Jam and Dog Shows

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Strawberry Jam and Fresh Corn Muffins

Strawberry Jam and Fresh Corn Muffins. See the sticker on the small jar? I bought 2 dozen of these for .5 cents each at a garage sale this spring.

So, I was sitting around, whining about the fact that, while Leah and Luke are out doing all kinds of fun dog show stuff down in the states, I’m sitting here with no one to show. That’s when it occurred to me that I could show Delilah. And why not? She moves beautifully, she has a great head, and while her front is less than stellar, her over all structure is still definitely finishable. So, I decided to enter her in the Hamilton Kennel Club shows, which for some odd reason take place on June 25, 26 and 27th – that’s a Thursday, Friday and Saturday. I guess they were working on the theory that some businesses were closing the 26th in honor of Canada Day, which is actually July 2st. Or something. Either way, enter we did, only to hear a lot of whining from Sean about how he’d been away for twelve days, and there I was, on almost the only day off we’d be sharing together, trotting off to a dog show.

Fine, so I’d skip Thursday, and just enter her on Saturday and Sunday. That wasn’t much better – more whining about how much stuff we really needed to get caught up on around the house, and what about grocery shopping? And lawn mowing? And were we ever going to swim together in the pool?

Fine. I skipped Friday, even after I’d paid for and entered the show. I’d just go Saturday – that’s today – instead. That’s where Delilah came in – last night, she’s outside peeing, and I notice blood on the ground. Of course she’s bleeding – the one thing that you just don’t do is bring a bitch who’s in season to a dog show, so naturally Delilah would wait until the night before the only dog show I have concrete plans to take her to and she’d start bleeding now. Not next week, now.

This morning, after a nice leisurely sleep in, I get up, check Delilah’s bottom, and discover – nothing. No blood to be seen. I know I wasn’t hallucinating – there’s still some blood stains on the back patio. I can only assume she has a low level bladder infection, which would have in no way stopped me from bringing her to the show today.

Personally, I suspect this was all a plot on Delilah’s part. She’d heard the weather for this weekend, and said to herself “Walk around outside, in the rain? For nothing but a measly piece of liver? You’ve got to be joking”.

So, I spent this morning finishing off the last batch of strawberry jam, baking corn muffins and making semolina pizza dough. Delilah and Bunny ate bits of muffin off of the floor, and traded smug looks with one another on how remarkably easy it is to get humans to do your bidding.

The jam and the muffins turned out quite nicely. The pizza dough will be turned into Stromboli for tonight’s dinner – sausage, mushroom, peppers, fresh mozzarella and home made tomato sauce.

I guess that probably does beat standing around at a dog show in the rain.

updated: while I was writing this, Andrea phoned to tell me that Luke took Winners Dog and Best of Winners today in Valparaiso IN for a 4 pt major! Go Luke!

The Future is Unwritten

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I miss Joe Strummer

Every time I watch “The Future is Unwritten“, I’m left thinking the same thing – I miss Joe Strummer.

Barb Brown, 1994

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Here’s an old photo of Barb that her friend Shannon dug up.

It was taken in 1994, and shows Barb in the training room at Bokhara Kennels, where Barb worked as a groomer. We’re pretty sure that one of those creams is Hillary, aka Citadel Shotsilk Hillary.

Hillary was one of Barb’s favorite Frenchies.

A young, BLOND Barb Brown

Cancer Study in Dogs

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Canine Health Foundation News Alert
Van Andel Research Institute Launches New Canine Cancer Studies! Your Participation is Needed in the Collection of Tumor Samples [Tuesday, June 15, 2010]

The Van Andel Research Institute, in Grand Rapids, Michigan, received a “Grand Opportunities” (GO grant) from the National Institutes of Health. This is enabling the Institute to expand its canine cancer studies, which started with a project partially funded by the Canine Health Foundation investigating hemangiosarcoma in Clumber Spaniels 18 months ago, into a much broader research program. They are launching a new center of excellence in canine genetics and genomics. The first and most important program is the Canine Hereditary Cancer Consortium (CHCC), which is headed by Drs. Jeff Trent (TGen), Nick Duesbery (Van Andel Research Institute), and Paul Meltzer (National Cancer Institute/NIH) . The program is an unprecedented alliance of scientists, veterinarians and physicians. Drs. Duesbery and Froman are intensely focused on recruiting canine cancer patients for the study through a variety of clinical outreach programs. Samples from canine patients will not only allow the researchers to identify genes responsible for breed-specific susceptibilities (such as hemangiosarcoma in Clumber Spaniels and osteosarcoma in Greyhounds), but also to translate these discoveries into new and more precise diagnostics and therapeutics for both canine and human cancer patients. The ultimate goal is to take personalized medicine for dogs to unscaled heights!

You can find more information about this program in  found in the 31st issue of Discoveries, the Canine Health Foundation newsletter.

Read more →

Rescued Wildlife – Better off dead?

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Goodbye, Goose Goose.

David Greene’s recent article on Pet Connection, detailing the seizure of an ‘illegal’ Finch rescued by Philadelphia woman Patti Mattrick, reminded me of an all too similar situation here in Ontario.

Goose Goose the Canada Goose was rescued by the Ward family, of Dream Acres Farm in Perkinsfield, Ontario. Goose Goose had an ‘angel wing’ – a fanciful term for what was, essentially, a non functioning formerly broken wing. He was about to be eaten by a cat when Mae Ward found him, brought him home, and nursed him back to health. The Wards, who have a large pond and wetlands area on their farm, hoped that Goose Goose might eventually be able to find a mate. Goose Goose had the run of Dream Acres Farm, roaming the property during the day, and sleeping safely in a barn at night. Goose Goose would regularly wander out to the front of the Ward’s property, foraging along the ditches that line their road. A passing motorist saw the crippled goose, and phoned the local OSPCA office, even though he’d been told by a neighbour that Goose Goose lived at the nearby farm.

When Mae Ward was informed by the same neighbour that the OSCPA had picked up Goose Goose, she immediately phoned their offices. She was hoping to hear good news – that Goose Goose would either be allowed to live out his life at the Ontario SPCA Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre in nearby Port McNicoll, or that he’d be returned to her family farm. Instead, she was told that the OSPCA planned to euthanize Goose Goose.

From the Simcoe News:

Maureen Dool, manager of the OSPCA in Midland, told The Mirror staff were merely complying with the rules instituted by Canadian Wildlife Services and the Ministry of Natural Resources.

“A Canada goose is a migratory bird … under the Migratory Bird Convention Act, (which) is federal legislation that applies to almost every bird in Ontario,” she explained, adding rehabilitators are required to have a permit to keep and treat any migratory bird.

“The public cannot posses, buy or sell migratory birds,” she continued. “It’s an unfortunate circumstance where people have had the bird and didn’t know they were doing wrong, but the bird was reported to us as being injured and, when it came into our facility, it definitely was a migratory bird that was injured. We are just complying with what we have to do.”

My favorite quote from Ms. Dool comes from her interview on CBC News radio, where she says “Wild animals don’t belong locked up”. I suppose no one ever told her about these things we have called ‘zoos’. I also enjoyed the part where she obliquely threatened to have the Ward family charged for having harbored a migratory bird, and insinuated that they were ‘lucky to have gotten off so lightly’.

Killing a bird that was, essentially, a family pet is just the sort of thing that an SPCA currently reeling from the PR fall out of their concurrent ringworm death camp fiasco should be going out of their way to avoid. Threatening legal action against the heartbroken family who’ve just had their pet Goose killed is the final nail in the proverbial PR coffin.

While I understand that rules regulating the ownership of wildlife and of migratory birds exists for a reason, I fail to follow the logic that says that animals are better dead than in the safe place they are currently being housed. Flexibility, compassion and just plain old fashioned common sense could go a long way to avoid these kinds of situation, and the ensuing bad press that inevitably follows.