Penelope Drives Me Nuts & Spice and Fanny Are Available
Well, we’re on day three of Penelope’s hunger strike. Since the day before yesterday, she has eaten, in total:
– three banana zucchini muffins
– two and a 1/4 hamburger patties (small ones, at that)
We’ve tried raw, Honest Kitchen (used to like it, but not any more), canned Merrick puppy, canned Evo puppy, Iams biscuits, Mother Hubbard biscuits, poached chicken breast (she spits it on the floor), diced sirloin and sausage.
She ate none of it.
She simply has no interest in food. It seems to be something about the smell – and, since the muffins have a very bland smell, she doesn’t mind those. I’m going to try some cottage cheese this afternoon, with fingers crossed. With two weeks to go until she’s due, it’s a bad time for her to refuse to eat.
Gah. Dog breeding — so much fun!
Fun as in ‘hey, watch me hit myself in the head with this hammer!’.
Our friend Stephanie over at Stephlyn French Bulldogs has two cute Frenchies looking for new homes.
First up is Fanny, who I happen to have a particular soft spot for. Fanny lived here with us for six months, and is possibly the happiest French Bulldog I’ve ever met. That’s her in the “Tessa Earns a Nap” video, bouncing around and generally being a total goofball.
She’s just under two years, cream and as cute as can be. She’s great with cats, other dogs who won’t be mean to her, and kids (although so far, she’s only met older kids).
She has a problem with really steep stairs, so she’d be best in a home with few or none. She’s in Maryland, but if you arrange it fairly soon, she could be picked up in the Toronto area.
Contact Stephanie for more details — stephlynshowdogs@msn.com
Second up is Spice, and adorable little brindle puppy. She’s got lots of attitude, and is very sweet.
As with Fanny, she’s in Maryland, but could be picked up in Toronto if arrangements are made in time.
Both Spice and Fanny are available to pet homes on mandatory spay contracts.
Again, contact Stephanie directly for more details, at stephlynshowdogs@msn.com
Here’s a video of Fanny playing with Tessa and the other dogs. Seriously, how cute is this girl?
Another French Bulldog, In Another Hot Car
This one was in Texas, but thank God he was rescued in time. The video is painful to watch —
http://www.kiiitv.com/news/local/27201789.html
From the article:
Around noon time Wednesday, some concerned shoppers noticed the French Bulldog locked in a car parked outside of La Palmera which is the new name for Padre Staples Mall. Cynthia Moreland said she waited 15 minutes before calling officers because she wanted to wait to see if the owners would come out. When police arrived they found the dog with no water, and the windows rolled up. The decision was made to break the passenger side window.
“He couldn’t catch his breath. He was stumbling inside the car. He fell over the parking brake and landed in the floor board,” said Moreland as she described the way the overheated dog was acting. She told 3 news the owners came out and were very upset the window was busted.
That’s my favorite part — they almost kill their dog, and what are they most upset about? Their broken window. But, hey! According to the owners, it’s not like the dog was even in the car for that long.
The owners of the dog, are a couple from San Antonio who didn’t want to speak us. The woman told us the dog wasn’t in the car any longer than 30 minutes. Those who called 911 say it appeared the dog had been left there for a while.
Well, 30 minutes — that makes it all so much different. Out of curiosity, I decided to see what the weather was like in Corpus Christi, Texas on Wednesday, August 20th. According to Wunderground.com, the mid day high was 91, and the low 75.
30 minutes in a locked car, at mid day in 91 degree heat. Just imagine that, for a minute.
I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again — there is no hell painful enough, hot enough or long enough for these people. There is no sentence that can be imposed that will suffice for punishment.
Sadly, of course, there will likely be no sentenced imposed at all. A small fine, at the most, and these idiots will continue on their way, feeling all put upoun and picked on. “What is the big deal”, you can hear them whining. “It was just 30 minutes”.
Wouldn’t it be nice if that’s what we could sentence them to – a corresponding period of time, in a car heated in the blaze of mid afternoon sun, to temperatures in the hundreds. No water, no shade, no open windows.
Just 30 minutes — not that long, really, but I believe the memory would last those idiots for a lifetime.
Greatest American Suckage
I admit it – I’m not a fan of reality TV. What I mean here by ‘not a fan’ is that I loathe it to the very depths of my soul. I think it’s the bastard child of the devil, and a room full of mentally deficient monkeys given access to typewriters and unlimited amounts of Starbucks. Reality TV manages to simultaneously both blow and suck.
That said, every other freakin’ blogger I read seems to be addicted to “Greatest American Dog”. When I read rave reviews of this show on both Pet Connection and Poodle and Dog Blog, I become sorely tempted to take a quick look see. Christie’s exposure of the huge amounts of suckage in last week’s episode just made me even more curious about this phenomenon that has my other dog friends refusing to answer their phones while it’s on (or even to post to the dog lists! Gasp of horror, faint from shock, etc).
So, last night I sat down to watch, and all I can say is — holy crap, people? How the hell can you stand watching this show? Forget about animal cruelty – half an hour of this mind numbingly stupid crap and I was tempted to give myself a lobotomy with a spoon.
The faux ‘dramatic’ soundtrack, the forced poignant moments, the grimacing facial expressions of the contestants – it was excruciating. I love dogs, and I love dog sports. I attend Sheepdog trials, although I own no sheep, and no Border Collies. I watch Dock Diving, although my own dogs would sink like rocks if they tripped and fell in a puddle. I even love reading about Patrick working his terriers, despite the fact that I’ve been a life long anti hunting proponent.
But this? I couldn’t even watch it. I couldn’t watch people working with dogs, which is tantamount to an alcoholic saying “No thanks” to a second glass of wine (or me saying no to a triple latte).
The capper was watching trainer/judge Victoria Stilwell go on a vitriol laced rant against a competitor who had the audacity to ask his dog to sit and stay during the final portion of the show. Oh, the cruelty! Oh, the horror! Then came the obligatory blather about Cesar Milan being the anti Christ, which pretty much seems to be the party line of every competing dog trainer out there.
All of this was followed by a sugar sweet group hug a thon where Stilwell and fellow judge Wendy Diamond played a rollicking game of “No, you’re the better person” with each other, all while simpering sweetly and fluttering their eye lashes for the camera. Douglas Coupland called that “Telethon-ese”, in one of his early books – the act of celebrities mutually back slapping each other into simultaneous comas of self congratulatory bliss. To her credit, Stilwell seemed to be visibly holding back a grimace of hatred during the process. Selling your soul — not so painless after all, apparently.
And neither was watching this show. I felt bad for the dogs, most of all. They gave truth to the old saying “People often get better dogs than they deserve”. What seems to be also true is that dog people get worse television than anyone deserves. Greatest American Dog — Worst American TV Show.
Since this all seems rather grim, here are some cute photos of the dogs being sillyheads around the swimming pool yesterday.The whole set is over here on Flickr (and includes some rather handsome shots of Elliott, daddy to be, looking studly in spite of his recent dip in the pool).
Oh, and Delilah has now made Swiffer dusting cloths redundant at our house, due to her habit of burrowing into every dusty, cobwebby, dead bug filled crevice she can find. To my credit, this was in our pool house, since even I am fairly diligent about semi monthly cleanings of the rabid dust bunnies inside of our house.
