a big announcement from the western homefront

After nearly a week of alternating between panic attacks and extreme excitement, I am ready to announce that there is a new member of the westernmost (as far as I know) contingent of the Gainer/Daoust/Shultz/Bowden families.

Her name is Aurora, but she goes by Rory.  She is a beautiful three-month-old brown package of piddle border collie and I am investing in a Bissell Spot Shot very very soon to save the carpet.  When we brought her home, she was about the same size as Eli, but a little taller and with a bigger head.  She outgrew him overnight.  She still looks like a stuffed animal, though.

Her name, Aurora, comes from a town in the Denver Metro area, where we will probably be spending a lot of our time since our Denver neighborhood shares a border with Aurora.  She is not named after Rory Gilmore.

(Brian didn't go for my suggestion that we name her Aurora Borealis and call her Rory-Bory.)   (Sometimes I call her Rory-Bory anyway.) (UPDATE: Brian came around.)

Larger than Life

For those of you who 'dream big' like Juno's stepmom about having Weimaraners, the Animal Rescue Site's store has a treat for you.  

This is one of their Larger Than Life tshirts, and you can get yours, for a limited time, for $0.14 shipping.  Nice!

*Note:  The shirt pictured above is actually a Black Lab.  I fudged...I figured it was close enough.  Don't tell the dog fanciers.

**Also available are the Golden Retriever and a tabby cat.

YOU NEED TO SEE THIS

If I have done my research correctly, then my conclusion that this, ladies and gentleman, is a pheasant, and more specifically, a hybrid of a Golden Pheasant and a Lady Amherst's Pheasant, is correct.

If I have done my research correctly, then my conclusion that this hybrid is not found in the wild in the US is also correct.

So could somebody please tell me why this guy was in our back yard this evening?

I am not kidding.

My question is this. What would YOU do with an exotic pheasant hybrid on your premisis?

chinese crested

I had a dream last night that I went to the mall, and there was some kind of doggie event going on.  I met a Chinese crested.  

In case you don't know the breed, I should inform you that they don't have much hair.  

I almost got a Chinese crested back when I was looking for the pet that ultimately became Eli.  I was down to cresteds, Italian greyhounds, and papillons as my breeds of choice.  Turns out I couldn't find a breeder that had the hairless cresteds, and I was afraid that an Iggy would be too fragile for my rough-housing family dogs, so papillon it was.  

Most days, I'm pretty happy with the choice.  And Brian would probably agree that of the three breeds, the papillon is the least 'heinous-looking' - suffice it to say that he and I have VERY different tastes in small dogs (ie, he doesn't have a taste for them at all).  We'll be adding a larger breed to our family as soon as finances and commitments permit.

This is the only real 'experience' I've had with a CC tho, other than watching dog shows.  Weird that it came three years late.

transporter-ing

When there's ever an economic downturn, it seems like the family pets are hit the first and the hardest.  Right now shelters are overrun, and things are only getting more crowded.

Last weekend, Brian and I did another animal transport.  This run was South Hill to Richmond.  The dogs began in South Carolina somewhere, and ended up somewhere in the North East (Delaware, I think?) so it was a two-day event.

I didn't remember to take my camera, so I don't have photos, but I do have a few memories.

We were originally supposed to take 3 dogs, but there was some last-minute shuffling.  Because about 35 dogs (including about 15 puppies!) were involved in this transport, a number of drivers handled each leg.  One of the drivers in our leg had found a wounded dog on the side of the road on the way down, so after meeting up with us, we assured her that we could reshuffle and handle her load, and she headed off to her vet.

There were all sorts of madness and mayhem at our particular pickup, but I won't get into that.  We did have a good bit of fun, at least.  Brian managed to zero in on what was pretty much the cutest little spotted puppy in the world...seriously....adorable.  Shame I don't have photos!!!

After all was said and done, we ended up carting 4 dogs to the meeting place in Richmond.  Dolphin, a chocolate lab mix, spent the trip in the 'way back.'  Deebo, a 10-yr-old mild-mannered border collie sat in the back seat alongside Flame, a german shepherd? mix puppy of about 4months old.  Flame spent the trip in a wire crate because of his floppy puppy-ness and his back - a gaping acid burn that started at the base of his neck and went all the way down his spine to his hips.  The worst of his burn was still pretty raw, but judging from his scars and hair re-growth it had already healed up significantly.  We don't know who did this to him or when, but the good news is that he doesn't seem affected by it.  He was extremely friendly, loved attention, and was very well behaved despite his huge puppy energy.  

Our fourth passenger was Max, a purebred pudgy beagle who must have been an owner surrender... meaning, his family didn't want him anymore so they took him to the animal shelter to die.  Max seemed to miss his family very much and did NOT enjoy being away from humans.  The shelter must have been really scary for him, but once he gets into his real forever home he will be so happy and bouncy.  He was a real sweetie.

I love being able to do this again.  We have a set amount each month that we give to charity, and I'd already sent off checks covering all of this month's giving, so we weren't going to be able to do the transport.  The lady putting it together said that someone would sponsor our gas money, and that was all it took to get us on the road again.

If you're interested in helping animals get out of shelters (which euthanize) and into rescues (which do not euthanize) then get in touch with a transport organization, or get in touch with ME.  You can find groups on Yahoo that work in your area (search for animal transport or animal rescue, and your state or a major interstate that you live near, such as I-95 or I-81).  A couple that come to mind are OTRA (on the road again), Truck'n'paws, and Rural Shelter Help.

Most legs aren't more than 70 miles and can be completed in an hour each way.  The South Hill to Richmond was a long one, at 81 miles, and even at that, we only paid about $35 in gas.  It's so rewarding to know that you were directly involved in saving an animal's life.

And people.  If you are considering adding a pet to your family, DON'T go to a pet shop.  There are thousands of cats and dogs that die every day.  Visit an animal shelter, an animal rescue, or Petfinder to find your pet.  There are rescues for every kind of animal, for every breed of cat and dog.  There are rescues for rabbits, horses, guinea pigs, chickens, everything.  One of the perks of adopting from a shelter or rescue (besides saving an animal's life) is that it's significantly cheaper - shelters have a low adoption fee (generally under 3 digits) and most rescues come in at half of what you'd pay from a pet shop.  Seriously.  Check it out.

Oh.  And a breeder who breeds more than one or two kinds of dogs is not a good breeder and does not deserve your $700.

major yarn itch

Lately I've had a major urge to buy yarn. No particular reason, other than finding several new and old projects that I really want to get underway. Everything is so tempting!

I have a small stash of natural fibers and a medium stash of acrylics, most of which are years old. I've offered to do a bunch of knitting for the rescue - some dog blankets to send to new adoptions and some sweaters etc. to try to sell online and at various functions. I decided to do some initial stash-busting and I took out a few balls of some really chunky yarn. I made Eli a small blanket from this yarn once, and he seemed to like it, so I figured it'd be a good way to knock out 3 big balls and move on to greener, less squeaky pastures.

My initial plan of action is to alternate projects - one for the dogs, one for humans. I altered this plan a little bit because right now I'm in the middle of 'two for the dogs' because it'd just be easier to bust out these two blankets from these three balls. So now that I'm about halfway done with the second blanket, I'm thinking ahead as to what comes next. I've got it down to two choices.

One is a 'market bag' - I recently acquired via a yarn swap a skein of 'second time cotton' - a recycled yarn generated from cast-offs in 'the fashion industry,' whatever that is. It's a great thing, I think - might as well take scraps and work them together into something useful. This is something knitters love, after all. It'd be a relatively quick knit - three or four hours worth. I could work on it on and off for a week and have it done, or bust it out over a weekend, no sweat.

The other is a black short-sleeve cardigan. I actually legitimately need one of these things. It'll take a while to make, though. I ordered the yarn for it online from a discount yarn site - 6 balls of yarn for about $18, including shipping. Not bad for a much-needed cardi. I couldn't buy it for less. It'll be a significant time investment, though - and I haven't made anything like it before so it might take me a while to work on it. I'm torn between working on a dog sweater first (learning about piecing and buttons and assembling sweater parts) - or heck, finishing this ugly sweater I began in February - and my general excitement for working on the project.

Decisions! Wants vs. needs! Planning vs. caprice!

tank the tank

I'm excited! Today we are getting back in the saddle, and transporting a dog from shelter to rescue. In other words, we're taking a dog from a shelter where it very well might be put down, and taking it to a group of people who will care for him and find him a permanent home - a 'forever home' as they're called.

Some of the transports I've done in the past couple years include an older chihuahua, a momma boxer mix and her million little puppies, a family of cattle dogs (a mom, an aunt, and 4 or 5 wiggly rascally puppies), and a pair of spaniels. There are others in the mix too, whose names I don't remember.

Today we'll be transporting a Great Pyrenees. His name is Tank.

And he weighs nearly 100lbs. He sure looks like a cutie, though. An enormous hairy cutie.

I'm not sure how to prepare my vehicle for such a monstrous dog.

We'll lay down the back seats, spread out a blanket...and hope he sleeps, I guess. Cus if he's pacing or drooling or barking.... that's a lotta dog to handle. And as he'll be coming from a shelter, he probably will smell very bad.

Adventure!