Help the Missouri Fight Bust Dogs
Unlike some agencies that solicit for funds to ‘help fighting dogs’, this charity really is going to use your donations for the daily care and well being the dogs seized in the Missouri fight bust.
Thinking with your head instead of your heart
Pickle with her red ball (Leah in the background)
I’ve been a bit down all weekend.
As time progressing, it’s becoming clearer and clearer to me that Pickle isn’t shaping up to be a show prospect. Aside from the fact that she still hasn’t quite caught up from her self imposed fasting, her front isn’t perfect and her head is a little plainer than I’d like. All of this is forgotten, of course, when she jumps up into my arms and insists on kisses, preferably right at face level, or when she falls asleep on my shoulder, curled into the line of my jaw.
When I can be impartial – or when I borrow the impartial eyes of friends – I know she’s not what I need to keep from this breeding. Her brother is simply stunning – big and bully and heavy boned, with jaw dropping movement and attitude to spare. Her other two sisters have gorgeous head pieces, dead straight fronts with deep chests, and strong rears. Pickle just can’t compete, other than in terms of personality, which she has to spare.
Being a breeder is all about progress – picking the best of our litters, the puppies that have what we need, complement what we have already and help us to move forward with improving our lines. Breeders are supposed to think with their heads first, their hearts second – but oh, that certainly doesn’t make it any easier.
The Jungle in My Yard
"I think that plant ate one of the puppies!"
If there’s one thing yesterday’s outdoor photo session with the puppies brought to my attention, it is the abysmal state of my gardens.
Look, I admit that I am not what could be described as a ‘green thumb’. ‘Sickly beige with bugs on it’ would be closer to the truth, or maybe just ‘Rotten black thumb of plant doom’.
Beyond that, there’s the fact that I just DO NOT have a freakin’ clue what to do with the back garden.
Let me break it down for you.
We have a patio area, which is divided off from our pool. Bumping up against the fence is an area which should, apparently, look like a nice section of landscaped greenery, to provide contrast to the concrete patio area.
Instead, thanks to my ‘hands off’ approach to gardening, it looks like a tangled jungle, consisting mostly of hideously huge dandelion plants and mutant thistles the size of small trees. If a puppy went in there, I’d expect a plant to swallow him whole.