The day the earth stood still...

More than seven years ago, Carlos mentioned he wanted to have a dog, he never had a dog in his family before and I thought it would be a good idea, I like dogs. He mentioned he would like to have a Husky, a big dog and I thought ok.

Some time after that conversation, we came across some pictures of some white fluffy puppies of a breed we didn't know about, they were Samoyeds, we never seen one before. We googled the breed and checked if we could find some puppies in Costa Rica and there, in the first page we found a family in Cartago that had Samoyed puppies that were looking for their forever homes.

We said, let's go just to see them and off we went, we never really thought about the consequences of that action. We got there and saw those white cotton balls, we fell in love completely and we decided right there on the spot to get one, without thinking about anything else, our hearts were stolen forever.

We brought home one of the loves of our lives that we named Sam, this is him the first day on his new home, he was two months old and he was the most beautiful puppy ever.

We introduced him to our families and as he did with us, he did with everybody else, he stole their hearts, he was one sweet little fluffy cotton ball. We used to take him to my Mom's house where he got to play in the yard with my Mom's puppy Chester, they played all day until they both got tired. He loved going there and running around in the yard.

He also loved going to El Tec, for walks around the campus where he got the chance of meeting other dogs, because he was always super friendly, he always had time to play.

He loved his stuffed animals, he used to have a Pooh bear that I had to constantly fix, there was a point when we used to call him the Frankenpooh, but he loved it no matter what. He would take his stuffed bears on walks too, catching everybody's attention.

He loved spending time in our backyard, also playing with us on the bed, he was also very much used to his paparazzi Mom who could not stop taking pictures of him, so he learned how to pose.

After four years of having him with us, we got the opportunity to move to California, we decided that we wouldn't go anywhere if we couldn't take him, he was part of our family, we couldn't leave him, no job or opportunity was worthy if you have to split your family. So, we did our research and found a way to bring him with us, we also made sure his life would be better here. We were very excited because here we could take him to more places, there were more dog parks, better day care places, more parks and trails where dogs are allowed, etc.

The day he traveled was a very stressful day for all because of all of the risks of taking a dog on a plane have, but he made it safe and we couldn't be happier to have him here with us. If you want to read more about that adventure, you can go here http://maricelquesada.blogspot.com/2012/02/bringing-sam-to-california.html

While in California, he visited a dog park for the first time (there were no dog parks where we used to live), he visited the beach and the snow for the first time and he met other Samoyeds.

We took him to Tahoe, where he met Kalcite, Diem, Sophie and Vino, all Samoyeds like him, cute white fluffy friendly Samoyeds like him. In this trip he even got the chance to pull on a sled for the first time, he did it very naturally like if he has been doing it all his life.

Around the Bay Area, some of his favorite places were Fort Funston, Point Isabel and the Palo Alto Baylands. However, as long as he was out walking around with us, he was happy, he loved exploring new places, meeting new dogs and people, car rides, any kind of adventure. Oh, he also enjoyed treats ... and digging some times!

Something we loved to do for him was to take him to Tahoe, he enjoyed these trips so much, being able to run off-leash, swim in the lake, be outside all day, it was paradise.

Sam was not a pet or just a dog, he was a member of our family, he was someone we loved very much, he was always there with us, he always had a big smile for us, he was always happy to see us, he was always gentle and friendly, he was our best friend.

Sam gave us seven years of happiness, but today he crossed the rainbow bridge, today is the day when we felt like the earth stood still, when for a moment nothing seemed to make sense, he left us very sudden, everything happen so quickly, we couldn't believe it, we lost our best friend, our companion, the love of our lives. We will miss him so much every day.

Sam we will love you forever!!!

Sam

Dic 08th, 2007 - Feb 04th, 2015

San Francisco Photowalk

I went on my first photowalk yesterday with a lot of other photographers, the event was organized by Dave Powell from ShootTokio.com and Vincent Mo, tech lead of Google+ Photos.

It was a great experience, first because it was something I've never done before, second because it gave me the perfect excuse to go to San Francisco and take pictures of the city and third, because I got to see a bunch of other people as passionate about photography as I am, probably even more, and most of them with a lot more experience for sure.

We started from the Ferry Building and continued to the Financial District, after a couple of hours Carlos and I went home, we needed to go take care of Sam, but the group continued to China Town and finish the photowalk with a dinner, too bad we missed that part, hopefully next time we would be able to stay until the end.

Here are some of my favorite pictures from the photowalk, I hope you enjoy them.

Tiny Golden Gate


Bay Bridge


Happy girl, not sure what she was doing but she was very happy about being photographed by a lot of people.


Checking the make up


Flowers: Sea Lavender


Patterns


This woman was sitting on the sidewalk enjoying the sun light


Patterns


Looking up


Going down


Patterns


Embarcadero Center, great place to find patterns


Beautiful


Twins?


Downtown


Transamerica Pyramid


More patterns


Transamerica Pyramid


Reflections


China Town


Triangles


Going up to heaven


Colorful buildings


All pictures I took can be seen in my Flickr set San Francisco Photowalk 06-17 set.

Bringing Sam to California

My husband Carlos and I have a dog named Sam and we recently moved to California so we brought him with us, of course, how could we leave him if he is family.

When we decided to come to California we were super worried about him, because he would have to be transported in a plane and since he is a big dog he doesn't travel in the cabin, at the end we decided to flight with Continental and use their PetSafe service, he flew in the cargo but in a temperature controlled area specially for him. He arrived in SFO safe, super tired and thirsty and of course scared but fine, we were so happy to see him when he arrived (we arrived earlier than him) and to see that he was OK. He arrived fine but we are going to try not to make him go through something like this again since it was a very stressful situation for all of us. It was nice that there were a lot of people giving us their support that day through his Facebook page, all of his fans were waiting for him to arrive, to know he was safe and healthy before going to bed, it was nice to know that all those friends were sending us their good wishes and best thoughts hoping that everything went fine with his trip. Thanks all for that!!

We are happy and thankful for being able to have him here with us, we are excited because compared with Costa Rica, California is a very dog-friendly place, not that Costa Rica isn't but here you have dog parks, big sidewalks and parks where you can walk with your dog with no problem.



We were super excited the first time we took him to a dog park, we weren't sure how he was going to behave being around so many dogs but he was great, he had such a wonderful time he and we couldn't believe it.



Later we had the opportunity to go to Point Isabel, when we arrived there we weren't sure to let him go off-leash because this park is open and we were afraid he would run and that we would lose him, but we decided to give it a try and he was fantastic, he was always close to us, always looking back making sure we were there and he would come back when we called him, it was amazing like if he was trained all of his life.



We went to Point Isabel to meet our friends Doug and Megan and his two samoyeds Jamie and Alice.





Even though we lived in Costa Rica, a country that is surrounded by the ocean in both sides, we were never able to take Sam to the beach because it was too hot for him, so we were also excited of being able to take him to the beach here and see what his reaction was. We first took him to Fort Funston, he was first afraid of the waves, he wasn't really sure what to do.



But later he found a friend who run into the water so he saw it was safe and followed him, it was super fun to see him run on the water.



Then he didn't want to get out!





We took him to Santa Cruz too, he had a blast that day, since now he knows that all that water is safe to play in he had a great time, he found a few friends to run and play with and for us it is always so fulfilling to see him so happy, running freely and having the best time of his life.







We certainly hope to keep having awesome days full of fun with our dog Sam. Next thing in our to-do list is to take him to play in the snow :-)