Dogged Blog

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Wouldn't it be great if you could get your dog or cat's teeth cleaned without anesthesia?

Yes,  it would be. We're all scared of anesthetizing our pets. And there are some people out there taking advantage of that fear to offer a service that's not safe, and probably not legal, either. I'm talking about so-called "anesthesia-free dental cleanings."

I blogged about this today over on Pet Connection:

The type of tooth scraping that can be done on a dog or cat without anesthesia is cosmetic only; it might make the owner happy, but it does nothing at all to detect or prevent or treat dental disease in pets.

It also runs the substantial risk of infecting the bloodstream with oral bacteria, which can lead to kidney, heart, and other infections and disease — something that no groomer or “pet dental hygienist” can diagnose or treat. And most critically, debris from the mouth can be inhaled, causing pneumonia and other respiratory complications — something that can only be avoided if the pet is intubated during the procedure.

There's lots more and yeah, okay, I may rant a little.

Just a little.

Okay,  a lot.

Friday iPod Challenge, Happy New Year's Edition

Hmmm, last week I forgot to do this, and this Friday I'm doing it in lieu of genuine blogging. I did blog at Pet Connection Thursday, if you are dying to read a small rant about people who let their dogs run off leash.

The iPod challenge does not, actually, involve an iPod even if you have one. It's just a little thing where I tell you the first ten songs that come up on my iTunes playlist when I hit the "shuffle" button on my entire music library. You can do the same, with iTunes or whatever program you use to manage your music files. This is a non-denominational non-contest.

JeffB stole the idea from me and turned it into a real contest where you can actually win an iPod. Play with him after you've played with me.

I'm not mad at Jeff for stealing it because I stole it from Roxanne in the first place. She's doing a 70s theme today, because she's much cooler and harder working than I am.

Here is my random ten for today:

1. In My Arms - Erasure
2. Suzanne - Peter Gabriel
3. Long-Forgotten Fairytale - The Magnetic Fields
4. Seen And Not Seen - Talking Heads
5. When Love Comes To Town - U2
6. Should I Stay or Should I Go - The Clash
7. To the One I Love - R.E.M.
8. You Look So Fine - Garbage
9. Malaria - Shriekback
10. The Price I Pay - Billy Bragg

I showed you mine, now show me yours! Happy New Year!

Gratuitous Holiday (Repeat) Puppy Photo Blogging

The Ways In Which I Suck

Could I be more shallow?

I watched The Devil Wears Prada. I adored it. This movie is ABOUT NOTHING. It's fabulous.

Then, I went to iTunes and listened to samples of the soundtrack from the Dreamgirls movie, and discovered that I like the sell-out disco version of "One Night Only" better than the soulful slow version by Jennifer Hudson. Having seen the stage version of Dreamgirls when it first came out, I know that means I am a bad person.

Why, Moviemakers, Why?

I'd been meaning to see Must Love Dogs since it came out two years ago, and it finally made its way to the top of my Netflix queue. I put it on this morning and ummm, first of all: Not about dogs.

Second of all: Extremely boring.

Third of all: One really good line. When the female lead explains to her sister that she cannot date the male lead because he is the father of one of her third-grade students, the sister replies, "He's got a PhD and a great ass. Let's not get bogged down in ethics."

There. Now you've heard that line, no need to watch the movie which is, as I may have mentioned, not about dogs.

Mini-review of Low Carb Stuff I Tried

Food and body image and taking care of ourselves are all big issues around the holidays. It's sort of the trifecta of societal obsession around the body beautiful, if you think about it.

Since I gave up on the idea of "food as a form of entertainment," I really haven't cared that much about special holiday foods. I have actually eaten enough stuffing, pumpkin pie, and bouche de Noel to last me the rest of my life, and also have, as I bore my friends to tears by saying all the time, learned that I like being this weight more than I like having a mouth party.

But I do from time to time try out various low carb recipes or products, just out of curiosity or interest or because my mom picked it up for me at the market.

Recently she picked up MiniCarb brownie mix, and this evening I made it. Let me be blunt: These things really suck. They suck like the last sucking thing on earth, and considering they're chocolate, for me to say they suck means they genuinely suck.

She also got me some Nestle CarbSelect hot chocolate mix, which was extremely delicious. The ingredient list is a disaster, proving that Savage Garden was right when they sang, "I believe that junk food tastes so good because it's bad for you."

I also bought some Oroweat low carb bread to try to make stuffing with it at my sister in law's request, and it has more carbs and less fiber than their "lite" bread. I ask you, does that make sense?

A Solstikwanzanukkamas Eve Puppy Pic Extravaganza

So, my good friend Terri went boldly where no deerhound owner has gone before, and got herself two Silken Windhound (or, as my dogs call them, "Shrunken Deerhound") puppies from my friend, breeder Joyce Chin of Talisman Hounds.

And in the way of puppies everywhere they are too unbearably adorable to be real. So adorable she even sent me an email rhapsodizing about how they only peed on the CORNER of her heirloom Persian carpet, and had only destroyed TWO costly soft collapsible crates, and isn't it cute how they have so far managed to escape from every crate or pen she's put them in?

So, how cute ARE her puppies?

Pretty bloody cute.

Happy Solstikwanzanukkamas!

History of Dog Food 101

Gina gets off a rant in the guise of a dog food history lesson over on the Pet Connection blog:

These days, though, there’s a wide diversity of thought and action when it comes to feeding dogs. Providing a home-prepared diet (sometimes raw, sometimes not, sometimes grain-free, sometimes not) is an option chosen by a small but dedicated population of pet-lovers, people who argue that if a single, processed product isn’t good for people, why would it work for pets? Others choose commercial products — everything from dehydrated whole foods to frozen grinds of meat and vegetables — that seek to appeal to people who want to feed a more “natural” diet but haven’t the time or confidence to prepare everything from scratch at home.

Check out the rest.

Also, I did some gratuitous Miss Kyrie Borzoi holiday blogging over there myself.

Let’s face it. They’re dogs. They wake up every single morning filled with the joyous anticipation that modern children mostly experience only on Dec. 25 at approximately 5 am. One of the things I love best about living with dogs is watching them wake up in the morning, seeing consciousness return to their eyes, their faces light up, and their tails start to thump. You can almost hear them thinking, “Oh! It’s today! And you! Yay!”

The rest is here.

I also saw Peaches, and reviewed her show here.

I'll be back in the morning to make you tell me what's on your iPod. Be ready. In the meantime, despite seriously not being a fan of hers, I've been listening to "Song for a Winter's Night" by Sarah McLachlan over and over and over.

And over.

The holidays make me soft.

Anne Rogers Clark Dies

I know many, probably most, of the people reading this won't know who she was, but an era came to an end today with the death of Anne Rogers Clark.

Gina said it all so much more beautifully than I could:

From the earliest age in pictures now decades old, she was a young women of stature, elegance and authority. A second-generation dog breeder, she became outstanding professional hander – taking Best in Show at Westminster three times – a top breeder in her own right and ever a student of dogs, even long after there was seemingly not anything left for her to learn, nor anyone who could teach her.

Once she turned from handler to judge, her reputation soared to heights unprecedented. Simply put: It wasn’t a top dog show if Anne Rogers Clark wasn’t on the judging panel. Mrs. Clark attended more than 60 consecutive Westminster Kennel Club dog shows, She is the only person to have judged Best In Show and all seven groups, according to the WKC.

She became known in show circles by just a single name – “Annie” – even though I doubt most who used the informality to identify her would ever call her by it in person.

As dog shows became increasingly uncoupled from their context and history, the emphasis more on winning ribbons for looks than on producing healthy, hard-working dogs, Mrs. Clark held the line, her excellent eye and capable hands searching for the working dog under the hair and hairspray of the animals brought to her, and rewarding those breeders who still produced a dog worth more to the future of the breed than the fading ribbons of any dog-show win.

They truly don't make them like Annie Clark anymore. And they never will.

There is no funeral planned, and Mrs. Clark asked that donations be made to the Poodle Club of America Foundation.

Gina's complete tribute can be read on the Pet Connection.

The Internets Work in Mysterious Ways

Some kind of weird stomach thing kind of ate the last 36 hours, but I want to thank everyone who helped me figure out what was wrong with my header.

Well, actually, I never did figure it out. Or do anything about it. But apparently it fixed itself, because the last forty bazillion people who replied said it's white.

I myself basically am afraid of things that fix themselves, but you know, ummm, what choice do I have but to accept it?