pet connection

OK, I’m officially excited.

I never really go anywhere except for business. Now, I love the work I do, but it seems I’m always getting on a plane for a pet-related trade show, veterinary conference or a meeting with editors either at Universal Press or our book publisher, HCI. And since I’m getting on a plane, I’m not taking the pets.

Not this time. We’re going. We’re all going. Well, me and the dogs, anyway. The non-canines will stay behind with the house-sitter and my neighbors Judy and John to look after things.

Drew is going to stay with my parents (they love him like the child they never had, the good-looking one who always does what you ask him to). Pip is going to stay with his foster mom at German shepherd rescue. And all the retrievers are jumping into a Honda Element and we’re off to Oregon on Sunday.

Why? The Flat-Coated Retriever National Specialty, which is kind of Super Bowl just for Flat-Coated Retrievers. Puppy Otter will compete in puppies. McKenzie will compete with the grown-up girls. Woody will compete against other hunt-titled retriever boys.

And Heather … oh, Queen Heather. My darling heart dog, my 11.5 year-old queen of the world (just ask her) will compete in 11-and-older veteran girls. This is special, because she is the Queen here, and because she has previously placed in two national specialties — as a puppy, and as a 7- to 9-year-old veteran girl.

You know what? She has never looked better. But I may be a little biased. I love this girl, and I don’t really care what happens up there. I am just so happy she is still with me, healthy and as full of her own fine self as ever.

We’re going to hang out with lots of other people who love the smell of wet dogs and talk about … wet dogs! Retrieving! And dogs! Dogs!

Even better, Honda just confirmed that they’ll be sending me on the road trip in our 2007 Best In Show DogCar of the Year, the Honda Element. I just ordered stickers to tape on the car, and everyone I meet with an Element will get one for FREE.

Wait … there’s more!

On the way back, I’m doing two book-signings and readings. The first:

An Evening for Pet Lovers
On Saturday, April 12, at the Del Norte County Library, beginning at 7 p.m.

The evening, sponsored by the Del Norte County Library and the Del Norte Literary Coalition, will bring rare, personal appearances by two of the most authoritative and entertaining pet writers working today: Gina Spadafori and Christie Keith.

Gina and Christie will make lively and informative presentations, offer for sale and autograph Gina’s books with additional participation from the Del Norte County Animal Shelter and the Humane Society of Del Norte.

You can view complete details of this unique and free event in the attached brochure that you may also download and print.

For those not familiar with California, Del Norte’s county seat is in Crescent City, which is about as far north as you can go and not be in Oregon and as far west and not be in the Pacific Ocean.

The day after, I’ll be a little further down the coast in Arcata, at Arcata Pet for another book-signing.

The books’ll be for sale and signing — we’re just going for $10 a book, to make it easy — but the publisher has sent a couple of cases of FREE bookmarks, and everyone who asks me will get one.

I don’t really like public events. But I’m doing these because Pet Connection readers Russell and Nadine Long and Susan Fox asked me to. And because Christie promises to cut my hair while we’re both in Crescent City.

Of course, I’ll be blogging the road trip. Four dogs and up to a dozen baby chicks (my new pet chickens!). In a car. For a week. Stay tuned.

I just dig lists.Today USA today expands on the information drawn from the databases of Veterinary Pet Insurance, writing today on the most popular names for dogs:

Girls:

1. Bella
2. Molly
3. Lucy
4. Maggie
5. Daisy
6. Sophie
7. Sadie
8. Chloe
9. Bailey
10. Lola

Boys:

1. Max
2. Buddy
3. Rocky
4. Bailey
5. Jake
6. Charlie
7. Jack
8. Toby
9. Cody
10. Buster

And yes, they are all “people names.” Which says about as much as you’d care to know about how our relationship with our pets has changed. As USAT’s Svetlana Shkolnikova writes:

Dogs have long been considered man’s best friend, but for many Americans, they mean even more than that.

“It’s a reflection of the position that pets hold in a household,” says Mary Thurston, an anthropologist in Austin who has studied dog history for more than 25 years. “They are integral members of the family, just like a child.”

Naming dogs in the same fashion as children was common even in ancient Rome, she says. The ancient Egyptians often went so far as to bury their dogs in family plots. Today, dog owners are showing a similar kind of care.

Well, let’s see here: Heather, Drew, Woody, McKenzie and Pip. Only Pip, who came “pre-named” from rescue, doesn’t have a name you can immediately think of a person having. I thought I was being so clever in naming McKenzie (McKenzie is Christie’s mom’s last name, and also her brother’s first.) And then my brother the high school teacher informs me he had FIVE McKenzie/MacKenzie girls in his classes. So much for originality.

Still, I’m glad to see the trends. It’s not to say that a dog named “Spot” isn’t loved or cared for, but it seems more likely one named “Sam” will be. After all, these are people who worry enough about the potential for expensive veterinary care — as opposed to figuring that economic euthanasia will be just fine, it’s “just a dog, after all” — that they bought health insurance for their pets.

Drew came pre-named, too, and that was one of the reasons he is here. A year previously, I had just lost a darling old Sheltie named Andy, who was almost 16 when his heart gave out. Drew (right) had been bred by a friend of mine, and I known him as a puppy. One day she got a call that he had been given up — but not by the family she’d placed him with! (He was traced to her by his microchip.) The well-mannered, easy-going and handsome little guy had in fact bounced through three homes before the age of four, for reasons no one who knows him can fathom. He’s the most well-behaved and effortlessly charming dog I’ve ever had! (And the only one I’m allowed to bring to visit my parents.)

So, I was visiting my friend when she mentioned that she had taken Drew back. (As responsible ethical breeders always do, of course, again giving lie to the forced spay-neuter pitch that there’s no such thing as a reputable breeder, and that all breeders are scum who dump dogs into the shelter system. Wrong, wrong, wrong. A responsible, ethical breeder considers each animal her lifelong responsibility.)

Drew needed a home, a forever home, and he worked it with me like nobody’s business, putting his head on my knee, then his paw, and they sitting in front of me and smiling engagingly. I was 90 percent there when I realized that like “Andy,” “Drew” was a derivative of “Andrew.” Deal-maker! It was meant to be.

The Drewbinator has been with me ever since. So what’s in a name? Sometimes, it’s a forever home. Like the one Andy had. I held him in my hands not two hours after he was born, and held him in my arms as he died. Another of those wonderful animals who never really die, because they live forever in your heart and in your memory.

If I weren’t a Dyson cult member before (I love my DC-15 Animal upright), my adoration of the Dyson DC-16 Animal bagless handheld vac.would surely put me in that category now. Dyson sent me a test model a few weeks ago. The charger base mounted easily on the side of my garage cabinets and the vac slipped just as easily onto that base. Charged it up overnight and took it for a spin in the morning.

Mind you, I feel sorry for vacs in this house. At this time of year my dogs shed enough every day to make a cat. I can vacuum a furball that’s clinging to a table leg, and an hour later there’s another in the same place.

I slipped the crevasse tool onto the Dyson and have been using the lightweight and easy to maneuver handheld a couple times a day since. As advertised, the thing sucks like a demon and doesn’t lose power as you work. When it’s time to empty the cannister — every few minutes, in my case — simply hold the unit over the trash can, press a button and all the crap drops into the trash. Snap the bottom back into place and off you go.

Like all the Dysons, high performance doesn’t come cheap — the DC-16 retails for $200. But its smart design and great performance will make you happy you popped for the little beast. Hair-Be-Gone.

Hmmm … no time isn’t really running out. You can sign up any time. But you do need to sign up by tomorrow to be eligible for the very first of our $1,000 monthly prize drawings. We’re just pulling winners randomly from our e-newsletter subscriber list, so you’re eligible to win each and every month.

On April 1 — no fooling — we’ll be drawing for pet gear from Premier Pet — $500’s worth of pet gear to the winner, and $500 worth of pet gear to the shelter or rescue group of the winner’s choice. Shipping included.

Details and sign-up information start on the PetConnection.com home page. Clock’s ticking on that Premier gear prize package.

I live in California, the sunny part. I have never been on a snowmobile. You gotta understand that going in. But what is up with snowmobilers running into sled dog teams? One of the dogs killed in the Iditarod was hit by a snowmobile, and now Iditarod champ Lance Mackey’s Zorro was airlifted in serious condition during a race after Mackey’s sled was slammed into by snowmobilers. From the AP:

A man on a snowmobile ran into Mackey’s team, seriously injuring a key animal in his kennel. Mackey broke down in tears Saturday telling how a veteran race dog, Zorro, was injured as the animal rode in the sled’s basket.

The snowmobile driver has not been identified.

Mackey was in third place in the Sweepstakes around midnight Friday just 20 miles from the finish line when two snowmobiles came up fast from behind.

“I was flashing them like mad with my headlamp,” he said. “I was shining my headlamp right in his face, but they kept on coming at me. I jumped aside, and by 30 feet further up the trail, there was a snow machine sitting on the middle of my sled.”

The machine impaled the sled bag with its runners.

“Three or four dogs were sucked underneath and Zorro was trapped in the sled bag,” Mackey said.

The driver who hit Mackey and his partner on the other machine helped Mackey right the mess, then left as Mackey continued on.

“I would give my life for my dogs,” Mackey said. “I can’t make anyone know how important animals are to me.”

By midday Saturday, Zorro was on a commercial flight to Pet Emergency, a veterinarian facility in Anchorage, for medical treatment. Zorro had broken ribs and perhaps internal injuries.

“If he lives, I don’t think he is going to want to race to Nome again,” Mackey said.

Several other dogs had injuries, but they were not life threatening, Mackey said.

The 9-year-old injured dog has been a star in the teams that won Alaska’s two major long-distance races the last two years.

Here’s the rest. Would it be out of bounds to imagine that — as recreational boaters and jet-skiiers do down here in the warmer climes — snowmobiling is a recreation that often goes with an overindulgence in adult beverages?

C’mon, Zorro. We’re praying for ya!

[Updates are being posted on Lance Mackey’s Web site.)

***

Ben and Emily Huh of Itchmo are one of the handful of people behind the Web sites and Web blogs everyone turned to for information during the pet-food recall last year. Itchmo started out as a blog meant for Seattle-area dog-lovers, and then … things went crazy.

The Huhs have real jobs — Ben is one of the geniuses behind the great ICanHasCheezburger site — and it has been really difficult to keep up Itchmo with all their other responsibilities. Itchmo the Web log is now easing up. From the Huhs, as posted on their forums:

When we first started Itchmo in February 2007, it was just a hobby to share what we were doing with our dog around Seattle. Due to the needs of the Pet Food recalls, it quickly grew into a destination for all of us who needed information, support and each other.

Unfortunately, the time has come for us to put Itchmo on hold as we focus on the parts of our lives that we put on the back burner for the last year.

As a family, we decided that the ItchmoForums are self-sustaining and will continue, however Itchmo will no longer be updated on a regular basis. We were heartbroken over our decision, but it was inevitable as there just isn’t sufficient income to maintain the level of posts that we’d like.

On the other hand, these forums have become a wonderful place for pet-lovers to hang out. We’ll continue to support the forums. We thank all of you for visiting Itchmo, and hope that you will stick around and continue to make the ItchmoForums a wonderful place.

We will not be accepting any donations, if you do wish to make any donations to us, please consider making it to your local shelter.

Sincerely,

The Itchmos: Ben, Emily, Fil and Nemo

Enjoy the break guys, and hope to see you back soon.

***

The “F Word”: That would be “Foxtail.” There are few things in life I can say that I hate with all my heart, and the foxtail would be in the top five. Not that long ago, my retriever McKenzie picked up one in her hip. It took seven months, three surgeries, thousands of dollars and multiple courses of antibiotics to get rid of the thing.

Hate. Hate. Hate. Burn in hell, foxtails.

Over on Lassie Get Help, Luisa shares my feelings, my pain, and much much more.