Hounding for Hollywood

Back in the Spring, Sedona hosted it's annual film festival (which is growing to be along the lines of a Sundance or Cannes festival more each year.) Although I did not personally attend, what with the whole dog thing working against me... my dad was there and got to rub elbows with some nifty big screen personalities. He was working as a "cord-carrier" and assisting the film crew of a local TV station as they covered the event.

Ned Beatty, a seasoned actor of "Deliverence" fame and much more, was just an arms length from Chris as the NOW network (remember them from the "Stupa-fied" post) conducted an interview at the gala. Also there was that lady from "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" , Lainie Kazan. It's always cool to meet someone in the flesh, who you've seen on TV or in movies. Apparently my Granddaddy (a/k/a "Pops" - Chris' dad) was briefly in a movie called Turk 182. It was a crowd coverage shot at the Meadowlands where he ran across the screen (as himself) when he still coached for the New York Giants - but hey... it counts.

Anyway - I just saw the Sedona Magazine tonight with some photos of the festival in it and thought I'd share:

The Cover of the issue is shown at left. The center picture is my dad et al [L-R: Glenn Scarpelli, Dara Tokarz and Chris]. The picture to the right is actually a different event covered in the same issue of Sedona Magazine, but it is two friends and former co-workers of dad and my auntie Dara so I included it [L-R: Kathie Waide, Kim Meller]. Lots of fun photos in this summer issue that highlights friends and famous folks alike. It gives us a pleasant distraction from all the Sedona Fire coverage!

So how do I tie-in a recipe to this post? Hmmm, how about this (follow closely):

My dad works for Three Dog Bakery in Sedona. The original Three Dog Bakery in Kansas City has been featured on the Oprah Winfrey show. Oprah is famous, and so are Mark and Dan the founders of Three Dog Bakery (and the dogs Gracie, Dottie and Sarah!) My dad has met the famed Mark and Dan (who know Oprah) so naturally all this fame means we should share a Three Dog Bakery recipe with you. But Three Dog Bakery Recipes are PROBABLY trademarked - so I'll link you to where you could find the book by Mark and Dan from AMAZON.

There... that counts doesn't it!? I thought so.

Love ya'll like a random encounter with a big time celebrity...

Joy Beagle.

PS- Comment here on your Close encounters with celebs !

Belle Weaver-We Salute You!

Now some may call me a literary master! (Or maybe that is just the delusional voices in my little puppy head?) But of all the talented Beagles I have ever heard of - this dog is a TRUE hero. (And just to clarify, I am joking about the literary master thing!)

Belle Weaver, a/k/a "super beagle" saved her human's life. She is trained to check his breath for ketonic indicators of a diabetic seizure onslaught... and in worst case scenarios she can call 9-1-1 on his cell phone. The latter is EXACTLY what she did recently to save his life.

Tails up to you girl-friend! Any Beagle who saves lives is an ace in my book!

For Belle Weaver - today's recipe is a HERO sub. Sure, we dogs can't really eat those because of the salt and stuff... but a little table scrap is due in this case.

Thank you Belle Beagle. And thanks to KT, my dad's friend in Maryland who brought the Belle Weaver article to our attention in the comments from my last post!

Love ya'll like a favorite super hero saving the day at the last minute,
-Joy Beagle

Mother Nature is Stalking Me!

What is it with me and natural disasters? I barely escape New Orleans after Katrina ravaged the place, and now Sedona is poised to light up like a tender box!

Granted, the fire is sticking mainly to the National Forest and has not breached or compromised any physical structures yet, but in my heart I hear the pleas of my wildlife friends who cannot possibly all be outrunning this blaze which lept from 300 acres (when Chris was evacuated from work in uptown today at 5:30) - to 1,000 acres now (around 11:00). The photos here are some photos courtesy of Arizona Republic Website (credited to JD Maddie and Janessa Hilliard).

So far only a few areas have been evacuated, but the blaze you can see from most of West Sedona where we live is a little un-nerving. This is a close up someone else took:

and below is Chris' horribly unfocused photo but gives a point of reference from where we live (the top of the shot is the blaze, the red light in the middle is the shopping center about 1/4 mile from our house):

It was a strange day indeed. Chris tells me he got a call at work from the owners of his shop. They were packing their home at about 1:30 PM watching the blaze and pillar of smoke just North of their neighborhood in Rim Shadows. They packed their valuables into the trucks and brought their two dogs and their cockatiel to the bakery. Chris says that at about 5:00 the police and forest services shut off the neighborhood where they lived and also began shutting down traffic through Oak Creek Canyon (between Sedona and Flagstaff - where Woody Fire made the news this week.) As Chris drove away from the bakery at 5:45 - the official fire sirens were going off to close the canyon and evacuate residence to Flag or Sedona.

With the planes and helicoptors all around, Chris and I were reminded of post Katrina New Orleans (although there were no Hum-Vees or camouflaged soldiers to speak of. )

So today we will discuss our "Recipe for (avoiding) Disaster!"

Every pet should prepare for evacuation - because these days between the hurricanes, floods, fires, earthquakes, politcal potentials and insanity of our world... we could take a lesson from those boy scouts who claim to "be prepared!"

This is our evacuation ready kit (which rotates periodically as things with expiration dates require.) We started this around the famous "Y2k"days, but have found on a couple occasions (like when Chris had to pick up in the middle of his life and scoot to New Orleans to help rescue pets like yours truly) that effort of "being prepared" made it easy to respond quickly to the needs of others.

Our basic Evacuation Recipe (all stored in a portable plastic bin):

a six pack of wet dog food cans (stewed beef - if you must know) and a can opener

a small bag of kibble (we like Beneful healthy weight these days)

3 gallons of fresh water and a ketadyne water filter

2 collapsable kennels (this # should be adapted to the number of dogs/cats in your home)

additional "people supplies" in our kit are:

a week's worth of camping food

toilet paper - in case housing is an issue and we must camp

a tent/sleeping bags

2 plastic plates, cups and cutlery for two

3 large trash bags and a clean sponge

a flashlight with batteries

3 ready to eat cans of chili, a box of saltines, and 3 bottles of Gatorade (electrolytes!)

An unopened pack of daily vitamins, shampoo, conditiner and soap

A Bath towel

Now this my seem "extreme" to some people, but have you been watching the news lately? It seems on any given day there is some population of our planet inconvenienced by an event. This is a way to be "ready to move into action" and help a hungry/stranded friend, neighbor or area pet who was not as prepared as you were.

Tonight we'll sleep pretty easy knowing that the firefighters are doing a great job "holding off" the spread of the "Brins Mesa" Fire. But should the need arise due to a shift in wind or fortune... this household is ready ro go with our "Recipe for (avoiding) Disaster."

One more though tonight. If you are a pet whose people "think ahead" - you should have them choose a person that you approve of to be a keyholder to your home. In the event that your person was unable to get home quickly, you could be assisted by that friend of your people to get into your kennel and rejoin your human companions at one of several pre-decided locations. We all learned from Katrina that sometimes our people can't get to us in time - and maybe planning your emergency alternatives will help reduce your stress and our dependency on rescue organizations in future emergencies!

Love ya'll like a good night's sleep from knowing you are prepared for the next day!

Love,

Miss Joy "Ain't-no-Disaster-Gonna-Bring-Me-Down" Beagle...

Stupa-fied Joy

Hello everybody. I thought I'd post this week's message and let Joy have a rest. Besides, we don't want her to get car-paw tunnel from the typing. (Eeeeew that was LAME!)

I wanted to announce a way you can see Joy Beagle "in action" from a television commercial. She and Sarah Basset are the dogs that "flash" across the screen in the Amitabha Stupa commercial (More on this shortly). If you don't know what a Stupa is, I recommend the website (that the commercial is on) as a resource.

The video/commercial is an amazing 5 minute piece that was put together by Skip Thomas here in Sedona and has aired all over the state on "Good Morning Arizona" and is cycling every two hours during June on the Channel 18 NOW network here in Sedona.

So hop on over there to The Stupa Site which is beautiful (thanks to Dawn Blanchard) and click over on the left panel midway down ("watch the Stupa Video") to see it in Quicktime. You'll get a brief glimpse (we're talking a milli-second or so) of John and I walking Sarah Basset and Joy Beagle... and John even got interviewed!

For fun here are 10 goofy facts about this blog entry:

1) We took Joy Beagle to the Stupa one day for a pet blessing ceremony.
2) It was Joy Beagle's first day ever at the Stupa.
3) Sarah Basset went as well.
4) Skip Thomas happened to be filming that day.
5) Two of the three times that Sarah has gone to the Stupa she's been in the Newspaper or on TV - strictly by coincindence.
5) The TV station is The NOW Network (Channel 18 - Sedona, AZ)
6) My friend Dara works there - she blogs too.
7) Glenn and Jude own the NOW Network.
8) Glenn used to be on "One Day at A Time" the sitcom
9) John and I met Glenn and Jude at PRIDE in Flagstaff in 2000.
10) PRIDE 2006 in Flagstaff was this weekend.

WOW life is crazy isn't it!?

Ya'll take care now... ya hear!

Six Degrees of Separation

I was having one of those doggy dreams today... you know the kind, paws are twitching... eyes rolling around in their sockets, and little dream barks quietly emitting from the throat. Anyway... in this dream I was chasing a rabbit, but I couldn't catch it. My Dads were yelling at me to leave the little fellow alone... and in the dream my feet would "run" but not make contact with the ground. It was surreal. When I came to, Chris was petting me and comforting me. I guess he is used to this because my sister Sarah Basset has what he calls "squirrel chasing" dreams all the time.

Sarah and I were talking later and we were curious why our Dads always discourage us from eating the bugs, chasing the cute little furry animals in the yard and doing all these things dogs are "supposed" to do. We couldn't really come up with a good answer, but Sarah says she's heard our people talk before about "parents" and that a lot of time you can't understand why they demand certain behaviors of you... then one day you look back and go "OH... I learned to behave differently because of that." Well, whatever it is, I suppose if I can't actually be allowed to hunt, at least they bring me those great toys that I get to rip the squeaker out of and de-stuff all over the living room!!

Moving right along to today's post topic: Sarah and I thought of a game (since our Bistro Bulldog updates aren't going as quickly as we originally hoped, we are "vamping" to entertain you!)

We call this idea the "Six Degrees of Seperation". We'll take a different twist on it though: in an effort to promote conversation between our reader's.

We hope you will each answer the following questions and we'll see if any of our paths have crossed in the past -- before this blog came into being! (I'll assume the obvious connections since a few of you do know each other.) In the comment section after the post, you can list the numbers and answers for yourself. Then we'll see if any of us had close karmic encounters prior to Hurricane Katrina. Here goes:

1) Where were you when my Dads were born? That would be October 1970 (Chris) and January 1971 (John).
2) Where did you live for any part of the Bicentennial year (1976)?
3) Where did you live when my Dads graduated from highschool (June of 1988)?
4) List a job you held or a place you visited the year my Dad's met - 1997.
5)Where did you spend New Years Eve 1999 into 2000? [Anybody remember Y2K?]
6) Is there anywhere else you've ever lived/visited that you feel like mentioning here?(Include years if you can remember them.)

These 6 questions are fairly arbitrary but we dogs are interested in how much you humans move/change and explore different surroundings. It is facinating. Maybe you'll find out you shared some "time and space" with someone else here, or maybe you'll learn something interesting about someone you already know!

Now for the random food tie-in to keep my blog true to its content... feel free to enjoy some apples and carrots while you answer the "quiz" (they are a favorite snack of Sarah's and mine when our Dads slice some up and share with us! Collard stalks are something we enjoy that surprised the boys- they cut up collards, apples and other fruits/greens for the Iguanas. We get little nibbles while the preparations are made. Nibbles of the fruits and such, not the iguanas! Just wanted to be clear on that!)

Well, thanks for dropping by and hope you'll fill in some answers!

Love ya'll like a wild run around the house after one of those terrible "baths" that Dad likes to give me.

Bone-appetit,
Joy Beagle