The duck breasts turned out pretty decent considering I’d never done them before, course, Apollo was peaved we didn’t give him any lol. The puppy cookies turned out ok too, he likes them anyway, which was the important part.
Dog
Duck
I have a nutcase of a puppy. Though chicken and turkey are yummy he LOVES duck meat. And of course Duck meat based treats are hard to find. Then I ran across Canyon Creek Ranch’s duck jerky treats. Puppy heaven!! Unfortunetly I missed a piece of fine print on the bottom of the bag, the one that says “Made in China.” After reading the previously posted warnings on several sites it occured to me that I’d neglected to check where the puppy’s duck jerky came from. Damn. Now I gotta find new treats.
I did a bunch of searching, and ran across the Stella and Chewy’s brand of dog food and treats, they have duck! A quick email to them resulted in the following information:
You’ll be happy to hear that all of our ingredients are US sourced and everything is manufactured in the US….USDA inspected doesn’t typically mean hormone/antibiotic free…it simply means that the products are inspected by the USDA and meets their standards for food safety. Not only do our meats meet that standard, none of our meats contain added hormones/antibiotics. The farmers don’t use them, and neither do we.
Woohoo! Cool, course, I can’t get them locally, so I’d have to order, and they’re not inexpensive. Probly worth it, but not cheap.
Hmmmm…..a local butcher shop sells whole duckling (frozen) from a farm on Long Island, WTH, I’ve never actually had duck myself, husband’s game, so I went down and bought a whole duck. Let it thaw, and today I pulled it out and decided how to do this. I’d originially thought to just roast the whole duck, but I’ve never even done a whole chicken or turkey myself, and besides, I’d already figured out the easyist way to do the puppy treats was to grind up the meat and make “cookies” out of them, and most of those dog cookie recipes tell you to start with raw meat. Well, there’s lots of instructions online for how to debone a duck, and lots of recipes for deboned duck breast, so hubby and I can have duck breast for supper, and puppy can have his cookies. Right?
Next time remind me to just roast the whole duck and go from there. At least I didn’t cut my fingers OFF, just nicked them a little, but anyone looking at the end carcass could have told you I didn’t have a clue what I was doing. But there are two duck breasts in the fridge waiting till tonight to cook, and puppy’s cookies are baking. He thinks they smell YUMMY so I don’t expect to have a problem feeding them to him!
Once everything is done I’ll let you know how they turned out.
A food warning for dog owners.
I shoulda posted this a couple weeks ago, but I kept hoping we’d get more news.
Seems up in Canada there was a sudden rash of small dogs suffering from Falconi syndrome. Though this CAN be a genetic disease thats rare, and its much more likely to be caused by a toxin in the animal’s food. In these cases the only thing these dogs had in common was chicken jerky treats fed regularly. The chicken jerky varied in brand, but in all cases was the meat was from China. The specific toxin that is causing the problem this time (most folks will remember the massive recalls a few years ago cause of melemine) has not been identified.
As of the last information I can find no larger dogs have fallen sick, but if it really is the chicken jerky then likely its only a matter of time before a larger dog ingests a large enough amount of the toxin, and since the US shares a large number of products with Canada the problem will likely cross borders shortly if it hasn’t already. If you feed your dog jerky treats (of any kind of meat) and it does NOT say Made AND Sourced in the US it is more than likely that the meat comes from overseas, and though meat from some countries is ok, meat from China is, frankly, suspect. I highly recommend finding a different treat for your dog.
Where’s Kapone?
So, you have two dogs, and they’re your babies. The older of the two you’ve had since you were a teen, and is now 11 years old. Oh yes, they happen to both be pitbulls.
They got through the fence on Friday. It does happen, even to the best of pet owners, but a neighbor says all is not lost, they saw an Animal Control Officer picking up two dogs that match the description of your two. So first thing Saturday you rush down to the Memphis Animal Shelter to pay the fine and look for your dogs.
There’s Jersey, in the back row of cages. There’s a mention on her kennel card of the 2nd dog picked up with her…..but he’s no where to be found. MAS authorities review the camera take, they say that the 2nd dog picked up at the same time as Jersey isn’t Kapone, but they can’t ID which dog it was. That dog’s apparently missing too. Oh, and you’re not allowed to watch the video footage.
Last year (2010) MAS “lost” 155 animalss. Thats not a euphanism, they literally have no explanation for where those animals went after an ACO supposedly brought them in. In January 2011, they “lost” 40 animals. Then, for some reason, they stopped reporting how many animals went missing, for all the months after that. The rest of the numbers are there, but not how many went missing.
This is a picture of Kapone. The Shoup family is offering a $1000 reward for the return of their dog, no questions asked. If you know someone in the area please ask them to keep an eye out for this dog.
News article 1
News article 2
News article 3
From YesBiscuit
Of course its not just Memphis.
And of course its not just Memphis thats the problem, the Central CA SPCA recently decided that it didn’t have to make its meetings public afterall, and the NYC Dept of Health (which runs the city pounds) scheduled its board meeting in a room designed to hold less than 50 people (which is actually against the law in NYC, there has to be room to hold enough people who can be expected to attend, and the law states that if something has been high profile there must be plans for alot of extra people!).
Seriously people, the whole point of your jobs is to HELP animals, not kill them, trying to deny the no-kill advocates space only makes it worse!
Found over at Pet Connection’s blog
Information on a dog from MAS
Another post from YesBiscuit:
One of her readers, who lives in TN requested, via the Freedom of Information act, the information pertaining to a dog seen on the webcam who was euthanized to “to prevent suffering.”
Go read the whole post for the entire set of information, but basically this dog was brought in as a stray on May 30, and the cage cleaned (ie: hosed down) while the dog was in it on May 31. Presumably the dog was given food and water both days. Neither day was any veterinary notes placed on the animal’s chart, or special care provided, or rescues (or other organizations) contacted on behalf of this dog.
On June 1st, the cage was hosed down while the dog was inside and presumably food and water given.
A technician notes that she is emaciated and “Referred to Mr. Pepper for disposition”. The shelter vet notes that the dog is suffering and she recommends “euthanasia as condition exceeds our available resources to treat at MAS”. No veterinary care is provided. No rescues are contacted.
On June 2nd:
The dog’s weight is noted as 40 pounds and she is killed by MAS. The shelter vet signs the final disposition record and dates it. The date appears to read “6/2/11″ with an apparent attempt to alter the 2 into a 1.
Since the dog was seen via webcam on June 2nd, apparently being led to the kill room, we know her date of death is indeed 6/2 and not 6/1. At no time during this dog’s 3 day stay at MAS was she provided veterinary care, infact there’s no notes about her condition at all till day 3 of the stray hold, dispite the fact someone handled her on day 1, and hosed out her cage on day 2. She appears, on the webcam images captured, to be well able to walk on her own, there’s no sign of her having to be carried, or dragged, at all. Which means that dispite her low body weight there is a very good possibility that with some time, care, and food this dog could have been returned to good condition and quite possibly made someone a good pet. Unfortunetly none of the webcam watchers spotted her till June 2nd, at which time several people did request more information on her in hopes of getting her rescued, only to be told that it was to late, the dog had been killed.
If you know someone in TN
Or even if you don’t but what I’m about to show you is something you find apalling, please feel free to join in the letter writing campaign mentioned.
There’s this blog I’ve been reading off and on for a while, to the point where I should be adding it to my blogroll (something I’ll be doing as soon as I’m done this post). I can’t read it too often, cause it tugs the heartstrings, but I make myself go read as often as I can.
Over at YesBiscuit Shirley spends alot of her time documenting shelter dogs and cats in need of help. She would prefer to show you pictures of the happy healthy dogs awaiting adoption at various places, but has often found herself documenting their abuses instead. Lately its been one of those times.
Two years ago the Memphis Animal Shelter was raided by the county sheriff for animal abuse. Animals were being starved and otherwise mistreated. A new director was then appointed, and webcams placed at strategic places around the building so the public could see how much better things were.
Unfortunetly things aren’t much better. As far as the webcam watchers can tell the animals aren’t being starved, or beaten any more, at least where a camera can catch them, but they are being miss-handled, badly, and the webcams are proving just how many dogs and cats are NOT shown to the public before they’re killed. Over 70% of the animals that cross the threshold of MAS are killed. Many of them dragged to the kill room on their stomachs by a choke pole because they’re to terrified to walk. There was a case, not long ago, where a person surrendered a momma dog and her puppies. Barely 3 days after surrender the pups were placed into a trash can and wheeled to the kill room. When Shirley asked for information on WHY, when puppies are generally the most adoptable dog ever, she was informed that SOME of the puppies had a respitory infection. SOME, and no obvious attempts to see if they could be gotten better. Just kill’em.
Animals brought in by Animal Control Officers as strays are held in an area not open to the public. These animals are held for 3 days as strays, and then, unless they’re lucky enough to be choosen to be made availible for adoption, they are killed. Webcam watchers have seen dogs brought in by ACOs wearing collars, and then 3 days later, those same dogs, wearing those same collars, are brought back to the kill room. So essentially, if your dog escapes in the Memphis area, and is caught by an ACO, if a shelter employee is unable to ID your dog from your description or photo, you are unable to check the stray area yourself to see if your dog is there. And so after 3 days your dog is killed. Gotta wonder how many people in the Memphis area are missing their pets because MAS was “unable” to ID the animal and killed it.
Shirley started a Chip-In, to raise funds for rescuers who wanted to rescue some of the animals they were seeing on the webcams. This week she finally got a response to all her letters to the new director of MAS. The Memphis City Attorney sent her a letter threatening her with legal action, with a law in her home state of SC that states its illeagel to raise funds FOR a charity or business without their permission. Seeing as how she was raising funds for the removal of animals FROM MAS this law doesn’t apply.
Feel free join in the letter campaign to let them know what the rest of the country thinks of them, but keep it polite, polite goes alot farther than ranting.
H/T to Raised by Wolves, she says it much better than I do, so go read.
Buying Photoshop
Brigid (sorry, spelled it wrong at first!) over at Home On the Range is asking her readers to help her decide if she should buy Photoshop, or not, to play around with. I put my two cents in the comments, but this really deserves a full post.
First off is the financial considerations. Photoshop is EXPENSIVE. Even with the student discount it cost me $200, last I checked the full version was something like $800 or $1000 and I doubt its gone down much. Thats alot of money to put into a piece of software that may not be what you want. Now, Photoshop Elements is cheaper, but doesn’t have all the fancy smancy features of the newer Photoshops, but even better are some of the free tools out there.
I know there are more less expensive sets availible, I’ve not much, if any, experience with most of them so I’ll let you do your own research, but one online freeware I have used is the Aviary set. The basics are free, though there is a subscription plan that I’ve never looked into. The photo editor has the large majority of the same tools as Photoshop for free, that you can plan around with and figure out if this is something you enjoy or not. After all it would really be annoying to spend all that money on Photoshop and then realize you don’t really enjoy working with it.
Something else to consider is just what exactly do you want to DO with this software:
If all you want to do is enhance your photos you may not NEED all the fancy stuff in Photoshop. Take a closer look at Aviary and some of the other less expensive softwares out there and you’ll likely find they’re all you need.
If you want to create ART out of your photos, well then maybe Photoshop is for you, but I still highly recommend playing around with the above mentioned other softwares first. For those of you who are wondering what I mean by “art” go HERE and browse for a bit, my current favorites are images one and two HERE. The things people can do with some skill, effort, and way to much time on their hands!
A third thing you may be considering doing is drawing, sketching, or creating art by hand using these softwares, and in this case Photoshop is probly NOT right for you. Oh, it’ll do it, sorta, but thats not what its designed for. Take a look at software such as Corel’s Painter suite. Much more designed for the artist in mind. You can modify photos with these softwares, but they’re designed for drawing instead.
If you’re asking what I use, well, I have both Photoshop CS4 and Corel Painter 11 and I use them both. As for what I do with them:
This photo was originially just of the barn. I painted the fairy on it using a combination of Photoshop and Painter. This image won Jurors Pick on Worth1000 (In a beginners contest).
This was a normal rose, till I started playing around in Photoshop.
This horse was done in Painter
Here’s a before and after (done in Photoshop) of a photo I posted previously of the puppy. Can you tell the difference?
last but not least, a water color “painting” done in the originial version of Painter (before Corel bought it).
Apollo is half his adult weight
Thursday morning he weighed in at 68lbs even, at 6 months of age. This puts him on schedule to meet or even beat his daddy’s 135lbs. One of his litter mates is gonna be a giant though, a month ago Aslan weighed in at 80lbs. Still in perfect proportion to his brother, he’s not a chubby puppy, just big!
Alright, who’re you and what’d you do with my REAL puppy??
Sunday, we went to weight pull practice (see video a couple posts back). Both leaving the house and leaving the practice, putting Apollo into the car required my husband to physically pick him up and place him in the car. Not because the puppy was incapable of climbing in himself, but because as soon as he realized he was expected to get into the car he went into full panic mode: absolute end of the leash, choking on the collar, trying to get away from the evil car. THIS IS NORMAL for this dog. He HATES the car, probably a side affect of having his first real long distance introduction to one being the 10hr drive home from the breeders (he’d been to the vets a couple times with her, but her vet was literally down the road, very short trip). We’ve been working on it bit by bit, but every time we took him someplace he’d panic at the sight of the open car door.
Today Apollo walks up to the car (unusual), I open the door (expecting him to head for the hills), and he jumps in, sits down and looks at me. WTF??
(so we went for a drive around the block. We got home, he jumps out, I figure he’ll run away next time….right? Wrong, he just jumped, voluntarliy, into the backseat of the car again. Now if only I could figure out what I did that made it all click for him!!)