respublica

A dog of an ending

The Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show ended their 2 night contest last night with a Wire Haired Terrier winning Best in Show. I stopped watching after the Sporting Group finished showing with a Cocker Spaniel winning and moving on to the finals. I knew the Golden or any of the other bigger sporting dogs wouldn't win that group, but was disappointed in the result anyway.

But, the controversy of the night was the ending when the judge for Best in Show chose the Wire Haired Terrier. The anger from dog people was evident by the comments on the Westminster Twitter page. It seems the judge is a Wire Haired Terrier guy and one of his friends handled the winner. Nothing against that dog, but that breed has won 15 times at Westminster. There seems to be a built in prejudice in favor of them. Many angry dog people believed the long haired Dachshund should have won.

The disappointment and downright anger by dog people was unusual and they may have a point.

The Westminster dog show

I get a kick out of the annual Madison Square Garden Westminster dog show, watching the handlers is fun and the dogs and commentary are humorous. But in recent years I've become a bit cynical about the group and overall winners. So often they are small dogs, last night 3 of the 4 group winners were small. The judges also seem to give only cursory glances at dogs which get the loudest applause and cheers, like the Golden Retriever, Labrador Retrievers, big old sheep dogs etc. The only bigger dog judges like are poodles.

I'm prejudiced having a Golden, but that breed has never won at Westminster. The top five most popular breeds in terms of ownership in order, Labradors, German shepherds, golden retrievers, French bulldogs and bulldogs, according to the American Kennel Club.  None have ever won best in show. Goldens almost never get out of their group. It irritates me these days.

 Christine Miele, an official of the Golden Retriever Club of America said about the eventual winner tonight, " It won’t be a golden retriever. It’s not going to happen." "Because the breed’s gene pool is so large, there are many slightly different ways for a golden retriever to look: Some have coats that are long and flowing, others less so; some have fur that is a deep golden, while others are more cream-colored. That can make it complicated to establish a breed standard, which is used by dog show judges.

But also, and most importantly in my mind, "Part of it may have to do with the judges as well. Of the small number of people in the country who are qualified to serve as Best in Show judges, none are golden retriever breeders, Ms. Miele said."

 

Ferdie has not been thrilled with this big snow

An ordinary snow of a couple of inches fills Ferdie's heart with joy, but this big one, not so much. It's so hard for him to slog through the deep snow to find a place to do his business and the slick spots hurt his poor old knees. It's tough to get old as humans, but the same is true for dogs.

How many raccoons are there in the world?

I posted a week or so ago about our most recent raccoon problem and said we'd be calling Critter Control again. Well we did and so far this week they've trapped at least 7 raccoons and I think it's more than that. I don't believe I've added in yesterday's number. This is creepy and ridiculous. Here's what I found today and folks, they are not cuddly creatures. 

Click to enlarge the pictures.

This one is on the side of our house next to our neighbor's driveway. He's trying to sleep or is asleep as they're nocturnal.

Then outside of the garage are two in one trap. 

Critter Control snuggled this trap around various things. We've gotten to know this particular Critter Control guy very well over the years. He knows right where to put the traps. 

The love of a dog

I came across this drawing this morning and it pretty much describes dogs perfectly, at least from my vantage point. Your dog sees you coming and his heart sings which turns on the tail.

There isn't any notation on who drew this, but I saw it on a Facebook page someone shared called Other Perspectives.

Squirrly support

More and more people have the need for support animals. Most often these animals are dogs, the traditional support for the blind and handicapped. Now we're seeing many people who need an animal with them for emotional support, dogs of all sizes, cats, chickens, snakes and now squirrels.

A woman was taken off a Frontier Airlines plane last night when she attempted to fly with her support squirrel. Surprisingly, I have no words for this.

Reality

CNN anchor, Jake Tapper brought a dose of reality to the many people agonizing over the raccoon which was climbing up a 25 story office building in St. Paul, Minnesota. All day long news stations and social media followed the raccoon's progress up the stone wall. "Will he fall? Oh, he's resting on a ledge now." Then at 2:30 this morning he made it up to the roof where animal control people had set up traps with food and water. Eventually he'll head into one of them and then be carried down to level ground. From there, who knows what they'll do with him, but I'm sure we'll find out.

This leads me to Jake Tapper whose words line up with my experience with many many raccoons over the years.

"I love the story of the raccoon so I’m going to shut out of my brain the fact that raccoons are nasty and evil beasts and not at all what we want them to be. Got some raccoon denialists in my mentions on this. Folks, they’re not cuddly. They want to rip your faces off."

Exactly.

UPS Dogs

The greatest PR practice in the delivery business comes from UPS. Drivers carry dog treats and give them out at their stops. There is a facebook devoted just to photos of drivers all over the country making dogs' days. Our dog is no different, he absolutely loves our UPS lady who never fails to stop and load him up with treats. Yesterday she stopped and not only treated him, but gave him a huge hug.

This isn't just a gimmick to increase business for UPS, but with so many dogs fearful and aggressive with delivery services, this changes that whole dynamic.

Carrots and dogs

There is a really cute Twitter page named the Golden Ratio 4 which posts things about their 4 Golden Retrievers, actually 5 retrievers. Every day the dogs are handed a big carrot one by one which has made me wonder if carrots are ok for dogs and would Ferdie enjoy one. These other 4 dogs all seem to like them. 

Turns out carrots are great for dogs, they are high in fiber, antioxidants, and slow dental disease. I don't particularly like carrots so I rarely have any at home, but maybe I'll get a few for Ferdie to see if he likes them. 

Animals on the loose

The story of the morning that wasn't politics was of a big monkey loose in the San Antonio airport. "

A monkey (named Dawkins) who was being transported escaped its cage Monday afternoon and briefly ran loose at San Antonio International Airport, officials said. The monkey had just arrived on an American Airlines flight from Chicago when it made a break.

It made a break just as fast as most passengers want to get off that plane.

But, this was no ordinary little monkey. Reports first called it a Baboon but it was actually a rhesus macaque, which I cannot picture at all. He was being taken to an animal sanctuary after having spent some years in a research lab at Brown University. Poor guy, he probably wanted to get away for fear he was going to another research facility.

Dawkins

There has been a spate of animals roaming around these days. We encountered a raccoon on the campus and this morning as Ferdie went out in the front yard he suddenly saw a fox and took off after it. I watched in shock. I was shocked to see a fox next door to us and even more shocked to see that Ferdie can still actually sprint off really fast. His legs aren't the best these days. The fox went between our house the the house next door into the back and then on to who knows where. Ferdie had given up the chase.

There are also rabbits everywhere, Sunday I watched a groundhog trying to decide whether he'd cross our street in Collinsville and come into our yard.  He didn't. And then there is this photo from somewhere. A fox and and eagle fighting over a rabbit.