Just because.
Sunday, December 24, 2006
Saturday, December 23, 2006
Wednesday, November 29, 2006
Thursday, November 23, 2006
Human Food Guarding
While food or "resource" guarding in dogs is not to be tolerated, it is necessary for humans who own Siberian Huskies.
Reasons for Human Food Guarding
Although food or "resource" guarding in dogs is not to be tolerated, it is necessary in humans who own Siberian Huskies.
Monday, September 25, 2006
Be a Hero
The over 220,000 pets listed on Petfinder were abandoned too. Just because they weren't abandoned for glorious reasons doesn't mean they deserve less of a chance at living.
Spay, neuter, adopt. Don't feed the greed, boycott pet stores and stop the war of pet overpopulation. Too many have died.
Monday, September 18, 2006
Husky-proof fencing (how to)
A lot of husky owners have the problem of bored, or just devious huskies digging under their fence and making their escape. Huskies are very good, and fast diggers, and can dig their way under a fence in no time flat. It doesn't take Ft. Knox, a moat, barbed wire, or a lot of money to keep them from digging out... you just have to be a little bit smarter than they are to deter them.
The following is a system that I have used for many years (thanks to some other savvy husky owners who passed the trick on to me). It requires the following tools:
A hoe
A shovel
Rabbit/chicken fencing (or sturdier if your local home depot sells it, but make sure its bendable)
Quikrete
Water
Clippers to cut the rabbit/chicken fencing
Gloves
Something to smoosh the Quikrete around... I use a pancake turner.
Once you are done, you won't even be able to tell you've done anything to the yard, so there's really no reason why you'd have to remove this barrier if you ever move.
Step one:
with a hoe, dig a trench. The trench needs to be 1 foot wide and about 3-4 inches deep. Its best if you can actually dig UNDER the fence a bit.
Most people think they need to dig a really REALLY deep trench, or that it has to be REALLY wide, but all you are doing is detering them from digging right at the fence line. Sure they could back up and dig under the barrier and under the fence, but they won't. Its not fast enough, and they get bored with digging that far. Huskies like quick, and digging that far isn't quick enough for them.
Ok, so once you've dug your foot wide, 3-4 inch deep trench, you'll need to cut your chicken/rabbit/whatever wire to fit in the trench and lay flat. That's the really hard part actually, and even though you wear gloves, you'll still end up with little cuts all over. Slide the wire under the fence if you can while you're at it. Any gap between the barrier and fence, they'll take advantage of that.
Once the wire is laying in the trench flat, open a bag of Quikrete and start pouring it into the trench dry. You don't necessarily need to fill up the trench, just enough to cover the chicken wire and a bit more. Remember, huskies don't have jackhammers, you just want the inconvenience factor.
Once the Quikrete (dry) is poured into the trench, you pour water into the trench SLOWLY (you don't want it sloshing out) until the Quikrete is moist and gooshy, not so much water that you have soup, just so it gets that concretey texture. So, add the water a little at a time.
Using your tool of choice (spackle thing, pancake turner, whatever you have handy) goop the Quikrete and water until its all a nice cemetey mixture, and level it off as best as possible, making sure to smoosh some under the fence as an added barrier. Remember... leave a chink in the armor and they'll find it.
Give it an hour or so to dry, then hoe the dirt back over it, throw on some grass seed.
After the grass dies and the weeds take over, this is what your fenceline will look like. You can't even see the barrier.
That's Sam saying to himself "stupid barrier".
They will challenge the barrier once its put in, and ocassionally when they forget the barrier is there. They'll start digging near the fence, and once their claws hit that quikrete chicken wire combo, its not a nice feeling. They'll glare at you, curse you under your breath, then move someplace else to dig.
Here is an example of a barrier incursion attempt:
You'll notice that the attempt wasn't at the actual fenceline, but at the end of the barrier (I happened to spread a 2 foot wide, heavier gauge fencing in this area, with only a 1 foot Quickrete barrier nearer the fence). This was an attempt to dig under the barrier... which was abandoned for lack of fun.
Just a general warning: if you just put a barrier where they normally try to dig out, they will stop trying to dig there and find a place that doesn't have the barrier, so you might as well just do the whole fenceline in one swoop, rather than after each escape attempt.
Although a bit labor intensive to dig the trenches and all, its a pretty cheap solution to the digging out problem overall, and it does work.
The following is a system that I have used for many years (thanks to some other savvy husky owners who passed the trick on to me). It requires the following tools:
A hoe
A shovel
Rabbit/chicken fencing (or sturdier if your local home depot sells it, but make sure its bendable)
Quikrete
Water
Clippers to cut the rabbit/chicken fencing
Gloves
Something to smoosh the Quikrete around... I use a pancake turner.
Once you are done, you won't even be able to tell you've done anything to the yard, so there's really no reason why you'd have to remove this barrier if you ever move.
Step one:
with a hoe, dig a trench. The trench needs to be 1 foot wide and about 3-4 inches deep. Its best if you can actually dig UNDER the fence a bit.
Most people think they need to dig a really REALLY deep trench, or that it has to be REALLY wide, but all you are doing is detering them from digging right at the fence line. Sure they could back up and dig under the barrier and under the fence, but they won't. Its not fast enough, and they get bored with digging that far. Huskies like quick, and digging that far isn't quick enough for them.Ok, so once you've dug your foot wide, 3-4 inch deep trench, you'll need to cut your chicken/rabbit/whatever wire to fit in the trench and lay flat. That's the really hard part actually, and even though you wear gloves, you'll still end up with little cuts all over. Slide the wire under the fence if you can while you're at it. Any gap between the barrier and fence, they'll take advantage of that.
Once the wire is laying in the trench flat, open a bag of Quikrete and start pouring it into the trench dry. You don't necessarily need to fill up the trench, just enough to cover the chicken wire and a bit more. Remember, huskies don't have jackhammers, you just want the inconvenience factor.
Once the Quikrete (dry) is poured into the trench, you pour water into the trench SLOWLY (you don't want it sloshing out) until the Quikrete is moist and gooshy, not so much water that you have soup, just so it gets that concretey texture. So, add the water a little at a time.
Using your tool of choice (spackle thing, pancake turner, whatever you have handy) goop the Quikrete and water until its all a nice cemetey mixture, and level it off as best as possible, making sure to smoosh some under the fence as an added barrier. Remember... leave a chink in the armor and they'll find it.
Give it an hour or so to dry, then hoe the dirt back over it, throw on some grass seed.
After the grass dies and the weeds take over, this is what your fenceline will look like. You can't even see the barrier.That's Sam saying to himself "stupid barrier".
They will challenge the barrier once its put in, and ocassionally when they forget the barrier is there. They'll start digging near the fence, and once their claws hit that quikrete chicken wire combo, its not a nice feeling. They'll glare at you, curse you under your breath, then move someplace else to dig.
Here is an example of a barrier incursion attempt:
You'll notice that the attempt wasn't at the actual fenceline, but at the end of the barrier (I happened to spread a 2 foot wide, heavier gauge fencing in this area, with only a 1 foot Quickrete barrier nearer the fence). This was an attempt to dig under the barrier... which was abandoned for lack of fun.Just a general warning: if you just put a barrier where they normally try to dig out, they will stop trying to dig there and find a place that doesn't have the barrier, so you might as well just do the whole fenceline in one swoop, rather than after each escape attempt.
Although a bit labor intensive to dig the trenches and all, its a pretty cheap solution to the digging out problem overall, and it does work.
Friday, June 9, 2006
Friday, May 12, 2006
Doesn't anyone work?
Today I had to drive to Annapolis to get saurkraut. The only place to get REAL saurkraut is a Pennsylvania Dutch market there, so that's where I had to go to get it.
The parking lot was JAM PACKED and tons of people were milling about. Don't they have jobs?
Oddly enough, there was a limosine parked in front of the PA Dutch market and obviously one of the store keepers was speaking to the people that eventually got into the limosine and I'm thinking... here are people that eschew all modern conveniences... kowtowing to some person in a limo.
I get my saurkraut, and also big vats of coleslaw and macaroni salad for a bbq tomorrow that will probably get rained out and we'll be eating big vats of coleslaw and macaroni salad for weeks. I also noted that the PA Dutch market is only open thurs-Sat, and I figured what a racket. They probably use Mon-Wed to create all of these tasty treats, then sell them to busy people like me who don't have the time to make these tasty treats... for a butt-load of money. Seems fair. Ok, no it doesn't. I wish I had time to make macaroni salad. I wish I had time to make stupid videos that get passed around on the internet then the makers of the stupid videos get movie deals. I wish I had the time to mill about the shopping center wearing designer cut off shorts and high heels (ok, not the high heels part).
With my PA Dutch goodies secure, I head for home, a mere 10 mile trip... except all 10 miles are backed up as far as the eye could see... actually farther because of the curvy roads. What should have taken me 15 minutes has turned into a 30 minute crawl, dashing my plans to stop at Kohls and get some comfy summer shoes to replace my oven-like not so summer (yet comfy) shoes.
We finally get to the cause of the backup, only to find its a car that decided to run head on into the metal barrier in the median... coming to a broken rest in the grass of the median... not even on the road... not even blocking anything.
Come on people! 10 miles of back up for looky loo activity? Sure its cool seeing a car sitting there with no front end, but there wasn't even a body sprawled out of a window or anything! I'm sure most of the world now has camera phones, take a freakin picture and MOVE IT!
On the other side of the highway... another 10 mile back up, for a wreck that WASN'T EVEN ON THEIR SIDE!!
I managed to find some cool sketchers at a shoe place in the mall later on, so the day wasn't a complete waste... even though the bathroom at Safeway was out of order, and during the car ride and then mall trip I downed two venti iced mochas (3 pumps) in record time... had to run over to the Starbucks down the strip mall to use their bathroom... and get another venti iced 3 pump mocha... hey, I used their bathroom, I couldn't just leave after that.
The parking lot was JAM PACKED and tons of people were milling about. Don't they have jobs?
Oddly enough, there was a limosine parked in front of the PA Dutch market and obviously one of the store keepers was speaking to the people that eventually got into the limosine and I'm thinking... here are people that eschew all modern conveniences... kowtowing to some person in a limo.
I get my saurkraut, and also big vats of coleslaw and macaroni salad for a bbq tomorrow that will probably get rained out and we'll be eating big vats of coleslaw and macaroni salad for weeks. I also noted that the PA Dutch market is only open thurs-Sat, and I figured what a racket. They probably use Mon-Wed to create all of these tasty treats, then sell them to busy people like me who don't have the time to make these tasty treats... for a butt-load of money. Seems fair. Ok, no it doesn't. I wish I had time to make macaroni salad. I wish I had time to make stupid videos that get passed around on the internet then the makers of the stupid videos get movie deals. I wish I had the time to mill about the shopping center wearing designer cut off shorts and high heels (ok, not the high heels part).
With my PA Dutch goodies secure, I head for home, a mere 10 mile trip... except all 10 miles are backed up as far as the eye could see... actually farther because of the curvy roads. What should have taken me 15 minutes has turned into a 30 minute crawl, dashing my plans to stop at Kohls and get some comfy summer shoes to replace my oven-like not so summer (yet comfy) shoes.
We finally get to the cause of the backup, only to find its a car that decided to run head on into the metal barrier in the median... coming to a broken rest in the grass of the median... not even on the road... not even blocking anything.
Come on people! 10 miles of back up for looky loo activity? Sure its cool seeing a car sitting there with no front end, but there wasn't even a body sprawled out of a window or anything! I'm sure most of the world now has camera phones, take a freakin picture and MOVE IT!
On the other side of the highway... another 10 mile back up, for a wreck that WASN'T EVEN ON THEIR SIDE!!
I managed to find some cool sketchers at a shoe place in the mall later on, so the day wasn't a complete waste... even though the bathroom at Safeway was out of order, and during the car ride and then mall trip I downed two venti iced mochas (3 pumps) in record time... had to run over to the Starbucks down the strip mall to use their bathroom... and get another venti iced 3 pump mocha... hey, I used their bathroom, I couldn't just leave after that.
Thursday, May 11, 2006
I hate storms
I'm tired.
I want to go to bed.
But I can't.
I have a 60lb husky with razor sharp claws that feels compelled to totally freak out and claw on me whenever we have a storm.
Its storming now.
I have no idea where she got this phobia from. When she was a puppy, she slept through storms.
When hurricane (Tropical Storm actually) Isabelle hit us, she slept through it downstairs with us... in the dark... no lights... no electricity... wailing 90mph wind gusts... not a peep out of her.
But here I am, bribing her with peanut butter smeared kongs to keep her from hyperventilating and clawing me until I'm bloody, wishing I could go to bed.
The other dogs (who are weirded out by her storm behavior) are locked safely behind the bedroom door with hubby, who is hopefully fast asleep. I'm sitting at the powerbook, nursing clawed arms (tried to comfort her, she wanted none of that), while she zooms through yet another peanut butter smeared kong bone, which I'm hoping will occupy her longer than the 1 minute the last one took.
Apparently food treats keep her mind off of the thunder, which continues outside. I'm lucky that these storms only last for an hour or two, nasty fast moving ones that freak me out to begin with, let alone having to deal with my own tornado phobia, and a dog clawing my skin off.
Ah, I got a whole 2 minute reprieve from the claws of death on that kong bone attempt. Occupies dogs hours at a time my ass, Meeshka has perfected the kongs and can clean one out in seconds flat. Sigh.
She's panting and staring at me again. I'm trying to ignore her, but sooner or later... yep, there she is... the claw. the stare... the claw and stare! AWWWW, the small whine. She never whines, that's odd.
Sometimes I think "what if she knows a tornado is on the way and she's trying to warn me and I'm ignoring her". I'm guessing its more like "hey, if I claw her enough she'll smear more peanut butter in that kong bone."
Will this stupid storm never end, my leg can't take much more of this.
I want to go to bed.
But I can't.
I have a 60lb husky with razor sharp claws that feels compelled to totally freak out and claw on me whenever we have a storm.
Its storming now.
I have no idea where she got this phobia from. When she was a puppy, she slept through storms.
When hurricane (Tropical Storm actually) Isabelle hit us, she slept through it downstairs with us... in the dark... no lights... no electricity... wailing 90mph wind gusts... not a peep out of her.
But here I am, bribing her with peanut butter smeared kongs to keep her from hyperventilating and clawing me until I'm bloody, wishing I could go to bed.
The other dogs (who are weirded out by her storm behavior) are locked safely behind the bedroom door with hubby, who is hopefully fast asleep. I'm sitting at the powerbook, nursing clawed arms (tried to comfort her, she wanted none of that), while she zooms through yet another peanut butter smeared kong bone, which I'm hoping will occupy her longer than the 1 minute the last one took.
Apparently food treats keep her mind off of the thunder, which continues outside. I'm lucky that these storms only last for an hour or two, nasty fast moving ones that freak me out to begin with, let alone having to deal with my own tornado phobia, and a dog clawing my skin off.
Ah, I got a whole 2 minute reprieve from the claws of death on that kong bone attempt. Occupies dogs hours at a time my ass, Meeshka has perfected the kongs and can clean one out in seconds flat. Sigh.
She's panting and staring at me again. I'm trying to ignore her, but sooner or later... yep, there she is... the claw. the stare... the claw and stare! AWWWW, the small whine. She never whines, that's odd.
Sometimes I think "what if she knows a tornado is on the way and she's trying to warn me and I'm ignoring her". I'm guessing its more like "hey, if I claw her enough she'll smear more peanut butter in that kong bone."
Will this stupid storm never end, my leg can't take much more of this.
Tuesday, March 21, 2006
Happy birthday
I started off my birthday with stepping in poop. Whee! A sign of a good day.
Actually it is, as the poop belonged to our 17 year old husky, and anytime he poops is a good day for us, and for him actually. He's got a tumor "back there" so pooping is a big event at our house when he does it.
I had planned on going to my hair appointment at the "spa". Here are the differences between the hair cuttery and a spa:
Hair cuttery: small cramped, slightly dirty salon
Spa: big expansive, fancy shmantzy place
Hair Cuttery: no beverages unless you bring your own
Spa: selection of coffees, teas, and waters for free
Hair Cuttery: haircut 15 bucks and a 3 buck tip
Spa: hair cut $60 bucks, 10 buck tip, 20 bucks for some serum that will keep your hair from flying around, but doesn't.
Went the spa for my haircut, should have gone to hair cuttery as I waited about a half hour for my "stylist" to decide to get her butt into work. Didn't get any tea or coffee because I figured it would be full of hair, but then after waiting for a half hour, realized I should have down a whole free pot of the stuff.
Got done, picked up hubby and went for sushi.
Good sushi
Dropped hubby off and stopped at Target to get some money out, since I didn't have enough cash to pay for my driver's license renewal. Target doesn't have shoes anymore, or if they do, they've hidden them in the back room.
Go to MVA main branch where just recently a local reporter was raving about their new streamlined system that'll get you in and out in no time.
Got a number, I was 274, they were on 170. Hmmm. Contemplated driving 30 miles to a smaller branch to get license, then decided "hey, its streamlined, how long could it take".
TWO HOURS LATER, I'm freed from the MVA with my new license where even with the new haircut I manage to look like a psychopath. There go my plans to stop at Kohls for a little birthday something, or get a decent latte. Got home in enough time to straighten the house up a tad, then hubby came home, we ordered curbside take-away from outback, got it, came home and gourged ourselves sick.
Spent rest of the night with severe heartburn and indigestion, and was glad that birthdays only come once a year.
Actually it is, as the poop belonged to our 17 year old husky, and anytime he poops is a good day for us, and for him actually. He's got a tumor "back there" so pooping is a big event at our house when he does it.
I had planned on going to my hair appointment at the "spa". Here are the differences between the hair cuttery and a spa:
Hair cuttery: small cramped, slightly dirty salon
Spa: big expansive, fancy shmantzy place
Hair Cuttery: no beverages unless you bring your own
Spa: selection of coffees, teas, and waters for free
Hair Cuttery: haircut 15 bucks and a 3 buck tip
Spa: hair cut $60 bucks, 10 buck tip, 20 bucks for some serum that will keep your hair from flying around, but doesn't.
Went the spa for my haircut, should have gone to hair cuttery as I waited about a half hour for my "stylist" to decide to get her butt into work. Didn't get any tea or coffee because I figured it would be full of hair, but then after waiting for a half hour, realized I should have down a whole free pot of the stuff.
Got done, picked up hubby and went for sushi.
Good sushi
Dropped hubby off and stopped at Target to get some money out, since I didn't have enough cash to pay for my driver's license renewal. Target doesn't have shoes anymore, or if they do, they've hidden them in the back room.
Go to MVA main branch where just recently a local reporter was raving about their new streamlined system that'll get you in and out in no time.
Got a number, I was 274, they were on 170. Hmmm. Contemplated driving 30 miles to a smaller branch to get license, then decided "hey, its streamlined, how long could it take".
TWO HOURS LATER, I'm freed from the MVA with my new license where even with the new haircut I manage to look like a psychopath. There go my plans to stop at Kohls for a little birthday something, or get a decent latte. Got home in enough time to straighten the house up a tad, then hubby came home, we ordered curbside take-away from outback, got it, came home and gourged ourselves sick.
Spent rest of the night with severe heartburn and indigestion, and was glad that birthdays only come once a year.
Tuesday, March 7, 2006
Found: Chapstick
Today at work I noticed that someone had placed a tube of chapstick on the stair bannister. No doubt someone lost it and a kind soul put it up there for the owner to see.
In the first place, if I lost a tube of chapstick, I wouldn't want it back if found. I would have no idea if someone "did" something with it. They aren't that expensive, so better safe than sorry, I'd just get another one.
Secondly, it amazed me to see that someone placed the chapstick there. After all, this place is infamous for people stealing food, kitchen utensils and other things. We're not talking someone taking a sealed soda or hermetically sealed microwave food container. We're talking people that will steal half of someone's sandwich, or eat out of their tupperware containers. NASTY!
I would think that if this person found the chapstick, they would glom onto it and use it. After all, what's a little lip contamination on the way to stealing somone's leftovers.
In the first place, if I lost a tube of chapstick, I wouldn't want it back if found. I would have no idea if someone "did" something with it. They aren't that expensive, so better safe than sorry, I'd just get another one.
Secondly, it amazed me to see that someone placed the chapstick there. After all, this place is infamous for people stealing food, kitchen utensils and other things. We're not talking someone taking a sealed soda or hermetically sealed microwave food container. We're talking people that will steal half of someone's sandwich, or eat out of their tupperware containers. NASTY!
I would think that if this person found the chapstick, they would glom onto it and use it. After all, what's a little lip contamination on the way to stealing somone's leftovers.
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