Doggie musing and animalosities.

Ahem. Happy New Year.

2009-02-14T07:10:00.002-05:00

So much has gone down since October 21, when Cooper had surgery to remove fractured coronoid process in his elbow. Oh - did I write about that? I didn't.
OK, so the limp didn't get better. We started tracking, but he got so limpy that a 200 yard track had him limping more noticeably at the end of 200 yards than at the start. For a really fit, athletic dog, this was clearly not a good sign.
In September, I discovered a slab fracture on one of his premolars. So, that had to come out under anesthesia. Since the limp hadn't gone away, he was xrayed at the same time.
And, the xray showed, for want of a more technical term, funkieness and arthritis in both elbows, but the left was much worse. One thing led to another and he was scheduled for surgery to remove bone fragments and clean up the joint. It was made very clear to me that this surgery had, essentially, a 50% chance of success - ie making it less painful. As it turns out he had two tiny fragments removed, but the surgery was, ultimately, not successful.

This is going to be primarily a Cooper diary for a while. Stay tuned.

Craigslist photos

2008-09-07T08:15:00.002-04:00

Ah! Found the craigslist photos of Fiona in an old email. She was advertised as a Red Heeler mix puppy back in January.
After several months of struggle, her ears now stand up, bat like and quite expressive.

Oh, I almost forgot.

2008-08-31T12:40:00.003-04:00

Rock ON, George Thorogood!

Meadowbrook, Thursday before last. Great concert as usual.

Thanks for the very cool, 1982 concert tee shirt, Charles!

So what's it like to have a bitch in heat in the house?

2008-08-30T19:12:00.002-04:00

Most of us have been conditioned for years to spay and neuter all animals in our possession (oh excuse me, all animals we are guardians of) by six months old. It's for the best, they are more manageable, better behaved (I've been uncomfortable with the notion of surgically altering animals' behavior for years, even before I got wised up to the fact that early speutering does in fact carry many risks as well as some benefits.) Anyhow, so I was a good, responsible dog owner (excuse me, guardian, blecchh) for years. I vaccinated annually, fed kibble, and had their sexual organs surgically removed while they were still puppies.

So, much has changed. Thanks to the internets and stuff. Cooper wasn't snipped early, and nor will Fiona be. She went through heat - finally - at about 9 months old.

I was watching for signs of her vulva getting larger and blood spotting. Nothing, nothing, nothing...and then one night walking her before agility class I realise her heinie is definitely swollen, and she is also peeing about every 37 seconds. In class, she spotted blood everywhere so I put a towel down for her.

Over the next week, she got more lovey and affectionate with me. Conversely - this may have been my imagination - Daphne got snarkier with her. That may have been because Fiona was getting more social and in your face with everyone. Increased progesterone, I hear. A calming hormone and at least one study actually suggests spayed bitches are more, not less, aggressive. Apart from some extra sniffing, Cooper didn't pay much attention.

I started monitoring her carefully out in the yard - she was barely out there alone - and no walks in the 'hood for three weeks. After the first night, she kept herself very clean and although I had an old sheet on the bed, I noticed no stains on it, and none in the dog bed in her crate. Or maybe she just wasn't bleeding much after the first night. In either case, no noticeable mess. Yay. I wondered if I would end up buying her a pack of those ridiculous looking bloomers.

Week three, she is ovulating. Intensely social and her brain just shut down. She was hysterical in class because she was so utterly clueless. Also by week three, her interest in food was minimal, she had the attention span of a gnat and she desperately wanted to meet every dog she saw. Also her vulva was really large and almost perfectly heart shaped. Cute!

Also somewhere in week three, the dogs did a lot of fussing and growling overnight. I had this image of the house ringed by amorous loose dogs. That didn't quite happen, but I think there probably was a dog or two hanging around outside on at least two nights. My dogs have a different sort of voice when it's a dog outside, as opposed to people walking past or other odd late night noises.

Day 22, she is mostly done but Less the nice big intact Dane at the dogsports agility trial thought she was mighty attractive (and Fiona liked him right back.) I was sitting on the ground and we were making sure their interactions were chaste, when Less took temporary leave of his senses and hiked his leg on my back. Danes don't just tinkle, they piss. Yuck! Good thing I had a spare tee shirt, and he missed my hair. Oy.

So little Fiona is forever changed, her vulva probably won't shrink back completely to its little puppy size and she now has visible nipples, probably forever. I have been warned she may go through a false pregnancy and pretend to nest and carry puppies around about six weeks after. Vet says to wait two months after heat to spay. Which puts her at about a year old in October, about when I planned on spaying her anyhow.

Richfield County Park

2008-08-19T13:48:00.003-04:00

So I'm still feeling all sad, so decided to take the Coop-man for a walk at Richfield. Miles of trails, big river, woods, fields, pretty. I thought he was over his little limping episode of Sunday, but within a mile he was obviously limping again. So I let him wander around in the river (he loves that), sniff along at his own pace, and spent some time sitting in a pavilion watching the world go by.
No exercise for the boy this week, and perhaps I wouldn't have been able to run him in next weekend's trial anyway. May take him to the vet later this week and have him looked at, get a letter saying he can't run. Not sure but maybe I'll get my $180 in trial entry fees back - if he's lame, I legitimately cannot run him anyway. Need to check the rule book.
I hope it's nothing more than a simple pulled muscle. His last Friday run was smokin' - he did 14 jumps and a tunnel clean in 20.48 seconds. Maybe he overdid it?

A really hard decision.

2008-08-19T08:39:00.003-04:00

The following is what I posted to my dog list and friends today. I have been feeling choked up all morning, but finally came to the decision last night. I am so proud of what Cooper has acheived over the last few years but it's time to move on.
Shit, I still feel like crying though. I do think it's the right decision. I hope so.

*****************************************

After lots of deliberation and talking it over with a couple of people, I have decided to retire Cooper from agility. This is one of the hardest decisions I've had to make in a while and it breaks my heart. I am trying not to cry while writing this, actually.

As most of you know, last May he was subjected to a temporary ban, then probation, for lunging at another dog at ringside during a UKC trial. It would have ended in a lunge, but the D ring broke from the collar and he ended up tangling with another big bossy male dog - no damage, just a lot of drama. Last weekend we had three days of trialing, his first since May. Friday we did USDAA (he ran very well, two firsts and a second placement, fast and clean.) But he lunged at a boxer at ringside. Not good. Nobody seemed to mind and it wasn't a big deal but I was on edge about it. Saturday I was really, really nervous going to UKC. The dog he tangled with was there and Cooper bears grudges BIG time. He never forgets. Plus he will generalise his bad feelings about a dog he dislikes to every dog of that breed, he really does. The other owner was very considerate and kept her dog well out of sight the whole day, it was an outdoor trial so there was lots of room. But somehow, Cooper figured out where they were crated - near ringside - and it messed him up in the weaves every time because he would get fixated on where the dog was. I don't know how he knew, but he absolutely did. He did not run well, probably because I was a nervous wreck, worried he might actually do the unthinkable and jump the ring gating. He was also stiff, I almost pulled him from running on Saturday. Sunday he was stiff again and had a slight front end limp. I pulled him from all of Sunday's runs after talking with the judge - can't run a limping dog anyway, nor would I take the risk. He is after all, not a young dog, he'll be 8 on Jan 2. That's not a spring chicken for a Rottweiler.

Now, I know I'll never get past the nervousness about him having another altercation during a trial and this will affect our performance. I will not put my dog, or the breed reputation, at risk. In classes, I check to see who's going to be in class with us before signing up, and always sit off to the side so he's not close to other dogs. I watch him like a hawk at trials and in classes, but it's impossible to anticipate everything, especially at the busyness and hubbub at ringside. I'm sure he's more reactive than normal because of Fiona being in heat, but his high reactiveness has always been an issue and I've worked really hard to control it.

Plus he is getting older and I've noticed he gets pretty worn out now after a day's trialing. He has bad elbows and I was told to expect arthritis by three years of age, so he's done great, considering. He has had multiple High in Trials, Combined High in Trial and achieved his UKC championship. I am relinquishing my dream of getting his Grand Agility Champion title.
Damn.

So - we'll start tracking, seriously. I took a tracking class with him four years ago and he liked it, I liked it, and we can go for AKC tracking titles. Little stress on the joints, it's work, and it gets us out in the open. We'll take lots of walks. I am looking for tracking classes and instructors now.

On another note: Politics Matters. After I left the trial site on Sunday, the club president's dog (Malamute) pulled away from her owner and attacked another dog. (Not the first such incident for this dog, who has also gone for Cooper and punctured his cheek, a few years ago, not in a trial. Cooper did not bite her back.) UKC rules state that the dog MUST be pulled from competition immediately and a report must be made to UKC. But I guess when you're club president, and a UKC judge besides, the rules don't apply. She went right ahead and ran her dog. Two people told me about the incident. That's really irresponsible and wrong. I could say a whole lot more about this but not on a public forum.

So. Tracking! I'm really trying to look at this as a "one door closes, another door opens" sort of thing.

Photo, 2008.

2008-08-10T08:08:00.003-04:00

Aha! I found some photos. All the really cute puppy photos are on my old, dead computer. But some were left in the camera and I downloaded them to the new computer. Fiona and Cooper at Bluebell Beach. Long legs, spots, wonky ears. I am hoping she really rocks in agility.

Woo. Back.

2008-08-10T07:27:00.002-04:00

Sixteen months since I posted! Holy shit. I got sick and the task of keeping up with my little blog filtered to the bottom of a dusty pile of Things To Do while I concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other. Breathe. Breathe. Work, sleep, eat. Play with dogs. Maintain.
Yet dogmuse has been sitting here patiently waiting for...either my return, or an eternal slide into obscurity. Along with billionty seven other abandoned blogs.
I've turned off the comments. Here's something I didn't care for - the quid pro quo of "you leave a comment on my blog, I'll leave one on yours" and the general comment whoredom culture of blogging. It was getting to be awfully time consuming, reading all my regular blogs, commenting, reading comments, leaving comments on commenters' blogs, the little thrill of seeing how many comments one of my posts had received. Feh. I'll write this for me, not for comments. So there!
In February I got a very cool little puppy. Fiona is a JRT x red heeler, and I think will be a great agility dog. She loves it and is very focused in classes. I've also taken her lure coursing and think flyball will be a blast for her.My old computer died recently and I need to get the old one fixed and get all my photos off it. So, no photos right now. She is 26lbs, long legged, white with red spots, with a sweet, aquiline face and ears that can't decide whether to stand up like big bat ears or flop over. And, she is in heat right now. She'll get spayed in a couple of months, but because I've been learning about the risks (sure, there's benefits, but what we haven't been told is there are risks to neutering before the dog has reached sexual maturity; serious risks too) I decided to wait until she was about a year old. She'll be a year sometime in October (I don't know her exact birthday.)
I spent Christmas in NYC with my little brother, which was neat. Next Christmas I'll probably be on the Left Coast in California with aunt Jean and family. I should be thinking about buying airline tickets now, the way they are going up in price.
I did nanowrimo last November, and "won." Meaning I wrote at least 50,000 words of a...well calling it a novel is a bit generous...a story in 30 days. w00t.
The silver maple in front of my house is allelopathic. Meaning, it puts out a hormone into the soil that inhibits growth of most other plants. Which sucks. Not all silver maples do this, of course. Like people and animals, trees have their own specific genetic makeup. Can one DNA trees, I wonder? Even grass won't grow under the tree, and since the tree shadows most of my small front yard it stunts and kills most of what I plant. I've wasted a lot of money and time planting things that are struggling to survive. Maybe a rock garden instead, and give up on my plan for a flowering, butterfly attracting English style front garden?
I thought becoming a petsitter instead of a painter would be an interesting move. So I got a website, insurance, business cards, all that. Then, after building a small base of clients, realised that, fun though it was, I'd have to work from early morning to late evening, driving many miles and spending a third of what I made on gas, to make a fairly paltry living. In other words, I wouldn't be able to survive doing petsitting alone. On September 4 my insurance expires, along with my website hosting. I am renewing neither and continuing to paint. Sigh. Well I had to try it to find out whether it was an option, I guess. But I was going broke. Broker than usual, ha.
Other stuff, lots of it, has happened in the last 16 months. (Sometimes I wrote blog posts in my head, just never got them out here.) Some good, much bad. All in all it hasn't been a great year. But I'm continuing to put one foot in front of the other.

"Horrible coincidence"?

2007-04-10T15:57:00.000-04:00

Menu Foods CFO sold almost half his stock in the company right before the recall of tainted food.
How convenient.

I'm not really a snob....

2007-04-09T15:24:00.000-04:00

Of course I should have known when I wrote:
No serious dog person I know of feeds crap food like Pedigree or Iams...
...that a: I would quickly hear from someone who did, and b: I'm sure I know plenty of "dog people" who feed kibble and I shouldn't be so snobby about it!
In fact, the oldest dog I knew personally was a little yellow mutt named Chester who ate the weird red colored Alpo kibble and lived to be just about 23 years old.
So genetics and luck probably trump diet any day.
And feeding dogs is (or certainly should be) a fairly minor part of our relationship with them. If I were rehoming a dog I'd go for a home that fed whatever if the dog was trained and worked and a part of the family, any day, over one fed a carefully crafted diet but didn't get out much or got stuck in the back yard understimulated much of the time.
Still, my dogs would probably be sorta bummed if I stopped giving them things like lamb necks, deer carcasses and whole chickens and started giving them nothing but pellets!

Pet food recall, raw diet, dog nutrition, etc.

2007-04-08T09:27:00.000-04:00

Everyone has heard of the pet food recall by now.
It's bigger then you think.
(Keeps growing too, 22 brands of dry dog biscuits have just been added, mostly carried by Walmart who kisses China's butt for cheap crap so that American consumerbots can buy lots and lots of cheap crap but I digress.)
Someone in my advanced agility class lost a lovely, healthy dog. She was feeding him one of the tainted pouch foods because she had a bitch in heat and her Dennis was off his food as a result; like people, dogs enjoy junk food. He got really sick. She took him to the vet and he pulled through. So she took him home and fed him more of the pouch foods. He got very sick again. Back to the vet and he died at the beginning of March. Dennis is now a statistic, reported to the FDA.
Of course Menu Foods and their corporate consumers were already killing dogs and cats in their laboratories because they knew there was something wrong. But they didn't want to let anyone know. Bad for business, you see. Maybe they thought it was just a few lots of bad food and nobody would notice?
Anyhow so Dennis's owner and her vet had no clue about the food, nobody did at the beginning of March. Menu Foods and their associates let people keep on poisoning their pets because, well because they didn't want to lose money or see their stock drop.
According to a news story I heard yesterday, some Chinese official is saying they've never exported wheat gluten to Canada or the US. Liars.
In fact, check the rest of the Blog Pound site, Leigh-Ann has written several comprehensive articles, as have many others.
Royal Canin has been hit with a class action lawsuit recently for having excessive amounts of vitamin D in the food, causing harm to an undetermined number of pets.
Last year, of course there was the big Diamond Foods recall for toxic mold, which also caused death and organ damage in many animals.
And the FDA recently issued yet another alert about salmonella in commercially sold pet chews and rawhides.
So pphhhhttt to any vet who tells you that feeding raw or homecooked to your pets is unsafe and not balanced and blah blah blah. If pet food was safe and balanced, why does it keep getting "new and improved" with new and different ingredients?
Take a look at animals fed a PROPER raw or cooked diet and you will see healthy, shiny coat and skin, strong clean teeth, great muscle tone and overall excellent condition. Is diet a miracle cure? Of course not. But it does make one hell of a difference.
A goodly percentage of people I know with show and performance dogs either feed raw, or very good quality kibble, or some combination. No serious dog person I know of feeds crap food like Pedigree or Iams. I can usually tell a dog fed a monotonous inferior pellet diet with a glance. Especially when they're a few years old and poor care has taken its toll.

Y'all know I don't bother feeding processed pellets to my pets and haven't for many years. I find it utterly bizzare, really. I feed raw and I wrote this book which is still doing extremely well, thank y'all very much! Four years after publication and I'm a top ranked Amazon.com book, cool.
Here's the official book site.
So. I have a yahoogroup for those interested in feeding raw, or generally discussing canine nutrition, health and stuff like that. Margot and I have seen a big upswing in new members in the last few weeks - people who are willing to try feeding non-commercial processed diets because they've been scared by all the news.
Mary has a home cooking group.
Tons of information in the archives and files of each group for anyone curious....there's a TON of bad advice on animal nutrition out there so beware!
I know I just tossed a bunch of information and links out here and in the grand scheme of things, what you feed your dog or cat isn't really that important.
Except when it is.

Happy damn Easter or whatever you celebrate.

2007-04-05T20:39:00.000-04:00

I have been vewwy, vewwy busy and have not had much time to update or visit or scrutinise email or anything like that.
Actuall those are deer ears, not rabbit ears so in the spirit of being primal and celebrating spring and fresh meat, these are my dogs enjoying (most of) a deer carcass.
So happy damn easter and passover and various pagan holidays.

So Carina, where do YOU shop?

2007-03-27T06:59:00.000-04:00

My keen fashion sense and beautifully appointed home is an inspiration to so many. People are always asking me - "Carina, that is just fabulous, where did you buy that?"
So you little people want to be just like moi?
OK, I'll share.
In the photo above (taken Christmas morning at my friend Robbie's house. Must say I look particularly lovely. Can you believe she put that photo on her blog???)
Pajama bottoms from Old Navy. I love that store.
Freebie agility t-shirt from the Gem City agility and dog training club in Dayton, Ohio.
My gorgeous hat, scarf and gloves were a gift. Surely they came from Saks or Needless Markup?
No! Walmart! Really. Hard to believe, huh.
Underwear and bra - I was going commando there, just like Kate Moss.
I believe my eyewear was purchased at Rite-Aid.
Actually I have some Glamour Shot type photos someplace but they are really so not me. Not that the above one is really "me" either, haha! But it's more entertaining than frou frou shots.

Antique stores, garage sales and resale shoppes. (Resale Shoppe sounds better than "Goodwill store" doesn't it?) This was last Sunday in Fenton - great store, she welcomed the dog (and Charles) and had tons and tons of fun things including a porcelein Victorian bedpan for $15.00 that I almost bought - where I bought the following tasteful furnishings for my lovely home:

Enlarge this one by clicking on it! I may start collecting this guy's prints. Duane Bryers Hilda collection - absolutely fun full figured pinups, very popular in the 50s and 60s. Isn't it cool? You just can't buy this shit at tacky places like TJMaxx or Target, that's all Chinese crap anyhow.

A neat-o very old frame for one of the many prints and photos I have that need frames. $5.00, gotta love it.

Cooper gets a bath, I get a hamster named Dorothy.

2007-03-24T21:38:00.000-04:00

Cooper is six years old and had the first proper grooming and bath of his entire life! Feet trimmed, ear hair coiffed, the whole bit. Professionally done and he was cranky about it but he does look marvellous. I mainly took him in because he was getting dreadlocks on the insides of his thighs and I don't have the right grooming tools to get those out kinda painlessly.

Elvis and his Rottweiler Daphne cuddling. Again. Gratuitous awww photo.

This is Dorothy, and that is Elvis contemplating Dorothy.
No, I didn't want a hamster. I think "pocket pets" are kind of silly and think hamsters ought to stay in China and Syria and whatever deserts they're supposed to inhabit.
But I have one, she was free and it was just one of those things. Some people get drunk, go online to zappos.com and 3 am and buy hundreds of dollars worth of shoes. I get free hamsters.
She bites. Quite hard, actually.
Most varieties of hamsters kill each other if kept together in cages, they are bloodthirsty little loners.
They're also omnivores and like meat.
So far the only vegetable type thing she likes is carrot, in an indifferent sort of way.
Cat kibble and bits of cooked salmon she rips out of my fingers and crams in her face. If I wave a bit of animal protein at her cage, she climbs the bars and sticks her tiny little paws through and gets really excited.
When she is not frolicking in the bathtub, trying to rip my fingertips off or busily making nests out of toilet paper, she lives in one of the bathroom cabinets up high so Elvis can't get to her.

gobsmacked.

2007-03-23T21:32:00.000-04:00

I'm on a bit of a roll here with posts about Stupid Pet Laws.
OK, here's one for you - courtesy of threecollie at the excellent northview diary.

567 English cows (that's five hundred and sixty seven - enough to fill up a couple of stadiums. Over six hundred thousand pounds of cow - pound by pound equivalent to well over 3,000 people, living, breathing, perfectly healthy cattle, representing tons of perfectly good meat, milk and other cow by products, the sort of animals romanticised by 19th century painters) were slaughtered by a government agency at taxpayer expense.
Why?
Because their paperwork was incorrect.

Yes. The EU mandated paperwork kept by the farmer was not 100% consistent with the EU mandated ear tags.
So DEFRA slaughtered all his cattle and destroyed his livelihood (at taxpayers' expense, did I mention this part.)

Here's the news article.

My dogs are microchipped and licenced and have the legally required rabies vaccinations for my state and wear tags accordingly.

I know people who refuse to do this.
Maybe they're not so paranoid after all....

Eleanor Herrick v Holland Wisconsin.

2007-03-21T06:35:00.000-04:00

This is Reno.

This is the news story about Reno, his owner Eleanor Herrick and her other dogs.

I don't have a lot of time online this week so I'll let others speak.

Eleanor tells Reno's story. Includes contact info for the town of Holland WI, if you want to make your voice heard.
Margot writes about it.
So does Karen.

I emailed the city of Holland WI, you can too.
townofholland@msn.com
Telephone - 608-526-3354
Fax - 608-526-6564

While I understand the reasoning behind putting a limit on how many dogs a person can own, I don't agree with it. It is not the number of animals at issue, it is the comportment and behaviour of the animals and their owners which determine clean, peaceful neighborhoods.
It makes more sense to enforce existing laws - excessive noise, loose animals, aggressive dogs, odor and health concerns, neglecting animals, irresponsible breeding, etc. Eleanor Herrick has violated none of these. She and her dogs are good citizens.
It is simply an illogical law and I hope she is granted a variance.
Thank you.
Carina MacDonald.

Meet Kiki!

2007-03-19T19:48:00.000-04:00

Kiki is a lovely Pembroke Corgi (the smaller ones without tails - cattle herding dogs, no kidding) who I am training in agility and she is SO MUCH FUN. She is confident, very biddable especially when there are hot dog treats involved and enjoys the heck out of this.
This was her third class and there she is doing six weaves with little coaxing, being brave on the teeter and dog walk and she simply adores tunnels. She's real focused (did I mention hot dog treats) and will go over, under and through obstacles without being asked, just for fun.
Many thanks to her human for letting me train her, I don't know which one of us is learning more!

weaveweaveweaveweaveweaveweaveweave

Hey wait, this thing is moving.....

Must.....get.....hot dog..........

Hey lookit how high I am here!

Oh, these are easy.

hotdoghotdoghotdoghotdoghotdoghotdoghotdog

Spaying and neutering - should it be enforced?

2007-03-18T06:29:00.001-04:00

For dogs and cats, I mean. Not people, where in some cases I think it would be a sensible idea. But I digress.
Last year I wrote a little about about What They Don't Tell You about speutering.
I've been noodling around with revisiting this, since some cities are now legally enforcing surgical castration and hysterectomies on all companion animals, for "the common good." This trend is accelerating and I believe it is a scary and dangerous trend.

I am not saying spay neuter is a bad thing, it's not, although there are certainly some potentially serious downsides to early s/n. BUT if one is going to make an informed decision about doing major surgery - and spaying is major surgery - it's wise to understand both benefits and risks. Knowlege is power! And the politically correct information drummed into our heads is that there is NO risk to early speuter. Which, simply is not true! Read the links in the following....

Semavi Lady has done some fantastic research on this. Please go read what she has written on the lies we are being told about the "benefits" of early speuter. She says it better than I ever could have.

The photo above shows an Anatolian Shepherd at work, taken from the ASDCA website.

Puppy breath candles and doggie crack.

2007-03-16T06:43:00.000-04:00

Two things you didn't know you really wanted until right now.

Kockeyed Kandles sells candles, incense, lotions, laundry spray and scented oils many fragrances including Puppy's Breath.
I can't resist, gotta order! They have regular Puppy's Breath, "more like outside puppy breath" and Puppy's Breath Fresh, "sweeter, smells more like an inside puppy's breath." I haven't a clue what this means but I sure want to know!

Mary has Doggie Crack and you don't have to go to the bad part of town to buy it. Just order from the comfort of your home. It's legal too! And proceeds go to a good cause - Mary runs a rescue for small dogs and most of her refugees need veterinary care as well as food, housing, lots of love and good forever homes. Mary is good people.

Should AKC allow mixed breed dogs in competition, part 2.

2007-03-09T06:30:00.000-05:00

I think this is going to become a reality. Fine.
It will make many mixed breed owners happy (although it will piss off some of the snobbier purebred fanciers.) It will make it easier for people to compete in more working events by making them available to all dogs regardless of heritage.
It must be noted that there are already many registries and venues for mixed breed dogs to compete: USDAA, CPE, UKC, AMBOR, MBDCA and many others. Granted, I imagine AKC sanctioned events outnumber other registries and AKC holds events most others don't, like Rally Obedience and tracking.
To refresh your memory, here is AKC's information page on their proposal.

My no vote still stands, though.
Why?
Mainly because the AKC is bullshitting you about "protecting the health and wellbeing of all dogs."
If they did, they would not be selling millions of dollars worth of registration papers to the largest commercial puppy breeding operation in the country. They would not be actively courting commercial breeders at all. These breeders do absolutely NOTHING to promote the integrity of purebred dogs and are both directly and indirectly responsible for the killing of millions of perfectly good, healthy animals, mostly at taxpayers expense.
This sort of breeding "advances the study, breeding, exhibiting, running and maintenance of purebred dogs" how, again?
Here is the Hunte Corporation home page. The largest commercial puppy breeding and puppy broker operation in the country. Probably the world. Yup, AKC recognised.
When the dogs get unbreedable or sick, they're killed off. When they get a little old, or the factory farm gets too crowded, breeding animals are auctioned off by the hundreds. The auction lists are just heartbreaking and horrible to read.

If there is an outreach by AKC to the general public informing people of the way to find a responsible breeder and why rescue and shelter dogs are a gtreat idea, I haven't seen it. If the AKC has done anything at all to inform the general public that "AKC registered" doesn't mean squat about the quality and soundness of the dog except both parents were registered, I haven't seen it. Too many people think that "AKC registered" or "having papers" actually means something special.
Both the information packet and their own mission statement point out that promoting the "AKC message" to a wider group of dog owners is an important goal. What their message is, I'm not sure. It's stated right there on the information page that mixed breeds are inferior and the hope is that when mutt-owners are exposed to purebred dogs they will be encouraged to make their next dog an AKC recognised one.
Whatever.

The organization does good things. The AKC Canine Health Foundation funds research on many doggie health concerns and this benefits all dogs, regardless of heritage. They donate large amounts of money and resources during disasters like Katrina. They sanction responsible breed clubs and tons of working and conformation events.
They are not the bad guys and if this passes, I'm happy that more people will be able to get out and have fun with their dogs, I really am.
If they would just tell the truth, "we need more money so we're considering accepting mixed breed dogs" this would sit much better with me. Truthfulness is so refreshing! I guess I just can't get past the hypocrisy and the snobby attitude is all.
That's why I'd still vote no.

Honey, is dinner ready?

2007-03-05T19:49:00.000-05:00

AKC and mixed breeds.

2007-03-05T06:57:00.000-05:00

I'm not completely inflexible.
After talking to more people, doing some considering and getting feedback, I may be changing my mind about my NO vote on allowing mutts to compete in AKC working events.
I need to let the issue marinate a bit more, though. I'm starting to come around to the idea that it may be a good thing for ALL dogs in general, although I remain highly suspicious of AKC's motives.
Woof!

Recessive genes and breeding....

2007-03-04T06:25:00.000-05:00

Diana made a comment about Cooper being inbred, in response to my writing about the AKC judges making snarky comments about his heritage. (As an aside - check Diana's writing. It's excellent!)
OK. The long coat is a recessive - also called a "throwback" - gene. Essentially a gene for a trait that both parents carry, but do not exhibit. The long haired gene in Rottweilers and other molosser breeds is thought to relate back to the early northern European mastiff type dogs from which Rottweilers are descended. Andrew Brace in his wonderful book "The Ultimate Rottweiler" states that long haired Rotties tend to be very heavy boned and laid back. The woman who did the litter evaluation on Coop's litter said the same thing.
If both parents carry the recessive gene, offspring has a roughly 25% chance to exhibit the trait but it does NOT mean they carry the gene themselves.
Cooper has donated some DNA to a study being run at MSU vet school. They are attempting to identify the gene (or gene marker, I'm not sure of terminology) for the long haired trait.
Both Cooper's sire and dam had regular coats. Both were finished champions with both show and working titles. His sire is Evrmor's U R The One. If you look at the roster of dogs entered at Westminster, you will see the kennel name and many of his progeny! Cooper came from a very carefully thought out breeding - currently there is no way to foretell things like fluffieness!
Fluffy Rottweilers are very uncommon, but they can happen just as easily in carefully planned breedings as well as poorly planned ones. I had put a deposit on the litter before they were born, saying I wanted "pet" quality since I have no interest in breeding or conformation showing.
Cooper has a "limited" AKC registration. This means he is eligible for everything except the conformation show ring - the long coat is a disqualifying fault - and were he to be bred, his progeny would not be AKC-registerable.
Except for the fluff, he is quite gorgeous. Ideal size (just shy of 100lbs), beautiful head, strong bone, gorgeous topline, feet, markings, everything.
Why are some things considered not part of the breed standard and disqualifying faults? Well, first, if there were no breed standards to uphold, there wouldn't be breeds, really! There would just be types. Second, most criteria are there for a reason. Some traits - like white boxers and Dobermans - also carry deafness and horrible skin problems along with the gene for albinism. Many criteria are tailored to the original purpose of the breed. Rottweilers were cattle drovers, guard and carting dogs, and all around farm worker dogs, used to go dozens of miles a day in all sorts of weather conditions. Unlike rough collies, Cooper lacks a harsh water repellent outer coat. This means when he gets wet, he gets wet to the skin and STAYS wet for ages. In his original job, he would stay cold and wet for days!
Despite the fluffy thing, he is 100% Rottweiler. His temperament is absolutely classic. Aloof with strangers, yet adores all children. Once he likes someone, he loves them forever. Prone to bossiness and dominance, yet extremely biddable with honest, fair training. Calm, yet give him a job and he has tremendous drive and enthusiasm. Incredibly smart with the ability to think things through and problem solve. Mostly horrible and overbearing with other dogs (although tolerant with puppies and little dogs.) Very alert and strongly bonds with his humans. Naturally protective and territorial, but since I'm the boss he is calm and welcomes most everyone, at least when I'm here.
This describes every Rottweiler I've owned except Daphne, actually.
So. Just wanted to clear things up and defend my junkyard dog, haha! I sure hope Cooper has his daddy's longevity...

Aced the trial!

2007-03-02T16:57:00.000-05:00

Both days. Cooper took first place both Thursday and Friday (scores 190, 187.5.)
My dog rocks. :) One more Q and he gets his CD title. Which isn't that big a deal really, but I will be glad to have acheived it.
And, I should probably read the rule book....holy moly those judges can be particular and precise...but certainly we can do much, much better if I pull my weight, haha.
Still, not bad for a first try!

Did I mention this was a Collie specialty and so my ragamuffin dog was surrounded by these insanely well groomed, chalked and glossy creatures. Thursday's judge was jokingly calling Cooper a junkyard dog. Oh har har. Today's judge asked me if he was ILP'd - I was warned AKC people could get snobby and my dog's heritage may be questioned.
So poo on them...actually I met some really nice helpful people and while it's not nearly as fun as agility, we had a good time and I'm looking forward to our next obedience trial!

Should AKC allow mixed breed dogs in competition?

2007-02-25T07:50:00.000-05:00

AKC 's Objective:

• Advance the study, breeding, exhibiting, running and maintenance of purebred dogs.

AKC's Core Values:

We love purebred dogs
We are committed to advancing the sport of the purebred dog
We are dedicated to maintaining the integrity of our Registry
We protect the health and well-being of all dogs
We cherish dogs as companions
We are committed to the interests of dog owners
We uphold high standards for the administration and operation of the AKC
We recognize the critical importance of our clubs and volunteers

Now, AKC is considering allowing mixed breed dogs to be able to compete in working events (obedience, tracking, agility, etc.) They are polling the public - here is the poll:
http://www.akc.org/mixedbreed_survey/

On the first page of the information packet attached to the poll, they state:
"Exposing mixed breed dog owners to AKC and encouraging them to make their next dog a purebred by showing them that purebred dogs consistently outperform mixed breeds...."

Which has owners of both pure bred dogs and mutts up in arms. That paragraph goes on to provide statistics "proving" purebred dogs are better than mixed breeds. Whatever.
They also are polling whether mutts can perform in the same events, or have their own seperate events - is this a "back of the bus" thing? Or, is AKC worried that mutts may actually start "outperforming" purebreds? Things that make you go hmmmm.
Say a university was considering whether to begin accepting into its programs. "It has been proven that is inferior and cannot perform as well as our elites. If we allow them to participate in a limited capacity, more people will realise how inferior they really are, and how much more desirable the elites are." I can't see how the AKC statement can be read any other way and I find it really insulting!

Opponents of the bill say:
Why pay to be part of an organization that thinks we are inferior?
AKC is just after the money, because their registrations are down - many other registries accept both mixed and purebred dogs to compete in all sorts of working events.
It counters their stated purpose - upholding the integrity of purebred dogs.
Which they already don't honor, since they will register any litter out of AKC parentage without regard to the integrity of the breeder. Tens of thousands of puppy mill and poorly bred puppies get pumped into the market already, and to date the AKC has never used their authority to stem the tide or censor crap for-profit breeders.

Supporters of the bill:
Welcome the chance to take both their pure bred, and their mixed-breed dogs to the same events.
Say that if more people are exposed to AKC core values, they will better understand the importance of supporting both rescue and proper breeding practices.
AKC will use their increased profits to do more to educate the public.
AKC should take SOME sort of responsibility for providing activities for the street bred or deliberately bred mixes resulting from the purebreds which provide their bread and butter.

Since I voted vehemently against, I'll counter the above "for" points of view.
There are already many organizations where one can compete with both pure and mixed breed dogs. Granted, it would be nice to have another venue.
Anyone who is working and competing with dogs is already dog-savvy enough to understand about proper breeding and the importance of rescue.
Past behaviour is the best predictor of future behaviour.
Good point, although I am not convinced this is the best way to "take responsibility."

If you have an opinion one way or another, go ahead and vote! If you disagree with me, I love to hear opposing views. :)

Those of us who feed a raw diet to our dogs....

2007-02-21T18:28:00.000-05:00

eatin is tough work for a baby
....Find this photo really cute.
13 week old Pekinese named Tessa.
She belongs to Mary, who took in her pregnant mama and wound up keeping this pup.
Everybody say "awwwww."

Ring nerves.

2007-02-20T06:31:00.000-05:00

Ring nerves - being really nervous about messing up or looking like a fool during dog sport competition.
OK, everyone gets this way and many people won't get into the ring because of it. My first agility trial, I was so nervous I thought I was going to throw up, couldn't eat, clammy palms and needed to pee avery 27 seconds. By the end of the weekend, I wondered exactly what I'd been so terrified for! Everyone was really nice to a rookie handler, I watched seasoned handler and dog teams make dumb mistakes, I made lots myself...the world didn't come to an end and dammit it was fun.
By now I've made so many foolish mistakes in the ring, I've gotten used to it. It's good, it is teaching me to forgive myself for dumb mistakes and just carry on.

So, I still get - not so much nervous, but definitely keyed up, before a run. I'm hardly a "seasoned handler", yet. But I have developed a little routine in agility trials. Dog gets to run and stretch out and pee. We'll do some attention exercises. While we're waiting for our turn, I don't like to chit chat with other people. I'm about to ask my dog to give me his full attention, and do his best job. Seems only fair that he gets my full attention before the run. I watch other teams and make sure I've got the course, and my strategy, memorised. I talk to Cooper and tell him he's wonderful and get his focus fully on me and ask him are you ready, wanna play?

Some dogs need to be motivated and jazzed up before running, some need to be calmed down and encouraged to focus....mostly I think Cooper just needs to remember he is here to work. Because he loves loves loves to work and has tremendous drive.

Last trial we did was a busy public show, hundreds of spectators. I realised that, as keyed up as I felt right before the run, I was oblivious to everything but the "job" once we stepped in the ring. For that brief time, it was just me and my dog (well, and the judge - gotta pay attention to the judge!) and doing the best we could. All the people watching and clapping and the surrounding commotion simply disappeared. It felt really good!
And - after a particularly good run, you're just on a high. It feels so great.

OK. So that's UKC agility. In two weeks I am doing my first AKC obedience trial and dammit, I'm getting nervous already! Which is rather silly because we've been doing obedience classes off and on Cooper's whole life, he is technically really really good and I simply must at least get a CD title on him.
But, still. I'm nervous. Silly me. We're entered March 1-2.

Howard Hodgkin, big and little art.

2007-02-16T05:21:00.000-05:00

The top photo is the 110 ton Kapoor sculpture at Chicago's Millenium Park. The bottom photo is a blurry enlargement of yours truly, looking like a fashion disaster bag lady (and proud of it!) reflected in the giant sculpture.
For those who follow such things, I am wearing:
A Mackinac Island t-shirt with a big toothy fish printed on the back.
An Italian hand knit cardigan.
A blue bra.
A boiled wool scarf made by my mother.
Old Navy pink corduroys.
Fluffy wool boots I bought on eBay and simply adore.
I'm sorry, I don't recall my undies or socks. I'll take notes next time. I remember the bra because it's spectacularly ugly and unsexy, yet very comfy. I have several, and I'm sure that's what I was wearing. It's not a "date bra", of course. Ha, ha.

The middle three photos are Howard Hodgkin paintings currently on display at the Tate gallery in London. I wrote about him on my other blog.
Now, many people will say, "what's the big deal? My six year old could have painted that!" (A common reaction to abstract art.)
To which I respond:
1: No, your six year old could not have painted that.
2: And besides, she didn't, did she?

Woof! :)

Please support this eBay seller.

2007-02-12T16:30:00.000-05:00

Just because more people need to know the truth about that puppy in the window.
I just ordered this booklet. $1.95, free shipping. And, it's a first edition, even.
Seller ID is truthaboutpuppies, item number 260086421651

Item link, I hope.
Double dawg dare ya.

Friday at the $10 Rabies vax clinic.

2007-02-09T20:24:00.000-05:00

Proceeds to various wildlife and domestic animal rehab & rescue.
I was able to take some photos in between wrangling and calming dogs, doing paperwork and biting big hard dog treats into small pieces with my bare teeth so our stash would last all day.
Over 100 dogs and cats done today, tomorrow will be much busier.
It was fun!

Dogsicles.

2007-02-07T07:25:00.000-05:00

It's cold. Walk outside and the hairs in your nose freeze into little metal bars and slam shut so breathing hurts, exposed skin starts turning bright red within minutes and you cross your fingers that your car will start. They even closed the schools for a couple of days so the little darlings wouldn't be too chilly. Dog shit freezes the minute it hits the ground and I haven't been able to clean the back yard for a couple of weeks. What poop isn't hidden by snow would need to be chipped out of snowbanks with archeological excavation tools.
So, it's really frikken cold and the dogs have not had their regular walks and are going stir crazy. Frankly, so am I! I miss walkies too. We had several days with the temps below zero and wind chills up to thirty below. I don't mind cold but when it's like that, there's really not much point in going out when your eyelashes start freezing together in the frigid wind.
So, yesterday afternoon it actually warmed up to a toasty 10 whole degrees and I tossed the dawgs into the back of the Jeep and took them over to the river park to run. They exploded out of the back of the Jeep like hairy tornadoes and just ran. It was great to watch. After about 15 minutes Daphne started hunching over a bit and looking cold so we went back home but it did feel wonderful. I ran back & forth with them, and in the snow that is quite a work out, especially with snow boots on!
It never fails to amuse me that at least once every winter cold weather becomes front page news. "Bitter cold strikes Midwest." No shit Sherlock. This is news?

Kwispelbier - Dogs drinking responsibly. Or not.

2007-01-31T06:55:00.000-05:00

Some enterprising folks in the Netherlands are marketing beef beer for dogs.
Yum.
Kwispelbier.

Dog thefts and more agility photos.

2007-01-28T09:01:00.000-05:00

I wrote this alert for my dog list. Something to be aware of if you show or trial with your dogs!

Everyone's probably heard of the Staffy who was stolen in November at the Novi Pet Expo.
I was there for the UKC Winter Classic this weekend, and there was another attempt. Someone tried making it out the door with one of the flyball dogs. Thankfully the dog was recovered but the "tall young guy" (I talked to the security guard) ran out and they didn't catch him. Also, I heard that someone else came back to their crating area and someone had a crate door open and was petting their dog. Unbelievable.
I was in the agility part of the building and we all tried to have a buddy system going, but there were still times when there wasn't anyone right there. I had a padlock for my crate, and this is an excellent idea IMHO. The crate was padlocked pretty much whenever I walked away from it. I have a very large dog and crate so it's not like someone could pick the whole thing up!
The security guards in our area were great, they were strict about not letting people in & out with dogs unless we had the proper paperwork. But it was really busy at times and there was only one guard per door. My suggestion is unless there is someone with the dog at all times, to at least have secure locks for the crates and never leave a dog in an x-pen unattended. I could see how easy it would be to steal a dog there, and I can't imagine how heartbreaking it would be.

And, unrelated - more agility photos! I didn't even know these existed, got them from a friend yesterday. From last August.

Buick City, Flint MI.

2007-01-25T16:02:00.000-05:00

About a mile from me - across from the river park (officially, Veterans' Park) is what remains of the old Buick plant. Buick City was officially closed in 1999, and what was a sprawling factory complex has been leveled to the ground. This took a few years, as demolition crews systematically reduced acre after acre into piles of rubble, then hauled it all away.
Now there's weeds growing up between old bricks and concrete slab and 1960s industrial linoleum flooring. I trespass there with the dogs sometimes...these photos were from a grey early morning walk a few weeks ago.
A very old part of the plant still stands - must date to the 1930s. Huge blackened brick buildings. I so want to go explore...but I have seen footprints in the snow leading over there. So, I think there is probably crack dealing and prostitution and squatting and all manner of people I probably don't want to meet while I'm by myself. Charles, if you're reading this - we need to go explore!

Cow, evolution, Great Dane, Jesus on the dog door.

2007-01-24T05:10:00.000-05:00

This is a highland cow in the snow.

This is Duncan. This is Duncan's story.

Did you know that our National Park Service rangers are not allowed to tell you how old the Grand Canyon is?
In order to avoid offending religious fundamentalists, our National Park Service is under orders to suspend its belief in geology.

Story here.
However, they must carry a book in the Grand Canyon gift shop telling you that the Grand Canyon was formed by Noah's flood.
Actually I thought the biblical flood - there was a huge flood - was pretty much documented in Turkey, with the Ark's final resting place on Mt Ararat.

In more religious whacko news, Donosaurs and humans lived happily together and you can see proof of this in the biblicaly correct creation museum in Kentucky.
So T Rex chased Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden. Who knew? And why are there no mentions of dinosaurs in the Bible? Plenty of talk of donkeys and dogs and birds.
Things that make you go hmmmmm. I'm guessing that the people who are putting this museum together don't really believe the premise. Rather it's a way to make money (not that there's anything wrong with that) off scientifically naive people ignoring the findings of geology and paleontology and biology because it's just, I dunno, easier to believe that some Supreme Being snapped its fingers and taa daa there we were. Because those science classes are so difficult, why bother?

One more religious whacko item coutesy of the Boomer Chronicles.
Image of Jesus on Doggie Door saves dogs from almost certain death.

Hopefully Jesus suggested dog training classes.

New Diet Pill for Dogs! (Results Not Typical.)

2007-01-07T01:12:00.000-05:00

Last week the Federal Trade Commission fined four major diet pill companies $25 million for making false claims. No really. There is no pill that turns your body into a fat burning furnace, melts away fat and creates rippling muscles without the bother of diet and exercise. Get out! You cry. Read the small print at the bottom of any diet-scheme ad containing testimonials. It says "Results Not Typical." No duh Sherlock.
(Oh the funny thing - the pills will continue to be sold. Just some of the wording in ads will be changed. I don't think there will be much of a decrease in sales, either.)

Also in the news last week: FDA approves a diet pill for fat dogs.
Things that make you go hmmmm.
Apparently it makes the dog feel bloated and cuts fat absorption. Also, dogs treated with the drug may suffer from vomiting, loose stools, diarrhea and lethargy, the FDA said.
It's not approved for humans and your vet has to prescribe it. How reassuring.

Fat pets.
How does this happen? I had a dog get a bit fat once. I quit feeding pellets, started feeding raw and got a bit overenthusiastic with food amounts because the dogs LOVED their new food. One gained 10lbs. I started feeding her less (we already walked and hiked many miles a week) and she lost the weight. Easy peasy.
Since humans control how much, and what type of food a pet gets, it's really easy to regulate their diet and maintain healthy weight. Absent a medical condition of some sort this is a no brainer.
And, if your dog is too fat you are not getting enough exercise. Ha! That's probably quite true.
And, the owners of that poor dog pictured should be charged with abuse. I think owners of fat children should be penalised too, for that matter.

Sharpen critical thinking.
Is there a legal-minded person out there who can explain to me just why the government should fine advertisers for lying? Isn't ALL advertising fudging the truth to one extent or nother? If advertisers were allowed to say whatever they wanted, then maybe people would stop thinking "if it's in print it must be true because otherwise they wouldn't be allowed to say it" and would actually start to use a little common sense. A grassroots common sense movement would gain momentum. Power to the people! I feel badly that so many people are so easily hoodwinked and parted from their money. But that's their fault, isn't it? Gambling is legal in most states; I don't see much of a difference.
Results are not typical. :)

Quiz: How guilty are you? And other things.

2007-01-03T05:50:00.000-05:00

One.
Here's the quiz.
Me: 27 years, 7000 quid, possible death penalty. Oopsie.

Two.
The ultimate "how to mess with a telemarketer" prank.
This is hysterical. Turn up your speakers.

Three.
Yesterday was my dog Cooper's sixth birthday.

Four.

I just finished Steven King's Lisey's Story. My review: "Entertaining but he should stick to fantasy and gore." (Hello, Kirkus? I am available for book reviews.)

Five.
Want latke recipes? I got your latke recipes right here.

Six.
Raise your hand if you enjoy being naked in public.

Happy New Year!

Just, like, wow.

2006-12-28T19:17:00.000-05:00

I couldn't figure out how to get the video player to work here. Turn up your speakers and watch this video....click the Lorenzo link below.
And I thought agility was difficult.
This is amazing.

Lorenzo the horseman.

Gem City trial photos.

2006-12-27T04:13:00.000-05:00

Trial photos by Virgil Sweeden (Paw Prints), who took many great photos, here's just a few.
Could Cooper be having any less fun?!
And we got our very first CH points at this trial - 24 of 'em. :)

I opened a present....

2006-12-22T17:44:00.000-05:00

And this is my new, favouritest t-shirt!
With Cooper being longhaired & all, being in public with him means a constant barrage of questions, mostly along the lines of "What is he mixed with?"
It's really bad when we go someplace like the Ren Fest where he wears pearls, a studded harness and fairy wings. I keep saying I should hang a sign on him.
So - here's the first Christmas present I've opened this year and I just LOVE it!

Christmas gift tag!

2006-12-17T08:25:00.000-05:00

I was tagged by Sharon.
The Rules:
The player of this game starts with "3 things he/ she would love to get for Christmas" and also has to list "3 things he/ she definitely does not want to get for Christmas". Then he/she tags 5 friends and list their names. The ones who get tagged need to write on their blogs about their Christmas wishes, as well as state this rule clearly, then tag 5 more victims. And the one who tags need to leave a comment that says "you've been Christmas tagged!" in their comments and tell them to read your blog.

Santa please may I have:

1: World peace and no more religious fundamentalism, ever again.
2: A billion dollars. I will spend most of it doing Good Works and buying nice things for friends. I'll save a couple million for myself, buy a large tract of land and have an animal sanctuary. I'll also buy lots of cute clothes and expensive furniture. And a Porsche Cayman. Red. And a brand new Isuzu Trooper, with a manual transmission. (I don't like automatics.) Silver blue.
3: Can I have back the body I got when I was about 25, please?

Santa, please no:

1: Earthquakes, tsunamis or tornados unless they only touch down on unihabited, boring landscapes.
2: Mosquitos.
3. Daytime television.

Tagged: Sharon, Lauren, Tabor, Diana, Karen.

State Mottos (not official).

2006-12-14T07:03:00.000-05:00

A while back, Jill thought of matching up dog breeds with flowers. I thought this list of state mottos was hysterical, so I assigned breeds to each state.

Alabama: Hell Yeah, We Have Electricity Treeing Feist
~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~
Alaska : 11,623 Eskimos Can't Be Wrong! Malamute
~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~
Arizona : But It's A Dry Heat Chihuahua.
~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~
Arkansas : Literacy Ain't Everything Redbone Coohhound.
~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~
California : By 30, Our Women Have More Plastic Than Your Honda AMBOR.
~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~
Colorado : If You Don't Ski, Don't Bother Flatcoat Retriever.
~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~
Connecticut : Like Massachusetts , Only The Kennedy's Don't Own It Yet Italian Greyhound.
~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~
Delaware : We Really Do Like The Chemicals In Our Water Chinese Crested.
~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~
Florida : Ask Us About Our Grandkids Toy poodle.
~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~
Georgia : We Put The "Fun" In Fundamentalist Extremism Cur
~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~
Hawaii : Haka Tiki Mou Sha'ami Leeki Toru (Death To Mainland Scum, Leave Your Money) Hawaiian Poi Dog
~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~
Idaho : More Than Just Potatoes ...Well OK, We're Not, But The Potatoes Are Real Good
Affenpinscher
~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~
Illinois : Please Don't Pronounce the "S" German Shepherd
~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~
Indiana : 2 Billion Years Tidal Wave Free Maltese
~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~
Iowa : We Do Amazing Things With Corn Golden Retriever
~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~
Kansas : First Of The Rectangle States Greyhound
~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~
Kentucky : Five Million People; Fifteen Last Names Beagle
~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~
Louisiana : We're Not ALL Drunk Cajun Wackos, But That's Our Tourism Campaign Pitbull
~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~
Maine : We're Really Cold, But We Have Cheap Lobster Norwegian Elkhound
~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~
Mary land : If You Can Dream It, We Can Tax It Samoyed
~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~
Massachusetts : Our Taxes Are Lower Than Sweden 's (For Most Tax Brackets) Boston Terrier
~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~
Michigan : First Line Of Defense From The Canadians Rottweiler
~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~
Minnesota : 10,000 Lakes... And 10,000,000,000, 000 Mosquitoes Malamute
~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~
Mississippi : Come And Feel Better About Your Own State Cocker Spaniel
~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~
Missouri : Your Federal Flood Relief Tax Dollars At Work Fila Brasiliero
~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~
Montana : Land Of The Big Sky , The Unabomber, Right-wing Crazies, and Little Else Wolf hybrid
~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~
Nebraska : Ask About Our State Motto Contest Border Collie
~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~
Nevada : Hookers and Poker! English Bull Terrier
~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~
New Hampshire : Go Away And Leave Us Alone Lurcher
~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~
New Jersey : You Want A ##$%##! Motto? I Got Yer ##$%##! Motto Right Here! Bulldog
~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~
New Mexico : Lizards Make Excellent Pets Whippet
~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~
New York : You Have The Right To Remain Silent, You Have The Right To an Attorney Pomeranian
~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~
North Carolina : Tobacco Is A Vegetable Briard
~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~
North Dakota : We Really Are One Of The 50 States! Siberian Husky
~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~
Ohio : At Least We're Not Michigan Sheltie
~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~
Oklahoma : Like The Play, Only No Singing English Pointer
~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~
Oregon : Spotted Owl... It's What's For Dinner Amstaff
~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~
Pennsylvania : Cook With Coal Bouvier
~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~
Rhode Island : We're Not REALLY An Island Doberman
~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~
South Carolina : Remember The Civil War? We Didn't Actually Surrender Rat terrier
~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~
South Dakota : Closer Than North Dakota Dachshund
~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~
Tennessee : The Educashun State Treeing Walker
~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~
Texas : Si' Hablo Ing'les (Yes, I Speak English) Minpin
~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~
Utah : Our Jesus Is Better Than Your Jesus Bloodhound
~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~
Vermont : Yep Basenji
~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~
Virginia : Who Says Government Stiffs And Slackjaw Yokels Don't Mix? Bluetick
~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~
Washington : Help! We're Overrun By Nerds And Slackers! Malinois
~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~
Washington , D.C. : Wanna Be Mayor? Bedlington Terrier
~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~
West Virginia : One Big Happy Family... Really! Vizsla
~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~
Wisconsin : Come Cut The Cheese Great Dane
~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~
Wyoming : Where Men Are Men .. And The Sheep Are Nervous! Labrador Retriever

What happens in Dayton, stays in Dayton.

2006-12-11T07:19:00.000-05:00

The Michigan Crew at the Dayton OH agility trial this weekend. One Rottweiler, one BCx, two Jack Russel Terrorists, I mean terriers, and a Briard. The Red Roof Inn on Miller Lane was a happening den of iniquity on Saturday night! Har, har. OK, I lie. It wasn't really but I'm still not going to share photos (Erica! No boobie shots published, see!?)

Mega congratulations to Erica's daughter Amanda and Phlash, the highest titled UKC agility Briard ever, with her brand new UGRACH title!!

Humilating my dog.

2006-12-06T06:48:00.000-05:00

First, here is a photo of my two BAD dogs. They came in from outside and when I was out of the room, climbed onto the People Couch. They are not allowed! And Cooper knows it. He opened his eyes just as I was taking the photo, then climbed off, looking a bit put out. Daphne is camera shy and turns her head away looking nervous if she gets a camera pointed at her....that's why I don't have as many photos of her.

This is one of a ton of photos I took of Cooper being humiliated. In most of them he looked grumpy, but I really wanted a good one for a Christmas card to send my clients.
You can see the finished card here.

So many magazines, so little time.

2006-12-05T06:29:00.000-05:00

BARK. This is a literary dog magazine - slick, glossy and way fun to read. Great photography, very well written articles and stories. Sort of the Atlantic Monthly of dog magazines, not at all like Dog World and Dog Fancy. I used to subscribe to those, but they get a bit boring after a while.
BARK website.

DOGSPORT. Excellent instructional and inspirational articles on all manner of working dog sports - agility, obedience, rally-o, etc.
Dogsport website.

Intelligence Report. The magazine of the Southern Poverty Law Center. Really, really interesting reporting on all manner of civil rights issues, mostly dealing with white supremacist and racist groups both in the USA and abroad. Unabashedly liberal! SPLC was founded in the early 1970s to go after organised racist groups in the courts.
Fabulous in-depth reporting on militias, supremacists and the scarier, militant religious groups.
SPLC website.

Oprah! I don't think most womens' magazines are very interesting, I find them silly. Oprah is intelligent, quality writing, frou-frou girly stuff on fashion and beauty as well as thoughtful articles on everything from books to relationships.
Oprah mag site.

There's so many interesting magazines! Others I buy as the covers catch my eye, but these are the four I subscribe to because I always read them and it's way cheaper to subscribe. I'd read more if I had the time.

Guns, knives and dogs. Oh my.

2006-12-02T05:12:00.000-05:00

Man Attacked With Bizarre Weapon.

This is a Flint TV news station, but knife incident happened in Grand Blanc, not Flint. Grand Blanc is considered a "oh, you live there, ooh lala," snobby, tres upscale town, about 15 miles south of Flint.
I looked that knife up online. It's made by some guy who is into doing props and weapons for people into fantasy stuff and is supposed to be "for display only." Yah right. That's why it's REALLY SHARP. Can anyone spell "d i s i n g e n u o u s."
It's been around for some years; I found references from 2003. I don't think it should be illegal though. Any more than I don't think properly registered and handled firearms should be illegal. Or any more than I think properly cared for and trained pitbulls and Rottweilers and mastiffs should be illegal.
This doesn't mean I don't think weapons of this sort aren't stupid! I think they are. For the record I don't own anything that was designed specifically as a weapon - no big-ass kinives, no firearms. Well, I do have a can of mace by the front door, but that is it.

Guns don't kill people, people kill people. (Actually cars kill more people than guns, if you want to follow this line of reasoning. Yes, I realise this is a flawed analogy. Just saying.)
Knives don't kill people, people kill people.
Ban the deed, not the breed.

Do you think my dogs, or those pictured above, should be taken from their owners' homes and killed because various municipalities have deemed them inherently vicious?
I don't either. This is happening in several cities in the US though.

When are we going to start properly enforcing existing laws, demanding personal responsibility and stop making silly nanny laws that acheive nothing?
This isn't a political blog so I'll stop there. But really.

Stoned cat in a bag.

2006-11-29T10:06:00.000-05:00

1: Put catnip in a bag.
2: Let drug crazed cat at said bag.
3: Take amusing pictures while cat rolls around getting blasted out of his little cat head.
4: Nod in empathy, fondly remembering one's own dissolute youth while cat crashes on bed sleeping off his high.
5: There must be rehab centers for cats? If Elvis sees me with a paper grocery sack he starts meowling piteously for a huffing session. I'm such an enabler.

Cooper in Chicago.

2006-11-25T19:51:00.000-05:00

It's hard having a dog in the city, with no yard. Cooper came down to Chicago with me. My brother and his girlfriend live in a great apartment in Hyde Park...it's a wonderful, funky, diverse part of the city. They're 3 stories up, though...I had to be really dedicated and take Cooper out first thing in the morning before I'd had coffee. Oh, the horror! And then late at night, even after eating myself practically into a coma on Thanksgiving. Gah. We did have some lovely long walks though, through parks and along the lakeshore and around the city. And one must always, always carry plastic poop bags. I wonder how many hundreds of pounds of dog shit are produced in a large city on a daily basis? Thousands of pounds, perhaps. Yikes.
I know I wrote some time back about the Quaker parrot population in Chicago. That's not the only wildlife in the middle of the city - raccoons survive and thrive right near downtown, believe it or not! When I was pulling onto my brother's street on Wednesday night, one strolled right across the street in front of me. We were many blocks from the park and I'm not sure where they hide out. The writer of this article I found mentioned seeing one on 57th in Hyde Park, the one I saw was near 53rd. Wild.
Cooper also had a lovely time lying (and drooling) at Sara's feet while she was preparing Thanksgiving dinner. He got to eat the turkey giblets and lick all the plates clean.
Daphne didn't have nearly as interesting a time at home alone with her cat. But John the petsitting dude did a fine job, she gave him no problems at all and everything was nice and orderly when I got home. I left him with a stack of bully sticks (dehydrated bull penis dog chews, no kidding), a stuffed Kong and a large beef soup bone to give her. These kept her amused - and from eating couches. I didn't think it was fair to leave her crated so much and she did fine.

Lucky dawg.

2006-11-22T09:45:00.000-05:00

I was just going to leave the Happy Turkey day post up while I buggered off for a few days.
Since Cooper is coming with me, Daphne will be visited several times a day by John the petsitter dude. So I figured she deserved an extra-special just me & her walk along Bluebell Beach at daybreak. It was cold, in the 20s but a really gorgeous morning. We had the entire county park to ourselves.
I took 123 photos (!) and here's some nice ones of Daphne running her fool head of, following deer scent and rolling on goose poop.
For all her frailties, she is a sweet and pretty dog.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2006-11-22T05:30:00.000-05:00

A silly photo, and a nice Iroquois prayer of Thanksgiving:

We who are here present thank the Great Spirit that we are here
to praise Him.
We thank Him that He has created men and women, and ordered
that these beings shall always be living to multiply the earth.
We thank Him for making the earth and giving these beings its products
to live on.
We thank Him for the water that comes out of the earth and runs
for our lands.
We thank Him for all the animals on the earth.
We thank Him for certain timbers that grow and have fluids coming
from them for us all.
We thank Him for the branches of the trees that grow shadows
for our shelter.
We thank Him for the beings that come from the west, the thunder
and lightning that water the earth.
We thank Him for the light which we call our oldest brother, the sun
that works for our good.
We thank Him for all the fruits that grow on the trees and vines.
We thank Him for his goodness in making the forests, and thank
all its trees.
We thank Him for the darkness that gives us rest, and for the kind Being
of the darkness that gives us light, the moon.
We thank Him for the bright spots in the skies that give us signs,
the stars.
We give Him thanks for our supporters, who had charge of our harvests.
We give thanks that the voice of the Great Spirit can still be heard
through the words of Ga-ne-o-di-o.
We thank the Great Spirit that we have the privilege of this pleasant
occasion.
We give thanks for the persons who can sing the Great Spirit's music,
and hope they will be privileged to continue in his faith.
We thank the Great Spirit for all the persons who perform the ceremonies
on this occasion.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving all! I am going to Chicago for the holiday and plan to eat way too much and have a nice time.

Bang! Bang! Duck! Now delicately seasoned.

2006-11-15T06:03:00.000-05:00

I Am Not Making This Up.
Heard about this product on NPR.
Ammunition infused with delicious flavors, no kidding. You shoot your bird. The food grade, biodegradable, yummy ammo melts into the bird as it's cooked. Your meat is seasoned and there's no need to dig around looking for pellets that can crack a tooth.
Hats off to American ingenuity! This could forever change duck blind conversation.
"Yo Earl, what flavor d'ya think goes with mallard?"
"Dunno Bud, I'm thinking Provencal Herbe with a hint of piquant lavender."

Shoots! Kills! Seasons!
Check out their website. I think this is great.

In which Daphne gets her ass crated.

2006-11-14T16:37:00.000-05:00

After saying she only flipped out every few months, that's what I came home to this afternoon. She ate the rest of the Dog Couch. She also ripped up a large cardboard box (I left it for her to rip up) and horked up breakfast by the back fdoor. Well someone did; I'm sure it was her getting overwrought, she does that.
I was gone 7 hours. Both dogs got about a mile walk each this morning, plus plenty of playtime in the back yard before I went to work.
Fuck. :(

Daphne's story.

2006-11-14T04:58:00.000-05:00

I saw a nice looking female Rottweiler on a Rottie rescue website. I went to the Ingham County shelter (sad place) to check her out...she was avoidant and squirrely so I sadly put her back in the pen and went looking at the other Rottweilers there (lots, unfortunately.) Daphne was small, extremely skinny, covered with diarrhea and at the back of the pen, hackles up, barking and showing teeth. So naturally I opened the door and went in! I could tell she was terrified, not aggressive. I sat down and she threw herself on my lap, belly up. So, I took her home January 4 2002.
She was emaciated with a raging staph skin infection. We got her a bit healthier before getting her spayed; the vet said her uterus was deformed, good thing she never got pregnant. She was maybe a year old.
AC said she'd been tied out on a short chain, no food, water or shelter, in Michigan winter. They had to shoot her with a tranq dart to get to her. She had never been in a house and everything scared her - doorways, running water, furniture. She is not a mentally strong dog and still gets anxious about new things.
She had horrendous seperation anxiety at first and had to be crated every time we left the house. You think the photo of the couch is bad? Ha! That's nuthin. The damage she did was awesome and really expensive. She was in the truck once when I went in to pay for gas, less than three minutes gone. Came back and she'd almost destroyed the passenger seat. Merely walking out of a room could set her off into a destructive fit. She has wrecked more things than I can even count. I called her the Destructo-Rott.
She has a congenitally poor immune system and airborn & flea allergies, which means she gets rashes, gunky ears, UTIs and random alarming swellings in the summer. Benadryl Is Our Friend. She has a small crate of supplements (which don't do squat, I have learned over the years) and medications (which do.) I monitor and manage. It took almost 3 years to finally get rid of her persistent, recurrent staph infection which at its worst was a raw, crusty scab from her chin to her vulva. Poor dog! She has been blood, thyroid and lord knows what else tested and "on paper" is quite healthy. Twice her kneecap has dislocated - luxating patella is common in small dogs, rare in big ones. Luckily it's only been twice so surgery isn't indicated but it's extremely painful for her. She is stressed by pain and will refuse to move. Thank doG for modern meds and good pain control!
She is prone to visually-triggered obsessions. The TV is the worst, good thing I rarely watch TV. She will get within 3" of the screen and go absolutely rigid. Her body starts to quiver, her eyes go blank (you could stuff a hot dog up her nose and she wouldn't react) and drool literally starts pouring out of her mouth. Of course I don't give her the opportunity. I think she would literally dehydrate to death if she was left alone in a room with a TV for long enough. It's very similar to photosensitive epilepsy. Mirrors and aquariums can set her off too. At one point I had all the mirrors in the house covered. Noise - fireworks, thunderstorms - don't bother her at all.
Small dogs can push her into this condition too. And puppies, which is aberrant adult-dog behaviour. She is absolutely unsafe around little dogs and would kill. She has tried. Weirdly enough, she isn't like this with cats and has a low prey drive.
The office floor is often littered with cardboard and paper that I give her. She must chew. If she cannot rip something up, she isn't interested in it. She can deconstruct an "indestructible" black Kong in short order. I think it's an anxiety-reducing behaviour. She never, ever swallows things like this or she'd either be dead, or even more expensive, from repeated obstruction surgeries by now.
She can go for months without destroying anything important, then something will set her off and there goes a rug, or a couch. Luckily she only does this to things on the floor, or the "dog couch." I do not have many rugs on the wood flors - only cheap ones, if at all. I can't have any dog beds. Poor Cooper. He'd love a dog bed.
Crate her, you say? She has suddenly "gone off" and started ripping the edge of a rug when I am right there in the room. I have no idea what triggers it and probably never will.
She has an anxiety wrap, though I'm not sure it works. She spent several months on Clomicalm. It made her extremely submissive and she started with the submissive peeing again; which was also a problem when I first got her.
She has been through obedience classes and I tried her on agility. She was too stressed to learn much, and then there was the little dog thing. Unfamiliar or busy situations make her a stress mess.
I've talked to behaviourists who couldn't offer any advice beyond what I already do.
I exercise her as much as I can. When weather is nice, I bike with her leashed. The dogs get frequent early-morning off-leash runs at the river park. In hopes that weraring her out will help. The dogs love all the exercise. However one morning after a run & three-mile walk I brought the dogs home, then went to the grocery store. Came back a short time later to a ripped-up rug. Overstimulation? Understimulation? Haven't a clue.
She loves going for car rides, though often I harness her. Because she pants and bounces from window to window and licks the glass, which is just annoying.
She has a very, very hard time learning new things, it's like she operates from her lizard-brain rather than socially. She doesn't know good dog-etiquette and wants to fling herself all over guests.
I try to be patient and calm when teaching her things and she eventually gets it. Usually.
Maybe if I'd been more savvy when evaluating and interacting with her at the shelter, I could've picked up on some of her issues?
Once, I considered euthanising her. Because she can be so difficult to live with. And, I wondered, how happy is she, really? I just couldn't imagine doing it, though. Just couldn't.
I can't imagine anyone else wanting to take her on either - if there was another place, a different owner, who she would be calmer and happier with, I'd do it. But is there? Maybe Cesar Milan; probably him!
I put a huge amount of energy into this dog - my wonderful vet says the next step is finding a veterinary neurologist/behaviourist but this could be expensive, almost beyond my capability. And no guarantees!
As long as her environment is managed, I believe she's quite happy most of the time.
She has never, ever exhibited aggression towards humans. She adores children. She is very, very sweet and cute much of the time, actually.
She is frantically happy when she gets to run at the river park.
She loves her cat.
My friends like her. Though when I jokingly say "then take her home with you" they all say "hell no!"
She is pretty and has great teeth. :)
I think she actually might have some pitbull in her mix, not that it makes a difference either way. She is small and light-boned for a Rottweiler. Who knows, she was a ghetto dog.
She is a good watch dog; barks and makes a fuss when she hears strange noises. She'd probably hide under the bed peeing in fright were someone to break in though!
Other than that, she is quiet and doesn't bark.
So, Daphne stays and I'm sure I've learned from her - you learn more from the challenging dogs.
But, were she to keel over from a brain aneurism or heart attack or something, a part of me would be relieved. I would be very sad, but relieved. Damn dog will probably live to be a 17 year old Rottweiler though. (Oh, I hope not.)
Phew. That was a long post.

Wanted: More free couch cushions, please.

2006-11-11T07:28:00.000-05:00

This is what I came home to a few days ago. That's Daphne's work. No, it's not seperation anxiety. I will write a more detailed Daphne post later.

Ah. Summer.

2006-11-09T06:26:00.000-05:00

I'm not feeling very creative this morning, so decided to put up some photos from this year's agility trials. I have hundreds of photos! Here's some. Cooper loves, loves, freakin loves agility.
These were all UKC trials, they have some equipment AKC doesn't, like the sway bridge and crawl tunnel.

Crawl tunnel.

Take-off!

LOVE to jump.

Hoop tunnel.

Airborne, again.

I love this one. At the start line. I am asking him to be a very good boy and get us a Q, if not a placement. Failing that, just having fun is OK too.

Git those contacts!!

Sway bridge, ooh, wobbly.

WHEEEE!

Dogs have to be aware of where they place their feet on the dog walk...

Teeter like a pro!

GO VOTE!

2006-11-07T07:22:00.000-05:00

With all the concern about voting errors (insert snarky comment here, haha) and malfunctions you might be wondering what problems have been reported in your state. Check votersunite.org.
Thanks to Rhea at the Boomer Chronicles for that.
Here in Michigan the bedeviled Diebold machines aren't being used, so just a couple of typo errors are listed for this state. Like this one:
Ottawa County. 170,000 ballots were printed with a typo - the "L" was left out of Public in a proposed constitutional amendment.

Bwahahaha!
OK, now go vote.

Monday I write about car-deer accidents, then on Thursday....

2006-11-04T11:26:00.000-05:00

...Thursday night I have agility class. Quite a hike, it's out in the country - woods, marshes, farms, dirt roads.
I pulled in right after one of the other participants. She was driving a Chevy Suburban with three Belgian Malinois inside. As she pulled up under the lights, you could see the front of the truck was smooshed in and some pretty colored liquids were dripping onto the pavement below.
Yup, she had just hit a large buck (they are rutting now; their minds are on sex and not traffic.) It leapt out from the side of the road into her Suburban. Actually, I guess it collided with her and not the other way around! When the sheriff came out to get a report and call a wrecker, he said it was something he dealt with every day, this time of year.
The cute thing? Despite all this, she wanted to be sure the wrecker didn't come until after 9pm so she could complete the classes and run all her dogs! There's a pro for ya. :)

Just darn cute.

2006-11-01T05:01:00.000-05:00

Type a command in the box and watch the little dog do your bidding!

What wild animal is most likely to kill you?

2006-10-30T21:57:00.000-05:00

Any guesses?
If you're in the Midwest, it's likely to be a deer. I'm in Michigan - we're the number two state for auto-deer collisions (PA is number one) and this time of year is awful for deer on the roads. They're running about eating as much as they can and forgetting to look both ways. Spring is almost as bad - they're both looking for food and mates!
Actually it's awful for many wild critters - roads can be littered with squirrels, possums, raccoons, ground hogs, even wild turkeys and geese. But deer cause about 150 deaths every year and who knows how many serious injuries and car wrecks...I know people who've wrecked cars by hiting deer, and knew a guy with a broken back from a car-deer wreck in Nebraska.
So anyways, be alert because the world needs more lerts, try not to run over Bambi.

Who does the vacuuming in Heaven?

2006-10-29T18:44:00.000-05:00

I'm going to preface this by stating I respect others' faiths, no problem. I have faith in things like gravity keeping us stuck to the ground and most likely the sun will come up tomorrow, based on reasonable expectation of continued reliable performance of such things. I do not, however, have any certainty there is an afterlife or a Rainbow Bridge. I know these are very comforting concepts to many although I don't think it's very logical. In fact I reserve the right to poke fun at glurge like the Rainbow Bridge poem. You can read the text here.
The basic premise - when an animal that has some sort of connection with people dies, it goes to a sort of heaven, becomes well again, and frolics happily until their human also dies and comes comes to hang out with it in this heaven for eternity.
I guess wild animals, or feral domestic animals, just - what? Go to another place? Do they get made whole and get to frolic happily into eternity, or do they get shafted? This is not made clear.
What if the pet had two owners it liked very, very much? Will it just ignore the second one who gets there?
What if the pet loved its human, but the human doesn't want to be eternally together with said pet? I can think of several devoted pets I've had that I don't particularly want to meet again.
Come to that, some of us are going to have one hell of a crowd of animals hanging around us for all eternity.
Who vacuums up all that dog hair?
What if the first owner loved the pet very very much, but died and got to heaven first. Then, a second owner adopts the pet and loves it very very much. Then the pet dies. Does it go find the first owner, thus making eternity blissful for that person who has been waiting anxiously for the jooyful moment? Or does it gambol about with its own kind and wait for the second owner? Seems one way or another, at best eternity is going to get awfully complicated for many folks, or at worst will be a sad and lonely eternity.
Do tarantulas, fish and slugs count, if people cared for and loved them?
How would that work, really?
What if the owner loved the pet very very much and gave it a great life but was otherwise a horrible person who tortured and murdered people. Does that person go to the Rainbow Bridge Place, or do they go to another place thus leaving the pet waiting for eternity?
What if the loving owner dies pregnant. Then gets to the Rainbow Bridge Place where pet is waiting. Then gives birth to a psychopath who becomes one of those children who tortures animals?
Well, you get my point. I think this is a very tenuous fantasy, fraught with complications.
I believe what I have experienced over the last 48 years. People, plants and animals die. You never see or hear from them again because they are, well, dead. Then you die and nobody ever sees or hears from you because you are, well...dead.
The End.

Big dog porch.

2006-10-26T07:11:00.000-04:00

Someone posted this link to my agility class mailing list. Go read the October Dog of the Month, it's really sweet and applies to any size dog.

Welcome to Pond Flintbegone.

2006-10-24T05:19:00.000-04:00

Crazy week.
Going to see Garrison Keillor tonight - we're second row in front! Yeah!!

Photos for my mom (Hi Mom.)

2006-10-19T05:01:00.000-04:00

I am cruel to my dog and someone is concerned.

2006-10-18T19:20:00.000-04:00

Heh. Well, I am all for positive training, but I also will not lie to my dog. I don't believe in nagging or cajoling - I think it's better to make one big scary fear-for-your-life, unequivocal correction than to make tons of little wheedling ones a dog is largely going to ignore. Because, when I say something, I mean it - I'm not gonna lie! Dogs are incredibly honest creatures, we owe them the same courtesy.
I am talking about correcting a behaviour the dog knows is incorrect, of course - not scaring the crap out of your dog while teaching it something new.
So, Cooper is a real pig about other dogs. To make things really clear and easy for him, he is not allowed to interact with other dogs, at all, ever, when we're at class, or at a trial. No sniffing, no looking, nada. It's less confusing for him than saying, well this one looks friendly and your body language is OK - but don't look at that dog over there.
And, usually he is really good about this, even in crowds of dogs. If he and another dominant dog start keying off each other or posturing, a quick word from me gets his attention away.
Cooper does not like Boxers, haven't a clue why. In obedience class there's a nice, friendly Boxer and on Monday he stared at Coop - I told him to leave it, and he did. Five minutes later, Boxer stares at Coop again, who decides to do the idiot lungeing cussing dog thing when I wasn't paying attention.
So...he gets put on the ground very emphatically because he knows that was wrong! I held him down and impressed on him what a terrible and bad dog he was, until his eyes went soft and his ears went back.
For the rest of the class he was a model obedience dog, making a big point of NOT looking at the Boxer; instead looking at me as if saying "aren't I just the bestest dog here, look how well I'm doing!" He was quite proud of himself for doing the right thing. It's good for a dog to get a sense of self-satisfaction for a job well done, not merely working to please their human.
Apparently the Boxer's human was quite distressed by this - whether she thought I was too overbearing, or cruel, or was making my dog mean, I don't know. The trainer told me later...and Boxer Mom wasn't at the last class so I hope she didn't get scared away! I really do well with Cooper's bullying ways - I worked REALLY hard to get him to be a gentleman - otherwise he'd never get to play agility, obedience, go to the the Ren Fest or any of the other things he so loves.
I've been told plenty of times that people are relaxed around him with their dogs because I do stay on top of it. I've very rarely had to put him on the ground and shake his little head until his eyeballs rattle (not really) but it sure makes an impression. He is a confident and strong-minded dog who isn't going to get stressed by much. Mainly, he knows there are consequences for acting out and I will not lie.
I'm far from a perfect trainer and make mistakes and learn from every dog....by the time I'm 300 years old I might be pretty good...
Anyways Boxer Mom, I guarantee Coop won't do that again!

The LionDrover.

2006-10-13T05:34:00.000-04:00

A wildlife park near Stirling, Scotland has provided their lions a device intended to trigger prey drive and enrich their lives - the lion drover.
It's a small remote controlled ATV, painted with zebra stripes and carrying a pile of zebra dung.

"The machine was the work of four students from Strathclyde University's department of design, manufacture and engineering management.

It will be tested with a number of lion prides, packs of wolves and African wild dogs around the UK, while a third LionDrover is currently under construction.

Gary Gilmourm, manager of Blair Drummond, said: "The LionDrover has in many ways brought the Serengeti to Stirling, which makes for a more authentic life for the lions and a more authentic experience for our visitors." "

I listened to an NPR interview with the park manager last night. The lions will lose interest after they've "killed" the LionDrover. They're fed right after they kill it, to further replicate the hunt experience. He said the stripes were painted on it for visual appeal; the lions don't care one way or another but park visitors preferred it painted.
That's got to be one tough little machine!

Milkweed bugs.

2006-10-11T07:04:00.000-04:00

Milkweed bug nymphs. I took all the photos at the same time, but one looks like it was dark out because I used the flash.

Skidboot the Dog

2006-10-10T18:46:00.000-04:00


A great clip from the Hill Country Reporter taken from http://users3.ev1.net/%7Eabraxox/Skidboot.html and uploaded here cause it is smaller and google rocks.

If y'all don't have tears in your eyes after watching this....

Fall colors.

2006-10-09T06:21:00.000-04:00

My brother, my friend Charles and I took the dogs for a pretty walk along the Flint River Trail over the weekend. I was going to post photos of fall colors but everyone is doing that this time of year! I took these under the freeway overpass, so here's my city of Flint fall color photos. They look a bit like some Jackson Pollock paintings, in his early years.

New front deck and stray cats.

2006-10-09T06:03:00.000-04:00

This is a photo of my new front deck; the guy did it last week. Big improvement!
And those are two of the stray cats I feed. The black one is one of two tomcats I can't tell apart; I think they are brothers. So, I call them the Black Brothers.
The other one I call Annie - check jackie sue's Sept 23 post about her new cat, also called Annie after Ann Richards. "My" Annie is short for Annoying. She has taken up residence around my house (well duh, I am putting out food) and comes running up meowing and weaving around my legs every time she sees me. Very sweet and talkative cat. Anyone want her?
According to some neighbor kids, her name is actually Sassy. She was a kitten and some people a block down had her, but put her outside when she got fleas. "Do they feed her?" I asked. No, they said, they used to but not any more. Poor little cat; she really wants to come inside and is very affectionate. I do not want another cat, though. I even put Revolution flea treatment on her. Talked to my vet - he says they often have people looking for cats, so I will get a good photo of her and put a flyer in his office. I'll even spring for spaying her.
The other two cats are all pretty wild and probably don't want to be owned.

It's a cake. No, really.

2006-10-03T07:05:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was Larry's 69th birthday (yes, jokes were made - in a store full of guys you can't utter the words "sixty nine" without jokes being made) - he owns the paint store I use most often. Someone had made him a big-ass cake - spice cake with cream cheese frosting, very tasty. I had two pieces.
It reminded me of kitty-litter box cakes. I've never made or even seen one in real life. Which is fine by me actually, although it would probably taste good.
Here's the recipe. The photo above is courtesy of kidcuisine.com; there's a recipe there also.

NARP - Secret bad deeds...

2006-09-30T08:06:00.000-04:00

(NARP: non-animal related post.)

Republican Representative Mark Foley resigned after he was caught emailing and IMing teenage boys
...get this, Foley was chairman of the Missing and Exploited Children's Caucus and had introduced legislation in July to protect children from exploitation by adults over the Internet.
Haha! What a feakin' arrogant hypocrite. Did he think he wouldn't get caught?
The National Republican Congressional Committee was alerted to Foley's nasty little habit months ago, yet did nothing.
Doesn't this remind you of the Catholic church covering up their priests' sexual abuse for decades? That is just evil. WWJD? Not sneak around and refuse to help confused priests and traumatised children, that's for sure.

WASHINGTON, Sept. 29 — In six terms representing a wealthy swath of southern Florida, Representative Mark Foley, a Republican, became well known for his ardent efforts to safeguard the young and vulnerable, leading the House caucus on missing and exploited children and championing laws against sexual predators.

On Friday, Mr. Foley resigned abruptly after being confronted with a series of sexually explicit Internet messages he is reported to have sent to under-age Congressional pages. He stands accused of being the very kind of predator he had denounced.

“I am deeply sorry,” Mr. Foley, 52, said in a three-sentence statement released by his office, “and I apologize for letting down my family and the people of Florida I have had the privilege to represent.” The statement did not refer specifically to the Internet messages.

The first e-mail messages to one male page, sexually suggestive but not explicit, were reported by ABC News on Thursday. Mr. Foley, a member of the House Republican leadership, dismissed them as “overly friendly” but not inappropriate.

But by Friday, other pages had come forward with more blatant instant messages. “What ya wearing?” Mr. Foley wrote to one, according to the network. “Tshirt and shorts,” the teenager responded. “Love to slip them off of you,” Mr. Foley replied.

ABC News said it had read him other messages that were far more graphic. Within hours, Mr. Foley resigned in a one-sentence letter to Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida. He left the Capitol without answering questions.

Diana wrote an excellent post on people hiding behind masks. Do you think there's anyone without a secret, without something they keep hidden out of shame? Even a little tiny silly thing they've never told another soul?
Frank Warren has been soliciting anonymous, confessional postcards for a few years - in fact he has published a book of them. Many are poignant, funny, sad and some quite lovely. He posts them here.
Lifechurch TV invites people to post anonymous confessions on their site - by posting here you are guaranteed prayer support. It makes for entertaining and sometimes unsettling reading - I hope people who put their secrets out there feel better.

Here's one. Well, I have told people this; it's not really a secret, just something I don't think about often. When I was three years old, my parents told me cats always landed on their feet. No matter how high they fell from. So, I dropped the family cat out of a third story window (we lived in an apartment in Edinburgh at the time.) The poor cat was very badly hurt and had to be put to sleep. I remember being very upset and confused because, well, because I'd been lied to, I guess. I knew I'd done something wrong but really didn't understand why. I imagined the cat would fly down and land unharmed; I was a curious kid and just wanted to see.
Little kids take things literally - don't lie to them!
OK, that last was sort of hard to write and I almost deleted it. I don't think I've ever actually written it down before in my life and I realise I still feel very guilty about it, over four decades later.

Yum yum chicken fingers. How pretty. CHOMP.

2006-09-29T20:13:00.000-04:00

Between work, dog classes thrice a week, having a house guest (The dogs are very happy to have Cheryl around, they love company!) and life in general, I've not been spending much time online lately. But it's Friday night, I have the house to myself and I am cuddling up to my computer this very minute! Any of you remember when not getting dressed up and going somewhere on Friday night meant you were a pathetic boring loser? Ha. My how times have changed.
Anyhow, my good friend Erica moved away to North Carolina and started a blog!
Go there to read the story behind the photo of her Briard Phlash holding a chicken foot with pretty painted toenails. Right before eating it up. Yummy!
(If you click on the photo to enlarge it, you can see the painted nails on the chicken foot.)

She lived right in my neighborhood, was great about coming by and giving the dogs food, cuddles and potty breaks when I had to work a long day - she's one of Cooper's favourite humans. Both Rotties get major wiggle-butt going when they see her. She ran a doggie day care here but has moved on to a job that doesn't involve several pounds of dog poop per day. I miss our Thursday girls' nights!

Would you like fries with that?

2006-09-26T07:27:00.000-04:00

Although I'm a bit uncomfortable with posting photographs of deformed animals for entertainment, I'm gonna do it anyhow. I was talking with someone about raising chickens for eggs and meat. When you behead a chicken, they often run about headless for a few mninutes - quite amusing for us children! Ha. Also amusing: by pulling the tendons on a chicken foot just so, you can make it give someone the finger.
Anyhow, I recalled Mike the Headless Chicken from Fruita, Colorado. Mike was destined for the soup pot but actually lived for 18 months with no head. He became quite the celebrity. His owners fed him by dropping food down his open gullet with tweezers.
The alternator in my truck went out in the middle of noplace, Utah, in 1999 while driving back from Mexico. (Driving through Mexico is fabulous fun, by the way but that's another story.) I was towed almost 90 miles to Fruita and spent a lovely (not) day there waiting for the alternator to be delivered by mule train. During this lovely (not) day I wandered around Fruita and saw the Mike Memorial.

Just for fun I looked for more photos of deformed chickens and found the four-winged chicken and the chicken-with-one-head-and-two-bodies.

Good deeds are easy.

2006-09-22T05:34:00.000-04:00

I wrote about the wildlife rehabber lady a few days ago. For the longest time, I've been meaning to drop off some food or something - she works 24/7 at this with little help or money and I assure you she isn't wealthy. She told me they rarely drive their big old pickup truck because they can't afford the gas. She's federally licensed, I think through the DNR, and thus has to deal with a ton of bureaucratic bullshit like you wouldn't believe - in addition to providing care to all the critters in her care all day long.
While I was there, a couple stopped by with a female mourning dove that had got caught in the grille on their truck. Unfortunately she died shortly after their arrival. Carolyn also had two litters of kittens. One litter left in a box on her doorstep. Another litter some idiot had left on the side of the freeway! The police were kind enough to pick them up and bring them to her. Also she had a little bitty puppy that had been left almost dead on her doorstep when it was a few days old. The small back yard is a warren of enclosures and cages, with a little pond for waterfowl.
I was really impressed that she has three large dogs and several adult cats who do not kill any of the rescues. Because Carolyn tells them not to. She's better than me. I can't imagine having a house and yard filled with baby deer, racoons, birds, skwirls, groundhogs and such and trusting my crew!
Anyhow, I had a couple of cases of canned duck dog food that I bought at a remainder store and never used. I picked up several dozen cans of cat food too, and ran them over there. It was so not a big deal to do and I think I'll make it a regular thing. She lives in a little house about 15 minutes away, the food I brought over cost me about $20 (I spend that in 4 days on foo-foo coffee) and I know it was really appreciated. Plus, her back yard is really interesting.
If anyone reading this feels moved to do the same thing, go here, locate your local wildlife rehabber and donate a little something.

Cute little toads.

2006-09-21T18:58:00.000-04:00

I should look these up, don't know what kind they are - they were sunning themselves on the outside of a house I was painting today. One was up on a second story windowsill. How on earth did he get up there?
The other one was really tiny - compare it to the size of the screw in the blue shutter.

I think threecollie identified my critter. Thanks! You also told me what my house centipede was when I thought it was an interesting little space alien in my bathroom.
It is most likely a Gray Tree Frog - I thought it was a toad because the skin was fairly rough and warty. The little one is a male; the big one a female. Looking through various frog and toad sites, this is the closest match.

Poor Elvis! He had two teeth pulled.

2006-09-21T07:03:00.000-04:00

Since Elvis was a stray who moved in I really don't know how old he is - vet figures anywhere from 4-7 years old. Anyhow, he had a ton of tartar on his teeth, they were nasty. Recently I noticed his breath smelled bad so I guessed he had a bad tooth, infected gums, or both.
Off to the vet for a dental and bloodwork (that was fine) and one tooth had a big cavity on the root & a canine was cracked and vulnerable to infection. I was astonished how big that canine looked - he's only a 10lb cat!
Poor dude, it's probably still hurts this morning. There are very few options for pain relief for cats - most pain meds are unsafe for them. He did get a pain shot before he came home but it's worn off now. He's been mostly crashed on the couch, but has eaten some canned food. Once he heals up, he'll be able to eat just as normally as before.

I wonder how many cats have painful mouths because of cavities and infections because people don't get dental care for them? I admit, it was something that never ocurred to me with past cats. I always figured if they appeared healthy and ate their food, they were fine. Cats often hide pain very well, though, and we'd never know they were hurting until it got very bad. Not to mention the bacterial overload from chronic infection can weaken the heart and other organs - in any animal or human for that matter.
From now on I will be more vigilant about kitty dental health!

Wild critter care

2006-09-18T06:57:00.000-04:00

A little over a year ago I visited with a federally licensed wildlife rehabilitator. I wrote about it (at the time I was doing some regular reporting for a local news monthly magazine) and since I've been ignoring my blog, thought I'd repost it here.

She is an interesting woman, and someone I know a little through dog classes has also become a licensed rehabber. If I had a: time and b: did not have dogs who think most wild animals are food, it's something I'd consider too.
Here's a link to finding local rehabbers.

Is it just me, or is this creepy?

2006-09-12T06:46:00.000-04:00

A company called LifeGem will take the ashes of you dearly departed and bake them into a piece of diamond jewelry.
You can send this company fur brushed from your pet and they will make you a piece of clothing you can wear in memory.

I know everyone deals with death in their own way, but my personal take on wearing a piece of a dead loved one is....ewww, creepy! It seems somehow primitive. I suppose death is primal and elemental and scary and many people get comfort out of having something tangible - hence headstones and graves and all the rest. Even when I was a little kid, I remember saying I wanted to be fed to something, used for research, something useful, after I died. Never could see the point of taking up space with graves.

I am imagining wearing a scarf made from Bosco's dead fur. That dog was intelligent, Mr Personality, loved to run and hike and swim and play and eat. He would have hated being wrapped around my neck or hung from a peg! How insulting.
Or wearing my father on my finger? He wasn't a jewelry type guy and I'm pretty sure would've thought the notion of such a business ridiculous and some sort of bizarre example of conspicuous consumerism. I can imagine looking at a shiny little expensive rock and being unable to relate that to the wonderful man he was.

For the record, most of the pets I've let go, as well as my father, were cremated but I have not kept any of the ashes because I think that is creepy too.

No fairy wings. Sorry!

2006-09-10T11:14:00.000-04:00

I promised several people I'd have photos of Cooper with his fairy wings and pearls on - dressed for the Ren Fest.
Well, it was a rainy, windy day so I decided not to dress him (or myself) up since everything was going to get wet & muddy.
Of course he carried our stuff in his doggie backpack, got petted 8,167 times and ate a ton of junk food. We also answered the question "what is he mixed with?" about 500 times.

He's checking out the petting zoo and I don't think his keen interest was benign. The kiddies would've gotten a demonstration of the tooth and bloody claw of the wild, if he'd had his way with the cute little goatlings.

Charles and Cheryl being dog wranglers. Charles is shirking his wrangling duties and staring with wistful intent at the bellydancer's hooters.

The falconer's falcons. (What did you expect, hamsters?)

I took about twenty photos of Manolete.
Woof!

Tribute to Steve Irwin.

2006-09-07T06:27:00.000-04:00

By now, everyone knows about Steve Irwin's death. Leigh-Anne over at the Blogpound wrote of a lot of negativity around Irwin, and I thought I'd post this article published yesterday in the New York Times.
It's the nicest tribute to his life that I have read.

Crikey!

By LAWRENCE DOWNES
Published: September 6, 2006
When I heard that Steve Irwin, the Crocodile Hunter, had been killed by a stingray in Australia on Monday, my heart went out to a friend, a 6-year-old boy named Sean who considered Mr. Irwin’s the definitive example of a life well lived.

It was a life of strenuous exertion, of mud and blood and the tireless pursuit of muscular creatures with jaws, claws and the ability to eat you up. My young friend concocts his version with crayons, Legos and pointed sticks, and acts it out in the fevered jungle of his imagination. Mr. Irwin went after actual creatures, including crocodiles, vipers and, tragically, the ray that pierced his chest.

They weren’t that different. Mr. Irwin, with the thick Aussie accent and khaki outfit that mean “explorer” in any language, tromped around subduing dangerous animals and spouting exclamations like “She’s a beauty!” and “Crikey!” He was 44 going on 6, and lived, like Sean, in a world of fun and excitement that seems a lot richer than most people’s.

It was easy to parody Mr. Irwin’s boisterous shtick, and many people did. It is easy, too, to shake our heads at the relentless peddling of nature as TV entertainment, and to lament that the only animals people ever bother thinking about are either fuzzy-cute or man-eating. It is all too obvious that Mr. Irwin was no biologist, that exploring the world on cable TV is a lot different from actually plunging into it, that wild animals really are dangerous, and blah blah blah.

But there are far worse ways to view the natural world than through the eyes of a young child, and Mr. Irwin offered a far more temperate version of the classic 6-year-old-boy approach, which is to confront a wild animal, marvel at its strength and ferocity, and then try to hit it with a rock. For Mr. Irwin, wild nature was something to wonder at, and he did so with an enthusiasm indistinguishable from love. Animals — even deadly ones — are good, poachers are evil, and, crikey, that’s pretty much it.

Call that simple-minded, call it dumb, but it resonates. Future environmentalists and conservationists have to come from somewhere, and if the energetic wonderment of the Crocodile Hunter has seeped into the brains of significant numbers of children — as it did that of Sean, who went trick-or-treating as Mr. Irwin last year, who turned 6 with a crocodile cake, who wears khaki and boots and fills notebooks with meticulous drawings of reptiles — then Mr. Irwin used his 44 years remarkably well.

On long coated dogs and recessive genes.

2006-09-04T18:46:00.000-04:00

Every time I'm in public with this dog, I am just inundated with questions about him - sometimes I am tempted to hang a sign on him - FAQ!

Mostly people want to know what he's mixed with; the Rottweiler part is obvious but the long coat isn't. He has an absolutely classic, beautiful male Rottie head, great colour and heavy bone and almost perfect proportions (almost square, straight back, etc.)
The long coat is rare and comes from a recessive gene. Meaning, both parents carried the genetic DNA for long coats, although neither had the trait. He had one litter-sister with a long coat, though hers isn't nearly as heavy.
Currently there is no way to ifdentify the gene, so no way to know if a dog is a carrier. Cooper had contributed DNA (cheek swab) to a veterinary researcher at MSU vet school, who is studying this.
So, even in the most careful of breedings with health-tested, sound dogs, this can happen - as can elbow and hip dysplasia!
Both his parents are champions, both working and conformation. His sire is Evrmor's U R The One. He is a gold sire, meaning he's produced many champions, and the kennel name is quite well known - Rottweilers of that line show up at Westminster just about every year.
He is AKC registered but has a "limited" registration. This means he can compete in any AKC venue except conformation (long coat is a disqualifying fault) and no offspring would be eligible for registration. I had a contract with his breeder that he must be neutered by 24 months, though she wanted me to wait until he was at least a year old.
I didn't wait the full 24 months (wish I had) because he was developing terrible dominant aggression towards other dogs and was a complete butthead! Still is, actually. Don't let that fluffy face fool you.
He was born in New Mexico, and I got him in Denver (at 8 weeks old.) So I call him the Rocky Mountain Fleece Edition Rottweiler.
I just noticed - you really see how his front feet turn out in this photograph.

Bad elbows - the other dysplasia.

2006-09-04T10:35:00.000-04:00

Most people know what hip dysplasia is, but elbow dysplasia is also quite common, although often asymptomatic. Many dogs compensate for the structural fault in the joints by developing good musculature. This is one reason it's really important to keep dogs (and people) lean and well exercised. In some dogs, ED can be crippling and without corrective surgery they probably should be put down if it's severe.
If you look at the photo above, you will see that Cooper's front feet turn out a little. He has elbow dysplasia - UAP in both, FCP in the left elbow. Slightly rotated feet are a common indicator of unsound elbows.
This is the most comprehensive and clear article I have ever found on ED.

Cooper started limping at about 9 months of age. The ED was diagnosed by my vet a couple of months later (at first we thought it was a sprain; ED can be tricky to detect.) We were referred to an ortho specialist, and finally to MSU vet school for further exams and to discuss surgery. Yikes!
Well, this whole process took several months, and by the time he was 14 months old the limping had all but stopped. ED doesn't "cure" itself - the joint will always be somewhat deformed - but many factors (including probably luck) can determine
He wasn't overweight, but I slimmed him down even more. Under all that fur he is really very lean and muscular.
He has been on glucosamine/chrondritin/MSM since the initial diagnosis. He also gets fish oil; among many benefits it's highly touted as being good for joint health.
He gets lots of exercise and I get him into water as much as possible.
Considering his speed and athleticism in agility, at 5 years and 9 months old, he is doing awfully well!

One other thing that may contribute, especially in male dogs:
Later neutering, or not neutering at all. Male hormones play a large part in development of strong bones and dogs neutered early (before long bone growth has stopped between 12-18 months old) may have significantly higher rates of bone cancer and joint problems. The down-side of early neutering is not generally discussed, of course because advocates are more concerned with stemming the tide of unwanted animals, and quite rightly so. However if I have any say in the matter, future dogs of mine will be neutered late, or not at all. Cooper was neutered at 17 months old, and the late neutering may well have played a role in the improvement.

Cooper says water exercise is just the best!!

NARP - The Ghetto Grocery Store.

2006-09-01T18:23:00.000-04:00

I live in the ghetto, the inner city, the 'hood. Never a dull moment around here what with shootings and crack deals and the lovely hookers and barking pitbulls.
OK, so the local grocery store (affectionately known as the Ghetto Kroger) is kind of nasty, and I don't often stop there. The produce looks sad, there's whole aisles just for uber-generic canned goods and the store just isn't as shiny and clean as other Krogers. Twice I've bought half and half that despite being well within the "sell by" date, was rancid - maybe they cut costs by keeping the fridge temps a bit higher.
There's no deli or fresh bakery, no make-up or frippery-type items (they get pocketed too easily.) The wine and beer is kept in a locked cage. There is a security guard by the registers at all times.
You probably won't find fresh broccoli, but there's an entire aisle of cola type drinks, and this evening they had a whole display for Pimpjuice (I am Not Making This Up.)
Fat young women with black eyes and bruised legs yell swear words at broods of children, crack-skinny biker types and obese people in dirty spandex leggings or greasy jeans hobble through the store leaning heavy on the carts, nervous senior citizens clutch their purses and regular working folks shop; people aren't friendly around here. They're suspicious and self-protective. This is a far cry from the upscale suburban Kroger just a couple of miles away!
Anyhow, tonight I stopped in for a couple of staples. The lines are usually slow - understaffed registers and frequent issues with people overloading their Bridge cards. I amused myself reading about Angelina's new bump and who really killed Jon Benet while waiting for the mumbly guy ahead of me to finish up. As he went through the door into the parking lot, there was a brief and loud altercation between him & the security guard. Then the guard came back in, shrugged and said "He got the charcoal."
Turns out, Kroger employees are not allowed to stop shoplifters once they've gone through the door, for fear a shoplifter might get hurt somehow and sue the store. So, if someone makes it as far as the door, they get to keep whatever they lifted. This guy was apparently a repeat offender - he buys a few things, then snatches one of the big sacks of charcoal right by the exit doors and leaves.
I asked how often this happens - the cashier, the security guard and a manager all said - about every other person leaves the store with something they didn't pay for, but once they get to the doors, they are home free.
The employees also cannot deny even a known chronic shoplifter access to the store, in case they get sued for discrimination. (For what it's worth, this particular individual was a white guy.)
I have to assume this is common throughout the country. I guess who one gets angry at - shoplifters, welfare grifters, Kroger corporate policy, Republicans, Democrats, lawyers - depends on one's personal world view.

A cup of Pug.

2006-08-29T06:16:00.000-04:00

This was in an email, animated. Let's see if the animation works here.

Darn, it doesn't. The Pug sticks out her tongue and gives the middle finger salute. Well, pretty silly but I'll leave the photo up because it's just darn cute.
I have never met a Pug I didn't like, but honestly I find them so aesthetically unpleasing I don't think I'd ever deliberately go out and get one. The buggy eyes creep me out a bit, for one thing! Is it wrong to prefer one type of dog over another just because of looks? Actually, I've had a couple of fairly unattractive dogs in the past that of course I just adored because I knew them.
There was a Pug at last weekend's agility trial, it was pretty funny to watch, and she did quite well too.
Speaking of which, we had a good trial weekend, had fun, got some ribbons, and I am feeling very good about our progress in general. I love this dog and of course he is extremely handsome! That's not just my bias. People comment on it all the time and he gets his photo taken a lot.

A helpful anonymous commenter informed me that if you left click on the picture, the animation shows up.
So do that if you really want to see a Pug sticking out its tongue and giving you the finger....!

Dobermans at the fashion show.

2006-08-27T04:29:00.000-04:00

I can't believe I had a 12 hour day at an agility trial (counting an hour drive each way), then came home, put on Actual Makeup and some mildly floofy clothes and went to a fashion show at the Red Ink Studio.
Actually, I was there as assistant Doberman wrangler. My friend Martha has two lovely Dobes. Rueben (who I would steal if I could, he is just about the perfect dog) was to wear real feather angel wings and get walked down the runway by a model. Well, the wings wouldn't stay on, so he got walked down the runway sans wings by a rather delectable male model.

I couldn't get any good runway shots, but here's the model holding both dogs. I love how the eyes turned out! I'm a lousy photographer. If you click on the photo for a larger view, you'll see the model's eyes are glowing red.

Her other dog Rachael came along for the experience. Both dogs were very well behaved, despite the crazy atmosphere and all the attention they got!
I got to take home the t-shirt the delectable model was wearing, it's great. Martha got a brand new t-shirt for being the supplier of the fashionista Dobe.

Aha! It's Firefox.

2006-08-26T05:14:00.000-04:00

I've whined a couple of times about comments not being visible on my blog. It's not Blogger, it's my browser. I've been using Firefox and until recently, really liked it.
However, it's been erratic and slow recently. I googled and found that indeed, some people have noticed blog comments not showing up when using Firefox, and other issues. I've started using IE again with no problems.
I also found this, which I'm not sure I fully understand but I think it might be the case with my computer. I'll look into it fully later when I have time but I have to go Do Stuff now.

Where did the last week go....?

2006-08-25T04:30:00.000-04:00

So one evening I was sitting on my back deck talking with a friend, when Elvis the cat trotted into the back yard with a little field mousie in his jaws. He dropped it next to Daphne (the small, silly Rottweiler) and started batting it back and forth. Daph got very alert, then picked it up delicately with her front teeth and carried it into a corner, Elvis at her heels. She dug a small hole and dropped the mouse in, then lay with it between her paws. Both cat and dog sat almost nose to nose, intently watching the dead mouse for signs of life. Then Elvis picked it up and started batting it around. Then Daphne took it, dug another little hole and put the mouse in. Then Elvis took it off for a bat-the-mousie game. Then Daphne took it away and put it in yet another hole. Then Elvis snagged it again. Then Daphne got it back and dug another hole.
Then it got dark and I don't know who ended up with the mouse but it sure was fascinating to watch. What was behind this game, I haven't a clue.

Last weekend, Mr. Turbo-pants and I got our UKC AG2 title, finally. Yippee! And some more pretty ribbons for our collection - a first, two seconds and a fourth. Now we get to run for points towards our championship. Which could take a while! You need 100 points; at least 40 need to come from AG2 runs. (Rules and obstacles are different in both AG1 and AG2 runs.) No points for any score lower than 196/200. A "clean run" perfect score gets you ten points, a 196 gets you one point.
It may be amusing one day to figure out how much each title cost, between entry fees, classes, equipment and associated expenses. But who cares! It's really fun.

Don't forget to eat your vegetables.

Another NARP.

2006-08-18T07:10:00.000-04:00

I had to do this though.
Remember when I wrote about the old blue jeep I bought, the one that has a tape player and I only have four tapes? (I found another one, David Bowie's Changes. I'm sick of that one by now too.)
Well. The lovely and talented Vicki aka Junebugg took pity and sent me a whole box of tapes! Good ones! George Thorogood, Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, Melissa Etheridge, Patsy Cline (I LOVE her)...lots of good stuff, lots of blues, yippee. That was so very nice of her.

So a big thank you to Vicki!

Side note: Is anyone else having trouble with their comments showing up? The counter thingie said zero on both mine, but there's comments in there. Or the number of comments is wrong. Stupid Blogger.

Sexy Sadie.

2006-08-16T18:01:00.000-04:00

SMOOOOCH.
No, this is not one of my dogs but I wish I had a pair of these lips so I could humiliate mine too.

The Beatles, of course:

Sexy Sadie what have you done
You made a fool of everyone
You made a fool of everyone
Sexy Sadie ooh what have you done.

Sexy Sadie you broke the rules
You layed it down for all to see
You layed it down for all to see
Sexy Sadie oooh you broke the rules.

One sunny day the world was waiting for a lover
She came along to turn on everyone
Sexy Sadie the greatest of them all.

Sexy Sadie how did you know
The world was waiting just for you
The world was waiting just for you
Sexy Sadie oooh how did you know.

Sexy Sadie you'll get yours yet
However big you think you are
However big you think you are
Sexy Sadie oooh you'll get yours yet.

We gave her everything we owned just to sit at her table
Just a smile would lighten everything
Sexy Sadie she's the latest and the greatest of them all.

She made a fool of everyone
Sexy Sadie.

However big you think you are
Sexy Sadie.

Please send a note, help shut down puppy mills.

2006-08-15T05:55:00.000-04:00

Taking a couple of minutes to send an email to the judge is the least we can do. I believe Mark Miller has a history of animal cruelty and neglect and he is far from alone. That this country even allows puppy mills is a sad reflection on us.
Personally, I boycott any store that sells puppies and will not buy Amish products.
If you want to know why, google "amish puppy mills."
Here is a comprehensive website with lots of links. You need a strong stomach for some of it.

PLEASE FORWARD WIDELY! LETTERS NEEDED BEFORE AUGUST 17!

A puppy mill was raided in Lancaster, Ohio, (NOT Lancaster, Pennsylvania), in July 2006 by the Fairfield Area Humane Society. The dogs were filthy, emaciated, and most had parvo. 5 of the 39 dogs died shortly after being removed from the house. The breeder's name is Mark Miller.

We have heard that this breeder was selling puppies to an Ohio PETLAND. The outcome of this case is very important because it provides current evidence that Petland gets puppies from puppy mills. You can see some photos of these dogs at www.fairhumane.org

Mark Miller has been charged with cruelty to animals, and the case is coming before the judge August 17. PLEASE WRITE TO THE JUDGE AND ASK THAT THE MAXIMUM PENALTY BE IMPOSED. You may also want to add that Mark Miller should not be allowed to have animals in the future.

PLEASE DO NOT MENTION PETLAND IN YOUR LETTERS. We don't know the judge's name, but the letters will be delivered to him or her by the Fairfield Area Humane Society. Please email your letter to info@fairhumane.org and use "Letter to Judge" as the subject of your email. Or write to:

Fairfield Area Humane Society
Box 1109
Lancaster, OH 43130

You can read one of the many news stories about the raid at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14040552.

Thanks! And, DC area people, remember there's a protest at the Fairfax City Petland this Sunday, August 13, from 1:00-2:30 PM!

www.petstorecruelty.org all4theanimals@yahoo.com

Monday NARP - Starbucks and the kindness of strangers.

2006-08-14T20:01:00.000-04:00

NARP = Non Animal Related Post. Because I have opinions on other stuff too and sometimes it needs to leak out.

So last Tuesday, I was in the drive through lane at my local Starbucks (interesting article, BTW)for my morning fix. When I pulled up, the barista told me the person ahead of me had paid for my order. How nice was that! By this time, she was gone and I had no clue why she'd done this.
So naturally I paid for the person behind me, isn't that the right thing to do, karma-wise?
Next morning I asked how many people had paid for the person behind them. Five. The lady in front of me was the first. She was driving a white minivan, I was in my little red truck and the person behind me was in a white Saturn. I noticed a big safety yellow Hummer back in line, and guess who had their order paid for and didn't pony up for the person behind them? Well, chances are someone who drives a Hummer in the suburbs doesn't have a highly developed sense of social responsibility so it figures.
It could be said that people who go through the Starbucks drive through every morning don't either, to be fair.
Apparently this is a trend, though nobody knows its genesis. It's been written up in the Starbucks employee magazine and I'm told the record was thirteen people in line someplace in California.

Daphne gets attention too.

2006-08-10T06:44:00.000-04:00

I post more photos of Cooper, because he is way more photogenic, plus I get good pics from the professional photographers at agility trials.
Daphne gets walks and attention too, though! Took these last night walking along the creek at the park by my house.
I tried obedience and agility classes with her, but she is so poorly wired and easily stressed. She was a stress-mess during each class and wanted to kill the little dogs. Seriously, I think she would.
Crowds - even tiny ones - and new situations make her terribly anxious. I've tried her on Prozac (yes, it can be prescribed for dogs) and Clomicalm (anti-anxiety med specifically for dogs) in the past. The Prozac was ineffective, the Clomicalm made her nervous and sleepy. Best just to keep her to situations she is comfortable with. I don't know how old she is, she was a ghetto dog from the shelter and is getting white hairs on her chin now. Maybe about six, I've had her 4 1/2 years.

And while I am at it.

2006-08-07T21:47:00.000-04:00

New shoes!
OK, bear with me, this is really strange. On Saturday I realised out of a couple hundred people, only me and one other person was wearing Teva type sandals. (I dislike wearing shoes and wear sandals or go barefoot, mostly.) Everyone else was wearing sparkly high-tech important looking athletic shoes.
So, in a fit of insecurity, on Saturday night I went show shopping at the sports emporium type store. Found all the sparkly athletic shoes uncomfortable, but found these Tevas, really comfy.
So. I thought, these are so cool I should post a picture of them. Then Sunday morning early, I checked Leigh-Ann's tiredgirl blog and whaddaya know, she had a shoe post.
Leigh-Ann and I are developing a history of posting similar things simultaneously and I really am thinking we share a brain.
Here's her animal blog, can't recall how I ran across it but I have it saved.

Agility pics.

2006-08-07T21:26:00.000-04:00

Capital City Canine Club AKC trial.
Photos courtesy of Cathi Winkles photos.
The furkid and his skinmommy having fun. Bwahahahahahaha.

Furkids? Agh. Stop it!

2006-08-07T06:37:00.000-04:00

A term bandied about to describe one's pets is "furkids." Even creepier, some refer to their children as "skinkids" which evokes an image of a child-sized maggot.
Stop that!
Your pets are not babies. If you want babies, have them. If you don't want to have babies, buy one of those dolls that talks and pees.
It's demeaning to any animal to think of it as your child, not to mention creepy and weird. It's an animal with animal drives - sexual, predatory, defensive, working, pack oriented, whatever. You simply cannot have a decent relationship with your dog if you think of the poor thing as a child.
I know a couple of people who refer to their dogs as children. One couple I know will tell everyone - oh, he's our baby! We can't have children, so we got him instead. And, they are serious. I feel sorry for their little dog, too. He's cossetted and catered and baby-talked to every waking minute, and therefore he's not a very happy dog. Nor does he have a shred of respect for the humans he lives with, he is neurotic and demanding and frustrated. It's a shame because he is a really bright dog who LOVES to learn and show off what he's learned. But since nothing is demanded of him, ever, he is bored.
I've taught him a few things (he is three years old and has never even been taught to sit, nor will he pay any attention to his humans if they call him.) I taught him sit and to jump over stuff on command, which took about 37 seconds because he's so eager to learn. When I'm at their house he follows me around and ignores his owners. I'm painting their house a bit at a time, so I'm there every month or two.
I've tried talking them into teaching him stuff, but since he's their baby they think it's mean to "make him" do things. Poor dog, I'd take him in a second.
I wrote about him back in March.
And stop with the blogs and stuff where you write from the pet's POV. They're invariably written as if by a gormless, dimwitted child, which gives one insight into how the owner really feels about them. Way to go.
Stop it.

Mr Turbo-Pants.

2006-08-06T20:26:00.000-04:00

This is Eli, who is a really nice Sheltie. I included his photo just because I think he is cool.

Here's Cooper back in his crate under the trees and far from the madding crowd. He has his gel-filled cooling mat and a silver shade cloth for his in-between-runs downtime. Lots of that at trials! Saturday we were there over 8 hours and had two runs lasting less than 40 seconds each...this is a great venue. There's a pretty trail running along a big wide river, great for taking little walks and cool-off breaks.

Also poop breaks. Especially early in the morning when people are setting up, sgning in and figuring when they're going to run there's quite the preoccupation with pooping. All over the grounds people are walking their dogs, plastic poop bags fluttering, cooing "you need to potty? Let's go potty. C'mon...oh GOOD boy!" Because you see, pottying of any sort in the ring is an immediate disqualification and out you go. And if your dog is preoccupied with holding it, then he might not run as well. Of course that's always a good excuse for your dog slacking off in the ring. "Well, he didn't have breakfast, but maybe I overdid the treats last night...he had soft stool when we got here this morning. Kind of yellow. So I think he's got an upset tummy, he usually doesn't blow the weaves like that..."

Many people don't give their dog breakfast before a trial (I don't) in hopes they'll be fooled into thinking they might just get treat rewards in the ring, although that's expressly forbidden. You can't even have treat crumbs in your pocket, really. Not only could it be a covert lure for the dog, but I suppose random food molecules in the ring is a distraction.

Well, we had fun at our first AKC trial, but no Qs....happens to plenty of experienced teams, and since I had no real goal - unlike seriously hoping for our last AG2 leg in UKC - I was OK with it. There's a few different rules, too. We had three great runs and one train wreck. We're running Novice since this is our first AKC trial.

1: Jumpers with weaves. That's all jumps, with one set of 6 weave poles, very fast. Only one team out of the entire class Q'd and we weren't them! It was funky though - the first jump was the tire, then the dog immediately went to weaves. Dogs don't want to do the stupid weaves, they want to run and jump! We blew the weaves like just about everyone else, but did all the jumps perfectly.
2: Standard. Very nice, very fast. But. Missed the contact on the stupid A-frame - the dog is supposed to have paws on the "contact zone" at the bottom of the contact obstacles; big fast dogs are more likely to fly off the top. Oh well. Otherwise it was nice and fast.
3: Sunday Jumpers with weaves. Beautiful weaves, yay! And a nice run except he knocked a bar which is an automatic NQ. Another challenge for a large fast dog - a triple jump, followed by a sharp right turn and immediate jump. He knocked the bar at that jump, it's hard for him to get the right angle, remember we are going full out speed. I'm sure there's a way for me to help him get that right, but I don't know it (yet.) Note to self, ask one of my instructors.
4: Standard again. One of Cooper's WHEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!! stupid runs, which I am noticing he tends to do at the end of a trial weekend. I don't know if it's pent-up energy and he needs a bucket of downers, or it's like a toddler getting overtired, I wish I knew. He gets utterly silly and sloppy (although does every obstacle, just badly), bounces, barks, has a wonderful time and gets lots of laughs. Sigh.
We knocked the bar at the second jump and he was barking so I knew it would just go downhill from there. Now, I could - maybe should - have taken him by the collar and led him right out of the ring: we're not here to play, we are here to work, so fun's over. But you know, he was just so damn happy I figured what the hell, let him have at it. He turbo-launched over every contact zone, blasted over jumps, nearly demolished the teeter, plowed through the weaves sideways, and blasted through two tunnels three times (wheeeee, we love tunnels. Sigh.)
He got a big laugh, barked and bounced and I know it was totally the wrong thing to do but I didn't correct any of it because he was just so freakin' ebullient.
Our slowest run was 38 seconds, which gives you an idea how fast these things go.

I certainly picked a challenging dog to learn with. He is fast, has incredible drive, is very smart and demands a lot of me - if I don't give him clear direction he sure lets me know. Actually, the fourth photo down in my July 27 post clearly shows Cooper yelling at me by bouncing and barking. He is quite clearly demanding to know where to go next; I've apparently been too slow for him. Again.
I want one of those smaller, slower dogs next.
I know I'm babbling on, I think it might be funny to look back on some of my agility posts one day when I actually know what I'm doing. And have a smaller, slower dog.
The trial photographer got some excellent action shots, $5.00 per jpeg with permission to print it out. Here's her website.

At least we've never pooped in the ring. (Well, the dog never has and I certainly wouldn't ever!)

My little murderer.

2006-08-06T08:05:00.000-04:00

My cat Elvis is an enthusiastic and efficient hunter. Since he moved in last year as a stray, it's virtually impossible to keep him inside. He's had quite a few years as a street cat (with the scars and previously broken yet healed up rear leg to prove it) and would be miserable. And very, very noisy. He is a real intelligent cat too and I imagine he would quickly figure out how to open the back door and let himself out.

I feel badly that he hunts and kills city wildlife. I realise this is natural and very enjoyable for him. Cats that have access to the outside are, IMHO, more fulfilled and happy - he climbs trees, hunts, plays, eats bugs and hangs out in the yard with the Rottweilers. He is fit and very muscular and is probably between 3-6 years old, my vet thinks. (Yes, I had him neutered.) He's also had the required shots and gets the monthly Revolution application for heartworm, fleas and other nasties. I wouldn't do this if he didn't go out hunting and interacting with strays.
I joke that he's really a Rottweiler in a little cat suit.

(This one of my favourite photos af all three, taken last spring. The dogs and I had just come back from a long snowy run along the river trail, they were pooped out. He and Daphne on the right have a sweet relationship and often sleep entwined together.)

I'm on a quiet street far from traffic and there's empty, treed lots adjacent to my house. He's staked out his territory and it seems limited to my property and the two empty lots. Since he took up residence, I rarely see the local strays nearby, he chases them off.

So anyhow, he brings in field mice and I know he's lost a couple of live ones in the house. I need to set up the Rat Zapper 2000 again. Four nights ago I was woken in the wee hours by a commotion; he'd brought in a very live house finch, which I took away from him and put outside. Next night, I stepped on a dead house mouse when I got out of bed. Following night there was a dead BAT next to the bed. How the heck does a cat kill a bat - maybe it was already ailing. I know rabies is a concern, I'm very careful when I dispose of poor little bodies. Sometimes he eats bits, sometimes not.
The funny thing is the Rottweilers sleep in the bedroom, and it's small. Elvis brings in these critters and I guess the dogs give him distance to have his evil ways with them.
So, should I get him a collar with a bell? Do these really work?

Think good thoughts for day two of our first AKC agility trial! Some of the rules are different from UKC. No stellar runs yesterday, but the boy had fun. I don't run until this afternoon and all my paperwork is taken care of, so I don't have to leave the house until 10 am or so.

50,000 dogs beaten to death in China.

2006-08-02T16:48:00.000-04:00

There are a number of reasons I do my best to avoid buying made-in-China products - it's a politically repressive, ugly regime.
Here is another one.
This of course isn't counting the dogs that get tortured (in the belief it makes the meat more tender) before being slaughtered for meat. Or the thousands of dogs raised & killed for fur - often sold here in the US in the guise of other more acceptable fur fashion items - in China.

But hey, they make cheap shit and your local Walmart is happy to sell it to you.
Fuckers.

Cooling off.

2006-08-02T16:25:00.000-04:00

The Flint River is two minutes from my house and the Dog Which Likes Water had a brief jaunt down there to stand in the water and contemplate life.
Only 93F and 55% humidity today, and improvement on the last two days.

Daphne's meme - 10 things.

2006-08-01T06:06:00.000-04:00

1. Uhhhhhhhhh. What? Huh?
2. Mine. If Cooper wants it, it's mine. If he had it first, it's mine. If he might ever want it, it's mine. If it squeaks, smells good or is edible, it's mine. If it's on the couch, it's mine. grrrrrr. Mine. Mine, mine, mine, mine.
3. Huh?
4. Oh. Leash. Is good. I can't remember why, but leash is good. Means something good is about to happen. I don't know why. I shall twirl around in mad excited circles until I bash my head on something. Then I'll twirl around the other way.
5. Ummmmmm. What. Mine.
6. Food. Food good too. Can't remember why, but is good. Mine.
7. Elvis. Elvis good cat. Elvis my cat. I sniff his butt. Mine.
8. Huh?
9. Bed. Mine.
10. Huh?

Daphne is a short bus dog. Not the sharpest pencil in the shed. Her elevator is missing the 52nd card. She is a Dog With Issues, it's not my fault, I got her fully formed from the animal shelter 4 1/2 years ago, and while she is lots, lots better, she will never be All Right.
I went to look at another Rottie at the Ingham county shelter, which is high kill, depressing and sells to class B dealers (animals for research.) The dog I went to look at was very dog aggressive and avoidant with people. I felt sorry for her and I am sure she was killed shortly after I visited with her, but since I was still with the Stupid Evil Ex and his kids came on weekends, I couldn't risk a squirrely dog like that.
Daphne was cowering in the back of her pen, crusty with a staph infection, skinny and covered with shit from diarrhea. She bared her teeth, raised her hackles and barked furiously when she saw me. So naturally I opened the cage and walked in. She hurled herself into my lap and shook. So, I did the stupid thing and took her home.

Elvis's meme was funnier to write. I'll do Cooper's soon.