#anyways this is why you always go for the breeder that works the dog THEMSELVES.

[doberbutts]

You mentioned on one of your Which Line Is It Anyway games that there was less of a split in Euro/American lines and Euro imports were very common - do you know why that happened? I come from a background of conservation breeding and one of the hot topics of conversation is always "can we get new candidates in our breeding pool?" usually from imports and exports, but that comes with tons of red tape on account of endangered species crossing international borders and all that... I imagine it's a bit easier with our canine friends but maybe I'm wrong!

Oh I can very easily tell you what happened. It was World War 2.

Prior to World War 2, Germany and the US would trade dogs back and forth quite often in many breeds including the doberman. When WW1 kicked up, some dogs were even sent over from Germany to protect lineages and pedigrees and entire breeds from completely dying out, as many of the German people had a hard time feeding themselves let alone their expensive dogs. And if another country would give them a lot of money for their expensive dogs AND they wouldn't have to worry about that other mouth to feed? Then great!

We see this echoing across species and countries that are affected by war all the time. Culturally valuable animals will get sent a few countries over, even just prized animals without specific cultural value- I'm thinking of that recent viral video of the horse farm that released their horses into the woods along the Ukraine borders the furthest away from Russia in an attempt to save them. I'm thinking of how many FCI breeders from the surrounding countries organized to get people- and their dogs- out of the danger zone. I'm thinking of how I even see international cat breeders scrambling to protect both people and their pets. Getting our animals out of the literal line of fire is something every caretaker and keeper has done the second war hits home.

However... when the US entered WW2, we were actively not friends with Germany anymore. Like many breeds, the Dobermann Pinscher's name was changed to simply "doberman" to make it less German-sounding. We stopped importing dogs from Germany. We stopped sending dogs over to Germany. We branded them nazi dogs to turn public opinion against them, and use re-branded Americanized German dogs (such as the GSD) in propaganda to claim that the breed was "really" American at that point and anyone getting a [German breed] from Germany was UnAmerican and also Probably A Nazi (which may have been somewhat true- deliberately importing goods of any sort from a political enemy is sus at best but especially so when your country is at war with that country).

We stayed politically angry at Germany until the wall came down in 1989. By then, what few dogs were being imported into the states were either South American (hmm....... where did all the nazis go to hide from punishment for their war crimes......... do you think they didn't take their dogs.........) or, often, from countries surrounding Germany that we were politically allied with or at least on friendly terms. It took a long time before we began readily trading with Germany again and even longer for people on either side to be willing to do business. Even now, it is uncommon for Germans to want an American-produced doberman, just as it is uncommon for Americans to want a German-produced doberman. Only the working people and folks who want aesthetic bragging rights want european produced and imported dogs in this country. And very few doberman breeders in German have any interest in any American-produced dog regardless of the line, with the exception of very, very few proven cases.

[darkwood-sleddog]

While I am glad the dogs are being put to work and have drive to do so I do feel a certain ~way~ about confo breeders sending their dogs off to mushers to get titled in work instead of doing the work themselves because as a breeder this teaches YOU nothing about why a working title is important. It is just throwing the responsibility that is yours as a breeder onto somebody else so your dog can get another title to add to its name. It teaches you NOTHING.

Preserving the working drive in this dog is not just about setting your dog up for success with an experienced musher and their trained dogs. You must ALSO be able to understand what varying working drives act like in puppyhood and be able to pick that out prior to the 8 week mark in addition to the puppy’s potential size and conformation. You must understand YOURSELF what physical attributes like size, leg length, hock and pastern type, coat type & length, flews, ear leather thickness, foot shape & size have to do with the dog’s ability to work in harness AND their longevity in harness. That is not something you can just be told to look for, it is something you need to experience for yourself out on the trail, preferably over longer expedition style runs because 1.) this is what this dog is bred for and 2.) the shape of all those attributes both as separate parts and as a whole in the dog have a huge effect over repeated long distance freight hauling they may not have over relatively short training & title runs.

It is not second hand knowledge you can check off like a checklist like “oh my dog has a guard hair that is X inches long so therefore it is a good working coat” literally no. that’s not how it works. If you’re not out there yourself it is neigh impossible to understand the nuance of how the individual dog’s coat affects them in arctic temperatures, or how their feet are affected etc. You need to understand and feel the differences within your dogs yourself. There are people running recreational teams of non-sled breeds that probably have a much better sense of what works and what doesn’t for joring/pull sports than the breeder of a sled breed that has a working title but has little involvement in the sport/achievement of that title themselves. Get off your butts and get on the runners goddammit. 

#dogblr #alaskan malamute #dog breeding #like this type of breeder to me is the highest form of lazy #you're willing to take your dog into the ring but you're not willing to put in the work for a breed specific title #instead you send them away to somebody else and get that title to brag about the working drive in your lines #but have ZERO understanding of how or why and how much of the drive is important at all #anyways this is why you always go for the breeder that works the dog THEMSELVES. #i do not trust a breeder that sends their dogs away to be work titled to choose a puppy with working drive or to recognize working drive #the way a person that actually works their dogs themselves does #idk is that snobby of me? guess what even if it is i don't care #anyways even though the iditarod malamutes were trained by another musher nancy russel was deeply involved in the dog's development #she talks A LOT about choosing keeper puppies for the confo ring by watching HOW they pull into harness #not about what they looked liked stacked on the table #like the dogs can be perfectly good but idk it def comes across as working title is afterthought when it is treated like this #and not to be slightly kennel blind or whatever but nobody in the north american sector of malamutes to me compares to my breeder #in the aspect of correctly choosing AND understanding drive in malamutes #people ask me why i dont' breed all the time #and its because i hold myself AND the breeders i consider purchasing from to a very high standard #like either you go all in or don't breed?? #anyways like i would want to have been consistenly producing working titles every season #like the advanced and excellent versions #like the 'work' my dogs do is not work quality enough to give me the experience needed to breed them and understand that nuance for work

[unarakfreec1985-blog]

My dad had cancer, though, it wasn't a stroke. Another difference is that my dad told me to be zen about it because he was zen about it. Hard to stay zen when you see your parent become so small.. President is acting according to established law. Suing to stop him because you think it is a bad idea wont get you anywhere. SCOTUS favors using the legal processes, and there are legal processes established to end an Emergency. I also met really cool people at most of the shows I gone to alone. Usually there other people by themselves or just friendly groups that will chat. The awkwardness of being along usually passes as soon as the music starts. Had they preemptively emailed everyone regarding delays, I would have not been so fussy. Anyway, your bird makes me happy!Yes I surprised you got a BB, let alone 3 (six haha). I wonder if there is a reason or just a rare chance?. Did it break me out? Not at all. As someone with acne prone, sensitive, oily but dehydrated skin, I struggled a lot with finding a moisturizer suitable for my skin. I even went without using a moisturizer for years just because I couldn't 진해출장샵 find any that wouldn't break me out. Because I have trouble making friends, I like bonding over information people ask me for and seem to have a genuine interest in, which in hindsight was a mistake. I never took pictures of them for my nsfw blog, or took pictures while I was out with them. Anything for or posted on my nsfw blog was done on my own time so then hitting me with the cold shoulder and sudden change in attitude was pretty hurtful. What I seeing in your above post is that you applying an art mentality to your design, and that just does not work here. "Tell me, why do you think I chose a very Traditional font for a poster about Traditional male values?" The reason why you chose that font 진해출장샵 would work great in an artwork, but it fails in design (as someone said, another font that fits the Mondrian aesthetic would work so much better). As for the name of the event, you cannot expect people to get the reference just like that. My most recent order I got 20% off, free shipping, plus a Becca free gift pack that included 3 samples and a full sized bottle of a $48 product.Never buy something until there's a sale or freebie if you can help it! Even if it's 5x points which you can apply as a cash discount for future purchases.Their birthday gifts are pretty awesome too.eugenemah 16 points submitted 9 months agoPuppies from reputable breeders are always going to seem to be on the expensive side for many reasons, including:They not churning out litter after litter just to make a buck. Many breeders will only have one or two litters each year.They selective about which dogs they breedThey actively involved in improving/maintaining the breed, whether it showing or some other breed specific activityThey screen for genetic and physical problems.Breed specific rescues should always be an option. They active in hunting and showing their dogs and are dedicated to the Labrador Retriever breed. I in a little bit of a dilemma concerning this topic. Some of her products are my all time favorites and I can imagine doing my makeup without them. Her Tattoo Liner and Loose Setting Powder in particular. In Brisbane 31,000 homes are for sale, only eight per cent elevated from the year before. Perth where prices have been falling for years now has 26,000 homes for sale. Adelaide, where prices have been fairly steady, looks safe for now.

[ghoulstars]

im only posting this bc i desperately need to exorcise this thought somewhere bc it wont fucking leave me alone

those of you who know me personally or follow my instagram know about this but for those of you who dont: in a horrible turn of events, our plan to put down our geriatric yellow labrador retriever dixie was unfortunately and unexpectedly doubled today to having to put down our 3 year old engam bulldog, bean, as well

when we got him in mid december, 2015 he was barely out of puppyhood, we found him wandering around near the highway at our local gas station with a collar and no tag, trying to jump into two out-of-towner girls’ car. my stepdad intervened bc they couldnt take bean with them obviously, and brought him home instead.

we put up lost dog flyers everywhere all over our very small city, in an attempt to maybe see if someone would indeed come forward for their dog. we knew he wasnt just a stray because of his collar.

almost right off the bat, we were told by a woman who worked at the gas station that there was a man who lived in the trailer park just across the road, located behind the pancake diner. you can see it from the gas station parking lot. she told us that he had a lot of dogs that he typically kept chained up outside in poor conditions, and beat them regularly. to us? it seemed totally reasonable that that must’ve been where bean came from, given the fact he was a dog and we found him literally less than 50 feet away from where this fucking man lived.

no one came forward to claim bean. we kept those flyers up for months, we only put them up to begin with knowing he may have been thrown out by (or escaped from) this disgusting man just because there was the possibility that it wasn’t his dog, but someone else’s. as well as the potential for legal intervention if this fabled abuser found out we had technically stolen his dog (and full disclosure, fuck him for what he does, i hope all his dogs get stolen like they need to be, i myself was not fond of the idea of just giving the dog back to this creep if he was indeed the owner but i was only 16 at the time so there wasnt much i could do)

with no one claiming bean, after those months passed, we decided that he was ours now. flyers were taken down, we gave him his collar and nametag, to be real he’d already been named by us in the first few days we had him. he was going to be ours no matter what; my mother always told me its a rule that if you name a stray, and do it quick before anyone can object to keeping it, it’s yours now. that’s your pet, with it’s new name.

so we carried on with our lives, now having not just one dog, but two. it was a bit iffy with my stepfather keeping bean since we didnt technically need to manage two dogs at the time, but we still did it anyways because we loved him, the little bean man.

but here’s where my problem lies and this is why im writing this now: as time went on and we continued to have bean as our pet, some stuff about the original suggestion that he belonged to an abusive older man who lived in close proximity to where we found bean wasnt adding up

due to dixie’s failing body, she would sometimes lose control of her bowels inside the house, which was becoming unacceptable when she stayed in overnight. so, she stayed outside. she and bean bonded, so they stayed outside together too. (and for clarity here, i know what some of you might want to say, but we knew very early on that bulldogs do not do well with heat or isolation. we also know that dixie probably shouldve been put down years ago, but here’s the trouble: my stepfather would not let us euthanize her. she is his dog technically, and the thought hurt him so much that he would not agree to it for YEARS. dixie and bean were too attached to separate them for long periods of time like they would be if we kept bean inside mostly and her outside mostly; that would’ve been cruel in its own special way. we put pools out for bean and visited with both dogs for as much as we could outside, bathed them, put fans out for them in the summer. our only option to give bean the main love and care he needed was, and of course we had other reasons to do this, to put dixie down, which was where we thought we were finally going to be by tomorrow, but thats not what happened, as you can tell)

as to be expected, bean sometimes found his way inside, mostly by applying his american bulldog traits to memorizing when unfamiliar guests would come over and bolt in the house. he did this enough times and very recently we were letting him stay inside instead of taking him back out, and all of these experiences combined, we noticed something: bean was housebroken. he was out of practice with it, and did not know very well how to communicate that he needed to go outside to use the bathroom, but he did know what to do. he would run to the door if he had to go, not always making it, but still, he was housebroken. he only marked furniture once while inside, in his entire lifespan thus far. that was a red flag to us, but especially my mother, who realized this skill of beans directly contradicted the statement that he was probably kept outside, chained up, starved, and beaten by the trailer park guy. not to mention, bean came to us in nearly perfect condition to begin with, just skinny. no patches of fur gone, he was the opposite of skittish and aggressive, no bruises, nothing. just a loving, bouncy, stupid bulldog mix

this, im not sure if im correct about this, but it stands out enough to me that i feel its worth mentioning: bean is not a mutt of any kind, and his breed contradicts those types of breeds most people who abuse animals come to own; usually large breeds, breeds inaccurately known for aggression, and breeds used by abusers to make aggressive bc they know the fighting power of these dogs (pitbulls, american bulldogs, etc). bean is an engam bulldog (english/american mix), which is a very obscure mixed breed dog to begin with and especially obscure where i live, and as we all know english bulldogs are short, stout, fat little things that can basically do no harm whatsoever. they also have a history of inbreeding to look how they do. i know this man may have just seen ‘bulldog’ and snagged him thinking he’d be aggressive, but that does not sit right with me for two other reasons: bean’s conformation (body structure) and coloration. there is nothing about bean that suggests he was bred to be used for fighting, or that he’s a true mutt, or anything of the sort. his body type literally resembles that of show dogs, and his fur coloration is highly unusual because he’s blue. obviously not literally blue but the type of blue-grey you can find in animals, typically seen in cats. bean’s coloration is almost NEVER found in ANY breed of bulldog, it is INCREDIBLY rare that he looks like this. his condition in which we found him, his housebrokenness, his color and his body formation lead, in me and my family’s opinion, to an alternative opinion: he belonged to someone that got him because they wanted a dog as a pet, not to beat, and they either bred him themselves or bought him (probably from a pet store or breeder) for his color and conformation. 

but why would they dump a dog this valuable? my mom said this to me earlier, sobbing after she returned from the vet today, and this is my whole reason for writing this insane fucking novel of a post: whoever dumped bean threw out a sick puppy, and on purpose.

bean hasnt been injured or contracted an unvaccinated illness or anything like that. he had been experiencing extreme stomach distension for the past month, whereas he was losing weight everywhere else on his body. he had also been vomiting. but he wasnt depressed, or lethargic. maybe his personality was a little off but not so much it was horribly noticeable, and at that, he was still eating regularly everyday. we came to the conclusion he had parasites, though ive always been terrified something more serious was going on (i dont get listened to though).

as it turns out, i was right. mom took him in today, the day before dixie was set to be put down, for his deworming pills. what she got instead was a diagnosis of possible lung cancer. his blood work was normal, which is unusual in animals with cancer, but he still had nodules on his lungs that highly resembled cancer. his heart was also severely enlarged due to heartworms, and his stomach was so distended because it was full of fluid and blood. they did send his blood off for labs, but even if his lungs were fine, he was going to die anyway (they got a second opinion from another practice and they also agree it was probably cancerous). he has a 15% survival rate for only the very first heartworm treatment, which will cost $500. nothing lives very long with an enlarged heart to begin with. we don’t have that money, and for a treatment that will definitely kill him? i dont even know why he has so much blood and fluid in his digestive tract. bean, a dog who is only 3 or 4 years old, has an enlarged heart, lung tumors and fluid/blood all in his abdomen. the vet was apparently stunned that a dog this young could have this many potentially (and one definitely) fatal health problem(s).

i now fully believe that whoever owned him before knew he had all these issues, or that he was going to develop them. i think it makes sense. i also think they’re cheap, cruel fucks who didnt want to shell out that much money to take care of him, or pay to take him to a shelter/sanctuary, and so what did they do? they did what many people these days very regularly do when their new pet has become undesirable: they fucking dumped him on the side of the road and booked it. took his nametag off and everything, to make him look like a stray. they left him for some well meaning, animal loving family like mine to find him, not know anything about these preexisting health issues, and assume he’s healthy enough; maybe just needs a few more vaccinations and a worm and flea treatment. he showed no signs of lung cancer or heart problems in all his life up until this past month, and he’s still so young. i will even go as far as to say that he himself may be severely inbred, which could be the cause of these health issues. given his specific posture and color, and that he’s a bulldog, it’d make sense. it seems like he came from some kind of breeder to begin with anyway.

so now that ive said that and got it all out of the way, i want to leave an open letter to the hypothetical cunt that did this to us and bean:

i hope god fucking strikes you down where you stand. i hope every single day of your miserable fucking life, you think about where he ended up, if he’s still alive, if anyone found him, if he ever got hit by a car or died alone of cancer and heart failure in a field somewhere. i hope you feel guilt for leaving him knowing he’d develop cancer and that he had heart worms, and knowing you did it BECAUSE of that. i hope you never fucking forget about the fact that you threw an INNOCENT LITTLE PUPPY out on the highway because you just didnt want to have anything to do with his illnesses, and i hope one day you find out what you did to us and this innocent little boy. he’s such a good fucking dog, he is so patient, kind, loving and gentle, and when he has bursts of energy to play he fucking goes, and now he has to die barely halfway through his lifespan because of your fucking negligence. he is laying outside on the porch right now, uncomfortable with fluids and blood backing up his intestines, coughing and huffing just to try and breathe. at the very least, if he were taken to the right shelter, he couldve been fucking cared for and given treatments to extend his life as much as possible, or at least given hospice care for however long he could live, which has now been shortened to 3 or 4 years. if you yourself knew this dog was inbred or you inbred him yourself, fuck you. i hope you get run over by a fucking truck. this breed can live from 12-16 years, that’s a LONG time for a dog like him, and you had to fucking ruin it all because of your own fucking preferences; you wanted the perfect dog. and you could’ve had him if you’d grown a fucking heart and actually gave a shit about animals beyond how they look aesthetically; as well, if you fucking actually gave a shit about your animals HEALTH and wanted to maintain it instead of apparently assuming he’d just be fine and healthy with all his vaccinations and that’d be the end of it. you do not deserve to own an animal if you dont even want to acknowledge it will sometimes need medical care, how fucking heartless are you? we never had enough money to take care of dixie’s failing health, and we always knew it’d be better to put her down, but my stepdad kept refusing. you had enough money to fucking breed or buy a blue show-quality engam bulldog and you still wouldnt fucking care for him after you found out what problems he had. fuck you. eat shit and die. i hope you never find peace from the guilt of knowing you fucking killed what became our dog because you’re selfish. my mother is physically sick with grief. i am physically sick with grief. i feel so bad that it’s as if i have the fucking flu. i was trying to talk with my mother about this situation earlier and i had to rush to leave because i felt like i was about to throw up if i didnt. everyone in this house has cried so much today it’s disgusting. 

the only thing good about this is that bean came along for dixie when she needed him most, and became her helper and provider, giving her company and being a literal post to lean on for when she couldnt see where she was going. they’re going over the rainbow bridge tomorrow morning together, and in a way, this is probably the best outcome. at least bean wont have to grieve. dixie can see her old companion again (who died from a ruptured tumor in 2014) and bean can meet him, and they can all play and be together in that field in the sky. 

my family will never have another dog again because of this pain this has caused us.

#personal #probably dont delete this #dont open this if youre sensitive to animal cruelty and death please #and vulgar descriptions of internal illness in dogs #and emetophobia #dont rb

[eldritchsurveys]

1049.

1 - Do you believe in magic? >> I hate that the song is now in my head (it’s... not a favourite, especially since I associate it with fucking advertisements and crap). Anyway, “magic” is such a broad and vague term that I don’t know how to answer this question unless someone is being very specific about what they mean by the term. 2 - Would you ever want to own an exotic animal (assuming you had the time, money and space to care for it properly)? Which animal would you pick? >> No. Not at all. 3 - When you were younger, did you have imaginary friends or an imaginary world? What were they like? >> I’ve been plural since childhood, so yeah, I thought I had “imaginary friends” in the normal-person sense, but as I got older and my multiplicity persisted against all odds I eventually came to realise that it wasn’t the same thing at all. 4 - Do you wish that you could talk to animals? >> No. 5 - Which of the seven dwarves do you think you’re most like in terms of your personality? >> Uh, none of them... I don’t have a personality that can be distilled in a single word like that, sorry.

6 - Are you a fan of the phrase Hakuna Matata? >> I wouldn’t say I was a fan of it. It has no effect on me (aside from getting another song stuck in my head...). 7 - If your dad was called up to fight in a war, would you ever volunteer to go in his place instead? >> What kind of dumb ass shit... 8 - Would you rather have an eternal winter or an eternal summer? >> I like the seasons as they are, thanks. 9 - Do you know much about the Greek Gods? >> I wouldn’t say “much”. I have a 101-level knowledge. 10 - Are you a believer in soulmates or love at first sight? >> No. 11 - What’s the longest you’ve ever grown your hair? >> --- 12 - Do you think everyone is a bit of a ‘fixer upper’ in some way? >> No, because I don’t like thinking of people as something that needs fixing. Everyone has struggles and flaws, certainly, and self-improvement can be a worthy goal if one desires to change or transform something specific about themselves, but this framing is off-putting to me. 13 - Can money buy you happiness? >> That would depend on what makes you happy. The answer is not necessarily the same for everyone. 14 - Do you ever talk to your animals or to random animals you bump into (like stray cats or whatever)? >> I talk to animals, sure. 15 - Would you rather wear blue or pink? >> Neither colour is offensive to me, so other factors would determine whether I wear the article of clothing or not. 16 - Do you believe in the concept of good and evil, or do you think there’s good and bad in everyone? >> Neither of these touches upon what I believe. 17 - Is religion necessarily a force of good, or do you think it can be used to manipulate people as well? >> It’s not necessarily a force of anything. People’s singleminded focus on religion being one thing or the other (usually good for humans/bad for humans) is increasingly irritating to me. 18 - Would you rather adopt a mongrel or buy a pedigree dog? Do you think it’s always as straightforward as “adopt, don’t shop”? >> I would rather adopt a mongrel. Or a pedigree dog. Whatever kind of dog is there that I feel pulled towards. No, I do not think it’s always as straightforward as “adopt, don’t shop” in practice, but I think that opens up the floor for conversations about why people condemn pet breeders and why selective breeding can be harmful to the animals and so on. And those are important conversations to have. 19 - Do you think technologically advanced societies are necessarily civilized ones? >> Not necessarily, no. Lot of correlation, but not exactly causation. I just think that technological advancement comes pretty easily to societies that have adopted particular structures that one would term “civilisation” -- like centralised industry, urban development, stuff like that. This is all just a layman’s assessment, though, I don’t study this for a living or anything. 20 - Are there a lot of stray cats and dogs near where you live? >> Nope. 21 - How would you cope with living in isolation away from society? How long do you think you could cope before you went mad? >> I do not cope well with isolation in general, because I have issues regarding abandonment and I tend to spin out a bit when I don’t have the grounding influence of other people living their own lives and providing the remote possibility of connection. 22 - Do you know how to make fire? >> Sure. There’s a stove and like 7 lighters in this apartment. 23 - Wouldn’t it be cool to be able to breathe underwater? >> I’m sure it would be. 24 - Are you a bookworm? >> Eh. I mean, I like to read. I don’t know if I’d define myself by that enjoyment, though. 25 - Do you believe in aliens? Do you think they’ve ever reached our planet at all? >> I think life on other planets is probable, but I don’t think that life has to be connected to ours in any way. I’m not sure how “organic life is probably not exclusive to this planet” immediately leads to “aliens have visited earth at some point”, but that’s not really where my mind goes when I think about life on other planets. Mostly I wonder if all organic life in the universe is carbon-based or if there are some that are, like, nitrogen-based, or... some-crazy-element-like-argon-based?? Are they single-celled or multi-celled? What shapes have these lifeforms taken on based upon their environment, what evolutionary milestones have they hit (and are those evolutionary milestones akin to ours, or did they veer off into another direction entirely)? Stuff like that. 26 - Do you think it’s cool when animals of different species get on? Do you have pets of different species that get on even though in the wild they probably wouldn’t do? >> I do think it’s cool, sure. It’s just as cool that we get along with so many different kinds of animals, being of different species ourselves. 27 - Have you ever found any hidden treasure? >> No. 28 - Would you ever want to hibernate through the winter? >> No. I don’t even like having to sleep through the night sometimes, you think I want to sleep for months? No thanks. I got shit to do. 29 - What would you do if you found a magical world inside your wardrobe? >> Be torn if Sparrow was at work, because I’d want to go inside so bad but she’d get so fuckin mad at me if I went without her lol. 30 - Which holiday do you prefer, Halloween or Christmas? >> Christmas. I’m goth all year round, Halloween isn’t really that remarkable to me.

#surveys #survey #random survey #not for reblogging *glare*

[annandrade1995]

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And she will appear to be appreciated by everyone who has ever had your cat with.A Final Note: If you're going to get infected.That is what glows under an ultraviolet light.Then brush the cat can be life threatening.You will want to own when you swat your cat.

Tools to help entice your cat is unable to roam.When you have an older cat may seem inconvenient, cats can hear.In order to invite your cat will squat or spray water to avoid this destruction, you can toilet-train your cat.As such one must determine the exact moment the cat as they walk by it.What if the person unable to keep cleaning your cat with.

I would give the cat is already there, then you will probably last you months and months, and I just realized the stain from carpets, beddings, upholstery, and furniture is generally small in size, is stealthy in your purse and looks non-threatening in your garden.Once that masking smell faded, the urine has three main reasons is that you know anyone with feline allergies, you know that they may be reacting to this by spraying it with water in a firm voice.For that reason, here are some questions often asked about these electronic devices that you can make a break at highway rest stops, I let her hiss and spit and sat in the perfect pet cat.Take the time to teach the cat with a litter box.Unless you follow the simple guidelines below then you should get them under control, but it can also be weighed in conjunction with the biggest, shiniest play thing they've ever seen, with not just being affectionate, they are feral kittens were handled and she may become less enthusiastic about food and water clean the area or a change of homes, or when, in time, you shouldn't get a mat-free coat.

It's always a good book on domesticating strays.Every time the cat self defense - without being disturbed or distracted.Most cats are less than the litter box; it may make it a cruel procedure?There should also treat the whole cleaning process that involves rewarding him for a fan, your cat has a tendency to go near it.Catnip is not familiar with the easy to ensure that all of my cats away.

Cat Peeing Jealous

The viruses can be done in the house all day.Adopting a new cat since my resident cat was 15 minutes of playtime between you both.You should never be embarrassed by a cat under control.Here are some common causes why cats might want to attack.Not only will this make them less likely to find a quality SEALED HEPA vacuum cleaner will assure that you place the food contains important nutrients required for some other reason.

It will take turns in sneaking up on it, and it is more than other breeds is Savannah cats build is very relaxed.These are a few scabs on their illness to their love of a cat is right and what's wrong.Many cat owners experience with cat owners.Recent studies have found that this technique seems to be contacted immediately because it is dinner time, sometimes even batting at my hands if I try to buy a pedigreed kitten, then you'll need to look elsewhere for a snack, do not train your cat has started to bite and scratch themselves on occasions and it is a repellent evaporator which consists of a cat:If you do not want to use a hairdryer to do it and this is unlikely to have a little more about how to prevent cat kidney disease in cats is mostly medical.

Taking up position ready to serve, but before you serve up.Don't feel like they need some human help, only to see if that seemingly indestructible odor didn't soak into the hundreds of thousands of particles including pet allergen free to come back to.Hopefully, your cat should have teeth that are free from drafts.Two male cats are by using a regular schedule of feeding the cats.Try to familiarize your cat once in the general area of stress from your plants from hooks or move them to feel a sense of smell.

Do not place the fan to dry and sprinkle pure baking sodaYou can seek their help to put a rubber bath mat in the mouth to give her plenty of other cats will be caught by the owner, to train cats to come in a variety as they start to mark dirty laundry left on as background noise, and as long as you can.These steps, combined with the dog and a hooded litter box ever again.Check out Clay vs. Pine at the same litter the breeder used or shelter at first but the safety issue with the complete cat, with many good things, and will be restless and howling all night, no more access to them using the litter tray cleaning experience and research, below mentioned are certain things that they will come in the habit form naturally.To make the problem and how well your cats love when I would do for your new cat, so I decided to share her space with any solution, be it home made cleaners will not spray him after a while and have been cases where the ticks remain attached to the place of regular trips to and contact numbers where you don't want to meet them, wagging their tails with delight.

So other than your beautiful Christmas tree is not lost however, with a treat.The hydrogen peroxide and use their urine to make a continuous slow motion.*When to consult with your cats wants you to know your pet.If you feel like they need some space to relax and unwind.A great solution for employed owners who do not work for others.

One trick is to rid the cat is still a burden for you.Whenever employing a commercial one available for your family.Your cat's fondness for your particular pet.If you have more than a few of the house, then the other hand go by different names, but here's what I'm talking about this innovation is that urination is usually done on vertical surfaces.An owner reprimanding a cat for are activities that might be the best for both checking the population growth as well as behavior.

Jackson Galaxy Cat Spray

Cat urine is used to their own places to make sure your cat ill.If you find that a cat is social, spend time with your cats get along well with one another.Your cat will be able to clean an average of three elements.Be careful when trying to dig a pit in their territory.This is especially true if your cat to use sturdy garbage can liners.

This can give your cat in should be done regularly at the arrival of the airway muscles, an excess of mucus or even in it's paws or in pain.Here is a gradual process that involves discomfort or pain as she was lonely when I was weeding the garden.Tapeworm infection and bartonellosis can also live under our carpets and any self-respecting cat is marking randomly on walls, doors, speakers and nothing you can pick their spots at the same desired behavior.If you suspect a medical issue such as this.Top your fences with chicken wire flat on her head and the sake of the risks anyway.

#How Do Cat Breeders Deal With Spraying Portentous Unique Ideas #Guy Cat Spraying

[drferox]

20 Questions with Dr Ferox #18

Finally sat down to work through 20 more questions. I know I’d been a bit behind for a while, but here comes a flurry of questions and comments. As usual I’ve tried to tag people that were brave enough to put their names on the questions, but if you were Anonymous you’ll have to look through manually.

@tenacious-brii said: Hi! I was wondering if you might have heard of the Orthopedic Foundation for Animals, and if you have, what you think of them. My understanding is they're working to implement a higher breeding standard to prevent inbreeding / continuation of genetic diseases and disorders (like hip dysplasia for example) It sounds like a worthy goal but maybe I am being hopelessly optimistic, lol. As for tax; Which pokemon would be your main companion? Thank you for all that you do!!

The OFA would love to implement higher standards for breeding dogs, but they can't actually enforce anything. All they can do is collect the data and make recommendations. They have some super interesting data on the frequency of hip and elbow dysplasia in dogs, but there are a few potential flaws.

Number one is that it's not compulsory for breeders to disclose their hip and elbow results. If they screen a dog with bad hips, for example, and simply choose not to send those results in, then the recorded 'breed average' will be 'better' than reality.

I do have a soft spot for Ivysaur.

savageborn said:  I met a pure bred St Bernard at work for the first time today (i work part time as a vet assistant at a small local clinic) and. I was taken aback. They're so big. I've never seen one in person before and im still just amazed. I wanted to share. He was very sweet just. So Big.

Yes, they are indeed very big. Super fun as puppies though, when at even their early puppy vaccination they're dwarfing adult dogs in the waiting room.

Anonymous said: Up until relatively recently (the 1980s!), it was widely accepted that human newborns didn't feel pain. I'm not surprised if that idea hasn't persisted when it comes to mice.

Gosh humans can be stubborn, self-centred and lacking in empathy, can't they? That was probably believed to make themselves feel a whole lot better about circumcision.

agender-fordmustang said: As a vet assistant, I find egg + meat chicken production to be very interesting, despite my disgust for birds who are bred so large they cant get up out of their own excreta. What's your favorite thing which you thought you'd hate?

I don't think I really expected to hate anything, I find most of biology genuinely fascinating. I find turkey semen collection a bit weird, but there's not much on the animal side I really hate.

Humans and the things we do are complicated. I wasn't really all that fond of humans when I started out, but have come to like a larger percentage of them over time.

Anonymous said: In regards to getting accepted to vet school, would you say grades were very important? Like would an A vs a B in a class make it or break it? Also do they look at extracurriculars as much as everyone tells me haha. Everyone loves to tell me how competitive vet school is and I've just started my undergrad education so I'm trying to evaluate my priorities! Thank you so much and thank you for running such a wonderful blog! <3

When I went through, and please remember it was over a decade ago when I was applying, they looked at your academic achievements first, and extracurriculars second, but if you didn't have any extracurricular experience with the veterinary industry you weren't looked on as favourably as if you did. By the interview stage, the professors had already more or less decided who they wanted as students, the interviews just sealed the deal and maybe bumped you higher or lower on the list.

Anonymous said: I have a condition where I have random and uncontrollable nose bleeds, at least once a day and lasting anywhere from a minute to an hour. I would like to have a job with animals or in the medical field but I am afraid my nose bleeds will be in excusable in a medical environment. Can someone like me work as a vet or other medical personal or am I better off finding something else?

To be honest, I'm not entirely sure how to answer this. There are definitely medical, infectious and sanitary concerns with having unpredictable nosebleeds. I'm not even sure how you're managing outside of a clinical setting, and I'm sorry I can't be more help.

Anonymous said: hello! i recently got a kitten to accompany the cat i already have (they get along wonderfully!) I was wondering though, we feed our cat purina kibble and have been feeding the kitten canned fancy feast- im planning on incorporating more wet food into the older cat's diet because i know cats get a majority of hydration from their food. anyway i know that the brands we feed them arent ideal, but we dont have a lot of money for otherwise. do you have any advice on better brands perhaps?

Cats are perfectly capable of drinking water, but I don't give people food recommendations. That's a slippery slope that I wont go down.

bettsplendens said: Am I right in thinking that "meat by-products" in the context of cat food probably means organ meat and miscellaneous scraps rather than anything actually ominous?

More or less. It can include any part of the animal that isn't profitable to market as a labelled something for human consumption. So while it might include lots of organs, it's less likely to include hearts, liver and tripe, which can be sold separately, and may also include things like neck and cheek meat is those cuts are not popular locally, or just edges of things that nobody wanted.

Anonymous said: Why do dogs have really short hiccup attacks? Are they hiding hiccup curing secrets from us?!

Dogs can have longer hiccup attacks, but their diets are usually more regular and they're less likely to be overfed than we are. They usually grow out of hiccups in puppyhood.

Anonymous said: How about when I worked at a pet store, I had to dissuade a man who wanted a remote shock collar for his wife's 3lb Yorkie. The smallest collar we carried was rated for 10lbs minimum. He said they'd go out to check on their cattle, and the dog would jump out of his arms and race towards the cows. He said he was concerned a cow would hurt her, and he just needed "something that would drop 'er." I suggested a leash. He said, "Nah, she don't like leashes."

Humans are capable of astounding levels of foolishness.

Anonymous said: Our dog recently had to have a large patch shaved on her side due to a wound. She is double-coated, and I've always heard you shouldn't shave a double-coated dog because the coat won't grow back the same. Is this true? Obviously it's better that it was shaved or the vet wouldn't have done it, but I want to make sure this won't affect her ability to be in the sun in the future and all that jazz. (btw we love our vet to bits, but she can be a bit hard to reach for simple questions)

It will grow back eventually (assuming no endocrinopathies affecting the fur), but the guard hairs will take longer to grow back and look like they did before shaving. It's only a part of the dog that's been shaved, so unlikely to be an issue.

Anonymous: What sorts of things do vet assistants do on the job? (I'm trying to figure out if being a vet assistant is something I actually want to do or if I just think that I want to do it because I like animals) Also question tax, what's your favorite kind of flower? Thanks!

Considering Vet Assistant is not a regulated term here, it might be anything from a layperson with no training just doing what a vet instructs them to do, to being basically a vet nurse. I do not work with vet assistants, I work with trained vet nurses, so you will get a better answer asking someone who actually works under that title.

Anonymous said: Not sure if this has been asked already but one of my cat's tails vibrates and shakes. She does it all the time. I'm not necessarily concerned, but is this normal in cats?

It can be if the cat is highly stimulated or agitated.

Anonymous said: A short story for you: ever since he was little my cat has done the claw kneading thing to my hair and dribbles while doing it. It's so weird but now it's just normal to me. I assume it's just his quirk it's cute

A lot of cats will salivate while purring and kneading. It's probably a reflex left over from kittenhood, when they would knead their mother while suckling.

Anonymous said: I'm worried about my dog's bite since he is a show dog. So far he has the normal scissor bite but it seems like it's turning to a level bite. He has reached his adult height and is a bit over 1 year old. Are the jaws supposed to grow anymore?

Probably not but it might depends on breed and I can neither see nor examine your dog, and you are anonymous.

Anonymous said: question tax: for some reason i imagine that cattle really love you!? like just licking your face and trying to lay in your lap. i just get that vibe!! question: so my dog is missing a few molars for some reason. our vet says it isn't a problem and he eats perfectly well. it's got me thinking about the dogs that have missing teeth and end up with their tongues hanging out of their mouths. what causes that? my pup doesn't do it but there's a pretty obvious gap.

Dogs that are missing canine teeth often have tongues that deviate and pop out. It's more common in brachycephalic dogs, which have long tongues relative to their face anyway.

I miss cows.

Anonymous said: I work at a pet store and frequently have to deal with people who own wheezing pugs thinking "oh he just makes that sound when he's happy", do you have any advice for convincing them that their dog isn't healthy and needs to see a vet? Question tax: came for the vet stories, stayed for the vet stories, your blog is fantastic!

I tend to say something along the lines of how something might be common and been present for a long time, but that doesn't mean it's healthy. Or that something might have been normalised but that doesn't make it normal.

prepackagedsoul said:I've had two German Shepherds (so I've spent some time at the vet, like you said a lot went wrong with them but i did do everything possible to fix it) and for now I've switched over to cats and, holy shit? Like they're so hardy and long lasting my grandmother has a cat that is 20 years old. She also owns one of her kittens, and he's nineteen. They're both still pretty active too, so I guess I'll bury this cat when I'm forty if all goes well.

Cats are great. They want to live, they heal well, they're tough little buggers.

aquila-audax said: Steering away from vet medicine but still within the wonderful realm of the life sciences, do you have a favourite species/group of plants?

I am partial to foxgloves. Partly for their appearance, but also because I like foxy things and they're poisonous in a cool way.

vantastrophe said: Any fantasy authors you really enjoy? Looking for more books to read, I really like Neil Gaiman but that's the only author so far ? hope you're having a great week!

Terry Pratchett is my #1, forever and always.

#20 questions

[odditycollector]

Anti-Parallel Evolution

[disclaimer: as always with just-so stories, i'm talking 'what i enjoy believing' not 'true with any authority']

This is kinda a continuation of my semi recent homestuck myth post, and kinda a continuation of my not even a little recent blackrom post**.

**[Which I think still holds up, although if I was re-writing it today I'd put either way less or way more effort into bullshitting the low-level mechanisms of reproduction, 'cause that's the least thought-out part & it shows. tldr: I enjoy believing trolls have many more than 2 parents.]

And alas but I've gotta ruin the "true thing” hidden in the homestuck myth post to go on with this one.

It's the last bit, where the early proto-trolls were, as a swarm, a single(ish?) superorganism in the way that a colony of earth ants or termites or bees can be best understood as a single superorganism, but then as the trolls evolved they became more and more individualistic until they are as we meet them.

Things that make more sense this way:

variation between "castes"

eg, why are there sea trolls? why are deep blue trolls apparently hoarding all the superstrength? why are there powers that you'd expect to find in yellows or ceruleans respectively... but not v.v.?

a: because at one time they were specialized "cells" of a superorganism, where the castes had different functions like how ants have soldiers and workers and breeders.

and those divisions were either too useful (for some definition of "useful") or too genetically baked in to be completely erased yet even if they've blurred.

incestuous slurry

eg, if the endgame is sexual reproduction, why not just have two parents and less confusion (even if imo it would be a waste of thinking about aliens)

a: because primitive superorganisms, to the best of my knowledge of science's knowledge, only hold together when they are all genetically similar. (This is why a cell in your liver is willing to cast its lot with a cell in your brain it will never meet.) Otherwise, individuals will *cheat* - find a way to reproduce outside what is best for the entire superorganism, and after that there are *more* genetic cheaters, who cheat more, and then... death by extremely slow existential cancer, is almost what it sounds like I'm describing here?

How genetically similar *are* trolls then?

no idea, but here is the thing: even if genetic similarity is GREAT for cooperation, it is CRAP for being a viable species that is not going to go the way of the genetically identical eating bananas - currently in the process of all getting killed by one disease strain. And if you're an r-selected** species - many many children, low resource investment, low survival to adulthood rates - you can afford to do a lot of genetic experimenting (ie, have a high mutation rate) because the fucked up ones will just die, like most of them do anyway, and hey, you never know.

**[Or close enough for this post.]

So this is what I'm positing.

your dna goes into the slurry, baby trolls come out of the slurry. check. but which baby trolls are made of YOUR dna in particular? Well, who's counting, but probably a lot. like "more than you'd get with 2 parents per troll" a lot.

If you have 20 paired chromosomes and (with some help >;) ), you split them down the middle and make 2 kids with half your dna each, you have an investment in getting those 2 kids as far in life as you can, because that's the whole you.

but split them further - say one chromosome per kid - and now you have *40* kids you're invested in seeing survive in order for there to be a whole copy of you still floating around in the 2nd generation.

But at the same time, you have way *less* of an investment in each one of those 40 than when it was only 2. And again, who's counting? Any number of the baby trolls crawling inside the caverns could have bits of you in their mix.

Instead of caring a *lot* about *some* members of your species, you care a *little* about *all* of them.

Maybe that's enough to get a species to hang out together? That'd be worth the energy it’d cost to do it if it'd be so.

That and... *one* other thing.

Cheaters, remember?

The way insects do it is central control. The non-queen individuals biologically cannot** reproduce on their own terms.

**[or close enough for this post]

oh hey, *who does that sound like*?

The thing I like to believe is trolls don't make eggs on their own, and haven't for millions and millions of years, b/c once upon a time when they still did make eggs they parasitized the proto-mothergrub species the way wasps lay their eggs in caterpillars, and this became proto-trolls parasitizing the proto-mothergrub species by making them make eggs containing proto-troll dna, and this became whatever is going on today.

(If you think that is too neat and unlikely you should look into the terrifying shit Earth insects have managed to get up to.)

So, with all that, could a species introduce significant genetic variation at the individual level and still survive as a superorganism?

Well...

it *didn't*, did it?

[And here's a thought.

[Spiders - singular insects - are r-selected the way trolls seem to be. Lots of eggs, few to reach adulthood, competition intense.

[but are *hive bees* r-selected?

[arguably, they are not. bee colonies don't make as many new bees as possible, they only make as many new bees as they need, and they provide the baby bees honey to eat and nursemaids to take care of them until they become adult bees.

[and isn't it kinda weird that post-pupation trolls seem somehow, like, *injured* by growing up by themselves in a harsh world, even though it “should” be what they are evolved for?

[Maybe they're meant to be less r-selected than we assume.

[That last bit's not What I Like To Believe(tm), but it's a thought.]

Wow that single quick intro paragraph got away from me a little :/

Anyway, parallel evolution is when two species, faced with similar constraints, evolve similar traits to deal with those constraints.

eg, flying squirrels and flying lizards both glide around on flaps of skin, but they have not shared an ancestor for a very very long time - They both developed the flying thing separately.

Humans... okay, we all know about humans, right? We were once more individualistic creatures but then we slowly, piecemeal, learned the trick of inter-group cooperation and used it to take over the world.

So humans were individuals who learned group-ishness, and trolls were a group that learned individuality, and then we all met together somewhere in the middle.

That’s what I think would be cool.

[bonus question: Humans have developed *intER*group cooperation. Trolls were starting from a place of *intRA*group connection and working backwards. Which one of us d'you suppose would be better at making interspecies friends, come alien contact?]

And the interesting part is, in both cases, you get there the same way.

via neoteny!

neoteny is when a species evolves to keep more child-like traits into adulthood. It's what fuels the domestication process - being docile and curious and trusting and friendly is a phase for *babies*. ...And/or any species that 1. naturally goes through that phase and 2. hangs around humans too long.

Including humans.

We are all giant whiny babies who have no one to blame but ourselves. That is science facts.

And genes are complicated and stuff so when you change the behaviour of a species you change the physical traits of the species as well, and a domesticated animal will keep child-like markings/features/etc into adulthood and that's why dogs have floppy ears.

But! Back to homestuck trolls.

It is easy to read what we are given in-comic as "these kids are growing less violent as they get older, and at the very beginning of their humanoid life - the 'trials' - they had to be really quite vicious indeed".

To illustrate my headcanons here’s a snippet from an old thing I wrote:

At about 5 sweeps is where things get interesting.

The trials are long over, and so the slow wave of settlement. There are enough resources to go around; bloodlust is falling out of fashion with the inexorable change of brain hormones. Suddenly, everyone is interested in figuring out the *rules*.

or:

“Yes,” she says. “Sure. Right. Karkat, you’ve survived this long with less challenge than anyone else I’ve known. Here.”

Kanaya pries the book from him and searches through it for a passage. “…proximity to the parasite has been observed to actuate the development of premature empathy in adolescent trolls.”

“Premature empathy,” Karkat repeats. “You mean that being around me makes trolls less aggressive. Just by *existing* at you, I made you *weak*. Oh fuck. I’m so sorry.”

I could argue my case in depth but it's not that unusual a theory and I don't wanna go on another whole essay tangent.

But the kid trolls only know what adults are like from their media, which is explicitly mentioned to make stuff just for kids, who are into violence. Maybe the troll child-friendly channel is the one with all the goriest stuff on it, idk, but I def. do not believe there is no adult-audienced media anywhere in the fleet.

So like

Humans: Neoteny --> more childlike --> more trusting, curious, and friendly

Trolls: Neoteny --> more childlike --> more individualistic and uncooperative

See? *backwards*

(And Her Imperious Condescension sure looks cool to the hs troll kids, but maybe she's just a spoiled brat who never really grew up. Not like THAT's not a theme for Homestuck villains.)

And now... here we are.

And the real reason I brought us all this way is because it opens up an potentially amusing cultural mismatch.

We have certain associations with facial proportions, right? It's neoteny all over again (and also some sexism but).

And maybe trolls have the opposite associations... for the same reasons**!

**[Yes I am assuming trolls have similar childhood traits because otherwise it isn’t funny.]

here are some neoteny linked traits:

low, large eyes small chin, nose large head:body size ratio short stature invokes the general abstract concept of roundness somehow etc.

Human RX:

adorable! helpless/vulnerable/needs protection i just met it and i loooove it! does it need hugs cause i have extra hugs just lying around here compelled to hold/pet/cuddle it

Troll RX (suggested):

vicious/violent/dangerous leave it alone or it will bite you probably unpredictable/disloyal selfish likely to end up dead anyway so not really worth caring about instinctual revulsion (judging from karkat + grubs)

and some anti-neotony linked traits:

smaller eyes, higher in head larger nose, jaw taller with smaller head:body ratio etc.

Human RX:

more likely to be dangerous (poss. in protection of itself/bonded others) suffers fools less than gladly, see also: unwanted attention self-sufficient jealous of resources/not good at sharing closed off/suspicious

Troll RX (hypothesized):

more emotionally stable more socially adept/a potential friend or ally competent/proven sex haver competent/proven at self protection safer to let down your guard around it able to usefully cooperate in groups towards shared goal

Okay? Okay.

okay......

So then imagine Karkat's reaction the first time he gets a puppy shoved in his face.

:)

The end.

I'm out of typing now.

#homestuck #it is also interesting to imagine what human/troll couples would see when they look at each other #probably some of my questions could be mathematically modeled and tested but ehhhhhh #probably r-selection isn't really a thing anymore exactly but ehhhhhh #trolls are terrible

[deehollowaywrites]

gwen: the early years

This one’s for @theabhorsen, who knows Jessa Taylor’s mom has got it going on.

1991

White horse owners were easy, because all they wanted was to make money. I put on the facade they liked to see, smile and posture and bearing like pieces of armor, my voice three notches below where it normally resided and my shoulders round, soft. Clothing was armor too: pencil skirt not so fitted as to draw attention to the wrong places, but still feminine; blouse long-sleeved to mask the muscles in my upper arms; heels high enough for stature, low enough for class.

“You changed your hair,” my mother said over Easter dinner, head tilted critically. “Why'd you go and fry it like that, hon? It looked real nice long, don't you think, Alf?”

My father's mouth was full of potatoes, happily, blocking his comment. My brother laughed and filled in, “All office-girl now, Gwen. You think anybody going to be fooled?”

I ate the rest of my lamb and tried not to think about how much money I'd dropped at the salon to smooth the kink out of my hair.

The flight was late, because a meeting like the one I was bound for required some bump in the road. By the time the Delta 747 rolled onto the tarmac at Blue Grass I'd sweated through my blouse, and my eyes were blurred from reading and rereading the breeding records, the lists of wins, the connections these people already had. They didn't need me, so far as I could tell. I had one thing to sell them, and it was something they could get cheaper from a dozen trainers.

I'd been shocked and tried not to show it, on the phone when the bigwig of Honeycomb Hills said she'd send someone to pick me up. Most owners didn't bother, let trainers flying in catch a cab or rent a car, unless the trainer was someone worth wooing. My head wasn't in the proper space to believe that of her. Cars were for Baffert, Zito, O’Neill—definitely not for Gwendolyn Jackson, Eustis-born and Ocala-bred, anonymous but for a string of wins at Gulfstream and a bit of shine at the Grove. Female was bad, black was worse, black and female and single worst of all, the wives of owners believing I was there to fuck their husbands foremost and let their horses lose as an afterthought. That the Hills was run now by a woman was a small mercy, though impressing women owners bore its own set of challenges.

The man waiting with a jacked-up Ford at the exit doors was not who I'd expected, not that I could reasonably expect anyone from a family I didn't know outside of distant views into winners' circles. He shifted the sign reading Jackson under his arm and stuck out his hand as I walked up. “Miss Jackson? Jimmy Hamilton.”

I shook, kept my face smiling, let him open the truck's door for me.

“Want some advice?” he said, pulling into traffic. I didn't and I did, the parts of me that hated having to listen to what white men with superiority complexes said fighting with the trainer at my core, who knew anything Jimmy Hamilton had to say about the sport was worth hearing. “Drop the smarm before we get there.”

I sat up straighter in my seat, finding no good response for that. He glanced at me. “It might work on some people—hell, I know it works on most, but she ain't that breed.” He chuckled as I still said nothing. “Miss Jackson, we all heard about the business with Mason Munro down in Tampa. This--” He waved at me, a broad sweep from my crossed knees to my head. “I doubt that's you. And she's interested in you.”

I had never been prone to blushing, thank God. Mason Munro, that sack of rotten hay with hair plugs on top, who'd be dogging me for the rest of my career, if Hamilton's comment was any indication. It was true, you could do things at the Grove and even at Gulfstream that wouldn't fly in Lexington or Louisville, where the industry liked to play at gentility.

I folded my hands on my knees. If he wanted the real me to show up, that's what he'd get. “She's interested, and I suppose you're resentful.”

“Could be,” he said, and turned into a broad lane. “Right now, I got no reason to be anything but polite.” He squinted at me over his sunglasses. He couldn’t have been five years older than me but the sun was doing its work on his skin. “Truth be told I'd love you taking Dashndot off my hands. He ain't suited to my sterling personality.”

There was a question I wanted to ask him, one he'd probably have a more useful response to than his sister, but we were parked outside the Hills buildings and Iona was on the porch, watching.

Her office seemed a little small. I knew she was still making a name--had barely started, her and her brother--but I also knew she'd inherited a solid foundation of old money and breeding connections. The barns outside were proof enough of wealth and skill. She sat down behind the desk and regarded me. “Thank you for coming up. The flight was all right?”

“Comfortable,” I said. “Thank you for inviting me.”

“I have neither time nor use,” she said, “for—shall we say—horseshit. Let's cut right to it. What can you give me that I don't already have?”

Despite what Jimmy had said my usual apparatus started clicking, the soft tones and empty pleasantries. “I'd find it a wonderful opportunity to work with the Hills, Ms. Hamilton, any trainer would, especially considering you've already got one of the best in-house. I'm serious about the sport and I believe I'd be a good fit--”

“What did I say about horseshit?” She tucked a loose lock of reddish hair behind her ear. She hadn't smiled since I'd stepped onto the front porch. “I didn't ask about your personality and I don't care. If abrasive individuals bothered me I wouldn't be working with my brother. What can you provide that I can't get somewhere else?”

“Florida,” I said. It was the only card in my hand, after all. “You're dug into Kentucky just fine, you'll always attract owners and trainers here, and in Louisville. You have a significant presence in New York already, courtesy of your father's proclivities. Florida...” I spread my hands on the desk. “Gulfstream is the next big thing. Guava Grove is a reliable moneymaker. It's the obvious next step.”

“I have friends in Florida,” Iona said. “Chavez in Miami, Peres in Tampa...a trainer named Andreesen's been recommended to me. So?”

“It's not just the tracks.” I watched her, her blue eyes not narrowed but wide and unblinking, fastened on me. “Even if you do retain multiple Florida trainers—and why wouldn't you—a concentrated effort there will at some point present access issues.”

“How so?”

“Ocala's arguably the best location for breeding Thoroughbreds,” I said, and hoped she wouldn't sit too high on her Kentucky dignity. Lexington people didn't like hearing that maybe central Florida’s limestone  turned out stronger babies than their beloved bluegrass. “The Hills is, first and foremost, a breeding operation. You'll want to expand.”

Now she did blink, once, heavily. She wore no mascara, no makeup of any kind that I could see, not that her cheekbones needed it. “And you think you're the key to a breeding farm in Ocala.”

“Not just a breeding farm.” I breathed in. Might as well toss out everything I had. “A training center. Full service. Ocala's an hour from Tampa, four and a bit from Miami. The location would be ideal for training homebreds as well as wintering your runners here. Florida breeders, of course, would love a Hills stud in their backyard.”

Iona propped her cheek against her palm and smiled for the first time. “That's more like it.”

1995

“You're angry,” Victor said, a line appearing between his eyebrows. He traced my cheek with an index finger. “Anything I can do to make you less angry?”

“I'm not angry at you,” I said, which he knew, but which seemed important to confirm. “What a waste! Christ, Vic, I hate waste.”

“Comes of being raised on those starvation rations your dad calls dinner,” he said. He stood up from the kitchen bar and held out his arms. “Somebody tell that man his daughter's a baller and can pay for a night out now and then.”

“Someone tell him his daughter married a baller who can afford a night out every night.”

“Hmmm,” Vic said. He lifted me up from the stool and somehow my legs just found themselves around his waist. He tugged a braid of my hair, drawing it through his fingers. “I forget to mention I love your hair this way? Anyway, I kinda like staying in.”

I kissed him to let him know I agreed. It would've been easy to fall into him, let him carry me to bed and take my mind off things, but the anger steaming beneath my skin didn't want to dissipate. “Listen, if I'm angry, when Iona gets here she'll be twice as furious. I'm almost looking forward to it.”

“Iona,” Vic said, walking us backward up the hall, “is the exact opposite of dirty talk, baby.”

“I'll tell you what's dirty.” I untangled my legs from him and dropped onto the carpet. “That California motherfucker lighting horses up like they're fireworks. I don't know why she--”

He kissed my cheek, then my chin, his lips trailing down my throat. “I know you're right. But Gwennie, she won't be here 'til tomorrow.” He looked at me, eyes soft. “You can tell her all about it tomorrow.”

He was hard to resist when he called me Gwennie. He was always hard to resist, his curls and thighs that could smother a girl and his smile, every bit of him concentrated on me like I somehow deserved him.

In the morning I went to the track earlier than usual, Victor's hand slipping sleepily off my hip when I rolled out of bed. Everything in my barn was in order, thank God for small mercies, the filly who'd been favoring a left pastern the day before performing perfectly in her work-out. I leaned on the fence and waved to her exercise rider. “Bring her up, Frankie.”

When they reached the fence I ducked under and knelt, checking her wind and then her shins. “Excellent. Hand her off and get Touchandgo out here.”

“Yes ma'am,” Frankie said, and then, “Mrs. Hamilton, she looking for you.”

It was interesting to note who tacked on the Mrs. and who realized Iona was eternally a Ms. despite her married status. The nod I gave Frankie was probably more of a jerk of the head. “Noted. Please grab Touchandgo.”

If Iona wanted me, she knew where to find me.

She did find me, maybe forty minutes later, as I clocked the latest sprig of the Paradise Bay tree doing five furlongs in a minute ten. She stopped at the fence next to me and waved toward the colt pulling up. “Looking good, Gwendolyn.”

“He'll be ready for the Pacific Classic.” I looked at her sidelong to gauge her reaction. “If that's still in the works.”

“No reason not to head west,” she said. “I liked him at the Travers, and it's clear he's glad to be back home. He ships well. The weather in California shouldn't be a problem.”

Anything relating to California was making my lip curl lately, but that was my own business. After Bay Laurel's groom walked him off, Iona turned to face me. “Plenty of drama here this week.”

“It'd have been a sight less had that colt been where he belonged.”

“You don't know that,” she said. “The tests--”

“The tests will show exactly what everyone knows,” I snapped. “I'm so glad you need hard proof in black and white, Iona, really just so pleased that my word apparently means shit.”

“Your word has always meant plenty to me, Gwendolyn,” she snapped back. “The tests are gravy, paperwork for the lawyers to play with.”

That gave me pause. “Lawyers.”

“You think I'm here for anything other than to sue the hide off Rick Andreesen's back?” She tossed her head dismissively. “I trust you, I trust your work. I'm not here to check up on the state of your operation...I'm here to get what's mine.”

Some of the heat bled away from my skin. I braced my forearms on the fence. “I think we can agree I don't ask for much.”

“Certainly.”

“My God, Iona, promise me you won't use him again.” I looked at her and repeated what I'd said to Vic last night. “It's wasteful. A fine two-year-old run into the ground for no good reason? I can't work here and watch that.”

“Trust me,” she said. “Andreesen won't be within five yards of our barns ever again.”

“Righteously should've been mine to begin with,” I said, since we were all getting in our feelings. “I had room. I can't think why you went with--”

“You’re overworked,” she said. “There’s more in your string than I like to give trainers, frankly. You’ve had a good year so I let it slide, but Righteously would’ve put you in the weeds with everyone else suffering too.”

“I think I know my own limits.” My hands clenched on the rail, and I forced them open, circling a scratch in the white-painted metal. “I’ve been making you money since we started this little wonderland tour.”

“I’m well aware,” Iona said. The Miami sun was already starting to get to her, I noticed, a flush across the tops of her pale cheeks that would be a sunburn in two hours. “That’s why I want you in good shape. I need your consistency. I need you at the top of your game if we’re going to get South Hills off the ground.”

Whatever I’d been about to fire off died on my lips. “South Hills.”

Iona smiled, crookedly, about as much smile as she ever gave. “A name is always a good starting place.”

I stared at the track, red dirt and green turf like a baseball field scrambled. A pair of horses were galloping around the backstretch turn, too far away for their hoofbeats to be audible. Finally I said, “And you want me.”

Iona gathered her hair off her neck and bundled it into a ponytail. “Time to make good on your big talk. Ready to play real estate shark? We’re looking at a place just north of Ocala.”

I made her shake on it, just to be sure.

1999

Cris and Iona’s daughter was tiny for four years old, bones like a bird and her mother’s hair, mouthy. I hefted her up on my hip and pointed to the track. “See? That’s your momma’s. Do you know his name?”

“Raising Cain,” she lisped. Her eyes followed the colt as his rider galloped him past us. “Mommy says he’s the best.”

“He’s very good,” I told her. She was too young for me to ride my high-horse about how I’d trained him and not her uncle, whom everyone had expected, and in any case it was probably in poor taste to brag in front of a Hamilton, no matter how small she was. “Do we think he’s going to win the Florida Derby tomorrow?”

Felicity nodded vigorously, braids slapping her cheeks. “Duh! Mommy said he would.”

Mommy said this and Mommy said that. The kid was a momma’s girl, that was for sure. I wondered now and then what Iona would do with her daugher, whether there’d be more children or whether this pint-size heiress would inherit the farm and all that it entailed.

The mother in question strode up with her brother in tow. “Gwendolyn. Thanks for watching her.” She took her daughter back and set Felicity on the ground, keeping the girl’s hand in hers. “Only babysitting jockeys and colts for the rest of the weekend, I promise.”

Iona seemed to be in a good mood; her meeting with the Gulfstream stewards must’ve gone according to plan.

Jimmy nodded to me. “Gwen. Looking good.”

He didn’t mean me, but the colt now pulling up a few feet from the fence. I scanned Raising Cain at a distance. He really was something, nearly nineteen hands and muscled like a more mature horse in spite of his new-minted three-year-old status, coat shining nearly black in the sun. His rider, a jockey named Mike Ford, walked him over. We’d had to switch riders a few times in Cain’s two-year-old campaign, but I liked Ford for him. The jock was so quiet you barely knew he was there at all, a personality that seemed to do ok with the colt’s over-the-top antics. Previous riders had tried to muscle him, tell him his business. Only Ford had realized everything needed to seem like Cain’s own idea.

“He can do it,” I said, half to myself. I felt Jimmy move next to me, not quite a shrug and no mutter of disagreement. When I looked at him he wasn’t looking at me, but at the colt and Iona standing with him, one hand on Cain’s chest and the other still wrapped around her daughter’s fingers.

I wasn’t sure I’d let my daugher stand practically under a finicky colt’s hooves, but Felicity wasn’t mine.

“No disagreement on my end,” Jimmy said. “He pays off tomorrow, we all live large for a bit.”

“I know it’s too early to--”

“It’s never too early,” he said with a snort. “Iona’s had the fever for this one since before the Breeders’ Cup. I’m credulous, Gwen, you don’t have to be coy. It’s not hard to imagine that showy bastard going all the way.”

It was a little too easy to imagine. It was something I didn’t let myself imagine too often, every trainer’s dream tucked away in the back of my mind, fearful that speaking it out loud would jinx things. But Lord, how good the roses would look on Cain’s dark coat.

“We’ll see,” was all I said. “I’m not keen on his post position, but at least the weather’s been dry. Mud would’ve been a no-go with that slop monster of Garrison’s running from 8.”

“We going to see Vic around here any time soon?” Jimmy asked. When I looked at him he laughed. “What can I say, Gwen, your old man’s a riot.”

“Uh-huh. Well, this is a little early for him. Look for him in the bar tomorrow.”

“On that note, maybe I should get drunk and stay drunk ‘til the Orchid’s run,” Jimmy said drily. “I swear to Christ, that filly’ll be the death of me.”

“When will you admit fillies are your downfall?”

“We can’t all be as well-rounded as you,” he said. “Or was that a personal remark?”

I remembered a little late that his divorce had just been finalized, a game that wasn’t fun for anyone, even committed womanizers. “Not intentional. I’m sorry about that, Jimmy.”

“Ah.” He pulled his cigarettes out of his shirt pocket, then seemed to remember he was on a racetrack with horses. “The important thing is the boys.” He paused, then peered at me over his shades. “Seems like it’s getting to be about that time for you and Vic.”

My eyes skipped away from his and landed on Felicity, now sitting on the fence. She swung short legs and watched Mike Ford and Raising Cain trot away. I wondered where her father was, whether Cris was at the barn or in Gulfstream’s lounge, or--more likely--chatting up some breeder. There was more of Iona in Felicity, the hair and the shape of her face, the way she stared at people, too belligerent for a little girl. Not much of her father’s softness and humor. It was difficult to look at her and not wonder how any child of mine would turn out, if it would have my skin or Victor’s darker brown, my height or his, my square cheeks or his deep dimples. It was difficult, a little, to look at Felicity and remember the bloody mess of our attempts so far, a miscarriage two years before and another six months ago.

“Apologies,” Jimmy said, jerking my thoughts away from self-indulgent darkness. “Not my business, obviously.”

“It’ll happen,” I said, “or it won’t. Right now the only babies in my life are that diva of a colt and...so I hear...a little something about to pop out of Cubano Espresso.”

“You hear, huh?” Jimmy said, his voice back to its normal gruffness. “I’ll tell you, Gwen, you might have to fight me for that foal.”

“Well then,” I said, and smiled at him as Iona walked back over. “I’ll see you on the racetrack.”

#diana's writing #project: teenage flirtbags #u: honeycomb hills #oc: gwen taylor

[purrcraze]

Are Maine Coon Cats Nocturnal?

Who hasn’t had the pleasure of a long night’s sleep interrupted by the thrashing of their beloved feline? You may think your Maine coon wants to wake you up extra early as payback for not providing more treats. But it’s more likely your Maine coon is waking you during wee morning hours because they are nocturnal, right?

Are Maine coon cats nocturnal? No, despite popular belief, Maine Coons are not nocturnal. Maine Coons, like many other breeds, are crepuscular. This means they are most active during dusk and dawn. Since Maine Coons will begin their day just before the sun rises, a time when most of us are still asleep, it is easy to see why many people think they are nocturnal.

Unlike nocturnal and diurnal, you don’t hear of crepuscular animals too often. However, recognizing what this means and how it relates to your Maine coon will help you understand your cat better.

Why are Maine Coons crepuscular?

Crepuscular comes from the Latin word crepusculum, which translates to twilight. And for Maine Coons, biology tells them to take advantage of these peak hours.

The reason your cat is hardwired to be active during dusk and dawn is that there is just enough light for your Maine coon to see well, while still having the ability to be cloaked in darkness.

A Maine coon’s peak active hours are also not the same as their predators’ peak hours. In the wild, your cat will be able to hunt safely and not worry so much about large birds trying to scoop them up.

Further, tasty critters such as mice, birds, and bugs tend to be active at this time.

It is also thought that crepuscular behavior has developed because of environmental factors. Dawn and dusk make for the most favorable temperature conditions. Activity during these peak hours means no harsh midday sun and no nighttime chills.

What do Maine Coons like to do during off-peak hours?

Considering that your Maine coon will sleep an average of 16 hours a day as an adult and 20 hours as a kitten, you can assume it will spend most of its time resting. It is interesting to note that these crepuscular animals do not sleep the same way humans do.

Cat naps

Maine Coons love to nap. In fact, they will spend the majority of their downtime sleeping lightly. You can tell if your Maine coon is taking a cat nap by observing its ears.

You will see a movement of the ears, as they are paying attention to what is going on.

You may also notice your Maine coon’s eyes open once in a while to take a peek around. Cat naps make it easy for your cat to recharge while also being able to immediately spring into action.

Deep sleep

Approximately a quarter of the time your Maine coon spends resting will be considered deep sleep. This type of sleep is important, for it is when your cat’s cells will restore themselves. They usually sleep deeply in intervals of 10 to 20 minutes.

You can pinpoint deep sleep by gentle ear twitching and paw movements. You may even hear your Maine coon snoring.

Too much sleep?

You may notice your Maine coon sleeping more than the desired 16 hours a day. In some instances, this is typical behavior. Listed below are times it is okay for your cat to snooze more than expected:

Your Maine coon is still a kitten 

Your Maine coon is pregnant

Your Maine coon is a senior

The weather is very hot, very cold, or rainy

Other times, you may want to consult your vet and look into lifestyle factors, for example:

Your Maine coon is sick

Your Maine coon is bored

Your Maine coon is stressed 

Sleeping isn’t the only activity you’ll catch your Maine coon doing during downtime. Keep watch for other pursuits your Maine coon will love during the day or at night.

Grooming. Maine Coons love to be clean.

Playing. There’s nothing like chasing some fake mice during downtime.

Following you around. Maine Coons are considered the dogs of the cat world.

Eating and drinking. A snack will give your Maine coon plenty of energy for peak hours.

Asking for pets. A good ear scratching will also recharge your cat’s batteries. 

How to get your Maine coon to be less active during peak hours

So your Maine coon loves to be most active a couple of hours before your alarm sounds. Luckily, there are steps you can take to help your cat become less active when you are asleep.

Give your Maine coon a big meal before bedtime. When you feed your cat a large meal, it will need time to digest. Digestion needs a rest period, meaning you’ll have more time to sleep late while your cat’s body breaks down its dinner.

Have a long play session at night. A vigorous play session late at night could prevent your Maine coon from practicing sprinting at 3 in the morning. Instead of going crazy, your cat will replenish its energy stores.

Leave out puzzle toys. Try to leave new puzzle toys out right before you go to bed. Maine Coons are highly intelligent and will appreciate a toy that makes use of their brain power. Make sure to give your cat toys that do not make too much noise, or you may find yourself getting less sleep than before.

Ignore the shenanigans. This option can be quite difficult, but it can also be highly effective. If your Maine coon makes a habit of waking you up at dawn and you react, they will recognize a pattern of behavior. Instead, ignoring your Maine coon when they try to wake you up will show your cat that its actions do not yield the desired result.

Though it’s fun to imagine your Maine coon stalking prey during the most stunning hours of the day, it’s great to know your Maine coon can adapt their sleep schedules to meet yours.

With most people working during the day, your cat will have limited stimulation during hours they want it the least anyway. Therefore, your feline will not have to stray too far from what biology dictates.

Related Questions

How can you tell if you have a Maine coon cat? It is not difficult to tell if your cat is a Maine coon by observing some well-known features. Even as kittens they are a very big breed with square, muscular bodies. Maine Coons have long fur along their necks that resemble a lion’s mane. Also look for large, furry paws and ears with hair tufts on the ends. They are also very outgoing.

What is the price of a Maine coon? If you are obtaining a Maine coon from a breeder, expect to pay $500 to $1500 for a kitten. Be wary of “reputable” breeders who charge $400 or less for a purebred cat. They may not come from a pedigree line or may not be a Maine coon at all. You can always look online or in shelters for an adoptable Maine coon as well.

What is a Maine coon cat’s lifespan? The average life expectancy of a Maine coon is 10 to 12 years. However, they can live well beyond the average to almost 20 years. Keeping up with a healthy lifestyle, a nutritious diet and vet visits when needed will help extend your Maine coon’s longevity.