tdierikx

Hahahaha!!! T.

Run! Rehoming underage pups is not reputable breeder behaviour - no matter the circumstances or "the vet said..." statements. I can't believe that the breeder even thought about ringing prospective owners and asked if they wanted their pups early... T.

I'd be paasing on getting a pup from anyone who wants me to take it home at 4 weeks of age... run a mile! The best cure for mastitis is actually getting the pups to suckle more to get rid of the build up. Been through it many times with rescue litters, and there is absolutely no reason to send pups off to new homes at 4 weeks of age. At worst, you keep pups as a litter together until they are actually old enough (8 weeks minimum) to venture out - and that they've had at least their first puppy vaccination. Find another breeder, because this one actually sounds pretty dodgy. T.

I find that the larger cameras are actually easier to hold steady to take the shot than the compacts... and the more steady the camera, the better the focusing works... *grin* My only tip for photograhing black dogs (with any camera) is to make sure you have enough light on the subject for the camera to pick up the focus. when i take photos of a friend's black dogs, I try to get them facing towards the sunlight - tricky to get it right without them squinting, but late morning or early afternoon tend to have the best angle of sun to avoid squinting. Taken with Canon S5 point and shoot... had the light just right (partial shade), and it helped that the milk added enough contrast for the focus to pick up everything else Taken with EOS 450D - overcast day... see the better focus under less light? Taken with EOS 60D - better DSLR than the 450D - and it shows under even lower light conditions... Seriously - if you are looking for decent performance from a point and shoot, the Canon SX series are giving some very nice results - even at the long end of their huge zoom range... I'd be looking at one if I wasn't already a complete DSLR convert. T.

I have no-one to take me out there... and I'm not sure I can turn my body enough to reverse the car out of the driveway to try to drive myself... so it looks like a lazy day stuck at home is on the cards... *sigh* T.

How about one of these? http://www.cnet.com.au/canon-eos-100d-339343693.htm T.

All the get well wishes are certainly working guys... thanks! So much so that I'm getting antsy to get back to my zoos... *grin* T.

There's nothing like being in your own home/bed for feeling better... go Astro! T.

9/2 - Stone Curlew at Featherdale Wildlife Park - love the eyes on these birds! 01-02-2014-featherdale 018 by tdierikx, on Flickr T.

That dog was definitely quite bizarre, wasn't he DD? But such a lovely nature. Lucky his mum works at SASH, because he's had a few surgeries already, and needs a few more to straighten his legs properly. Did you cuddle the other SASH dog? He was sweet too. I was a bit taken aback at how the cats were kept in those small crates all day too DD. Quite a few of them were also hiding under the bedding - obviously fed up with people poking at them... T.

I had lots of tarty cuddles from a sheltie named Mav... he was gorgeous, and much more friendly than most shelties I'd met before. It wasn't you that came back with 2 shelties while I was playing kissies with Mav, and put your girl on his table, and she started to flirt with him, was it? She was a darling little thing, and almost as cuddle tarty as Mav... dogmad - did you see the really big Dandie boy? He was such a cuddle bug. And the gorgeous little Iggy with the Oscar's Law people... wasn't he simply darling? I think my absolute standouts were the 3 gorgeous Rotties who gave me plenty of kisses, Xerxis the pedigreed BT girl who loved the butt scratches and leaned into me for more, and Trevor the abused BT boy who was up for as many pats and cuddles he could get... oh - and I also caught up with the lovely Powerlegs and Tracey from Save Our Strays... topped off a brilliant day! The funniest thing was the area with the aviaries that had a Pittie boy in one... me and MadWoofter went straight over and were giving him lots of scratches and getting kisses through the mesh... lol! We even checked out the cats... is it me or are cat people "different"? I did really well to not start sneezing or breaking out in hives (which is my normal reaction to cats)... I even got to pet a couple of Sphynx and Devon Rex ones. There was one young male Bengal there that was completely divine - what an awesome creature they are! Tossing up whether I should chance driving over there myself for another round of doggy cuddling... even though the surgeon said I shouldn't drive until at least Monday... errr! T.

Zeddy has her own room for sleeping in... she can't get up on my bed nowadays, and Pickles has a nasty habit of eating Zeddy's beds. Harper sleeps in her crate so she doesn't snack on the house while I'm asleep. Pickles and Trouble both sleep on my bed - although in Summer, Pickles prefers to go sleep on the tiles in the bathroom. Trouble shares my pillow and sometimes snores, but I can sleep through anything. When Zeddy was younger, she used to be my second alarm... which was achieved by farting in my face about 5 minutes after the actual alarm went off... *sigh* T.

Funnily enough, I seemed to get a cold around the same time as I had a foster litter with KC... on more than one occasion... Possibly sympathy illness, but it was the root of much mirth for all my doggy friends telling me that either I'd given it to the pups or vice versa... You'd be amazed at what lovely diseases we can share with our pets, or contract from them... most of them are rare transmissions, but they CAN happen. Don't Google zoonotic transmission unless you want to get a clean complex... errr! T.

Don't feed the pup before any car trip... unless you like cleaning up solids... ewww! A collar with a small drop of peppermint oil on it has worked pretty well for me in the past. Make sure that the oil has dried before putting the collar on. Windows open for air flow - if only for dissipating any smells if they do end up being sick - does seem to make the symptoms less. T.

I had a complete blast! I spent 5 hours cuddling up to just about every dog there... lol! I got kisses from nearly all of them too... I will admit to using my recent surgery as a ploy to request a cuddle of the cute little BT pup... she was so darling. I got lots of cuddles with Trevor the older BT boy who had had a rough life... he gave the second best kisses of the whole day. (The honour of the best kisses goes to the gorgeous Rottie girl I cuddled with outside) Definitely worth the entry fee if you want to see and interact with a lot of not so common breeds of dog... and all of the exhibitors are just as friendly as their gorgeous dogs... T.

But I managed to get a short cuddle of Tamar once... she is adorable DD... T.

You are right about Tamar DD - she certainly is a pretty girl and it's hard not to want to give her a pat... T.

I know that I'd want to rush up and give her a cuddle... she is just so pretty... but then I think how I'd feel with people wanting to fawn all over me (if I were as pretty as Neko), and I think letting her choose the terms of contact will be better for her own confidence levels than any other method... T.

I think you now need to plant a soft kiss on her nose from all of us well-wishers... *grin* I'm sure that will help with the healing process... T.

6/52 - Black Cockatoo at Featherdale Wildlife Park - posing up a storm! 01-02-2014-featherdale 761 by tdierikx, on Flickr Thanks for the cyber flowers Kirislin, and the well wishes helen... I'm getting stir crazy already... grrr! Hopefully I'll be getting out to Symbio later in the week when I'm allowed to drive... T.

6 months already!? Time flies! Not too many Iggies I've met have been overly outgoing with strangers - they've been a little aloof like most of the Whippets I've met. I can see the fact that she's really pretty would make most people want to pat her, but I reckon that SHE should dictate the terms of stranger contact herself. Maybe if you tell people to ignore her and let her decide whether she wants to interact or not in her own time... T.

Can I post another photo that I took last weekend for this week's entry? I've just had my gallbladder out and won't be able to get my usual weekend zoo visits in this week... grrr! T.

8/2 - Female Dingo at Featherdale... 01-02-2014-featherdale 121 by tdierikx, on Flickr T.

Gorgeous photo FF... love it! T.

NSW CAR doesn't charge a change of owner fee - you send in the paperwork on transfer of the dog, and they eventually update it on the database and send the changed entry to the new owner as proof of transfer. However, if the new owners do not live in NSW, it is a smart move to have the dog listed on their state's database AS WELL - that way if the dog is ever picked up by the local authorities, the dog will be returned to them faster. T.