A few weeks ago, Vega gave birth to puppies underneath a sheep camp out in the wide sagebrush of western Wyoming. She became fierce to anyone coming near the camp, and the temperatures started to get extremely cold at night, so last night my friend Pete braved the weather and her wrath enough to physically …
Month: October 2009
Docking dogs
As I’ve mentioned before, livestock guardian dogs in this region have been taking a beating when it comes to wolves – actually more than a beating, since plenty of them have been getting killed as they actively engage in fights to protect their herds. Jim and I are re-assessing the breeds of LGDs that are …
Lane Batot’s Trailhounds 4
Trailhounds Part 4……When I had kept Notches, the Black-And-Tan hound for a year or so, I became curious as to whether she still had her “raccoon phobia”. Though I probably would have found out eventually by happenstance–raccoons being common in the area–I decided to set up an encounter where I had some control of the …
Better Dog Stuff
The intelligent subway dogs of Moscow. (English Russia is always fun).(HT Annie D). This has a snowball’s chance in hell of passing but I could sure use a $3500 tax break for my menagerie. I don’t know though; if HSUS likes it there is probably a hidden bomb somewhere! (HT Reid).
Worst Tattoos 2
I have seen a few of these before, but these sets of mens’ and womens’ tattoos genuinely include the worst I have ever seen. ET AS THE VIRGIN MARY?? And there are some… well, vote your “favorites”, please. Some mildly NSFW if you can see them well enough.
Latest idiot news
A prep school destroys its library. “James Tracy, the current headmaster, finds the whole idea of a library, and the objects they traditionally contain, positively quaint. Speaking to The Boston Globe, he actually said, apparently without embarrassment, “When I look at books, I see an outdated technology, like scrolls before books.”” They really did it: …
“Qualzucht”
Look at this healthy old- type chow, still used to hunt in China. According to Vladimir Beregovoy the Chinese call them “bony dogs”. Here is what they call “fat dogs”, the “improved” Euro-American chow. How can this dog see, breathe, or walk? DR John Burchard used the word “qualzucht” in reference to this. I asked …
A Little Science
Almost old news now, but Ardipithecus is likely to be important– she is so old (4 million years plus) and a forest creature, so we have to rethink bipedality. It isn’t for running on the plains, looking over the grass etc. And we are not as close to chimps as we thought– the split goes …
I still exist!
Just busy and not feeling “bloggy”, perhaps because I have written a long book review, a feature, tweaked and sent around two proposals, and am into another feature. I am now a contributing editor and regular reviewer at Living Bird magazine, where you can also see my article on Darwin’s pigeons (and even one of …
Koochee
Lane responded to an earlier post with an inquiry about the Koochee people of Afghanistan, and sounds as interested in that nomadic culture as I am. I don’t really know anything about what is happening to these people now, but there is a great website about Koochee dogs, which are very much part of the …