A fun weekend and a new family member!

Matt, Carlos, and I had a fun weekend - we went down to Animal Place for a little party and got to hang out with lots of great animals (oh yeah, and a few cool people too), then we met up with JP from CAPE, who introduced us to a very sweet little guy named Bruno... I'll start with the Animal Place Photos -

This was pretty cute - at first I thought that the turkey and the gray chicken (under the turkey's wing) were snuggling, but then I saw an egg pop out of the chicken's bottom so I think they were actually just jockeying for the primo egg-laying spot.

Food!

This feathery-headed guy was especially handsome.

Aren't these turkeys gorgeous?

Pretty birds.

A little rooster skirmish.

Oink.

I think the rabbit house was Carlos' favorite. I was pretty charmed as well by the bunnies.

You could tell that these two were majorly in love with each other.

The speaker for the event was Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson, author of The Face on Your Plate, The Pig Who Sang to the Moon, Dogs Never Lie About Love, and When Elephants Weep. He was very personable, friendly, and charismatic. Carlos was excited to meet him because Jeffrey stars in one of Carlos' favorite movies, The Emotional World of Farm Animals.

After our lovely visit to Animal Place, we were off to our next engagement - a meeting with Bruno, an adorable one-eyed miniature poodle! After a short visit, and with much pleading and cajoling on my part and Carlos', Matt was convinced that Bruno should come home with us. Hooray!

Bruno is part of a program headed by Compassion Without Borders, a nonprofit working to provide spay/neuter surgeries, vaccinations, and medical care to companion animals in Mexico. CWB identifies the most friendly, adoptable small dogs from all of the street dogs they encounter, and partners with Animal Place (to provide quarantine here in the US) and the Center for Animal Protection and Education (to provide foster care and permanent placement) to find permanent homes for these dogs here in the US.

Because small dogs are in high demand, and are often in short supply at animal shelters, these groups bring small dogs to the US to give adopters an opportunity to save a rescued dog rather than go to a breeder (or worse yet, a pet shop) because they can't find a small dog at a shelter. Great idea, huh?

Bruno meets Otis.

Hazel steals Bruno's bed.

After some initial growling and position-establishing behavior, mostly from Otis, the dogs seem to be getting along surprisingly well. Hazel and Otis seem strangely compelled to wedge their 50+ pound bodies into Bruno's 20 pound sized dog bed, which is oddly entertaining. I'll try to get some better pictures of Bruno and post them soon.