Ozzie, our smaller dog, only ever howls in his sleep. I always wonder what he is dreaming about when he does.
|
Duke & Ozzie in the Office
The dogs are not normally super eager to come into my office while I'm working. I've had the bed in there but they haven't made use of it regularly. So, yesterday, I resorted to bribery. Working on training Duke, the big dane, to lay down on the bed and get a treat. With him in here, Ozzie also came and made himself comfortable.
|
"For his wife’s 40th birthday, he paid for 40 shelter dog adoptions"
The couple volunteer every weekend at Chesapeake Animal Services in Chesapeake, Virginia, and it was during one of those visits about a month ago that Andrew suddenly hit on the perfect idea: The animal shelter had 40 dog kennels that were always full. What if he were to pay the $110 adoption fee for each of the 40 dogs?
Although it would cost a total of $4,400 to cover the costs of spaying, neutering, microchipping and vaccines for 40 dogs, Andrew said he knew the gift would mean more to his wife than anything he could buy in a store.
They'd recently lost one of their three dogs, Sierra, and he thought sponsoring the adoptions to help dogs find forever homes would help Jennifer cheer up.
|
Captured the first time they shared the couch
To quote a friend when I showed her this photo, "WE STAN THIS SWEET LITTLE BROMANCE"
|
The Coast Salish People Kept Wooly Dogs
Fascinating stuff! Love learning about this unique species native to my adopted home. Definitely read the full entry to know more. Here are two excerpts:
For thousands of years, Coast Salish people kept woolly dogs for their splendid coats, the wool of which could be woven into blankets and other items. Unfortunately, the dogs went extinct in the late 1800s and only one pelt, that of a dog named Mutton, exists. Today, an international team has released their cultural and genetic study of Mutton via a paper published in Science. (“The History of Coast Salish ‘Woolly Dogs’ Revealed by Ancient Genomics and Indigenous Knowledge” was embargoed until 2pm EST, which is why I had to wait to send out my newsletter.)
Teaming up with a diverse group of researchers, including First Nations and Tribal members whose ancestors had long kept woolly dogs, Lin began a genetic and cultural study of Mutton. Genetically similar to pre-contact dogs from Newfoundland and British Columbia, woolly dogs diverged from other breeds as long as 4,776 years ago, about the time they appear in the archeological record. Researchers also found 28 genes associated with hair growth and follicle regeneration. The various mutations are linked to “curly hair phenotypes in other dogs, rats, and mice [and] woolly hair and hereditary hair loss in humans.”
|
So very thankful that my dogs are doing okay with the fireworks tonight. We've had consistent explosions for the past several hours and both of them are sleeping in the living room with us. We haven't even put them in their ThunderShirts this year.
|
15th century manuscript all about the names of dogs
Mine are Elwood (after Elwood Blues) and Ozzie (after Ozzie Smith & Ozzie Alonso.) Neither make this list of 15th century names somehow.
I found this courtesy of OpenCulture which also links to this imgur album of name list in the pdf as images.
|
Was in bed 45 min. ago. Elwood whined so we went out. We came back in and rather than back to bed, I stay up just in case he's got an upset tummy. Well, I've been in my chair 45 minutes because he has laid down at my feet & curled his paw over my foot. I love this dog so much.
|
|
Happy In-dog-uration
Today is the day that Champ and Major, the first dogs, arrive at the Whitehouse. The Bidens wanted to settle in before bringing the dogs from Delaware.
[{embed}]https://twitter.com/ABC/status/1353675058405928962\[{/embed}]
|
Originally posted on my Facebook 6 years ago today, the day after we had adopted our beloved dane Elwood:
Alright, the full story of how Elwood joined our family. Buckle up.
For years I've badly wanted a big dog. Many of you have heard me say it, but my ideal is a dog which I can take for a walk, and from a distance he and I look normal sized!
For nearly the past year I've regularly (4+ times a week) checked petfinder.com, craigslist, and rescueme.org to look for a large breed puppy. Up until when we bought the house it was primarily to dream of having one. After then it was because we were ready to get one. There have been a few times where one has come up but we couldn't do it for various reasons. Money, work, it was already adopted, etc.
So on Thursday I spotted Elwood (previously named Bart) on Petfinder and I immediately flip the laptop around for Katie to see. And she agreed. He was beautiful and he was a Great Dane puppy. He checked all the boxes.
So I filled out the adoption application and sent it off.
Friday morning I hear back that they think our application looks good, and asked if we could come out to see Bart on Saturday. Well today I'm supposed to play at a game store and it wasn't feasible for us to make the trip around it. We talked about Sunday but she doesn't hold dogs, if someone else comes along then they would take Elwood (nee Bart) home.
So I get off work around 2 thanks to half-day Fridays and come home and wake Katie up from a nap, "Are you up for going on an adventure to see the puppy?" And, because my wife is amazing, she agrees. Around 3:30pm we roll out of Kent heading for Yakima.
As I've posted elsewhere, Elwood's previous life wasn't great. The woman seemed to think she was some sort of breeder but the truth is she was running a puppy mill and unwilling to realize the terrible environment she was putting her dogs through. So Rising Phoenix Mastiff Rescue was able to convince her to give up two Great Dane puppies.
We ended up meeting Trish from Rising Phoenix in a parking lot in Yakima, which is in central Washington. Roughly 2.5 hours away in good traffic, what ended up being a little over 3 hours due to traffic and spots of heavy fog.
We both immediately fell in love with Elwood. Since we were meeting in a cold parking lot I ended up basically zipping Elwood up into my hoodie and holding him while we talked and Katie was forced to fill out the paperwork. I definitely got the better end of that deal.
The entire car ride he was super relaxed. Elwood was asleep in Katie's lap as we began the trip back home. We were nearly back to I-90 when we were coasting down a hill and I realized that we had lost all acceleration from the gas pedal. It came up and it went straight to the floor. No resistance. No engine rev. No acknowledgement I was pressing the gas.
I pull off to the shoulder and put on our emergency flashers. The car has power, it can be turned on and off, the brakes work, but just no action off the accelerator.
At this point, I'm not actually freaking out, but I definitely am not happy. I feel bad for having taken Katie from our warm comfortable home and suddenly we're in the middle of nowhere and stuck on the side of the road.
Thankfully, we have AAA. So I call them and they contact a tow truck as well as notify Highway Patrol we're there. Moments after hanging up with them, the car suddenly loses power. Our emergency blinkers go off and even though we are safely on the shoulder, we may as well have been invisible.
So I take Katie's iPhone since it has the most battery and get out to stand behind our car and wave it so people will see something.
Thankfully not two minutes after I start doing this a Highway patrolman comes up behind us. AAA had notified them of our position and he had swung by to check on us.
I asked him to stay until the wrecker arrived to make sure people could see us. He was super nice and he was happy to do it until he got a call about a collision he had to answer. He dropped a flare for us before pulling away but in truth it was only about five minutes after that the two truck arrived.
And so we get the Element onto the bed of the truck, and load into the cab with Bernie, and off we go. He towed us all the way back to Renton, 114 miles. Thankfully our AAA covered the first 100. Sooooo worth it. We ended up paying, I think, $60 for the tow.
And Bernie was great. He has four dogs and was completely cool with us sitting in the cab with a (very passed out) dog in my lap. He and Katie chatted for most of the ride.
Up to this point, Elwood was unnamed. I knew Bart wasn't going to stick. And for a while Sirius was leading the race. I'm an unapologetic Harry Potter nerd. Also, Sirius is the dog star (which inspired JK for the character name.) And also I had visions of "Why so Sirius" jokes. But "Trick and Sirius" doesn't roll off your tongue. But then I envisioned shouting "ARE YOU SERIOUS!?" at FIFA or at a sporting match, and this poor dog thinking he was in trouble.
So in the tow truck I kept brainstorming and riffing on ideas. I was doing free word association when I landed on Elwood as a name. I do love Blues Brothers. And, it's a fairly unique name. And "Trick and Elwood" sounds pretty good. And, well, it stuck. Elwood!
Once we arrived in Renton, Scott had kindly agreed to give us a ride home so he showed up and is so far the only person who has met Elwood. But he'll tell you that the photos don't lie, Elwood's adorable.
An important postscript: Rising Phoenix Mastiff Rescue was apparently itself not a great organization. They were shut down a year or two later.
And lastly, a pic of me and Elwood when he was a puppy:
|
