pet connection

When I’m on book deadline, I tend to obsesss about things that are unrelated to the book I am writing. Things like, oh, cleaning out the hall closet, or planting flowers in the hanging baskets on the patio. Things, in other words, that can perfectly well wait for another week or two, but when I’m on book deadline become really, really important to me.

This book deadline, I seem to be obsessed with catching up on all my DogCars.com vehicle reviews. I’m only a dozen or so behind, after all, and it’s not as if I have Something More Pressing To Do. Like finish the book that’s due Monday.

Anyway, in wastingspending time thinking about DogCars.com, which I have been, lots, I realized that we have been horribly, horribly dissed. It’s true: The L.A. Times’ great Pulitzer Prize-winning auto-writer Dan Neil got to drive the new Mini Cooper Clubman before I did. As I write over on the DogCars.com blog:

I may have mentioned a couple thousand times before that I (heart) the L.A. Times autowriter, Dan Neil. I (heart)  him because he writes about cars in a way that has never before been done, a way a non-gearhead can get into, funny, witty and relevant to the lives of people who don’t go to car shows, as in, um, women. I (heart) Dan Neil because he got a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism, previously given only to guys who write about Serious Stuff like Architecture, Ballet and Art, not whether there’s a difference between a “guy car” and a “chick car.”  (Yes, and duh, of course there is. Guy car: Mustang. Chick car: VW Beetle.)

Honestly, having Dan Neil win a Pulitzer gives me hope — dim, dim hope — that someday a syndicated pet-care columnist will win one, too. And that that syndicated pet-care columnist will be me.

That’s why I (heart) Dan Neil.

But right now, I hate Dan Neil, because as the God of All That Is Good About Auto Writing, he got to drive the Mini Cooper Clubman before I have even cast eyes on one in person.

I ask you: Is that right? Is that fair?

Of course not. Because the Mini Cooper Clubman has the look of a serious city DogCar, and I can barely live with my desire to drive one very, very soon. Because a lot of really practical DogCars are — how shall I say this nicely? — dull, and I know that is not the case with the Clubman. I know this, because driving the regular Mini Cooper (along with the Mazda Speed3) last year was just about the most fun I’ve had in a car since I was 17, and Michael Vianni and and I took his Dodge Charger to Folsom Lake and … uh … well now, you just never mind.

Read the rest.

I take this one rather personally, since most of the dogs in my family are flat-coated retrievers, a breed commonly (but incorrectly) described as a “black golden.” (Flat-coats also less commonly come in brown, called “liver,” and very rarely, in yellow, called, “wow, is that a golden?”) See, we flattie fans know the truth: the golden retriever started as a “freak mutation” in flat-coats, and in fact, the golden was called a “flat-coated retriever (golden)” at the start.

Where was I .. oh yeah, black dogs. Pip my German shedder-brainy collie rescue is also mostly black. The only dog in my home who isn’t mostly black is The Drewbinator,my second-hand Sheltie (actually, I’m his fourth home, go figure) whose lush golden coat and white ruff and mane attract people from a quarter-mile away when we go out. Except … Drew would really rather strangers not paw at him. He’s friendly enough, but crowds just aren’t his thing. Whereas the retrievers would like nothing but people people people, except people often are a little afraid of Big Black Dogs … BBDs.

Me, I love BBDs. But …

You folks who rescue know where I’m going with this. BBDs are the heartbreak of shelters and rescue groups. No matter how nice a BBD, no matter how well-mannered, people tend to ignore or pass over these dogs in favor of the lighter-colored ones. MSNBC.com’s Melissa Dahl takes a look at the phenomenon:

To the uninitiated, the idea seems so strange — doggie discrimination? But among those in animal rescue circles, the phenomenon is commonplace enough to have earned its own name: “black dog syndrome.”

“There’s not a lot of that type of statistics on many aspects of sheltering,” says Kim Intino, the director of animal sheltering issues for the Humane Society of the United States. “But I think that every person that has worked in a shelter can attest that in shelters animals with black coats can be somewhat harder to adopt out — or to even get noticed.”

[...]

“They’re the hardest to adopt out, they’re in the shelters the longest and therefore, they’re most likely to be euthanized if nothing happens,” Bernstein says. [...]

Bernstein has plenty of theories about why people might not want black dogs in animal shelters. It’s mostly an unconscious thing, she says, which may explain why black cats have the same problems finding a home. People who are aware of superstitions about black cats (don’t let them cross your path!) may also be unconsciously harboring superstitions about black dogs.

Well, whatever.  I love my ebony-coated guys, and my little Drewbie, too. And interestingly enough, Homeward Bound Golden Retriever Rescue’s folks have told me that they have no more problem adopting out their “black goldens” than their “golden goldens.” So there may be some dispute: Is it more about marketing and reaching out to people vs. a defeatist attitude towards getting pets placed, as the no-kill advocates say?

And by the way, if you have a black dog or cat, you know it’s very hard to get a good picture. Christopher Butler, who has taken pictures of tens of thousands of black dogs, has some tips.

Pictured: My boy Ben, who came to me “second-hand” at 18 months of age and died at age 11 (cancer, of course) in 2005. He never met anyone he didn’t love from the very first second he saw them, and he was so reliably good-natured and well-mannered he went to all my book-signings and public appearances. Sweetest dog ever born. … and I added a picture of The Drewbinator because his feelings were hurt.

The thermometer is registering somewhere near 10 degrees below zero and the wind is whipping of the inlet at a brisk 25 mph. But that minor irritation can’t possibly stop you from arriving early to get a good spot to stand along Fourth Avenue in downtown Anchorage for the start of what many people call the toughest sports event in the world.

It’s the Iditarod Sled Dog Race, where highly trained dog teams race more than 1,150 miles across the frozen Alaska wilderness — from Anchorage to Nome — in search of adventure and a grand price of $70,000 to the winning team. This year’s race started Saturday with the traditional “Ceremonial start” in downtown Anchorage, and will continue for the next 10 to 17 days until a winner emerges from the trail to claim the prize in downtown Nome.

A record number 96 mushers are entered in this year’s race. They come from all over the world with their teams of up to 16 dogs, truckloads of food and medical supplies, and a support crew to help keep the dog happy and healthy as they prepare for the big day.

During the seven-plus years that I lived in Alaska during the 1980s, I made several trips to the starting line to get an up-close look at these hardy beings — dogs and people — as they set out on “The Last Great Race.” On this day, everyone is smiling and jovial. The mushers are happy to finally have all the months of training and preparation behind them as they make their way to the starting line. The media is there and the crowd is abuzz with wide-eyed excitement and anticipation.

And the dogs are ecstatic. Barking, yelping and pulling at their harnesses, they know the big day has finally arrived and they are ready to run. In fact, they are too ready, so most mushers add extra weight and even a second sled for the start to help slow their dogs down so they don’t burn themselves out too early. This race, after all, is not a sprint. It’s not even a marathon. It’s an endurance test of unbelievable proportions.

My former colleague, Craig Medred of the Anchorage Daily News, writes a wonderful story about the late Joe Redington, who will forever be known as the “Father of the Iditarod.” In it, Craig points out a couple of facts that help to put the Iditarod in perspective:

More people have made it to the top of Mount Everest, the world’s tallest and deadliest mountain, than have made it to Nome in the Iditarod.

The number of men who have played in the Super Bowl outnumbers the approximately 600 men and women who can say they have made it to Nome in the Iditarod.

The number of cyclists who have ridden the Tour de France vastly outnumbers the people who have ridden a dog sled to Nome.

Of course, like any ultra-endurance challenge, this is not a race for softies and the squeamish. In the best of weather, the Iditarod is a brutal, life-threatening adventure that requires every ounce of energy and stamina from humans and dogs as they push to make their way across the frozen Arctic. Other times, when Mother Nature unleashes her winter furry, the Iditarod becomes much less of a race and more of a test of survival where failure — or even just bad luck — means paying the ultimate price.

For complete race coverage, including detailed profiles of some of the sled dogs, visit the official site of the Iditarod.

Bernie mentioned that his wife makes salmon treats for Scout (share the recipe!) Dorene added recipes for liver brownies and liver pudding.

That got me to thinking we needed a pet treat recipe thread. So if you got ‘em, share ‘em.

Now, I have never baked treats for any pet. But that’s really no surprise since only recently have I started cooking for me. Yes, it’s true: The majority of meals in my single adult life have been of the frozen/nuke it variety, the cereal-and-milk variety, or (most often, most recent) the Whole Foods to-go variety.

But since late last year, I’ve also been trying to have a “Year of Living Greenly,” about which which I blog (albeit not as reliably as I do about pets) over here. (Yikes! I gotta blog before I get fired!) One of the things I’ve tried to do, with a fair measure of success, is eat at home, meals made from local and organic ingredients. (Local is green because it takes less fuel to transport it; organic is green because it’s less polluting and because manufactured fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides are fossil-fuel based.)

Most of the stuff I’ve been making is of the stew/soup/crockpot variety. And it’s not bad! I’ve even learned to do something with a parsnip. (It’s great in chicken soup.)

Unintended but extremely welcome consequences of making meals at home: (more…)

Over on BlogHer, Laurie White wraps up just about every blog post to be found linking the politics and pets, including on here on PetConnection:

Super Tuesday has come and gone and the presidential candidates have moved into a race for delegates in the states that have yet to vote. Lots of humans have weighed in about who they think will be the best person to lead our country, but one question remains: who gets the animal vote?

Much has already been made of the Obamas’ plan to get their daughters a dog when they make it to the White House, but cats are dominating the Obama pet blogosphere lately.

The entire wrap-up is here. With Mitt “but the dog loved riding on the roof!” Romney out of the picture, there’s no real “egad, what was he/she thinking?!” candidate to trash for the treament of the family pets. Well, yeah, there is, but you can do it over there.

Elsewhere … PetConnection BFF Dr. Patty Khuly weighs in on veterinary fashion (would you be more likely to respect a veterinarian in a lab coat than in jeans?) and her future as a shelter veterinarian. The latter should be very interesting indeed. … Christopher on Border Wars  gets all snarky with a rescue person who doesn’t get the “Modest Proposal” nature of his recent post. Can’t we all just get along? … Been meaning to point out a nifty calculator on the AVMA’s Web site to help estimate how many pets are in your community. … The spotted dog farm blog celebrates the new lives of the Vick pit bulls, but worries that too much is being expected of them in terms of geting along with other dogs (not people). … BAD RAP criticizes an apparent pit bull puppy mill that’s being characterized as a fighting operation. …

And hey by the way, if you wonder how blogs appear and disappear on our blog roll … we don’t “trade links” — that’s so adorably Twentieth Century — but rather list blogs we ourselves (and by “we” I mean “me”) like to read. When a blog drops off it’s usually because the blogger’s not posting very often, or hasn’t posted in a while. There are always a couple of blogs I’m watching for possible addition to the blog roll. But they need to have a point of view, something to say and a certain competence about saying it. Merely linking to weird pet-related news stories while flogging your product or service ain’t going to make it.  Just FYI, so quit asking. I’m not listing your Paris Hilton-inspired pet boutique’s self-serving blog, and wouldn’t even if my fingernails were being pulled out with pliers. Just sayin’