Tag: dogs

Trump Is Bad For Your Dog, Too

Like most Republicans and fools who don’t think ahead, Donald Trump is opposed to regulations, including regulations that keep your best friend from being poisoned. Trump wants to stop the FDA from regulating what is in our food, calling the FDA the “food police,” even complaining about the regulation of dog food: Donald Trump often …

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The Best Alarm Clock: Cats or Dogs

You choose

Cats

Dogs

US Olympian Bringing Home a Family of Sochi Dogs

US Olympian and silver medalist in Slope Style Free Skiiing, Gus Kenworthy, is not only bringing home a medal but a family of stray dogs from Sochi, four puppies and their mother.

He’s getting a lot of support from friends and family who have stepped up to adopt the little family and assist with getting them back to the US. Gus’ act of kindness has sparked even more Olympians and visitors to adopt one of the strays and animal activists are smuggling the dogs out of Sochi to safety.

The problem with the dogs started when hundreds of families in Sochi lost their homes to build the Olympic village and center. The city hired a contractor to kill the dogs when a Russian billionaire stepped up to build a shelter and find homes for the homeless canines. The problem became prominent when the New York Times published an article in early February front paging the plight of the dogs that has now sparked a worldwide rescue effort.

You can find out how to adopt one of these dogs by going to the Humane Society International web page that has specific direction on adopting a Sochi dog

Gus Kenworthy’s twitter picks and obvious big heart gets him our Hero Of the Olympics and a Gold Medal for Puppy Love.

138th Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show

When I get to it.

Hound

Afghan Hound American English Coonhound American Foxhound
Basenji Basset Hound Beagle, 13 In.
Beagle, 15 In. Black and Tan Coonhound Bloodhound
Bluetick Coonhound Borzoi Dachshund (Longhaired)
Dachshund (Smooth) Dachshund (Wirehaired) English Foxhound
Greyhound Harrier Ibizan Hound
Irish Wolfhound Norwegian Elkhound Otterhound
Petits Bassets Griffons Vendeen Pharaoh Hound Plott
Portuguese Podengo Pequeno (new for 2014) Redbone Coonhound Rhodesian Ridgeback
Saluki Scottish Deerhound Treeing Walker Coonhound
Whippet

Toy

Affenpinscher Brussels Griffon Cavalier King Charles Spaniel
Chihuahua (Long Coat) Chihuahua (Smooth Coat) Chinese Crested
English Toy Spaniel (B&PC) English Toy Spaniel (KC&R) Havanese
Italian Greyhound Japanese Chin Maltese
Manchester Terrier (Toy) Miniature Pinscher Papillon
Pekingese Pomeranian Poodle (Toy)
Pug Shih Tzu Silky Terrier
Toy Fox Terrier Yorkshire Terrier

Non-Sporting

American Eskimo Dog Bichons Frise Boston Terrier
Bulldog Chinese Shar-Pei Chow Chow
Dalmatian Finnish Spitz French Bulldog
Keeshond Lhasa Apso Löwchen
Norwegian Lundehund Poodle (Miniature) Poodle (Standard)
Schipperke Shiba Inu Tibetan Spaniel
Tibetan Terrier Xoloitzcuintli

Herding

Australian Cattle Dog Australian Shepherd Bearded Collie
Beauceron Belgian Malinois Belgian Sheepdog
Belgian Tervuren Border Collie Bouviers des Flandres
Briard Canaan Dog Cardigan Welsh Corgi
Collie (Rough) Collie (Smooth) Entlebucher Mountain Dog
Finnish Lapphund German Shepherd Dog Icelandic Sheepdog
Norwegian Buhund Old English Sheepdog Pembroke Welsh Corgi
Polish Lowland Sheepdog Puli Pyrenean Shepherd
Shetland Sheepdog Swedish Vallhund

Sochi Stray Dogs v the LOLympics

The saga of the Sochi stray dogs continues.

More information on how all the dogs in Sochi came to be without a home – and it was the Olympics’ fault in the first place. The nightmare continues. Keith explains.

But the dogs are getting their revenge.

The opening ceremonies in Sochi are complete. Great. Now here’s why you shouldn’t watch any more of the LOLympics.

We will continue to report on the games and the plight of the Sochi dogs.

Keith has tweeted:

You can find out how to adopt a Sochi Street Dog at the Humane Society International.

The Stray Dogs of Sochi

This will break your heart

Thank you, Keith

Racing to Save the Stray Dogs of Sochi

By David M. Herszenhorn, The New York Times

SOCHI, Russia – A dog shelter backed by a Russian billionaire is engaged in a frantic last-ditch effort to save hundreds of strays facing a death sentence before the Winter Olympics begin here. [..]

“We were told, ‘Either you take all the dogs from the Olympic Village or we will shoot them,’ ” said Olga Melnikova, who is coordinating the rescue effort on behalf of a charity called Good Will, which is financed by Oleg V. Deripaska, one of Russia’s billionaire oligarchs.

“On Monday we were told we have until Thursday,” Ms. Melnikova said.

A “dog rescue” golf cart is now scouring the Olympic campus, picking up the animals and delivering them to the shelter, which is really an outdoor shantytown of doghouses on a hill on the outskirts of the city. It is being called PovoDog, a play on the Russian word povodok, which means leash. [..]

Mr. Deripaska, an industrialist who largely made his fortune in aluminum, provided $15,000 to get the shelter started on land donated by the local government. He has also pledged about $50,000 a year for operations. He was also one of the major investors in the Sochi Games and paid for several huge projects, including an overhaul of the airport, a new seaport and the Olympic Village along the coast.

With the Olympics fast approaching, however, there was simply no time to build an indoor space for the shelter, especially because so much work remained to be done on hotels and other buildings for the Games. [..]

All of the dogs entering the shelter receive medical treatment, including vaccinations. All of them will be eligible for adoption, even to fans attending the Olympics. Spared execution – at least for the moment – the animals at the PovoDog shelter barked in a loud chorus as the sun slowly dropped into the Black Sea, which could be viewed in the distance.

According to the article, this is tarnishing the warm and cuddly image of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.Mahatma Gandhi (Indian Statesman and Philosopher)

Going to the Dogs – Stock Analysis not fit for family

You can’t buy this kind of indepth analysis found on a stock message board:

There are many anecdotes about dogs smelling cancer incl. one in the news last week in which the woman had no symptoms and no idea she had cancer, but her dog sniffed it out, she got checked, and now credits the rescued dog for rescuing her back.

Can you imagine? Guided goes away, replaced by dogs sniffing crotches — they do have eons of ancestral experience at that!

Men meet women, wine & dine them, send flowers, dress up, cologne, spend lots of money while the brilliant canines just saunter up, sniff the bitches’ crotches, one whiff, “She’s for ME!”

Reference for completeness only:

http://www.investorvillage.com…

Best,  Terry

A cancer patient with true grit

Sasha could surprise you.  She probably spent time in a hospital only for amputation of a leg from bone cancer:

http://lilisnotes.com/sashas-t…

In case you have trouble with the link, Sasha is claimed to be a twelve and a half-year-old American bulldog but she sure doesn’t look like any bulldog I am familiar with.

Three-legged Sasha runs, jumps, swims and catches frisbees which beats our two younger lunkheads who just watch a frisbie sail off, go to inspect it, chew it a bit and then wander off to fight and fool around.

Our 4-year-old, 106 lb. black German Shepherd only scares the wits out of people like the vet’s helpers [I would be frightened too BTW if I didn’t know him].   My wife promised to hold Coal tight while he was given a shot in the rump so he wouldn’t be muzzled.  She said the aide still seemed to be afraid Coal might kick or something.  Sure hope Coal doesn’t get none of that osteosarcoma.  Might be tough getting Coal into a study in an egghead university.

Truth be told Sasha’s prospects aren’t excellent.  One of four dogs in the clinical trial was sent off to dog heaven when the cancer metastasized to the lungs and other bones.  All got a low dose and aren’t eligible for Phase II [mean old investigators want the study to continue with the low dose] or Phase III or any Phase IV.  But inferior humans have done pretty well with low dose.

Be years yet before we will know if any such drug is good enough to be injected in cancer and other patients on an outpatient basis but it sure is pleasant to contemplate compared to the cutting, burning and poisoning of patients.

Obama has talked of shortening the gawdawfully long, expensive and torturous trial process and his appointees seem to be making some small progress in that. The primary enemies are mostly journalists and Nader-type liberals who sensationalize with reason to patients than help to afflicted rather than the usual suspects, Big Pharma.  

Coal, being the same breed as the top war dogs of all time – German Shepherds – should be used to the front lines but others are just collateral.  Veterinary medicine has a skeleton clinical trial system that tends to be much swifter to market than human trials.

Vast fortunes can be made with new and better drugs and for some that is all that matters.

But not for all.

In the hospital where I met my wife long ago, there were trials of a treatment for juvenile leukemia.  Diagnosis of juvenile leukemia was a certain death sentence for which there was no reprieve at the time.  “We are going to cure that sucker,”  a doctor told a callow youth.  Yeah, right, I thought.  

By golly, the doctor [and lots of other doctors and hospitals and researchers and scientists] dunnit.  At least for most little kids.

Sometimes life can be grand.  Even for dogs.

Best,  Terry

the company of dogs

brisk and bold, the bracing east wind blows across the lowlands, drying the air and clearing the sky of its oft worn grey.

today it is bright. today there is cold sunlight. today is one for a long walk in the park.

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cross posted at writing in the rAw and at daily kos

an irretrievable loss

Last week, the world was a bit more humane, more sane. Last week, Teodora Ristea was getting up every day to feed, clean, and tend to the hundreds of street dogs in her care. In 2005, at 60 years old, Teodora found her mission: saving stray dogs in her town of Slatina, Romania from slaughter and torture.

Teodora didn’t have pink ribbons for her cause… or a slogan. She didn’t have a board of directors, she didn’t worry about the politics of those she helped, and the money she collected went directly to the dogs………….

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Last week, she was caring for upwards of 500 dogs at Prietenii Nostri, a daunting venture in a country where many of its human inhabitants face hard times and have scarce resources.

I imagine there is little left, in most people there, to worry or have empathy for the even harder life of millions of street dogs.

Seven days ago, Teodora woke up and, as she did most every day since opening the shelter, went to care her dogs despite her own ill health.

PhotobucketIt was there, among her beloved friends, her dogs, that she collapsed. She was taken to a hospital in Budapest, where she lay in a coma.

This morning, I received an e-mail from her daughter, Gratiela, to let me know that Teodora has died:

She has died pfiore…

Im so down…

Teodora had me when she was almost 40 yrs old and  she gone so fast and let me to fight alone…

she is teodora, she is my mother, she is the soul and the heart of the shelter….She was every single day there, her body was exausted of too much work and stress. The attacked happened when she just arrived from the shelter…

The dogs are ok, very cold and lot of snow…

Some money have been raised with your help, i think somewhere about 500 euros.

The dog with 2 legs had 2 surgeries and will be adopted this month… I had also an update to send you but was not ready…

Thanks so much for all

Lot of love for you and bobby (my romanian dog) and thanks for all

Teodora is gone, but she is not an unsung hero. There are many humans and hounds who have benefited from her love, her belief in us to be better, to find better lives. She has graced this world with her strength and her determination, and on her behalf, I will continue to do what I can to help Teodora’s 400 cold dogs…

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This link brings you to Prietenii Nostri and ways to help Teodora’s dogs.

cross posted at writing in the rAw and Daily Kos

Canine butt-wrestling

This morning, I saw two of the neighbor’s dogs standing on the lawn, uh, abutted, ass-to-ass, each in a “four-point stance,” pushing against one another like two football linemen trying to dominate some invisible line of scrimmage on the ground beneath their hind legs, except they’re both facing the wrong way. When one dog began to “win,” the other’s haunches and hind paws would lift off the ground.  Normally forepaw lift-off is voluntary, and it’s called “rearing,” as dogs can be trained to do to push shopping carts for “entertainment” purposes, and sometimes just do reflexively when excitedly greeting their masters, or when wanting to exit a walled-in arena.  I dunno what you’d call the involuntary reverse lift-off engineered by another dog’s will-power, but when it happens, the liftee’s forepaws angle-in sharper against the heightening scrum and the four-point stalemate once again ensues.  They were still holding their original lines, albeit considerably rotated, by the time I finished my cigarette.  Maybe it’s more like dog judo. I’d never seen it before in dogs, and could at best hazard a guess as to the ethological significance of this kind of K9 ass-backwards shoving match, so it was infinitely more interesting than the Iowa caucuses, I’m sure.

Can you help her?

She was sitting on the street somewhere in Slatina, Romania. She was sitting in the rain and cold, with her feet cut away. And yet she lived, this sweet girl with a big desire to survive.

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She could use some more help. The wonderful Prietenii Nostri is a shelter and haven for some 400 to 500 dogs. This dog was lucky, as she was brought to Prietenii Nostri’s founder Gratiela Ristea, who does what she can to feed and house and provide medical care for these creatures, our fellow earthlings. I found my dog, Bobby, there almost two years and she is my sweet sweet girl.

Bobby had her tail cut off and her teeth kicked in. But this poor one, well… she’s had two surgeries already. And Gratiela says her spine is not broken, which is very good news.

Perhaps there are some of you who could make a donation to help cover her care … or even bigger: offer her a home… this would be wonderful.

cross posted at dKos

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