|
Podcasts Powered By Box.net - Simple, Convenient, Unlimited Bandwidth.
| Saturday, December 20, 2008 |
|
|
|
|
|
Puzzle tore her leg open the other day. We don't know how she did it - but it was really serious. No blood, but the skin was peeled back exposing her muscle tissue beneath.
These are a few shots of her wound after the vet stitched her up.
Poor thing..Labels: Doberland, Doberman Pinscher, Dogs |
|
| 1:17 PM | Posted by Dave |
|
0 comments |
| Thursday, August 28, 2008 |
|
|
|
|
|
I believe they do. I believe every living thing has a soul. I spoke of the River of Blood that flows from this place, this Vortex, in my last podcast. It's bad. We have a graveyard here. It's full of dead dogs. Not just creepy, but also not necessary.
I added AJ's corpse to the landfill here yesterday. Originally the landlady was just going to let the vet dispose of his body. I told her that was unacceptable. They had killed him and dumped his body into a huge freezer out back of the veterinary clinic. This freezer is full of dead, frozen dogs. She grudgingly agreed to retrieve AJ's body for a proper burial. I went with her to get him. He was at the bottom and they had to remove several other bodies to reach him. He was frozen solid, inside a black plastic garbage bag.
We got him home and I began to dig a grave for him. The ground is so dry and hard packed here that it took most of the day. I had to bring a 5 gallon bucket full of water and dump it into the hole, let it soak for awhile and then dig a little further. I repeated this process about 10 times (50+ gallons of water). Finally in the early afternoon the grave was deep enough to place AJ into it.
I said goodbye to my friend and began filling the grave in with the dirt I had just removed. Originally I had told the landlady that I expected her to be present and watch as I placed him into his grave and covered him. She avoided answering me and naturally did not come out when I asked her to.
She brought him into the world, she ordered his death and then was unwilling to look at the result of her actions. None of this sits well with me. As for AJ, I did all that I could do for him. I believe, as I stated, that dogs do in fact have a soul. I believe AJ's soul is now at rest.
And now I watch and wait for the next victim to fall before her God like dementia..Labels: Doberman Pinscher, Dogs, Theology, Trailer Life |
|
| 10:31 AM | Posted by Dave |
|
0 comments |
|
|
| Catching Up On Odd Projects |
|
|
I finished putting the shingles on my doghouse today. I had to cover it with a tarp throughout the winter so the rains wouldn't destroy it. It's weatherproof now! I still have to finish the access doors on the back side but that should be fairly easy.
It was hot again today but not as bad as it's been. Thor hung with me and watched my progress. I still have other odd projects to get finished, stuff that I started and then didn't have time to complete. These odd projects are in addition to the on going repairs and upgrades I am doing to this shit box trailer.Labels: Dogs, Trailer Life |
|
| 1:46 PM | Posted by Dave |
|
0 comments |
|
|
| Bree, Snapshot & The Black Death |
|
|
Well I put Bree into the ground today. The vet had her stored in a freezer and we went to pick her up. This freezer was a full of corpses.. The adult dogs were in thick black plastic bags, but there were puppies in there too and they were in clear plastic bags. It was like something out of Hellraiser as I gazed into that frozen pile of shapes. Faces stared back at me.. tiny faces with clear plastic pulled tight over them, frost coated their eyelids and lips.. everything was stiff and rock hard.. a ghastly collage of frozen death preserved in my mind forever.
We brought her home and I buried her next to Shapshot, another of her personal dobes that was taken by cancer late last year. Snapshot was only three years old.. Bree was six, or would have turned six in April. She was the mother of Snapshot. The cancer must have been passed to her pups.  Between my father and these dogs I've had about as much as I can stand of this fucking disease.
I had the chance to bond with Bree when I took her to Carson City, NV for a breeding almost two years ago. She was delightful the entire time and I fell in love with her. She got to see some things that most of the dogs here at the rescue don't get the chance to. I was glad to give her that brief escape from the routine that was her life here.
Bree used to talk to me and the landlady would scoff and pretend I was just another of those 'simple-minded' pet owners who treat these animals as though they could actually have feelings for humans. To her it was all strictly instinct and routine or training. These are basically the only things that determine a dog's behavior as far as she's concerned. Nevertheless, Bree would talk to me. She talked to me all the time as a matter of fact. Not with words. She spoke to me with gestures and body language mostly but there was something a bit deeper than that. I can't really explain it but it was there as real and solid as the ground we stood on.
I'm not saying that she carried on conversations with me. I'm just saying that we were able to communicate far beyond the Sit, Stay, Off and Down commands. Is it really that absurd? I don't think so, she's not the only dog that speaks to me, most of them do but she seemed to do it more frequently and I was able to understand her more easily than with some of the others.
Snapshot was another of my favorites here. She was so cool. Snapshot had this vulture-like stare that she would do to you. She dropped her head just slightly and her eyes got real dark and spooky.. Her ears went flat, not against her head but straight out to the sides.. She would do it from across the yard or sometimes when you walked past her in her outside run. Once she'd locked onto you with that stare she kept it until you got tired and walked away. She never broke the gaze.
Snapshot was a spaz. If you could harness the energy within her you could power a reactor with it. She used to do this one thing that I will never forget.. Each night when I would bring the dogs in from their runs they would get excited and come tearing up the ramp into the house and blaze a trail all the way to their crates. Snapshot went one step further.. She would run around the yard passing each of the other dog runs and bark at a few of them as she built up momentum. On her second pass she was going at full speed and would then come flying up the ramp so fucking hard and fast that she literally came off the ground and ran along the wall for about 2 seconds. No shit, it was like that scene in The Matrix where Trinity goes all slo-motion and runs across the room and the up the wall.
I miss Snapshot so much, and I will miss Bree equally as much. They were both unique personalities that touched my heart and brought a smile to my face. I hope they are at peace now and I am proud to have been a part of their lives.Labels: Cancer, Doberman Pinscher, Dogs |
|
| 10:31 PM | Posted by Dave |
|
0 comments |
|
|
|
|
|
There is a bridge connecting Heaven and Earth. It is called Rainbow Bridge because of its many splendid colors. Just this side of Rainbow Bridge there is a land of meadows, hills and valleys with lush, green grass.
When beloved pets die, they go to this place. There is always food and water and warm spring weather. The old and frail animals are young again. Those who are maimed are made whole again. They play all day with each other.
There is only one thing missing. They are not with their special person who loved them on earth. So each day they run and play. Until the day comes when one suddenly stops playing and looks up!
The nose twitches. The ears are up! The eyes are staring.
And this one suddenly runs from the group. You have been seen!
And when you and your special friend meet, you take him in your arms and embrace. Your face is kissed again and again and again, and you look once more into the eyes of your trusting pet. Then you cross the Rainbow Bridge together...
...Never again to be separated.
Poem Author - Paul C. Dahm Labels: Dogs, Poetry |
|
| 10:41 AM | Posted by Dave |
|
0 comments |
|
|
|
|
|
Here's an article I found interesting. Dogs are not the simple animals many people think them to be...
Be sure to click on the link at the bottom of this article to view the entire thing as I've only included a snippet here.
Behavioral Science Turns to Dogs for Answers
By Julia Koch
For a long time, domesticated dogs were seen as just the slobbering, dumbed-down ancestor of the wild wolf. Dogs, though, have learned a few tricks of their own through the millennia -- and can teach us a lot about ourselves.
Guinness the border collie loves the program. Flip on the monitor, and she can sit for hours watching the colorful images flitting across the screen -- like a teenager in front of a Playstation. As soon as the images change she presses the touch screen with her nose. If she selects the correct one of two photos, a piece of dry dog food automatically drops down to her feet. If she selects the wrong one, the screen turns red for a moment, and then the exercise continues.
Guinness, though, rarely makes mistakes. She can identify different landscapes, and picking out dog breeds, likewise, doesn't present much of a challenge. She's even adept at choosing human faces. "It's only when she is supposed to recognize the same face in different photos that she makes a lot of mistakes," explains Friederike Range, a biologist at the University of Vienna.
Guinness isn't the only dog able to master these image experiments. Since the university's "Clever Dog Lab" opened its doors in a ground floor apartment in Vienna's Ninth District in April, the city's dog owners have inundated the place. "So far only one or two animals have shown no interest in the computer," says Range. "For most of them it's a blast."
What may seem like simple amusement for Guinness and her fellow canines is in fact revolutionizing cognitive research. Range is the first animal researcher to attempt to lure domestic dogs to a touch screen. Scientists in her field have spent decades working with pigeons pecking at pictures, conversing with apes using brightly colored touch symbols, and listening in on the grunting noises made by seals. But the talents of Canis familiaris remained largely unexplored.
Full story, Source: Der Spiegel Labels: Dogs, News |
|
| 2:57 PM | Posted by Dave |
|
0 comments |
| Thursday, January 3, 2008 |
|
|
|
|
|
 Last evening I had two separate pups to do ear wraps on. One Great Dane pup and one Doberman pup.
The Dane who's name was Diva and she was so sweet. She was very friendly but wasn't too sure about having humans poking around in her ears while holding her muzzle.. the other pup was named Brody and he was a bit more reserved than Diva. His ears had been wrapped recently but the owners wanted us to do the wraps for them so they could learn how to do it themselves. Brody's ears were wanting to lean inward and touch over the top of his head. Both pups also had 'pockets' where the ears meet the skull. It's like a sag or dip in the cartilage that we use cotton balls to support until the cartilage hardens enough to support it's own weight. The wraps stay on for a few days before they should be removed. The ears need anywhere from a few hours to a whole day to air out and then they need to be wrapped again. This goes on until such time as the ears stay standing on their own. Each time the wraps are removed the ears will stand a bit longer before crashing. So with some dogs it just takes longer than others.
As far as the pups are concerned it's just a minor inconvenience. You'd think they would be very uncomfortable with the tape and all the cotton shoved into their little ears. However they generally run around for about 5 minutes shaking their heads and then don't seem to care anymore.
The main thing is to keep the ears dry while they're wrapped. If they get wet then that could cause an infection. Also when we wrap a whole litter we have to change them more frequently since the pups use each others ears as chew toys.. kinda funny though.Labels: Doberman Pinscher, Dogs |
|
| 7:57 PM | Posted by Dave |
|
0 comments |
|
|
November 2007
December 2007
January 2008
February 2008
March 2008
April 2008
May 2008
June 2008
July 2008
August 2008
September 2008
October 2008
December 2008
March 2009
April 2009
May 2009
June 2009
July 2009
August 2009
October 2009
November 2009
|
