Buttercup is pretty unhappy with me

Buttercup has had a few too many liver treats in the last few days, so she had a very poopy bum. I had actually started to call her "Miss Poopy Bum" her bum was so poopy - so tonight when we got home from Seaview I decided to give her a bath.
Needless to say, she was not very happy about it.
She is now steadfastly ignoring me in her bed by the computer monitor which is right next to where I am currently sitting.
Even bringing out more liver treats only makes her raise her head just a little bit. She is still too pissed off at me to get really interested. But what can you do when you've got a dog with a black hole that'll take you to the next unknown universe emanating from the back end of her little body? You've got to DO something about it. You can't just wait for her to rub it off on the couch a little bit everday. I mean - that takes FOREVER.

I received this email today, and I thought it was super!

Subject: Soo News - A poem for chained dogs "
"How do you sleep so soundly?"

THE WATCHDOG

Soo News - A poem for chained dogs " "How do you sleep so soundly?" *LINK*

About YOUR Dog

How do you sleep so soundly
In your house of glass and stone
When outside that little dog you have
Is crying and alone

I'll bet your bed is comfy
With sheets so soft and white
While outside that little dog you own
Lies shivering in the night

Are your blankets warm and cozy?
Those pillows feel so good!
While that little dog out in your yard
Lies down on cold hard wood

Did you eat a nice warm dinner?
One of chicken, beef or fish?
What did your little doggie eat?
His frozen water dish?

Do you ever take him for a walk?
Or throw a rubber ball?
I guess you're just too busy
To be bothered by it all

He's just a dog so who's to care
If he's out in cold and rain
He'll keep himself well entertained
While on that four foot chain.

I suppose he was a novelty
When you first brought him home
But now he's older, not much fun
He's better left alone

So tie him up, get on with life
You gotta wheel and deal!!
Who cares about that little dog
And the loneliness he feels

Oh what he wouldn't give to feel
Your hand upon his head
Or hear his name come from your lips
As you call him in for bed.

But your flooring's sooo expensive
And the carpeting is pink!
You can't get dog hair in your house
What would the neighbours think???

Far better then, to leave him there
Alone in your backyard
Out of sight and out of mind
It's really not that hard

To just pretend that he is fine,
It's so much fun alone.
Day in, day out, month after month
Then one day he'll be gone

Will you be sad when that day comes?
Will you miss his wagging tail?
Will you realize what you have done
And all the ways you've failed

To give this dog a bit of life?
Some time to share your day?
Those soft brown eyes so full of love
And you looked the other way

Those eyes may come to haunt you
When someday you look behind
And you'll realize just what you did
By being so unkind

So here is just one parting thought
That I will swear is true
Your dog, despite his little size
Has a bigger heart than you.

The dog this poem was written for is the last dog shown on this video...

http://soonews.ca/loadvideo.php?id=1578

It looked like it was a nice day out today - but man, it was cold tonight at the Dingle. I took this picture of Buttercup here because - doesn't this coat look cute? Her coat is now as bad as she is! haha!
Charlie and Daisy took the opportunity tonight to take their ongoing wrestling match outside of the living room floor and onto the beach at the Dingle.

I had an email today from a fellow who lives in Frederick, Maryland who found my Charlie loves Halifax website and said he really liked the site and was planning on visiting us in the next little while and was going to be using the site - and he wanted to tell me that Frederick was also a really dog friendly city. He said that more than 1/2 the businesses in the downtown core are dog friendly. Isn't that awesome? They have signs on their doors that say they allow dogs and they have water outside their doors and they actually are a proponent of dog-friendliness. Now THAT is a city that has some smart people in charge! haha!

Responsible Pet Owners in the HRM love their dogs!

Today was the 3rd Annual Greyhound Pets of Atlantic Canada Doggy Expo - which this year was held at the Halifax Forum. I swear there must have been about 1,000 dogs move through the room today. This picture is 18 month old bull mastiff Hammy who was shopping for a special kind of martingale collar that would fit his huge neck. Unfortunately he never found one (: though.

Today showed how absolutely starving responsible dog owners in the HRM are for things to do with their dogs. When I arrived at 11am I had to wait in a line up for more than 5 minutes just to get in!
This shot is a shot of the crowd - the room was absolutely packed with people and their dogs. Almost everybody there had their dog with them and there weren't any problems at all. It's quite obvious that most dog owners DON'T want to leave their dogs tied up in their back yards - forgotten about, rotting, dying, chained to their dog houses. They want to get out and have fun and DO things with them.
Buy stuff for them - like the fabulous Tail-Wagrrr muffins that Kathleen makes who's in this picture here! She's also the super groomer who works at the Metro Dog Wash. She and Terri the owner by the way are also clipping nails now too! Isn't that awesome?
This is the city's most famous dog walker - Adina MacRae from "Dogs on the Go" and one of her little dogs Satchel - he's almost as bad as Buttercup - "almost!"
Bark n Fitz were set up this year - I've never seen them set up anywhere before, and I've never been to their store before either, which is weird - I've heard they're in the Historic Properties maybe? I guess I should go!

This is one Kathleen from Tail Wagrrr's hand made cakes! She makes them order and I bet you they're pretty tasty! For dogs that is!

After we were done at the Expo we went for a lovely walk in the woods - you would think I set these pictures up the dogs look so pretty. But no - the dogs just look in the camera, and it's serendipity - and I press - click!




While I was at the Expo today I also saw a good friend of mine - Leah - who very bravely rescued this lovely puppy last week! His name is Bailey and he's available for adoption! 8 months old, crate trained, good with kids and other dogs, high energy, with all the energy that an 8 month old husky shepherd mix can offer you. He has all the looks of a beautiful shepherd - and the fur and compact body of a husky. He is a lovely, beautiful and soulful dog that's going to
give a lifetime of frisbee catches. You can either email me or you can email Leah directly at leahlangford @ hotmail.com for more info on him. He's going to be quite a catch!

I've fallen in love with a new little white dog...

So I went to supper tonight at my friend Janet's house and there was a west highland white terrier there named Trouble. I've met him before, but Buttercup has always been there protecting me before tonight - but tonight I didn't take her with me so my defences were down. I hope Buttercup doesn't find out.


This was a little dog named Tess who was up for a little snuggle too. She laid in my lap while we all watched the movie "Babel" with Brad Pitt.

Oreo's cancer surgery has been coming along fabulously.
She's been soaking up all the attention she can get.
Ursa's been soaking up all the deflected Oreo attention too!
Harry is the most photogenic golden retriever in the HRM I'd say!
Oreo popped up on the dining table for a kiss!

In Janet's bathroom was one of the Mexican birds - I had one at home and when I asked her if she knew anything about it she said - "do you want it?" and put it in my bag - so now I have 2 Mexican birds that I know nothing about! haha! Does anyone know anything about these birds? They are ceramic and pretty heavy and are hand painted. I love them.

New Video - Wrestlin' in the Snow!

Today when we were at Colpitt Lake I shot some video of Daisy and Charlie wrestling for a minute when we were in the woods. I left the audio in because Daisy's wheezing is pretty funny. She's totally out of breath after running around for just a couple minutes - they HAD been running around for a few minutes previously though, so it's not as bad as it seems. I think she may smoke too much though.

Fluffy Dog

Buttercup had a bath yesterday and I decided to fluff her out. She wasn't very happy about it.

Last night we went out for supper and Tonto the American wolf dog something or other fell deeply in love with her. Buttercup wasn't sure if she wanted to kill poor Tonto or run away in terror. Luckily she still hadn't made up her mind by the time it was time to leave for the evening. I'd say it was lucky for Buttercup - not Tonto!

My Offleash Manifesto, such as it is...

Okay, so here we go. I've been meaning to write this up for awhile, but have been procrastinating like crazy - but the latest updates to the HRM's off-leash strategy website have motivated me to get off my ass and get out there what I think needs to be said. Say your piece now, or forever hold your peace if you know what I mean.

I am an avowed off-leash advocate - I make no bones about it. I think that in order for a dog to have a wholesome, fulfilled, well-rounded life - they need to run. And that includes dogs who don't get along with other dogs, and dogs who like to chase bicycles, and dogs who like to chase joggers, and dogs who like to wrestle, and dogs who like to stop and pee on every tree they come upon. The dogs whose humans own them just have special challenges. I personally own dogs who have some (but not all of those) characteristics, and I take them into consideration when and where I take them to run. I only them to certain places, at certain times of day so that I can be in charge of the stimuli, the things they are going to come into contact with, and how they are going to react. I have also trained them to have an excellent recall in all situations so I can leash them up even when unexpected triggers come into their view. But no dog is perfect, and certainly my dogs are not either. Even the most perfect and loving golden retriever can have a bad day and can spoil a dog hater's day. But I'll get to that part later.

So in order to have a healthy life - dogs need to run. But they also need to run in a variety of places. Just running around in a field - like at Seaview Park - isn't good enough. Seaview Park is fabulous. It's a more traditional type of dog park in that it's a fenced in flat area where the dogs are all together and they can wrestle and chase each other and act like they're a pack and chase balls and learn certain doggy type coping skills. It's certainly not a type of park that all types of dogs can handle. A very dominant dog who can't control his impulses and gets over-excited and ends up fighting instead of just shaking it off and walking away - is NOT a good candidate for daily off-leash exercise at Seaview Park.

Daily off-leash exercise at a place like Point Pleasant Park might be ideal for a dog like that though, because a sniff and pass experience with other dogs might be fine for him because he doesn't have time to get over-excited in the 10 seconds he spends with each dog before the humans say "come on Riley" and the dogs and humans continue on with their walk. And the dog still gets to run, and sniff every tree, and bond with his owner, and see other dogs, and socialize. But there are also joggers and bicycles there in the day time. Some dogs can't handle that.

But on Saturday and Sunday at Point Pleasant Park - bicycles aren't allowed - so on Saturday and Sunday, dogs that can't handle bicycles can go to Point Pleasant Park. Isn't that fabulous?

So the Halifax Regional Municipality currently has 2 parks that are already desingated as off leash dog areas. And between the months of November and May all ballfields in the HRM are off-leash areas between the hours of 6am to 10am.

So what is the problem? Doesn't this sound like enough? Why is the city working on making more off-leash areas when they these areas already? Is it because they want to shut down Seaview and Point Pleasant Park? I hope not. Is it because they want Shubie Park to be the only off-leash area in the whole of the HRM? I hope not.

Before I say what I think the HRM should do about off-leash space in the HRM, I want to make a couple points.

#1 - you CANNOT build policy around the tax-payers who don't want the programs in the first place. You cannot build the off-leash dog policy around the non-dog owners and the people who don't want any off-leash dogs in the HRM. Period. There are comments on the HRM's website - http://www.halifax.ca/real_property/PublicComments.html - when non dog-owners making such generalized comments as "no dog owner has control over their dogs when they are off-leash" - I have a very hard time taking them seriously. Unless that statement is a typographical error - that is such an egregiously false statement that anything else they could possibly say in relation to dogs would only make my eyes roll to the ceiling.

I certainly don't think that civil rights laws were built around racists in order to make them feel like their best interests and "feelings" were being taken into consideration. And that's all I'm going to say about that.

#2 Trying to judge how many actual dogs there are in the HRM. http://www.halifax.ca/real_property/OffLeashParksStrategy.html#Howmanydogs - 144,435 is suggested as the number of households in the HRM and based on that the number of dogs would be 93,017. HRM decided that was too high and took 50% of that number - 46,500. I think that basing the number of dogs on "households" is faulty - you should only base the number of dogs on the number of home owners in the HRM. What that number is - I have no idea. I'm sure you handy-dandy planner though know how many that is. Halifax is notorious for being very non-dog friendly in the apartment sector - so almost all dogs are found in owned-homes - and not in apartments - so you can base your numbers for licencing fees schedules on home owners and get pretty accurate data.

So on to what I think that off-leash strategy SHOULD be......... drumroll....

Keep Point Pleasant Park and Seaview Park as they are. Make a section of Shubie Park in Dartmouth off leash just like Point Pleasant Park for whatever hours that the regular Shubie Park is open - and - make every other park in the Halifax Regional Municipality offleash between the hours of 9pm and 9am. It's as simple as that.

That would not impact any of the dog haters out there. Who is in any of the city parks between 9pm and 9am? No one except people who sholdn't be there anyway - and this will keep those people out of there.

New York City has been doing this unofficially for the last 20 years and has just made it official as of September 2006.

For some links you can go to:

http://www.brooklynpaper.com/stories/29/35/29_35dogs.html - super article from Sept 06 about formalizing the off leash hours Dogs win! Off-leash hours survive

http://www.brooklynrecord.com/archives/2006/09/fido_unleashed_1.html - blog that talks about above article

http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/html/pr2006/pr112-06.shtml - city government's press release about new rules

I think it's a fan-dabulous idea. One that would require no infastructure changes to any parks in the HRM. Dog owners in the city would be able to do everything with their dogs that they're doing right now - they'd just be doing it between the hours of 9pm and 9am. They would still have the resources of Point Pleasant Park and Seaview Park, and the pilot project of Shubie Park - but they'd have the added wonderfulness of every other park between the hours of 9pm and 9am.

The Halifax Regional Municipality in many ways is one of the dog-friendliest municipalities in all of North America. We are on the leading edge in so many ways. We could continue to be so if we were to do something like this. To have an off-leash policy as enlightened as New York City would put us on the national stage, and I think that a "smart city" such as ours deserves it. I know our dogs certainly do.

Some New Stuff for Today

Today me and Buttercup did a bit of shopping. One of the places we hit was the Glamour Puss and the Naughty Dog store downtown - it was a bit cold when we were out and I didn't put a coat on Buttercup so I thought I'd better get her a new coat. I was regifted a hat from my friend Janet this past Christmas from that store - so I bought the matching dog coat for Buttercup today. I think she looks pretty goood - and now when we go for walks we're going to match. I'm sure we're going to look completely foolish! haha!

>Another store we went to was the Bookmark Store on Spring Garden Road - and I bought this book because I thought it was so awesome. It wasn't until I got home and actually looked at it that I realized that all of the knitting projects are all so hard you have to be a bloody master knitter to do any of them! So if you're a person who knows how to knit really good and this book sounds good to you - email me! Otherwise this book'll be going up at the next doggy auction that needs an auction itme - because I don't think I'll be using this book!

It was a nice day here in Halifax so the dogs finally got to go for a nice walk - Buttercup certainly seemed to enjoy herself by the looks of this picture, eh?
In my capacity as the new area representative for Dogs Deserve Better in Nova Scotia - I put a poster in the window of my living room - and also a bumper sticker on my car - to get the word out about the organization. I've talked a lot about the group here on the blog in the past, so I won't bore you with any prostelytyzing today - just follow the link to read about them and what we do! haha!

WARNING: Funny Pictures!

Me and the dogs have been having a very boring couple days because it's so fan-damned cold here in Halifax. Tonight at Seaview the whole park is completely and literally a whole sheet of ice. Very unpleasant.

So I am submitting these photo's of my very good friend and regular reader of this blog - Lisa's dog Delta - can you believe this first picture? Delta is a boxer and seems to like to find the smallest space possible to squeeze into so that she'll be as snug as a bug in a rug. The second photo shows her spreading out a smidge.

The 3rd picture is another timeless piece of history from the Davis house - Oscar humping Delta and former foster dog Sunni (who was hit by a car and abandoned and left to die by the side of the road and is now living a wonderful life thanks to some caring individuals and the NS SPCA) having a good old mouth wrestle.

Happy Friday!

Windchill Makes my Nose Feel Funny

Today we went to Prospect Bay, and when you are on the edge of the Atlantic Ocean, and there is a good wind whipping through and there's a windchill and you're on top of a bunch of rocks - the end of your nose can start to feel like it's starting to swell up after awhile.
Daisy did NOT seem to notice though.
On the way back to the car though, Buttercup started giving me some pretty hairy eyeballs when I stopped to take a couple pictures of the rocks that had a lot of ice on it. I had unfortunately forgotten her arctic fleece coat at home. She was not amused.
The little village of Prospect Bay looked pretty bleak today.
Rocks and ice. bbrrrr.

Happy Valentine's Day

I got roses for the first time ever this year - from my Dad! And he's all the way down in Florida. How sweet is that, eh? We should all be so lucky. Aren't they nice? Buttercup and/or the cat haven't eaten them yet either, because they're right next to the bed that they both share. Keep your fingers crossed.

I Guess Some Things Never Change - Luckily! *so far

I'm glad I've been keeping this blog for the last 3 years. Tonight at Seaview I thought to myself - "I wonder what it's been like for the last couple years in February - I should check back on the blog and see what it's been like in February, and what I've been complaining about at this time of year, and what kind of snow we had on the ground and stuff.". And do you know what?
Pretty much exactly the same things as I've been talking about this month! Trapping laws, seals, pictures of Charlie and Buttercup humping Daisy - and believe it or not - both 2005 and 2006 had almost exactly the same amount of snow on the ground - just a dusting. Isn't that funny? I've had a couple different dogs though. 2005 had Philip and Leonard. And 2006 had Teddy. 2007 has neither at this point. For good or bad.

Today I watched a movie online called "The Secret" that I guess is supposed to be latest "Celestine Prophesy" kind of thing. The makers of it were on Oprah and everything and it says that you attract what you think about the most - the old adage of - what you think about, you bring about, only this movie tried to turn it into something nice and new-agey so that baby boomers would buy into it more readily.
I've always been a believer though in the idea that you've shouldn't fight for anti-war causes - you should be pro-peace. That's one of the messages of the movie, and I think that's fabulous - that alone is awesome.

Lots of interesting stuff at today's Halifax Kennel Club Show!

I went - alone of course - today to the Halifax Kennel Club show today out at the Exhibition Park, and there were some new interesting booths there. The neatest one was this lady who had come down from Parrsboro for the first time. She said that she has usually always painted naked ladies, and she's just started painting dogs by commission - but her style is REALLY neat. She has a website at http://www.thedestinationgallery.com/taylor.html where you can see her stuff. Another reason that she was at today's show though was that she's just gotten a distributorship for biodegradable doggy poop bags! Isn't that fabulous? She was selling them today for $89.00 a case - but she said that was a special price for the show, so I don't know what they are regularly - but she said if you use 2 bags a day they'd cost you 7.5 cents a day - which sounds reasonable to me to save the environment! Her email address for the poop bags is allfours@hotmail.com and her name is Taylor Redmond. I think everyone should buy a case!

Another really neat thing I saw was this table that had just about the nicest collars I've seen yet - the fanciest and most beautiful collars - the company name on the tags said "All Sewn up" I think - but unfortunately the woman was never at the table the whole time I hung out waiting to see if she came back, and I couldn't see any cards that I could take - so I never found out any information about the products, and I couldn't buy anything either! Hopefully she'll be at the doggy expo at the end of the month, because her stuff was really good.

I met a great pyrenee named Molly while I was there - her owners were showing her themselves for the first time so they were pretty excited. They said they'd always used professional handlers before - I think Molly knew that something different was going on. She was such a beautiful and soulful looking dog I had to stop and take a picture. All the great pyrenee dogs's I've met have been all white - Molly had quite a bit of brown on her - that's why I stopped and asked what she was - I thought they were going to say some exotic breed.
I had to stop by my good friends Netta's table - Animal Rescue Coalition - I hope had a busy day today! There certainly were a lot of people moving through the building - and a lot of dogs too! Poor Buttercup had to bark at them from the parking lot though!

After me and Buttercup did a couple errands we went and got Charlie and Daisy and we all went to Colpitt Lake for a run. I think everyone had a good time. I had a lot of time in bed this week - so everyone needed to breathe some extra fresh air today. We couldn't stay out too too long because of Charlie's leg - but what they did get today they certainly seemed to enjoy!

Dogs on Metro Transit buses in the HRM - what do you think?

I think that small dogs are allowed on Metro Transit buses in the HRM. They have it very negatively worded on their website - but none-the-less, what they're saying is that dogs ARE allowed. Here is what it says:

"With the exception of Seeing-Eye Dogs and Other Trained Working Dogs, animals are not allowed on Metro Transit vehicles, unless properly restrained in a closed cage or otherwise restrained so the animal will not cause a disturbance or damage to the vehicle."

Now what that says to ME is this - Dogs ARE allowed on Metro Transit buses as long as they are in a closed cage or otherwise restrained so that they will not cause a disturbance or damage to the vehicle.... so what does that mean?

Small dogs CAN go on Metro Transit - just put them in a poochi bag or a Sherpa bag, or whatever bag you like to put them in - but they CAN go on the bus! Isn't that fabulous? And if you get any flack - just take the section of the website that says the above about animals - you'll find it here - http://www.halifax.ca/metrotransit/policies.html

Man, if you put your vari-kennel on wheels - you can go just about anywhere I figure...

Dogs shop in malls with us in California - 21st century wonderfulness

Amanda Lucidon / The Press-Enterprise
Don Sullivan and his son, Ethan Sullivan, 6, train Orchid on the escalator in Saks Fifth Avenue at The Gardens on El Paseo in Palm Desert.


I got the link to this very neat news article from an online friend of mine who knows how much I love all things that are dog-friendly. This comes from somewhere in California where you can actually take dogs into some malls. Isn't that super? There's also a video that goes with the story that you can click on.

The world and time marches on - and we as dog owners are stepping up and taking our place in it - and our dogs are by our side. Where they should be.

It's about a mall in

Best friends and shopping go together like the Captain and Tennille, even if the best friend is four-legged and furry.

While pet stores often invite Fido and Fifi inside to take a gander at the merchandise, more shopping centers are allowing man's best friend to come in and browse.

"There are some specialty malls coming out that cater to pets," said Len Kain of DogFriendly.com, a Web site that publishes pet travel guides.

He noted the Otay Ranch Town Center in Chula Vista, just outside of San Diego, which has a dog park for its furry patrons next to the Macy's.

"What you're seeing now is the shopping centers are actually putting (water) dishes outside the doors," Kain said.

While the dog parks aren't at Inland Empire malls yet, a number of complexes in the Coachella Valley are pet-friendly.

"We see it all the time," said Sara O'Flynn, marketing director of The Gardens on El Paseo in Palm Desert.

She said she usually sees smaller dogs.

The Gardens on El Paseo isn't the only shopping area that has furry customers.

"We usually have a slew of them in the morning," said Debbie Hobbs, an administrative assistant for The River in Rancho Mirage.

She said owners and their animal-kingdom pals will stop by Starbucks for the morning brew. The complex allows pets as long as they are on a leash, Hobbs said.

The shopping center even has a kiosk, Barkies Boutique, which sells clothes, treats, carriers and strollers for pups.

"They all love dogs around here," said Supree Hammond, who mans the booth.

She said people will bring their dogs to the kiosk so they can try the clothes on and she often sees people bring their dogs to the center with them.

Sandy Namvar, of Palm Desert, often takes her dog, Chanel, with her to shops along El Paseo.

"Everybody brings their dogs," Namvar said.

Chanel is also a fixture at Bellissimo, the clothing store on El Paseo that Namvar owns.

She said she keeps treats in the store to give to the pets.

Don Sullivan will take dogs into a number of stores around Palm Desert, including Saks Fifth Avenue. The La Quinta man is an off-leash and anti-aggression training specialist for dogs. Last week, he worked with a 12-week-old puppy on being off-leash.

Sullivan said he took the dog into Saks and commanded it to lie down and stay, and then he walked away. He said the dog stayed still, despite the number of people walking by.

"We left him down there for 20 minutes," he said.

He said that dogs trained in the correct way can be unleashed and not run into the street or be distracted by other people and animals.

"You don't have to leave your dog ... sitting at home pining for you," Sullivan said.

Both Ontario Mills and the Galleria at Tyler do not allow dogs, unless they are service animals. However, pets are allowed at Westfield Palm Desert if they are held or are in a carrier, according to Katie Thomsen, marketing director.

Kain said dog-friendly complexes tend to be bigger outdoor shopping areas.

"We are a pet-friendly center," said Kathy Frederiksen, general manager of Desert Hills Premium Outlets. "Pets are welcome in our common areas."

She said a pet needs to be on a leash, controlled, held or in a carrier at the Cabazon shopping center. If a pet does become unruly or barks, the owner will be asked to leave.

Frederiksen said it was up to the individual store to decide whether or not pets were allowed inside.

Kain said dogs that are allowed in stores are usually very well-behaved.

"You don't see dogs peeing all over the place," he said.

Reach Vanessa Franko at 951-368-9575 or at vfranko@PE.com

Shopping with SPOT

Len Kain of DogFriendly.com and dog-training specialist Don Sullivan offer tips on taking the pooch shopping:

GET REAL: Don't take the dog unless it is well-trained and housebroken. Make sure your pet is well-behaved around people, kids and other dogs.

ASK FIRST: Always ask if it's acceptable to bring a dog inside.

TEST-DRIVE ROVER: Go for a trial run in the pet store.

NO-DOG ZONES: Stay out of hair salons and places with food.

WATCH THE FLOW: If the dog is unleashed, try to tuck him away where he won't be trampled in a store.

For more information, visit www.DogFriendly.com or www.DogTrain.com

I had a couple good cries today + good news for Charlie

Today I took Charlie to see local renowned pet physiotherapist Shelly Malcolm of Pawsitive Action Physiotherapy so that she could have a look at him and his knees before he goes through his surgery next week. He's been limping on and off - which he didn't do last time when he ruptured his other Anterior cruciate ligament, which leads me to believe that he hasn't completely torn it yet, and maybe doesn't need the surgery quite yet, so I wanted to see what Shelly thought about the whole thing. The good news is that she concurs with me - she thinks that the knee isn't completely blown and is workable as it is right now. So I'm going to put off the surgery and just go with physio. I'm quite sure that Charlie would prefer ultrasound and some poking around to invasive surgery, that's for sure!

Buttercup protecting everybody in the room
Shelly giving Charlie some scratches while she's doing ultrasound. Charlie thinks that's a-okay!

I had a package come in the mail today, and when I opened it up I had a good cry. I've decided (for good or bad) that if I can't get dogs within my own view off their chains that maybe I can help some other people in Nova Scotia get dogs in their neighbourhoods off chains there - so I'm now a representative for "Dogs Deserve Better" in Nova Scotia. Because of that I got flyers and stickers in the mail today, and it included a 2007 calendar of DDB dogs - and on the front cover was this dog "Smokey".

Smokey was a dog in West Virginia who I got an email about last year who was blind, a black chow mix and had been chained and now being kept in a shed. And was there any way I could help? Me, here in Nova Scotia. But I'm also the person who does the postings for the blinddogs.com website, and a member of Dogs Deserve Better - and I know that the head of DDB has a soft spot for black chows. So I email Tammy Grimes about this dog. I have NO idea where West Virginia is in comparison to Altoona Pennsylvania. But Tammy says that - yes, she'll take this dog to foster. Without hesitation she said that. Can you imagine? So here I sit in Nova Scotia - I'm able to save this blind, chained, dirty black chow dog in West Virginia - he goes to foster in Altoona Pennsylvania with the President of Dogs Deserve Better - is renamed Smokey (I don't think he had a name before that) - he is posted on the blinddogs.com website - and his new owners find him there. And then today I open up this package and there he is on the front cover of the 2007 calendar for Dogs Deserve Better. And I had a little something to do with him.




My next cry came because I went and picked up Teddy's ashes today. That was a hard thing to do. That was hard. Let me tell you, that was a hard thing to do.

I Understand Now Why People Get Flu Shots

Almost immediately after I came back from Carroll's Corner on Sunday, the headaches I'd been having daily for the last several days were replaced by the worst headache of my life. I couldn't get out of bed, I couldn't eat, I was sick to my stomach, my sinuses ached, I was stuffed up, I was coughing, and everytime I coughed I thought my head was going to explode.

I have never had the flu before in my life - so I've never seen the need to get a flu shot, but I think now I'll get a yearly shot. Today I had to drag myself out of bed because I had run out of dog food, so I also bought some flu drugs, so hopefully I'm on the mend now.

Buttercup has stayed by my side the whole time though. She is such a good companion. When I went to the grocery store I also stopped by Seaview for a couple minutes and let the dogs out of the car, and boy - did Buttercup ever have a lot of poop that she had stored up for the last couple days. It's amazing how hard it is on the dogs when the human is sick. At least it is on these dogs - they just very patiently lay there and stare at me until I get better.

The pictures below are of Buttercup ensconced on her pillows on the bed where's shes been for the last couple days watching over me. I think I should work a little harder at trying to stay healthy - if only for the dogs' sake. It's getting hard on the human too.

Today was the "Hounds Around Town" Open House!

Today me and Buttercup drove up to Carroll's Corner outside Elmsdale to visit the Hounds Around Town Open House.

When I was there I bought new collars for both Charlie and Daisy - so I tried to get some pictures tonight of them modelling them - and this is what I came up with - I don't know how good of models they are. Charlie took a barking jag, which I think looks particularly cute.

I also bought Buttercup a pink "buddy belt" - one of those harnesses for small dogs that are easier on their spine. She is going to be THE cock of the walk now. It's even got a matching leash. I'd like to thank the cow right now who supplied the piece of her skin to make the material for the belt. It will not be wasted.






















This is Buttercup today up at Angela's holding court in Angela's living on her lovely leather couch - Buttercup was vainly trying to keep the weimeraner Lacey from moving one inch in any direction. She was miserably failing though.

This was Lacey trying to keep out of Buttercup's way!

The Dangers of Choosing Pets over Children

I am currently really struggling with the mortality of my companion animals. I want them to stay with me for my whole life, and the thing is - I want THESE animals to stay with me for the length of my whole life, but I know they won't. And it's killing me.

I've always said it's so much better to have animals than children, but now I'm not sure - at least with children you have the pretty good expectation that at least they'll outlive you. You have the stability to know that even if they are awful human beings and they treat you like shit - at least they are alive somewhere in the world. The recent death of my mother and 3 animals (I had another cat Gizmo die that I haven't mentioned previously I don't think because it was so close to my Mom's death) has really kicked me in the stomach and made me look at my animals' in a new way.

Last night I found a lump on Buttercup's neck. Is this the beginning of the end for her? And the ongoing struggles with Charlie's knees. You only get such a short window with companion animals. And then are given such a long time to grieve them.

Maybe I should have had children instead of dogs.

You may ALREADY have legal off-leash space in your neighbourhood!

Today's exercise in futility


So I went to one of the HRM's "Off leash strategy Workshops" today - I went to the the one being held at the Tower at St. Mary's University. The turn out was pretty good, everybody did lots of talking, and I'm sure nothing got accomplished.

The City Planners had lots of stuff to hand out - examples from other cities in Canada - I guess cities that they want to base Halifax on maybe - but no cities that have really good models to be based upon - like, say Calgary for instance.

Could it be perhaps because Calgary's system is fuelled by city staff and not by city volunteers? I don't know, I'm just saying. But just for your own interest's sake - I'm going to provide you with a link to the Calgary Animal Services website - one of the most interesting things about it is it's title - it's called "Responsible Pet Ownership" - isn't that super? I think it is anyway. I'm not in the mood to type out too much tonight so I'm not going to get into it too much.

I have a whole long diatribe I want to write about the city's off-leash strategy and what I think should happen - but I just need to get the energy to write it.

But on to the salacious title of this post! We all know that dogs must be on leash in all parks in the HRM, they must be on leash in any place off our own property, except for in designated off-leash spaces as designated by the city - such as the sections of Point Pleasant Park, Seaview Park and ballfields between 6am and 10am between November 1st and May 1st.

But did you know that dogs are allowed off-leash on crown land? Well they ARE! I suspected that when I read the document "Responsible Pet Ownership, Wildlife, and Traps" - and have been blathering on about since it came out. In that document it says, and I quote:

“At large,” under the Act, means unaccompanied by the owner or handler and has been further defined as “not under the immediate control of the owner or handler and not within sight of the owner or handler.”

It does NOT says anything about being tethered in any way to the owner. And I had that confirmed for me this morning at the meeting by an employee of DNR and a City employee - you just have to have your dog under voice control when you're on Crown land, they don't have to be on leash - although DNR STRONGLY suggest that you keep them on leash for their own safety because of the concern for traps and snares.

So anyway - little did I know that all this time me and the dogs have been mostly compliant with the leash laws. Another reason to love Spryfield!

So all you off-leash advocates need to do is suss out the crown land in your neighbourhoods and bobs-your-uncle - you are in compliance with the leash laws.

I should note here though that Crown land is different from Provincial Parks and Federal Parks - ie Long Lake Provincial Park, York Redoubt, and the like. At those kinds of places - leash laws are in effect - at Provincial and Federal parks you must have your dog on leash - a 6 foot leash in order to be compliant with the law - just like anywhere else whenever you're off your own property... Crown land is simply provicincially government owned wildlife habitat anywhere in Nova Scotia.

Okay, I've run out of steam for the moment.

Buttercup and Daisy last night on an off-leash adventure at an undisclosed location in the great Republic of Spryfield!!

PETA + Sentient Beings + Right Wing Blogs

The verdict came in today for the 2 PETA workers who dumped the bodies of the dogs and cats that they'd picked up at various shelters in North Carolina in 2005 and euthanized (killed) in their van - and instead of taking them back to the PETA headquarters to dispose of the bodies humanely - they dumped them in a grocery store dumpster.

They were found not guilty of cruelty to animals, but WERE found guilty of littering - and were each fined $1,000 for that plus some public service stuff. I got word of it because I'm subscribed to a couple of right wing blog feeds that I read very hesitantly because I know they're going to do nothing but turn my stomach when I click on the links and only confirm what I know to be true about their bullshit leanings - but tonight I was just completely pissed off and SAD about the fact that both the CAVEAT blog and DOG POLITICS blog seemed to revel in the fact that PETA were being punished for something - and had completely forgotten about the fact that a whole bunch of sentient beings had been dumped in a grocery store dumpster in 2005.

And the 2 PETA employees were convicted of littering for it. If those dogs and cats were humans - do you think those employee's would've been convicted of littering? Wouldn't it have been something closer to "gross indignity of a body"? Even if they weren't convicted of murder - because I'm not going to get into that argument - the PETA employees seemed to have completely forgotten that those bodies once housed a very special being that deserved to be treated a certain way.

There is so much pain and indignity and suffering in the world. Everything is treated way too lightly - and convicting someone for dumping animal carcasses in a public dumpster of littering is diminishing all of us in the same swath.

Selma and Barbara seem to have forgotten that what we are all writing about is dogs - and the betterment of their lives. Isn't that what we're writing about? Or is it really writing about who's more right. I think they may be writing about that and not actually about dogs. If that's the case - I think they should take all reference to dogs off their blogs. The smell of self-righteousness is giving me a migraine.

Liam the rat Bastard

It does not end. This morning when I got up there was blood all over the kitchen floor - I'd heard weird sounds all night long, I thought it was Liam being Liam and him being bad and getting into stuff - but it turns out he'd been coughing up and throwing up blood all night. I guess the lump in his belly was worse or had turned into something worse than I had thought. His surgery had been scheduled the same day that Teddy died - so I had cancelled it, planning to reschedule it in a couple of weeks.

But instead I took him in today and . oh I can't write the sentence . you will have to intuit what I did. Because I can't write it out. I'm sorry.

The picture above is Liam with his brother Noel. Noel died before I started writing this blog. He had a chronic urinary tract problem and at some point it got so bad that it made all his other organs start shutting down. When I get Liam's ashes back I think I'll add Noel's ashes to his so that they'll be together again.

A Response to my Letter to the Editor

Today's Chronicle Herald had a response to my letter to the Editor from a couple weeks ago. I'm not going to send in a reply because I'm not interested in pissing contests. I don't have the energy. But I'll say something here because I always have something to say.

Here's the letter that was in today's paper:

Reality check


Joan Sinden’s letter (Jan. 23) shows her love of dogs, but sadly shows how uninformed most people are to current realities of rural life. Posting a sign to eliminate trapping on property, as the Department of Natural Resources wants you to believe, will do little, if anything. Joan and others shouldn’t depend on current DNR regulations to protect their children and pets.

Assuming signs aren’t torn down, they must be understandable and spaced closely enough so trappers can’t say they were "unable to see or understand" them. The average rural property (75 acres), with approximately 10,000 feet of property line, needs over 200 signs, 50 feet (15 metres) apart. Each must say "NO TRAPPING-SNARING," and give owner’s contact information. That’s $1,000, without labour! Signs must be on the owner’s property and as many properties aren’t surveyed, add $5,000 to get a survey.

Landowners shouldn’t have to spend any money to protect their children and pets from these dangerous devices. DNR must make it the trapper’s responsibility to get landowners’ permission to put deadly devices on their land.

The department’s website, www.gov.ns.ca/natr/wildlife/doc/PetOwners.pdf puts ALL responsibility on dog owners for their pet’s safety and shows how the regulations render landowners nearly helpless to stop traps being placed on their property.


Leo & Marina Fregeau, Mill Village

I suppose that I really don't know anything about rural life, as I've never lived in the country - living in Amherst up in northern Nova Scotia where I grew up is the closest I've come to living in the country. But I assume that buying land anywhere in Nova Scotia you have to go through the same process as you would in the city - and when I bought my house here in Spryfield, I got this thing called a "Surveyor's Land Claim" thingee which loosely outlined where my property line is. I keep a copy of mine on my fridge - which you can see above - because of my asshole neighbour who keeps his dog chained outside all the time. One of the first things he said to me after I moved in was that a fence separating our properties was that the fence "was about 2 feet over onto his property" - which according to that surveyors sheet - is incorrect. So I keep that thing on my fridge in case he ever starts getting "testy" about it.

So a person doesn't need to spend $5,000 surveying their land - they just need this piece of paper, a bunch of nails, some of those black and orange signs that you can buy at Walmart, or wherever - and off you go. I really don't think I'm living in la la land.

I think that some people just really try to make life difficult for themselves by putting up roadblocks for everybody and making things sound impossible.

In the Fregeau's last paragraph they say that the document puts all responsiblity onto the dog owner's - well I generally DO take full responsibility for my dogs' whenever we go anywhere - so I don't have a problem with that. The issue is whether we should allow our dogs' off leash or on leash when they're in the woods with us - because they'd be at such a great risk of getting caught in traps if we let them off leash.

The reason why I say my dogs' feet aren't any different than my feet is because when we're in the woods together - they stay with me - they're never anymore than 10-20 feet away from me - they stay on the trail - or, if we're off the trail, which is something I like to do - they stick close to me. So I stand as much of a chance of getting caught in a trap as they do.

So if we're ever out and going off trail - I hope that it IS me who gets caught in the trap - it'll make for much more interesting news coverage, that's for sure. Especially if it happens to be on the Fregeau's property.