Zuma's day at the shelter

What a fun an educational day out yesterday. Mummy took me to Bianca animal shelter to show me how the other half live. I was surprised to see so many abandoned and abused dogs and the simultaneous woof from 300 dogs took me by surprise.

Bianca works around the clock to give these dogs a secure place to stay until they can be re-homed and work with animal associations all over Europe including the U.K to make sure these doggies get new homes, which can be anywhere within the EU and make sure these homes are the right place for them, so they don’t end up abandoned or abused again. Ana, the co-ordinator at the shelter was explaining to Mummy that this year has been the worst for abandonment with an amazing 56 dogs left at the shelter just last month. Can you believe that!?

                                          Me with Ana and some doggies in need of a home

All the dogs looked very happy and well looked after and all did their best to look adorable with their take me home eyes.  I did wonder for one minute that I was going to end up having to share my bed with a new dog that night, but managed to be cute enough to stop Mummy from bringing someone home and opted to sponsor a dog instead. It’s just 24€, that’s only £20 per year to sponsor a dog at the shelter. That’s enough to feed and give a dog all the medical attention it requires. That’s very little indeed and you can make a donatation via paypal at Bianca's website.

The charity t-shirts that Mummy designed for Bianca looked amazing and can now be bought via our Zuma the Dog Facebook page, www.zumathedog.com and www.bianca.pt at £10 for a kids t-shirt and £10 for an adults t-shirt  it really is very little to spend and show your support to such a deserving cause. Mummy can ship these t-shirts’s worldwide too, so there really is a great reason to buy.

 

    Mummy, Master C and me with a new friend

We had a wonderful day and the staff were really hardworking and lovely. Reliable volunteers are desperately needed, but still the dogs have such a lovely time during their stay with Bianca that we were told some don’t like to leave.  The dogs are very sweet and all they really just want is a loving home with lots of attention and walks. It certainly made me realise how lucky I am to have such an amazing family that love and adore me. Perhaps the reason Mummy took me there was to teach me a lesson. I think behaving myself more should be my priority and appreciating my family should be my priority. As lovely as the people are at Bianca, I wouldn’t like to be put in that position and loose my family.

Much Love

Zuma  XX

Zuma's feeling quite charitable

It’s been a while since my last post and Mummy has been so busy she’s barely been able to let me near her laptop to write anything. This is usually the time for vacations and winding down, but not here at Zuma the Dog HQ.

Things have been moving along quite nicely and I still continue to have fun and inspire Mummy with all my naughtiness. A new range has been designed and samples made with our factory. We’ve found someone to publish our books and it’s now even easier to buy Zuma the Dog product online with Kiddiebase.co.uk and The G.B. Sore here in Cascais. There was a moment though when I fell quite poorly and couldn’t move for days. Even jumping on the sofa was quite difficult. The vet thought I’d gotten a bug from those nasty tick monsters, but after a few days of little yellow pills and yakking up half the tennis ball I forgot to tell Mummy about, I felt much better and back to my usually bouncy self.

During that time Mummy took good care of me and made sure I was comfortable. She got thinking also about those doggies that don’t have a family to love and take care of them. You see it every day, doggies wandering the streets, looking for food or a bed or someone to love them. I feel most fortunate to have all of that even though my naughtiness has probably brought me close to living on the streets.  So, after a lot of thinking Zuma the Dog has decided to choose Bianca.pt as their official charity to help wherever we can. Bianca is an animal shelter for abused and abandoned cats and dogs, who nurse these animals back to health if necessary and find them new homes with loving families.  We have designed a range of t-shirts for men, women and children, which you will soon be able to purchase via our Zuma the Dog website, our Facebook page and via Bianca’s own website too. We are very proud of these t-shirt and hope that you will be able to support us and Bianca by buying one of these specially designed t-shirts. All money that is made goes straight to the charity to help buy food and medicine for these worthy animals.

We are hoping to go and visit the shelter soon. I’m looking forward to meeting doggies and hearing their stories and possibly offer some comfort at the same time. Keep an eye out for my next blog post about my visit to the animal shelter.

Much Love

Zuma XX

Zuma's Celebrating

It’s been a while now since Mummy, Master C and I arrived in Portugal and it appears we are all settling into our new life quite nicely. Master C is settling into school, making friends and learning the new language well. I’m spending some time running to the beach, playing fisbie or sunbathing. I’m bonding with Daddy S more each day and have allowed him to teach me to roll and stand (it makes him feel better).

Each week there has been something to celebrate and the Portuguese really do know how to party. Any excuse for a festival. Music festivals, Festival of the Sea, Motor bike festivals, we even had one to celebrate a Queen. Can’t imagine what that was about. My personal favourite has been “Dia de Crianca” or Children’s Day. This is a lot like Mothers Day only for the kids and lasts for three days. The town was full of children and parents having a great time. Bouncy castles on the beach, climbing walls, giant chess and many stalls where the kids could have their face painted, do arts and crafts and even learn how to make their own soap. Cool hey?!

Mummy appears to be celebrating a lot too. She’s been working on many new ideas and designs and she tells me I’m going to be world famous. She has now appointed a sales representative for Zuma the Dog in a place called Down Under. Looking at my world globe I think she means Australia. It seems like a very long way away and very big too. I wonder how many people live there. Now she tells me she’s looking to appoint a Sales Rep in the USA and once she has done that I will have to start behaving myself as my choices of actions could have consequences on our clothing brand. MMmmmmmm Naaaaaaaaa. I think the naughtier the better. People love an adorable dog being sneaky and mischievous. Makes us seem more human. That is why we are man’s best friend.

So, now that we have representation within the ANZ marketplace it makes life easier for you to get your hands on Zuma the Dog products in that territory. If you would like to enquire about our range of kid’s jeans, boy’s designer t-shirts, boy’s designer hoddies then please contact Luke Condon from LJC Consulting. You can also enquire via our Facebook page and Twitter too.

Now, I spotted a flower pot earlier, which looked ripe for digging. Think I’m gonna give Mummy another reason to tell me off. *chuckles*

Much Love

Zuma XX

Life's a Beach for Zuma

Wooooo hooooooooo!!!! Yay! Yay! Yeeeeeehhaaaaaaaa!!!!!  I’m having soooooo much fun these days I think my head is going to fall off. My tongue spends most of its time out of my head, dribbling and dangling in the sand and 90% of the time I’m either wet or completely covered in sand. I permanently have a big smile on my face that only surgery will be able to remove.

Each morning I pull Mummy down the hill to the beach. She has real trouble catching up, but we’ve now halved our trotting time from 20 minutes to 10. We are definitely getting better and this jogging malarkey is something I believe I was born to do. RUN!!!!

I’ve taken up a new sport. Frisby. It’s so exuberant and brings me so much pleasure. Mummy throws it as hard as she can and I scamper as fast as I can to try and catch it before it hits the ground. Mummy likes to throw it into the sea to make me go in the water and for that I roll around in the sand to get as grubby and grimy as possible. He He He!!!!!! You should see the look on Mummy’s face. Not amused, as she knows she’s gonna have to shower me and clean up the sand when we get home. Still, keeps her on her toes and I guess it will stop the fleas from settling as there’s not enough room in my fur for the sand. Mwahhahahaaaaaaa!!

We are working hard too. All this play time is creating design time too and although it’s just starting to be summer for you. It’s almost winter in our world of design and manufacture. We are working on autumn / winter 2012 design and sales, which appear to be going well so far. Mummy has secured some deals, which means our Zuma the Dog hoodies, boy’s designer jeans and kid’s designer t-shirts can be purchased from other retail sites apart from our own. This is such great news for our brand as now we are able to reach new customers that wouldn’t necessarily locate us Google searches.

You can still find us on Facebook and Twitter and we always love to hear from our customers. Why don’t you pop along and tell us what you’ve been up to on the beach?

Much love

Zuma XX

Zuma's new clothes

Hummmmpppffffff!!!! I don’t know what Mummy is trying to do to me. As much as I love the beach, my poor little self is not used to 3km runs every day. I blame Auntie M. She came last week for a visit and made us run to the beach and back every morning. The first day was such hard work I was actually sick on the boardwalk. Now I’m so exhausted after each run, I’m unable to get up to much. Just lying around in the sun or moving to my bean bag when it gets too hot and then to my water bowl for a little drinkies every now and again. I do believe it’s a little plot to keep me out of mischief, but you just wait as soon as I get used to this new regime I’ll be back to my naughty self. With all this beauty that surrounds me I really shouldn’t grumble and be grateful that Mummy has brought me to a place where I can be free and inspired to get up to fun things that, in turn makes Mummy happy and inspires her to create new ideas for our Zuma the Dog clothing brand. Brand awareness is increasing and sales are picking up, which means Mummy now has to come up with a new range. She’s busy researching, jotting down things I get up to and making up new slogans to go on to t-shirts and hoodies. She’s got a few goodies up her sleeve and can’t wait to see her new designs. You should really check out the styles we already have at www.zumathedog.com Kids designer jeans, boys designer hoodies and girl designer t-shirts. Come and see us on Facebook and Twitter too. We love to hear from our fans. After all, your opinion counts. I need to get back to my lazy lying around. Need to let Mummy know that she is killing me off with all this exercise. See you next time (hopefully).

.

Much Love Zuma XX

Zuma's loving the Sun

My new life in Portugal is turning out to be the best decision Mummy ever made. I am very comfortable in my new Zuma the Dog Headquarters, with my old beanbag bed from England and a new bed for the front room. I’ve done a lot of digging in the new garden and made myself perfectly at home. I get to go out for lots more walkies and the beach is only a short walk from Zuma the Dog HQ. I go there every day. Power walking Mummy down the hill into the sand dunes and straight onto the white sand. At first it was an odd feeling between my paws and running on it was difficult, but it didn’t take long before I was running faster than everyone else. You’ll find all the doggies walking their owners at the beach and I’ve even heard a story about a lady who lives near the beach who owns 15 Jack Russell’s. Can you imagine that?! 15 of me running around your house!! You’d love it!
I’m not sure if dogs can catch the sun, but it’s been super hot and as much as Mummy tries to keep me in the shade at home, I love to crash out in the sun. My under belly was pink, but now it’s a lovely shade of brown. I think I’m going to have to be careful as I’ve also noticed a few more black spots appear on my back.
This raises the point about sun safety. Mummy has been putting sun factor 30 on my nose, which is a really great idea. You can never be too careful with the sun and here at Zuma the Dog we know the importance of protecting ourselves from the sun’s harmful rays. We also believe that getting some sun is important with many health benefits. Not only does it make you feel happier and lift your mood, but it is also the best source of vitamin D. Recent studies have shown that many children are not getting enough sunlight into their system. For many years, as a parent you have been told to cover your child in the highest factor sun block possible to protect them from sunburn and skin cancer. I have seen Mummy cover Master C from head to toe in the past with factor 30 then jeans and a t-shirt on the beach. This religious sun worshiping ritual is actually stopping the Vitamin D getting into our children’s system, which can cause, in extreme cases rickets. This disease in most cases is caused by malnutrition, but a Vitamin D deficiency is not helping.
It is important that our children get the benefits from the sun without having to suffer the consequences, so perhaps consider what Mummy has been doing lately and let Master C play in the sun for an hour and then cover him in sun block.
To see more of what I’ve been getting up to in my new home. Find me on Facebook and Twitter too.
Play safe in the sun.

Much Love

Zuma XX

Zuma's Moving Adventure

Oh my good gracious!!! What an adventure!! Mummy said we
were moving, but I didn’t quite understand what that meant until now. Over the
last two weeks I couldn’t understand why Mummy was making sleep downstairs in a
big plastic box. I thought she didn’t love me anymore and couldn’t work out
what I had done. I kept finding little white and blue pills in my food too. I
always eat up my food so went with it and ate them too. After a few days the
box became almost like home and I accepted it and calmed down enough to sleep
in it every night. Something very strange has come over me and rather than the
usually panic mode of anxiety that usually takes over my body, a calm wave of
acceptance that everything is really ok has taken its place. I like this
feeling.
Two days ago Mummy bundled me into the box and packed me
into the car with Master C, a whole bunch of suitcases and Grandad drove us all
off to a very strange place where they put me onto what they call a pallet and
fork lifted me onto a very big metal bird. Crikey! It was a bit scary. It was
quite dark and at one point I was thrown to the back of my box. I thought I was
going to be sick, but managed to keep it down. I don’t remember too much, but I
know it took a while and when I was eventually fork lifted out of the big metal
bird it was very sunny and hot outside. Looking out of my box I could see Mummy
and Master C getting out of the big metal bird too, but from another exit. I
barked to let them know I was there, but I don’t think they could hear me. They
got on a bus and went off in a different direction and I was driven off to
somewhere miles away from Mummy.
After another hour of waiting I was finally reunited with
Mummy, Master C and Daddy S. It was so amazing to see everyone together. I was
so happy. I thought I was lost and forgotten about. Mummy tells me we are in a
place called Portugal and this is where she has been coming all this time to
prepare a home for me and Master C. I love it here already. I am relaxed and
enjoy the freedom that I couldn’t get back in the old home. I have been out for
dinner with my family and power walked Mummy to the beach this morning and met
the sea for the first time. Woweeee those waves are big!! I’ve dug a big hole
in the sand and found a ball to bring home. I feel happy and inspired and ready
to help Mummy design a whole new range for Zuma the Dog. Let’s just hope I can
keep up this new positive attitude and not go back to my naughty old ways. He
he he he he he.

If you want to hear more about my everyday antics and about my Zuma the Dog clothing brand come and like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter.

Much Love

Zuma XX