge about the canine metabolism. I expected better of you.

Thank you for joining me for this little wallow in negativity. the Dog Geek will be back to the usual upbeat outlook following the Feats of Strength.

Wednesday, December 21, 2016

A Blessed Solstice to You!

Today is the shortest day of the year, the Winter Solstice, and we are looking forward to the days growing longer! Winter is sort non-thing here in Southern California, yesterday it was 80 degrees. The most we can hope for is some light rain and the occasional chilly night. The only difference between this and the rest of the year is the length of the days.
Solstice: "MEOW!"

I work outside, so I'm super angsty about the weather, and acutely aware of how much time I have before it gets dark each day. Right now the sun drops behind the hills at around 4:30 each afternoon, and the mad dash to get everyone fed and bedded down for the evening begins as early at 3:00.

In years past, I have spent the longest night keeping the fire burning, waiting for the sun to rise in the morning. This year I will be getting a good night's sleep. Whether you celebrate the turning of the seasons with a yule log and gifts, listening for the Wild Hunt, keeping vigil over the flame, or just appreciating that the days can't possibly get any shorter, I wish you a Happy Solstice and a Blessed Yule.

(Solstice the kitty wishes you a very loud meow, as per usual.)