NaBloPoMo

Long life, canine and human versions

May 6, 2009 by kathi

Chanel, an almost-21-year-old dachshund mix who is the world’s oldest dog according to the Guinness World Records, made an appearance on the Today show.

Chanel’s story is noteworthy to me not only because of her age, but because she has spent that entire life with her original owner, through bad times and good. I have been a supporter of and an occasional volunteer for rescue, and may I say that the stories that a rescue volunteer has to listen to when talking to people who are giving up their dogs make you lose faith in the basic goodness of human nature. The tough situations that owner Denice Shaughnessy was faced with, in addition to frequent moves as a soldier in the U.S. Army and later a caretaker to her grandparents, are tougher than many of the dog-dumping excuses that I’ve heard over the years, and yet Ms. Shaughnessy kept Chanel with her through all of the difficult times. She is really a great example of responsible, caring dog ownership, and I applaud her for the lifetime commitment to Chanel.

But, yeah… 21 years. Wow. I would have given just about anything to be able to have that long with any of the dearly departed vom Viersen Rottweilers. In many larger breeds, anything past 10 years is truly a gift. Since three of the four angel Rottweilers made it past 10 years, and one close to 12 years, I can’t honestly say I was cheated of time with them.

There are a fair number of Rottweilers that have made it farther into the double-digits, though, and the Rottweiler is the initial breed chosen by the Gerald P. Murphy Cancer Foundation for a canine Exceptional Longevity Database. Information gathered for this project will be used to learn more about the aging process in canines and how it relates to the human aging process. The Murphy Foundation also uses Rottweilers in a study about cancer prevention with dietary antioxidants. Dietary antioxidants are also part of a trial for human patients: a study on prostate cancer prevention for men over 55 years of age.

This is of great interest to me, not only because of my love of Rottweilers, but because of my own family’s participation in a different ongoing longevity study. My family also has more than its share of cancer survivors, and unfortunately a few others who did not survive, so I am interested in the studies for so many reasons.

(NaBloPoMo | May ‘09: 6 of 31 | 75% Challenge: 102 of 274)

In the news: distracted driving

May 5, 2009 by kathi

This tragic incident has been on my mind, saddening and infuriating me since it happened this past weekend:

Charges mulled in fatal nail-polish crash

Anita Zaffke had stopped her motorcycle at the intersection of U.S. Highway 12 and Old McHenry Road as the light turned yellow. Lora Hunt’s car struck and killed Ms. Zaffke. Ms. Hunt admitted to painting her fingernails as she drove, and claimed she did not see the motorcycle until she hit it.

I will freely admit that my opinion is extremely biased because I am a biker’s wife and a motorcycle rider myself, though not lately. I have heard the whole “I didn’t see the motorcycle” scenario way too many times over the years. When you are the unseen motorcycle, as all of us who ride have been at one time or another, if you are lucky, you have enough room and time to evade an accident. If not, you become a victim of the classic motorcycle accident where the driver of a car doesn’t see the motorcycle who had the right of way.

I am amazed and incensed at some of the comments made on the linked news reports and other accounts of the incident that imply that the victim was partly to blame simply because she made the choice to ride a motorcycle. I cannot agree that someone should expect to be injured or killed because they choose to legally ride a motorcycle on a public highway. From all accounts, Ms. Zaffke was a responsible and trained rider. At the time of the incident, she was wearing a helmet and reflective vest, and had yielded for the yellow light. She was not doing anything wrong. Yes, motorcycling is inherently risky. No, no and a thousand times NO should anyone be injured, let alone KILLED, because some freaking irresponsible moron decides that painting her nails in her car is more important than driving that car and watching where she is going.

Some of the other comments that bothered me most are the ones that say “what if the car driver was distracted for some other reason.” Ummm. She wasn’t. She wasn’t trying to read a map because she was lost. She didn’t just get a phone call with an emergency. She wasn’t trying to attend to a baby or child riding with her. She wasn’t being stung by a bee that entered her vehicle. She was PAINTING HER NAILS. Yeah. I think that’s way different.

At this time, the only charge against the car driver is a traffic violation, failure to reduce speed to avoid an accident. To my knowledge, we do have distracted driving laws in Illinois. The language is such that it must be proved that the distracted driver’s recklessness was so extreme that he or she acted with complete disregard for the safety of others. I understand the need for a proper investigation, but if this incident does not constitute “extreme recklessness” with “complete disregard for the safety of others”… what does??

Most of the laws introduced recently here have had to do with texting while driving. I don’t think texting while driving is a good idea, but it seems to be far from the most common or most distracting thing that people do while driving. Maybe the current distracted driving laws just need to be revised and strengthened.

I admit (and probably so should you, and you, and well, just about everyone) that I do not always have 100% of my attention on the road. This whole thing has made me look again at what I do while driving. I wish everyone would take a moment to do that, especially if you live and drive anywhere near where my husband or I might be on a motorcycle.

(NaBloPoMo | May ‘09: 5 of 31 | 75% Challenge: 101 of 274)

ATTS canine temperament test

May 4, 2009 by kathi

Freya and Axel are entered in a temperament test to be given this coming Saturday by the American Temperament Test Society.

All of our dear departed Rottweilers passed this temperament test. This test evaluates a dog’s reaction as it walks with its handler through a course where they will encounter neutral, friendly and and threatening people, visual and auditory stimuli, and unusual surfaces under foot. The handler may not command the dog, or in fact talk to the dog at all, during the test as it is a test of the dog’s temperament, not its training.

You are not supposed to actually train for this test, but the dog should be socialized to the things it will encounter in the test. People, sounds and sights similar to those in the test scenarios are part of most everyone’s daily life. Hopefully, the gunshots and the weirdly-dressed stranger are not a big part of your daily life!

Many dogs fail the subtests for unusual footing: the dogs must walk over a 15-foot length of clear plastic sheeting, and the 12-foot length of an unfolded wire exercise pen. My dogs don’t have any problem with walking on plastic, as they do so every time they get into my vehicle.

Wire or metal footing is something they hadn’t had to deal with, though. Ever since hearing of a number of isolated but deadly incidents in several large cities, including Chicago, where dogs were electrocuted by stray voltage running through metal plates or grates in the sidewalk, there is no way I would have let my dogs walk on a sidewalk grate.

So they were understandably somewhat suspicious when I dragged out the exercise pen to make sure they were exposed to the wire footing at least a few times before test day. Neither one wanted to walk over it at first. It is amazing how quickly some food or a favorite toy can coax a reluctant dog to follow you across the unfamiliar surface. Once they go across a few times and realize that nothing bad happens, and in fact something good (again, that food or toy) might happen, it’s not a big deal any more.

I feel pretty good about their chances of passing. Let’s hope they do!

(NaBloPoMo | May ‘09: 4 of 31 | 75% Challenge: 100 of 274)

Surprisingly productive Sunday

May 3, 2009 by kathi

Much to my surprise, just about all of the magazine-related tasks from my Saturday list are done.

I didn’t make any headway at all in coming up with an interesting dog-related topic for BlogHer. It doesn’t seem that dog-related topics are all that popular for discussions there, so this is not really a time-sensitive item.

I made only a small dent in my 31DBBB tasks. But since I don’t have any exciting topics in mind (those who are progressing through 31DBBB at a more normal pace now know that I have not completed Days 11 and 12, or I’d have at least a few topics on tap), instead of boring you all with my progress or lack of it, I’m going to finally work on fixing the categories and tags here. That has been a real thorn in my side, and I think I’ve finally worked out a shorter category list that should work pretty well. If anything gets lost or any links get broken, know that I’m on it, or will be!

(NaBloPoMo | May ‘09: 3 of 31 | 75% Challenge: 99 of 274)

Lazy Saturday night

May 2, 2009 by kathi

Here’s what I should be doing:

Edit some articles for the magazine
Proofread some ads and pages for the magazine
Reply to a bunch of email
Post something to my BlogHer dog group
Catch up on 31DBBB lessons
Reorganize categories and tags on this blog, and clean up the links list

Here’s what I probably will do instead:

Have a snack
Watch “CSI: NY” and “CSI: Miami”
Let the dogs out for a late-night potty break
Sleep!

I will catch up tomorrow. Except that it is supposed to be nice out, so I will probably catch up late tomorrow night. Maybe.

(NaBloPoMo | May ‘09: 2 of 31 | 75% Challenge: 98 of 274)