Dunkel saved by his church key

Getting press releases and samples of actual beer is nice. Getting releases for gizmos and doodads aimed at beer-lovers often merely strikes a chord of amusement or befuddlement. Such was the case when the folks behind the Pop Tag landed in my inbox wagging their tails about a bottle opener converted into a dog tag so that the ability to open your beer "is just a whistle away" and that "It gives a whole new meaning to man’s best friend!"

Cute, but I still likely would've filed it under Delete, had my cuddlesome canine not gone on a walk unescorted that day. I got a terse phone call from my wife alerting me to his whereabouts since it's her number on his tag. If you're a pet owner: consider if you've moved or changed numbers since you had a dog tag engraved.

Before I accepted the offer of the sample, I asked if there was any danger of the opener portion somehow catching the scruff of a dog's neck.

The ID tags come with a removable silicone bumper so that it won't hurt if Dunkel is running and the tag is bouncing around!

I thought that was a rather fetching idea. They know Dunkel so well. Dunkel, since he's been mentioned here but never properly introduced despite rescuing him over two years ago, is a German Shorthair Pointer mix. Given his provenance and coat, and the fact that I couldn't come up with a better German beer style name for him, his full name is Dunkel Weisse. (A dark wheat beer that also means dark-white, like his coloring.) He only gets called that when he's in trouble. Which brings me to something else the folks at Pop Tag said.

We wouldn't want Dunkel to wander off and only be able open the beer of the kind stranger that finds him!

Perfect timing to test this tag out! Yesterday I got a phone call from some folks saying he was in the patio area (biergarten?) of Pepino's, Half Pint's favorite Mexican take-out spot two blocks away. The new tag, with my current number, saved his life. And yes, I did offer to buy them a beer and/or burrito but they'd just finished their lunch. Dunkel Weisse is safe back home, firmly in the dog house.