tdierikx

It's "newsworthy" if they can call the dog a "pitbull"... T.

Last weekend I got the poops at the bird show at Taronga. One of the "crowd control" people was new, and taking her job way too seriously. She made me move twice to let people with prams in because they wouldn't take their bloody squalling kids out of them and park them in the stroller "parking" area - then the person she seated in front of me decided to put up an umbrella to shield themselves from the sun and she wouldn't ask them to put it down! I just did my lolly (with a couple of choice words) and stomped off... Fortunately one of the bosses saw my obvious displeasure - and probably because I talk the the keepers a lot and have given them printed photos that I've taken of their charges - he went and gave her a bollocking she won't forget in a hurry. My friend caught up with me up at the tiger enclosure and told me that she'd been told off, which was a small consolation at least. Dog I was mad! We had gotten to the bird show area an HOUR early to get the position we wanted in order to get some nice photos - and got shunted for prams and umbrellas that arrived 5 minutes before the show started and insisted on being fit in to the by then completely limited seating... grr! At least by arriving early I got to take some really nice close-up head shots of George the baby Wedge-Tailed Eagle... he's a stunningly pretty boy! T.

If you go every week, you start to learn when the various animals are likely to be awake and doing something interesting... *grin* As for the zooming Kite... you have no idea how many blurry or crappy photos I have taken of her in order to get that really good one. She moves at around 60k/hr, ducking and diving, and I'm handheld trying to track her with 2 kgs of camera/lens... errr! You should have seen the air punches and happy dances I was doing when I saw that one photo on the big computer screen... *giggle* I've got a sleeping Malayan tapir with teefies photo from last weekend... they are gnarly looking pegs, aren't they? The other one is a Brazilian tapir I think... The bird with the cool eyelashes is a Guinea Fowl - they run wild around the zoo near the giraffes and zebras. Ugly critters close up, aren't they? The otters are the hardest I reckon because usually by the time I get to their enclosure (near the exit for me), the sun glare off the water onto the glass is horrible. I tried earlier in the morning, but the little buggers had made splashes all up the glas which was equally as annoying to try to shoot through... grrr! Overcast days are the best for the otters... Still gotta go through last weekend's pics from both zoos, and upload them to Flickr... T.

How long ago did she put the deposit down? Westie pups can grow a fair bit in a few weeks, and have coat and temperament changes too... just sayin'... T.

8 hectares?!?! I bet the buggers are hard to photograph when they are sheltering from the sun or rain... *grin* At Symbio's tiger enclosure, sometimes wild birds may decide (foolishly) to land in the enclosure... Cinta catches and eats them, but Jalur prefers his food delivered without too much work on his part... typical male! T.

My thoughts are along ths line too... separation anxiety isn't random as far as I'm aware... Do any of the new neighbours have a cat? I'm thinking this may be the likely culprit that is setting your dog off - and she's just trying to get at it when it comes visiting... T.

OK - I think you have the thumbnail options set in your Links To Share settings...then when clicked, it takes you to the PB site link for your full sized pic. I have mine set to only the full sized pic - so that's what gets presented here... example... What I have done is changed the settings in my Links To Share options - the only one I have ticked is IMG code... to get the photos to display larger here, at the very least you untick IMG Thumb. Under the Links To Share bit, you should see Update Link Options - change the settings there... Hope this helps... T.

Hey TJ - you haven't made your album(s) private on PB have you? T.

All of my dogs get their C3 puppy course, then their first adult booster... nothing after that. BUT - as I foster pups for rescue, I may have all sorts of interesting little bugs coming in at any time - and my dogs' immunities are stimulated by those small exposures regularly - effectively naturally topping up their immunity levels. If your dog is not taken out much and doesn't come into contact with strange dogs or places strange dogs have been, I'd be titre testing regularly, and then vaccinate if/when the titres are low enough to allow the disease to do harm to your dog if contracted. Titre testing doesn't cost all that much more than the vaccinations anyways... T.

All rehomed DD... T.

My old girl Zeddy used to get in the bath with my now ex... and pin his tender bits to the bottom of the bath with her claws... *grin* T.

Yes - the tigers and lions at Taronga are behind thick glass... which I wish they would clean on the inside more often... grrr. I've heard a rumour that they may soon be upgrading the big cat areas again... If you want to see the best tiger exhibit ever... go visit Symbio (in Helensburgh)... Taronga's bit cat enclosures look positively tiny and inadequate in comparison to Symbio's. Symbio are also getting lions, cheetahs, and lemurs hopefully in the next 12 months... yay! T.

As someone who has had to pts an entire litter of 6 week old foster puppies due to parvo, it IS often kinder to pts than to try to treat pups so young. If you've ever seen a tiny pup treated for parvo, you'd completely understand the reason why many will pts rather than treat. Even if you DO treat a pup that young, the odds of permanent gut issues are high, not to mention a number of other permanent side effects of battling the disease at such a crucial stage of their physical development. The cost to treat can also be debilitating when you are looking at an entire litter that will need to be on a drip and closely monitored for up to 2 weeks in isolation a vet clinic - and the survival rate of young unvaccinated pups is ridiculously low (about 10-20% depending on age, physical fitness, how early you caught the symptoms, etc). So you could put 6-8 pups through the trauma of bleeding to death internally, while you try to support them enough to try to heal themselves, and come away with MAYBE one survivor - or you could suck it up and do what is kindest for them all. Seriously $1000 for a vet to treat one dog for parvo in clinic is actually cheap. Rescue is not for the faint of heart - sometimes you have to make VERY hard decisions. We really cannot save them all... for many reasons... T.

I'm not anti-cat... but I am highly allergic to them, and thus can never own one... *sigh* But if I did own one, then there is no way I'd want it roaming all over the countryside and possibly being exposed to dangers like dogs or cars... exactly the same as I make sure that my dogs aren't able to be exposed to the dangers of roaming. My brother has trained his cat to stay in the confines of his yard... and it never leaves there of it's own accord. He also fosters dumped/feral kittens who also learn from the older cat not to stray. Maybe more cat owners could take that sort of responsibility for their cats? Come to think of it, I've never seen Katdogs' cat roaming either... she's a lovely kitty and obviously knows that the best place is at home with her family. Cats CAN be trained, although it's a bit different to training a dog, and is a lot harder due to the general disposition of cats - but it can be done... T.

My old girl will take a certain amount of rudeness from youngsters, then she'll just flatten them. She has assisted in rearing nearly 200 foster pups of varying ages over the years, and each of those pups learned appropriate behaviour around other dogs just fine. No-one has ever been hurt or mentally scarred from being smacked down for being a turd. In fact all of my older dogs have assisted in rescue puppy rearing and various aspects of the socialisation of same. Violently correcting a dog for showing APPROPRIATE behaviour in your situation is just not on. I'd be speaking up if this isn't the only incident that has made you uncomfortable with their training methods/styles. Sounds like some of the trainers need a bit more training themselves... T.

There is a new brilliantly bright shining star in the heavens for all of us to share... run free sweet girl... Hugs to you and yours from me and mine Ams... T.

Yummy! Watermelon is good Summer fare... T.

I've had a rescue pup test positive for parvo within days of a C5 vaccination - it actually turned out that the pup had vaccinosis, and the MLV C5 gave us a false positive for parvo due to that. As for putting protocols in place to reduce transmission - this should also extend to transport arrangements, etc... T.

She is seriously one of the prettiest dogs ever! As for the dead bird - it was well beyond feeling anything when she found it and decided to use it as a toy... Had the photos been of her stalking and killing it... maybe a bit different... *grin* T.

Of the dogs taken from Griffith by other groups recently... how many have had parvo? Maree, have you had any from Griffith in the past few months that have had parvo? Kenreb is making claims that high numbers of dogs his group are taking from there have parvo and then need expensive vet treatment - is this happening with dogs taken by other groups? It could well be that the pound's sanitary conditions, while not perfect, might not be the source of the disease... Wouldn't it be ironic if the issue of dogs becoming sick was actually the result of a particular rescue group's transport and quarantine (or lack thereof) processes? T.

Funny how on 3rd hand info, everyone has decided the dog must be a pitbull... I'm not a fan of roaming cats myself though. T.

How old is Pernie Nic? Harper is only 15 months (nearly) - so she's still growing - and she's a complete turd at times. Talk about the terrible teens! I wouldn't swap her for anything in the world (she's my heart dog), but sometimes she drives me to complete distraction with her naughty antics. I love her to bits... *grin* A lot of her naughtiness is MY fault - when I should have been concentrating on obedience and socialisation (and when she was of a more manageable size), I was laid up with some pretty severe back issues, and have since been left with chronic nerve pain issues... grrr! T.

Most obedience classes have rules relating to the interaction between dogs - ie. dogs must be under effective control when in close proximity to others The fact that your girl air snapped and told the puppy that she wasn't impressed by it's rudeness is NO excuse for a stranger (instructor or not) to tell your dog off in an intimidating fashion. Quite frankly, if it were my dog that the instructor decided to chastise, the instructor would have had to deal with some unsavoury behaviour from ME... T.

Your vets should have acted themselves if they were so concerned about the rate of parvo infected dogs emerging from Griffith Pound... I'd say that a letter from a vet to Council mamagement on the parvo issue might have a bigger impact than a rescue group crying foul to the press and pointing the finger at the staff who have to deal with it probably even moreso than you do, and under much tighter budgets may I add... Quite a few groups had been rescuing from Griffith pound quite successfully begore Needy Paws (and yourself) decided that they'd jump onto the bandwagon and declare yourselves the be all and end all for needies in Griffith Pound. what you fail to see as a possible consequence of your attention seeking stampede to the media is that Council might just turn around and refuse to work with rescue at all - as has happened at more than one pound after ultimatums have been handed down by a rescue "rogue" (which is how you will be perceived by those on the receiving end of your media jaunt, by the way). Declaring yourself/Needy Paws as the only hope for ALL Griffith poundies is also a bit rich, don't you think? Not acknowledging ANY of the other rescues who regularly take from Griffith, but attempting to take all credit for ALL dogs taken is a bit of a stretch from where a lot of us stand. Did you even bother to talk to any of the other rescues involved before running off to the media to make yourself out to be some sort of rescue hero? As for the 4 "very hard" dogs at Griffith Pound right now... well - with your excellent media spotlight on the high rate of parvo there - I'd say most would be very leery of taking ANYTHING from there at all right now... But then, you "really do not care what anyone else thinks", so we'll leave the job to you then, yes? T.

There are a few new ones on her Flickr page... *grin* T.