BT puppies for sale, show, agility, freestyle dance, obedience, tracking, rally, and anything and everything! Have had health testing and healthy parents. The puppies come with a health guarantee and they are SMART puppies, well socialized, with clicker training started. They are inquisitive, love-to-learn puppies, and come with their first shots and a micro chip. From champion lines. Hobby breeder. Elwha, from the river nearby.
360-477-1869 or email cmetzler48@gmail.com
Did you know that paradise is full of non-paradise things? One is Rat Lung Worm Disease for which I give the dogs special medicine to keep that from happening, and another is feral pigs. Volcanos, lava, etc. can be worrisome sometimes. Mostly it is paradise though.
On March 2nd, Reese, Kathleen's Border Terrier, encountered a feral pig. The pig put some holes in her right arm and I got to sew that up. You already know that if you read the last blog. Yesterday, I took the stitches out and she looks very well. The wounds have closed nicely and no one will ever be able to even see her scar under that lavish coat she carries around. Today there was a pig outside my yard driving my girls bananas, grunting as it went along the fence, ignoring the dogs barking at it and me yelling at it to go away. It couldn't care less about us. Luckily, I have a chain link fence and they can't come into my yard.
On March 3rd, poor Mer/Mermaid and I experienced eclampsia. I had never seen it and hadn't known to look out for it. My super friend, Nancy, told me what it was when I sent her a video of Mer's legs stiff and shaking. I threw some calcium into her and headed for the vet. The vet gave her a regimen to follow and we came home, loaded down with Tums (calcium,) and yogurt, etc. She did OK until the 9th when it happened again. I was told to keep the puppies away from her except that two could nurse once every two hours. That means I feed the other four, every two hours. It is working, they still look fat and healthy and I look tired. Nancy helped my by giving me recipes for making puppy food and she even made me yogurt in her InstaPot. I make up the formula and feed it to the pups. Kathleen and I painted the puppies with fingernail polish (which falls off them fast), but I need to know who is who so that they each get a chance to nurse on mom. I'm not sure, but I think some of them are tired of the formula and want to only suck on mom instead of on a sponge full of formula. I'd vote for that, but I will continue the sponge thing to protect Mer Mom.
Nancy thinks that they will soon be up and around enough that they will start eating off a plate. I am hoping. Since they opened their eyes the day they were thirteen days old, they have been doing better and better about walking on four feet. They have a LONG way to go in that department, but they are getting better at it. I am thinking I will soon be seeing if they will eat off a saucer. Fingers crossed. I'm sure that they will eat it, but figure for awhile that more will be on the whelping pen blankets than in their tummies! This too will pass.
As far as floods, we didn't have one in Hawi. Maui and Kauai were hit the hardest, I think. There were gullies full of water roaring down to the ocean near Hilo, that side of the island, but the Kona side no. Kona side is the dry side and we feel lucky to get rain. Hawi, where the dogs, Kathleen and I live, is kind of on the line between dry and wet. The perfect "side." We are up at the north tip of the Big Island.
So there, all is well, as well as can be expected.
Yesterday took all! I awoke at about 0500 to my phone going off. It was my daughter. She wanted me to go get Reese and take her to the vet. She had been hurt by a feral pig in their yard! Luckily, Kathleen caught that rascally Border Terrier before the pig got away and Reese chased her down into the gully by Kathleen's house. Reese might not have survived that! Kathleen had loaned her car to my sister and was walking to work every day. Of course I jumped into the car FAST and picked up Reese and tried to console Kathleen.
Who needs vets?!!! Not really, I totally don't mean that, BUT, I stitched up people for many years, why couldn't I stitch up Reese? Kathleen, when she was young, had a cat who had developed a cancer. I took big lumps off of her and extended her life for a couple of years. So, why not try?! With the help of my son's girlfriend, who happened to be around, I injected Reese with lidocaine, shaved off the hair around the wounds, cleaned the areas and sewed her up. She didn't like it, but with lidocaine, she didn't fight me. The lidocaine was the hardest part.
The entire rest of the day, my shoulder muscles were in a knot, but that has mostly gone away now. Above are the before and after pictures. She limped for a bit of the day, but fairly soon, she was walking as if nothing had happened! I wasn't about to throw a ball for her, but I'm pretty sure she would have run after it and jumped for it AND caught it! She has even forgiven me for hurting her with the lidocaine. That's a Border Terrier for you!
Feral pigs are rampant here. They walk around town during the night, and are in the fields surrounding the houses pretty much all the time. They are lethal to dogs. Too bad they aren't lethal to mongoose!
Kathleen, as one would think, was beside herself all day long. I tried to tell her that Reese was doing well, but I don't think that she believed me until I took Reese to her after work and she saw the girl who acted as if NOTHING like what had happened had happened. Could one of US have done that? I doubt it. Anyway, Kathleen turned happy after seeing her best friend doing so well.
Now you want to know, why there isn't a fence keeping the pigs out. There is a pile of posts growing in the yard and all the other stuff needed for said fence. I am thinking that it will be up very soon, but life in the islands is awfully nice and sometimes it takes a long time for things to get done as the surf might be up or a poker game or one must go fishing for dinner, etc. It is also fairly hard to find anyone who will work, but our worker is on the ball and getting it all ready. Soon Reese will be able to go outside and not have to be on a lead.
The babies are doing well. Yesterday, four of the six had weighed over a pound and two more were close behind. They are a week old today and in six days will have their eyes open. I, so far, know of two people who are coming to stay here and pick up their babies close to the beginning of May. I am hoping to keep one of the boys myself. It is always fun to see how they grow. I LOVE puppies. When they are able to run around in the grass, we will spend most of our days outside in the side yard under an avocado tree and I will watch them learn to climb, jump, balance, investigate, wrestle with the others and do all kinds of puppy things. It is exciting just thinking about it.
I discovered some black bamboo in my yard yesterday, all in pieces. My tenant had brought them in after I had planted a row of them alone the front to, hopefully, keep some of the noise of the road out of the yard. He wants to see if he can bonzai bamboo. Interesting.
Kathleen had her first vaccination for COVID-19 yesterday. She works in a medical office. They won't vaccinate anyone younger than 75 in this state, at least not yet, so I have not had my vaccination. I'm more than glad that COVID-19 doesn't get dogs, at least not MOST dogs.
Didn't you just want to have me babble on and on. You don't ever have to read the entire thing, you know! I guess I'd better stop this and go hang another orchid in the lychee tree and make sure the two youngster girls are not getting into trouble. I have them in the back/side yard, away from Reese. They are too rambunctious and could tear open her wounds. Reese will not be back with them for quite a while. She'll just have to put up with me!
I hear babies calling. Better go see who can't find mom because they got themselves wrapped up in a blanket or some such. Believe it or not, it is cold here, for Hawaii and puppies can't control their temps.
Yesterday, February 24, 2021, Mer, aka Mermaid or Elwha's Siren of the Deep Blue, gave me six puppies. The first was a girl and weighted almost 7 ounces. She was the smallest. The last, and largest, was a girl, 8.9 ounces. In between were two more girls and two boys. All are doing well and quickly figured out how the milk bar works. They are quite mobile and I have to find them in the blankets and dog beds that are in the whelping box to keep them on soft bedding and to keep them warm. Warm, you say?!!!! Yes, it is winter in Hawaii and the wind is blowing quite hard today and last night. Puppies are born wet and that can be cold. I tented the whelping box/elevated bed and they dried out quite nicely and then they stayed warm all night and today. I have the windows closed. Babies do not have the ability to control their temperatures as more mature beings do. Mom/Mer is keeping them nice and warm giving out warm milk/colostrum and cuddling them. These babies will all be grizzles even though their mother is a blue. Dad obviously doesn't have a blue gene to share.
Some of the people getting a puppy are already making plane reservations to come pick up their babies and have some days of warmth in Hawaii. Others don't yet know that they are getting one! I need to start calling people. Some puppies will fly cargo to get to the mainland and others will fly in the cabin.
Dad is Duke who recently moved to Federal Way near Seattle. He has now learned what snow is and also what a TV is. Roger says that he loves TV, especially when there is a dog involved in whatever is playing. The first full day Duke was in Washington, he ran away from something that scared him in front of a pet store and was lost for three days. That was a scary thing, but the "club" of people known as Lost Dogs In King County found him and returned him to Roger. Thank goodness. A very nice man saved him from being run over by a car as Duke weaved in and out of cars on a busy arterial. Never again will Duke wear any kind of a collar besides a Martingale!
I didn't think that I could get a picture on here. I'll try to get more on here that show the pups, soon. I cheated and stole this from a text I sent to my daughter last night. She couldn't come over and see the pups because she loaned her car to my sister whose truck is in the garage. (I am thinking of getting a truck the next vehicle I have. I love my Prius and the mileage it gets, but I live in a place where one does NOT want a low to the ground car. Crazy thing scrapes the ground too often for my liking. Oh well, it will be awhile still before I can afford a new vehicle.)
Border Terrier puppies are always born black. One might well think that these babies are going to be blues, but no. They will get lighter and lighter in color and end up whatever shade of grizzle they will be at about seven months of age. Blues don't have a brown head, except for their eyebrows which are a brown line, much like a Rottweiler's. These guys have black at the tips of the brown hairs covering their heads.
I guess that I have prattled on long enough. All I really wanted to say was HOORAY! PUPPIES!
Mer, or Mermaid, my Henry daughter, had her first litter nine days ago. All of the puppies weighted over 7 ounces, two were well over 8 oz. Beautiful, healthy puppies, five of them, four of whom are GIRLS!!!! All are grizzle, although at least two are going to be very DARK grizzle dogs, like their grandmother Reese. I thought that they were blues at first they are so dark. They aren't. Kathleen and I are very excited and happy with them. I'm not getting much sleep yet, but that is the way it is.
My email has changed to cmetzler48@yahoo.com as somehow I broke my gmail.
I would put pictures of my puppies up if I could figure out how to do it. I used to be able to, and now I cannot. My MacBook has been in the computer fixit store for three weeks and NOTHING was fixed. At least I can tell you that there are puppies, just cannot put their pictures up. The pictures are being put on my and Kathleen's FaceBook pages, in case you are interested. I'll put more up today.
I hope that everyone is staying safe and wearing masks when going out. It really is helping the people who do it and we obviously need help!!!
Today in Hawaii is NICE. There is a gentle breeze so that it isn't too hot. The dogs and I just took down another banana tree with ripe bananas on it. Did you know that a banana tree will die after it has grown a bunch of bananas? They do, but the baby banana "trees" that grow underground during the time the banana bunch is ripening take over and the banana patch keeps on producing and growing bigger every day! Nancy's goats like the banana leaves a whole bunch, no pun intended, but it is a pain in the neck to get the leaves up to them. Sometimes Prentiss comes down with his pickup and gets the leaves. The goats like bananas even more than the leaves, and they LOVE breadfruit leaves. Not at all what you wanted to hear about.
I guess that I will get back to making some more masks. Pam Mizuno was awfully nice and ordered some fabric for me to use to make more masks. I had sent her masks with foxes on them, and so she sent me otter fabric. VERY cute. Let me know if you know of some really cute fabric and where I can get it!
I am hoping for a litter in a couple if months, despite this social distancing. According to CDC, COVID-19 does not attack dogs, so the dogs can mate! Having said that, Duke is nice and little, Mermaid is not. I don't know if he is going to be smart enough to get the job done and I have no one here to help me help them! So, all I can do it keep my fingers crossed.
Mermaid is a blue, Duke a grizzle, but Duke does have a fifty/fifty chance of having a blue gene. I almost hope that, if there is a mating, the pups will all be grizzle as blues are harder to keep cool in paradise than grizzles. My yard is fine, but most people aren't as lucky as I am to have all of the shade trees I have. That is my reasoning.
If I get puppies, the event will surely go into the blog. Keep watching! And cross some fingers! PS I just found these haikus that someone once wrote for me, for my puppies, long ago and far away. I have treasured them and will share them. This person had one of my puppies for a few days or weeks and found that his wife was allergic to her and he had to bring her back. He was devastated. Still makes me sad.... A wiry coat Belies a soft-hearted friend. Border Terrier.
The diminutive hunter scents the air. Snap snap! Rat meets its Maker.
Two giggly girls. One grizzly, wiggly friend. Match made in heaven. Says the Curmudgeon, aloha.
Mer/Mermaid and I flew to Chicago for this year's National Specialty. Betty and Skip Kaczynski picked me up at the airport and took me to their super neat house at the edge of Chicago. We spent the night there and then Betty, myself and Mer went out to St. Charles where the Specialty was held after we went far away to Earthdog. Mer was introduced to Earthdog, despite having killed rats in our very own yard! Maybe next time she will go all the way through the tunnel. Maybe not, who knows?!
We experienced the health clinic testing, all of it, and she came through with flying colors.
We laughed with many friends and had a good time. We got to see Tigger who used to be our Chip and watched him take second in the Open class. Mer took fourth in the Bred By class, so we came home with a ribbon.
While I was gone, my grandson and his partner came over to be with Kathleen. Duke, my three month old boy broke his leg and had to have pins put into the bone. The break went through the growth plate, so he may limp the rest of his life if the growth plate closes because if the break. Only time will tell us which it is, no limp or limp. My fingers are crossed. He is such a sweet boy.
Duke and I now are twins as I had my hand fixed on Monday, carpal tunnel and trigger finger. Left hand that matches his broken left front foot, he in a cast, me in a thick wrap. Kathleen took a picture. I can't seem to get pictures to go onto the blog any more. Hmmmmm. Wish Duke the best.
Life has seemed to be busy lately. Who knows why?!!!
We recently bred a litter. HOPEFULLY the breeding took. The puppies will be born around March 6th or so, if the breeding took. Mom is Addy and dad is Finley. Addy lives outside of Hilo and will come back here a week or so before she has her babies. That is what we did last time.
Finley is 2 1/2 and lives here, but is looking for a forever home. He is a sweet, funny boy, big for a BT, but SMART and loves to kill rats. Mostly he spends his days trying to get me to throw a ball for him. He needs to be the only dog in the house because if another dog goes for HIS ball, and ALL balls are his, he will, or might, fight with that dog. He would make a fantastic NoseWork dog. Both his parents are tracking and search and rescue dogs. They are so good that they BEAT all of the other dogs in their training group/"club." All of those other dogs are bloodhounds. Finley was made to do NoseWork, tracking, and/or S&R! Or hiking, etc.
Last week Lucy flew to Seattle to her forever home with Nancy. We had a person flying to Seattle and had Lucy set up to go in the cabin with Susan, but the Hawaiian Airlines people who think they know everything wouldn't let that happen. They inferred that THEY and not I knew how to take good care of the dogs. They were mixed up between flying in a bag in the cabin and in a crate, saying that the bag wasn't big enough for the puppy. Poor Lucy had to fly in a crate and I had to pay almost twice as much and worry until she arrived in Seattle safely.
Mer(maid,) Jade and I went to the dog shows on Oahu this weekend. Pam went too and carried one of the girls onto the plane for me. We had fun and ate some awfully good meals for dinners. Mmmmmmmmm! DO try Happy Days Chinese Restaurant close to Waikiki if you are ever there. It is now on my list for ANY time I go over there. Mer took two points at the shows, one point each day. Unfortunately it was a small show and there were few terriers. The Border Terriers made one point, and we were the only terrier breed that had more than one class dog. Mer took a Group 3 the first day and a Group 4 the second day.
We came home last night and the construction crew started the renovation of the store front this morning at 0615. This is a very exciting happening, excepting that it costs money that I will "borrow" from my retirement account!
It is raining at the moment. I swear that it is Hawi that should be called Camelot! It very often only rains at night. Love it here.
Tomorrow I take Jade in to get her health certificate and then I'll put her on a plane for Seattle tomorrow night. She too gets to meet her great, new forever family. She is hard to let go as she is as cute as they come, smart and not big. She, unfortunately, has a soft, fuzzy coat. I decided I didn't want that coat to go down the Elwha lines. Kathleen and I will miss the little rascal.
A very good friend called me a week or so ago to tell me he is getting married on the 28th in Albuquerque and kind of dared me to go. I'm going. I leave the 26th, get there the 27th after an almost 24 hour layover in Portland and leave to come home on the 30th. I will spend five hours in Seattle and get to see some friends there for lunch. Chip will ride in a bag with me to Albuquerque as he is going to another family on the mainland. After that trip, I will want to just be a homebody, but will be going to California in February. Crazy me!
Kathleen is probably going to quit her job and go to Seattle to be with a friend having chemotherapy for a bit. She'll be lucky to miss some of the construction in front. The worst part of that process is the guys have the big gate open most of the day so I only have two instead of three yards in which the dogs can run and play. It will be much better when Mer and Jade are out of heat. Right now I am always worried that the wrong dog will get into the wrong place.
So, puppies are coming and the list will probably be longer than there are puppies, but maybe we will luck out! Keep those fingers crossed!
SPF100 sunscreen more effectively protects against sunburn compared with SPF50, according to the findings of a recent study published in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology.
For their study, the researchers recruited 199 healthy men and women. Participants wore both sunscreens simultaneously on designated treatment areas during an average 6.1 hours of sun exposure. The researchers evaluated erythema the following day and compared the presence of sunburn and erythema scores between treatment areas.
Immediately following sun exposure, 55.3% of participants were more sunburned on the SPF50 side compared with 5% of participants who were more sunburned on the SPF100 side.
At 1 day post-sun exposure, 40.7% of participants had increased erythema scores on the SPF50 side compared with 13.6% of participants on the SPF100 side.
“SPF100+ sunscreen was significantly more effective in protecting against sunburn than SPF50+ sunscreen in actual-use conditions,” the researchers concluded.
—Melissa Weiss
Reference:
Williams JD, Maitra P, Atillasoy E, Wu MM, Farberg AS, Rigel DS. SPF 100+ sunscreen is more protective against sunburn than SPF 50+ in actual-use: Results of a randomized, double-blind, split-face, natural sunlight exposure, clinical trial [published online December 29, 2017]. J Am Acad Dermatol. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jaad.2017.12.062.
Especially good to know if one lives in sunny climes, but important everywhere, even in cloudy places! Unfortunately, sunscreen is bad for coral, if one is planning on going into salt water areas with coral. We wear rash guard shirts and leggings in that case. I wear hats to water aerobics three days per week as does everyone else in the class. They did that even before I joined the class! Smart ladies!
PS Lucy is six months old and still is looking for her forever home. We had one planned, but that potential owner changed her mind. Lucy is a blue girl and is sweet, smart and loving.
Infectious canine tracheobronchitis or canine infectious respiratory disease complex has multiple causative agents and its symptoms range from sneezing and bronchitis to inflammation of the throat. In plain English, it is Kennel Cough, the so-called common cold for dogs, which prevails in enclosed, poorly ventilated areas. Just like a child catches a cold at school, your dog can catch a similar type of upper respiratory diseases at doggy daycare or the grooming shop.
Symptoms
Kennel Cough symptoms are usually similar to a human cold, non-life threatening and mild. A hacking cough is a classic symptom of Kennel Cough. Other symptoms include reverse sneezing, fever, lethargy, phlegm, nasal discharge and sneezing. If your dog develops these symptoms, please take him to your veterinarian to ensure it is not canine influenza, which can lead to bronchopneumonia, or inhalant sensitivities, and does not develop into something else. Symptoms usually appear 7-10 days after exposure.
Kennel Cough Causes – It Takes an Army
No one virus, bacterium, or environmental condition can mount an assault on your dog’s body to produce true Kennel Cough. Yes; one perpetrator may be the general, but a general still needs an army to prevail!
1. Environmental and Quality of Life Factors Pet-crowded gathering places such as boarding kennels or animal shelters can typically be the battlegrounds of kennel cough. Stress, parasites, malnutrition, poor ventilation, inadequate hygiene, dust and aerosols can predispose to Kennel Cough.
2. Kennel Cough Complex – Viruses Your dog likely has been vaccinated and immunized for canine distemper virus and canine parvovirus, and they are the two most clinically important “core” vaccine components. I recommend that both of these vaccines be given in my minimal vaccination protocol.
Additionally, the following viruses are lumped within the respiratory “Kennel Cough Complex”: Adenovirus-1 (CAV-1; infectious canine hepatitis virus) has only had one minor occurrence in the US in the past 15 + years (at the Canadian Maritimes, US border area). Vaccines for adenovirus-2 (CAV-2) are given to cross–protect against hepatitis as the vaccines for adenovirus-1 were removed from the market years ago, since they produced viral antigen-antibody deposits within some tissues and the surface of the eyes (“blue eye”). Due to the rarity of infectious canine hepatitis, and the fact that including CAV-2 in routine combination puppy vaccines causes a type of immune suppression for about 10 days, I do not recommend giving this component to puppies. They are vulnerable at this age to other stressors like going to a new home, wormings, food changes etc. The CAV-2 antigen in combo vaccines apparently does not cause this immune suppression when given to adult dogs, although one still has to consider whether to include vaccinating for a disease that is no longer seen. However, if a veterinarian chooses to include this vaccine component in combination shots, the immunity should last approximately seven years.
Parainfluenza (CPI) is non-life threatening and usually clears up within a couple of weeks. It is uncommonly diagnosed and typically not associated with significant clinical disease either, so I do not recommend it as a part of my vaccination protocol. Vaccinated immunity is around 3+ years.
Canine Influenza Virus (CIV) is either the H3N8, for which a vaccine exists but I do not recommend it because the symptoms are mild, or the H3N2 Asian strain that hit the Chicago area in early 2015 and for which no vaccine currently exists. Remember, many other upper respiratory viruses – known and unknown – are everywhere and peak during humid, hot and cooler weather seasons.
3. Kennel Cough Complex – Bacteria Bordetella is the most well-known respiratory bacterium and a very common agent to provoke Kennel Cough but does not need to be present to produce Kennel Cough. This is the same with any other inhaled lesser known bacteria, like Bartonella or Mycoplasma, as they too need one or more aforementioned predisposing factor(s) to create actual Kennel Cough.
Question
So why do many kennels and grooming facilities require Bordetella even though it may or may not be a factor in producing Kennel Cough? My dog is not parasitized, healthy, and up-to-date on viral vaccinations or has high titer levels for viruses.
Answer: It’s usually because of the perceived liability, an insurance issue, or a regional or state law. Essentially, a dog entering a facility could transmit kennel cough-like disease to the other dogs there. BUT, the unvaccinated dog coming into the facility could not transmit anything to others if they were all vaccinated and truly protected, so why not allow minimally vaccinated dogs to enter there, as long as pet caregivers sign a simple paper “holding the facility harmless”, should another dog there get kennel cough a week or so later? Of course, seeing that Bordetella and other upper respiratory vaccines are not 100% efficacious, this whole issue is somewhat moot. In my opinion, we should not be subjecting these dogs to vaccines against upper respiratory viruses or bacteria needlessly, as all vaccines have the potential to cause adverse reactions. Pet guardians who choose not to give these vaccines should have that choice.
Vaccines
Extenuating circumstances do exist where a pet caregiver must give the Bordetella vaccine to board a companion animal. My preference would be in-home pet sitting or having a friend take care of your pet. Things do happen and sometimes pets need to be boarded.
Tips
• Use the oral or intranasal (sniff) versions as they cause the body to release interferon which helps cross-protect against the other upper respiratory viruses. Injectable Bordetella vaccine does not offer this added benefit.
• Ensure that it is ONLY a Bordetella vaccine and not a combination injectable with adenovirus-2 and parainfluenza vaccines.
• Give it at a minimum (NOT a maximum but a minimum) of two weeks before boarding your pet.
W. Jean Dodds, DVM Hemopet / NutriScan 11561 Salinaz Avenue Garden Grove, CA 92843
Larson, Laurie J., Bliss E. Thiel, Patricia Sharp, and Ronald D. Schultz. “A Comparative Study of Protective Immunity Provided by Oral, Intranasal and Parenteral Canine Bordetella Bronchiseptica Vaccines."A Comparative Study of Protective Immunity Provided by Oral, Intranasal and Parenteral Canine Bordetella 11.3 (n.d.): n. pag. The Journal of Applied Research in Veterinary Medicine, 2013. Web. <http://www.jarvm.com/articles/Vol11Iss3/Vol11Iss3Schultz.pdf>.
Also consider reading the last listed reference in this list. Ronald Schultz, PhD is one of the top vaccine people in the WORLD. I have attended some of his seminars and was very much influenced by his rational way of thinking and by the research he had done to come to the conclusions he attained.
The three blue babies born here on August 13, 2018 are growing up. The biggest girl is called Mele and the smallest girl is Gigi. The boy is Kip and all are blues. They are a VERY affectionate litter, giving kisses away lavishly. They are brave and have not been afraid to go out into the yard on the grass and look around for trouble from the very beginning. They are climbing up over rocks, into heliconia forests and into our laps as we sit on the grass watching them and hoping they don't bite our toes! Actually, they aren't horrid on the toe biting bit, but it does happen. They are puppies after all!
Nancy Adkins comes down many of the days. Since I have had to chop down banana trees often lately, she uses that as an excuse to come visit the pups. Her goats love banana trees, so they come down to take greens back to the goats and get a chance to smell puppy breath and experience some of the best puppy kisses imaginable. Did you know that a banana tree does not live through more than one life of making bananas? We chop down the tree to get the bananas before the birds and the rats do, and to let the little baby banana trees grow up from around the base of the tree that just gave up its banana bunch. The baby trees are called keikis. Keiki means baby in Hawaiian.
The puppies favorite place to play outside is under my mature macadamia nut tree. It makes wonderful shade. Did you know that macadamia nuts are about the hardest nut to crack? We have a magically wonderful nut cracker that makes it very easy to shell them. Mmmmmmmm. We took about 230 mac nuts to the National Specialty to put into the bags. Some people told me that they had tried to crack them with their teeth. I'll bet that hurt! The right tool makes quite a difference. They are extremely easy to crack with the right cracker
!Early baby picture.
Not much today from the curmudgeon. Have a great weekend! I will.
The curmudgeon has a friend coming from the UK today. Lesley Gosling lives in England, Northumberland, close to the Scottish border, right where Border Terriers come from!!! She has been breeding these guys for near 50 years and is a renowned judge over there and in Europe. She has judged our National Specialty and the Canadian National Specialty. She and I will leave here, the Big Island, and go to the Border Terrier Club of America National Specialty in Greeley, Colorado at the end of her visit here.
The house is in better shape than it has been, as I had some of the mold that covered the walls and things removed using something that supposedly kills the mold. It isn't usually as bad, but we had a very wet winter and now a very wet summer. Mold loves to grow on and in 100 year old houses. I'm starting to think about looking into non-molding siding for the house, IF such exists, either that or paint the house gray! No, I won't paint it gray.
It is raining today. Rats! I need to mow the yards and I therefore need it to stop raining. Kathleen is going to string leis while I mow and clean out the car. I will take Kathleen to work on my way to the airport and then pick her up on our way back. I will have two dogs with me, Henry, who was on loan to us from Lesley for breeding, and one of his daughters who may go back to the UK with Lesley, Lucy.
There are three puppies here too, belonging to Pam Mizuno and out of Addy, one of her BIS dogs. Against all odds, all of these puppies are blues, as Addy is a grizzle. The dad is a blue, but still, the odds would give us at most one blue. Two totally blue litters in a row, same chances. Craziness! These were born on the 13th and are fat and shiny. Two girls, one boy. Boy has a baby name of Twist, and the girls baby names are App and Zip. Addy, the mom, took a few days of me having to search for things she might eat. She is doing better in that category now. I am fixing her deluxe meals, but I'm not having to beg her to eat them any longer. She isn't much into eating the turkey necks though. Reese likes them though and was happy to eat Addy's!
Once again, I am going to give you a link to something important to read. This one tells us why to not be in such a hurry to neuter our animals. Wait at least 18 months, but better never to do it, at least in males. I hope it works.
Dodds Responds to FDA Statement on Canine Heart Disease, Taurine Deficiency and Potential Dietary Causes The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released a statement on July 12, 2018 that it is investigating a possible connection between grain-free diets and dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM), which is also known as canine heart disease (CHD). Dr. Dodds explains taurine deficiency, references research studies to date, and provides commentary.
It is a bit on the hum drum side here. The back steps are in the process of being painted since they started out white and were covered by brick red/brown stains from the mud here. It will be very nice not to be fighting that mudification!!!
It looks like Tresy, soon to be Gracie, will go to Seattle when I am on my way to Denver for the National Specialty. She will be happy with people who once had a Border Terrier. Chip will travel to the Specialty and then go on to England and his dad will breed a couple of mainland girls before he goes back to Northumberland also. Lucy, one of Myshka's last litter may well go with her dad and brother to the UK. That will leave Myshka, Reese, Mermaid and Jade here with the Curmudgeon and Kathleen. Myshka is looking for a home where there will be someone who will throw the ball for her more than I do! She is a dog that makes a person laugh often. She is a star NoseWork dog and one of the best in this house at coming when called. She is a great dog. Someone will be lucky to get her!
Pam Mizuno's girl will come stay with us to whelp her litter on Sunday. More puppies! Sweet. We will be looking for homes for those puppies too. I hope that some of them stay in Hawaii!
Wish us luck at the National Specialty. I think that there may be three dogs there from Myshka's first litter and one from Reese's litter. We will have fun no matter what.
We went to an AKC Fun Match yesterday in Hilo. Mermaid, aka Mer, beat Chip in the breed ring and took BOB, ie Best of Breed. She took second in the group and then the boy who took the group won Best In Match, a Cairn Terrier from Australia, a very nice boy. I liked him from the moment I saw him. Anyway, Mer went on to take Best Puppy in Match. I only went there to get her more used to the dog show ring plus people and dogs. She is one of those kind of scaredy cats. She got better as the morning progressed. I was pleased since all we had gone for was to initiate her into putting up with people and dogs being all around her. We tried the coffee shop in Hawi today and she was pretty upset by a big black Lab that was there and decided to sit at the table just up and beside ours. Sigh.
Myshka goes to get spayed tomorrow. No more Myshka puppies. Myshka is such a great personality that people love her whenever they get to know her. I am hoping that she will soon find a home with someone who will love her and play ball with her and keep her as happy as she has been here. They will be lucky to get her. She can also keep the rats around their home at bay as she is a wonderful ratter. The mongoose too will keep away as far as I can see. Did I ever tell you that Myshka has the cutest smile one can see. What a girl! Myshka being admired by Peter Green. Isn't she cute?!!!
Pam Mizuno's girl IS pregnant and will come here to have her pups. We will have fun with even more puppies. Pam thinks that there are more than two puppies in her girl! There may well be blue as well as grizzle puppies as the daddy of this litter is a blue.
CONSIDERED ONE OF THE FOREMOST EXPERTS IN PET HEALTHCARE, DR. DODDS FOCUSES ON VACCINATION PROTOCOLS, THYROID ISSUES AND NUTRITION.
VISIT HEMOPET.ORG OR NUTRISCAN.ORG FOR MORE INFORMATION.
The article will not paste. See if you can't find it online. VERY important for all dogs.
The article tells one WHY they should want to vaccinate their dogs the way she says they should be vaccinated. The why and the when are very important.
Dodds Rebuts Incorrect Vaccination Article An article regarding vaccinations was inaccurately attributed to Dr. Dodds and has been circulating. Dr. Dodds reviewed the article, provided rebuttals and updated the vaccination protocol. Try clicking on the blue sentence!
