pet connection

When I first came up with the idea of looking at cars — wagons, hatchbacks, crossovers and SUVS — from the point of view of a dog-lover, I called Christie to share the thought, all excited.

Her response? Basically, a shrug.

And that’s when I realized: There are people for whom cars are interesting, even exciting, and those for whom they are merely a way to get from Point A to Point B.

Christie is definitely in the latter category. She gets a car that works for her and drives it until it dies. Me? If I could get a different car every year — not necessarily new, but at least different — well, that would be great. I always notice new models, and usually read the car mags in the doctor’s office. That’s why I love the week-long tests of DogCars I do pretty regularly, and enjoy writing the reviews for the DogCars.com site as well as our syndicated newspaper pet page. (I know Kim loves cars, too, so Christie’s outnumbered!)

Which is all by way of explaining that up to this point, the experience of people like Christie who share their lives with giant breeds (Scottish Deerhound and Borzoi, in her case) really haven’t had their point of view represented on our DogCars.com site.

Not anymore. Regular DogCars.com reader and pet expert Marjorie Darby of GoodPooch.com weighed in the other day in a comment about the challenges of transporting Great Danes. The information was so helpful and interesting that we elevated it to a blog post.

Check out the post. Giants breeds are a real DogCars challenge! Christie could have told me that, I’m sure, but she just didn’t care enough about the subject to ever think about mentioning it.

Thanks, Marjorie, for cluing me in. And I thought my dogs were large, silly me.

Chicken news: OK, I know you all live for the Chicken Updates. My neighbor Judy and I have swapped some of the chickens in the interest of flock harmony. One of my Cinnamon Queens, Eulalie, and the Buff Orphington, Harriet, went to join Judy’s flock. In return, her Silver-Laced Wyandotte, Lacie, came over here. For some reason, this has solved the get-along problems here and there. I swear, it’s like Junior High all over with these hens, cliques galore.

And finally: Thank you, everyone! for all the kind thoughts and prayers for Heather. It may be the meds, but she had a near-normal day today. Tomorrow afternoon I’ll know for sure what we’re dealing with. I sure hope my suspicions are wrong, but I’m prepared for bad news, as much as anyone can be.