Big Black Dog Syndrome

I came across a couple of articles on Big Black Dogs Syndrome. It seems that large black dogs have a harder time being adopted. There’s a web site about this.

We have a big black dog in our family. Her name is Annie, she is a lab mix. We adopted her in February 2001 from the Desert Labrador Retriever Rescue group in Phoenix, AZ. I’ve never had a sweeter, gentler dog. I will post a photo or two later (I don’t have access to my photos right now.)

If you are thinking of adopting a dog, please don’t overlook the Big Black ones!

A Car Made for a Dog

Dog people, check this out: A car designed to accommodate a dog.

Honda Worldwide | Tokyo2005 via kwout

Unfortunately, this is a concept car that will never be produced. Too bad, I was ready to go over to the Honda dealer this morning and order one.

Mice

We have mice. A couple of days ago I took an item from my pantry and noticed that it had been “sampled” - a bit of it was eaten and not by any family member or guest. Looking at the shelf where this item was stored I saw bits of the wrapper shredded up. We have mice.

I bought some traps. Gary set them, and this morning we had proof - as if we needed any more - a little grey mouse caught. It looked sleek, shiny, and plump. Well fed. Now dead. (there’s a haiku here but that much creativity escapes me right now - anybody?)

Our rat terrier, Suzie Lightning, is a hunter and a predator. She is always lunging at birds, shoving her nose into gopher holes, etc. And her breed was molded to kill rodents. Perhaps we have a partial solution to the mouse problem here? So we let her sniff at the mouse. She found it very interesting and seemed disappointed that it did not wind up in her breakfast bowl. Maybe she will catch one, we’ll see.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year to all!

I’m not one to make New Year’s resolutions. They are hard to stick with, especially those related to deep seated behaviors like “exercise more”, “eat less juk food”, “save more for retirement”, etc. New Year’s celebration strikes me as being arbitary, but I happily accept a paid day off!!

Last night we heard some fireworks at midnight. They woke us up, otherwise we would have happily slept through New Year’s Eve midnight. The dogs did not like the noise one bit! Our lab (75 pounds of dog) insisted on squeezing her way between us on the bed for protection from the fireworks noise. I’m happy to report that she survived.

On the subject of  New Year’s Eve I think a lot of people see sleeping though midnight and not partying as a marker of middle age. When people ask what Gary and I were doing New Year’s Eve and I said “staying home and going to bed around 9″, the middle aged and older folks smiled knowingly.

Dogs with Bones

A friend told me how much her dogs like stew bones. She gave me 2, I boiled them and the dogs love them.