Pet Channel

Medieval men admired the courage and faithfulness of their dogs. Each lord had a dogboy who lived with the hounds in their kennels, learnt their characteristics and looked after them in every way. The page too had to know the ways of dogs so that he could get the best out of them when hunting.

I was able to get a free dog house from a friend. It is really nice, but it was a summer dog house so it was built with ventilation in mind. We are insulating it and we (ok Herc) put a solid floor in the bottom too. So far I don't believe we've had to buy anything, just using our scraps and old material. I had two big sheets of sytrofoam insulation in the garage so that is what we are using to make it warm inside. We just have to put the shingles on now, but then I have no idea how we are going to get this extremely heavy dog house to the dog kennel.

I'm not exactly sure how I feel about this subject. On one hand, most of the time, animals are harder to treat than people for several reasons. Take a dog for example. There are hundreds of dog breeds, all with slightly differing internal structures. A veterinarian's job is to make an educated decision of how a dog's system works based on how the "average" dog's system works. Also, an animal is not capable of telling someone when and where something hurts, making it even more difficult to determine the problem. Sometimes there are cases that are just near impossible to treat. In addition, most veterinarians love animals and want nothing more than to help each and every creature. Some, however, are more concerned with making money rather than treating the patient. These are the veterinarians who recommend surgery when it's not necessary, and prescribe expensive treatments that don't even touch the problem. I definitely can relate to the woman who lost her dog because of misdiagnosis. My cat died the same way, and I was furious with the veterinarian, so I understand her actions. However, it's hard really to tell whether the case was one with a caring vet who did all they could, or one with a vet who just wanted to make money.

Two Sundays ago I was doing one of my favorite things, that I don't get to do as much as I would like, taking a daytime nap. Just as I was dozing off I heard a "chirk, chirk" sound. I thought it was a bird in a tree outside the window and ignored it, but the "chirks" got louder and more frantic and I remembered the times one of the cats had brought in a living bird, and I leapt out of bed as if aliens were beaming me aboard their craft for unknown, but intrusive, medical experiments. (Have you ever noticed how infrequently people who claim to have been abducted are anyone one would want to spend time with? They apparently have such empty, and to them, unimportant lives, that they have to make up alien acquaintances to have anyone to spend time with. I have a higher opinion of beings who have the intelligence and quest for adventure for space travel than to believe they have nothing better to do than abduct these sorts of people.)

Thousands of dogs and cats suffer and many die each year by accidental ingestion of household poisons, including pesticides, popular houseplants, medications and common foods. As a pet owner please be aware of that many household products can be dangerous and even deadly to your four-legged family member.

Maxine was born June 20, 2002 and I received her shortly after weaning. I had always wanted a Boxer since my parents neighbor got one years ago. Their disposition is great around kids and they are always ready to play. Truly great companions, if you can get though the puppy years.

On the “against” side - how the hell does the average person determine a “good loving home” for their excess pet(s)? Is it the first person to show up? The first one with a really good sob story? The first one who paints a lovely picture of their tiny daughter who has always wanted a kitten/puppy/mouse? There were discussions about how small animals are often picked up en masse for the care and feeding of pet snakes. There were animal-abuse stories posted. Someone would mention how the local Humane Society would happily take unwanted animals, someone else would argue that the HS was too expensive (both to the person surrendering and to the person who might adopt), and how they would euthanize unadopted animals very quickly. There was also the argument that animals, much like people, shouldn’t be treated as a commodity.

Well my finances aren't good, but I found a deal that I just COULDN'T pass up. A man in town was selling his dog kennel. It has 6 panels, and when put up it measures 10ft by 20ft and it is 6ft tall. He purchased it for $650 two and a half years ago, and he only wanted $200 for it!! Now I had just been looking at ones that were half the size on Saturday that were $450. How could I turn this down?

This unique desert is home to the most recognizable cactus in the world, the majestic saguaro. Visitors of all ages are fascinated and enchanted by these desert giants, especially their many interesting and complex interrelationships with other desert life. Saguaro cacti provide their sweet fruits to hungry desert animals. They also provide homes to a variety of birds, such as the Harris’ hawk, Gila woodpecker and the tiny elf owl. Yet, the saguaro requires other desert plants for its very survival. During the first few years of a very long life, a young saguaro needs the shade and protection of a nurse plant such as the palo verde tree. With an average life span of 150 years, a mature saguaro may grow to a height of 50 feet and weigh over 10 tons.

I managed to find another small chunk of time to see what birds are around my house. Surprising today were no band-tailed pigeons (usually ubiquitous around my bird feeders).

These sloths remind me of the time I went to Chris’ residence hall library program with my friend Ryan "Galaxor Nebulon" Hughes. (Hi Ryan! Where the hell are ya?) Chris had brought in a bunch of rainforest animals to the residence hall to, I dunno, promote reading or something. There were a bunch of snakes and fuzzy things, a scorpion, and a two-toed sloth. At the end of the program, the audience was invited to come up and pet the animals. Ryan decided that he should pet the sloth. Ryan HAD to pet the sloth.

Oh how I wish for a cat, a dog, a fish, and a bird and a pet snake. Oh how

Nothing much or rather nothing of interest going on here; still trying to get over this cold or flu or whatever. There’s still a “frog” in my throat that seems to creep back up in the mornings and doesn’t want to go away. The weather has been rainy the last few days. It’s been nice to have this rain which isn’t heavy or stormy. We’ve put up a bird feeder on our patio to attract the many birds that are still around this time of the year. We had been looking for a hummingbird feeder but stumbled upon a wildbird feeded at Target at a very good price. For less than $10, we got a nice feeder and a big bag of bird feed. The cat seems to enjoy the birds more than she enjoys the stray cats that come for food we leave on the patio. Luckily the bird feeder is up and away from the stray kitties. There are other things on my mind but it’s not for here or there.

I saw this photo and thought it was a hoax. It appears to be a real image of a Burmese python that exploded while eating an alligator. In fact, the tenacity of Burmese pythons in the Everglades is, indeed, no hoax as many would-be exotic pet owners discard them. Since one of my mortal fears is alligators…I have a new fear…a python that can attack an alligator!

A couple days before Rita hit a cat showed up at our doorstep. The cat was pretty beat up. His neck was pretty torn up. We think he may have been attacked by a dog or something. He was pretty skinny. We’ve been feeding him though, and he’s starting to look a little healthier.

2. Never marry a woman who likes cats but does not like dogs. You may marry a woman who likes both, or who likes dogs alone, or even who likes neither, so long as she likes children. But never marry a woman who likes cats but does not like dogs.

Where did they come from? Thank you exotic pet shops of America for adding to our natural habitat. You make the guy who released all the birds from Shakespeare’s writings to look like a Mary Poppins. We look with disdain upon all of those English sparrows and starling pests at our bird feeders, yet we don’t fear them. Twenty-foot pythons are another story.

So I told the story about the tropical fish store my brother and I used to walk to when we were kids. He had a big, 30-gallon fish tank with a bunch of convict fish in them. We used to love to go to the fish store, and it was really far away. A couple mile walk. Then one day we found out it had burned down. Arson.

Thursday after work we made the decision to cancel our trip. I cancelled the kennel and the hotel. But we had no supplies since we weren’t planning on being here. We always keep bottled water around, and we have plenty of empty bottles laying around that we could fill before the storm hit. But food that doesn’t require refridgeration? One can of black beans and some summer sausage we got as a Christmas gift. And we were running low on cat food. A co-worker mentioned that the health food store wasn’t crowded, so I headed there. I bought two different kinds of cat food - I didn’t know you can buy vegan cat food - hoping my picky eaters would take to one.

My newest videoblog is posted, a little snippet of this funny dog I ran into in downtown Conway.