The Poodle (and Dog) Blog

When in the course of human events

We hold these truths to be sacred & undeniable self-evident that all men are created equal and independent, that they are endowed by their Creator with equal certain inalienable rights, some of which are derive in rights inherent & inalienable that among which these are the preservation of Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.  Source

"Dog Days of Summer" has nothing to do with dogs

The official Dog Days of Summer are the days between July 3 and August 11.

This goes back to the time of the ancient Greeks. Sirius is known as the Dog Star because it marks the nose of the constellation Canus Major, Orion’s hunting dog.

Viewed from Earth, Sirius is one of the brightest stars in the galaxy of the nighttime sky during most of the year. However, by July 3, Orion and Canus Major have moved to the daytime sky.

The great thinkers among the Greeks believed that the light and heat from Sirius, the Dog Star, combined with the sun, produced the hot days of summer. After August 11, Sirius disappears from the daytime sky and becomes the brightest star in the morning just before the sun comes up. Gradually Sirius, Canus Major, and Orion move to the nighttime sky as the summer passes into fall.

Dog days of summer should remind us that most dogs’ bodies are better equipped to handle cold weather than hot weather. Recently two German Shepherd police dogs in England died when an "experienced handler" left them in a hot car. He faces a fine and prison time. The story

Five legged puppy saved from life in a Coney Island freak show

I don’t usually write about genetic anomalies or animal sideshows, but this is a great story about people coming to the aid of a puppy and a last minute happy ending.

Precious the Chihuahua was born four weeks ago with a fifth leg protruding from her stomach. When the story ran in the Gaston Gazette (NC), owner Calvin Owensby said that he couldn’t afford to have the leg amputated. Quickly many people stepped up and offered to help pay for the surgery.

After an x-ray a local veterinarian agreed to amputate the leg in a few months when Precious is large enough. He didn’t believe the leg indicated any internal problems but he thought it might “cause discomfort” as she grew older. There is also no feeling in the leg which might cause problems as she gets more active.

However that same day Owensby returned a phone call and agreed to sell the dog for $3000 to a New York sideshow owner, John Strong.

It looked like Precious would keep her fifth leg forever and join a two headed snake, a two headed cow and 25 other genetic anomalies in an animal freak show on Coney Island. Strong said he had been trying to get a five-legged dog for several years.

"You don't find a five-legged dog just anywhere, you know," Strong said

(I don’t care what you say, that is a funny line.)

Owensby has been unemployed since January. "I'm sad. I'm really sad. But we're going through hard times. We don't want to do it but we have to."

When the news hit, Owensby was besieged with phone calls, most berating him, but one caller Allyson Siegel, 45, of Charlotte, offered to buy Precious for $4000.

"Poor thing, she was headed for a terrible life," Siegel said. "As a kid, I'd been to a fair, and I'd been to all these sideshows, and I just didn't think it was right for her."

Owensby said he did not realize what kind of a show Precious was headed for when he agreed to sell her. "He didn't tell me it was a freak show. He told me it was an amazing animals show."

Freak show, amazing animals show….tomato, tomahto..

Complete story in Gaston Gazette

Random thoughts on ugly (and pretty) dogs

• Dog lovers are divided on whether Pabst, the Boxer mix, is ugly or not. Ugly is obviously in the eye of the beholder.

• I’m glad the dynasty of the Chinese Crested ugly is over. While I’m sure their owners really love them, I just don’t like looking at them—the scraggly tufts of hair, bug eyes, tongue hanging out the side, teeth going in all directions, mottled skin. Part of the ugliness might be health problems. And that’s more sad than ugly.

• I’ve never been a fan of the smooshed face dog—Boxer, Bulldog, Pug, Pekes. Dogs should have noses like their wolf ancestors.

• Of course that doesn’t include the impossibly cute puppy pictures that Carol of Frogdog Blog shamelessly posts and the videos of Frenchies with that replay button I keep hitting.
• It doesn’t include the Ayatollah Mugsie with his wise pronouncements and infinite power.
• It doesn't include the charming Emily and Abigail from Uncivil.
• It doesn’t include Uga I through Uga VI, the Bulldog who is the greatest team mascot ever. He even made the cover of Sports Illustrated.  
• It doesn’t include Tillman on a skateboard, Dozer on a surfboard, or any Bulldog in clothes. Anything that makes us smile is good.

I’m going to conclude with my five picks for the prettiest dog breeds in order -- (excluding my own pack, of course).                                

1. Afghan Hound - big beauty, tiny brain

2. Any Nordic Breed – Husky, Malamute, Spitz, Khyra

3. Golden Retriever – the happiest face in the history of faces

4. Irish Setter – beautiful coat and form, the IQ of a post

5. Collies that look like Lassie and not the modern show Collies

Accused forger says, “The dog ate my checks.”

File this under “How do humans stay at the top of the food chain?”

A 42-year old Washington man reported to police that money was disappearing from his checking account. A police investigation showed that the missing money was being used to pay for utility bills and other items at his ex-wife’s home.

When confronted, the 50-year old woman’s first response was that “her dog got into her purse and ate all her personal checks.” She told police that she had “no choice but to take money from her former husband’s account.”

Police have forwarded the case to county prosecutors. The story

File this under “Come on, haven’t you ever had a dog?”

In a contrasting “dog ate” story, Jon Meier, a Wisconsin teenager, missed going on his Spanish class trip to Peru because the family’s one-year-old Golden Retriever, Sunshine, munched on a corner of his passport.

Officials at O’Hare airport in Chicago told him that it was no problem, but when he got to Miami, officials, apparently bent on saving South America from a dangerous teenage menace, wouldn’t let him board the plane.

Jon didn’t blame Sunshine. "I love her too much." The story

Here is an unusual twist on an abandoned puppies story

A man brought in five puppies to a shelter in Duluth, MN. He claimed he was driving along and almost hit a box on the road. When he got out to investigate, he found five puppies.

The plight of these cute German Shepherd-Husky mix puppies was featured on the local newspaper website with pictures in the early afternoon. By the end of the day the shelter had been flooded with calls from people interested in adopting them. In all about 100 people showed an interest in the puppies.

A dozen people showed up on the day the shelter announced that the puppies were ready for adoption and they quickly found new homes, including one puppy with a deformed leg which will need surgery.

A great success story. But wait. There’s more.

It seems the Good Samaritan who brought them in did not find the litter on the road as he claimed, but at his daughter’s house. Since she lived outside the city limits, he was afraid the shelter would not take them.

After the story broke of the abandoned puppies, a man called 911 saying he knew who had dumped the puppies on the road because he had gotten a puppy from that litter. That night deputies paid the woman a visit. She admitted they were her puppies and she had asked her father to turn them in. The father confessed that he made up the story.

So. No law had been broken. The man who brought them in just wanted the best for the puppies. The shelter does take litters from outside the area, and, of course, no one wanted to return their puppy when the truth came out.

But I have to wonder at the fate of the puppies if there had been a non story of a man bringing in a litter of puppies that his daughter couldn’t find homes for.

Since there are obviously many people who want a dog if they know one needs a home, maybe shelters and local media could work together to find creative ways to market dogs when they don’t come in with an exciting story.

Nathan Winograd does the math here.
• 90% of the 6-8 million animals brought to shelters are savable. The numbers are approximate, but eight million is a high end estimate.
• Of the 7 million adoptable ones, 4 million find homes; 3 million are killed.
• 17 million people are looking to bring a new dog or cat into their home and can be influenced to adopt from a shelter.
• 17 million people to 3 million pets

Many shelters have achieved the 90% adoption rate.

They did it virtually overnight when new leadership committed to the No Kill philosophy and passionate about saving lives replaced long standing bureaucrats mired in defeatism and excuse making.

 Winograd believes we should stop blaming the public and demand that shelters do their jobs. More from Nathan Winograd on the myth of pet overpopulation.

California Budget Cuts

After an intensive course at the Police Academy

Little Tudee is ready to take on the Mean Streets

Thanks to King’s Crown at Inspired Resourceful Creative

Tiny Poodle has a big important job

Zoé might look like a pampered purse Poodle, but she is a serious entertainer with a lot of adoring fans. Three year old Zoé performs as a therapy dog at nursing homes in Danville, Illinois.

She has a variety of fashionable outfits like this gingham dress, bow, and sunglasses and her own hair dresser. Oh, like your favorite performer doesn’t.

Zoe is all business when she comes to work. She jumps hurdles and hoops, twirls, bumps balloons with her nose and “gives five” to her owner Sheri Cole. Then Sheri carries her around to meet her adoring admirers who treat her like a rock star.

One time, a woman who hadn’t spoken for 18 months reached out to Zoé and said “Fifi.” Also, there’s a man who thinks Zoé is his poodle, Joe.

A therapy dog in a nursing home brings back memories of the residents’ own pets, and that brightens their days, Cole said.

Zoé is a Canine Good Citizen with ribbons in obedience as big as she is. The story

My new favorite commercial

This one has it all: well produced, great story, adorable stars, sweet song, happy ending, all in about a minute.

Boxer mix ends the Chinese Crested “Ugly” dynasty

Pabst, a dog who looks like he needs some serious orthodontist work, has ended the dynasty of the Chinese Crested in the 21st World’s Ugly Dog Contest, 2009, at the Marin-Sonoma Fair.

For over seven years the Chinese Crested has dominated the contest as the ugliest and the breed represented over half the entries in this year’s contest.

But the underdog Pabst won over the crowd and the judges with his toothy grin and sweet personality.

Pabst, a Boxer mixed with who-knows-what, won a 4 foot tall trophy, $2000 in prize money and a modeling contract with House of Dog in Los Angeles. Miles Egstad, his owner, named the dog after the beer because of his “bitter beer face.”

One change in this year’s contest is that to be eligible the dogs had to be screened by a veterinarian to make sure they were healthy. Last year’s winner, Gus, had one eye, three legs, and skin cancer.

Fair Board Member Brian Sobel says, “We were looking for dogs who were naturally ugly.”

But Egstad, who adopted Pabst from a shelter three years ago, said of his loyal companion, “I don’t think he’s that ugly!”

More on Chinese Crested

Second statue for Bamse, hero dog of World War II

I first wrote about Bamse in April, 2006 when the people of Montrose, Scotland had raised the money to commission a statue following the 60th anniversary of his death. People from both Scotland and Norway contributed to the memorial statue.

Now Bamse has a second statue in his homeland of Norway. The life size statue shows him looking out to sea toward Scotland where the mirror image of this statue stands looking toward Norway. Besides honoring Bamse, Norwegian officials thought the twin statue would reinforce the strong links between Norway and Scotland.

Bamse the St. Bernard served aboard the Norwegian minesweeper Thorodd during World War II. Wearing a Norwegian sailor’s cap, he used to stand at the gun tower of the boat throughout the hostilities. Bamse became a symbol of freedom against Nazis for troops all over the world.

Like many dogs, he seemed to have an almost human intelligence.

When the Thorodd was based in the Scottish seaport of Montrose during the war, Bamse became a local hero. He was issued his own bus permit, which hung around his neck. He would travel through the city and gather up any drunken crew members from the local pubs and return them to duty.

When he died in 1944 he was given a hero’s funeral.