thebabyperks

Welcome home, Marzen!

This Saturday we went to visit a puppy at Prairie Paws Animal Shelter in Ottawa, KS (you can check out my recent review of a brewery in Ottawa). Honestly, it was a spur of the moment decision. After a relaxing staycation day-off on Friday, David and I settled down to watch a Halloween movie. I started to scroll on Facebook and noticed the photo of a German Shepard puppy at a rescue named Hot Tamale.

After some encouragement from David, we sent an email to see if we could schedule a meeting with her.

I wasn’t sure if they would email me back. Part of me assumed the email would say she was already adopted. But, in the middle of my workout Saturday morning I got the email that we could visit her that day. Like I mentioned in my review of Not Lost, Ottawa is around 40 minutes away and the entire time I was so nervous. We’ve been talking about getting a puppy since my parents got their puppy in the spring, but we hadn’t really prepared for getting a dog. David kept reassuring me that this wasn’t a commitment to adopt, if it didn’t work out it would be okay. 

Then we pulled into the parking lot.

When they brought Hot Tamale out to us (we met outside because of COVID) she immediately ran to our legs and sat down to get petted. She was a little shy, but oh-so-sweet. After a few minutes she warmed up, licked us, and continued to play.

And immediately went to Pet Smart to load up on some toys, treats, and a crate. Prairie Paws was so kind to give us a gallon of the food she was already on, a collar, and leash.

It’s only been two days but she has done so well. We’ve been working on some basic commands, walking on a leash, crate training, and potty training. She doesn’t whine too much at night in her crate which makes me happy. And she’s been doing so good at going out and going potty. 

She loves walks. We went on six of them on Sunday.

Overall, things are going so well. Obviously she’s still very new to our home but I think she is adapting so well.

Oh—and if you are curious about her name. Marzen comes from the name marzenbier or German-style Marzen/Oktoberfest beer. The German word for March is Marzen because Oktoberfest beers were typically brewed in March in anticipation for Oktoberfest celebrations (although now they’re so popular they’re brewed year-around). We thought it was a unique and fitting name since we adopted her in the fall during “Marzen season.”

And that’s the story of how we got our newest Barberis and Brew addition. Be sure to come back to my blog to learn more about how our lives as puppy parents are going and what we’ve been up to.

Until next time,

Taylor

With the weather cooling down dramatically over the past two weeks we've been able to spend a lot of time outside. We've been trying to break in the hiking shoes we bought at the end of last season and increase our mileage. One way we've been doing that is picking a trail within an hour of our home to explore. Of course, we check for local breweries, too. This week we chose Excelsior Springs, Missouri.

Excelsior Springs is home to The Elms, an allegedly haunted luxury hotel. I had the chance to stay in the hotel back in January during a retreat for work. They have a ghost tour that I did not participate in (not something I'm in to, but some of my coworkers did) and a great spa. I didn't have time on the retreat to explore the city so I was excited to go back.

On our way to walk the Watkins Mill Lake Loop, we had to try Dubious Claims Brewing Company. They have a full menu of food and a good range of brews. While there we split the Hawaiian pizza and I had the nitro milk stout and their blueberry wheat ale. David had two lagers because they were out of the cream ale. I am usually not a stout person, which is quite surprising because I love coffee, but this stout was smooth and easy to drink.

We finished our beers and decided to take some time to walk around their small downtown. There were some cute little shops that we browsed through-- I even grabbed some small Christmas gifts.

After we finished our shopping we took a short ten minute drive to the lake. There was plenty of parking and some boats and kayaks out on the water. This wasn't a challenging hike by any means considering it was paved, but it was beautiful. If we would've arrived earlier in the day we easily could have walked it two or more times before the sunset. We didn't want to push our luck, though, and stuck with doing the 3.8-mile loop one time. 

Throughout the hike there were places with a better view of the water. I used a few of those opportunities to snap some photos.