DogCacher.com

It has got to be a pretty darn good reason to get me up on a Sunday morning before 6:00 AM but this past Sunday I was awake, dressed and fairly cheerful (for me). Sunday was the Third Annual Whisker Walk and this year we hosted a geocaching event.

There was a time, only about 2 years ago, where I could stand in a swarming mass of mosquitoes and walk away unscathed. Not so anymore. I am thinking that sometime in the last two years my blood chemistry changed and I have become very appealing to all blood sucking, fleshing biting invertebrate that exist on this earth.

On a good day I am picked apart like chicken wings on an all you can eat Chinese buffet. After an outdoor adventure yesterday before which I lathered myself in bug spray, I felt like a human chew toy. I have a bite in the middle of my forehead, near my hair line that has swelled to a point that I could pass for a pubescent unicorn. My arms look like I have leprosy and one ear is so badly chewed that I swear when the swelling goes down half of it will be missing. Benadryl  and cortisone are my best friends.

I am thinking of getting my dogs their own bank accounts. Hey why not. Ok I am not really going to get them an account but next time I go to the bank I am taking them inside. Yup you heard me right. I am a TD Bank customer and they encourage their customers to bring their dogs into the bank with them. They even offer dog treats for their canine consumers.

When I was training Bleu to be a therapy dog I used to take her into the ATMs with me all the time. Many people were not terribly happy with me but it was great training for her. She learned to sit quietly at my side until I finished my transaction.

Well, until a dog lover joined us in the ATM then I was screwed. She had to introduce herself and instruct them on the proper way to rub a dogs belly. Once when she was particularly enthusiastic I actually had my bank card eaten by the machine. It seems there is a time limit on retrieving it once your transaction ends. I was not too happy when I had to wait 2 weeks to get it back in the mail. Fortunately now most ATMs just have you swipe the card not insert it .

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This adorable seven-month-old beagle mix named Mona did find her forever home after she ran the bases at an IAMS Adoptable Pet Of The Game Event held in Arkansas.

What is it that makes geocaching so addictive? I asked myself that this morning as I was cleaning up my GPS from my last excursion and downloading about 50 more for the weekend. Not that I have found 50 in one weekend I just like to dream.

There certainly is a thrill about finding then next one and the next one or finding it before your team members do. If you are the one with the GPS lying about the coordinates helps you achieve this goal. Perhaps that is why when I go out with the team they bring their own GPS's and sync up.

Sometimes I feel like a kid on a playground with a new toy. I show up with my Bushnell GPS that clips nicely to my backpack bragging how I will never drop my again.  Then next person shows up with their iphone 3G and their million and one apps. So next week I go get a water proof Garmin Etrex lets see what happens to your iphone when it "accidentally" gets a little wet. So the next week they show up with an iphone waterproof body glove that also shields the suns rays for clearer readings.

In retrospect I probably should not have taken my 80 year old parents geocaching in a cemetery. But that which is hidden I must find and I never dreamed that my mom would be so fascinated by the sport. She isn't 100% up on the concept of the game but it does intrigue her.

Dad is just a cynic. Of course I have yet to find a cache when I have taken them so to him they have been stolen or collected by the last person that looked for them.

Ok I have been feeling as though I am losing my geocaching edge. I have not returned to either bridge to search for the elusive microcaches but I justify that because they are both out of state. So what that "out of state" for one of them is 20 minutes from my house and I drive by there at least once a week. (see my Best Finds Are Right Under Your Nose Blog for more info on that subject).

I decided that I needed a "geoboost" so I sent out with my team of geoaussies and Ms BossieAussie to find several in the city of Waltham, MA. We were pumped. There were several in a park that I used to frequent often when I lived in the area. Of course back then I had no idea that there was anything hidden in those woods and  I definitely did not have the capacity at the time to find them. I probably wouldn't have had the patience either.

The first cache that we set out to find was allegedly in a  meadow and  located by a rock. It was an easy find according to the logs and  it seemed that way when we arrived. Unfortunately my curse continued. We torn that rock apart. I climbed on it. Dug every leaf out of it and off it. I picked up every small rock that I found near it thinking they were fake with some cool log book hidden inside. I found an empty whiskey bottle with nothing inside except a few inebriated beetles. I was sure I had it when I picked up a pink container of lip gloss. Clever hide I thought as I pried off the bottom only to find more of the pink waxy substance.

I just had to share this cute video. I hope it makes your day and gives your dog some ideas. Do you ever wonder what your dog is up to during the day, when you are at work?

Ok maybe they are not quite the St Olaf Glee Club as we would expect them this is still a very funny tribute to Ms White. God Bless you Betty and all that you do for the animals.

What is it with me and bridges?

This is my second nano hunt on a bridge. You would think that given that a bridge is only so big it should be fairly easy to find a cache even if it is relatively small. Obviously not the case for me.

I downloaded this great covered bridge cache at a dog friendly trail. My first try I didn't pay enough attention to the description and spent a great deal of time hunting for the cache in the parking lot. Had I paid better attention I would have read that the coordinates were for the parking lot and the best way to find the cache was to decipher the hint.