I spotted another mural by Lisa Marie while walking in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington D.C.
Posts about Ingrid the Labradoodle and Gunter the Chiweenie.
I spotted another mural by Lisa Marie while walking in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington D.C.
There are plenty of ferocious pitbulls guarding various places in Ivy City. The local convenience store is surrounded by a yard with two particularly aggressive pits that recently charged after my dogs on one of our morning walks.
Gunter (the Chiweenie) held his ground, and they actually became friends of sorts.
I recently got Gunter some University of Miami gear and he…doesn’t seem to happy about it.
As a Chihuahua mix, Gunter is extremely difficult to shop for. He’s exactly between sizes, so things are usually too large or small. In this case, the UMiami shirt is a bit too tight.
There’s a new Black Lives Matter mural along my dog walk route. This mural is in an alley near the corner of Mt. Olivet and Holbrook Street NE.
My labradoodle and I established a new routine over the past few months.
The rooftop dog park is one of the best things about my apartment building.
One of the best things about living in Ivy City is that I am only blocks from the U.S. National Arboretum. It’s basically a massive park that houses the original columns from the U.S. Capitol building.
The arboretum is an excellent place to walk the dogs and has become one of my go-to weekend spots lately.
We had a somewhat subdued Capital Pride this year.
Sure, there was drag brunch and meet-ups with fair-weather friends who only come out during holidays. But I refused to make any substantive plans for the weekend and declined a few invitations. Although this was anti-social, I have no regrets because I gained the flexibility to skip the parade (due to heat) and most of the festival (due to rain.) What privilege.
I started 2018 feeling ridiculous — I just finished the first semester of my Georgetown tax LL.M. program but did not have any grades yet. I was unsure if I would fail my classes or ever get a decent job. Maybe this Washington D.C. adventure was a mistake.
Things quickly got better. Instead of failing, my grades were actually strong. Job offers came in, spring semester’s grades were even better than the fall, and I started working immediately after graduation.
I moved from Pentagon City to Chinatown, and got rid of my car. Everything fell into place and I became a proper Washingtonian.
Thank god I brushed my teeth before the morning dog walk.
After doing a loop around the National Mall, I direct the dogs back toward my apartment building.
I can see the fire trucks from down the street and think, “Please, please let those be for another apartment building. Maybe the place next door had a kitchen fire?”
But the fire trucks are totally for my building. And it isn’t just a normal false alarm — the fire hoses are actually plugged in and spewing water all over the street.
The District got its first snow storm of the season today and my dogs have two completely different opinions on the slushy mix.
Fall is here, and the days are getting colder and shorter — so of course I purchased a Hawaiian shirt for Gunter.
It’s fall in Washington, D.C. and it looks like my neighbors are trying to squeeze in as much sunlight as possible during the afternoons.
Ingrid, the labradoodle, is on high-alert during our evening dog walks now. She’s not worried about potential muggers or prowlers, but instead focused on hunting rats.
One unexpected challenge of walking the dogs in Chinatown is the massive rat population in our neighborhood. The parks are filled with rat burrows and the prancing creatures are a big distraction for Ingrid.
I first realized that D.C. has a rat problem one night when we decided to take a shortcut through an alleyway behind several restaurants near Logan Circle. The alleyway was crawling with rodents that were completely unfazed by our presence. The rats darted from corners and swung from trashcans.
It was the wrong type of party to be at.
It’s felt like spring in Washington D.C. for a while now. We’ve had warm temperatures, cherry blossoms, and green grass.
Maybe winter in D.C. isn’t so bad after all…
My winter break ended with a cold snap and the dogs had two very different reactions.
Ingrid, the labradoodle, thinks that we are in a winter wonderland. The cold doesn’t bother Ingrid and she is happy to spend her time in the dog park even with a ridiculous wind chill.
These rusty sculptures are one of the strangest examples of public art that I have encountered recently.
Ingrid in a piece of sculpture art.
The sculptures are in a park near my apartment and the dogs seem to like them. The huge pieces change shape depending on your vantage point and often look like oversized rolls of pennies.
The dogs are adjusting to life in Washington D.C. pretty well.
Dallas was very dog-friendly in terms of parks and poop-stations, but 100 degree days made it difficult to take anything but brief dog walks after 7 a.m.
I sometimes tell people that my labradoodle is still a puppy. She acts like a puppy — hyper, uncontrollably excitable, and easily fooled. But I just realized today that Ingrid is already two years old.
I got Ingrid back in October 2015 (how time flies!) and she’s been tumbling around my apartments ever since. What a quick two years.
Ingrid the labradoodle among the flowers in Perry Heights, Dallas.
Ingrid the Labradoodle at a Highland Park fountain.
We finally made our way back to the tennis courts to wear out Ingrid, our labradoodle, and Apollo, the German shepherd that we recently sponsored.
The enclosed tennis courts in our neighborhood are perfect for letting the dogs run around. The speed of our tennis game usually means that they can’t grab the balls — although there were a few close calls.
Apollo the German shepherd at the Perry Heights tennis courts.
By the end of the game, some of the tennis balls were so soaked in dog drool that it felt like hitting a water balloon. (Those ended up getting thrown out.)
And yes, it was as disgusting as it sounds.