Rain Blahs Cured!

A friend and I (plus Bruno of course) went to the beach expecting cool, wet, windy weather, and got:

THIS!

And THIS!   

And THIS! 

It turned out warm, lightly breezy, and just perfect.  Also, THANK YOU OREGON for making all the beaches free to the public.  What a great state!

Really? That's yucky

My mom’s husband, John, told me that he once ate a whole “dog pepperoni” (a Pupperoni?  A Snausage? Hopefully not a ‘bully stick”!) because he thought it was jerky. Where are your taste buds?!

I nibbled a bite of the “pizza bites” treats that drive Bruno crazy, and boy do they NOT taste like pizza. Bleccch! 

I guess this just fits with the finding that women tend to have more taste buds and better sense of smell than men. (Especially the women in my family- we all have very keen senses.) Possible connection- in primitive societies women are usually the keepers of knowledge about edible and medicinal plants, and smell and taste are of paramount importance in identifying these. (For a cool aside about supertasters, people who have a much keener sense of taste than normal, click here.  I am probably a supertaster- I find alcohol intolerably bitter, and have had to train myself to eat grapefruits, swiss cheese, tofu, carbonated drinks, and other stuff normal people don't find bitter. It could be worse, though...my aunt can't even stand rosemary or oregano!) 

Dogs have a LOT fewer taste buds than humans- probably because they evolved to eat a less-varied diet than we do, and didn't need to distinguish so many flavors.  (Cats have even fewer- their natural diet doesn't include ANY plant matter or carrion). Also, the fact is; that while dogs appreciate our food, what THEY like best is stuff we find yucky.  Dogs are not little humans in fur suits!  

Idiocracy

This movie was on TV today, and I watched it.  I’m not sure whether it is more slapstick or more satire.  A good combo in my book, at least.  The plot goes: an ordinary man and woman are frozen in a secret military cryogenic experiment, and then the project is forgotten and abandoned.  They are accidentally woken up 500 years in the future, to find that the world’s collective IQ has declined massively, no one knows how to read, and the top movie in the theaters is called “Ass” and simply features 90 minutes of an anonymous naked butt. 

The man spends the whole movie trying to find out how to go back in time and stop this horrible mess from happening, and being called upon to fix things for the future’s idiotic denizens.   It’s a perfectly delicious (if very vulgar- definitely not kid-appropriate) satire, with plenty of nods to Planet of the Apes and other classic sci-fi.

Now, the plausibility of this is quite low… Since IQ scores have actually gone UP every year since they started testing people with the Stanford Binet (the most common type of IQ test) and they have to adjust the scoring to make sure that the average score is still “100”.  (Evidence to me that IQ is NOT genetic) But perhaps IQ scores are going to be like longevity, now that the “experts” think that my generation is going to be the first one in modern history that might live shorter lives than their parents…  

It's a losing battle...

…to convince my mother and other baby boomers that current pop music is not all garbage.  Ya know, that stuff they play in the mall, and the top 40 radio stations- yeah, that’s mostly crap.   BUT there are lots of artists that have actual fans, if not radio airtime, that are making excellent music.

Musicianship is NOT dead!  But I can’t win, it seems… Radiohead is too noisy and chaotic. Helio Sequence is too repetitive.  And don’t even mention any punk or hiphop stuff- that’s a whole other ballpark.   And I get nowhere if I talk about how hard is to put together anything wholly electronic, to sync up different tracks and put together good rhythm (I would know, I took a digital music class a few years ago, it was frikkin HARD) that’s catchy and works well as a whole.  But no, anything that isn’t classically-trained musicians on actual instruments is crap.

I must agree to disagree, I guess. 

Bittersweet

It feels like fall today, actually it has since I got rained out on Mt. Hood.  The sky is grey, temps are mild, and the first dry, brown leaves are starting to fall.  I’m always a little melancholy at the end of summer- long months of cold, wet, miserable weather are ahead.  But so are beautiful pumpkins and apples, crisp morning air, the grass will become green again with the rains.  Chili for dinner on rainy evenings, silvery frost on the ground, geese calling as they fly south for the winter.  

My mother says that autumn is her favorite time of year, and I can see why.  But still I’m a little sad.  If I was making the calendar, the year would end after the fall harvest, when the earth goes to sleep for the year and nothing happens outside from November through February but rain, rain, rain.

If I can scrape up enough money to go south for the winter, you bet your britches I’ll be in Arizona for January! Horrible cold, wet, post-holiday letdown month…

Are we breed obsessed?

 So while I was thinking about the Animal Planet show “Dogs 101” in my previous post, it got me onto a train of thought I’ve been on before.

What is the first question most people ask when they start looking for a dog (especially if they’ve never had one before)?  Usually, it is “what breed of dog should I get?”  “Breed matching” is a perennial favorite on the dogster forums, and the general concept is that a dog’s breed is the single most important thing to consider when getting a dog.

I was raised with cats, exclusively. I was emphatically NOT a dog person as a kid or teen.  To cat owners, asking them about breeds of cat is pretty useless, because the VAST majority of cats are just well, cats.  The only truly popular pure breeds of cats are Siamese and Persians, and no one would tell you that they are significantly different from other cats. Same size, same coat (yes, there are alley cats with Persian-type hair, and Siamese markings) and personality varies, but if you like one kind of cat, you will probably like others.  It is much more about the individual when you choose a cat, and if a cat is being a pain in the butt, usually no one says, “well, he must be part such-and-such.” So that’s my background.

Over in dog world, breed is EVERYTHING.  People are constantly asking, “what kind of dog is he/she?” With Bruno, I say “shelter mutt” nowadays and leave it at that, but I was very curious when I first got him.  Okay, okay, I confess: I bought the Mars Wisdom Panel DNA breed test.  Supposedly they’ve tested many dogs of every AKC breed, and developed some kind of algorithm for finding patterns that all dogs of each breed have, and then they look for these patterns in mixed breed dogs to tell you their heritage.  It’s proprietary technology, I can’t tell you a lot more… And just how accurate it is, no one really knows.  But I wanted to know bad enough that I ignored that, and bought it anyway. And got this:

50% match: Chihuahua

25% match: Chinese Shar Pei

25% match: Scottish Deerhound

For a dog who looks like this, and weighs 50 lbs:

So, even if this is true, what did it gain me?  Nada.  He’s still the same medium-sized black mutt.  It’s kind of like the old chesnut, “if a tree falls in the forest and no is around to hear it, does it still make a sound?”  If no one can believe the test results, and if it has zero relevancy to my life or his, does it even matter if it’s accurate? 

For the record, Bruno’s a lab mix at the vet, was a shepherd mix at the shelter, and is a chow mix at the groomer- I let people think what they want about him.  He’s still my funny little furball no matter where he goes!  

Animal Planet, can’t you do any better?

So after I got back home from my hiking trip, I totally vegged out.  I’m recharging, right?  And that included some TV watching.  I have to say- Animal Planet, I like the concept of a channel about animals, but you are totally dropping the ball on quality. 

This show “Pet-O-Rama”, is the epitome of crap, I’m sorry.  And “Bad Dogs” that I’m watching now, well, the clips are kind of cute, but I have real issue with calling these “bad dogs.”  For example, in one clip, a man hold up his new pug puppy for the camera, as in ‘Hey mom! Look what I got!” The poor dog is obviously terrified to be held up in the air in an awkward position, and it starts to urinate.  The man yells “What the!” and drops the dog ON THE FLOOR, about five feet down.  My mouth fell open. The dog could have been seriously injured!  But no, it’s supposed to be funny…

And the rest of AP’s current offerings are kind of crap too.  Pit Boss? Cute idea, but can you say S-C-R-I-P-T-E-D?  I hope no one thinks that’s how a real-life rescue works…  Last Chance Highway is a little better, seems more realistic.  But as a show focused on transport rescue from the Southern US states to the North, they have NEVER mentioned or tried to refute the controversial nature of transport rescue.  River Monsters is about a guy who goes fishing, booorrrrring, I Shouldn’t Be Alive isn’t even about animals, and Dogs 101 is fun to watch, but they get a heck of a lot of stuff just plain wrong, and I worry about anyone who is basing their decision of what breed of dog to get based on it.

  

I confess that I enjoy “Confessions: Animal Hoarding.”  It is a pretty well made show, and much less overly-dramatic than the other type of show that deals with the same class of people, which is “Animal Cops” and it’s spinoffs. “Confessions” shows the hoarders as real people with feelings, and the (usually sad and dark) journeys they’ve taken to end up as the lady with 50 dogs in a trailer. 

I sometimes watch Whale Wars, but it gets tiring after a while- they chase the whaling boats around all day, and the next day, and the next day, and so on... Occasionally something actually happens.

   

AP is also showing the Oscar-winning documentary The Cove, which I am looking forward to watching.  So why, why, why, if they can afford the rights to high-profile stuff like that, do they still make crap!?

Here’s a message, Animal Planet:  There is a REAL market for intelligent animal-focused content. Dog (and cat, bird, tiger, elephant, etc) lovers do not ALL have an IQ of 80, some of us are quite smart, actually, and if you continue to make biased, sensationalized, and just plain BAD TV, we will stop watching it.  (And while you're at it, can you make a website that doesn't crash my computer?)

Clarifications on Shock Collar Training

Well, I thought I should write a little more about this, because I want people to know more about the controversy that is e-collar training.

Suffice to say, this is one of the most divisive subjects you can bring up about dog training, so here's my take:
E-Collars are a TOOL. They are not evil in of themselves. The stimulation it delivers can range from a mild tingly feeling (like when your leg falls asleep) to a "Yowza! that hurts!" sting (have you ever touched an electric fence meant to keep horses in? It's about like that).  The remote allows the trainer to change the setting for what he/she thinks is right for his dog.  But... It is VERY easy to use this tool in an abusive way.  People who use them extensively are either VERY skilled, or they are abusing their dogs, and it can be a fine line in between.

My second objection is that they are completely unnecessary for basic obedience training.  I can make a dog sit, lie down, and stay with no forceful or painful actions at all, so why even go there?  If I use treats wrong, well, my dog just won't learn anything, and maybe get fat from all the treats, but if I use a shock collar wrong, he could become afraid of me, and that's the last thing I want.  The directions that came with Bruno's collar made me mad.  Basically, they asked you to find the level of stim that bothers your dog, but isn't torture (so he paws the collar, but doesn't whine or scream, for example).  Then you shock him while forcing him to do the command (using a leash to pull him into a down, for example) and stop the shock as soon as he's in the position.  THE PAIN STOPS IF HE OBEYS.  That just seems...wrong.  I'm sure that eventually the dog will figure this out and will obey you lightning-fast, but it's learning based on pain and fear.  I know many trainers have excellent results using e-collars, but the dogs have to have a high pain tolerance, quick bounceback, and be tolerant of forceful handling.  That obviously isn't every dog.  Bruno shrieked at even the lowest level of stim.

So... There is ONE use for the e-collar that I feel is completely justified: stopping predatory chasing. It works, and there are few other ways to get the results.  Traumatic memories are VERY hard to erase (it's called PTSD in severe, human cases...) which is why it works so well. I will admit that openly- Yes, I want to build a traumatic association in my dog. I want him to feel uneasy around prey animals and ignore or avoid them, instead of killing them.  I think it's a fair trade-off. It saves the poor bunnies and kitties, saves my peace of mind, and might even save my dog's life, if it stops him from chasing a deer into the woods, attacking sheep and getting shot by an angry rancher, or darting across the road after a squirrel and getting squished by a car.

But I don't stop there... I still work diligently to build my dog's recall so that he will return to me BEFORE an incident starts, so I don't have to use the shock.  I use positive-only training for this.

So far, it's working well.  Bruno willingly submits to the collar, and is even eager to have it on (because he's built a positive association as well: e-collar=going for a walk).  His recall is getting much better, thanks to the doggy crack I tend to carry around with me.  (Yes, I know, it's a horrible, horrible product, that will rot his teeth, make him fart, etc. But it works, and only takes a little bit at a time.)

So I will not say that "E-Collars are for evil dog abusers!" or "E-Collars are wonderful, and people who hate them are pansies!" I have a specific use for one, and it works for me and my dog.  I would strongly hesitate to use it for anything other than predatory aggression, though.

Rabbitstick

Rabbitstick: a primitive weapon used somewhat like a boomerang (also originally a weapon, did you know that?) to kill rabbits.

Rabbitstick: A crazy weeklong gathering of the sort of people who know how to use, well, rabbitsticks. And atlatls. And blowguns, flint knives, etc.  A /school/party/reunion of folks from all over America (and some from abroad too) that delight in wearing animals skins (that they've tanned and sewed themselves, of course) using caveman tools, sharing wild food recipes, making medicine from what the earth gives us, and many other "obsolete" activities. It's hosted in mid-September (coming up soon!) eastern Idaho, and it costs about 300 dollars for a week of food, camping, porta-pottie use, and of course, classes to take.

I've been before- twice, actually. It's an amazing experience. The first time I went, I felt like I had found my tribe- people who seemed so real, so grounded, so skilled in a way most people today are not.  It's almost mind-blowing; I really have NO IDEA how this computer works that I'm typing on right now. And only a vague understanding of the car I drive, and most other complex tools.  But for most of human history, people didn't own ANYTHING they hadn't made themselves, or traded something they made for something someone else made. Nowadays, almost none of us have what it takes to you know, actually survive. Feed ourselves, clothe ourselves, stay warm and dry at night.

These folks DO have that.  Going there, I feel human in a different way than my ordinary technology-rich life, and it's refreshing.  Of course, there are plenty of neophytes in attendance as well, not just experts- I'm more of an expert on some things that many people. But they're all TRYING to be that kind of person, that knows exactly where and how everything he uses was made, and could duplicate it if necessary.

Primitive skills are not "useful" in the modern world- they won't get you a job, make you any money (unless you are slick enough to find acolytes who will pay you to teach classes) and sure doesn't help attract a mate, unless you want the hairy/smelly caveman/woman type (that's not so bad, actually...) but it helps ease the sense of helplessness and disconnection we all face in an increasingly automated world.  And that's never a bad thing.

Close Call

I should write about this while it's still fresh in my memory and before I make the same mistake again (hopefully NEVER!)

While hiking on Mt. Hood, Bruno got loose from me and chased a deer.  He was only gone about 15 minutes, but it could have been forever.  If he hadn't come back, he could have been lost in a huge, mostly roadless and trail-less, VERY rugged wildness. There was even a sign at the trailhead warning that the Sheriff's Dept. will NOT do technical rescues for stranded dogs- if your dog falls down a crevasse, it's your problem, not theirs.

So why did I let this happen?  Stupidity. I chose NOT to put his remote collar on him that day, because I hadn't needed to correct him at all the previous day, and I wanted to save it's battery. For WHAT?  This was exactly the kind of situation the collar prevents.  I thought that since I had him trained not to chase cats, chickens, and squirrels, it would translate into "not chase anything."

Why?  I KNOW that dogs are very poor at generalizing.  Temple Grandin has said over and over in her books (several of which I've read and loved) that animals can't generalize, or can only do it in limited ways. That's why puppy socialization is SO important.  Dogs don't know that ALL children are safe if they've only met a few, or ALL cats or ALL farm animals, even ALL types of flooring or weather.  They need to experience as many things as possible while the critical period of socialization is still open. I'm quite sure Bruno's first owner totally missed the ball on that one, by the way.

So he spots a deer on the trail.  In only a few seconds, I can practically hear the wheels turning in his head.  "What is that? Can I chase it? It looks fun, but what if I get punished?"  He turned back and looked at me, very briefly, as if to make up his mind. Then he's off like a shot, double-suspension gallop down a 45% slope in dense forest.   The deer obviously did not trip the trained response in his brain that predatory chase=painful correction, that IS activated for cats and squirrels.  It didn't fit.

I didn't have a compass, so I knew it would be utterly foolish to chase after him. What if I got lost too?  I called and called and called, and then sat down and cried.  All this work I've put into him, for nothing! I threw it away by not putting his e-collar on him, and so was unable to stop him and use this as a training experience, instead of a tragedy.   I even prayed a little, and I don't consider myself a Christian these days.

Thankfully, he DID come to his senses and return to me, out-of-breath and overheated.  I leashed him up and we continued the rest of the day on-leash, until I got back to camp and put his e-collar on.

I still don't exactly why I chose not to put it on him that day.  Foggy lazy thinking.  Makes no sense whatsoever.  But I'm determined not to let it happen again.

Sidenote about e-collar training:  I was harshly criticized by a few people on the dogster forums for using a remote shock collar, aka electronic collar, training collar, e-collar, etc.  This is the collar I use. The ONLY time I use it is for stopping predatory chasing.  NOT when he's just disobeying me- I deal with that in other ways, mostly positive.  I am a fan of Temple Grandin, previously mentioned, and to her, the only ethical use of a shock collar is to stop predatory aggression.  The short, sharp shock totally trips up their emotional track and short-circuits the prey drive.  It has worked AMAZINGLY well on Bruno,  I hardly ever have to correct him since I started it a couple months ago, and most of his behavior changed within a week of using it.  
His prey drive was out of control.  He would go NUTS strangling himself on his collar, screaming and barking to get to whatever it was, cat, squirrel, chicken, even large livestock like goats and horses.  This was DANGEROUS behavior, and it was a choice of 1. Give him to someone with a VERY secure fence and no livestock nearby (unlikely to happen) 2.  Euthanize him 3. Train him to have self-control, and the collar seemed the most effective way to do that.
He is NOT traumatized or shell-shocked into zombie-like behavior, as some people will assume with shock-collar training.  He seems much calmer and more balanced on walks, now that he is not searching for animals to chase.  His ears and tail say that he's calm and happy.

Pictures!

Here are pictures I took on my Mt. Hood hike.  First one is Bruno the snow doggie (in August!) Next is a gorgeous field of mountain wildflowers.

Next we have a very contented Bruno, lying in the flowers...

This is Zigzag canyon (I think? There were a lot of canyons on the trail)

A beautiful flower that I have no clue what it's called.  Only found it in one place along the trail.

It's hard to convey the scale here- this is a MASSIVE mountain, and that waterfall ain't just a trickle.  It was truly an awe-inspiring vista. 

And last, yours truly looking sunburned and sweaty, with Zero Zero sneaking up behind me (didn't know he was there as I was taking this.)

It was a great trip, even though I bit off more than I could chew, exercise-wise, (am very sore in the legs today) I had a good time, the weather was decent, and I'm sure Bruno enjoyed it.  

Inspiration

Hey again!
I'm just back from Mt. Hood.  I chickened out, and didn't try for the full circle around the mountain, since a section of it is actually closed, and well, I'm not in as good of shape as I thought I was. (sigh.)

But how's this for inspiration:
Hike the Pacfic Crest Trail. Start at the Mexican border. Go all the way to Canada. Do it alone.  And one more thing: You're completely blind.

I met Trevor Thomas, aka Zero Zero, who is doing exactly that.  It's not immediately obvious that he is disabled- in fact, I wouldn't say he is "disabled" at all.  He's doing something most sighted people will never do, and just as well as any other hiker.

I was sitting down at a creekside on the Mt. Hood section of the PCT, and he came walking up behind me, went around me, and sat down as well.  I asked him if he was a thru-hiker, and he said he was (I'd met several before that as well- this is the time of year when most of them are passing through this area.)
We were chatting merrily, and I happened to ask him if he had a map I could look at, because I accidentally left mine in my car.  He said (and I'll never forget this) "Yeah sure, but I can't read it. I'm blind."
"You mean legally blind, like it's just really blurry?"
"No, like I can't see you in from of me."

Wow. I was floored!  There was NO indication that he was blind- he looked at me while he was talking, and skillfully navigated around obstacles. And lots of hikers carry ski poles for balance, that wasn't unusually at all.
"How do you know which way to go at forks in the trail?"
"Well, my friends walking ahead of me will leave three sticks in a pattern, and when I find that I know that's the right way."
"I bet you can tell a LOT about people from how they sound."
"Yep, and I echolocate too. That's how I knew you were sitting on the ground there."

This guy's hearing is SERIOUSLY acute.  He said that he knew I had a dog even though Bruno was just lying quietly on the ground, because he could hear him breathing- over the clatter of a rushing stream!

This guy is so inspiring to me- even more so now that I've looked him up, and found out he's only been blind for about 5 years- I supposed one had to be born that way to get around so well sightless.  He said in the interview I read "that it was like being in the prime of your life and having to go back to kindergarten. You have to learn everything all over again."  Bravo to you, Zero!  I would never have known, if you hadn't told me.

Oh, and he's a SUPER nice guy.  He'd be worth meeting even without the dose of wow.

Going up to the mountain tomorrow!

I really should be packing and sorting my gear and food for tomorrow instead of writing this!  I'm planning to leave early in the morning to buy food, gas up the car, and then head out.

The trail I plan to do is the timberline loop trail around Mt. Hood, Oregon's favorite mountain.  Wish me luck!

I am not an expert

despite being called "encyclopedia" and not-so-nice things since I was a kid.   Anything I write here is 100% opinion, occasionally backed up with facts when I can find them. Read at your own risk...

Are there really "cat people" and "dog people"?

I wonder this because I have been both during my life so far. I don't mean I liked cats and dogs equally; I mean I was a CAT PERSON, 100%, had no time for dogs, ignored and even disliked them, but since I got one for myself (another long story about how that happened) I have come around to the other point of view- I love cats, but would rather own a dog if I had to choose.

Stanley Coren, author of many popular books about dogs, thinks there is a real, innate difference between the two. (Though he also believes in innate personality differences between breeds of dog, something I'm not so sure of.)  I think it's in his book "Why We Love the Dogs We Do" (but I'm not sure, he has written a whole stack of dog books) that he posits that cat people are basically less caring, more self-centered and more shallow than dog people, and they prefer a pet that doesn't need emotional input because they are unable to give affection.  There are two kinds of cat owners- real cat people, and dog people who happen to have cats because they are unable to get a dog for the moment.

I don't buy it... Cats are not lesser than dogs... just different.  His sample was very small and probably biased.  I think he is just not a fan of cats, and trying to justify it.

So what are the real differences between the animals themselves, before talking about their respective devotees?

Affection:  Both are affectionate.  People who say cats are not affectionate must have never owned a cuddly cat!  Some dogs are also NOT affectionate, contrary to stereotypes of the mushy dog and aloof cat.

Independence: Cats win this one.  Your average cat will be quite fine left in a house all day or let outside to attend to his own agenda.  Dogs... well not so much.  But people who claim that cats are naturally solitary are wrong too. Feral cats live in colonies, and while they don't hunt together, they do socialize, even sleeping and playing together as adults.  Indoor cats should have at least one cat friend to keep them company.

Cleanliness:  Lots of people (including myself at one point) prefer cats because they are easier to live with.  Cats don't need baths, don't track mud into the house, etc.  But they do shed like crazy! After seeing both, I think cat hair is more obnoxious- there's tons of it, it's fine and floats in the air whereas dog hair just sticks to the carpet and furniture.  Dogs can be smelly, but that's only if you don't bathe or brush them. And cat litterboxes stink worse.

Quietness: Cats win.  Most dog owners are just used to it, but barking dogs are a serious nuisance for everyone else. I used to HATE barking until I got a dog who barks (whaddya know?).  Some dogs don't, actually. My previous dog, Ginger, never barked. And some cats are noisy little bastards. But at least a yowling siamese can't be heard miles away.

Trainability:  Dogs win.  Yes, SOME people have success in training cats (see the Cat Circus if you don't believe this) but ANYONE can train a dog, even your doofus redneck next-door-neighbor can make his dog "sit." But cats don't "need" training the way a dog does- their natural behavior is much less annoying/dangerous. So this might be a tie, actually.

Other factors:  Dogs generally travel better than cats- cats are more stressed out by changes in routine.  Cats have softer fur than most dogs, and are nicer to pet.  Cats purr. Dogs can guard your house, and so on. Cats claw the furniture, dogs chew it.

I think in the end, both camps are right. Dogs are needy, they take a lot more work to train them, exercise them, and they cost more, but they give you so much back in terms of trainability, devotion, they will go anywhere with you, protect you, etc. Cats are soft, affectionate, low-maintenance critters who give you companionship and affectionate for almost no work on your part.

If it comes down to "bang for your buck" it looks about equal.  It just depends on your lifestyle which one suits you better.  And people who consider themselves exclusive fans of one or the other should not be so quick to judge.

how does this thing work?

I am still figuring out how to use Blogger to get things done- I have always a been a consumer of content more than a creator of it, so don't expect anything fancy here...
Figuring out how make links:  if these work, I did it right.

my favorite forum
my current favorite blog

And how to do images...

Bruno with his cute backpack on the PCT

So, not exactly sure how this will line up... That's what preview is for, right?

me on a fencepost at hell's canyon

Should I go back to college?

Karen Pryor Academy (dog training school) prefers applicants with at least 2 years of college.  Drat!  I wonder if I could somehow turn my 3 semesters at Lewis and Clark into something useful, instead of a useless money pit...

I'm going to go browse Clackamas Community College's website.  Maybe the credits from LC could transfer.

Bruno's Story

Bruno is a dog.
Bruno is a mixed-breed dog.
Bruno is a mixed-breed shelter dog.
Bruno is a big, black, mixed breed shelter dog.
Bruno is a big, black, mixed-breed high-kill "shelter" dog.

With each statement, his chances of making it out alive got less and less.  He is one of the lucky ones at Pima Animal Care and Control, PACC, of Tucson, AZ.  Last time I looked at the pet section of Tucson's craigslist, someone had posted that they killed 54 dogs in a day.  None of these dogs were "unadoptable"; some were sick with minor illnesses (usually URI, upper respiratory infection- a cold), others had treatable injuries (such as from fighting with kennelmates, the dogs are kept 2-3 to a cage) some were pregnant or lactating, some were starved and skinny, and others were "too shy to adopt".  Some had simply run out of time, and were killed to make room for new inmates.
Before their time was up, the dogs were kept in concrete-floored runs, overcrowded, no beds to lie on, and no walks except for the occasional volunteer.  Even dogs previously housetrained were forced to eliminate in their sleeping area, which is very stressful to dogs.

For these reasons, it was practically imperative that I save a dog from that hellhole.  I was visiting my dear sister Molly in Tucson, where she lived at the time. I was in Arizona to go to a primitive-skills campout/seminar called WinterCount (see backtracks.net for more info, if you're curious.)  I had just lost my dear friend Ginger, an 11-year old racing-bred Alaskan Husky, and was craving canine companionship.  (Ginger deserves a whole post of her own to tell her story, so I'll save it until then.)

So without telling anyone my plans, I sneaked out of her house, down to the pound "just to look at the dogs" and maybe choose one to come back and adopt later, after thinking about it for a few days.  NOT!  I had seen on their website that Bruno was half-price because he'd been there nearly two months, and though he didn't have a set "expiration date," his time was running out.   I saw him sitting sadly in his kennel and it was love (or maybe pity) at first sight.  I also said "Oh! I thought he was bigger!" because in his photo on the web, he looked Labrador or German Shepherd sized. Here was a trim little 50-pounder, not an 80 lb bruiser.  "Bruno! What a dumb name! I'll have to change that," I thought.  Ha- famous last words...

So I took him, paid my money, and walked out with a dog.  Now what?  I had no way to get him back to Molly's house, as I didn't have a car. This is how I even got to the shelter in the first place:
 I had started walking, but it was WAYYY farther than it looked on a map. And it was hot, so I sat down at a bus shelter to wait and rest.  As it ended up, a man who started talking to me offered to drive me the rest of the way there.  Ah, what the heck. I have my phone and it's not far, I figured.  The car was littered with McDonald's wrappers and there was a glass pipe full of marijuana in plain site.  But he was kind.

How to get back?  Well, Mr. messy-car-pothead had given me his phone number in a vain attempt to flirt with me, so I called him back, and he came and picked me and my new dog up and drove us to Molly's house.    

The first thing anyone said when we came in the door- "Whose dog is that?"  Well, he's mine now...

A few days passed, while I next put my brain to work figuring out how to get him and me back to Oregon.  (for anyone not familiar with Western American Geography, that's a two day drive, at least.)  Still no car.  No money to pay for a plane ticket and have him in cargo.  No dogs allowed on Greyhound (ironic, eh?)  So that left one choice:  The almightly CRAIGSLIST RIDESHARE.  

I replied to posts that were even reasonable close to my destination- San Fran? Sure, I can find someone to take me the rest of the way to Portland.  Seattle? Okay, just drop me off along the way.  Boy, I can tell you, there are so WEIRD people out there.  My first ride I thought I'd figured emailed me to tell me she decided to leave early without me.  One guy insisted that I not wear deodorant while in his car.  One guy told me that he had to stop in Indio, CA, so he could use his foodstamps. "No, dude, food stamps are a NATIONAL program, you can use them anywhere in the USA."  He was sure that since he applied for them in Indio, he had to use them there. No use arguing with stupid, I guess...

I ended up getting a ride with a long-haul trucker (name withheld because he broke his company's rules to take me.)  He was taking a load of scrap metal from Phoenix to San Francisco, and then going home to Portland. Score! A direct route.

The drive took two days.  Where did we sleep?  The cab of the truck had buckbeds in it- I took the top one, the trucker took the bottom. He snored like a jackhammer!  During the day, we talked about the few things we had in common (a love of travel, dog ownership, that was pretty much it.)  He said he wanted to get a dog to ride in his truck with him, but hadn't decided what kind would be best.

After 2 days and hundreds of miles and learning more than I will ever need to know about commercial trucking, we pulled in Portland, Oregon, my home town, and as they say, the rest is history.

Who is this Claire person anyway?

Okay, this is the post where I introduce myself to my (currently non-existent) readership.

Hello, my name is Claire and I'm an internet-aholic.

My current favorite blogs are Cake Wrecks and Ruffly Speaking.  I also spend a lot of time on the forums at dogster.com.

I'm obsessed with my rescue mutt, Bruno, and dogs in general.

I spend a lot of time scheming about how to survive in the modern world without resorting to corporate prostitution.  So far, the things I know I can do:

1. Train dogs.  I'd like to get some formal schooling and experience in this, but I think I've got the basics, and I find it absolutely fascinating.

2.  Make pottery- handbuilt and wheel-thrown.  I am particularly enamored of the primitive open-pit style of pottery firing.  It's like going back in time to our caveman days, making things out of mud and baking them in the fire!

3.  Not die in the wilderness... I can make a fire without matches, pick the right wild plants and mushrooms to not get poisoned,  build a shelter, navigate and tell time by the sun and stars, get drinking water almost anywhere, and be generally self-sufficient.

4.  Be a lazy butt and read blogs, forums, and articles on the internet all day.

Anyone know a good way to combine all these and make a living at it?

Well, here goes nothing...

This is my first post on this new blog.  I've dabbled a little in blogging before (livejournal, myspace, facebook) but this is fo' real, people.  If I don't keep up with this on a regular basis, you can come over to my house and kick my butt.