pet connection

The chickens’ yard isn’t done yet, but should be tomorrow. They’re not laying many eggs yet, but I figure they’re still a little shaken up by being moved and thrown in with strangers (three hens came from one place and three from another) and also dealing with those wolves who keep wandering around. The final area is double-fenced, the chicken yard fenced within the garden’s fencing. The hens should feel much more secure there, even though my dogs don’t seem that interested in a self-serve chicken dinner.

Since I’m putting in a chicken run, I’m having the entire garden area reconsidered, with new raised beds. Yes, I’m a little late on this, but spring is always busy with book deadlines. My veggies should already be in but won’t be until next weekend at the earliest. The men have been working on clearing out the garden area, and the framing for the chicken yard is in. They should wrap up the chicken yard tomorrow, but I’m going to think about the garden beds for a few days. I want to get them in just the right place to last for a long time.

The chicken yard is 6 feet wide by 18 feet long. The two narrow-set posts in the picture (click to see it larger) are where the gate will be. The entire garden area is about 20 feet by 30 feet, with the beds to be arrayed in an L-shape around chicken yard.

Between fresh, free-range eggs and veggies, we should all be eating well this summer.

When I bought this house six years ago, it was because I wanted a garden, a real garden, and some pet chickens. Finally, I think I will have both. The garden area is a tiny part of my lot, which is funny, because the yard at my old house wasn’t much larger than the garden area in this one.

Meanwhile, Ilario (a/k/a Larry) couldn’t be settling in better. He’s a brave and athletic little kitten, and he’s very interested in graduating from the office to the rest of the house. I’m taking it slowly, though, to give Clara time to adjust. She’s doing well with him, why push it? Within a week or so, I figure he’ll be everywhere, and I hope in time the two cats will be close.

Right now, Larry’s sitting on my shoulder as I type. He’s going to be a big kitty. (Picture added!)

Hat tip to several folks for this noticing this piece from the Times of London on how getting a kid a dog can help keep allergies from developing:

Children run less risk of being sensitive to allergens if there is a dog in the house in the early years of their lives, scientists have found.

The conclusion, based on a six-year study of 9,000 children, adds weight to the theory that growing up with a pet trains the immune system to be less sensitive to potential triggers for allergies such as asthma, eczema and hay fever.

The “hygiene theory” of allergy holds that modern life has simply become too clean, meaning that babies’ immune systems are not exposed to enough germs to develop normally.

Having a dog provides enough dirt of the right kind, the new German study suggests. …  Previous studies have suggested that exposure to pets may have a protective effect against allergies but many of these studies were based on retrospective questioning of subjects about their exposure.

The new study did not require anybody to remember anything. The children were followed from birth to the age of six. This is likely to make for more reliable results.

Ahahahaha.  We told ya so.

And now … all you pet-haters who fill the PetConnection mailbox with snotty notes like, “Dogs are filthy” and “Cats are disgusting” and “Pet freaks are nuts” … well … eat dirt. It’s good for you, proven. If you’d had a pet growing up you’d be healthier … and likely happier, too (or at least less inclined to whine at pet-care columnists, anyway).

Of course, there certainly are pet-lovers who go too far … check out Pet Connection BFF Dr. Patty Khuly’s write-up on people who insist on turning their tiny dogs into pseudo-children, with health consequences for their pets.

I gotta say I’m kinda proud of myself this morning, for my idea a couple years ago to start reviewing hatchbacks, wagons, SUVs, crossovers and the occasional truck for their suitability as what we now call “DogCars.” The reviews were meant to be a one-hit story for our syndicated newspaper pet-care page, but they proved so popular that we went ahead and started a Web site, DogCars.com, to feature them. And then we gave out our first DogCars.com awards, in several different categories.

The auto-makers have definitely taken notice of dog-lovers as a market for their vehicles, and we’re pretty happy with our part in that. Honda has a new campaign touting the Element — our Best In Show DogCars.com Car of the Year — as a great car for dog-lovers. And Mitsubishi, whose Outlander scored a win in our “Best Small SUV” category, is also trumpeting the doggedly great nature of their vehicle. From the blog at DogCars.com, our Keith Turner (who has been covering the auto industry for years), reports:

After DogCars.com honored the Outlander as the Best Small SUV for dog lovers, the automaker sent out a press release touting the award to the rest of the world.

A quick review of Mitsubishi’s media web site finds that the automaker has included not one but TWO photos of dogs in the rear portion of the Outlander. One photo shows a dog safely secured in a crate behind the bottom portion of the horizontally split rear hatch. The second photo has the pup up on all fours and out on the open tailgate.

And by the look on his face, this dog is ready to get moving.

These photos mark the first time — at least in this writer’s memory — that an automaker has purposely included a dog in one or more of its press photos.

Poor Harper was stung by a bee this afternoon, somewhere on a hind leg. She was screaming bloody murder and running in circles trying to get it off her. I didn’t know what was wrong until I saw it fall off and then I stomped it and carried her inside, dragging Bella and Twyla behind me. I called the vet, who recommended a quarter tablet of Benadryl and a cold compress.

She’s still freaked out by it. She curled up into as small a ball as possible on the sofa and stared at me with that expression that said “How could you let that happen to me?” She wouldn’t eat dinner, and I haven’t been able to get her to go potty since. I have visions–terrible visions–that this will set back her house training. She acts so grown up most of the time that I forget what a little baby she still is.

I took her out a little while ago and we practiced heeling around the complex, my hope being that it would keep her mind off the scary stinging things that might be lurking outdoors. Still no potty action. We came back in and I opened the garage door, only to see a large black spider (the garden kind, I think, not a black widow). Naturally, Harper ran right toward it and brushed up against its web. I don’t know what I would have done if it had gotten on her since I’m an arachnophobe from way back. I guess we would have both had the heebie jeebies.

Speaking of fun words like heebie jeebies, I saw a new coinage today (new to me, anyway) in the LA Times food section. It was “dogateur,” a reference to vendors of premium hot dogs. I like it as much as my creation of barkoisie.

Well, we’re going to go outside one last time before going to bed. Wish us luck.

Because our heads would explode, of course. Google pet-related ads are little more than millions of pitches for:

• Scum who run puppy mills;
• Snake-oil “magic cure” sellers;
• Sellers of bad dog-training and pet-feeding advice; and

and

and

ads like this one, which I just saw on my Gmail account.  You can’t make up stuff like this:

Quality
personal
protection

Trained German Shepards
from imported lines.
No in-breading.

So they bread them on the outside only?