Heather Hunt - Lifes a Puppy Party: Recipes, DIYs, and Activities for Celebrating the Seasons with Your Dog

Lifes A

Puppy Party

Recipes, DIYs, and Activities for Celebrating the Seasons with Your Dog

Heather Hunt

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Copyright 2021 by Heather Hunt

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information, address Simon & Schuster Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.

First Tiller Press hardcover edition October 2021

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Interior design by Jennifer Chung

Cover design by Patrick Sullivan

Cover photography by Josh Blaney

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Hunt, Heather N., 1988 author. Title: Lifes a puppy party : recipes, DIYs, and activities for celebrating the seasons with your dog / by Heather Hunt ; photographs by Josh Blaney. Description: New York : Tiller Press, 2021. | Includes index. Identifiers: LCCN 2021011759 (print) | LCCN 2021011760 (ebook) | ISBN 9781982167554 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781982167561 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: DogsEquipment and supplies. | DogsFoodRecipes. | Handicraft. | Do-it-yourself work. Classification: LCC SF427.15 .H86 2021 (print) | LCC SF427.15 (ebook) | DDC 636.7dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021011759

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021011760

ISBN 978-1-9821-6755-4

ISBN 978-1-9821-6756-1 (ebook)

Illustration credits: Home and Pencil by Alice Design from the Noun Project; Safety and Bone by Adrien Coquet from the Noun Project; Parasol by b farias from the Noun Project; Flower by kirana from the Noun Project; Maple Leaf by fauzan akbar from the Noun Project; Christmas Snowflake by ProSymbols from the Noun Project; Paw by Fithratul Hafizd from the Noun Project; Think by Mello from the Noun Project; Exclamation Mark by TMD from the Noun Project; Party Hat by Fabiana Antonioli from the Noun Project; and Star by lauriel from the Noun Project.

For my mom:

Thanks for teaching me that even the smallest celebrations deserve a party.

I n the summer of 2016, I had zero children and zero plans to have children, but I was reading parenting blogs for eight hours a day.

My job in marketing at a New York City childrens clothing start-up meant that I spent all day every day immersed in content from the internets most popular parentstheir favorite snack recipes, colorful DIYs, themed party ideas, and seasonal shopping guides.

Being a mom was far from my mind, but my husband and I were spending our nights obsessively researching puppy adoption. The day we brought home Dave, our tiny and neurotic four-pound dachshund puppy, was one of the best of my life.

As a newly obsessed pup parent, I was ready to go all out on celebrating life with our little guy. I wanted to bake him dog treats and throw him a half-birthday party and sew him a Halloween costume. But I had no idea which ingredients were safe or how to plan a puppy party or where to shop for dog clothes. I assumed that a quick internet search would serve up the kind of modern, high-quality blogs that I was used to reading for work. And sure, there were plenty of online resources for vaccination schedules, diet information, and training programs, but the fun stuff? Not so much.

Almost exactly a year after Dave joined our family, we brought home a corgi named Elizabeth and launched TheDapple.com, the kind of fun and modern pup-parenting guide that we felt was missing onlinea place where you could read about rescue organizations but also find instructions for throwing your dog a Harry Potterthemed birthday party.

In the three-plus years since then, weve been overwhelmed by the reception to our site. We never imagined that wed get so many emails from dog owners who had been looking for a blog like ours, or that wed get to attend VIP events where people wanted to tell us how wed inspired them to plan their pup a barkday party. Weve loved every minute of learning, growing, and celebrating pup parenthood with our readers.

When the kind and enthusiastic team at Tiller Press/Simon & Schuster approached me about developing a pup-parenting book based on our blog, it was just two weeks before most of the US would go into lockdown for the COVID-19 pandemic. After an initial conversation that ended with everyone on the call excited about the project, I assumed the book would be cancelled because, well, who was really feeling like celebrating anything in March 2020?

After my editor reassured me that the book was still happening, I spent a lot of time trying to sort through my own feelings about creating something so small and silly at a time dominated by so much sadness. And as I did, I kept coming back to all the conversations (and DMs and emails) that Ive shared with our readers over the last three years. For so many of us, its the little silly moments that make life with a dog especially beautiful and joyful, like watching their excitement over a new toy or a playdate with an old friend.

With that in mind, weve created the book that we wished was available when our dogs first joined our familya guidebook to celebrating life with your dog all year long. Weve included over forty recipes, DIYs, and activities that can be adjusted to work for dogs of almost any size and breed. And just to make sure everything will be fun and safe for both you and your pup, all activities and recipes in this book have been reviewed by Dr. Sarah Machell. Dr. Sarah is a veterinarian with over two decades of experience in small-animal veterinary practice, a dog mom to three very adored pups, and the medical director of Vetster.com.

Were so honored to share Lifes a Puppy Party with you, and we hope it inspires you to have fun, make some memories, and celebrate each new year with your dog.

Heather

W hat Heather has put together in this book for us dog loversto have fun and safe activities and joyful celebrations with our beloved companionsis just fantastic, and I was so excited to have the opportunity to review all of the activities and recipes! Keep in mind as you navigate all this fun that, just like us, all dogs are differentthey have different needs, preferences, allergies, sensitivities, and emotional baggage.