Family Matters: 10/ 14/2011, A Parade of Doggie Halloween Costumes

It's October and with children, matters of Halloween have come up.  What to wear as costumes is of prime importance to Miles, and Gabby, although she feigned indifference over the past couple of days, was originally excited at the concept of being a Peacock (perfect for her because she's so beautiful and no, I have not informed her the female peacocks are reserved and brown and it's their male counterparts that display the beautiful tail feathers), and now thinks that she will wear her riding clothes out for trick-or-treat.  Although I loved the peacock idea, it could turn into something quite expensive and the riding idea not only will be something that we won't see coming and going, but she already has everything she needs on hand.  Her prime directive there is to gather enough candy (aka inventory) to make a fortune on selling at school (the movement to remove candy and other sweet treats from the campus was stupid as the kids just bring it in and sell it anyway, taking profits out of Los Angeles Unified's pocket), so the less money spent on a costume, the better.

For Miles, all he wanted to be was a character out of Halo.  Now he knows that Halo is not a game that I will allow back in this house again, but I agreed that if he wanted to be a character, I could live with it.  Unfortunately, the only thing he has found in that area so far runs well into the $150 range and there's no way we're spending that much money on it, so I'm not sure what he has in mind.

We take the kids to an Ultimate Trick-Or-Treat zone in Calabasas, a very rich community just outside of Los Angeles, and we go to the "poor" zone where the houses only cost slightly over a million each, and they're long and narrow and set very close together.  The candy they give out in that neighborhood reflects the generalized wealth of that area and because so many people visit them, a large number of the residents put on terrific displays and many even have shows!

Our own neighborhood, because the houses are large, set far apart, set far back on the properties, and most of which have fenced permiters, gets no trick-or-treat traffic at all, so that frees both Eric & I up to go with the kids.  We enjoy that activity an awful lot.


Many people take their dogs out in that neighborhood when they take the kids, dogs in costume too.  Last year we took Lucy, wearing her bunch-of-grapes costume.  Sunny was just too old to participate in such a vigorous activity although he enjoyed wearing his costume during our wedding reception.  I actually think he probably enjoyed having the entire house to himself while we were gone.  I can't say that for sure, but Sunny was exceptionally intelligent and I know how I feel during those precious moments that I'm here alone.  Free to do whatever I want... to be productive or to take a nap without interruption.  But back onto topic.

This year we have Lucy and Sophie.  Both dogs love to go places, Sophie is certainly young enough (and interested enough) to participate, and while we have the grape costumes on hand again, truth be told, my original idea for our wedding reception was for the dogs to wear skeleton costumes.  Sadly, only one showed up, and that was not only too late for the reception, but for halloween as well.  I was going to return it, but never got around to it.  In the end, that was terrific because we didn't want to repeat costumes this year (first because it would be boring but mostly because Lucy cannot resist attacking Sophie's grapes - lol!) and the skeleton fits Sophie perfectly!  Sophie is not the least bit disturbed by wearing clothing, so we now have to decide whether to get a matching skeleton for Lucy or something else.  I'll take pictures of the dogs in their costumes on Halloween and share them for you, but for now, let's just say that a black dog wearing a black outfit with a glow-in-the-dark dog skeleton imprinted on it is a very effective look!

Anyway, we started looking at pictures on the internet, trying to figure out what to do for Lucy, and were very happily surprised at the options that presented themselves!

Although this Dogzilla is in Extra Small, I have a feeling that if we looked around, we'd find one big enough for Lucy and gawd only knows that the theme would be appropriate for her personality!

Cave Dog!

Shark Eating the Dog!

Here's the Skeleton we already have.  It looks much better on our dogs.

 

Hmmmm... This is also a costume based in black and certainly the Bee would be appropriately humiliating for Lucy, not that she'd notice.  

 

Could we get this Elephant on Lucy before she tore the trunk off in play?

 

There's no way!  Lucy would rip the skirt of this Witches costume to shreds as soon as she took the hat off and played with it to death!

While this Devil costume is very tempting, do we really want to encourage Lucy?

 

Tinkerbell.   Hmmm.... tempting! 

A Pirate.  Another very tempting choice!

The costumes above are all available on Amazon.com.  But of course, I didn't want to completely ignore Etsy, my favorite hand-crafted buying forum.  So here's a few of my favorites available there:

A Doggie Hula Costume!  I really like it.But it's only displayed on a stuffed dog.  How would a real dog feel about it?

There's little question how this dog feels about this monster hat.  Now that's the Halloween Spirit!  But I don't think that Lucy could be taken down so easily.

 

Bat Dog!!!!!!

I can't believe I ate the whole thing1  I feel like such a Cow!

Maggie Simpson, anyone?

Carmen Miranda!  Now this is tempting - lol!

Now if you're serious about dressing your dog up, there are many places to go to buy them.   This is but a small selection that I found on line, and you can find them in many brick-and-mortar stores too.   Please enjoy the holiday and be safe, and if you can enjoy committing your canine to participating too, then happy shopping! 

A Slimmons Halloween

Halloween comes but once a year. Once upon a time, I dressed up my dogs (the ones from then, not now), handed out candy, and ate at least several bags myself over the course of the evening. But those days are gone. I know myself. I cannot have candy in my condo or I will go through it like nobody's business. And I know my dog Cosmos. Presented with repeated visits by unearthly beings at his door, he would probably swallow his own tongue in fright. And so we are locked up tight here, lights off at the front of my unit, windows closed against sound, and the patio gate barracaded. A quiet night.

But it wasn't so last night. Even though it was yet another Cimzia day, I had decided long ago that I was going to the Halloween Party at Slimmons, and I was a-goin'.

My costume started with "Duck" tape and tin foil. Am I nuts, or didn't this used to be "DucT" tape. For taping up air ducts and such? Is this like the "Unabomber" who started out as the "UnIbomber" for sending bombs to professors at universities, only to be misspelt by the media?
For the hat, I used the Elizabethan Collar that Sunny refused to wear after his surgery last year.
And my costume was "Crazy Tin Foil Person."

Halloween at Slimmons:









BOO!

A Big Hand for Eric

Eric & I planned to get together today, mostly just to be together and to do our respective marketing, but at 11 am (when we were supposed to meet), I got a phone call from him. Gabby, his ten-year-old daughter was sick and home from school. Not really sick enough to be condemned to bed, but just enough to accompany him to my home. Was that OK? Well, we quickly determined that she was likely not contagious, so I gave the go-ahead and they showed up shortly thereafter.

I am still very weak, and having done my laundry before their arrival, I was pretty-much done. Gabby entertained herself, Eric busied himself on the computer, and I lay in bed complaining about my current state of affairs. But after a couple of hours of this, the bottom line was it was lunch time, I was hungry, Gabby was hungry, and Eric could eat. I suggested that we just run over to Gelsons (a local upscale market with all sorts of in-store eating amenities) and then go next door to Vons for shopping from there. They both agreed.

We each got what we wanted to eat (Eric a sandwich, Gabby had a trip through the salad bar, and I had sushi) and sat down in their cafe section for lunch. Then Gabby needed to run up the stairs for the ladies room which conveniently were located about 10 feet from where we were sitting. Eric gave her permission to go ahead and she was gone and back in a flash.

As she settled back in, I eyed the great pile of Halloween Candy located right between the front door of the store and the Cafe, and suddenly a memory of my father jumped into my mind. To make a long story short, he used to taunt my little sister L- about a hand that would come out of the toilet when you would sit down to go and pull you under. I couldn't resist. I asked Gabby if "the hand" had tried to grab her.

She gave me a very sceptical look like she was saying "Yeah, right." and didn't reply. I insisted that Gelsons installs one in the toilet every Halloween for that very purpose. Gabby looked at the Halloween Display and then at me, not believing me in the least, but at least willing to listen. And Eric took it from there.

"Did you know that the Hand usually pinches people's bottoms, but only started grabbing them a year or two ago?" he asked the quizzical Gabby. "But originally, it would bypass the bottoms all together and go right for your pants pocket to steal your wallet."

At this point, Gabby was hooked. "Wouldn't the money get wet?" she asked.

Eric ignored her question. "Do you know what that Hand would buy with all of the money that it stole?" he asked her. "Gloves. Gloves are the only thing that a hand would ever have any use for." (I decided not to point out that a hand could also use rings. An occasional manicure. Or maybe Hand Lotion) I replied that the Hand was ripped off every time it made a purchase because "a" hand would only need one glove, but they are always sold in pairs.

He went on. "The Hand is the saddest thing on earth. It finally gave up stealing wallets and moved on to pinching bottoms. And do you know why the Hand is always so sad?"

Gabby shook her head no. We were both waiting with baited breath for the answer.

Eric looked very grave. He lowered his voice; he lowered his eyes. And he answered his own question softly. "Everybody always wants the one thing that they can't have. The Hand is always sad because it can never clap."

Gabby tried it out, clapping her hands. We pointed out that she used two hands and the hand only had one. She batted at the air with only her left hand a couple of times, I choked back a chuckle, and we went on to discuss other business of the day.