Yep, That's Right. I'm Growing Grass in my Second Bedroom.

As I prepare for a dog to arrive into our home come January, I was started thinking about how I'm going to house train a dog if we get one as a puppy. And even if it's older, I feel bad leaving it at home all day not being able to go to the bathroom. Yes, I know, people do this all the time, but for some reason it's bothering me.

So, thanks to the lovely Jen Miller, I got the idea to grow grass for the dog that we would keep out on our porch!  I was so impressed the first time I went to Jen's and saw her little Pomeranian, Duke, running out onto the porch to use the grass Jen had grown for him.  She leaves it open just enough for him to run in and out during the day while she's gone, solving the problem of having to rush home after work every day.  Brilliant!

Unlike Jen, I did not come across this idea until about two weeks ago, when it's already too cold to start growing grass outside.  Secondly, Jen has a concrete patio, so used metal oil trays to grow her grass in.  I, however, have a wood porch and metal would completely ruin it once it started to rust.  So after multiple stops at multiple places in Seattle, I went to Target in search of something that would work.  The best thing I found ended up being the top to the plastic storage bin you see above.  It's about three inches deep - perfect for a little bit of soil and grass seed!

So two Sundays ago, Jon and I went to work planting our grass. He wanted to buy the cheap $5 bag of seed, but wanting to make sure this worked, I opted for the $15 jug of supercharged, fertilized, mulch included grass seed.  As I said, it's too cold to grass outside now, so our creation is now sitting in our second bedroom by the window - it looks super funny/random when you walk in. It said it would take about nine days to grow, so I began watering my grass with a Windex bottle every day.  About five days later, I came home to find the grass was starting to go.  Two weeks after planting, it's not about 3-4 inches long and filling in nicely.  I'm a tad obsessed with it, but I know the dog will like it :)

Pet Adoption - A New Adventure

I've recently received some exciting news!  Our lease was coming to an end in January, so we were faced with the choice of moving or staying in our current condo.  We love our place (despite the somewhat questionable location in Northgate), but when we moved in last January, the owners told us we couldn't have a dog.  At that point, I could live with it, but it has now become a must for Jon and I.

Thanks to Jon's amazing negotiating skills and a crappy economy (they know they'd have trouble renting to anyone else for what we're currently paying), they said yes to a dog!  So now begins the search. I originally wanted to find a Boston Terrier from a breeder, but quickly changed my mind for two reasons: a) the cost from a breeder was looking like upward of $1,200 (and that doesn't include micro-chipped, spay/neutering or shots) and b) there are just so many dogs out there that are wonderful just waiting to be adopted.  Needless to say, we're planning to adopt.

Thankfully, there are a ton of options in the Seattle area for adopting dogs.  We're waiting until after the holidays to actually adopt a dog (too much traveling in the next two months), but that hasn't stopped me from scouring the adoption pages and Petfinder.com.  Here are the local shelters I have found so far:

• Paws (Lynwood) - http://www.paws.org/
• Seattle Purebred Dog Rescue (Redmond) - http://www.spdrdogs.org/
• Seattle Humane Society (Bellevue) - http://www.seattlehumane.org/
• Seattle Animal Shelter (Seattle - Interbay) - http://www.seattle.gov/animalshelter/Default.asp
• Everett Animal Shelter (Everett) - http://www.everettwa.org/default.aspx?ID=35

 If you know of any others, please let me know! I'll be checking them all out over the next two months so I know what to expect and what the procedure is once the time comes.  Until then, I'm going to begin puppy proofing my place and reading up on my "What to Expect When You Adopt a Dog" books!