Why dogs' nostrils are shaped the way that they are. Why do they have those slits on the sides? Well, now I know.
SAR training started this week, and Wednesday night featured a couple of really good lectures on scent theory. Scent dispersal and collection and the mechanics and chemistry of scent and snow were fascinating.
So, yeah...they inhale through the round openings in the front of their noses, and exhale through the side slits. This helps to keep fresh scent particles coming in, rather than recycled ones. Some say that the added air turbulence caused by exhalation through the side slits helps stir up more scent particles as well.
The puppehs and I start hiking for serious this weekend.
I'm working at a boarding/training kennel, which is both satisfying and disturbing. It's complicated. I haven't yet determined the ratio of "what I can learn at this job" to "how much I compromise my ethics at this job." We'll see. Tonight as I was leaving, a handsome golden retriever wrapped his front legs around me and buried his muzzle under my arm. It was all I could do not to put him in the back seat of my car and drive away. He'll end up with a job, too. Sniffing for something - bombs or drugs or dead people. I hope that his handler will let him hug and nuzzle between calls.
Tomorrow Shiva and I begin the process of becoming a part of our regional Search and Rescue team. We'll train for several months before they even vote on keeping us. Wish us luck and strength, we will need a little of both!
Guile (not Guile lol herbi!) is a shelter pup, a black Labrador crossed with...um. We don't know. A pony, maybe, judging by his size. We brought him home last week, at 3 1/2 months and 52 pounds.
He is sweet and loving. A big, quiet bear who loves to be near us. He snores. He and Shiva wrestle for hours, and then they go like this:
So, without further ado: Civil War (What Really Happened). Once again, thrill to the recycled dick jokes! Goggle at the running “She-Hulk as moneygrubbing lawyer” gag, which I think at this point I alone on the entire planet found amusing! Marvel at how I managed to use three separate fonts for standard lettering over the course of the series, one of them by accident!
If you love some Marvel heroes & villains, but hated the Civil War series, the Mighty God King's parody will satisfy your need for vengeance and calm your outraged soul with the sweet soothing sound of your own bitter laughter.
I'm late! (R.I.P laptop!) But my new desktop beast is now up and running and online, and I'm exhausted from birthday fun and computer wrestling, so I'll leave you with a couple of baby pictures and post the rest of the Shiva Retrospective tomorrow...
Love,
~A
P.S. I've re-enabled comments on this blog as of this post. Whee!
I've been away again. Going back to school. Buying an old pickup truck to convert to biodiesel. Making cookies. Planning a very small wedding.
Shiva will be one years old on Sunday, and I plan to post a busload of pictures of his first big year. And it's been a hell of a year. He discovered electricity last week. With his mouth. He's still recovering from the burns on his lips and tongue, and I remain distrustful of electricity until someone invents a better way of keeping it inside of the wires.
Today I met this lovely young girl (guy?) at the beach, and soon after found myself in the awkward position of having to convince her that my boots were not her family.
Shiva became a blood donor last week. If you're like me, you may not have given much thought to the possibility that your companion animal might need a blood transfusion one day, let alone what the source might be for the needed blood. Today is good day to think about it. There are a number of benefits to volunteering your dog or cat to be a blood donor, and I'll talk about the perks in a minute. For now, let's look at the Best Reason, hands-down:
Most veterinary blood banks keep young, healthy dogs and cats in laboratories to serve as donors. When blood banks utilize pets from the community to serve as volunteer donors, they begin to eliminate the need to incarcerate animals for this purpose.
Okay? Okay. Now, here is what else you need to know: One in seven dogs is a "universal donor." To be a donor, dogs must be healthy, between 1 and 8 years old, and 50 pounds or more. Guidelines will vary from one blood bank to another, but they'll be in that ballpark. With cats, all blood types are acceptable, and they generally need to be 1 to 8 years old and at least 8 pounds. Again, YMMV. Generally, dogs can donate every 6-8 weeks, cats every 8 weeks.
Now, get out your google and use the search terms "dog cat blood donor volunteer" or some such plus your city, county, state, etc. If there is a good list of all the veterinary blood banks in the U.S. that uses volunteers, then I haven't found it. If you know of one, please leave me a comment with a link. There are a few linked in this article. You can also call your vet and/or other vets in your area and ask if they know of a blood bank in your area, or one that does a blood drive near you.
Again, YMMV, but here's what Shiva and I get out of the deal: he gets his nails clipped, ears cleaned and teeth cleaned each time. His red blood cell count and protein levels are checked each time, and he gets a complete blood workup at the initial donation and annually. This is invaluable if you have a vegetarian or vegan dog or cat. He gets his vaccines for free as needed, and free flea/tick treatment each time. He'd get treats/free lunch, but I brought his from home because of the veg thing.
That's it. I know it's silly, because it wasn't his idea or anything, but I felt proud of him. He was a good boy for the procedure, and kissed all the lady vet techs on the way in and out. He's a flirt, and my little hero. Here he is afterwards, still a little sleepy from the sedative, chomping on his new guy:
The title for this entry is also the title of a really good book by Brendan Halpern. You can read it in the waiting room while your dog gives blood. But it's not about a blood donor. Or a dog. It is funny, though. And sweet.
Jonathan Zittrain is the Professor of Internet Governance and Regulation at Oxford Internet Institute, Oxford University, and co-founder of Harvard Law School’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society. And he's written a book called The Future of the Internet and How to Stop It. In it, he takes on issues that are dear to my heart and (I hope) yours - issues such as freedom of speech, copyright, open source software, digital rights activism, privacy, censorship - and puts them all together in a superb and alarming discussion which amounts to an intelligent, persuasive argument in favor of unbridled innovation.
This extraordinary book explains the engine that has catapulted the Internet from backwater to ubiquity—and reveals that it is sputtering precisely because of its runaway success. With the unwitting help of its users, the generative Internet is on a path to a lockdown, ending its cycle of innovation—and facilitating unsettling new kinds of control.
IPods, iPhones, Xboxes, and TiVos represent the first wave of Internet-centered products that can’t be easily modified by anyone except their vendors or selected partners. These “tethered appliances” have already been used in remarkable but little-known ways: car GPS systems have been reconfigured at the demand of law enforcement to eavesdrop on the occupants at all times, and digital video recorders have been ordered to self-destruct thanks to a lawsuit against the manufacturer thousands of miles away. New Web 2.0 platforms like Google mash-ups and Facebook are rightly touted—but their applications can be similarly monitored and eliminated from a central source. As tethered appliances and applications eclipse the PC, the very nature of the Internet—its “generativity,” or innovative character—is at risk.
The Internet’s current trajectory is one of lost opportunity. Its salvation, Zittrain argues, lies in the hands of its millions of users. Drawing on generative technologies like Wikipedia that have so far survived their own successes, this book shows how to develop new technologies and social structures that allow users to work creatively and collaboratively, participate in solutions, and become true “netizens.”
Better yet, it's licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share-Alike 3.0 license and freely downloadable from the book's website. You can do it right now.
