Rottweilers Ate My Laptop

Review: MrChewy.com online pet food retailer

kathi — Sat, 03 Mar 2012 22:23:39 +0000

Finding good brick-and-mortar pet supply stores of both the small independent and big-box discount variety is easy to do in my sector. I live in Chicago, about five minutes from two large chain stores and about fifteen minutes from an all natural pet food store. Could I still benefit by using an online pet food retailer?

MrChewy.com gave me the opportunity to find out: the answer is a definite “YES!”

I got a chance to try it out last month over the Presidents Day holiday with a simulated “emergency” food order. Freya was about to hit bottom on a bag of California Natural Lamb Meal & Rice Large Bites. If you are a repeat visitor, you might recall that Freya has a mild case of IBS and it is one of a very few foods that agrees with her. Happily, it is also one of the more than 70 brands of food currently carried by Mr. Chewy — an excellent variety, with an emphasis on premium and natural foods. Mr. Chewy’s selection of California Natural varieties is actually better than what is available locally. I have had a hard time finding the low calorie and grain free varieties at times.

Mr. Chewy also carries Axel’s favorite food choices: Wellness CORE and Orijen 6 Fish. I had been wanting to try Acana Pacifica as a substitute for the Orijen 6 Fish since it is slightly less expensive, but it wasn’t widely available locally. Since it was in stock at Mr. Chewy, I placed our order for a large bag of California Natural and a small bag of Pacifica. The shopping experience on this well-organized, easy to navigate website was pleasant with no surprises. Out of stock items were clearly marked as such and the toll-free number and live chat link were displayed on every page if I did have a question.

One of the most attractive benefits of Mr. Chewy is their free 1-2 day shipping for orders over $49. This is a huge deal for heavy items like the large bags of dog food. I had previously used another online pet food retailer to send food to Axel when he was on the road with Julia chasing his AKC Championship. While service and selection were satisfactory, the expensive shipping charges were not pretty. So it is wonderful to see Mr. Chewy offering both the free shipping option for orders over $49 and a $4.95 flat rate for smaller orders.

So. Would the food arrive as promised before Freya hit the bottom of the bag? Yes, it did! The order was placed on Monday afternoon and arrived on Wednesday afternoon as promised. It was raining that day, and no one was home when the package arrived. Not to worry, as it was packaged nicely and our FedEx driver doesn’t throw our boxes over our fence.

Oliver Kittyweiler looks a bit offended that no cat food or cat treats were included in our order. Maybe next time!

I did a quick check of local pricing of our most-purchased items. Base prices average about a dollar more at Mr. Chewy than at my usual local stores. However, sales taxes in Cook County and Chicago are among the highest in the country, as are gasoline prices, so the total cost from Mr. Chewy ends up the same or less than a local purchase.

In addition to dog food, Mr. Chewy carries a good selection of cat food, dog and cat treats, dog potty pads, cat litter, and flea and tick treatments. There is a further discount to their already-competitive pricing if you set up subscription ordering.

If that isn’t enough to get you interested, Mr. Chewy also has a referral program that benefits not only shoppers, but animal-related charities as well. If you try Mr. Chewy, enter my referral code KWIL7576 when you check out. Mr. Chewy will give you 10% off your first order, and donate $10 to their partner pet charities. The vom Viersen Rottweilers give Mr. Chewy a big paws up!

For more information or to place your first order, go to MrChewy.com or visit their Facebook page.

MrChewy.com offered us a store credit to use in reviewing their service. I did not receive any other compensation for this review and am not connected to MrChewy.com other than as a satisfied customer. I thank them for the store credit and the opportunity to write this review.

Review: MrChewy.com online pet food retailer is a post from: Rottweilers Ate My Laptop
Copyright © 2008-2012 K. Wilson except where otherwise noted. All rights reserved.

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So long, 2011. Hey there, 2012.

kathi — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 00:11:53 +0000

In time or so I’m told
I’m just another soul for sale, oh well
The page is out of print, we are not permanent
We’re temporary, temporary
Same old story*

I’m still not sure what to do within this space. I don’t have all that much to share these days, good or bad. The Rottweilers are fine and they even have a brand new laptop to eat. The rest of the family is fine as well.

Some stories that I might otherwise want to discuss are not really mine to tell, and I’ll leave it up to the main characters to decide when and where to tell those stories. I’m also trying to figure out what and how much I can share about some online classes I’ve been taking without violating anyone’s intellectual property rights.

I’d like to indulge in a little gratuitous self-promotion. As soon as I can figure out a tasteful way to do so, I’ll be back to do it.

Despite the Rottweilers in the title, I’m not sure we belong in the pet blogging genre or community any longer. We’re training “lightly” these days and neither dog is competing regularly in any venue at the moment, so I don’t have as much pet-related content as I did in the past.

So much that I don’t know.

What I do know is that I’d like to wish a wonderful 2012 to all of you who have stopped by to visit. If you had a great 2011, may 2012 be even better. If, like me, you had a 2011 that you’re saying “good riddance” to, may 2012 be its polar opposite!

*from The Pretender, Foo Fighters 2007

So long, 2011. Hey there, 2012. is a post from: Rottweilers Ate My Laptop
Copyright © 2008-2012 K. Wilson except where otherwise noted. All rights reserved.

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Hurts so good

kathi — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 05:33:39 +0000

I try to read as many dog training blogs as I can. I always learn something (even when it’s like the old joke about how the only thing two dog trainers can agree upon is that the third dog trainer is doing it all wrong). Sometimes a post really hits home. This one did that, and also made me laugh out loud: Dog Trainer or Victim? from Denise Fenzi’s blog.

She talks about a doctor’s visit where she’s asked a number of leading questions about bruises and scratches on her thighs, and the reaction to her response that they were caused by… dog training, of course!

At almost any given time, I also have bruises, scratches, and tooth marks caused by the only domestic violence that takes place here… Rottweilers at work or play. The sweetest, mildest one we ever owned, Heidi, once almost gave Dan a concussion when she knocked him over out of sheer joy at his coming home from, well, only a few hours out. Good thing it wasn’t a week-long trip or she might have put him in a coma. Axe has no idea how big he is, and neither did Oscar before him.

It’s been a long time though since I’ve heard the pointed question “Is everything all right at home?” when I’m sporting bruises from dog training!

(NaBloPoMo | November ’11: 9 of 30)

Hurts so good is a post from: Rottweilers Ate My Laptop
Copyright © 2008-2012 K. Wilson except where otherwise noted. All rights reserved.

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So during NaBloPoMo…

kathi — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 05:57:38 +0000

…do you ever have a day or two when it’s almost midnight and way past time to sleep, and you really have nothing at all to say, but you have to write something just to keep the post-a-day thing going?

Well, this is one of those days. Check back for actual content tomorrow!

(NaBloPoMo | November ’11: 8 of 30)

So during NaBloPoMo… is a post from: Rottweilers Ate My Laptop
Copyright © 2008-2012 K. Wilson except where otherwise noted. All rights reserved.

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When all else fails, there is always a Rottweiler

kathi — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 05:57:51 +0000

Or two Rottweilers.

My attempt at doing a photo-a-day Project 365 petered out in April. Since then, I’ve gone between days and weeks of taking dozens of photos and other times when I take no photos for a few weeks. I have managed to learn enough about my DSLR to be able to pick which of my two lenses is the better one for a given situation and to figure out the right manual settings more than half of the time.

This, unfortunately, is from the less than half of the time when I didn’t figure the settings out correctly…

…still not a master work, but at least it’s Facebook-able and friends-and-family shareable. I love you, Photoshop. That is all.

(NaBloPoMo | November ’11: 7 of 30)

When all else fails, there is always a Rottweiler is a post from: Rottweilers Ate My Laptop
Copyright © 2008-2012 K. Wilson except where otherwise noted. All rights reserved.

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The chrysanthemums have come and gone

kathi — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 05:46:33 +0000

Well, they’re not quite gone yet. Our chrysanthemums made their first appearance again right on schedule in early October, but their time of glory is starting to come to an end.

The beginning…

I have a strange fascination with the whole idea of perennials. Going dormant underground to survive a harsh winter and coming back around to life only for the best season of the year — fall — seems very cool to me. I’m also intrigued by the fact that they’ve changed their color mix over the years. They started out as an almost equal mix of pink-purple and white blooms. But this year there were no white blooms at all.

The end…

Still so pretty but you can see the older blooms starting to wither away.

(NaBloPoMo | November ’11: 6 of 30)

The chrysanthemums have come and gone is a post from: Rottweilers Ate My Laptop
Copyright © 2008-2012 K. Wilson except where otherwise noted. All rights reserved.

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Variations on a theme

kathi — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 04:54:37 +0000

I replaced my BlackBerry Curve with an Android smartphone (HTC Thunderbolt) in May. Although I still miss the BlackBerry’s superior handling of multiple email accounts and most of all BlackBerry Messenger, I don’t miss its less-than-stellar 2MP camera.

The HTC phones all seem to have better than average cameras. The Thunderbolt has an 8MP camera and image quality in adequate light is probably better than that of my first digital point and shoot camera.

When I’m stopped at the light at Orleans and Ontario, every so often I use the phone to snap a photo of the Sears Tower. Or at least the top of the Sears Tower plus all of the other shorter buildings on Orleans. Yes, I know that is not its current name. I do not acknowledge that name. So far, luck has not had me stopped safely at the light for the most interesting cloud formations and lighting conditions. Eventually I’ll get them all, I hope.

(NaBloPoMo | November ’11: 5 of 30)

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F’d-up Friday

kathi — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 04:34:13 +0000

I’m having a tough time getting back into the rhythm of daily writing. As I’ve mentioned before, November is not the best time for me to start any kind of involved personal project.

Today was a particularly aggravating day with no chance to enjoy the unseasonably mild weather. All week, AT&T repair trucks have been working in the alley behind the house, mostly blocking our garage. It has been a real inconvenience, plus I hate to open the garage when strangers of any variety are around. The work day started early and ended late. In between, we were missing several people due to illness or minor emergencies. When I finally got home, it was to the news that one of our neighbors had his home broken into.

I know I have complained about the jagoffs in my neighborhood quite often. The neighbor whose home was broken into is not one of them. He is a very nice older gentleman who certainly did not deserve the headache. Thankfully he was not home at the time, and the only saving grace is that the scumbag criminals did not hurt his dog. Not physically, anyway. I hope she was not too traumatized by the invasion.

I put part of the blame on another neighbor who is definitely one of the jagoffs. His constant yard sales (so many as to be in violation of city ordinances, but of course since it’s not a “real” crime nothing has been done) bring around unknowns and undesirables as well as legitimate neighborhood bargain seekers. I would not be surprised if some of the unknowns were also casing out the area for easy marks.

I’ve always bought into the conventional wisdom that having a dog is a deterrent to break-ins. Now I’m not so sure. I do know that when the Rottweilers bark and growl at unknowns or unfriendlies, I won’t be making an effort to stop them any longer. This is one time that I plan to use the stereotype of killer Rottweilers for good — our good. I truly hate that I feel I have to do that.

(NaBloPoMo | November ’11: 4 of 30)

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Running in circles

kathi — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 04:57:42 +0000

I’ve been away from the blog for quite a while, and I’m trying to decide the best way to catch up. Life hasn’t been super fabulously exciting, but there has been enough going on that I’m not sure where to start.

Freya is still on hiatus from training and trialing. Axe is mostly relaxing out of the spotlight as well. He passed his second and final try at the ATTS temperament test this spring. He earned another V rating, but sadly no placement, at a recent sieger show as well. Those will be more fun to talk about when I have photos ready, though.

It’s been a long busy week at work and I’m not sure how much longer I want to stare into a computer screen, so I don’t think I’m starting tonight.

(NaBloPoMo | November ’11: 3 of 30)

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So why would I take a picture of that…

kathi — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 04:53:05 +0000

There are still quite a few 1960s signs near my home and office. Here’s one I go past every day. It’s at the CVS drugstore at the corner of Nagle and Higgins on the northwest side of Chicago.

A restaurant and banquet hall called the Golden Flame used to be on that corner, and they kept the old sign. I was trying to remember if there was actually a neon flame on top of the original sign. I never took a picture of it when I moved into the neighborhood, and no one else seems to have taken one either. Among the many, many photographs of vintage signage in Chicago on the internet, I have still not found even one of the original Golden Flame sign.

I have made fun of the people I’ve seen taking pictures of garbage cans. Now I’m not so sure I should ever be making fun of anyone taking pictures of anything they might want to remember, even if I can’t imagine why they’d want to remember it.

And if you have a photo of the old Golden Flame sign? Please, please let me know!

(NaBloPoMo | November ’11: 2 of 30)

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