Saturday, February 23, 2013

Blind/deaf puppy needs home

UPDATE 2/25/12: Well, the adopter changed their minds - this puppy still needs a home, or to be transferred to another rescue where it will have a better chance at finding a home.

UPDATE 2/24/12: A permanent home has been found for the pup, thanks to everyone who shared.

Trying to boost the signal on this puppy who I just found out about this morning.

Pendleton, Oregon: This puppy is 8 weeks old, an Australian Shepherd, and probably a female, but I'm not sure. She is mostly blind and deaf and needs a home. She is currently under the care of Pendleton PAWS (AKA Pioneer Humane Society). There is no other info on her at this time, but you can contact Sherry of PAWS at 541 - four-two-nine - 2808 or email: pawspendleton@gmail.com for more information.

PAWS is reluctant to transfer this puppy to another rescue, but I'd personally like for someone who has experience with blind dogs to contact them and at least offer advice and/or convince them to transfer to a specialized rescue. I'm sure they're capable of finding her a home, however I don't think anyone at PAWS has experience with blind/deaf dogs and they've already mentioned the possibility of euthanizing her if a home isn't found.

I have it on good (but third hand) authority that the breeder of the puppy threatened to shoot her before giving her up to PAWS. This is not suprising, and of course means she was the product of a purposeful merle to merle breeding.

Of course, all the readers of this blog know how unethical it is to do a double merle breeding, right?


 

Sunday, February 17, 2013

Big Game Hunting 2012

I haven't been hunting as much since I moved up state. I was spoiled back home: I knew every nook and cranny of "our" hunting grounds (private land we have permission to hunt on). I have a pretty good feel for the movements of the black tail deer: when they're up eating, when they're bedding down, the "look" of a good spot to find them, how the weather effects their behavior, what time to be up, and when to call it quits and try again tomorrow..

Here, I'm not familiar with the terrain or the subtle differences in deer species. I don't know any good spots, and what's worse, it's a lot more crowded. People come from all over the country to hunt deer and elk here (whereas not many people care for hunting tiny little black tails in the coast range which is steep and brushy as a rainforest). I've heard from many locals that opening week of rifle deer season is a feeding frenzy.

I've never had to deal with crowds in the woods, and I it's not worth it to me to deal with it to get some venison. And honestly it's a bit intimidating to try to"break into the market" as it were, especially with a forest so crowded with trophy hunters who take themselves too seriously and think they own certain sections of public land.

I'd much rather drive five hours to my old stomping grounds.

Dad and I both drew a controlled cow tag for a landowner preference hunt in 2012. For those who haven't heard of it, basically a large landowner, in this case a private forestry company, asks the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife to issue special hunting tags just for a specific region for controlling elk populations that are getting too big. And, in this case, damaging newly planted trees. The hunt was for the month of January, but I could only drive down for four days

It's a large area, and there's one or two herds (50-100 individuals) who travel through it. We drive the network of logging roads until we cut tracks, then, depending on the age of the tracks, we'll park and follow them until we find either a good place to come back later and ambush them, or run into the elk themselves. This is the method that's bagged us, between my dad and myself, an average of one elk every year for the last 10 years. The trouble is, if the herd isn't in the boundary of the hunt, there's nothing you can do about it. That's what happened this year.

Alas, this is, as a wise man once said, why they call it hunting and not gathering.

It didn't help that was pregnant and couldn't hike very much. I got dizzy and short of breath after only two miles of uphill hiking with hardly any brush. I wanted to yell, "hey! stop being stupid, I'm trying to procure some high quality protein for this fetus!" But since I didn't know who to yell at, I went back to the pickup and ate a granola bar instead.


This is the last elk I got, back in 2008:


Elk 2007

Sunday, February 10, 2013

Well, crap

See, no ever tells you this stuff before you get pregnant. Pretty much the only advice you hear is stuff like, "chew ginger for morning sickness" or "don't clean the cat's litter box".

No one ever says, oh, by the way, cells from your fetus could migrate to your brain and lodge there for decades.

Monday, February 4, 2013

Pregnancy Calender: Week 14-22

Week 14-16
How big is your baby?
About the size of a newborn Daschund.

The fetus now looks like a baby. It hiccups. It swallows. It pees. It has eyelids to cover its alien eyeballs.

Week 17-19
How big is your baby?
About the size of a newborn Boston Terrier.

The hiccups continue, and this is about the time the woman could start to feel movements. THE QUICKENING HAS BEGUN.

Week 20-22
How big is your baby?
About the size of a newborn border collie.

This is the age you can get an ultrasound to determine the gender of your baby with pretty good accuracy. This common (but not actually routine) procedure is, of course, one of the most recognized parts of pregnancy because its so often featured on TV/movies.

Alas, week 22 is when your fetus finally looses its tail. (Well, for most babies that is).








Saturday, February 2, 2013

Guest post

I have a guest post about dogs and food allergies over at the Retriever, Dog, and Wildlife blog. Check it out, if you wish.