Tag: pets

September 4, 2024 – Something About a Dog

September 4, 2024 / / 0 Comments

We have been dog owners for most of our lives. We have had a number of breeds but I am particularly fond of the hunting breeds. I grew up with a Springer Spaniel and we have had a Dalmatian, Beagles, a Shiatzu and our two retrievers. That is a pretty good sampling of dogs. I also like the more docile nature of female dogs. Admittedly, I appreciate that they don’t stop and pee every thirty steps either.

Pictured below is our current dog, Raya. She is a descendant from our last dog Snowflake. Snow was a particularly loving dog that used to lay at the end of the driveway as the kids walked by on their way home from school. The kids would run up and pet her and she loved it. She would run off (not far) to get petted and attention from strangers. Multiple times we got calls from people that said they had Snow in there car to bring her home.

Unfortunately, Snow died of hyperthermia due to an unknown heart defect. We were tragically hurt by that so after a year of grieving we tried to fill the hole with another dog, Raya. Snow was a purebred English Retriever. Raya is a mix of Golden Retriever and Bernese Mountain Dog. Hence, she is all black rather than a typical color spectrum of Goldens. I would say that overall, she looks like a large Golden Retriever that is black with the long hair and everything.

It is really not fair to compare the two. Snow was pure love. She loved everybody and everybody loved her. Raya takes some getting used to. She can be very off putting and even come off as aggressive to strangers by growling and baring her teeth. The vet has a muzzle order on her even though she has mellowed out with age. They said it was because she was a Covid dog and was very isolated for the first year. I don’t know, she is very steady at the groomers and stands calmly on the table while they do their work.

The funny thing is that this behavior is not exhibited toward everyone. So, I don’t know if she knows something I don’t or what it is. When I am walking her, people sometimes ask if they can pet her and I decline because I don’t really know how she will react. But once Raya gets to know you, which doesn’t take long, she won’t leave you alone. She is constantly underfoot if possible. I feel like she is the exact mix of her two breeds. She has some of the exuberance of a Golden Retriever as well as the livestock guardian of the Bernese.

There was a night that I was staying in Portland and the kids were home alone. Our son called about two in the morning saying that the dog was barking and he saw a flash of light. You can see how often we actually get thunderstorms by that confusion. As much as I miss the lovey-dovey Snow, I feel confident that Raya really feels a duty to protect this house and this family.

At the beginning of the year, my wife was really sick. We cancelled Thanksgiving and my wife didn’t get out of bed in between Christmas and New Years. Raya knew that something was wrong and would get up on the bed and lay her head on my wife’s lap as she laid in bed all day. Some people say that some dogs can smell cancer (or at least sense something is majorly wrong). I suspect that this was a recognition that something had changed, but who knows.

Thankfully, Raya doesn’t do some things that Snow used to do. Raya doesn’t eat socks left out overnight. When my kids were younger, I had to go on sock patrol every night to make sure that we wouldn’t lose another one. Sometimes I forgot, sometimes I missed them and I would find it in the yard a few days later.

Snow used to run into the ocean and take big gulps of saltwater. In retrospect, I think this was a missed sign of her heart condition. Even when walking, she would just lay down in puddles sometimes. In about thirty minutes, explosive diarrhea. It could be in the car and often it was all over her coat. That made the trip home very challenging as well as knowing there was a nasty cleanup job ahead.

When my wife was in the hospital in 2010, several times volunteers came by with a therapy dog. No surprise, it was also a golden retriever albeit a much calmer and very nice temperament dog example of the breed. They offered in this in our recent stint in the summer, but I never saw a dog in the halls or heard that there was an opportunity. My point is that a good dog can even make us feel better.

End Your Programming Routine: So, Raya is not Snow, Raya is Raya. As much as she can be a pain in the butt, she brings some really nice qualities and leaves some that Snow had. When the going gets tough whether it is health or a shady situation, you want to be with the entity that has your back, always. For that reason, Raya is my ride or die.

November 30, 2022 – The Case For an Outdoor Cat

November 30, 2022 /

I have written about the fact that I grew up rurally. It was also the case that no animals lived inside the house. We had a dog that we would let in on a rug by the door, but she went back outside before bed. All cats were outside cats. They were kind of pets and mostly feral.

I am a big believer that cats have a job around the home. Their job is to keep vermin at bay outside the house. In the picture above, you can see Leo got himself a rat.

Growing up, we had mice and moles. I never remember having them inside the house. Here is seems like we have rats and squirrels (as well as skunks, possum and raccoon). Both like to think that they have the right to come in from time to time. I can say that our one outside cat is a pathetic excuse for a hunter. In the ten years that we have had her, we have had very little production like maybe 5 mice total. I have eliminated more than that myself.

Leo is about a year and a half. He has recently decided that he would like to spend more time outside than inside, which is fine by me. Our only true worry is that we live on a very busy road and we have had more than one cat hit by a car. At this point, it is very difficult to stop him from going out, so I guess we will leave things up to fate.

When we first got married, we got a kitten we named Spunky. Spunky was one tough dude. I one time observed him chasing a fox when we lived in South Carolina. He was a true defender of the home and he saw snakes, lizards, rabbits and bugs as well as mice as his prey. Unfortunately, he got hit by a car about fifteen years ago. Every since then, we have been searching for a cat that would take his job seriously.

I don’t know how to pick them and I don’t know the secret to getting a good cat. I will say both Spunky and Leo were obtained as kittens. But so were others that have done little to nothing. Our one shelter cat was a wreck that peed everywhere and ran off and died after about six months. He had some serious disease issues as we spent hundreds trying to get him right. I guess the secret is to keep trying.

We pay for pest service. I have followed all the advice including eliminating the compost pile. The experts say that vermin can get into a building with a whole the size of a quarter. Part of the problem is animals like squirrels create their own holes. I don’t believe that a cat is going to kill a squirrel, but I do believe that they will chase and hunt them and reduce their presence.

The best cats are the ones that go in and out in my opinion. They have confidence to have some affection like a pet and security that they are going to be OK around humans. The feral cats tend to be extremely skittish around people and will never allow themselves to be caught for things like vet care. They also seem to be relatively low on the pest elimination scale. I don’t know if it is the desire to please the owner or survival instinct that makes them behave that way.

End Your Programming Routine: I have heard that cats outside devastate the bird population as the prime argument for keeping them inside. I have seen birds killed, but I find that to be rare compared to the other animals. Around my house, there are a lot of starlings that I would also like to see killed so I am hoping to see more birds quite frankly. I guess I am not saying that they don’t have a negative impact but I think their overall good outweighs the bad. I am all for keeping the pest control outside, that is worth having a good cat.