Monday, March 19, 2007

Precious Pooches


In my Dolls to Die For series, Gretchen Birch has a purse dog, a tiny black teacup poodle named Nimrod. No, this isn’t a picture of Nimrod. This manly beast is modeling Doogles, those popular shades that every hip dog yearns to own. These goggles, I mean doogles, are shatterproof, flexible, have anti-fog lenses, foam padding for face comfort, and feature an extra wide nose bridge for maximum comfort.

The last time I visited Phoenix to do research for my doll collecting series, I went to the Biltmore Fashion Park specifically to see Three Dog Bakery. The store welcomes canine customers and carries everything you need to accessorize, clothe, and feed your precious pet, including freshly baked, healthy treats made from whole grains, peanut butter, honey, tomatoes. The best selling snack, the one the dogs all love—doggie ice cream. On Thursdays the store features Yappy Hour.

I missed Yappy Hour, but the inside of the store as well as the outer courtyard of the Fashion Park were teaming with two-legged and four-legged browsers on that late sunny morning, all ages, all sizes, from Great Danes to Chihuahuas.

What are the hottest fashions this season? Bling bling collars (those shiny, sparkling jeweled ones), polo shirts, shoes, and bomber jackets. Shoes? You bet. Your pooch can select from a variety of canvas sneakers, hiker books, ballerina shoes, and fleece-lined muttluks.

The Biltmore Fashion Park is an upscale shopping mall, the customers are well-‘heeled’ (the humans, I mean). So I was amazed to discover how well-behaved all the doggy visitors were. My border collie would have been ‘marking’ his territory in every corner of the shop. He would have been greedily snatching treats away from other dogs. He would have been testing the toys before buying them.

He would have exposed himself and me as the Midwestern, small town hicks we really are. I’m glad he wasn’t along. I bought him some treats though. Vanilla Woofers and SnickerPoodles.

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Deb Baker

2 comments:

Linda O. Johnston said...

More dogs on this blog. I love it! (Of course.) And aren't the expensive but delightful doggy gifts that are available now fun??!

Anne Godden-Segard said...

Now that I have my first precious purse dog rescued from the Chicago pound, I need Nina from your doll mysteries to help me make Mrs. Emma Peel, "purse" worthy! And did you see any pink shoes for Mrs. Peel to match her coat, leash and collar? (Smile)

Anne Godden-Segard