Description:
There are enough puppy puns here to prompt even the most pious pet lover to protest, but this publication proves itself nonetheless by providing plentiful playground preferences for your pooch and his pals. Author Steve Giordano tours the area with his four-pawed accomplices, fox terriers Emma and Quinn, to get the dirt on Seattle-area parks, beaches, and recreation areas, as well as restaurants and hotels (the people kind that accept the canine kind). A four-paws rating system helps you identify just how dog-friendly each place happens to be. Avoid the fire-hydrant icon, which translates into "worth a squat"--and just barely; these should be visited only under the fullest of bladders. As for the paws, a "one paw park isn't a dog's idea of a great time. Maybe it's a tiny park with few trees and too many kids running around. Or perhaps it's a magnificent-for-people national park that bans dogs from every inch of land except paved roads and a few campsites.... Four-paw parks, on the other hand, are places your dog will drag you to visit again and again. Some of these areas come as close to dog heaven as you can get on this planet. Many have water for swimming or zillions of acres for hiking." Some listings even come with a foot symbol, indicating the coincidental good fortune of a place that happens to thrill the biped at least as much as her best friend. --Kathryn True
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