Exclusive offer for RVA Muttropolis readers:

Receive $5 off any Wag-in-the-Box purchase this fall!  Promo code: (case sensitive!) 5Wags4RVAMuttropolis

You’ve likely heard the buzz around Birch Box for people; well, this is Fido’s local-to-RVA edition.  Sample the best boutique shop treats, chews, and toys—all natural and health conscious ingredients.  It makes for the perfect gift for the dog-lover, especially those who have it all!  Wag-in-the-Box will also make a donation to a charity of your choosing, like Fetch a Cure.

Gift a friend a few months subscription and they’ll thank you over and over again.  Here’s to waggy tails.

THE DOG ECONOMY:  
It’s bigger than the beauty product industry.  Wrap your paws around that for a minute.

American Pet Products Association (APPA) reports that its 2011-2012 National Pet Owners survey found 62 percent of United States households own a pet; that’s roughly 72.9 million homes.  It also reports that in 2011, $50.96 billion—yes, with a B—was spent on pets in the United States.

How to make money in the $50 billion pet industry.

We love this: Wine Dogs

Richmond Times-Dispatch reports: At Veritas Vineyards and Winery, wine dogs play important role.  Although it is near Crozet, just west of Charlottesville, we love this vineyard.  We do need to work on bringing back their dog-friendly Starry Nights summertime events, however.

Hank, a brown and white hound, lounged in the shade of the grapevines at Veritas Vineyards and Winery in Afton recently.

He rose from his spot in the grass and padded off through the lines of grapes, patrolling the vineyard for unwanted critters.

Hank is one of five wine dogs Veritas keeps in the vineyard. Their jobs are to keep deer and small animals, like groundhogs, away from the fruit by chasing them away and barking. Their scent also deters bears from coming to the vineyard, said Ruth Terry, who takes care of the winery’s animals.

“They try to keep more grapes on the vine,” Terry said.  Continue reading at RTD.

Howl-O-Ween in RVA

Within a neighborhood crowd of hundreds, I took the blue ribbon for a costume contest.  At five years old, I was Little Bo Peep and my Yorkshire Terrier, Duchess, was the sheep.  My mom helped me glue about 100 cotton balls onto a baby costume.  Duchess surprisingly loved it.  Maybe it was warm or maybe she just basked in the attention.  In the end, the judges revoked my “best costume of the year” after public backlash—Duchess was oozing so much cuteness that they disqualified us as unfair competition.  Sour grapes?

For the love of blogging, I will share this photo. Circa 1980’s.

Luckily, canine costume contests are now all the rage.  I like to think that I played some small part in the trendsetting.  Duchess is posthumously a trailblazer.

Here are three costume contests for Fido in the RVA area this month:

Costumes for a Cure: October 30, 5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. happy yappy hour, followed by pet costume contest at Station 2.  Sponsored by Fetch a Cure, Wag-in-the-Box, CVVA, inLieu, and Station 2.

Stony Point Fashion Park: Costume Contest for dogs October 21 from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.  Prizes sponsored by Three Dog Bakery.  Refreshments and trick-or-treats for pups. 

Chesterfield County: Calling all costumed canines! The Ruff House Dog Park is hosting its annual Howl-A-Woof event at Rockwood Park, Saturday, Oct. 20, from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Dogs big and small can compete in a costume contest to see which is the best dressed, while humans can enjoy food and drinks, and browse the merchandise available for sale. A musical sit competition will challenge both two and four-legged competitors. All proceeds from the event will benefit the Friends of Ruff House Dog Park, a not-for-profit volunteer organization sanctioned by the Chesterfield County Department of Parks and Recreation to maintain and improve the park and enforce rules. 

J’adore

A peek at the châteaux’s dinner table.

My favorite souvenir from my recent trip to France is this collection of bronze dogs.  At each dinner place setting in our not-so-modest Loire Valley chateaux stood these charming miniature statues.  I instantly knew they were the treasure I was looking for, and it turns out they are made in the town nearby with a centuries-old preserved mold.  Their tiny size makes them deceiving in weight and all the more intriguing when you pick them up.

And now on my dinner table.

It’s a set of six, all different.

I brought them on the plane home relishing as if I were carrying pure gold.  It’s the flair my bare dinner table needed and that will always remind me of the French dog-harmony.  No other souvenir will I cherish more—except don’t tell my dog because he is now enjoying a red “telebone” from Harrod’s.

And why not on a side table?

Paris is for [dog] lovers

I wandered the picturesque streets of Paris, absorbed in everything and it all had luscious allure. 

The crisply dressed and slender men who looked like they walked straight off the pages of GQ—très alluring.  The seductive corner markets with their spices and chocolate croissants—sinfully alluring.  The casual, lunchtime glass of wine at the café—alluring.  And the now familiar jingle of the train station announcement chime—somehow, alluring.  I was hypnotized by all things and senses French.  And then came the cherry on top.  The yorkies, the poodles, the pomeranians, as you would expect a part of Parisian life.  I must have snapped a dozen pictures of one pup romping on the grass outside of the Louvre.  At our centuries-old French châteaux, a yorkie joined us for the four course dinner.  Down the Champs-Élysées strutted fully-clad furry Frenchmen and ladies headed to the luxury restaurants and shops.

There was simply no concern of a faux pas when it came to canines, except for one particular quirk.  Excusez-moi, I was rather shocked to find most French parks are off-limits to dogs; quite the opposite to our standards.  Dogs are welcome almost anywhere in Paris, and if they are not, signage clearly front and center will discern.

RVA Muttropolis rates Paris 4.5 out of 5 paws.  Perhaps the most telling takeaway: RVA has great potential to rival.