Wordless Wednesday March 11 2015

So we had a bit of weather....

Sunday night into Monday, it SNOWED here. Quite a lot. I have Mondays off now anyway, but the library even got a snow day.

It's a twofer!

So lately we've had a potty breakthrough. A strange thing to say as the owner of a five year old DOG, not child. But lately, when we let Elka out back, a few things have changed.

For one, we can let her out back and she runs out there and gets to business. Sometimes she'll bark at a squirrel or an imaginary squirrel first, and that's fine. It genuinely seems to be keeping them away. But then she poops or pees, and then she performs the other function as well, so you get what we refer to as a "twofer". 

This was not always the case, but either it's been too cold or Elka is growing up. She also used to, when turned out back without a leash, think it was obviously playtime and just gallop around in big circles. Or, if you stayed inside, she would bark at the house because you clearly had committed a grave error.

Of course, when it's not-winter we'll be taking her outside the fence again for her "business", not just letting her loose to poop willy nilly in the play space. When the thaw happens, we pick it up and rake things over and it rains a bunch besides. But perhaps the twofers will continue, even on leash? 

Elka understands what blankets are for, just not why they don't do what she wants

You know how they say dogs and their owners resemble each other?

Well, I haven't attained a supermodel physique like Elka's (yet!) but she definitely shares a very strong opinion with me: she doesn't like being cold.

Goodbye, Summer

Elka and I have different perspectives on fall. 

She likes pouncing at the leaves when they blow. She likes sniffing around leaf piles, because to her, they must just be this magical collection of smells.

Canine News Roundup

The weather is blah and my post is late and so you're getting some interesting dog news that I've seen recently. Enjoy!

Apparently many US athletes at Sochi are adopting stray dogs. Russia's official solutions to stray dogs in general, and at Sochi specifically, were heartbreaking at best, and but for the diligent work of some individuals forming rescues, many  many dogs would have been euthanized for the sake of public appearances. Our country has a stray dog problem as well, though at least they tend not to be viewed as "biological trash" (or one might hope not).

In other (and even happier?) news, scientists have discovered/decided that dogs do, in fact, know what we're saying. Or at least understand that we are speaking to them, as they have centers in their brain dedicated to speech, discovered in another study using MRI. They're also sensitive to emotions (but I'll be you knew that already!).

I last wrote about Detroit here in November (I think) when I posted about an organization who was doing "Thanksgiving Dinner" for Detroit's stray dogs. Well, on February 18, animal advocates in Detroit stayed overnight in dog houses, to "raise awareness about the dangers of leaving pets outside at night". I understand that my dog values are not everybody's dog values, nor are they necessarily common, but it blows my  mind that people will regularly leave their pets outside through all sorts of temperatures and weather. If they changed even one person's mind, it's worth it, and I hope they reached a lot of people, and changed a lot of minds. Dogs (and cats) die outside in the winter. They're mammals, just like people. These are not difficult facts.

Wordless Wednesday February 12 2014

Wordless Wednesday December 18 2013

Wordless Wednesday November 27 2013

Wordless Wednesday November 13 2013

The Cold

Every winter, whether we like it or not, the cold does come. We people have done clever things like invent clothing and build houses to deal with it, in addition to having harnessed the power of Fire in the first place.

Dogs? They have fur. Most dogs, in fact, have lots of fur, in multiple layers. The Doberman, sleek breed that it is, does not have an undercoat. Elka's fur in particular reminds me of eyelashes, and when I find one of her hairs on me, or when she's not around, I wonder if it is, in fact, an eyelash or not.

So, thin glossy hair plus winter? Cold Doberman. A lot of the time, this also means sleeping Doberman.