A Chicken Is Not Pillage

Happy Birthday, Skete

The Sketer Bug is one year old today.  I need to find a way to make beef tallow candles to stick in his liver birthday dinner.

Heartbreaking

I hear that it is, anyway.  I seriously don't have the heart to watch this.  There is nothing like the love of a dog, and the loss of any life breaks more than one heart.

 

Weird, With Pee!

I just made a run to Belgrade to drop off half a cup of dog piss.  How odd is that?

My beloved has become a crusader against the early neutering of pet animals.  Her research has been prodigious.  She may even have made a convert of our Vet, but that remains to be seen.  We now find ourselves on the cutting edge of American animal science.  Weird.

Still, it makes no sense to castrate or spay animals who rely on hormones to achieve their full growth.  That should be simple enough.  Every loving pet owner understands the same basic dictum: do no harm to those in your care.

I will post more about this as the situation develops.

Odd World

I opened the Sunday Bozeman Comical and was greeted by a third of the page devoted to the grinning visage of Mike Kramer, EX-Coach of the MSU Bobcats.  Fully a third of the A section was devoted to his tale of struggle and woe.  Let me be plain.  I loathed the guy.  He's a remora, attaching himself to the gluteal tissue of any athlete from whom he can suck the visage of success.  I remain hopeful that the Bobcats will destroy the ISU Bengals by 50 points every year for at least the next 5.  I remain fearful for the community of Pocatello, that they face the fury of his flavorless cast-offs.

I came home this evening, and discovered the Sunday paper torn apart across the living room floor.  The puppy has been very good about not destroying things while we're gone, but apparently he couldn't stand Kramer's mug facing him from the coffee table either.  Good dog.

Also in the Sunday paper was a sad retrospective.  27 years ago, the Nichols boys kidnapped biathlete Kari Swenson.  They shot her, and murdered one of her would-be rescuers.  It is a well written article, and kudos to Amanda Ricker for penning it.  When I was in school, a few short years later, I was treated at the MSU health circus by Kari's mom.  A truly amazing lady.  I was struck at the time by how normal and caring one could be while getting over the horrors that we can visit on each other.

Yesterday morning, reading the paper, there was a police report blurb about a man wandering around Hyalight campground with a rifle.  (The reports from the 15th haven't been posted yet, or I would link.)  He was telling campers that they'd better leave because those woods, the forest, belonged to him.  There was no story about his arrest or his threats that certainly terrified a camper or two.  Just the blurb in the police reports.  It's probably the Chronicle's fault, but the first thing I thought of was the Swenson kidnapping and the Mountain Men that captivated the national attention a couple of decades ago.  I realize that this dickhead didn't kidnap a pretty athletic young woman, but how strange it is that this becomes a mundanity relative to where we've been?

I love my dogs.  I love them for their kindness, their courage, their strength in the face of pain, their adoration and their obvious football savvy.  But I love them most because what is wrong, what is odd,  remains strident in their world.

This Ain't Right

A root canal dental procedure for Homo Sapiens Sapiens is $400 - $600 dollars.  A root canal dental procedure for Canis Lupis Familiaris is $1200 - $1700.  Does this actually seem right?

This Is Why

Having two German Shepherds wrestling over who gets to be closest to you is the best of all experience.  Of course, having 140 pounds of dog squirming around your legs is a bit challenging ...

Just For The Record

I've only been posting it at LitW to be ironically educational and mildly irritating, but the puppy really seems to like Rush.   Go figure.

Skeet

My Sis-i-L was fairly unhappy that I didn't post a better picture of the puppy's face.  This is the best we've been able to get, so far.  He's almost as camera shy as Teddy was, camera shy meaning squirmy and un-photographable.  Face it.  These damn dogs are perpetual motion machines.  They just don't tend to slow down.

Unlike any puppy I've ever known, he doesn't nap very well or very consistently.  There's always the doin'.  I'm certain there will be more pictures later.

We've decided to name him Skeet, in honor of the monks of New Skeet, legendary trainers and breeders of the German Shepherd dog.

Our Family Grows

 

 

 

 

 

I remain amazed that something so gangly, awkward and clumsy could become something so athletic, graceful and noble.

 

 

 

 

Yes, we have a new puppy.  He's a 3 month old German Shepherd dog, which ensures about 6 months of coming misery.  We haven't named him quite yet, though I'm leaning towards Yogi bear, since we have a Teddy and a Smokey.  Teddy is already bummed that the puppy doesn't understand big-dog games just yet, but he'll get there.  The puppy already follows Teddy around like he's some kind of excellent life coach (yeah, that's a laugh.)

Oh, The Weather Outside Is F ...

I threw a snowball to Teddy, and he decided to eat it.  As he kept repositioning it for a better bite, he built a bigger snowball.  Were he so inclined, I think he could make a snowman ... and then eat it.  Keep in mind, this shouldn't be happening in May!