Eeeeps, I was all set to settle in and enjoy writing more about our relationships with pets (and answers to your great questions) and then life got in the way. You know, in that "life is what happens when you are busy making other plans" kind of way. I like to say that "today didn't turn out to be the video tape I thought I rented." Nothing bad about today, except the feeling that we all have on occasion that there is simply not enough time in the next two weeks to do what absolutely has to be done. I do want to talk more about society, pets and animals though... sometime soon. (And thank you for your generous comments about Calling All Pets. They are very, very appreciated.) So I write with a bit of an apology... I'm overwhelmed with doing wonderful stuff (at least I sure hope it turns Read More
Are Pets Important 2, Wood work in Fall
I have read your excellent comments with great interest, thank you all so much for writing. I do agree that in many ways it is far too simplistic to sort the world into two groups as I did in my earlier post. I suspect that it's easy to oversimplify when you are frustrated, and truth be told, I was feeling a bit frustrated when I wrote last week. Part of that stemmed from recently hearing what I believe has been meant as a compliment to Calling All Pets. Several times I've heard people say that Calling All Pets is a good show for Wisconsin Public Radio because "it brings in people who wouldn't normally listen to pubic radio." This presupposes that the show's listeners are different than most listeners of public radio. Does that mean that most people who listen to public radio are not Read More
Happy Faces!
Isn't this a GREAT picture? It is one of my favorites BUT, disorganized doof that I am, I can't find the name and contact information of the wonderful person who sent it to me. Dogwise is doing a new book (Tales of Two Species, coming out in early November) of my columns from Bark magazine and we want to use this wonderful picture in it! If this is you, please write and let Andrea know! Read More
Playing with Dogs in Fall
Oh, what a joy to be home in fall on the farm. It may have rained much of the weekend, but that's okay, we needed the moisture. In spite of the rain I got to spend much of Sunday out in the country with Willie, Lassie and weekend visitor Brody (the Cavalier) out in the hills collecting wild apples. Five huge buckets full. Yum yum. Yum for us... I made applesauce much of Sunday afternoon (thanks to friend Harriet who leant me her Foley Food Mill; now that's a handy item) while the dogs slept. Yum for the sheep: the ewe flock got to crunch away on juicy apples that I tossed into their feeders. The lamb flock is separate (I don't castrate the ram lambs, so the boys are now old enough to breed their mommas. Not a great idea!) and has access to lots of wild apples on their own, so everyone Read More
Dogs of Sweden and Norway
I'm still thinking about all the wonderful dogs I met in Sweden and Norway (not to mention their humans!). I paid a lot of attention to breeds--it seems that the mix of breeds here in the states is changing, although that's just a perception, not a fact. I have seen so many 'rare' breeds lately, it seems it's in fashion to get a dog that no one has ever heard of (or can pronounce the name of). People in Sweden told me that the most popular breed by far was the German Shepherd, followed by the Labrador Retriever. My 10 days in Scandanavia were hardly an accurate sample, but what struck me most was that I saw a little bit of so many breeds in the two countries we visited. Here's a breakdown, from my notes: GSD 1 Labrador Retriever, 3 Corgi 1 Swedish Valhund 1 (the Swedes were very Read More