pet connection

Hi everyone.  I’m back from sunny, gorgeous San Diego.  We won’t discuss how wonderful it was, because it’s currently cold and snowy again here in New England.  Meanwhile, a Scottie won at Westminster.  Yawn. (Unless you’re Terrierman, in which case you  furiously explain everything that’s wrong about the Scottish Terrier while taking yet another easy shot at fat people.)

Natural disasters, love, hope, human failings and survival. Of the thousands of heartbreaking stories to have come out of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, few were as saddening as the struggles of the thousands of pets left behind in the flood waters and devastation.  Philly Dawg introduces us to “Mine”, an Independent Lens PBS documentary, debuting this week.  “Mine” is an examination of love, despair, and the heroic efforts of rescuers and pets alike.   Check your local listings for airtimes.

We’ll pass on his cookbooks, thanks: 77-year-old chef Beppe Bigazzi was suspended Wednesday from his popular morning show on Italian TV after he offered a recipe for preparing “cat stew,” and said he had enjoyed the dish many times:

When his 27-year-old female co-host looked stunned as Bigazzi said he has eaten cat stew “many times,” the white-haired, grandfather figure defended his tastes.

“Why, people maybe don’t eat rabbit, chicken, pigeon?” Bigazzi said. He could have added horse meat, which many butchers and supermarket meat departments stock.

“Who’s not fat, kills the cat,” is how Bigazzi began his lighthearted prattle about cat stew.

Bigazzi claimed cat stew was a Tuscan specialty near the Arno river valley, but co-host Elisa Isoardi looked so embarrassed she ducked behind a cart of fresh salad greens whose healthy virtues the two were supposed to be chatting about.

Italian law protects cats from Bigazzi’s stew pot, officials noted. For those who understand Italian, the “humor” that has probably ended his career is apparently a hit on YouTube. You find that on your own, sorry.

No more doggies in the windows: West Hollywood, Calif.,  is about to enact an ordinance banning the sale of pets by retail pet stores.

Councilman Jeffrey Prang said the move would strike a blow to puppy mills and other cruel, assembly-line breeding. [...] More than 500 independent pet shops nationwide, including 38 in California, refuse to sell puppies in their stores.   Under the West Hollywood proposal, all pet stores would have to stop selling cats and dogs by September 2011.

Although it’s not the end of the industry, any law on any level that chips away at puppy mills is fine with me.

Anti-fur, meet anti-civility.  Again. All of you who follow the world of figure skating probably remember a kerfuffle over American skater Johnny Weir wearing white fox fur at at the U.S. National Championships.   In my humble opinion, Shirley at YesBiscuit nails this one perfectly (and eloquently, too) with a delicious, concise paragraph.

Gee, I wonder how receptive Weir will be in future to education on fur farming. I’m guessing slightly less than zero. It would have been a good opportunity to share an opposing view without condemnation but that’s probably lost now. And it’s a shame because I have no doubt he will be a huge fashion designer one day soon. So thanks all you death threat mailing, bucket of red paint throwing, creepy stalker types — way to help your cause.

Dickens’ collar: There are dozens of reasons why it’s great to see our friend Maria Goodavage writing for the Dogster blog, including wonderful tidbits like this.   A dog collar selling for over $11,000 at auction might sound silly, until you learn that the collar was used by Charles Dickens’ dog.  Good, sturdy leather and brass, too.  What else would you expect from one of the greatest writers in the history of English literature? (I meant Dickens … no offense, Maria.  You’re great, too.)

Pawsitively lovely protection: My mother likes animals, but what she really loves is fashion.   Hence, she was my source for this NYT photo essay on the latest in high end paw-wear, aimed specifically at city-dwelling pooches.  My only editorial comment on the highlighted items is this: Selling boots for dogs by the PAIR (instead of four) is sneaky.  Seriously, are you going to get boots for the left but not the right, or front but not the back?  I didn’t think so.

Perfect parrot with an off-switch: African Grey parrots are apparently brilliant birds  — remember Alex, who had an obituary in the New York Times and a best-selling memoir? — but they’re a lot of work to live with.  Think messy, bright and inquisitive toddler who never, ever shuts up. Fun, sometimes, but … well, not for everyone. If you’d like to enjoy a parrot pal, but only occasionally, you can check out streaming video of Bibi. So notes “Heckled By Parrots” blogger Rebecca O’Connor, who knows a thing or two about living with an African Grey herself. … and staying with the avian theme, check out the best in parrot foraging toys on the Best In Flock blog.

Human Choice? Check the ingredients: Gina mentioned the problem with the HSUS’ new dog food earlier this week, based on the sound thrashing given it on Terrierman. Raised by Wolves blogger Heather Houlahan has an even funnier take on the issue of feeding dogs like chickens.  Read the fine print, bottom line.

I always like to hear from readers, especially if you have tips, and links for interesting stories.  Give me a shout in the comments, or better yet, send me an email.

Photo credits: Katrina puppy, pbs.org.  Dickens’ collar, Bonhams.

The New York Times has run so many dog-related stories lately I gotta wonder if it’s not the result of some focus-group action. Doesn’t matter, I guess, since they’re generally pretty good, although few are as spot-on as the one in today’s editions, about what it takes to make the grade at the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, which starts its two-day run Monday in Madison Square Garden.

The NYT — and other newspapers in areas where one’s social ranking was once very, very important — used to cover dog shows as sporting events, and for years, the NYT sent one Mr. Walter R. Fletcher to cover the most prestigious dog show in the country. Mr. Fletcher had the best seat at the media tables, a plaque with his name and affiliation making sure no one else took his seat. Long after a few of us started showing up with strange little contraptions that were the progenitors of today’s ubiquitous notebook computers — TRS-80 Model 100s known in the newsrooms as “Trash 80s” or “RatShacks,” with 8K of memory, 8 lines of black on gray display and acoustic couplers that went over the ear- and mouthpieces of old-fashioned phones to transmit our datastreams  — Mr. Fletcher pounded out his story at ringside on a manual typewriter, with copy boys assigned to relay half-sheets of updates back to his editors.

Aside from working many layers below an editor who insisted on using a manual typewriter more as an affectation than anything else (the big man’s secretary would then type his words into the newsroom computer system), Mr. Fletcher’s annual efforts were the first, last and only time in my professional journalism career that I ever saw anyone use a manual typewriter. (I’m sorry, but I can’t drop the “Mr.” when it comes to Mr. Fletcher any more than I would have dared to sit in his chair at the Garden.)

The very idea of using a manual typewriter now is every bit as quaint as covering Westminster like a real sporting event, instead of as a business with bad ROI that’s really a beauty pageant. And that’s exactly what the New York Times did this year:

The bucks. They are the not-so-secret key to success at this and other top dog shows held every year. On Monday, when Madison Square Garden in Manhattan hosts the 2010 Westminster Dog Show, the most prestigious event on the thoroughbred canine calendar, money will quietly play a role in determining the winner, just as money quietly shaped the field of contenders — and just as money shapes almost every nook and cranny of the dog show business.

Among breeders, owners and handlers, it’s understood: you can’t just turn up with the paradigm of the breed, if such an animal exists, and expect a best-in-show ribbon. To seriously vie for victory, a dog needs what is known as a campaign: an exhausting, time-consuming and very expensive gantlet of dog show wins, buttressed by ads in publications like Dog News and The Canine Chronicle.

(Actually, a Thoroughbred is a horse, not a dog, and the word the writer was looking for was “purebred.”  This same factual error in a puppy sales ad is one of those things that’s a red flag that you may well be dealing with a puppy-mill, just so you know.)

The story focused on an outgoing man named Raymond “Tray” Pittman and his partner, the quieter Paul Flores. The two men live (when they’re not on the road, which they usually are) not 10 miles north of me, but the first time I met them was at the Crufts dog show, in England. Pittman had taken a Bichon Frise owned by a nice New Jersey couple to a win in the toy group, eliciting a great deal of mumbled resentment from the locals, who had for generations owned an unparalleled home field advantage owing to a non-negotiable six-month quarantine for rabies that had recently been altered. (The PaRay crowd did not win the top honor that year, but strangely enough, another professional handler, Larry Fenner, who also lives about 10 miles from me but in the other direction, would be the human half of the first American team to win at Crufts a few years later with an Australian shepherd, which is really an American breed, despite the name.)

I bumped into Pittman in the bar at the Hilton across from the National Exhibition Centre that year he was there with his New Jersey Bichon, making a quick mental note that on his wrist  was a watch worth more than my car. He had just gotten off the phone with Flores to tell the latter to hop a jet immediately to get the grooming on the Bichon for Best in Show. (Flores is so good that, as the NYT notes, if he weren’t grooming dogs he’d be a sculptor.)

When I expressed amazement at the cost of a last-minute booking for a flight from SF to London, Pittman shrugged.

“It’s not my money,” he said.

And not mine, either, of course. Because although I do pay a wonderful couple to handle my own dogs at shows when I’ve got a dog actively showing, which isn’t often or for long, my dogs have pageant careers that end when their championship is awarded, which is the point at which the Big Dogs of the show world start their “campaigns.”

Even if I had the money, I haven’t the heart for that game. I don’t even like my dogs gone for an overnight, much less for the year or two a top “special” will be living in kennels and motor homes with one of the top professional handlers and their legions of assistants.

I haven’t quite known what to make of the PaRay partners since. When I do see them, they are unfailingly friendly and chatty, even when busy, and there’s no doubt their dogs are well-cared-for even if not particularly cared about as dogs. The men work hard and have made their way in a niche world with its own quirky reality.

There is change coming — already here, really — in the world of dogs, and heaven knows I welcome anything that breaks the genetic bottlenecks and bizarre blueprints that have made messes out of many breeds. But I don’t have a problem with dog shows, per se, and I find a fair amount of the criticism of “fat matrons” and snidely veiled asides about gay men and lesbians in the show world to say more about the writers’ own issues than their true concerns about the dogs.

I guess the bottom line is that my problem with dog shows is one of degree, not their very existence. A lot of the top show dogs really love the attention, and when you’re around them, you can see that. If I had to choose, I’d rather have their life than the lives of a million bored backyard dogs in this country. (Of course, I’d rather have the life of an active, trained and well-socialized dog who goes out everywhere with a beloved owner, but if we’re talking extremes, the show dog life ain’t that bad.)

And the pageants themselves are wonderful places to watch — the people even more than the dogs. Which is why I’ll probably end up at both of these big shows again — in New York and in England –  and enjoy the experience very much, as I always have. Although not this year for either.

Image: Raymond Pittman and Sloan, by the New York Times.

I have an uncle who has become an avid Pet Connection reader since I joined the staff (Hi Fred!).  He’s a cat-lover, and has told me I’m too dog-centric in my posts.  For Fred and all other similarly-inclined cat owners, this morning’s post is for you.  Not all cats, but mostly.   Never let it be said I can’t take a hint…

Lower your cholesterol — get a cat! An article courtesy of my friend Pete Hansen, who acquired a cat a few months back.  You’ve probably seen essays and news stories saying that owning a pet relaxes you, therefore lowering blood pressure.  Now there’s some evidence indicating it helps your cholesterol, too!

The cat who came in from the cold:  The first paragraph of this heartwarming story from the Edmonton Journal, by way of Gina, made me reach for my parka and boots, while still sitting in my living room:

Bob the cat showed up at Air Canada cargo services’ warehouse at the international airport on a morning when a Siberian front swept through Edmonton, plunging temperatures into the -30s.

I don’t care if it is celsius, thirty below is still way too cold.   Bob, who the airport workers soon learned is female, settled in over time.  Now,

there’s never any doubt she runs the place, though, and that she has the men wrapped around her little paw.

Always be prepared.  It’s not expensive, and could make all the difference. You may have a first aid kit at home for your adults and non-furry children, but do you have one for the ones with tails and paws?    You should.   I admit that I don’t, but I’ll be using this well organized, easy-to-follow post from Smartdogs to create one.   It’s a great idea, because you never know.  Don’t wait.  Please take advantage of the great hints here.  I know I will.

Tiger Ranch operator sentenced to 27 years probation for cruelty: Sorry, I didn’t promise these would all be happy stories.   A tip of the cap to Mary Mary for the final chapter of this terribly sad saga from Pittsburgh.  She and I are both convinced that the Tiger Ranch venture probably started out as a terrific idea, but quickly spun out of control.  Now, almost two years later, it stands as a tragic cautionary tale.  My personal belief is there was likely some mental illness in play as well, but in any case, the judge’s words at sentencing remain accurate:

“I came into this case thinking … you were most likely a woman who had good intentions but became overwhelmed. From that perspective until today, I have learned quite a lot,” said Rangos, according to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. “You have chosen not to cooperate and spew vitriol in others’ direction without taking any personal responsibility for the disaster that Tiger Ranch became.”

Kudos to Amy Worden at Philly Dawg for her work on this story.  She has followed it from the beginning, and Amy is always worth reading.

Three new breeds at Westminster: Petville tells us there will be three new breeds shown at the 2010 WKC Dog Show at Madison Square Garden on February 15 & 16:  the Irish Red and White Setter (pictured: not just a color variant, but a different breed from the Irish Setter), the Norwegian Buhund, and the Pyrenean Shepherd.  If I may say so, these are three gorgeous dogs, and I’m looking forward to seeing them in the show.

Have a great morning.  I’ll be back later today with something completely different. And don’t forget: If you have something good to read, add a link to the comments, or e-mail me.

Photo credit: Codie McLachlan, edmontonjournal.com

I promise this is the end of my Westminster “a Scottish Deerhound won the Hound Group and his daddy was a field hound!” squee-fest.

But I couldn’t close this chapter without sharing with you all this charming video from a young girl with a bright future as a dog journalist, reporting from the benching area at the Garden, where she’s interviewing the dogs.

No, that wasn’t a typo. She’s interviewing the dogs. And Tiger, the Deerhound who won the Hound Group at the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show Monday night? It’s at the end, and it’s worth the wait.

If you’re hoping to add a particular breed to your family and got a couple of ideas after watching the Westminster Kennel Club dog show, the folks at Petfinder want you to remember that some 25 percent of the 140,000 dogs looking for a forever home on the Web site are purebreds, or pretty close, anyway.

Incredible for a breed as rare as the Sussex spaniel, there are even three dogs available from Petfinder’s more than 12,000 affiliated rescue groups and shelters  who may well be related to Stump, the 10-year-old charmer who won the big show last night.  Yes, Petfinder reports three Sussex spaniels in their database. Along with all kinds of poodles, akitas, setters, greyhounds, terriers of all sorts and lots and lots of dogs whose breed is all their own.

Heck, Petfinder will even help you if you want to adopt a cat!