Oh, the Cuteness!

I am so far behind on posting pictures of our new little girl! She is rapidly becoming "not so little" of course...

Here are photos from the first couple of weeks after we brought her home, when she was 8 and 9 weeks old. She just turned 12 weeks, and has changed a lot! Fear not, I take pictures of her practically every day - just haven't downloaded them yet.

We are getting ready to go to the Dane National Specialty so I may not get a chance to post again for a few weeks, but in the meantime enjoy the precious cuteness!!

Look at that FACE!! She was 8 weeks old here.

Crazy puppy

I think she already knows what a camera is for... it's for HER!!

Trying to get into the chair... can't quite do it yet.

Pretty sit. She is 9 weeks old here, look how different she looks already than she did just a week earlier!

Kisses for Aunt Topper

I took this photo of Dakota and Ronnie mostly just to show how tiny she is. It looks like she is heeling with him!!

But when you look more closely you can see that she's just trying to bite his leg!!
Puppy attack!!

More puppy pics

... or maybe not! Blogger isn't letting me upload more photos right now. More to come soon!

In the meantime, let me just say that Dakota is a hoot! We are having a great time with her, and she is such a good puppy!

The other dogs aren't quite so enthusiastic however. Aeryn likes her the best, but since Aeryn has some balance issues we have to be careful she doesn't step on or fall on the puppy.

Kinsey, Topper and little Sport are tolerant but avoid her as much as possible. ZB (the cat) was absolutely appalled at first but has now realized that Dakota will back off when she hisses and raises her paw ready to smack.

And Teddy? Big ol, 150-pounds-of-solid-muscle Teddy?

He was scared of her!!

Not a total shocker there, actually ZB has him buffaloed and regularly chases him around the house. He is calming down about Dakota, getting better every day and even made some play moves yesterday but he plays rough so he won't be allowed real access to her until she's quite a bit older and bigger.

But a funny story - a few days ago the puppy was outside and I wanted to bring her back in. Teddy was in the den, just on the other side of the patio door and rather than try to get him out or sneak her past him, I just put him in the crate by the door where she has been sleeping.

He's been in this crate literally thousands of times - it's where he stayed when he was little, and we have kept it up since he (or one of the other dogs) often likes to go in it to nap.

So I expected him to go in and lie down like he always does.

He went in just fine, but stood there. In a few minutes I noticed and looked to see what was wrong. The bedding was clean, there wasn't anything in the way but he was now plastered against the side of the crate, still standing and looking very, very sad.

Then I realized what it was:

Puppy Cooties!!

He didn't want to lie on the bed that smelled like the puppy!!

Sorry to say this Teddy boy... but you are a wuss!!

Grandpuppers

Well of course we got one of the "grandpuppies" - how could we not?

I've been a very regular visitor since they were born. I've taken tons of pictures, but haven't been good about keeping up with the blog here.

So let's have some puppy pictures, shall we?

Here is one of the brindle boys at 14 days.

The two fawn girls, 14 days.

I LOVE this picture... this is not their mother, but their Grandma Cami!! She sneaked into the box when their mama Jazz was taking a break! The best thing of all? Both Cami and Jazz are so mellow that there was no fighting, no jealousy, no stress - they both enjoyed taking care of the puppies. That is HUGE - with most mother dogs, if any other dog (even her mother or some other dog she knew very well) came near the pups there would be bloodshed. Or, sometimes another female will try to steal puppies from a nursing mother - that can also lead to serious fighting.

This is our little girl, 21 days old and just getting a hang of this walking business.

24 days old, and you can see how much more confident they are on their feet in just a few days. This is one of the brindle boys on the right, with a fawn girl in the foreground left and Dakota in the background left.

New kid in town

Where has the time gone? It's been 6 weeks since my last post!

Oh, I think this is why:

Meet Dakota!!

I'm a Grandma!!

... at least in the sense that one of my "puppies" has become a Father!!

Keeper was chosen by Kinsey's breeder Vicki to sire a litter for her lovely girl Jazz - you can see photos and other details of both parents (including health information) on our web site.

Keeper is pretty pleased with himself!!

But for now, puppy pictures!!
They were born July 22. 3 brindle boys, 1 fawn boy, 2 fawn girls and 1 brindle girl.

Here they are 4 days old - the fawn boy is on the left next to his two fawn sisters and a brindle boy. If you look very closely you can see another brindle puppy under the pig rail* on the far left - you can just see his or her leg sticking out.


Here are 3 of the brindles - the girl is at the bottom of the picture and two of the brindle boys are in the top part of the photo.

*A "pig rail" is a shelf built into the sides of a whelping box used for large breeds - the puppies are so small in relation to the size of the mother that it would be easy for her to squash one so the rail gives the pups a safe space around the edges.

Mirror image Monday

Aren't they handsome boys (If I say so myself) (And I do, every chance I get!!)?

That is Gus on the left, and Teddy on the right. This was taken a few weeks ago when Gus was spending the weekend with us. They are waiting for cookies as you've probably guessed.

I also think it's cool that two intact, 3.5 year old males who don't see each other all that often get along so well.

These are the two boys that Ronnie showed in Brace in Tulsa a couple of years ago, and pretty much clobbered the competition - I wrote about it here and here.

This is not a Great Dane!!

Not A Great Dane

I will take a break from HSUS-bashing (no matter how richly deserved) for a little canine news.

While my brother and his family are out of town, we're taking care of their two Border Collies Sean and Allie.

We've done this many times over the years so we're used to the insanity activity of the typical BC. At first, the BCs figured that the Danes must be some sort of livestock, so they attempted to herd them. That usually didn't work so well and now they've pretty much given up on Daneherding and the pack gets along very well.

But Sean has a new obsession: ZB the cat. When Sean was a youngster, he got his ass beat by had a couple of run-ins with an old cat I had at the time and the result was that he is convinced that cats are EVIL. So now that we have ZB he spends all his time giving her the eye.

If I take my eyes off the cat she will do something!

Oh My God! She's in the house!

Watch out - she's right out there!*

*No cats were harmed in the making of this blog. If Sean is loose when ZB is in the same room, he's on a leash to be sure he doesn't get carried away and tries to nip her. Most of the time they are separated so that they both can relax.

The only thing that really takes Sean's mind off of the evil cat is his big purple ball.

He loooooves his big purple ball!!




Allie's obsession is simpler: FOOD. When she's outside, she spends a lot of time searching for crumbs on the deck near where the Danes eat.

Snarf snarf snarf

When she's inside she spends a lot of time trying to get into our kitchen (the gap in the baby gate is for little Sport, so he has access to water that the big dogs don't constantly suck dry. What is it about water in little bowls, that is so irresistible to big dogs? The water in their big buckets is just as fresh, it gets changed once or twice a day just like Sport's water. But the "little" water is always better.)

So close... I can almost fit through...

Let me in pleeeeeease? I'm old and I need food!

Just another weekend at Camp Symmetry!

WATCH THIS VIDEO QUICK!!

Since I am a techno-dweeb and don't know how to embed video, go to this link to watch this video:

http://foryourentertainment.blogspot.com/2009/05/more-on-hsus.html

and then come back.

It's a short video. I'll wait.

Lalalalalalalalalalaaaa...

All done? Hopefully you got to see it.* If you did, and you've been paying attention to things that I and other animal welfare types have written, it won't surprise you. The multi-million HSUS, the "Humane Society of the UNITED STATES", does not in fact run, operate or even support one single actual animal shelter in the entire United States.

Not. One.

This WILL, however, be news to most of the well-meaning people who donate to HSUS. Who maybe don't read animal welfare blogs but who DO watch the evening news. And who thought all their hard-earned dollars were going to actually help feed and shelter animals in need.

*But you might not have gotten to see the video. See, this was a story broadcast by ABC Channel 2 in Atlanta over a week ago. After broadcast, the video was up on the station's web site and also on YouTube.

A few days later, the video was mysteriously pulled from both the station's web site and from YouTube. Other web sites (here's another one) which had the video or a transcript posted were contacted by the station and asked to remove them.

However, in none of these communications did the station indicate that there was any mistake. They didn't issue a retraction or a correction or an apology, which is the normal course of events if a mistake is made.

HSUS hasn't denied any of the allegations made in the video.

But perhaps they have managed to intimidate the station into removing the video anyway?

Today I got this email from PetPac:

Today the ABC Atlanta news story exposing the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) questionable fundraising practices became even more controversial when the station contacted PetPAC demanding we take down the transcript of the story.

The story appeared on Channel 2 in Atlanta over a week ago and soon after HSUS apparently initiated a campaign to cover up the story from being told.

The video of the news story was mysteriously taken down from the station’s archives and You Tube, most likely the result of HSUS demands.

Why the cover up? The investigative report exposed how HSUS raises hundreds of millions of dollars but contributes virtually nothing to help support local animal shelters as their solicitations often seem to imply.

Here’s a transcript of the news story sent to us by a member. We believe the United States Constitution guarantees our freedom of political speech to send this to you.

The power of an organization which raises hundreds of millions of dollars like HSUS is immense. If they are trying to cover up this story, we simply would like to know why. We look forward to hearing their side of the story, but to date they have not issued a denial of the investigative report exposing their suspect fundraising practices.

We will continue to keep you informed.

Sincerely,

Bill Hemby
Chairman

The plot grows ever thicker. But they can't come after us all - although I don't know how to embed the video, here is a transcript I made so you can see what all the fuss is about in case the video gets pulled from the link above:

Where Humane Society Donations Really Go

Posted: 4:03 pm EDT May 14, 2009Updated: 4:20 pm EDT May 14, 2009

ATLANTA --

ANCHOR: "A Channel 2 investigation is looking into millions of dollars in donations given to the Humane Society of the United States.

A national consumer organization says HSUS solicits pet-lovers for money, but little to none of that money ever goes to help local shelters.

Channel 2's Amanda Rosseter is here now with more."

ROSSETER: "Well John, HSUS admits the majority of its money does not go to shelters but says it does a lot more to help animals in other ways around the world.

Critics say HSUS intentionally misleads consumers just to get donations."

Narration from HSUS ad: "These dogs survived the wretched conditions of a puppy mill."

David Marposko of the Center for Consumer Freedom:"It's very deceptive."

HSUS Ad Narration: We are the voice for those who don't have one of their own."

Rosseter over the ad narration: This is the HSUS, the Humane Society of the Untied States, reaching out for donations from animal lovers.

HSUS Ad: "For just 19 dollars a month, you can..."

Trey Burley of PAWS Atlanta: “They do their marketing very well, that's for sure.”

Rosseter: "But you might be surprised to learn there's virtually no connection with your local humane society.

Critics say the national organization takes advantage of people who think they are giving to local shelters. DeKalb's PAWS shelter says there is certainly no regular funding help from the $100 million HSUS budget."

Burley: “I think that some of the folks who donate to the national organizations may be under the false pretense - by no fault of their own - they may be under the false pretense that that money is going to a local cause.”

Rosseter: "And while the HSUS does work to stop puppy mills like this one in Tennessee, it also gets media coverage and donations doing it; but the puppies then go to local shelters who then have to pay and care for them."

Richard Rice, GM of the Atlanta Humane Society:“They may have the resources to initialize a rescue, but again the animals go into a local shelter somewhere in the country.”

Rosseter: "Critics say HSUS also takes advantage of high-profile events. After hurricane Katrina, HSUS CEO Wayne Pacelle promised on national television to reunite pets with their owners—and raised $34 million for the cause; but public disclosures of where that money went add up to less than $7 million.

The Louisiana attorney general launched an 18-month-long investigation, and then ended it when HSUS offered to build the state a new shelter.

The HSUS annual report for 2007 showed $120 million in revenue, including $5.4 million just from online donors.

Then there's $112 million in expenses -- most of which appears to have gone to legislation for animal rights bills. Here's that list as well, it includes raccoons, mice, wild horses, burros and primates.

So where does all the money go?"

Marposko: “It goes to lobbying, it goes to political contributions, it goes to pay huge staff salaries and benefits."

Rosseter: "So we went to a local HSUS meeting to find out, and the two hour discussion was about activist plans and lobbying. The Georgia director for the HSUS agrees that’s mostly what she does."

Cheryl McAuliffe, Georgia Director for HSUS: “I think that in all of our literature, it is very explicit as to what our campaigns are and what we are doing. We help where we can and focus on our programs, which are national and international.”

Rasseter: "McAuliffe said there are just too many local shelters to help."

McAuliffe: “I always tell people, contribute to your local shelter first.”

Rosseter: "Now late this morning we received an email from HSUS pointing out that it has donated $6 million to shelters nationwide. However, a few weeks ago we called more than two dozen shelters here in metro Atlanta and we were told that the only time they get money from HSUS is for reimbursement for rescuing animals during a natural disaster."

Makes you wanna go "hmmmmmmm....."

More about HSUS - the Hypocrisy Society of the US

Here's a press release from Best Friends about the killing of the dogs in North Carolina, which explains the role of the HSUS in this matter even more clearly. (Thanks to Fred at One Bark at a Time for the link).

"Ledy VanKavage, an attorney with Best Friends Animal Society, said, 'We are disheartened and shocked that HSUS, a leader in the animal welfare community, would testify in court for the automatic destruction of puppies and dogs who had NOT [emphasis mine] been given the opportunity to be evaluated as individuals, based on [HSUS’s] policy. The Michael Vick dogs have proven how antiquated this approach is.' ”

To add insult to injury, the HSUS has been caught before using dogfighting busts as fundraising events, insinuating that they are actually helping to care for the dogs, rather than campaigning to have them killed. Here is a screen cap of a page from their web site that was put up after the Vick dogs were seized, asking for money to "help care for the dogs". This page was quickly pulled when it was proven that the HSUS was in no way helping to care for any of the Vick dogs.

My advice? Don't donate your money to any of these huge, wealthy animal rights organizations... not if you are interested in actually protecting or caring for any actual animals. Donate to your local shelter or rescue instead! And you don't have to donate cash if you don't have it... donations of things like old blankets and towels are usually appreciated. Better yet, donate your time and offer to help out!

But don't send a dime to HSUS or PETA.

HSUS Exposed

Dig the cool widget in my sidebar that I just got from FrogDog - it references the latest and possibly most shameful case of the HSUS successfully pushing for the killing of all dogs seized in a dogfighting bust without giving any of them a chance...can you say "blame the victims"? We're not proposing that anyone starts adopting truly dangerous dogs into the community - what we want is to have each dog FAIRLY evaluated and - when appropriate - placed with a knowledgeable rescue.

But on many occasions the HSUS - the very organization that most people associate with animal protection - has pushed to kill every dog seized from a dogfighting bust. Even though the Michael Vick dogs have proven that even dogs "bred to fight" can be rehabilitated.

When it comes to killing dogs, Michael Vick doesn't have anything on the HSUS.
(Or PETA, for that matter. But that's another story.)

What was so particularly disturbing about this case was that there were several litters of puppies born after the dogs were seized, and even those babies were killed. Never mind that EVERYONE who knows ANYTHING about dogs understands that a dog's upbringing, early socialization and training are the most important predictors of that dog's behavior as an adult. Since these dogs had several knowledgeable groups offering to take them, evaluate them, and rehabilitate them - free of charge to the Wilkes Co. Animal control - those puppies had a shot at a GREAT start in life. But it didn't happen that way.

Selma at Caveat has a superb outline here of what the HSUS is really all about:
Time to Take the 'Humane' Out of HSUS

I know this post is turning out to be a blogger's equivalent of a clip show - but there are so many people out there who have done a really excellent job of uncovering and explaining the facts that I can't possibly do it better.

I'll leave you with a short article written by someone who - unlike John Goodwin of the HSUS - really IS an expert on evaluating and training pit bulls, even those with a fighting background:
The High Cost of Being a Victim

Regarding the Dewclaw

I have had many dogs with front dewclaws (the "thumbs") and many who had their dewclaws removed in infancy. I've never really noticed much difference one way or another. During my tenure as a vet tech we'd see dogs with broken or torn dewclaws every now and then although it wasn't a common injury. But they were difficult to treat, mostly because of the difficulty in preventing the dog from licking the area compulsively.

One advantage of having a dog with no dewclaws is that it means two fewer nails to trim - and although my crew is good about that, it still saves a bit of time on each dog.

Kinsey and her sister Aeryn had their dewclaws removed shortly after they were born, so I really wasn't concerned about having the dewclaws removed from Kinsey's pups when they were two days old.

However, since then (that litter turned 3 last summer) I've learned about some of the cons of dewclaw removal in performance dogs. Chris Zink, DVM is a veterinarian and consultant about canine sports medicine and she is a big proponent of leaving front dewclaws where they are.

She says they are important to prevent torque on the foreleg, and to maintain the integrity of the carpal joint. Specifically in her article With a Flick of the Wrist she says: "In the canter, there is a moment during each stride when the dog's accessory carpal pad (on the back of the carpus) of the lead front leg touches the ground and the rear legs and other front leg swing forward to prepare for the next stride. At this point, the dewclaw is in contact with the ground and if the dog turns, the dewclaw can dig in for extra traction to prevent unnecessary torque on the front leg. Without the gripping action of the dog's 'thumbs’ there is more stress on the ligaments of the carpus. This may cause the ligaments to stretch and tear over time, resulting in joint laxity and ultimately, arthritis."

I have actually been a little skeptical about this. Of course, I understand that at speed and/or when turning, a dog's pasterns extend just like a horse's do and will drop low to the ground to absorb shock. But I photograph and film my dogs a lot, and have never seen anything near to the degree of pastern extension she's talking about. The thought of that dewclaw actually touching the ground seems sort of unlikely.

And then I ran across this photo from a bunch I took of Kinsey at an agility trial a few months ago:It's not a great photo and I was about to discard it when I took another look:

The red circle is about where her dewclaw would be if she had one. And, yes, it does look like it would be contacting the ground if it were there.

I'm still not totally convinced... "touching" the ground isn't the same thing as "digging in" and it doesn't look to me like her pastern is THAT extended.

But it sure gives me something to think about.

Brotherly love

I'm finally getting around to downloading and organizing some photos and found this one of Buck (littermate to our Teddy and Topper) and his little "brother" Doc at our house last fall. Buck's owners are the GREATEST and they rarely travel anywhere that they can't take their dogs - but when they do we get to babysit :-) Fortunately all the dogs get along very well - they really are a mellow bunch for all the trouble they seem to be able to get into!

Doc was probably about 4 months old here... he's a LOT bigger now but still awfully cute! :-)

Happy New Year! I'm Tagged!

Happy 2009, everybody!

And to start the year off with something fun, I've been tagged by Never Say Never Greyhounds (which is a wonderful blog by an awesome woman who competes at the highest levels in obedience and agility with her Greyhounds) to find the sixth picture in the sixth album of my picture folders and post it. Then tag six other blogs after explaining what is in the picture.

So here's the sixth picture from the sixth photo album:

How appropriate is that? And what are the odds that it would be a photo of... say, a Great Dane?? :-)

This is Topper, and was taken last summer. We were doing a lot of remodeling, hence the painter's tape on the window and the missing wall panel. Actually that panel was pulled to experiment with stain since we had to replace about 8 of those boards and then try to match the old with the new.

I do love this photo - complete with all the upside-down snarly goodness!

Now, I'll tag:
A Peach Livin' In the Evergreens
Dogs Deserve Freedom
One Bark At A Time
Smartdogs' Weblog
Splash's Training Diary
Strawberry Cup-Kate

The Feline Purrsuasion

Posting photos of your cat is supposed to be the blogging equivalent of jumping the shark... but I'm doing it anyway since we actually adopted ZB last spring and although I've written a little about her I just noticed that I hadn't ever posted any pictures of her.

It's been so lovely to have a cat again!! She gets along great with all the dogs - and I'm very, very proud of our dogs for how well they've adapted to her. She does get a lot of the credit, because she's just fearless. If a cat doesn't hiss and run when a dog approaches, the dog is much less likely to try to chase the cat!

This is the first photo I took of her after we started letting her into the house.

Here she is sleeping on the bed with Kinsey

Here's a closeup - I told you she was comfortable with the dogs!!


Flat cat

This is a pretty typical scene at feeding time. Except she's not always this patient, and will sometimes start knocking things off the counter if the food doesn't start appearing quickly enough.

She's even taken well to eating a raw diet! Although I've been feeding a raw diet to our dogs for about 10 years, I didn't switch my cats over back then. They were old, and healthy and it was partly a case of "if it's not broke, don't fix it" and partly that they were totally not interested in raw food. From what I've been told and have read, this is very common - switching dogs to raw food is usually pretty easy but switching cats can be very difficult.

But not ZB - she will eat pretty much anything. I started out feeding her pretty much the same thing I was feeding the dogs, but just adding more heart since that is a good source of the taurine that is so important for cats. And about one meal a day - or every other day - she got some grain-free canned cat food just to cover the bases. But now I've found a good recipe for homemade cat food, and she's getting that and is doing fabulously well.

The only thing that really has been a challenge has been making her into an "inside only" cat. She enjoys being outside - and admittedly she survived out there for at least 3 or 4 months while we were teaching the dogs that she was not to be chased - but it's just not worth the risk unless we're watching her. I'd like to build her an enclosure - well, to be honest, I'd like Ronnie to build her an enclosure - but that hasn't happened yet. So we occasionally let her outside while we supervise, and occasionally she escapes but we get her back inside pretty quickly.

I love having a cat again!

Good Old Days

I got a GPS navigator for an early Christmas present. And I love it!! Even though I didn't think I needed one...

I am a home health therapist so I'm in the car pretty much all day long. But even though my schedule changes almost daily - it's a very common occurrence that when I'm on my way to a patient's home, I am coming from a different direction than I have before - I've never really had any trouble finding my way around.

That statement may shock people who know me because there is no doubt that I am directionally challenged. I can easily get turned around inside a home or store and forget how I came in. I can also get lost in a parking lot and have trouble figuring out how to get back on the road I came in on.

But on the road it's different. I know where I am and where I'm going, and since I'm very familiar with my area I don't have much trouble figuring out how to get from here to there. Of course I use a map to look up the address prior to the first time I go to a patient's home, but other than that I have always done fine on my own.

But having a GPS makes things SO much easier!! It takes me from one patient's home to another sometimes via routes that I wouldn't have thought of, and so far it's always worked out really well and seems very efficient. And I've set it so that it will automatically re-route me around severe traffic congestion, which is a BIG help since I'm seeing a lot of patients in Dallas lately.

It's a Navigon 2100 Max, and I really like it. I had never heard of Navigon before - I'd only heard of the Big Three brands - but it's not a no-name generic and seems to have a lot of features for the price. Text to Speech (and the speaker pronounces street names quite accurately), live traffic updates (which really was the main reason I got it in the first place), free map upgrades 4 times a year etc.

It's definitely got a "new toy" vibe and I enjoy playing with it, but it actually is making my life a bit easier. Since it's the only GPS system I've ever used, I have no idea if it's really one of the better ones on the market or not - what matters is that it's so much better than what I'm used to.

Which got me to thinking - this is like the Word Processor revolution. Remember your first word processor? If you are too young to remember a world without word processors or computers, just hush. Your first word processor could have been an absolute POS - and certainly it was much inferior to the programs we've got now - but you were absolutely thrilled with it. Because no matter how clunky or slow it was, it was a freaking miracle compared to a typewriter.

Remember making corrections on a typewriter? It's not just that there was no Spell Check (other than your faithful dictionary) - if you made a typo you had to manually fix it somehow. There were several options, all of them awful. Many typewriters had a correction ribbon that was just like a regular typewriter ribbon except it held white ink. You would type over your mistake which didn't really erase it and then when you typed the correct letter it would look a little different. Or you could paint on some Liquid Paper, blow on it until it dried and hope you hadn't daubed it on too thickly - in which case it would crack and flake off your page. They even made special erasers that were supposed to actually erase typing errors - they didn't work so great either and usually ended up smudging the paper and/or rubbing a hole in it.

And don't even talk about revisions... back when I was in high school if you were writing an essay or a report you'd write it out longhand first. If you wanted to change around words, sentences or paragraphs you'd draw a circle around them and then draw an arrow to the place you wanted to put them. If you made a lot of changes it would quickly become very difficult to read the paper at all and keep all the changes straight so you'd re-write the whole thing to see how it looked. Most of our papers could be turned in handwritten, but there were always a few "formal" papers that had to be typed. Oh, the Horror!!

Now, if you could afford it you'd hire someone to type it for you. Some people put themselves through college or made a nice second income on the money they made typing papers for students.

But if you had to type it yourself and you weren't a really accomplished typist, it was a nerve wracking experience because you were trying so hard to make as few typos as possible. And Heaven help you if, after it was all typed, you realized that you needed another revision. Or had made some major mistake. Because then you'd have to type the whole damn thing all over again.

My first word processor was just that - it wasn't a computer. I could store documents on floppy discs but it was really just a glorified typewriter. There was no mouse, you just used keyboard shortcuts to highlight, cut and paste. There were about 5 or 6 different fonts to choose from, a few different text sizes and you could italicize, bold and underline. The screen was maybe 5 or 6 inches high and 10 or 12 inches wide, and showed about a half page at a time.

And how I loved that little machine!! The unbridled joy of being able to just press a button and erase a mistake!! The thrill of moving words and sentences around without having to re-type the entire thing!! Maybe you had to be there, but believe me when I say that it was so awesome.

So although I'm sure that someday I'll look back on my Navigon and think "how quaint" - for now it ROCKS!

Daily Grind

Yesterday I made about 160# of dog food.

As you may or may not know, we feed our dogs a raw homemade diet. It's really not too much trouble normally - once you learn the basic rules and also learn what works for your particular pets it's fairly easy.

A lot of people who feed raw diets don't grind anything. After all, dogs and cats come well equipped with excellent meat and bone grinders as standard equipment.

In my case, I've got several reasons for grinding meat and bones for the dogs. One is, we've got a little Shih-Tzu cross dog we inherited who is about 14 years old and missing some teeth. While he LOVES to eat meaty bones and I occasionally give him small ones, I am worried about him breaking/losing what teeth he's got left. And before you ask, yes he has had a dental and dental X-rays etc. The teeth he has are fairly sound but I tend to err on the side of caution.

Another reason - probably the main reason - is that Teddy and Topper are hopeless pansies when it comes to eating raw food. It is totally my fault: I'm their breeder, I raised them, I weaned them to raw food. That's pretty much all they've eaten their entire lives... and in the 10 years I've been feeding raw food to dogs, they are by far the PICKIEST eaters I've ever had. Teddy will eat turkey necks, and pork neck bones. Period. Topper will eat ONLY pork neck bones. Neither one of them will touch a whole piece of chicken (say a leg quarter) but they like chicken if it's ground up. They'll also eat hamburger but won't touch raw liver unless it's ground up and mixed with something they like. *Sigh*

I have nearly the opposite problem with their mother Kinsey - she's a classic gulper. She'll eat anything I give her, but I have to be careful that the pieces are big enough that she can't just swallow them down and choke.

So although they all do get whole meaty bones on a regular basis - which I believe is important to them for the psychological satisfaction and the physical exercise, not to mention the teeth cleaning - because there are so many limitations on what my crew will eat and on what I can safely give them that I grind food so I can get a bigger variety of things into them.

I used to have a little electric meat grinder from Northern Tool that is popular with people who grind food for their pets.

It worked great for a couple of years, but then finally died. I have no complaints - it's a light duty grinder made for grinding meat only (there is a sticker on it that says you're supposed to remove not only the bones before grinding, but even the skin!) and I routinely ran 40 to 50 lbs. of various chicken parts through it at a time. It was hard on the grinder, but hard on me too - there was a lot of preparation because I had to cut or chop the chicken into smallish bits so they would A) fit through the hopper, and B) not bog the machine down too much. It usually took longer to do that, than it did to grind everything up.

So when it finally perished I decided I didn't want to go through all that again. I wanted a grinder that was bigger, stronger, and - most importantly - with a strong enough motor and a large enough hopper that I didn't have to cut a chicken leg quarter into 4 or 5 pieces to get it to go through.

After some searching, we settled on the 3/4 horsepower grinder from Cabela's:

So yesterday I decided to christen the thing and went to the grocery wholesalers and got a 40# case of chicken leg quarters, and a 40# case of chicken backs. Then I went to Fiesta for a bunch of beef heart and chicken liver - and since they were having a great sale I picked up 20 more lbs. of chicken leg quarters.

Now, chicken leg quarters have a nearly perfect ratio of meat to bone naturally. Chicken backs, on the other hand, are mostly bone and some fat with the skin. But I'm fortunate enough to have a lot of Nilgai meat in the freezer courtesy of some very generous friends who are hunters.

This is a Nilgai - they have become popular as game animals in Texas

Nilgai, like most game meats, is very lean. So the fatty, bony chicken backs are a perfect addition to it as a calcium source and a fat source.

Normally, I am not this ambitious when I'm grinding food for the dogs. I think the most I've done at one time in the past was about 50 lbs. And that took about 3 hours, using my little meat grinder from Northern Tool.

So I was really, really hoping that my new grinder would do the trick. Nothing like jumping in with both feet. I unpacked it, washed the parts that come into contact with the meat, put it together and turned it on.

First surprise - it's a lot quieter than my old grinder! It's still not exactly what I'd call a stealth machine, but when I turned it off my ears weren't ringing.

So far, so good.

Let's see what it does with a chicken leg quarter.

I picked up a small one, and fed it into the hopper drumstick first.

The grinder sucked the whole thing down, and the motor didn't even change pitch.

This calls for a Tim Allen "more power" grunt: HOH, hoh, HOH, HOH, HOH!

It was so awesome! It took everything without any effort at all - there were a few giant chicken leg quarters that wouldn't quite fit, but all I had to do was cut through the thigh so they'd straighten out a bit. It took me about the same amount of time to go through that 160+ lbs. as it used to take me to go through 40 lbs. - and my hands weren't hurting at the end from using the poultry shears.

100 lbs of raw meaty bones = $ 40
40 lbs Nilgai = free
16 lbs liver and heart = $ 20
Most excellent new grinder = $275*
Having a couple of month's
worth of food for 4 Danes
in the freezer = PRICELESS

*A lot of money, yes - but this sucker will pay for itself pretty quickly!
Not to mention keeping ME happy...

Sophie

Over the past 15 years, I've probably fostered 50 or 60 Great Danes in my home. These are/were dogs who were either lost and their owners couldn't be found, or they were surrendered by their owners for various reasons. I worked with established Dane rescue organizations that were responsible for taking in the dogs, finding temporary (foster) housing for them, paying the medical expenses to get them healthy and get them spayed or neutered, and for finding new permanent homes for the dogs.

My responsibility - as the temporary or foster home - was to teach the dog how to live with people as a member of the family (if it didn't know this already and many of them didn't) and to assess the dog in an attempt to decide which sort of family would be the best fit for the dog in the long run. And sometimes I also had to help nurse the dog back to health before they could even be put up for adoption.

Sometimes this was a big job - I got many dogs who had obviously not had ANY training at all, and once they reached adolescence they could be a handful. Think of a hyper, untrained "puppy" who weighs over a hundred pounds and you get the picture. But fortunately Danes are usually pretty quick to figure out what is in their best interest, and once they realized that unacceptable behavior resulted in undesirable consequences then it all became just a matter of teaching the dog what WAS acceptable. I called it "boot camp" but it wasn't really harsh - just a set of simple rules that were enforced with great consistency.

But many times it was actually an easy job. I had lots of foster dogs who were quite mellow and not interested in testing the limits at all, but were just thrilled to get some TLC, and having plenty to eat and a comfortable place to sleep were just icing on the cake.

Most of them were really nice dogs, who were destined to be beloved pets - but while I loved them all I didn't fall in love with them. I didn't think of them as being "my" dogs - which isn't such a good idea anyway if you are fostering, it is hard on the person and can be confusing for the dog - but rather I thought of them as "someone else's dog" that I was just taking care of for awhile. Which was the truth, in a way. So when they got adopted, it really wasn't all that hard to say good-bye to them. I stayed in touch with their new owners, and it was satisfying to see how happy they were. But that was about it.

A few of them weren't so nice - dogs who were so damaged by a disastrous mix of bad genetics and bad upbringing that we soon realized they could be dangerous. Danes are SO big and SO strong that no reputable Dane rescue will try to place such dogs with members of the public. The potential for catastrophic damage is too great. Sometimes an experienced Dane owner comes along who can handle such a dog safely, but most of the time we have to put them down. It's a very difficult decision, and we do our best to make it a peaceful event by feeding the dog treats or letting him have a special toy, sedating him if he doesn't tolerate handling or restraint (so his last moments won't be full of struggle or panic) and generally comforting the dog the best we can. Fortunately this was very rare - in my experience only two dogs I fostered had to be put down.

But there were others - also just a few, but memorable - who really captured my heart. I only succumbed to one and adopted her - that was Patience and it wouldn't have mattered at the time whether or not it was a "good" time to acquire a new dog. Fortunately it was, but I would have kept her regardless because I realized very quickly that she was "my" dog. There is more about her on her memorial page on our web site and also on our info page.

There were 4 or 5 other really, really special ones that I was sorely tempted to keep, but in the end realized that - to be fair to the dog - either I just didn't have the time to do right by them, or for some other reason they would be a better fit for another family. Those were the ones that although it nearly broke my heart to let them go, I later was glad that I had when I saw how happy they were, and how happy their new families were with them. Actually, now that I think about it, it was very good training for being a breeder and being able to let puppies go to their new homes! That is hard to do, too.

Anyway, one of those super special dogs was an adorable puppy bitch named Sophie. She was a fawnaquin, which although it isn't one of the recognized (i.e. showable) colors for Danes is still very pretty and flashy. She was not only friendly and outgoing and confident, but was smart as a whip, and I happened to have her about the time I first learned about clicker training. I experimented shamelessly on her and the results were nothing less than spectacular. I could teach her a new behavior, or a new trick in about 10 minutes, tops - and her retention was perfect.

Sophie coming home with me - is she adorable or what?

What a face!!

I had her for only a few weeks, but have a lot of happy memories from that time because I was able to do a lot with her. We went to training classes, we went on walks and outings, and on one memorable occasion we got kicked out of an AKC show.

You usually aren't allowed to bring dogs who aren't entered in a show onto the show grounds, although exceptions are made for various reasons. And it is strictly prohibited to bring in a puppy less than 6 months old - which is the minimum age for showing a dog in AKC conformation classes. Sophie at the time was about 4 months old - she'd had all her vaccinations so it wouldn't hurt her to bring her, but she was obviously too young. I was showing Patience in obedience, but we didn't have any of our dogs entered in conformation that weekend, and after Patience and I were done I wanted to go watch the judging and see some people I knew. It was a local show, so I decided to bring Sophie along. We had a great time, and Sophie did not disappoint. She walked boldly into that huge building, echoing with the (not so) subdued roar of hundreds of people talking and a couple thousand dogs barking. All the sights and smells and sounds can be overwhelming even to worldly-wise adult dogs - never mind a puppy. But her tail was wagging and she was absolutely thrilled by it all. We watched the Dane judging and talked to LOTS of people, and Sophie got petted and fussed over and got her picture taken dozens of times.

Sophie at the show

Sophie and Patience doing a Sit - Stay for pictures at the show

Then one of the members of the Kennel Club that was hosting the show walked up to me and asked, "How old is that puppy?" I knew the jig was up but lied anyway, in a most half-assed way: "Six months?" I asked. It was such a bad lie it was kind of funny and he almost smiled, but just said "I don't think so. Please take her out of the building". So I got kicked out of an AKC show for the first and (hopefully) last time. I'm such a troublemaker.

I really, really was tempted to keep her, but I do believe that things often work out the way they are meant to. And when this absolutely fabulous family asked about adopting her, the writing was on the wall. It would be best for all if she became their dog. It damn near killed me to let her go, but I've never regretted it. Her owners stay in touch, and Sophie has developed into the amazing dog we knew she would be. She's had lots of adventures but has remained that happy, sweet smart girl that I knew all those years ago.

Today her owner emailed me to say that they had to say good-bye to Sophie yesterday. She was healthy and happy up until the last few days, when it sounds like a cascade of things started going wrong despite everyone's best efforts. Euthanizing her was obviously the right thing to do, and she was with the people she loved at the end, just as they had been with her for all these years. But I know how hard it was on them, and my prayers and good wishes are with them tonight.

Sophie in her new home

Farewell, Sophie. You were one of the Special Ones.