Fun stuff

We are into crazy cat shirts at work.  I found these at wal-mart.  Cats riding unicorns in space.  With rainbows.  Amazing.

And here is just a cute pic of the horses all huddled in the barn on a perfectly nice day.

Also, Molly is doing very well in her foster to adopt home.  I think they will all live happily ever after!

Nosework videos

Here are some of the videos from Legend's NW3.  I was supposed to have my vehicle search on video as well but the camera guy was late.  At least they refunded some of my money.

Along came piggy

One day the neighbor texted me to ask if our pig was loose because there was one in her yard.  I assured her he could not get out.  A few weeks later, the same loose pig was in our yard.  Apparently yet another neighbor has been feeding her but no one knows where she came from or who she belongs to.

Then one morning I found her sleeping in the barn.  She started to spend more and more time here, sleeping in the barn and grazing in the pasture with the horses.  And bumming snacks off of us.  We considered taking her in and letting her be Jimmy Dean's new companion but she mostly seemed more interested in the horses and JD didn't seem too excited about a new friend.

But she began to become a nuisance at horse feeding time always trying to take Slick's meals.  We decided she would either need to move into the backyard or we would need to find her a new home or new neighborhood!  So far she and JD don't really seem to be best buds, but overall they are tolerating each other pretty well and so I think they will be ok.

Agility stars

I picked up Nadin at school on Friday and we headed out to Oklahoma with the girls for the Lickety Split agility trial.  I had entered the girls in Novice regular and Novice Jumpers for the weekend so Nadin could give handling a try.

Saturday Legend did pretty good with her.  The first run was a bit wild but that's not atypical for Legend's first run of the weekend.  Her second run was better. Once she got started I think they only had one off course.  Lyric wasn't so sure about staying in the ring with Nadin, but the judge and trial chair were nice enough to let her take Lyric to the end of the course and do a few obstacles successfully.

Sunday was a huge improvement though!  Lyric ran most of the course with her nicely but made up her own ending in both jumpers runs.  Legend did the same thing in her first jumpers run, but then managed to do the second with just off course.  So they didn't get a Q but they did get a ribbon.  In NADAC you can potentially place without getting a Q.  I don't usually pick up these ribbons because they don't mean anything for me, but this was a special occasion!

In regular Lyric ran like a champ, nailing her weave poles and everything.  But she did back jump one jump each round so no Q but really great runs.  Legend ran beautifully in round one but jumped her contact.  She was equally as wonderful in round 2 but she hit her contact and they got a Q!

Here are a few videos

I call that a good first trial!

Meanwhile, I ran Legend in Elite chances.  The first round she ran beautifully, only missing one jump in a tough course.  Round two was the same course, but this time it was a train wreck.  Go figure.  So, no closer to NATCH 2.

More fame

The local paper did an article following a dog from animal control through adoption.  I neutered him at my part time job at the spay/neuter clinic.  The article ran today.

Here is the link to the online story.
http://www.news-leader.com/story/news/local/ozarks/2016/04/20/21682-cricket-oliver-lost-dogs-journey-new-home/81929522/

Here is a picture from the article of my doing the surgery

And here is a photo of the print version

Good golly

This is little miss Molly.  She is the poster child for why not everyone should get a border collie.

She's a cutie.  But she's a bit of a train wreck.  Molly was purchased at Petland-strike one, by a family who really didn't know what they were getting into-strike two, and then allowed to run amok in the yard for a year learning bad habits and OCD behavior-strike three and her owners decided to hand her over to rescue.

We were not supposed to foster her but the foster home who volunteered to take her thought her issues, energy level and her total lack of desire to come when called was a bit of a deal breaker.  So here she is.

Molly can run in the yard all day and never get tired enough to come to a person.  In her mind all people do is end the fun by putting you in a crate.  She can be really sweet, but has never learned to bond with people and would prefer to be on her own if given the option.  She chases cars, birds, horses, etc and spends a lot of time barking at her shadow.  She has to be leash walked or turned out on a long line so you can catch her again.  She can be pretty responsive if you have her attention, but once she gets into her "chase" cycle it's hard to break her and get her to stop.

But we have been working on lots of positive interaction and hand feeding and she is starting to come around.  She will be a really cool dog someday if someone puts the work in.  And luckily we have a previous adopter who is interested in fostering to adopt and she has lots of time to spend working with her! Cross your paws!

The secret of life

There is a lot of discussion these days on what you should or shouldn't do, when or how often you should do it, etc in order to keep your pet healthy for a long time.  At least a portion of this is based on google, popular opinion, or studies of which the validity is somewhat questionable.  But regardless of my opinion on these trends-both the good ones and bad ones, it did get me to think-what does make a dog (or cat) healthy?  If you toss aside certain genetic predispositions and, of course luck, are there factors that contribute to overall health across the board?

Now, I see more animals in a day than the average person.  Perhaps more than the average veterinarian.  And these animals come from all walks of life.  And there are some dogs who look or act much older or younger than they really are. So I began to think about what the "healthy" pets, especially the ones who are middle aged or geriatric, had in common.  Here is what I came up with.  They are all a healthy, lean weight, have a clean, well groomed coat with clear skin, good teeth and/or regular quality dental care, and are free of parasites.

I know, at first glance these seem like things that just make a dog pretty, not necessarily healthy.  But when I thought more about it, the important link here is the lack of inflammatory conditions.  Obesity, dermatitis, dental disease and parasitism are all common causes of chronic inflammation.

It has been well established that adipocytes (fat cells) have normal function in the lean person or animal but in obese individuals the adipocytes transform to an endocrine organ, promoting inflammation  as well as other diseases.  Not to mention obesity predisposes to arthritis which is inflammation and degeneration of the joints which leads to pain, inactivity and more weight gain.

The skin is the largest organ of the body and the health of which can often be used to assess the general health of the animal.  So keeping it disease free would seem to be of importance.  For some pets this just means regular bathing and grooming.  For pets with allergic or endocrine conditions or in parasite endemic areas more effort must be taken to achieve skin health.

Dental disease can certainly cause pain and inflammation in the mouth But also as the animal chews  that bacteria enters the bloodstream it can end up places like the heart or kidneys and now all of a sudden you have disease and inflammation in those organs as well.

And parasites, well those are kind of a no-brainer.  They tend to cause to inflammation and damage in whatever their target organ is and sometimes others as well.

Now, if you want to google something, here is your chance.  Try "inflammation and aging" or "inflammation and cancer" and you will see this is a hot topic in human medicine these days.  There are no shortage of links to studies and theories on this concept.  So apparently I wasn't the only one with this hypothesis which I think gives some weight to what I have written.  So go forth, reduce inflammation, and live forever!

Horses evening photos

There are only a few of these.  It was getting dark and they wouldn't stand in a good spot.

Legend evening photos

Here are Legend's evening shots.  She was happy to "pose" for a ball I was holding in my other hand. I like the first one the best.

 I like the light in this one, but not so much the tongue.

Lyric evening photos

I got a few cute shots of the dogs in the sunset light the other day.  I'm sure I could have gotten more of Lyric if I had gone inside and gotten some treats but I was too lazy.

 I like this one best.

Early spring flowers

I took these around the house Sunday evening.  I still need to get some plants for my big pots.  But these are what we have so far.  Some were just wild ones I found in the yard.

First quarter stats

This year, I am attempting once again, to run 1000 miles in a year.  I'm off to my best start yet and as of the end of March I had run 243.  I only have a little more catching up to do and then I hope to start building in a cushion for any illness, injury, vacation or other unexpected hiatus.  It's still a long way to go but at least I'm not starting too far behind this year.

I'm also tracking how many surgeries I do in a year.  I've been curious about what that number would be for awhile but I kept forgetting to keep track.  But this year I've been carrying around a calendar and writing them down every day.  At the end of April I had hit 882.  And that's with going on vacation, a few snow days and having some student help a few days!

STL Weekend

We spent this weekend in STL visitng family and taking in some the local attractions.  Saturday we went to the zoo.  We got to see a lot of animals but without a better camera it was hard to get very good pictures.  Also a lot of the animals have glass or wire on their enclosures so it's hard to shoot through.  And I was bummed that the giraffes wouldn't come very close, but otherwise we had a nice day.

Today we stopped at Elephant Rocks park on the way home.  We walked the trails and climbed the rocks and then it was back home to rest up for the week.