R.I.P. Aces Smith-Friess

Two nights ago, the littlest, newest and spunkiest member of our gang, Aces, slipped out of the backyard through a gap in the fence and was hit by a car. Even as I write this, it doesn't seem quite real that any of this has happened.

The house we are renting in Michigan fronts to a very busy street -- think Desert Inn or Eastern in Las Vegas -- and Aces was the sort of fearless puppy who bolted after whatever got her excited. It was dusk, I was running around the yard playing with the dogs and didn't realize she had run off. We knew there were some gaps in the fence, but it had rained nonstop for days, so we hadn't gotten to filling it.

When I noticed she was missing, I raced out front to call for her, expecting her foxy little face to turn up grinning at me. It did not.

Instead, I spotted an unrecognizable lump in the first lane of the street. I won't describe her; I just can't except to say that she seemed to have come unraveled. I thought she might still be breathing, so we raced to the animal ER about three miles away. It was futile. We left in sobs, her little pink collar and tags in my blood-soaked hands.

Needless to say, this has put a traumatic damper on our first weeks of this new life. Grief for a pet is very complicated because the pain is real and present and yet there's a fear the world will find it trivial. I've seen it referred to it as the ultimate "first-world problem." But even if you can't relate to the impact an animal can have in your life, you must be able to comprehend the dizzying, nauseating experience of encountering such a sudden, violent death to something so sweet, defenseless and dependent. That I did not realize she was gone for those few minutes -- the entire awful thing took place in the span of less than 10 minutes -- will haunt me for as long as I have other animals. That she is so instantaneously gone is disorienting, confusing and painful for everyone in this household.

We know there are many friends, family, readers and listeners who have enjoyed hearing about our life with Aces. She's a dog that had been abandoned by someone in dire economic straits who dumped her in our neighbor's arms at a supermarket a couple days before Christmas. The neighbor brought her to us, and we took her in.

Since then, she was the centerpiece of countless photos and Tweets. She was brought into the household to bond with Miles because the other two, Black and Jack, had taken to me in a way that left him alienated. It worked; Miles and Aces drove 2,000 miles together from Las Vegas a few weeks ago while I took the other dogs on a more scenic route. That photo above was taken by Miles in a hotel room in Nebraska during their drive.

Unlike the other dogs, Aces was an equal-opportunity lover. In doing so, she seemed to teach her brothers to be kinder and more open to people other than me, and Black and Jack have been unusually doting and cuddly towards Miles in the past two days. May that be her legacy.

We know many of you will feel compelled to do something or write to us. All we'd really like is for you, if you feel so moved, to toss a few dollars to the Humane Society of the United States in Aces' name to honor her memory. Had our neighbor not accepted Aces from her desperate prior owner, she would have surely ended up in a shelter. She was a rescue animal, minus the paperwork.

This blog will stop being updated as of tonight, so I urge you to "friend" us on Facebook if you'd like to keep up with us. We just felt strongly that we wanted people to know what had happened, how wonderful an animal we've lost and how heartbroken we are.

Staycation At Cosmo Part I: The Pet Thing

It was Miles' birthday last week, so it seemed like just the right moment to check into the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas and celebrate. And since the Cosmo is a pet-friendly resort, we decided to give it a whirl to see how exactly that works. The deal is you can bring dogs under 25 pounds and, while the policy is a maximum of two, we called and they let us bring all three. There's a $250 deposit per pet and you get $200 of it back regardless of your length of stay if nothing goes awry.

We'd never checked into a pet-friendly place before, and it was really kind of an interesting thing. When we arrived, the dogs were in their crates and were put on the luggage carts:


...although we could have walked them on their leashes in the public areas. We just weren't sure, so we played it safe. On the counter in our room was a whole spread of stuff...


...including treats, puppy pads, bowls and a small patch of astroturf for the outside terrace.

Unfortunately, our guys were a bit weirded out by the strangeness of the situation and just wouldn't make use of the pads or the turf. So instead, I walked them regularly in a fascinating outdoor pool area on the fourth floor.

It's this gigantic expanse of pools and cabanas with five tiers, many with turf on it. Here are some images:



The area was large enough to enjoy a decent walk with the dogs and it's open 24 hours a day. That, in and of itself, seems unique to me; most resorts shut down access to the pool area after a certain hour.

There were lovebirds all over this area enjoying the tremendous views at all hours...


...and even some taking swims in the middle of the night.


Traveling with pets is an interesting experience, but not one I'm keen to do again anytime soon. We were trying to relax but we felt guilty leaving the dogs crated in the room, we felt nervous when we were in the room that they might do something wrong if we didn't keep watch over them and I felt a bit freakish and pathetic walking around with three little animals when I needed to take them out.

The reaction of other visitors was mixed. Most people lit up at the sight of the dogs and several wanted to pet them; it was nice to have Aces, who likes anyone who likes her, because Black and Jack have always been defensive and noisy around strangers. In this setting and with their new little sister setting an example, they were very sweet to those who wished to pet them.

That said, we stayed on weeknights, so it seemed that many of the people at the Cosmo were conventioneers. Some found the idea of encountering animals delightful and told me all about their own pets. Others, I could tell, were in a business-like mode and found the presence of dogs a distraction from their conventioneering headspace.

I also had a particularly harrowing moment on the elevator. We were going down, the doors opened and Aces decided to saunter out just when the doors were about to close. I was able to yank her back in, but I had terrible images of the doors closing with her outside, the elevator starting to move and ... yikes.

The Cosmo staff couldn't have been more friendly and encouraging with the pets, but I do wish that they had provided us with some information as to where we were permitted to take the dogs. I've heard since that there's actually a dog-run of sorts in the back of the building near the Jockey Club connection.

So that's the pet report. More to come, but in the meantime, here's our guys and gal:

[BROWSE ALL MY PICTURES AND VIDEOS FROM THE COSMOPOLITAN OPENING AND OTHER VISITS VIA THIS FLICKR GROUP.]

Aces, The Podcast

I corralled Emily out of her Michigander sabbatical to join me for a special phone edition of The Petcast last night to talk about and document the wondrous -- and all too rare -- joy of getting to know a new pet like our Christmas addition, Aces.

You can hear it by clicking here or right-click here to download it and hear it later. You can also subscribe for free to The Petcast in iTunes or Zune, by the way. I don't usually blog about individual episodes of The Petcast when they're up, but this one has lots of good advice (from Emily) on how to deal with adopting a rescued or abandoned animal and integrating it in a household with other pets. Also, it gives me the chance to post this photo, as if I needed one.

Another Reason She's Called Aces

That, above, is one of the final drafts of the back page of the Dec. 20 issue of Newsweek parsing out seven recent/ongoing projects in Vegas and where they stand. I wrote it, of course, and it was timed for The Cosmopolitan's opening.

While we were on our New York trip, I reviewed probably a dozen drafts. By the time we got to the final draft, I decided to let Miles look it over because I knew I was too familiar, that I would miss something.

What important change from the version above (click on it to enlarge) did Miles figure out, thereby averting a torrent of ridicule from the Vegas blogosphere?

Here's a hint disguised as a gratuitous reason to post another new puppy photo: