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The Scoop: Ted, Angie, and Nori

The Scoop: Ted, Angie, and Nori

I’m so, so excited about today’s Scoop! Ted and Angie are the husband and wife team behind Poketo, one of my favorite, go-to shops for awesome home accessories. I love following their adventures on Instagram and keeping up with all their fun announcements on Facebook and Twitter, especially when their adorable little pup, Nori, makes an appearance. As Nori’s number one fan, I figured it was time to find out more about this little fella! Read on to find out what makes Nori tick.

The Scoop: Ted, Angie, and Nori

Name? Nori

Nickname? Nori Bongo… not sure why, it just sounds nice… and funny.

Age? 10… when we adopted him, they thought he was between 6-8… so, I’m going on the lower side.

Breed? Shih Tzu

The Scoop: Ted, Angie, and Nori

The Scoop: Ted, Angie, and Nori

What’s “The Scoop”? Dog owners always say, “you don’t find your dog, they find you.” It was totally fate how Nori came into our lives. It was Christmas time, 2008, I was driving all over LA, doing last minute Christmas shopping when my car broke down. The worst time for something like this to happen as I had tons to do and LA isn’t the smallest of cities. So, I pulled over and just parked it on the side of the road. Luckily, I wasn’t too far from the shopping areas I needed to get to. So, I just marched on and walked. That’s when I came across a dog adoption at the neighborhood pet store I happened to be in. I immediately stopped. Getting a dog is something Angie and I had been talking about for some time. But, we didn’t know what type of dog, nor did we have any major preference. We knew we wanted a small dog, for our small house, and we knew we wanted to adopt. So, I stopped at this adoption and that’s when I met him.

He didn’t come to my attention right away. Actually, I first noticed a little Chihuahua. I took the little chihuahua for a walk and lets just say, we didn’t click right away. So, I was looking and reading through little handwritten descriptions of the dogs that were taped to the pens that the dogs were in… and that is when a little black and white Shih Tzu caught my eye. His name was Pepper (his former name). I saw him, he was just sitting there, with his hair covering his eyes, a cute knitted sweater on,  just sitting all by himself.  We went for a walk and hung out… he was just sitting on my lap, super mellow. We clicked right away.

This being the first dog that Angie and I would ever have, I was a bit nervous about adopting him. So, I left the dog adoption and continued on shopping in the neighborhood, letting them know that I would think about this little Shih Tzu. I called Angie right away to get her thoughts. No answer, straight to voicemail. So, I was alone in my own thoughts and as I was walking and thinking about the little guy, I thought to myself, if I go back and he is gone, I would be so sad. So, I stopped what I was doing and went straight back. That night, when I came home, Nori walked into the house before me. Angie kind of screamed with disbelief. And, that is how Nori came into our lives.

Pepper was his pre-adoption name. Nori got his name by a dear friend of ours, Julia. When we were trying to name him… she came up with Nori for a couple of reasons: 1. Nori (the kind you eat) is seaweed in Japanese. We love food and his black and white markings were a perfect nori. 2. Angie is Korean and in Korean, “Nori” means play. We loved it.

The Scoop: Ted, Angie, and Nori

The Scoop: Ted, Angie, and Nori

Favorite Toy? He loves this little stuffed animal that is a pig in a strawberry costume. The strawberry costume actually comes off the pig. Our good friend Miki got it for him in Tokyo. There are some really cool, offbeat dog toys in Japan.

Favorite Food? Anything that squirts in his mouth, especially oranges. He goes wild over oranges, swallowing big slices in one gulp and he will just attack you when he smells oranges. He is crazy for them!

The Scoop: Ted, Angie, and Nori

Favorite place to sleep? He has a little sheepskin rug that is perfectly his size. We often wish we could just lay and sleep on a perfectly sized, furry rug like that. We are jealous.

Pet Peeves? He grooms and licks himself like a cat. We think in his former life, he may have lived with a family of them. He gets pretty loud and wet… kind of annoying, especially when you are trying to sleep.

The Scoop: Ted, Angie, and Nori

Best Trick? He is so potty trained… sometimes on days we are working late at Poketo… he is such a good guy, he can hold it in until we get home.

Gear? We love our little tote bag. We call it Super Nori tote…. yes, that is actually Nori, with a cape, flying and all. The best is his face… even though he’s flying, he always has this bored look. Nothing really impresses him. We use this tote on the day to day… I love that I can carry Super Nori with me… people who know of Nori and Shih Tzu lovers especially love this bag!

The Scoop: Ted, Angie, and Nori

If your dog were another animal what animal would that be? We compare Nori to a little bear, an ewok, and a stuffed animal. He is the cutest guy… in an unconventional kind of cute. He sleeps and snores a lot, makes lots of funny noises, and when he walks around, we are reminded that we are living with cute, grumpy little monster in the house.

The Scoop: Ted, Angie, and Nori

Poketo is all about bringing art “off the gallery walls and into people’s lives”. We’d love to see this same mantra applied to pet products; any plans to add some Nori-inspired pet wares to the shop? We always joke that Nori is at home, talking with his dog friends, devising the next collections and dreaming up ultimate collaborations. We are waiting for him to let us in on the secrets.

The Scoop: Ted, Angie, and Nori

Nori would also like to make a special announcement, and introduce his brand new, recently-adopted sibling! Say hello to Scooter:

The Scoop: Ted, Angie, and Nori

What a cutie.

Thanks Angie, Ted, and Nori (and Scooter)!

Capree has a deep love of Victorian-era “fancy lads”, 19th Century anatomy drawings, and tin robots. She loves big, bold colors and big, bold patterns. Oh, and anything well-designed, especially if it’s something she can sit in.