Article RSS Feed

In Loving Memory of Mishka

Wed, 21 Jan 2009 21:27:24 GMT

Mishka was one of a kind dog. I never met a dog like him. He was happy and boisterous. He loved to goose people and would find the responses very amusing, and prance around afterwards. He had his own mind and did pretty much whatever he wanted. Taken from us way too soon a spark of happiness and a ray of sunshine has left us.

San Jose - The most dog UN-Friendly City?

Sat, 26 Jan 2008 18:11:06 GMT

Correct me if I’m wrong ;)

It seems to me that San Jose has become one of the most dog un-friendly cities. I was watching a program called Dog Friendly Cities, and it seems that many large Cities (San Francisco, Miami, New York etc) are very dog friendly.

On the other hand San Jose is terrible by comparison.

For a start there are very few dog parks, and the ones that there are are very small, and are unlit, and close too early. In fact District 6 has NO dog parks at all! Everytime they try to open one someone complains.

The recent change in the Title 7 Animal control laws are prohibitive, dog unfriendly, and probably unconstitutional.

All San Jose Street fairs ban dogs, even though, last time I looked, dogs are allowed on City streets when on a leash.

You can get your dog seized by Animal Control if it pee’s on someones lawn and they complain, I hate to think what would happen if the dog were to poop on someones lawn! (Regardless of whether you pick up or not).

Most City parks ban dogs, even on leash. All school fields ban dogs, even though our tax dollars pay for those fields.

All establishments (except a few pet stores) ban dogs, and I have never seen tie outs or loops outside where you can tie your dog up if you want to go inside (to get coffee etc).

So I vote San Jose as THE MOST DOG UN-FRIENDLY CITY.

Thanks San Jose, I’ll be thinking about that next time you want to hike my taxes or have me vote for you.

Grant RIP

Tue, 22 Jan 2008 13:36:28 GMT

Grant had been diagnosed with liver cancer. He had one tumor removed but the other was inoperable. He was on various medications which were designed to prolong his quality of life for a while.He did very well for a few months, and had a good few months.

Grant passed away Monday morning at 2am 1/21/2008. He was OK in the morning but sometime in the late afternoon something was bothering him. He seemed disoriented and was uncomfortable. I took him to the emergency vet at around 1am, they said he was going into shock, but couldn’t say why but it could be due to the cancer. I made one of the hardest decisions any owner has to make for their pet, and had them put him to sleep while he was in my arms. I couldn’t bear to see him suffer any longer, and it was pretty clear he was not going to make it through the night.

RIP by dear friend, I’ll love you forever.

My Foster Dogs

Sat, 18 Aug 2007 16:21:22 GMT

Here are the dogs I have fostered and are now in their own homes with new families.

Jaeger and Moose - my first foster dogs, both Siberian Huskies and they were brothers. Really sweet and affectionate.

Tundra - Another good boy, a Woolly Malamute.

Misty - A Siberian mix and a really sweet girl.

Taz - A red and white Siberian, a real character. Ended up back at the shelter and never picked up we placed him again, but was found with someone other than the person we adopted out to, and taken away from them for abuse. We placed him yet again and the new parents seem very happy with him.

Tonka - A Mal mix, great dog played well with all dogs, a little mouthy with people but very affectionate.
Ended up being returned to a shelter by his adopting parents, I thought he had been euthanized and was very upset about that, but it turned out someone adopted him from the shelter, (not sure why they told us otherwise), and so far he is doing very well with his new family.

Kodi- A 5 month old Malamute puppy, he was HUGE for his age. Really sweet puppy. Saw him recently he is a huge boy, still a sweet puppy. His new parents are very happy with him

Summit - A 1 year old Husky/something mix, really a huggable and kissey dog, loved to sleep on top of you all night! and cuddle up to you.

Rescue and Fostering

Thu, 02 Aug 2007 13:28:18 GMT

Recently I started helping a couple of rescue groups in my area BASH and MUSH.

I foster Huskies and Malamutes.

I have to say this is incredibly rewarding, even though it is really hard to let the fosters go, and can be quite stressful figuring out if the potential adopter is right for the dog.

So far I have fostered 6 dogs, and all have been adopted out.

I think it helps that I already have 4 dogs of my own and know I simply can’t cope with more on a long term basis. So keeping them is out of the question.

If you can do this I highly recommend it.

Snow Dogs R Us

Thu, 21 Jun 2007 21:17:42 GMT

This new site is a social networking site for Snow Dog owners and friends of Snow Dogs.

It is a user contributed site where you can show pictures of your dogs, recommend places that are dog friendly, and organize events for your Snow Dogs.

Check it out at snowdogsr.us

Idaho is trying to exterminate Wolves

Sun, 24 Sep 2006 10:54:27 GMT

Idaho has decided to kill off two thirds of its wolves, for no good reason of course, other than they interfere with the hunters, also it gives the hunters something else to hunt. Not that shooting a radio collared Wolf from a plane is sport.

Please sign the petition at defenders of wildlife to help stop their plans.

Dog Parks

Fri, 22 Sep 2006 00:13:39 GMT

I love off-leash dog parks, with the number of dogs I have I guess that is obvious. They get a lot more exercise at the dog park than if I walk them, plus they seem to enjoy it a lot more.

Unfortunately in my area (South Bay), dogs are a low priority, there are only about 6 or 7 dog parks in the entire South Bay, and many of those are not really worth visiting, they are either poorly maintained, or tiny.

The City Park planners have tried to get approval to build more dog parks locally, but all the plans have been nixed one way or another, Usually people who live close by complain for one reason or another. I think this is really selfish of them.

If a totally unused or under utilized park has been ear marked for a dog park out they come, trying to save the park! A small minority of people, even though they don’t live near enough to the park to be affected by the noise or the parking, they find some idiotic excuse to nix the project. Like recently some local chap decides he doesn’t want a dog park any where near him, so he comes up with a lame excuse – it is a danger to the kids going to the local school. What a joke, this is a totally enclosed dog park, less dangerous than what happens now, when people let their dogs off leash when it isn’t enclosed. The problem is the local park commission bought the argument and indefinitely postponed the decision to build the dog park.

They built a Kid park right behind my house, they didn’t ask me, it affects me directly because of the noise, my tax dollars go to building it, but when we want something my tax dollars can be spent on that I can actually use, oh no! I pay for this guys kids to go to school! I pay for his kids sports facilities, but he gets to decide that I cannot have a place to let my dogs legally run around off leash in (me and a few hundred other dog lovers!). Whatever happened to democracy and majority rules? I don’t have kids, yet I have to pay for other peoples kids facilities, my dogs are my kids so what about them?

I know many people will be offended by me comparing my dogs to their kids, but then my dogs are smarter than their Honor Student

Wolf Killings in Alaska

Wed, 20 Sep 2006 23:09:36 GMT

It is appalling that in this day and age wolves are still being hunted and killed in Alaska.

Even worse they are shot from the air in something called aerial gunning, the poor things don’t stand a chance. there is no reason for this other than hunters greed and ignorance. I don’t understand the kind of people that would get enjoyment out of this non-sport, but they should be ashamed of themselves. The good Alaskan people passed an initiative to ban aerial hunting, I also believe there is a federal law against it, but the Governor of Alaska decided it was OK to allow it.

Sign the petition Here to help also please support Defenders of Wildlife and use that site to send a letter to your congress critter, and if you can support them with a donation to help stop this it would help save the wolves.

You can also sign this petition although I’m not sure how effective that group is, but Defenders of Wildlife are very effective.

I also personally will not visit Alaska until their Governor stops this senseless killing.

UPDATE Now that the Bush administration has taken Wolves of the protected list they are being hunted and killed everywhere again. Please visit Defenders of Wildlife and sign the petition to express your outrage at this travesty.

Also Sarah Palin the current Governor of Alaska is trying to increase the number of Wolves killed. Sarah Palin is about as Anti Wolf as you can get, her anti-conservation stance is scary. Please visit this site to learn more, and please help as best you can to stop her and her cronys.