Sit! Stay! Now, work!

As the weekend draws near, my trickle of preparation for the Pet Fashion Show has turned into a veritable Niagara. All of the outfits shown on the catwalk --pun?-- will be auctioned off for charity via bids placed in a box. I enlisted my dog model, Puffy, to show off the haute-ness, and spent the afternoon snapping the photos that would be placed in front of each bid-box.


Here, Puffy models a comely denim jacket and bandana-print snood by Canine Closet...



In this photo, he channels his inner Eddie Izzard in a gold leather/cheetah print reversible jacket by Zack and Zoey and courtesey of Dress the Dog...


...And here, Puffy appears in my favorite offering, the pink studded halter by Top Dog, also courtesey of Dress the Dog.

Puffy's the demanding type, always taking breaks in the middle of things. Luckily, he takes these breaks outdoors.

"You're paid by the hour, you know. Five minutes, tops."

"No, go there."

"First one upstairs gets a treat!"

"Ya got me, you beast! Here's your muffin."

Recipe for Puffy's Muffins:

2 cups of all-purpose flour, sifted if possible
1 stick of unsalted butter at room temperature
3/4 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
6 small, ripe bananas
1/3 cup coconut
1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoon Vanilla
1/2 c. chopped pecans, if you desire.

Preheat oven to 350. Cream the butter and sugar until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.

Combine the flour, baking soda and salt. Add to the creamed mixture, and mix thoroughly.

Mash the bananas with a fork. Add in the coconut, cinnamon, pecans and vanilla. Fold into the batter.

Pour into lined muffin tins (makes about 16). Bake for about 40 minutes, but watch it carefully because I always go by smell and rarely by time when baking. Usually the first instant you can smell a baked item is when its ready, or about 5 minutes later, in my experience. This is a dad-learned trick, though it could just as easily have been Puffy. Oh yeah. Ice it with Whipped Buttercream Icing. Mahhhvelous.

"Animal Planet? Predictable... Good thing you can bake, dog."

"Zzzzz...."

That'll be the last nap I get for awhile... til next time...!