Pet Monologues

by Lucia Blinn

A body on the beach as long as my arms are wide.
Large glassy eyes crossed and staring in disbelief.
A family of round white barnacles
fastened to his hard brown hide.
Yellow marks like graffiti.
Paws outstretched. Tail too.
Poised to crawl but not crawling.
The tough old tortoise was never
meant to be seen like this.
Nor was he meant to be scooped
by the sand patrol who hauled him away
on an otherwise beautiful day.

About the author: Lucia Blinn

TGIF.
Check out the Friday Ark roster for this weekend. And Carnival of the Cats which goes up every Sunday and this weekend hosted by Justin’s Random Thoughts.

This post celebrates World Animal Day and Bless the Animals. Follow the links to learn more about PM’s initiative which started on October 4.

Clever doesn’t begin to describe
the canny soul who, for nearly seventeen
years, walked and wagged among us,
affecting the affect of the duke of all dogdom,
a dachshund, but who, in fact,
worked the world like a room and got mail.

Sly his disguise as this most glorious
of canines; peerless, flawless, albeit
not immune to vanity–that ravishing red coat.

The question remains: Who was Harvey?
Moses back with a bark?
The Babe without a bat?
Gandhi with a growl?
MR. PRESLEY?

Come on, Harvey, speak!
We know you’re up there emailing.

Written by Lucia Blinn

I admit, when I encounter a pet snake of say 24-36″ inches in length, a lot of thoughts cross my mind. The movie Anaconda for one. But each time, after awhile, the snake grows on me. Not that I would ever get one for a pet. For sure, not now.

Emerald tree boa

A story told by a veterinarian:

“This Lady had this kink with exotic animals, and some years ago she bought a boa, and she let the boa slither around the house all the time. There were no problems; every day Snakey had insects for lunch, and when she grew up, some mice… a nice life indeed for a boa.

“However, after a year or so, Snakey started to present an odd behavior. At night, she would crawl besides her master’s bed and stiffen as if she was in pain. The Lady would then try to console her, to no use. The boa kept getting tenser and tenser, until she was rigid as a baseball bat and completely straight. After a few hours, Snakey would relax and slither normally. Read the rest of this entry »

While reading one of my fave magazines I stumble upon an article that pet lovers would enjoy. This article was taken out of Wired Magazine and titled “A Canine Hotel May Sound Luxe, but There’s No Place Like Home”

***

Room Z5 is empty except for a faux-suede floor pillow, a 14-inch flatscreen TV, an IP network camera, and a 9-pound miniature pinscher sitting motionless by the steel door. After a few minutes, the pooch gets up, walks across the room, and settles on the pillow, almost covering the white letters that spell out w-a-g. Kitschy dance music wafts in from the hallway. A dog yelps in the background.

Illustration by Jessica Hische

Wag is a new pet hotel in San Francisco that promises the ultimate in canine luxury. It has an atmospheric-filtration system that recycles the facility’s air 10 times per hour. Temperature-controlled rooms remain at a comfortable 69 degrees Fahrenheit. The suites ($85 a night) even have “Wag Cams,” accessible from an Internet browser, so that curious or concerned owners can check on their furry companions.

Tonight I’ve booked my dog, Ruby, into Wag. I scheduled her for an in-room belly massage ($12), a moonlit walk on the antibacterial Astroturf rooftop ($15), and room service (one pig’s ear and a bowl of water). This should be a great night—I’ll have the evening off from my dog-parenting duties, and Ruby will make new friends and be pampered by Wag’s experienced staff. Read the rest of this entry »

This post celebrates World Animal Day and Bless the Animals. Follow the links to learn more about PM’s initiative which started on October 4.

Here is a story by Stu Bykofsky, columnist with the Philadelphia Daily News

I am an elephant.

I was not born for your amusement any more than you were born for mine.

If you see me in the zoo, and especially in the circus, which arrived here yesterday, I am not there willingly.

I was kidnapped and carried far, far away from my home and my family. I might have been an adult, but was more likely a baby when captured. Some “brave” hunter might have killed my mother—who could be dangerous—and sold me to a zoo or circus as an orphan.

Elephants have large families, as you may know, each headed by a female. When a female is born into the family herd, she never leaves.

Closely and happily, we travel together, eat together, play together, rest together. For elephants, every herd is a “village” in which the baby is cared for by its mother, and her sisters, and her mother. Being connected to family is as much a part of our being as our floppy ears. It harms us to be separated from our family. Can you understand that? Read the rest of this entry »

Posted by Deanna—For the Love of the Dog

Mary and her husband Jim had a dog named ‘Lucky.’ Lucky was a real character. Whenever Mary and Jim had company come for a weekend visit they would warn their friends to not leave their luggage open because Lucky would help himself to whatever struck his fancy. Inevitably, someone would forget and something would come up missing.Mary or Jim would go to Lucky’s toy box in the basement and there the treasure would be, amid all of Lucky’s other favorite toys.

Lucky always stashed his finds in his toy box and he was very particular that his toys stay in the box.

It happened that Mary found out she had breast cancer. Something told her she was going to die of this disease….in fact, she was just sure it was fatal.

She scheduled the double mastectomy, fear riding her shoulders.

The night before she was to go to the hospital she cuddled with Lucky.

A thought struck her…what would happen to Lucky? Although the three-year-old dog liked Jim, he was Mary’s dog through and through. “If I die, Lucky will be abandoned,” Mary thought. “He won’t understand that I didn’t want to leave him.” Read the rest of this entry »

Recently I read an article about dogs. It defined purebreds, hybrids, and mutts. The “hybrid” was labeled a “designer dog.” Of course this was the one I was most interested in. I am a designer.

What the hell does “designer-fill-in-the-blank” mean? Dogs are labeled “designer dogs” because many of them are bred “by design” for specific reasons like minimizing allergies to shedding and dander, having good temperaments as family pets, and eliminating excessive drooling. Is “designer-this-or-that” an admirable label? I can’t deny it, “designer dogs are pretty popular.”

The design thing:
“By design.” You know, everybody knows, designers are “trained” to arrive at beautiful looking and/or beautiful working solutions. It’s part of the process. It’s what we do. In a perfect world designers always use the process for our work-for-hire solutions. Some use the process for personal solutions, like “living and breathing” design. 24 x 7. I can think of several as we write. Read the rest of this entry »

Chapter 9: The stories that nourish a newspaper.
By John Armstrong

[This is the ninth of 14 excerpts, running Tuesdays and Thursdays, from John Armstrong's memoir of the working life: Wages.]

When a cement truck lost its brakes on a hill and ploughed through someone’s backyard, you needed the parents and relatives of the dead and wounded, the name of the driver, the owner of the company, the neighbours (to fill out the background and describe the terror they faced daily with Big Trucks roaring though their neighbourhood) and someone from government licensing to comment on why he and his department hadn’t checked this truck’s brakes.

It was also important to get the Opposition critic for that department who would describe how the government had failed so tragically in this case, despite his repeated warnings that such a disaster was coming, and how his party would do things differently if they were in office….

The same was true of any local tragedy whether it was the man who hacked up his wife and mailed her postage due to her parents or an immigrant woman who spoke and read no English and bled to death in the emergency room because she couldn’t fill out the admittance papers. Read the rest of this entry »

I found during the past 18 months there were six deaths from dogs being dragged to death. Few were accidents and I have been hesitant to post these stories. Just too darn sad and maddening. And when I do see pets, animals, children, sitting in the back of a pickup truck, it makes me very uncomfortable. I don’t think anything should be back there that cannot survive a rollover, a sudden stop. And yet, the dead dogs were leashed to the vehicles and your dog, Jackson, was not.

And then this story! Count your blessings!!!

The story…

Well, one of my worst fears took place yesterday afternoon. Jackson fell out of the truck. Read the rest of this entry »

I recently joined a Denver, Colorado-based online organization known as Blacktie-Colorado. Blacktie is an exceptional and essential venue for non-profits to expand fundraising opportunities, as well as promote and manage their premiere special events.

In my marketing/sales role for Blacktie. I decided to enlist my three-year-old black and white Boxer, Roxy Hart, to go with me to call on potential clients for membership in the organization. I bought her a beautiful formal satin black tie to wear for our marketing campaign and headed downtown to a building housing mostly environmental non-profits. I had heard everyone brings their dog to the office.

Roxy behaved beautifully, having no prep for her ambassador role. While she wouldn’t go into the elevator, she did manage to navigate through narrow doors and five flights of steps up to various offices. Keep in mind, Roxy hates hallways and narrow spaces.

Anyway, we introduced ourselves and left materials on Blacktie for follow up. The only way I’d improve on our presentation is to work a little more with Roxy to sit attentively during our presentation (good luck, I know) and to color coordinate her leash and collar with the formal wear. We’ll see how many memberships we sign up.

Blacktie is rapidly expanding to major cities across the nation. If not yet in yours, contact blacktie-colorado.com and help them make that happen.

Source: Christine Meyer