Wordless Wednesday

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I love my country's flag, especially how the pole tastes

Pancho is our July 2, 2017 Pup of the Week

How long does it take a dog and human to bond?  It is usually seconds.  But it can take much longer for a dog to be accepted into a pack.  

But there is a pack where dogs are accepted every day.  The pack is lead by Bisihi, who took that role from the legendary Angel Apollo.  Their mom, Kimberli Groom, is a mortal angel for dogs without homes.  She finds them, she brings them to her pack, and Bishi, Napa, and the other teachers help train these lost babies to be perfect dogs and find their forever homes.

Dozens of dogs move in and out of Bishi’s pack a year.  We barely get to know them before they are with their forever homes.  It is always a happy ending.

It is hard for mortal humans to understand why Pancho’s story has a happy ending.  Mortal humans define happiness as staying mortal.  But sometimes throwing off that old mortal coil can lead to joy.

Pancho came to Momma Kimberli a few months ago.  He won’t tell me where he was before then.  I can’t tell you if he remembers or doesn’t.  The Bridge has a way of Eternally Sun Shining all the bad memories away.    

When Pancho arrived at Momma Kimberli’s, he knew he was home.  He was determined to stay with this marvelous woman, and these terrific dogs, for the rest of his life.  But there was a problem.  Momma Kimberli, according to the law, could only have a certain number of dogs.  If she took Pancho as a permanent member of her pack, there would be one less unrescued dog for whom she could not find a new home.

But he could be there for a while.  And Pancho turned a while into forever.  

Pancho arrived with bad teeth and troublesome cough.  The doctor wondered if it was a kennel cough or some other curable disease, but it was not.  Pancho had congestive heart failure.  To the mortals it was a sad story, he never got his forever home.

But he did.  Pancho welcomed being sent to the Bridge.  He was met by Angel Apollo who congratulated him, he was part of their pack forever.  He would live with Angel Apollo and their other pack members forever.

Pancho had retrieved his great reward.  He was part of the family he loved, for the rest of his life, and into immortality.

Sometimes the end of a mortal life is the greatest gift.

Tails From Rainbow Bridge: Save the Whales!

Oh, how the humans judge us, we with our noses up one another’s butts.  They deemed it such words as “gross” and “disgusting.”  And if we happened to partake of a warm stool now and then we would be told how bad we were and kisses were withheld for an inhumane amount of time.

But now the world needs butt sniffers.  And guess who they are turning to?  That is correct, us, those they so freely mocked beforehand.  

We have a man named Sam Wasser to thank for recognizing what lesser humans thought were vices are, in fact, virtues.

Wasser is the director of the Center for Conservation Biology at the University of Washington.  He came to the realization that there is a lot that can be learned from poop on the ocean floor.  And when you need poop detectives who are you going to call?  That’s right:  K-9.

Here are some facts about us dogs and our sniffers:  Our sense of smell is 10,000 to 100,000 more powerful than man’s, so don’t tell us you weren’t the one who dealt it, everyone of you have your own distinct natural gas smell.  we can smell poop from a mile away, and we really like smelling poop.

Since 1997 scientists have used us to find the poop left by moose, tigers, wolves, spotted owls, salamanders, and even crickets.  (Why crickets?  Let’s just say Jiminy owes someone some money, and that bug is a nervous pooper.)

And now we are sniffing out whale poop.  Did you know that right whale poop is bright orange and smells terrible and that orca poops smell like salmon?  Of course, you didn’t.  Who would walk around with facts like that in their head?  But now you do, and you will never get that fact of our your mind.

While humans only hold up signs and chant our sniffers are actually saving the whales.  We help the researchers find the poop.  They study it to find out why whales moms are losing their calves at birth, why whales are not getting enough food, and what effect pollutants have on their diets.  Through our olfactory skills, we may save the whale population.  A wise soul once said if the whales die then the people die.  (That soul was me, and I just said it so someday, when the saying is famous, you can tell your grandchildren you were there the day Foley Monster said it.)

The next time you see a dog butt sniffing or sticking their nose it poop do not yell at him; he is just saving the world.

Overheated by Pocket Dog

River Song and I live very spoiled, privileged lives.  We are well aware that there are dogs forced to sleep outside in the heat, or don’t have a soft bed with humans.  We are lucky to have those things.  We realize how lucky we are when we lose one of them.

Please don’t think we were without a parent.  If that happened, I would become so concerned that I would begin to spin around until I launched myself into space.

But Monday night we lost something important.  We lost our air conditioning.  I was sitting with my Dad after a strenuous day of me overseeing his garden and lawn work.  Daddy is very sensitive.  He can tell when the temperature goes up a single degree and he sensed that our house was no longer at its perfect 72 degrees.

He picked me up.  Normally I am delighted to be picked up.  But I am sensitive too.  I can tell when a human’s emotional temperature was rising, and Daddy’s was about to shatter records.  In the spring of 2015, they had a new HVAC unit installed outside.  It worked without a problem for the summer, but in the winter the heat kept going out when it was very cold and windy.  Men came out and checked, adjusted several things, and the heat continued to go out when it was needed the most.  The next winter the same thing happened.  In March the plumbers said they fixed it by turning a discharge pipe towards the house.  Now it is summer, and the AC isn't working.  This wasn’t going to be good for anyone.

Daddy picked up that little thing he uses to talk into, and he yelled at someone about the unit never working right, and he wanted something done to stop these problems.  He was holding me which made me concerned.  I would be an accomplice to whatever he threatened

A little later the thing made that funny noise.   Daddy talked to someone else.  He had put me down and was calmer (making me look like the cause of his irrational behavior)   Someone would come out to check the AC in the morning.

Then our entire world was turned upside down.  The front door was opened, the porch windows were too, a big fan, standing upright, with a turning head, that reminded me of a Dalek, and whispered “exterminate” at a pitch only I could hear, was brought into the living room.  Then we sat in general hotness.  

River kept getting off the Mommy’s recliner and sitting on the floor, a sure sign that she was overheated.  With the doors and windows open all sorts of sites and sounds filtered into the house to keep us alert.  It wasn’t until well after sundown when the temperature fell into acceptable dog range.  

At bedtime, the Dalek was brought into the bedroom (great, where it could kill us in our sleep) and a tiny Dalek was put in the window.  It was still hot, but we were too exhausted to notice.

By morning the house had cooled off nicely.  The man came to fix the AC and discovered that the unit was not installed correctly, there was no filter,  and the coils had frozen up. They would have to wait for it to melt and come back the next day with filters, so the unit didn’t freeze again.  Daddy could have got upset again, but then something else arrived that morning.  Something that would throw out entire house into disarray.

But you will have to wait for River’s blog next week.

Because this is a CLIFFHANGER

Wordless Wednesday

Beat This Caption

This is the last damn time I am chasing this kid and catching him after he runs out the back gate.