If you have pet-related links, stories or questions to share, this is the place. I’ll start.
The Beagle mama we are getting from TN reportedly still has a pudgy belly. This made me think of calling her Weeble. I loved Weebles when I was a kid. So last night, I brought up the subject of names with Billy:
Me: What about ‘Weeble’?
Billy: Sure. What about ‘Lars’?
This is Billy’s way of saying that he thinks Weeble is a stupid name. I don’t know how this will come across today, via typing, but last night it had me in stitches. I laughed til I had tears. Anyway, we ended up agreeing on a name: Surrey, after the county in England. Not for any special reason, but Billy had asked about where the breed was developed and that lead to this. Probably he was just trying to get my mind as far away from Weebles as possible.
I like his subtle deterrence method!
On a happy note: The husky that showed up at our place over a week ago’s owner was never located (despite going door-to-door, calling the animal shelters, calling the radio stations, posting on craigslist, facebook and several lost & found dog sites, and even putting his picture up in local gas stations). However, we did find him a happy new home! It was hard to let him go. He was so sweet and absolutely beautiful. But we didn’t really need/want another dog right now. And I am proud of us for being able to unintionally “foster” a dog and let it go to a new owner. Makes me think we might actually be able to foster for a shelter without keeping every dog that comes our way :D
here is a link to the picture I took of him in my lap while waiting for his new owners to come pick him up:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2595184519385.2150968.1247851882&type=3#!/photo.php?fbid=2758868091372&set=a.2595184519385.2150968.1247851882&type=3&theater
Wow – such a pretty dog. Good for you for helping him out.
I’m sorry, but Surrey is a name for a Chinese Crested –
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Surrey_with_the_Fringe_on_Top
Oklahoma!
Maybe she’s a Powderpuff Beagle. Lars, that is.
One of them there rare beasties!
Animal Shelter Adoptions: How To Increase Community Investment – http://www.dancingdogblog.com/2011/11/animal-shelter-adoptions-how-to-increase-community-investment/
“how clicker training helps shelter dogs find their forever homes”
http://www.clickertraining.com/node/3187
You did great.. you passed “foster 101” Since I’m not on your friends list I was unable to leave a comment.. :( That dog looks just like a dog Linda rescued out of the shelter and found a home.. The dogs name was Jove… Beautiful dog… and thank you very much for all you did.
Thanks Dot! I was sure to change the photo to make it availble to the public, but I don’t know how to make it so anyone can comment… He is stunning with decent manners and is house-trained. Blows my mind that noone was looking for him. I wonder if there is ANYTHING else we could have done to help reunite him with his owners… Either way, I am glad he has a happy home now :)
Me too… wtg
Can I admit that I liked the name Weeble? As in Weebles wobble but they don’t fall down?
Ok. Changing gears. Anderson Cooper is doing some coverage tomorrow of Daniel, a dog who survived a chamber used by a client of my employer. Yee gads. I think it airs on Friday. My hope is that he will cover the medieval subject of gassing and not just have a meet and greet with this particular dog. Thanks to a call from CNN about this story, I ended up actually speaking by phone with my hero in Oakland and did a stunning job of tripping over my tongue in the process. It’s not every day a little ol’ extremist like me gets calls from the 212 area code so I assured the woman calling that she could call me any time in the future. And after that, I plugged a story idea about the no kill movement. No guts, no glory.
Has everyone here seen this?http://www.abc24.com/news/local/story/Will-Heads-Roll-after-MAS-Review/F8ZI8JutYES3HGL0cjgBmQ.cspx..
hahaha – Cindy’s quote at the end.
Since so many people enjoyed the octopus video from last week, I thought you all might like to buy this awesome octopus statue. Very Who-vian.
http://boingboing.net/2011/11/30/expressive-octopus-with-lanter.html
I tried to leave two comments here but they never showed up. They had links in them could that be the reason? Adding another below with the link broken in two…
Blind/Deaf #AnimalShelter #Dogs Across the U.S. http:// ow.ly/7K8IH Post your shelter dogs here if they are #blind or #deaf SHARE
Sorry Joni, WordPress dunked them in spam and was holding them under. I let them loose.
OK breaking the link in this one too:
“how clicker training helps shelter dogs find their forever homes”
http://www. clickertraining.com/node/3187
I have to say that I OBJECT to any other names but Big Mamma :-)
Am I the only one who questions this: http://www.petsmartcharities.org/grants/awarded/aspca-receives-230000-grant.html ? Couldn’t the ASPCA find $23k somewhere?
(I think Petsmart Charities is awesome and is a wonderful support for the animals, but I think some other deserving group could have used the money )
I want to tell you about an experience I had last year with Chicken feed. The brand was Nutrena. I bought a 50 lb bag, brought it home. Poured it into the barrel and notice the smell of mold, then saw the mold. I took the barrel of feed back to the store. Get this.. Ace Hardware! The store owner told me it didn’t matter that the feed was moldy… chickens would eat anything! Before leaving the store with another bag of feed.. I had them open the new bag. Same moldy feed. And another bag was opened. I didn’t get feed from that store that day. Luckily, I had the bag at home. So, I got on the internet and researched the company and found a phone number and called. The very next day there was a Representative from the company at the Ace Hardware Store checking the pallet of feed. I got a phone call from that company representative and was told that all the feed at the store was being pulled off the floor of the store and a new shipment of feed would be there the following day and would please except their apology. I was given 150 lbs of free feed. Needless to say I was very happy. But… This Ace Hardware store no longer sells Nutrena….
Now, I’m jumping ahead to this year…
I have ducks as pets and egg production which I sell. It helps pay the very expensive feed bill. I’m licensed in NC to sell eggs and birds, but not day old chicks. I’ve been doing this for about 10 years. I couple of months ago my ducks began not laying eggs as normal. At first I didn’t pay much attention. But I went from 6 eggs a day to zero eggs a day in 3 months. Now when I find an egg.. it has no shell. Something is wrong here. I had noticed 2 moths ago the feed looked different, but there wasn’t any strange smell, didn’t look moldy, so just blew it off.
Two days ago one of my pullets was siting down and when I approached her, she tried to stand up but lost her balance. Now I know something isn’t right.Time to call Purina.
Placed the call Yesterday.. So far I have received two calls. Today’s call from the company was to answer a lot of questions.
While talking to the Representative I made it very clear that I knew my birds and proper husbandry. that I was Licensed and my birds were inspected every four months and tested and banded once a year. She told me that there were no other complaints. DUHHH… a very large egg producing facility. isn’t going to notice the lack of egg production or deaths in a 3-4 month period of time… She had to agree with me on that.
Now I have to take the empty bag and a sample from the barrel to the store and the store is to ship it to the research plant.
If you want, I can let you know what happens as it happens. Maybe I’ll get some more free food that won’t kill my birds or maybe I need to switch brands.
I’m sorry for your bad experience Dot. Please let us know how things go. If you want 2 cents from someone not qualified to talk about bird husbandry – kick Purina to the curb once and for all. They have a terrible history on contaminated livestock feeds and they won’t answer direct questions on ingredients or sourcing as it’s “proprietary information”. I’ve blogged about them many times. One example:
http://yesbiscuit.wordpress.com/2008/06/10/land-o-lakes-purina-feed-recalls-lamb-feed/
Things are getting more interesting concerning the Purina chicken. Since I last wrote about it, there has been three more calls received for the representative.
I updated her to the fact that two other birds had died for no apparent reason. I told her I did take the empty bag and two samples of the food to the store to be shipped to the Purina lab.
I was told to be sure to purchase the newest food in the store, be sure to ask for it! The empty bag I returned was dated for Nov. Every bag in the store was dated Oct. Duhhh.. Someones not doing their job. The Rep said the stock was not being properly rotated… another duhh.
She assured me the feed dated for Oct was still good. I informed her I didn’t buy Purina.. I purchased “Dumore” chicken pellets.
Now here’s the good news. My ducks are acting better already.
I almost forgot.. I also informed her I had called the North Carolina Department of Agriculture~ poultry division. That’s when her attitude changed. She wasn’t so nice after that.
I’m still waiting to hear back from my Ag Rep that comes to my house every 3-4 months to test my birds.
Funny how things took a negative turn when you told her you had reported to the Dept of Ag. Glad your birds are doing better!
Interesting story from the NYT about PTSD in military dogs. I was put off by the cutesy writing in the second graf — what a lame way to let readers know you’re talking about dogs and not humans — but thought the quote at the very end was well chosen and telling.
I wish it didn’t take using dogs in war to make it clearer to people that companion animals are individuals and can suffer just as we can.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/02/us/more-military-dogs-show-signs-of-combat-stress.html
I’m just not believing this. A 10 lb dog I pulled out of my local kill shelter almost a year ago came back to me last night, The woman said he chewed her grandmothers quilt and bit 4 children. I am so heartbroken, but relieved this little guy is safe with me.
Now there are 6 dogs in my house.
Poor “Razzle” has to stay in a crate until I can find her a perfect home. Lucky for me, I have lots of FB friends and it shouldn’t take longer that a New York minute to get this little boy a forever home. If you happen to be on FB.. please go to his album.. There’s actually 2 albums. One album has all the photo of Razzle for the past year (Razzle was adopted by a neighbor) and the new album stating a plea for a new home. Please cross your paws for “Razzle”