Live for Today

Decorating with Malamutes

2009-09-12T10:21:00.001-05:00

Yes, I know, your house/apt is fully decorated just by the presence of a beautiful Malamute ;-) -- but on days like today, when the yard is one big mud puddle and the floor covered with huge, if cute footprints, one's thoughts turn to questions of decor. Here's a pretty interesting site on Malamute Decor: Decorating for Dogs in your Life: http://omalmalamutes.com/omal/maldecor.htm

Has anyone seen those wooden crates they sell in, like, Sky Mall mag? I'd like to surround our wire crates with wood corner pieces, a wood base and top (table!), and some partial side cladding. Has anyone done this, or know how ;-)?

Also, does anyone have a nice pattern to crochet or sew a toy Malamute? This is for a fundraiser.

Thank you!

Breed ID? (Puppy cuteness warning!)

2009-08-05T08:24:00.004-05:00

Clearly a clever animatronic.
If you watch the first video, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3l7LbSMA-AA&NR=1, note that the owner is able to give the little toy a bath without losing any limbs, skin, or vital parts.
To add insult to (non-)injury, the robot does not inflict a proper crocodile bite when taunted with food, and it just sits there when dressed up with a satanic headdress.
Now really. Even a practically immobile wooly Mallie puppy will raise holy hell when trifled with to this extent; it doesn't take a red-blooded Texas Mal like my two to extract a few pounds of flesh.
And where are the vocalizations?? There should be a veritable cadenza of howls, growls, yowls, yelps, arpeggios, scales and other vocal exercises expressing this little fella's opinions. Clear evidence that the technology has yet to develop the distinctive Northern breed voice -- or perhaps the inventors felt that non-howling roboMals would be less annoying? Hah! Nothing is cuter than http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3l7LbSMA-AA&NR=1

Perhaps this animatronic is from the same factory as http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxGI6o4E8L0&feature=related ... ? EZKareMalsRUs?

Cheers
connie

Re: Michael writes:
This sure looks like a malamute to me, but can anyone please confirm?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GTzB3EBQic&feature=related

BEWARE! Cute puppy video behind link.

MALAMUTE-L post

Prey Drive can be very sad - NOT

2009-08-05T07:57:00.002-05:00

Mike describes perfectly:
>That's the way Jason caught grackles and a friend's dog caught a crow.
They lay with their heads down until the birds got used to them and flew
too close.

This is exactly the late, great Guerillera Alexandria's infallible hunting method, only she was VERY good at it. She would simple turn herself invisible. Her prey would wander about all relaxed and oblivious to the lethal huntress lying in wait, until suddenly 60-some pounds of fur and teeth would rematerialize RIGHT THERE in their midst and it was goodnight, Irene. She was pulling down 30-lb possums and huge, nasty grackles up til her death in August, 2007.

Allie was my first Mal, and a revelation. I've always been a complete wuss and gone into hysterics when a cat would barf up cricket parts or present me with a mouse. I could never watch a nature program on TV. When Allie first started hauling home the prey - and I have no idea where she found all the wildlife in our essentially urban backyard - and leaving corpses exactly where I would be sure to step on them, I had the requisite hissy, and the first time she killed a cat, I seriously freaked out and called Lynn at Texas Alaskan Malamute Rescue, sobbing and asking what sort of monster I'd adopted. But when Lynn offered the option to return Allie, of course my answer was no. I read up some more about Mallies and learned to respect the predator. I can now watch a lion pride hunt and admire their technique, and their role in thinning the herd. I took Sascha (Rhodie x) lure coursing and enjoyed the overt hunting patterns of the runs.

I will never be happy about the death of a cat, and still despise human hunts (unless mano a mano, fair is fair), but I see nothing whatever sad about the prey drive of our great, great-hearted, fantastic creatures who helped the first Americans cross over Beringia and the Mahlemuts survive in the hostile Arctic. Dammit, without a very lively prey drive, our superb companions would never have survived these thousands of years, and would not be who they are. The miracle is the patient breeding of the cuddly, human-friendly temperament into the mighty hunt(ress). If breeders try to get rid of the prey drive, shame on them!

I have learned to treasure, honor and respect nature red in tooth and claw -- it's not a Disney movie, predators play an essential role, and in many ecosystems, we have seen the havoc that ensues when the big predators are wiped out. We are privileged to share our homes and hearts with these special creatures, not stuffed animals or frou-frou dogs. I treasure that.

Missing Allie every day

MALAMUTE-L post

Re: Ziva's first night home

2009-07-31T00:17:00.001-05:00

Dearest Mistress Ziva,
you are doing well, not to put up with any guff from your male companion.
As for your query regarding the big white box in the kitchen, tut tut, my child, a lady does not concern herself with mundane items of machinery.
Instead, you should be perfecting your Human Manipulation Skills. How is your Tilt of the Head with Big Brown Eyes and Subliminal Whimper? If your Humom is not reduced to quivering tears and automatic Food Dispensing mode, my dear, you must practice, practice, practice! In addition, the fine art of hypnotism requires a certain study of the human psychology. You will achieve your goal at some point by simply sitting and staring at your huperson, but how much more quickly and effectively if you place your chin on our paws and sigh heartrendingly?
Your Malamute ancestors have evolved these survival skills over the millennia, and it is the obligation and sacred duty of each and every one of us to refine and perfect them and pass them on in turn to the next generations. Therefore I will share with you a modern-day skill learned from the late, great Guerillera Alexandria which she in turn observed one of our feline housemates performing. Dear Ziva, if you find yourself alone in the house with no huperson to hypnotize, and you're feeling a trifle peckish, you might just sidle over to the aforementioned white box. Inserting a delicate and well-manicured white paw beneath one of the doors, and gazing thoughtfully off into the distance, you might just exert a bit of traction on the door. It should open quite easily. The cheese is usually within convenient reach.
I would not recommend doing this too often, as your humom (like ours) may become fed up and purchase a fridge with the freezer on the bottom -- this is not nearly as easily opened.
Looking forward to many reports of a congenial and edifying nature,
Yours in sisterhood,
Miss Congeniality
Austin, Texas

Subject: Fw: Re: Ziva's first night home

Woo-Woo Pvt Travvy.
I know i'd like you to come visit too! but the boat trip is scary i was in the car for a long long time! but my new Hu-Mom gave me loads of cuddles i thought it was strange that my sister Blanca wasn't going to the woods too when i got into the car. my new brother is a bit strange he thought he was boss, don't know who gave him that idea i put him right about 5 minutes after i met him.. There is one thing thats puzzling me though how to you get into the big white box in the kitchen where Hu-Mon puts the yummy scrummy left overs?
Ziva

MALAMUTE-L post

Tragic reminder: NEVER leave dogs in cars/vans!

2009-06-27T08:46:00.001-05:00

These over-100 degree days are hard on pets and, apparently, rational functioning in humans. Much in the news: The horrifying deaths of 7 dogs, including a Mallie and an Akita, at the hands of their brain-dead handler, who figured they'd be cooler in the van (off, no A/C going) than, say, in her house, at a motel, at the all-night vet, or on her lawn outdoors. No, she just left them in the van. Door and windows open -- on other people's priceless showdogs?? getting them stolen was preferable to just taking them inside?? 6 fans -- powered by what?? then why not the A/C?? She says she noticed unresponsiveness at 6:30; at the lightning speed of 2.5-3 hours later, she contacted the vet. All very wonky.

The AKC is exhibiting its usual integrity, backbone and decisive advocacy for dogs by waffling, excusing, and neglecting to take the obvious stand of unequivocally condemning the practice of boiling your dogs. Hello, AKC, bar this handler immediately, let the burden of proof be on her that she is worthy of the trust of any dog owner. She shouldn't be allowed to touch another animal until/unless fully cleared.

Please, everyone, I know that WE take this ghastly heat very seriously and would never leave our precious Mallies in our vehicles for a second. (and not only because, if they are like my Ghost, they would eat the upholstery ;-)). This is a good reminder to emulate our Mals and not be shy about raising he!! should we ever notice a pet or person (usually infant) left in a vehicle -- in Austin, call 311 or, if the being seems in distress, 911, and EMS or the police will come out immediately. If the driver comes back and yells at you, so be it -- they have broken the LAW and endangered a life, and you may well have prevented another tragedy like in Missouri.

Run free over the Bridge in the deep cool snow, beautiful Mal. You didn't deserve this death.

Enough from me! Stay cool, friends & Mallies
Connie & the Malefactors

Ain't Miss-Behavin'?

2009-03-22T00:33:00.000-05:00

I'm relating this tale of the wildly mis-named Miss Congeniality (Missy's) adventures in grooming today because there's no way I'm letting her near the keyboard. Herself may look like an Angelic Creampuff but she cusses like a stevedore -- the laptop would go up in flames.

So we finally had several days of rain here in central Texas -- after weeks and weeks of cracklin' drought. Missy and The Magnificent Ghost took the opportunity to dig some nice, deep mudholes and waller around in there gettin' good and filthy. Since Missy sleeps in my room, she has made it her mission to transfer as much crunchy, itchy, crumby dirt to my bed as is possible, preferably right after I've changed the sheets. Boy, that Texas dirt can be persistent. Miss Thing can pick up a good load with each paw and snuggle it right into the sheets in a matter of seconds, with her very best Sweet Gorgeous Darling expression on.

She is also shedding. With Missy, shedding means that the human hand need only hover within 10 inches of her lovely coat and Whooosh! it is instantly covered with a thick fuzz of undercoat, while a gentle cumulus cloud of unattached underfluff floats in the intervening space and disperses throughout the house or car. Caressing or kissing Missy is undertaken with the foreknowledge that one will need to be scraped down or vacuumed afterward to reveal the human beneath.

Since the Magnificent Ghost is also shedding his short, Gund-toy-type coat in projectile spurts, it was clearly time to take the creatures to the groomer. So the Malamutes had their dates with their favorite groomer, Mandy, at the Petsmart today. Ghost was his usual nervous wreck self, yodeling like a banshee every time someone entered the back. However, he thoroughly enjoyed his desperately needed brushing, bath and blow-dry and allowed his claws to be clipped like a little trouper.

Miss Congeniality had to be line-brushed, of course, and behaved like the alpha bee-atch she is, bossing everyone around and keeping up a running commentary in her bass-baritone voice. She is not shy about expressing her opinions about the other dogs (matching white mini poodles with red ribbons! I ask you!) or about having the Sam-I-Am tufts on her paw pads clipped (not a fan, esp. on the hind feet). Her vocabulary is broad and on the blue side, and she is quite the imperious Boss Lady.

When I came to pick up the Malefactors, Ms Mandy was quite a bit worse for wear, and the whole space was filled with floating clouds of underfluff. Rather like my house. Seeing the sparkling, shiny, gorgeous creatures that came out with plumes wagging furiously, dark brown eyes snapping and voices ringing to the heavens, one would never imagine that these Precious Angels could cause such utter devastation ...

So much for my lovelies until the next rain!

Ever grateful for groomers who love their jobs and actually enjoy working with Mallies!!

Calling all Mals! Mighty Texas Dog Walk '09

2009-02-21T16:54:00.000-06:00

Calling all Mals!

It's that time of year again -- this year's Mighty Texas Dog Walk is April 11 in beautiful downtown Austin!

All profits go to the Texas Hearing and Service Dogs, a wonderful organisation that trains shelter dogs to assist people with a wide variety of disabilities.

The walk is only 3 miles long, and the "purpose" is to bring the Guinness World Record back to Texas – Beat the Brits! Current record: 10,272 dogs.

The t-shirt designed by Mauro Garza is always gorgeous, a collector's item. This year, the walk will not be competing with other events downtown, and it will have 6 water stops with wading pools, etc.

Info and on-line registration (save $5) http://www.servicedogs.org/dogwalk09/

It's always awesome when a bunch of Mallies walk together!! It's one dog per walker, but if extra walkers can be found, it's very cool to walk Mallies that are up for adoption ... The walk is earlier this year, for extra coolth -- a good thing for Mallies -- as are the wading pools!

Hope to see lots of happy Mallies there! I have a huge driveway that anyone with an RV is welcome to use....

Milk-Bone features sled dog

2009-02-14T18:13:00.002-06:00

Have you seen the new "cover dog" on the Milkbone Bakery Bites Bacon Chip n Cheese flavor cookies? The packaging used to have a cartoon doggie on it, but now there's a mighty handsome sled dog with lovely dark brown eyes!!

Nice to see a happy snow-dog puppy exploited for commercial purposes ... It hasn't quite succeeded in subliminally talking me into buying the treats, but it does make me smile!

Btw, the Milk-Bone site prominently announces that none of its branded products are involved in the salmonella peanut recall -- for the simple reason that even their peanut-butter-flavored treats contain no actual peanuts ... That's nice, but we're not taking any chances -- have thrown out all our peanut-butter treats and don't intend to buy any in the foreseeable future! Yikes!

Good thing the doggies prefer jerky treats anyway ... and the cats prefer fish ...

Useful (?) Mals?

2008-07-27T17:59:00.001-05:00

So I'm taking Rowan to the groomer at Petsmart, and he's prancing down the aisle, tossing head and tail, giving everyone the googly eyes, and they're all throwing themselves at him, as usual ... >sigh< ... he is SUCH a glory hog ...

Anyway, one kid stops us and grabs handfuls of Malafluff (there's a reason we go to the groomer ...) and he yells for his brother and mom to come over. At this point we are blocking the entire center lanes of the store ... the brother tools up in a nifty wheelchair, his eyes light up and he too has to get his Rowan lovin's. Who ruthlessly takes advantage of a captive victim and licks the poor kid up the nose, in the ears and basically all over, to his great delight. Meanwhile, the mother is sighing and rolling her eyes while kid #1 is trying to explain to her that they have to get a Mal to take care of the handicapped kid, pull him around when needed, and basically be their best buddy. I'm trying to explain over the din that a Mal is not a Golden Retriever or a Lab and is a true pain in the a** to train, and is not terribly reliable, when the mom amazes me by saying that she's heard of plenty of Mals being trained as assistance dogs (!!), she just doesn't want the shedding in the house ... a small yappy broke up the traffic jam & I didn't get the name of the org. she was talking about!

Now I've heard of Mallie THERAPY dogs, and have talked to a few wheelchair-bound Mal-people who just happen to be Mal-lovers, but don't count on their Mals for formal assistance. But does anyone know who is training Mallies specifically to assist the disabled?

I've always thought it was a great idea, esp. in a family setting where training could be reinforced & there is backup, etc., but Sherry at Texas Hearing & Service Dogs has always said Mals were too difficult ... What a great thing it would be for Mallie rescue!

Needless to say, Rowan enjoyed his bath & comb-out immensely, as he got loved on by all, and I really appreciate having someone else clip those iron claws ...

Lucky Hat?

2008-06-11T13:06:00.001-05:00

Overheard at the bookstore:

"That hat must be unlucky. We never used to have these kinds of problems before you got that hat."

NEWS: Souring economy puts the bite on pet owners

2008-06-11T12:13:00.003-05:00

NEWS: Souring economy puts the bite on pet owners
Demand spikes at pet food banks, discount vets
Some pantries see 50 percent increase in need for free dog, cat food
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24936402/

Response to newsvine:

This article made me even more frustrated about the shove-'em-out the door tactics of some shelters/rescues, such as "free kitten month," and the adoption craze in the media.

It's great that the media and celebrities are getting behind the pet adoption movement, but since it isn't very homogenous, the terms can get confused, and a puppy miller or thief can easily pass themselves off as a "shelter" or "adoption center" -- there's a pretty fine line with some of the groups that "adopt" at Petsmart, e.g., already, and Petland's puppies and kittens are straight from the horrors of the mills. How is the consumer to know?

TV shows often say, "this cute puppy/kitten is up for adoption, call now," without further info, giving an unfortunate impression. Potential adopters often don't know what to look for, and buzz words like "rehoming" and "adoption" can easily mask unscrupulous behavior. I know Mike and Juliet (mandjshow.com), for example, mean well when touting adorable pets to adopt/give away FOR FREE!! However, these tactics send exactly the wrong message: pets are cheap, throwaway commodities; if you don't like this one, well, you can always pop down to the shelter for a replacement. ... instead of emphasizing that pets are a lifelong commitment, expensive, unpredictable, and requiring patience and work. The media don't educate the public that a reputable rescue or shelter will meet at least these minimum standards:
1) no "impulse" adoptions on-site or before an in-depth application is processed;
2) no adoptions before home check and vet check, and require a landlord letter;
3) mandatory spay/neuter, vaccinations & registration, microchip in rescue/shelter's name;
4) either adoption counseling, an adoption video, training, certificate for training, or some other retention behavior.
The adoption process should be onerous, invasive, difficult, and expensive -- just like when adopting a child. The level of commitment should be the same.

In Big Dog rescue, our foremost problems at this point are returns, dogs just being set loose, the particularly horrible shape dogs are in when they do come into rescue, and counseling folks who are in the situation of the people in this article, servicepeople being deployed, etc.. Vet bills for big dogs can often be monstrous -- flea and heartworm prevention seem anecdotally to be the first things to be dropped, which lead to much greater expenses and pain later. My neighbors find the cost prohibitive. None of their dogs are vaccinated and few are spayed/neutered, either; it's not that easy to get to a low-cost clinic.

Low-cost vax, flea/heartworm & microchip clinics brought right into the poorer neighborhoods, along with education, would be a fantastic use of Pedigree's and the ASPCA's Project Orange money, methinks ... and contribute greatly to retention. Large-scale availability of good pet food at the food banks would be great, too, and nice corporate write-offs... Low-cost training meet-ups in the neighborhoods would also be wonderful. That kind of follow-up and long-term back-up would do so much more to create a truly pet-friendly environment than the current fire-sale attitude, iffy screening procedures and basic lack of commitment that just lead to pets bouncing back into rescue or onto the street, older and less adoptable.

IMHO, of course ...

Heartworm infestations

2008-06-09T18:58:00.001-05:00

N. writes: >My only concern is that ... heartworm
infestation of a dog sounds like an almost impossibly unlikely event
even during periods of sustained warm temps.<

Reply:
Well, down here in Texas, whenever a dog comes into rescue, the first thing we test for is heartworms -- you can just about assume that a dog that's been out and about, no matter the weather, is going to be infested, some of them just horribly. Way too few people know or care about protecting their dogs (and outdoor cats). Even when we get a good freeze, you can bet that, when the next warm day comes around, we'll be plagued by skeeters again. There are just too many hidey-holes for them to be killed off. The times I've spent in upstate NY, I didn't notice any marked lack of skeeters either, despite the harsh winters ... Heartworm treatment often just has to be part of the foster/rescue process, and one of the reasons we work so hard to raise money ... believe me, prevention is a lot cheaper, and a LOT less hard on the dog!
My depreciated $.02 ...

This Economy & Pets: Demand spikes at pet food banks, discount vets

2008-06-09T12:09:00.001-05:00

http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifFrom http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24936402/
Demand spikes at pet food banks, discount vets
Some pantries see 50 percent increase in need for free dog, cat food
The Associated Press updated 3:18 p.m. CT, Mon., June. 2, 2008

FRANKLIN, Mass. - Diana Bardsley wiped tears from her eyes as she recalled taking food off her plate to feed her beloved spaniel Hunter and two Siamese cats.
Her greatest fear: that she could be forced to surrender the animals as she struggled to stretch her food stamps and Social Security income to meet the escalating cost of living.
Some hope was restored after she visited a local food pantry, which has started offering free pet food to help owners keep their animals out of shelters.
"I know a lot of people will probably say, 'Well, if you don't have enough money to be able to feed your animals, that you shouldn't have pets,''' said Bardsley, 53, of Franklin, as Hunter played in the living room with three of her grandchildren.
But, "Just because financially you may go downhill a little or a lot, doesn't necessarily mean you have to give up the part of your family that you love,'' she said.
For some pet owners, though, there is little choice.
The rising costs of fuel, food and housing — and the rising tide of foreclosures — have generated a surge in requests for pet food from traditional food pantries and prompted some pet owners to give up their animals. Others are trying to save money by forgoing veterinary care.

>snip< -- read complete article at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24936402/

© 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24936402/
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ALERT: New scam 'adopters'

2008-06-08T00:44:00.000-05:00

Post to austinrescue:
Just received this info from an affiliated rescue in San Antonio --
very disturbing that this is going on under our noses! We try so hard
to screen, but sometimes the baddies do slip through the cracks.
Importance of microchipping!!

"These people adopted a dog from us and turned around and "rehomed"
it for more money...they seem very great, nice house/ family but as
always looks can be decieving... how did we find out? the new adopter
found our name in the microchip and called us... I called to confront
the adopter and she claimed that the dog was too hyper for their
family. They had only had the dog for three days!"

Permission to pass on to other rescue groups in Texas area. We don't
know if these people target only Northern breeds, or much else about
them.

Editorial comment: it's great that the media and celebrities are
getting behind the pet adoption movement, but since it isn't very
homogeneous, people easily get confused, and a puppy miller or thief
can easily pass themselves off as a shelter or adoption center --
there's a pretty fine line with some of the groups that "adopt" at
Petsmart, for example, already. TV shows often say, "this cute
puppy/kitten is up for adoption, call now," without further info,
giving an unfortunate impression. Potential adopters often don't know
what to look for, and buzz words like "rehoming" and "adoption" can
easily mask unscrupulous behavior.

Perhaps recourse to the media might help clarify? If rescues &
shelters were to agree on a certain minimum level of standards such
as:
- no "impulse" adoptions on-site or before an application is processed
- no adoptions before home check and vet check, landlord letter
- mandatory s/n, vax & registration, chip in rescue's/shelter's name
- either adoption counseling, watch adoption video, training,
certificate for training, or some other retention behavior
- ??

Maybe couched as a cute acronym or something? Then potential adopters
would be able to identify a non-legitimate "rescue" more easily.

Just my $.02 ...
Cheers
Connie

How to photograph a Malamute

2008-06-05T13:20:00.000-05:00

TxMals:
We all know that our dogs are the most beautiful in the world. Then why is it so hard to get a good picture?? I have more shots of Mallie rear ends or of a Mallie tongue licking the lens than I know what to do with ...

Here is a variation on the professional photographer's advice on how to photograph a puppy -- adjusted for Mallies!

cheers
connie

*Have Mallie professionally groomed.
*Take out second mortgage on home.
*Remove memory chip from plastic and insert in camera.
*Stanch blood flow from plastic packaging and call carpet cleaning service.
*Remove packaging material from Mallie's mouth and throw in trash.
*Remove Mallie from trash and brush coffee grounds from front end.
*Discover that Vetrap works well on wrist sprained removing bone from Mallie's mouth.
*Discover that your battery is low and postpone shoot.
>recharge battery and self-confidence<
*Successfully pull battery charger back out of Mallie's esophagus.
*Choose a suitable background for photo.
*Discard suitable background after Mallie lifts leg on it. Call carpet cleaning service again.
*Mount camera on tripod and focus.
*Find Mallie and take dirty sock from mouth.
*Re-groom Mallie to remove random tufts of undercoat suddenly sprouting everywhere.
*Place Mallie in pre-focused spot, say "Mallie, STAY" in a commanding voice and return to camera.
*Attempt to persuade Mallie to display other than rear end to camera.
*Sprint after escaping Mallie and beg to return.
*Place Mallie using barbecue chicken, the neighborhood kids, and industrial-strength tie-downs.
*Call kids' parents to apologize, offer to pay hospital bills.
*Set focus while fending off Mallie's friendly advances.
*Remove tripod from between Mallie's teeth.
*Get tissue and clean nose prints from lens.
*Get towel and remove Mallie tongue slime.
*Threaten spouse with violence for laughing.
*Put cat outside and put peroxide on the scratches on Mallie's nose.
*Put magazines back on coffee table. Discard shattered antiques.
*Promise to buy spouse a new TV.
*Try to get Mallie's attention by squeaking toy over your head.
*Duct-tape your glasses and check camera for damage.
*Jump up in time to grab Mallie and say, "No, outside! No, outside!"
*Call carpet cleaning service again.
*Fix a drink.
*Sit back in Lazy Boy with drink, pop in a DVD of "White Fang" (the TV show) and resolve to teach Mallie "sit" and "stay."
*DECIDE TO CALL PROFESSIONAL PHOTOGRAPHERS FIRST THING IN THE MORNING.

Bathing Mallies

2008-06-02T12:41:00.000-05:00

TxMals:

one word -- Groomer!

I truck my stinkers down to the Petsmart groomer every time they get up close and personal with something ever so dead, petrochemicals under the car, or the local insect population. Rowan also specializes in: in-coat algae growth after pond swims, and a world-class briar collection.

The back of the car is lined with one of those rubber-based out-door carpet rugs that can just be hosed down. The Baaaad Boys, of course, compete in overmarking against the back door -- still looking for enzyme? or other cleaner that will deodorize without melting the plastic. Everyone at the groomer comes out to woooo at the husky (sic), and their favorite guy saves the clouds of undercoat to show me proudly... It's a fun outing for the pups, and saves my aching back! Well worth the $$!

Lady Mals

2008-05-13T12:33:00.000-05:00

Oh, D., your mail made me cry! Your gal sounds so special and wonderful! I'm sure you miss her terribly ...

My darling Guerillera Alexandria (Allie) died at 13 last fall. She was in kidney failure and on a home-cooked diet and subq fluids for 2.5 years. I got her from TAMR when she was ca. 6, so I was owned by her for a horribly short time! But I would not have survived her puppyhood (although she must have been irresistibly cute).

Allie was a true alpha and a true Mal bitch. Not only was she a mighty huntress, but she was also WAY more intelligent than me and all the other critters put together. She and my Ridgeback started out as best buds, but after I took in Ghost (a rescue with serious emotional issues), the girls started trying to kill each other. Allie adopted Ghost and helped him get over a lot of his panics -- lots of tough love ... She got along with my big red Rowan, who also came from a horrible situation and is chondrodysplastic. She did make friends with the cats -- let them swat her tail, and if she could corner one, she would give it a thorough sliming with the long Mallie tongue.

We did lots of obedience together (essential! she was unquestionably the Queen of the Universe ...), an agility course, where she was quite creative ;-), and performed on a drill team. She was always perfect in rehearsal, but in performance, would get that gleam in her eye and pull off some outrageous stunt ... Given half a chance, she could clear a countertop or empty the fridge in seconds flat. Her judgment of humans was always spot-on, and she wasn't subtle about it ;-).

Ms Allie basically got me to cater to her every whim and very much enjoyed being a "stealth" hellraiser for the short time that she had me. I miss her every day. I now have another wonderful Mallie lady, Miss Congeniality, and love her to pieces, but she doesn't have that mischievous sparkle, that "go ahead, get into bed, see what I've left between the sheets" look (disgusting bones, usually). I could very easily imagine why her owners gave Allie up for adoption -- she was quite the handful, but I adored and miss that about her.

Thank you for letting me vent! ;-)
We must find you another wonderful Mal bitch. I'll keep my ears to the ground and see if I hear about one.

Best
Connie

Re: "I actually prefer a female – I have had both males and females and I really prefer the females – especially the ones that are alpha. The last one we had was so remarkable – she was a shelter dog from Fort Worth that a friend found for us – it later turned out that she was an escaped show dog but the lady no longer was interested in getting her back since she had been spayed. From the beginning we knew she was special because she loved being brushed – even her tail. She was 16 when she passed away – the oldest one I have ever had. ..."

Austin: Perception Modification Workshop

2008-05-05T18:32:00.000-05:00

Post to TxMals:
Hi, C.

Re: "aversives" -- is that like spraying bitter apple on a table leg to indicate Don't Chew Here? or is that like a collar pop correction? or more like me bellowing "No! Go Home!" to the pesky off-leash chih-rat-min-terrier that's making a beeline for Missy's belly? Hmm, I bet pepper spray would be an "aversive" ;-) ...

I get confused by the terminology, because normally you hear "negative feedback" and that means pop the collar or raise your eyebrow at him. But in operant conditioning, if I remember correctly, negative feedback means do absolutely nothing. So "aversive" would mean do something actively unpleasant, like punishment?

The Classicist in me notes: Latin aversus (adj) from avertere, to turn away ;-)

Cheers
connie

Re: Fw: For those of you who feed Nutro...

2008-05-05T18:30:00.000-05:00

Hey, W.

Smooches to Sam!

I feed Natural Balance Fish and Sweet Potato, and the Malefactors seem to be doing well on it. But I noticed that my local Sun Harvest (aka Wild Oats aka Whole Foods) carries a pet food brand that specifically advertises being by-product-free. I bought some for my cats and they just inhale it. It's damn pricey, tho.

A colleague whose dog has every malady & allergy on earth has resorted to feeding Honest Kitchen, kind of dehydrated BARF, everything non-GMO & human-grade, etc., and you can add anything you want. Again, freakin' expensive. http://www.thehonestkitchen.com/

My former and most trusted vet had nothing good to say about Science Diet (Hills), but if Sam's happy, everybody's happy ;-)

Cheers
connie
VOTE FOR SAM!
http://www.consumer affairs.com/ news04/2008/ 04/pet_food_recalls93. html

speaking of training ...

2008-05-05T17:44:00.000-05:00

TxMals:

... and peeing -- here's a conundrum for those who own male Mals with the quick-to-lift leg:

Mr Rowan "solid-concrete-between-the-ears" the Red was neutered at an advanced age; in his previous life, he had been penned up for days on end and had apparently become used to soiling his space. Anyway, he's quite passionate about overmarking ANY traces of another dog, esp. any other male ...

Well, we go to McKinney Falls every weekend, and ever since we gave our friend's dog a lift a few weeks ago, Mr R has been systematically trying to fill the back of the RAV 4 to the brim with pee. I'm zooming after him with the various anti-pet-odor enzymatic cleaners, but he doesn't give a rat's behind -- he's on a mission!! And once he's peed in one place, of course, that's his designated pee-spot from then on.

Note: this dog gets by on his spectacular looks, not his brains ...

So what does one do in this situation? Sell the car to someone with a cold?? ;-) buy him Depends??

Thanks for any advice!
Cheers
connie

Aversives and Peeing

2008-05-05T17:36:00.001-05:00

Re: "The terms can be confusing! An aversive is something that causes something unpleasant to happen that the dog does not like. Some aversives are worse than others. I have NO problem with spraying Bitter Apple on things to make them taste bad. It's the only reason I have any shoes left, since Akiak came to my house two years ago. I am such a bad housekeeper and seem to have a learning block about putting my shoes up...and getting them chewed up hasn't been sufficiently aversive to me that I learned from my mistakes!"

Dear C.

Hah! You should see my house! I moved in July and the vast majority of my stuff is still in boxes! (except the vast array of dog toys, of course -- most of those have been in & out of the washer, &/or eaten by Rowan ...) But I did finally buy and assemble an awesome shoe cabinet for the hallway from IKEA ... My aversive is The Magnificent "Stinker" Ghost, who has a penchant for peeing in shoes ... very effective! He's quite the little people-trainer!!

And I used to think it was only cats who peed in shoes ;-) ...

I highly recommend, esp for those who walk barefoot in the house, Sandnes shoe cabinet, http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/90111895
The same thing in plastic, Trones, is only $39 http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/30110832
4 compartments - says it holds 12 pair, but I have a lot of sandals & flats, and have over 20 pair in it ;-)
It's high enough for the roomba to sweep under it -- a must in the messy Mallie household ;-)

More re: Fw: For those of you who feed Nutro...

2008-05-05T15:46:00.000-05:00

Re: Well Connie, your vet is only the 2nd vet I have known who
didn't try to push Science Diet down your throat. I currently
feed my rescues that are in bad shape on Science diet puppy,
and they do well on it, but I will not feed Science diet adult.
It stinks, the poop stinks, the dogs bodies stink, the storage
area stinks, and the dogs never get good poops. I am using
the Science Diet puppy because my rescue group gets it at
a special price. My dogs that are in good shape eat Pedigree
and they are doing very well on it.

Hi, F.,

Well, she was pushing Wellness and did get me to sign up for mail-order Omega-3s ;-), so it wasn't entirely altruistic. But she had a good understanding of northern breeds, and gave me the tip with zinc for Ghost's skin.

B. used to feed Pedigree's Pro Plan Sensitive Skin & Stomach salmon formula, I think? I've fed it too and find it perfectly fine, although it goes rancid pretty quickly - has to be stored cold, which the Petco doesn't. And my garbage-disposal Rowan will occasionally get Costco's Kirkland store brand if I'm totally broke ;-). That's what the cats normally get; Consumer Reports liked it a lot, and my vet says it's better than most. Rowan prefers to eat plastic and rubber anyway ;-). His latest favorite on our walks in McKinney Falls: poison ivy! Yummy!

What a guy ...
Please kiss my darling Waco for me
Cheers
connie

Malamute puppies

2008-04-24T18:27:00.000-05:00

Post to TxMals:

Hi, E.
How lovely that you're going to invite a new pup into your life!
Others on the list with experience in breeding & puppies will be able to give much better advice. I'm just in rescue and don't know anything about breeders (except for the sad end of things when dogs come into rescue), but my advice would be to:
1) absolutely go visit the home and observe how the people and dogs interact, their condition, etc. Of course you know to run screaming from anything like cough, splayed feet, gunky eyes/nose, tapes, fleas, etc., but just as important are how the pups and the parents are socialized.
2) absolutely insist on vet clearances for hips and eyes for the parents, at least. Do Sibes have thyroid? Heartworm, vax record, any other vet issues, and vet phone #. Then call the vet for a good long chat.
3) Re: description: there's nothing wrong with a mix/mutt/all-American, but if you get the feeling that this breeder is completely clueless and/or dishonest, beware.
4) Houston is sadly one of the areas in Texas where unscrupulous backyard breeders are selling adorable Mally puppies that turn out to have horrible hip dysplasia, chondrodysplasia, early glaucoma, thyroid, bad temperaments, and more. The gene pool is thoroughly muddy :-(.
If it were me looking for a puppy, I'd either: a) go to a highly recommended and thoroughly reputable breeder and pay the big bucks, or b) go to rescue. So far, I've been delighted with all my Mallies from rescue. (okay, the boys are baaaaaaad, but that's part of their charm ;-)).
I esp recommend a lady Mallie from rescue, preferably one a couple of years old. She will be way too intelligent, but will fill your heart with joy and keep you on your toes ...

Let us know what you decide!
Best
Connie

Puppy Mills on Oprah

2008-04-08T14:05:00.000-05:00

Investigating Puppy Mills: http://www.oprah.com/world/global/slide/200804/global_20080404_101.jhtml
http://www.oprah.com/tows/pastshows/200804/tows_past_20080404.jhtml

Some good material here -- hope people read it!!

Awfully depressing to know that there are Mal breeders just like that here in TX ... hip dysplasia, chondrodysplasia, early blindness, hypothyroidism -- the problems that plague our Mallies are genetic, and only extremely careful and conscientious breeding will eradicate them ...

Vote for Missy!

2008-02-12T13:17:00.000-06:00

Hey, Malbuddies, today is the last day to cast your vote for my
gorgeous Miss Congeniality! Remember, the prize is a Bissell pet
hair eraser ... Missy was owner-surrendered because of her excessive
shedding ... you do the math ;-) !!!

http://www.bissell.com/redirect.asp?page_id=47073&Pet=10170

Speaking of which, I took Missy to Petsmart for a desperately needed
grooming on Sunday. (I have several blown discs plus currently a
lovely case of the flu, and know when to cry Uncle!). We were half
an hour late for the appt because of her walk of fame from the car to
the back of the store. What a total ham! Batting her big brown eyes
at every child in the place, who all threw themselves on her. 2 had
their pictures taken with her, I kid you not -- this is with a dog
who is ejecting large clouds and clumps of undercoat every time she
moves. Of course the "aww, adorable" reflex is triggered in every
adult in the place, too -- esp. those wearing black pants. Corinne,
you are obviously right -- this gal was a show dog at some point.
Here she is, stacking herself in the middle of Petsmart like there's
no tomorrow, surrounded by gently floating drifts of fluff and
adoring throngs with camera phones. It's ridiculous ;-).

When I come to pick her up, the grooming gals are rolling on the
floor laughing. Missy talked the entire time she was there -- and
she has a nice basso profundo voice. Her average "woo" sounds like a
ravening grizzly bear offering to take your arm off at the shoulder.
When she really wants something, windows rattle. Apparently there
was a handsome Sibe boy there, with glacial blue eyes -- Missy and he
made googly eyes at each other the whole time and kept the place in
stitches.

Of course Missy makes sure to say hi to everyone in the store on the
way back to the car, flashing eyes right and left, prancing high,
plumy tail all fluffed out and waving -- she's a sight to behold.
When we get home, she pops out of the car, trailing behind her -- you
guessed it -- clouds and clumps of undercoat. >sigh< Maybe I can get
her used to the idea of being Shop-Vacced, like the late, great Allie did.

Best to all Malafluffers

Heartworm infestations

2008-01-15T18:58:00.000-06:00

N. writes: >My only concern is that after reading it, heartworm
infestation of a dog sounds like an almost impossibly unlikely event
even during periods of sustained warm temps.<

Well, down here in Texas, whenever a dog comes into rescue, the first thing we test for is heartworms -- you can just about assume that a dog that's been out and about, no matter the weather, is going to be infested, some of them just horribly. Way too few people know or care about protecting their dogs (and outdoor cats). Even when we get a good freeze, you can bet that, when the next warm day comes around, we'll be plagued by skeeters again. There are just too many hidey-holes for them to be killed off. The times I've spent in upstate NY, I didn't notice any marked lack of skeeters either, despite the harsh winters ... Heartworm treatment often just has to be part of the foster/rescue process, and one of the reasons we work so hard to raise money ... believe me, prevention is a lot cheaper, and a LOT less hard on the dog!
My depreciated $.02 ...

"furry buzzsaws"

2008-01-03T17:18:00.000-06:00

F. writes:

"Face it. What we have are "furry buzzsaws." The answer is to try and
anticipate items that may be destroyed and protect them. This
generally means crating unsupervised house dogs until you know
(or think you know) the dog is truly house safe."

LOL! Who would anticipate that Mr Rowan would be so taken with my fuzzy leopard-print slipper that he would pull it into his crate, totally mangling it in the process?? My dogs aren't even CRATE-safe!

Both boys have discovered that they can drive me completely batty by rearing up and "digging" at the storm door from the back yard. With Ghost, that includes ripping up the siding and wood and concrete step. I inevitably capitulate and let the miscreant in. Putting Ghost in the pen in the yard results only in huge holes in the chain-link. Yummy delicious!

Miss Congeniality is much more civilized -- when she wants in, she sits outside the window nearest me and "howls." Since her howl sounds like a grizzly bear about to disembowel its prey, she can be pretty persuasive.

She has turned out to be an enthusiastic counter-surfer, but has not yet joined Ghost or the cats at the top of the refrigerator. Her specialty is more subtle - hypnotizing me with her soft, angelic eyes to leave a full plate unattended for just a quick moment ...

Never a dull moment!

im so madd!!!

2007-12-19T15:52:00.000-06:00

i don yus this thing so don spel gud k butt gotta warn yu mals haw meen humoms ken bee im so madd!!

so im kumin in the back dor i amost got it tor dawn gimmee nother weak an mis pris missee is krawdin me an im grawlin gud wen wat du i sea rayt insayd the dor heer kumz that gost eers up an tayl out -- well i grab m gud n we start in diskussin -- that humom jes keepz gitin in the way sheez skrychin an yallin i ken hardly kontsentrayt she trys to shuv me in a krayt to seppurayt us so k, i go in n tayk gost wimme 2 mals in liddel krayt yu bett i gut m wear i wann m. duz humom tayk a hyk lyk she shud hah no she grabbz me by my beeootifl tayl an pulz me awt uv the krayt!! by the tayl!! an shutts the krayt dor on me n gosts fayssus i nevur bin so madd in my hoal lyf yu bett im gonna git nuthr chants n git bak at that gost

watz mis pris duin wyz she knot halpin byt humom in tayl area nu'uh that pris mis is hydin in uthr krayt im so didzgudstud

wooooo
rowan the redd

Ghost, recovered

2007-12-13T16:06:00.000-06:00

The Magnificent Ghost has fully recovered from his surgery to remove a large lump or mass from his leg. It turned out to be a hamartoma -- benign, non-cancerous growth -- but there is a good chance that it will recur. He had problems with the e-collar - it scraped open his sutures on both his dewclaws until I removed it. Not all of his stitches have completely dissolved -- I can still feel them under the skin, and he sometimes worries at them, but he's being astoundingly good about letting the wounds heal.

Talking Mals

2007-12-03T16:14:00.000-06:00

My Mallies have all been pretty quiet -- well, my "muppy" (love that word!!) Ghost likes to make his feelings known when t'd off, but otherwise they're pretty silent. But yesterday I took Miss Congeniality (Missy) to the vet for the first time. Well, no sooner did we walk in the door than she locked eyes with the most adorable little fluffy Malapuppy. Back went her head and she set in to howling like a wolf. We ended up waiting for several hours -- typical on a sunday, I guess -- and she didn't so much as take a breather. And this lass doesn't have a lovely coloratura howl like my Rowan, who sings in tune with the sirens. Oh no, Missy roars from the diaphragm -- she sounds like she's growling out of deepest hatred and imminent intention to eat everyone in sight. Of course she's waving her plumy tail and smiling irresistibly at the same time, but it can be pretty disconcerting. The poor sick kitties were not pleased. However, the little puppy tried a couple of squeaky little howls too. Adorable! I'm still trying to figure out how to get the little movie out of my camera...

I'm trying to start up a Bitches Hall of Fame (a name to be worn proudly) -- collect most outrageous deeds of our highly talented lady queens, together with pictures, and make a "feature" on Texas Malamutes http://txmals.ning.com/. Do enter your ladies if you like!

Bitches' Hall of Fame?

2007-11-26T13:00:00.000-06:00

I'm thinking it might be fun to put together a Bitches Hall of Fame -- collect most outrageous deeds of our highly talented lady queens, together with pictures, and make a "feature" on Texas Malamutes http://txmals.ning.com/. A couple of great candidates would include the immortal Evil Rita ;-) as well as that craaaazy girl, PatsyCline ... but I bet you my Guerillera Alexandria can give them a run for the money!

Our gals give true meaning to the slogan, Don't Mess With Texas [Mallies]!

Now for those who feel I'm being sexist, feel free to start up a compilation of Baaaad Boys -- we're sure to have quite a few of those as well, can't just be mine ;-)!!

How to get Pack Dog title

2007-10-23T12:13:00.000-05:00

OF COURSE there is tons of paperwork, flaming hoops to jump through, forms in triplicate to be notarized ... ;-)

Here's the official scoop:

Pack Dog

1. Dog must carry a daily initial weight equal to a minimum of 30% of the dog's weight. This weight shall not decrease except by normal consumption of items such as food or water.
-- in other words, 80 lb dog starts with 24 lbs of food & water distributed among packs

2. Pack trips must be on natural terrain such as hiking trails or cross country.
--not on streets

3. OPTION 1: Dog must pack a minimum of 30 miles. Each trip must be a minimum of 10 miles per day or an overnight camp out with a 5 miles in and 5 miles out. A minimum of one trip include an overnight camp out.
OPTION 2: Dog must pack a minimum of 40 miles. Each trip must be a minimum of 10 miles per day.
4. Elevation gain may be substituted for mileage in the following manner: 1,000 feet of elevation is equivalent to 1 mile of flat terrain. Elevation gain will be figured as the difference between the highest and lowest points of the trip.
-- not an issue in TX?

5. Packing requirements shall be spread out over a minimum of 2 trips.

6. An impartial witness must sign the form to be sent to the Committee verifying proof of distances and dog competing.
-- e.g., Park personnel at entrance to park ...

As for ILP, the important thing is apparently to get the photos just right -- show the snowshoe paws, the tail waving like a plume over the back, the dark brown eyes, etc. --- in other words, demonstrate that your Mal conforms pretty closely to the AKC standard for Mals -- http://www.akc.org/breeds/alaskan_malamute/

Photo instructions:
Two recent and clear color photographs of the dog;
o one full front view showing the facial characteristics of the dog;
o one view showing the full side profile of the dog standing on a flat surface (not grass).
(ALL PHOTOS SHOULD BE TAKEN AT EYE LEVEL IN A STANDING POSITION,
INCLUDE THE WHOLE DOG IN THE PHOTO. DO NOT SHOOT DOWN ON THE DOG.)

Form (pdf) http://www.akc.org/pdfs/ilpform.pdf
On p. 2, under If this dog was acquired from a National Breed Club Rescue organization, both TAMR and TVA qualify -- you can ask your TAMR or TVA representative if they can vouch for your dog, as they know the breed very well, and can tell a purebred at 60 paces ;-).
On p. 3, Briefly state reason for obtaining an ILP: you can list To compete in Companion and Performance Events

Note that, once you have your ILP, you can compete in Obedience ( ;-)!!) Agility, Lure Coursing and other events, including weight pull and carting.

The Magnificent Ghost is in surgery

2007-10-12T15:37:00.000-05:00

Today my little Ghost (75 lbs of grey and white dynamite) is at Love Pet getting the icky growth on his leg removed. While he's under, they will also give his chompers a sparkling cleaning -- I've decided not to have his broken tooth pulled, since it doesn't seem to be bothering him. And after much soul-searching, I've also given the okay to remove his extra dewclaws in the back. I know! Terrible! But they hang out to the sides and get caught in everything. I figure some pain and discomfort now is better than him tearing one off later. He has to wear the Elizabethan collar anyway for the growth removal.

The crucial thing will be the histopathology. I'm just terrified that it will turn out to be a sarcoma, like hemangioperisarcoma ...

Positive thoughts to little Ghost!

Black Ribbon -- Alexandria

2007-08-28T16:56:00.000-05:00

Dear Mal friends,

Please delete unread if you'd rather not be vented all over. Here I get a lot of "she's just a dog." Only someone who's been owned by a true Malamute bitch can understand what I mean by "soul mate."

The moon covered her face this morning. Maybe she could not bear to shine on a world bereft of its most precious treasure. Or maybe my Allie is dancing in moondrenched pastures and snowdrifts entirely removed from this world.

Many of you have come to know my Guerillera Alexandria, who has been in renal failure the past 2.5 years. She crashed and was in a great deal of pain just in the last few days -- but not too much to stop her from stealing and eating her favorite Twizzlers -- an entire bag full. >sigh<. Round-the-clock fluids did not help, she was not improving, and it was clearly time to let her go.

Her foster mother from Texas Alaskan Malamute Rescue, who rescued her from the city pound practically from under the needle and then fostered her for a year, met me at the vet's. Lynn fought me tooth and nail before I could adopt Allie. I had never had a Mal, and didn't know squat about them -- I had fallen in love with a friend's huge, gorgeous black-and white Mal when growing up. He was a gentle teddy-bear who let us rest our heads on his tummy and went hiking and riding with us. He lived peacefully with another dog, a cat and a bird. I had a totally skewed view of Mals, in other words. My lifelong dream was to get one as soon as I had a house.

So when I found Allie on the TAMR web site, I called Lynn and asked for her. No reply. Called and left zillions of messages. Nothing. Finally reached Lynn, who declared me completely unsuitable. She finally came over and checked my house and fence. The fence was too low, and I had a RR-mix bitch already -- sorry, no. So I raised the fence, and Sascha was obedience trained within an inch of her life. Finally, Lynn allowed me to meet Allie and all the other fosters and get to know them. Allie showed absolutely no interest in me on our walk, was distant and cold. The other Mals were friendly and cuddly, falling all over me. I had to have her. We agreed on a foster period, and after a meet n greet with Sascha, I took her home.

Allie tested every possible limit. It took her at least a year to feel that she was really home, and would not be sent away again. She killed everything that moved, including outside cats, which sent me into hysterics, having been a cat person all my life. Lynn offered to take her back. I said, you've got to be kidding. It took about a year to get her to Be Nice to the indoor cats, with dog-free zones, barriers, and constant reinforcement. By the last few years, she was sleeping curled up with them, and Felix could thoughtfully nibble on her ears without anything worse happening than getting slimed.

Allie was a magical escape artist. She could be standing lost in thought on one side of the 7' fence. The next second, she would be sauntering nonchalantly down the street a block away, without any apparent effort. She could materialize silently and suddenly when you least expected her. Birds, squirrels, possums, rats, and all other moving things discovered this just a tad too late. She was a true stealth dog -- never broke a sweat, never lost her cool, never missed her mark.

Allie took no guff from anyone, including (esp.) me. And it was she who defined guff. She could be stubborn and ornery, as well as highly creative and hilarious. She had a subversive and sarky sense of humor. Her meaty bones invariably found their way under my pillow or under the sheets; she would deposit various carcasses exactly where I would be sure to step on them, and when she needed to barf, her aim was true and deadly. Her sequencing in agility was quite imaginative, and her interpretations of our drill team figures could be unexpected, and invariably timed after a series of perfect rehearsals that had lulled me into a rash sense of confidence. The more outrageous her transgressions, the more angelic the expression on her darling face, the softer her deep brown eyes, the shinier her halo.

I've always wished that I could meet the people who had her for her first 5 years. She must have been an absolute hellion. What was she like as a baby? why did they give her up?

Like a true alpha, she could often subdue her rowdy colleagues with a curl of the lip or a nasty look. However, if she met a dog she didn't like in a tight corner, all hell broke loose, and she could and did put her antagonists in the hospital. One dog that came at her found his nearest canine hanging by a thread. We fostered several dogs without incident, bringing them through heartworm treatment and getting one's platelet count into the normal range. Then along came The Magnificent Ghost, a badly traumatized goofyhead. The dynamic in the pack changed, and Allie and Sascha became mortal enemies. They had to be separated until Sascha's death -- at least when I was around.

When Rowan the Red joined us, Allie recognized a buddy, and they spent a lot of time hanging out together, making googly-eyes, or just standing front to back like horses in the shade. Allie was getting old and slowing down, and had to get out of the way of Rowan's boisterous clumsiness.

She may have slowed down in her 13th year, but Allie never lost her uncompromising character. She demanded total honesty, not knowing anything else herself. She made no commitments and no expectations, but took all good things as her due. She slept with me every night for 7 years, with very few exceptions. Her breathing was the last thing I heard at night, and the first thing I heard in the morning. I could reach over in the night and touch her, warm, furry, shedding copiously, and chances were, she would stretch and sigh and spoon up against me.

When it came time to let her go, we went to the vet where she had spent so much time on ivs. She was less than thrilled. My last command to her was to lie down on the blanket. She gave me a look, turned her back to me, lay down, and farted demonstrably, as was her wont when peeved. Lynn and I stroked her and talked to her and about her. She put up with us graciously. The vet explained to us what to expect, and gave the injections. When Allie felt them kick in, she gave a good, loud holler. It is perfectly fitting that my Guerillera Alexandria's last utterance should be, "What the @#$%*&?"

Allie was the best thing that ever happened to me. I am a different person now, after 7 years with her, lamentably inadequate, but I owe it to her to continue to strive to be what she wanted me to be -- or treated me as if I was. She was totally central to my life. I was more or less incidental to hers, and she would have left me in a flash at any time. I never understood her in the least. I still don't know anything about Malamutes. My boys are really, really dumb, hopefully because they're still young ... My life feels like a yawning void just now, though I'm still somewhat numb, and just keep talking to Allie as if she hasn't gone. Of course it's not true, and Allie is still with me, the best part of me. I'm so very, very grateful, and not sure how to go on.

Devastated,
Connie

Old dogs

2007-08-20T18:58:00.000-05:00

My darling Allie is starting to wander around slowly and stop and just stand there, as if she's not quite sure where she is or what she's doing there. One eye is quite cloudy, and she seems to be somewhat hard of hearing, although all Mals are when they want to be ;-).

Our walks are quite short -- she still enjoys offering to eat the neighborhood hors d'oeuvre dogs, but when she gets tired, she just lies down and refuses to budge. You know how people become more themselves as they age? Well, Allie certainly has. She is one stubborn broad. We have been know to spend up to 20 minutes, her refusing to so much as get up, me pleading, calling, offering treats, walking away, ignoring, lifting, trying to carry, pushing, pulling .... until finally SHE decides to amble nonchalantly away ...

She still touches noses with and licks the indoor cats. Wherever I am in the house, whatever I'm doing, Allie is guaranteed to be within 2 meters' range, fast asleep. I have no idea how she does it, moving from place to place while curled up peacefully -- velcro? bungee cords? -- but she doesn't let me out of her range. When I'm ready to go to bed, there's Allie, smack in the middle of the bed, taking up ALL the pillows, with an angelic smile on her face. When I wake up, there's Allie, breathing intently in my face.

Allie's been in renal failure for over 2 years now. The first time I came home and she didn't come and greet me at the door, I went into panic. I know this is something I'll have to get used to -- but not yet! As long as my good girl is still brave and strong and funny, I'll treasure this time with her. Old dogs are so special, and spoiling them rotten is about all we can do.

Oh, and my dogs also adore pumpkin! It regulates stools either way, and seems to be perfectly healthy in small amounts. Try sweet potato, too -- mine adore it, even microwaved ...

Re: the furminator debate

2007-08-07T17:02:00.000-05:00

I also picked one up, seduced by the video of the same brush dealing with Mal and cat-fluff. So far we find that:
- the cats both HATE it and are going back to their old favorite brush; apparently, that slight pull before it cuts is pretty unpleasant
- medium-coat Allie likes it and it's pretty effective with her undercoat
- it's completely useless on longish, softish-coat Rowan - but he does great with the twirly-tined rake anyway
- it pulled about a bushel of fluff off plush, short-coat Ghost, line-brushing, this about 2 weeks after professional grooming. I can't say he enjoyed it much,and it did feel pretty destructive, but he looks splendid. ;-)
So we'll keep using it but sparingly, and since the only thing they really love is being ShopVac-ed, and a cool dip in the kiddie-pool, still do that too.

Black Ribbon: Sascha

2007-05-10T17:42:00.000-05:00

I am sad to report the passing of my little Rhodesian Ridgeback mix, Sascha, a constant companion of my Malamute boys.

I was there at Sascha's birth, adopted her when she was a scrawny little thing, and then had to figure out what to do with that there dog -- I had only had cats all my life and was a staunch cat person. Sascha grew up amongst cats and was a bit of a cat herself. When she started to grow and get bigger and stronger, I had no idea what to do with her, but a friend told me about obedience classes. She had to suffer through my first shot at obedience training. Traumatic for us both! But we kept at it, and progressed to agility obedience.

Sascha was bitten by a pit when young and had a scar on her butt all her life. It made her somewhat skittish toward strange dogs, but she warmed up to them very quickly, and adored "her" Malamute boys. When I first adopted Allie, she and Sascha were inseparable. When Ghost came along several years later, however, the group dynamics changed, and suddenly the girls developed a mutual desire to see the color of each others' insides. Since then, the girls have been kept apart, and Sascha has enjoyed the company of each boy in turn. In the past few months, as Allie has gotten weaker, she and Sascha have come to an understanding, and they have been outside together again, companionable as a couple of old ladies.

We enjoyed our walks together, which included lots of sit-down-stands and treats. Her down-stay always included a Navy-Seals-crawl, accompanied by a wide grin and mischievous brown eyes. Her idea of "fetch" was to grab the ball and try to play keep-away with it, zooming around me in circles and trying to get me to chase her. She played the Malamutes' reindeer games just like a Mal, grabbing them by the scruff, chest-bumping, and joining in the singing when the sirens went by.

Sascha was my first dog, a sweet, gentle lion dog, who taught me that dogs are wonderful people to have around. We will all miss her.

Huggers

2007-02-15T23:25:00.000-06:00

Allie is a champion spooner. Nothing better than waking up with a mouthful a Malafur. Wherever I'm sitting, she'll silently and inexorably ooze either onto my feet or onto my lap, whatever's available, and I find myself immobilized.

Rowan is a true Texan -- he dances the two-step. He'll rear up on his hind legs and gently put those huge front paws on my shoulders, and hop like a bunny. If I have a treat, though, he's laser-focused on that, forget about humom ...

The Magnificent Ghost is finally getting it through the concrete upstairs that he's not allowed to jump up on people, so he jumps up sideways NEXT to me, JUST not touching me, and leans in for a quick kiss and a bat of the Big Brown Eyes ... aren't I clever and cute?? He's more of a leaner than a hugger anyway.

M. writes: >Guess they forgot that our malamutes come into their own so to speak by around 2 yrs of age

Huh! Ghost is 3 and we're still waiting ... ;-)

Kohler ad: eskimo

2007-02-05T11:52:00.000-06:00

Not that I didn't lust after a Kohler bath before .... but did they
have to make it this appealing ??
Eskimo ad

And yes, I never bathe alone, but there's usually at least one cat on
the side of the bath as well ... which wouldn't really work with the Sok tub ... anybody else's Mals find submerged
humans fascinating?

My friend Frauke's cat, Katze, thought he was in the Coast Guard and used to grab any body part he could find and try to drag her out onto dry land ...

im so mad

2007-02-02T14:32:00.001-06:00

gorila aleksandria shode me how to yus this thing i don spel gud butt gotta tel yu mals how meen mi humom is im so mad!!!

wen she lett me owt of mi hows i wen to the dor an it was open an ther was a pray!! jus standing ther! so i grabd it an startd shayking it lik i seen gorila aleksandria do. i never kilt no pray befor but seen g.a. du it plenty times. butt pray mayde nasty scryyching noys an humom ran owt an grabt me an pray an tuk pray away!! tuk pray insyd hows then kaym owt an sed no eeting kats wats a kat i dunno kats i jus lik the teyst of the pray

neks tym il tayk the pray far awey an then eet it ... iv bin keepin an i on the dor yu bett
woooooo oooo wooo pray to yu
rowan the red

Ghost report

2007-01-30T17:29:00.000-06:00

Brief report on The Magnificent Ghost:
Ghost spent Sunday night at the emergency hospital. I came home to find him not trying to jump over the gate. Panic! He was lying down in the mud room, got up really hesitantly, limping badly on the left hind. His expressive face just miserable. No vomit, diarrhea or blood in sight. My heart beating out of my chest, speed dial to the vet, called around to find one without a wait. His tummy distended and hard. Bloat?? I got him to limp to the car and broke all speed limits.

Hustled straight in to X-ray. Ages later, the vet comes in with a funny expression on her face. Oh no! He swallowed one of Allie's sharps! He's dying! She shows me the xrays. A huge black sausage almost the size of his whole abdomen! Even weirder-looking from the side: textbook view of large intestine, distended and filled with gas! The galoot can't move because he's full of hot air!!

Almost $400 and a great deal of flatulence later, a bright-eyed and bushy-tailed little stinker (!!) sashays out to play up to everyone in the waiting room, who declare that he ought to be in the movies (they have no idea!!), thoroughly licks the face of a delighted child, offers to eat a chocolate Lab, and gets smacked by a cat. Mals!

Still have no idea what he ate, other than Sascha's hi-calorie food. I got rid of the chicken that Allie killed, haven't seen any other corpses. Will need to get job with vet soon. What will they get up to next?

The Secret of Mal Success; or: The Gig is Up

2007-01-28T17:59:00.000-06:00

Reverend General Reign,

The tale I am about to impart, dear General, will confirm once again that on the scale of intelligence, at the very lowest end, we may find:
3: Rhodesian Ridgeback mixes
2: Malamute Males, immature age
1: humans

I blame myself, of course, for not training That Young Sprout, The Magnificent Ghost, as he styles himself, more rigorously in the fine arts of Malamute behavior. In my defense, however, there is not much there to work with, as you shall see.

Our story unfolds before the following background. Our humom has long been faced by two puzzling and apparently unconnected conundra:
a) The M. Ghost eats only about 1.5 cups of Natural Balance Fish and Sweet Potato a day, and yet he stubbornly remains somewhat, aah, shall we say, portly
b) Sascha the Rhodesian Ridgeback x, now in her senior years, and still alive despite my best efforts, eats more than 4.5 cups of food daily, and remains skin and bones.

Yesterday, Sascha, while dashing after a squirrel, crashed into a concrete block and cut herself (much to my glee, of course). At feeding time, humom shut Sascha in her run as usual, but this time, she stayed with her to make sure she was okay. Well, who should come frisking around the corner, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, but the Magnificent Ghost, licking his chops after a full meal.

The Idiotic Ghost proceeded to lie down next to Sascha's run, lift up a corner of the chain link that he had previously loosened, extend a long and chubby paw, hook Sascha's almost-full food dish toward him and proceed to scoop out mounds of Sascha's high-calorie food. All this, mind you, in full view of humom, who was not only laughing her head off, but passionately regretting the absence of a camera.

Now if there is one thing I have tried to impart to the Idiotic Ghost, it is that We Work By Stealth. Humans are incredibly stupid, but even they catch on if we pull our stunts right in front of them. T'uh. My exasperation was so great that I almost didn't bother to dispatch the hen that wandered into our yard. Almost, but not quite. A few silent, economical moves, and goodnight, Irene. Will that Ghost ever learn to live up to his name?

Over to you
Your most humble and obedient servant
Guerillera Alexandria

What, if anything, intimidates your Mal?

2006-10-12T17:02:00.000-05:00

Guerillera Alexandria here.

We had quite the storm yesterday. I, myself, rather enjoy the
occasional stroll through a downpour with gale-force winds,
accompanied by the steady cursing of my humom and the sounds of our roof shingles tearing off. That goofy redhead Rowan lies down for a pleasant snooze in the rain, snuggled up next to his dogloo, which he only frequents in 100 degree weather. However, when it comes to that young sprout, Ghost, or as he styles himself, The Magnificent Ghost, one is almost ashamed to be of the same breed. Yes, he is large and sturdy, full of masculine bravado, struts around with his chest thrust out and paws the dust like a bull. But let there be a few drops of rain, or, heaven forfend, a clap of thunder, and our macho male dashes whimpering into the house, into the nethermost reaches of his crate, where he curls himself up into the tiniest possible ball (no mean feat, considering his girth), and cries piteously until the last drop has fallen and the sun is out again. >sigh<. I really don't know where I have gone wrong.

Guerillera Alexandria, mentor of The Magnificent Melting Ghost, signing off

Strange tastes

2006-09-27T18:09:00.000-05:00

As befits Texans, the cats adore guacamole, it's one of the things they'll open the fridge for if I've made a fresh batch. All the dogs drink coffee (like they need it!) and Sascha the Ridgeback mix esp likes eggnog (as do the cats, yeehaw). The Mals also love asparagus, with predictably stinky results, broccoli, cauliflower. Allie will eat a whole package of Stella D'Oro breakfast treats (for humans). I haven't caught any one in the act but one of the dogs opened the fridge in the mud room and eggapaloosa ensued.

Rowan the Red Mal, however, gladly passes up anything with an iota of nutritional content in favor of anything made of plastic or latex. I have to hide shopping bags and dispose of packaging material and such out of reach, none of the garden tools have handles, pails are pathetic scraps hanging from forlorn handles -- it's amazing how much plastic there is! Do not get me started on packing peanuts. He is one weird dude.

Almost as bad as the cat who licks the emulsion off photographs ...

Rowan the Red is blooded

2006-09-08T18:25:00.000-05:00

Rowan the Red is a goofy little boy, all floppy paws and grins. He spent several years living in a crate in someone's garage, so he doesn't know much about being a dog, playing with toys or the like. His favorite pastime has been eating plastic and playing frisbee with the food dishes. Until now.

About 5 in the morning, we were torn out of bed by the sounds of World War Three in the back yard. Huge crashes, screeches, growls, scramblings ... I ran to the door, and there stood Sascha, looking at me with totally submissive and angelic big brown eyes. Immediately I realized that something catastrophic had happened. I grabbed a flashlight and ran outside, and there was Rowan, proudly tossing around his first half-dead cat.

I know, Malamutes are predators. Rowan is my third and I've fostered several. In the abstract, hunting is fabulous and primal, and will be useful when the apocalypse comes ;-). But I just can't stand seeing cats killed. My soulmate Allie is a prodigious huntress, but was trained not to eat the indoor cats. But I know that my cats would be toast if they ever stepped paw outside.

Is there any way to train Mallies not to eat outdoor cats??? Even ones that are suicidal enough to jump a 7-foot fence?

Everything Bagel

2006-07-28T01:33:00.000-05:00

Humom says I have delicious breath, onion-garlicky. Those yummy round things are a little rubbery for my taste, but oh the sweet chewy innards, the slightly salty skin and the overpowering richness of the toppings -- and let's be honest, it's all about the cream cheese ... Humom was doing the Distraught Human dance (it's NOT very graceful, she should look in the mirror sometime) yelling "Oh Allie, your kidneys and pancreas!!! You DIDN'T" But oh yes, you see, I did.

Now she's threatening to start eating all meals OUTDOORS .... but fear not, as long as you try to fast me, I shall find a way ... Guerillera Alexandria over and out

Warning re: Sarah's Tribute

2006-07-28T01:22:00.000-05:00

Dear doggie friends, please take a moment to watch Sarah's beautiful video tribute to her wonderful Malinois (previous post), but have that stack of handkerchiefs ready to hand! Forget the paper tissues. And you'll need a big glass of something and a strong shoulder to cry on afterwards. It's one of the most beautiful. happy little slide shows I've ever seen and it cuts like a knife. Music: Tracy Chapman.
Now go kiss a dog.

Sarah's tribute to Smeech

2006-07-26T03:33:00.000-05:00

[Reposted here by kind permission]
from Sarah to k9kidkeydiet@yahoogroups

A thank you and more...
Date: Mon Jul 24, 2006 8:33 pm (PDT)

First, I can't say enough how sincerely grateful I am to all the members of the list for everything you've ever done for us. I can't imagine what our journey would have been like without you. I hope to continue to learn and support the group as you've supported me. This is long but I thought I'd say what I wanted to say and be done with it.

Everyone knows my sweet little Smeech was diagnosed with Renal Failure when she was just 5months old but here's everything you didn't know. Afterall, kidney failure was such a small part of who she was and what we experienced together.
Smeech was from a breeding of two superb Malinois. Her mother is also the mother of my other Malinois, Thalia. Her father was an amazing worker with a heart of gold. He was abandoned (he will say he was paying a pet sitter) by an unscrupulous man after hurricanes hit Florida. A wonderful woman rescued him but ultimately just a few weeks later he passed away. Her siblings continue to be successful at different dog sports as well as working police dogs.

I got Smeech when she was just four days old. Her breeder was totally irresponsible with the litter and they all struggled. I bottle fed 8 pups for 3 days and on the fourth exchanged them for my sweet little girl. Tube and bottle feedings around the clock for weeks and weeks. She had to go everywhere I went. When she was about two weeks old she developed abscesses on her front joints. Daily cleanings and antibiotics cleared that up but that would just be the first of many health issues for her. Even then she had her own little place in bed. It was wonderful to watch her open her eyes, learn how to walk, wade in puppy mush, grow a personality

Just a few weeks later she was drooling a bit before she went to bed. I was worried and didn't understand why although she seemed fine otherwise. She woke up the next morning and ate like horse. I was smooching her like always and noticed that she seemed a little `lethargic'. It was then that I noticed her tongue was yellow as a banana! I rushed her into the hospital and she had a fever too. We quickly packed her with ice packs and pumped her with antibiotics. Everyone was baffled ˆ why was her tongue yellow but nothing else? They ran through text books, posted all over VIN — nothing. In true Smeechie fashion no fever or yellow tongue would stop her from being her baby alligator self. I was then I was wiping her mouth again cause she was leaving this stink all over me and I noticed the edges were a little pink now. Hmmmm, what is going on with this little jerk of a puppy? We tried looking at her tongue again— I say tried because Smeech was a naughty little bugger as a puppy. She'd bite you for any reason ˆ in her way BITE, move too fast BITE, do treatments on her BITE. And not in a fearful defensive way, in a playful I'm a Malinois and I'm possessed kind of way. Typical little Malinois puppy. So we tag teamed her and it was then that we realized her tongue was sloughing!!! It was on of the most disgusting things I've ever seen. So now the yellow sloughed and what was left was an ulcerated little tongue. "She probably won't eat cause it hurts" they said. Do you think an ulcerated tongue would stop her, I don't think so!!!!

The next few weeks were filled with lots of mischief, lots of trouble and a whole lotta mess. She had chronic UTI's that we were constantly battling. We went to bed one night just as we had always done but when we woke things were anything but normal. The obnoxious little Malinois puppy was still lying down. I was alarmed. I called her firmly and she struggled to stand walked a few feet laid down and peed on herself. I was so shocked and given her previous history of trouble wasted NO time in rushing her to the vet. This time she had a joint infection and of course a fever. She was in a lot of pain and she was PISSED about it! But in true Smeechie fashion after a day of antibiotics and she was back to her normal self. It was then I thought I should do bloodwork again to see if it might reveal anything.

And it did. At 5 months old she had a Creat 4.2, BUN 112, Ca 13.4, Phos 10.1, Bicarb 15—.. and other than those pesky UTI's no other symptoms. She was a happy, chunky, active, mean little Malinois puppy. That's when everything changed for us. Well, maybe not us... she wouldn't hear of it... but for me at least...

This is still just such a small part of who she was. The truth is Mimi was a tyrant. An obnoxious tyrant. She was going to do whatever she wanted, whenever she wanted, to whom she wanted and she'd be damned if anyone would stop her. She constantly got into everything she shouldn't. She even got an electrical shock once! She'd eat ANYTHING she could get her little paws on. It was so bad I had to hide my dental floss! She'd eat her food as fast as possible and then try to steal everyone elses. She would go bizerk if a motorcycle or train passed her spinning in circles barking her yappy head off. Working Malinois folks always got a chuckle out of her. She was stupidly driven. She was blinded by her drive. She's bite anything you waved in front of her. She always wanted to work and couldn't be stressed or backed down. She even would hang on a springpole longer than the bulldogs. Despite that she couldn't catch to save her life. She was totally reckless and I often wondered how she didn't just kill herself. She could, at times, be her own worst enemy. We tried a number of times to put her on IV fluids, we even sedated her, and she just would have no part of it. You couldn't convince her she was sick. She found joy in simple things and often found herself in a battle with the slicker brush that bit back, lol! Only once in her entire life did anyone other than my parents or I take her out for a pee. They ended up using pool sticks and couch cushions to get her back into her crate after she held them hostage in the basement for an hour. She thought it was hilarious and loved every minute of it. They didn't understand her and she knew it. She was having a blast being a little brat and they took her seriously. The most successful prank she ever played! She always greeted Anwar, my APBT, with a shot to the face as he came in from his walks. She'd lay right next to him wherever he was and then would chew him out if he moved. Her siblings loved her and would groom her meticulously if she so much as had a blood draw that day. She loved it. She was ridiculously spoiled and I could never bring myself to reprimand her and it showed ;)

She was the most affectionate dog I've ever known. She always wanted to have her muzzle against my face and it always smelled like maple syrup. It was so soft, like heaven. I can't even imagine the hours we spent face to face. It was comforting for the both of us. She slept right next to me every night. We always spooned and often woke up face to face. She would eat off a spoon like a baby. She was crazy smart and could figure out a way to anything. She spent a part of everyday `nursing' on her stuffies. It was so cute, just like a kitten she'd knead with her paws. She had more names than people could remember. Everday I called her Smeech, Mimi, Me, Middle Stweech, Queechie Queech, Lil Stweech— and I almost always spoke to her in a sweet baby voice. She was gorgeous, simply gorgeous. She never ever grew up and was the same carefree girl at 2years that she was at 7weeks. She wanted to play from the moment she woke 'til the moment she fell asleep. She was larger than life. She was always happy, ridiculously happy. She never ever let anything get her down. She was brilliant, simply brilliant. She is the embodiment of heart.

My love for her is endless.

Sarah missing Angel Smeech
3/11/04-7/17/06

"To endure is greater than to dare; to tire out hostile fortune; to be daunted by no difficulty; to keep heart when all have lost it -- who can say this is not greatness?"

See for yourself:
Smeech Swims
Runnie Smeech
Hello Smeechie!
Gorgeous Girl
Mimi Tribute

What a bitch! (highest compliment)

2006-07-24T00:16:00.000-05:00

To K9KidneyDiet:

My Allie is a real Malamute. Her MRM (Malamute Resistance Movement ) name is Guerillera Alexandria. She is an alpha bitch in every meaning of the word. She never backs down from a fight, has insouciantly crushed the muzzle of a dog twice her size who challenged her, and rules her pack with a simple lift of the lip or a look, pure force of personality, without ever having to resort to force. She has only ever been defeated by the cats, who are totally unimpressed ... I have had to get used to having dead opossums, squirrels, crows, chickens, rats, and miscellaneous fauna deposited at the foot of the stairs where I am sure to step on them. NOTHING can be left on the counter; my house is insanely child-proof. Allie loves to hide meaty bones under my pillow or in the bed. I can always tell when something's up when she has on her best sweet-angel expression with freshly-polished halo. She is patiently obedience and agility trained. Her idea of agility sequencing was creative -- the kiddie-pool always was worked in somewhere. She always loved the tunnel and chute as a pleasant shady spot for a snooze. We were on a drill team until about a year ago. She was always letter-perfect in practice. In performance, however .... she liked to live up to the reputation of Malamutes as untrainable. Unfortunately, she had an acute renal episode in practice one night, collapsed screaming and freaked everyone out, and we were asked to leave. We called them wuss-asses and mentioned that it might just as well happen to them, demonstrating that living with a Malamute has a profound influence on one's personality. I am no longer the wuss I used to be, don't back down from a fight, and realize that I'm too old to give a shit what people think of me. As a result, I've become much more successful in my job, am a lot happier, and feel that my life really began when I had the privilege of "rescuing" Allie at 5 years old -- of course, it is she who rescued me, and has given my life meaning every day since.

I have to smile whenever I read about people's little sweet angel dogs. Of course I call Allie my "sweetheart angel pumpkin darling" and tell her every 5 minutes how much I love her. But the reason is that she's a real Malamute bitch, and doG bless her for that. Her handling of the CRF is bracing and inspiring, and she makes me be a better person; she doesn't let me get away with any crap. She's more intelligent and more challenging than anyone I know.

Honda rules! Mal-friendly concept car!

2006-07-20T15:08:00.000-05:00

Check out this *awesome* concept car from Honda!!
http://world.honda.com/Tokyo2005/wow/
I know, it only shows silly little lapdogs in the built-in crates, but it has some excellent Mal-friendly details -- low floor for loading, FINALLY a 70/30 vertical split rear door, good ventilation, etc., and it seems roomy enough for the Golden in the video.
Maybe I'll be able to afford it if/when it ever comes out, here's hoping ;-)!
BTW, Honda won PETA's Progress Proggy award of 2005 for "Thinking Outside the Box" for this car, crates and all ... ;-) Maybe Honda will put it into production if enough people lobby for it ...
Oh, well, back to the rustbucket with no working air in 100 degree Texas heat ...

Cheese: NOT so good

2006-03-29T23:50:00.000-06:00

Just spent my birthday at the emergency vet. Note to self: Cheese is NOT the ideal training or any other treat for the dog! Allie is not doing well, to say the least. Oh, she's happy as a clam and very proud of herself, but oh the diarrhea, the barfing ... and we have to keep an eagle eye on the blood values. Carnivores, yes, but scavengers too ...

Why do trainers tell us to bring hot dogs and cheese to class??? Every school should get a bulletin from the kidney people re: CRF and pancreatitis. It is just not worth it, really.

Cheese emergency!

2006-03-28T15:48:00.000-06:00

Help!
Ms Allie the Malamute, champion countersurfer, just stole and ate up almost a whole pound of swiss cheese! According to NATS, a pound would give her 2428.97 mg of phosphorus! Obviously I immediately gave her an extra hit of calcium carbonate, but what do I feed her tonight? And tomorrow? Should I give her some pumpkin just in case? Normally a Malamute would digest a pound of cheese without noticing it, and she seems happy and very proud of herself, but I'm worried about longer-term effects. I'll give her an extra 250 ml NaCl tonight, but what else can I do?

Rowan's head and Allie's diet

2006-03-26T15:05:00.000-06:00

>Rowan's photo: beautiful head

Dear Lynne

Thank you. Unfortunately, what's inside that head is pure concrete -- or else I'm just a useless trainer. In any case, I'm having no luck at all teaching him the basics: stay. no, stay. really, stay. stay where you are. no, don't jump up in my face. don't run around the yard in circles. stay. >sigh<

At least he can now run around without falling down. This is great progress. I attribute it to his freestyle obedience class, where we are not succeeding in doing anything we are told to, but we are trying and having fun.

You can always feed Stocker home-cooked on alternating days or something. I just cooked up a big stock-pot for 12 days -- HEB was having a sale on chicken breast tenders, with the veg the whole thing cost $15. I will steam up the rice separately.

Isn't it funny how the older ones get to us? You are probably the only person who understands. Allie's eyes are getting so big, and she's like a puppy in many ways. I'm so happy when she gets a wild hair and decides to race down the block for a bit, pulling me along like a kite. She has a kooky sense of humor and loves stealing things and hiding them in my bed. She esp. loves sleeping on my pillow where she isn't allowed. I'm not an affectionate person and had no idea I would ever feel this way about anyone. I feel like the Grinch with my heart growing bigger whenever I'm around her. How did I ever get so lucky?

Best to Stocker,
C

Kidney diet stuff

2006-03-19T15:00:00.000-06:00

Hi, Lynne

We talked in SA about kidney stuff. Here is some info from the kidney diet list. It is really easy to figure out the diet for your dog once you get started. The key values that you need to have checked all the time are for PHOSPHORUS and CALCIUM. Your goal in life is to get the phosphorus level down.

I am lucky in that Allie's phosphorus level is in the normal range and I can keep it there by adding 1/4 tsp of calcium carbonate powder to every meal. I keep an eagle eye to check for hypercalcemia. She does not need a phosphorus binder. However, if I were feeding plain Evo, she probably would. I haven't investigated exactly how much phosphorus is in Evo -- the percentages re: calcium look good, http://www.naturapet.com/display.php?d=nutrition-facts&pxsl=//product%5B@id='1246'%5D , but I would have to write to them to get the exact amounts.

Her current diet is:
1 lean, skinless chicken breast and the broth it was cooked in, 1 cup broccoli and carrots cooked in the same broth, 2/3 cup egg white, 1/2 cup sticky rice, about 2/3 cup Evo. I vary the veg -- she loves sweet potatoes, squash, peas, green beans ... She is slightly overweight on this. She also gets: 1/4 tsp Calcium Carb, 2 Omega 3, B-50, B-12, Co-Q 10, glucosamine and MSM. The Omega-3 is esp. important, as is staying away from Omega-6. Her only treats are Evo and Natural Balance roll cut up, in small quantities, for drill team.
I cook up her food a week in advance in a big pot, except the rice which I steam in the steamer, yummy.

Allie works out to
80 lbs = 36.4 kg
needs 1400 kcal (except lower for low-activity Arctic dog)
163.8 grams protein using 4.5 g/kg
880 mg phosphorus allowed

chicken breast = 8 oz (1 cup) 374.22 cal 70.31 g protein 517.10 mg p
egg white one large 16.7 cal 3.51 g protein 4.34 mg p (about 8/cup)
broccoli 1 cup 44 cal 92 mg p
carrots 70 cal 47 mg p
sticky rice 1 cup 233 cal 4.8 g protein 19.2 mg p
treats:
Evo 1 cup 537 cal plus protein & p (I'm not sure how to figure this)
So she gets around 93.71 g protein, 644.64 mg phosphorus plus whatever is in the Evo.

I don't weigh it out precisely, obviously, since if I went by the real guidelines, she'd be hideously fat, and we also don't have to watch phosphorus as closely. I am enclosing The Box for doing the actual calculations. Also a few sample recipes for small dogs that I have multiplied. The Box is according to Dr Stromberg and very conservative; I use slightly higher protein, the recommended levels for senior dogs. Am tending that way anyway since the U Georgia study. Enclosed is a short excerpt from Stromberg. Again, the main thing is phosphorus and HIGH QUALITY protein. Bioavailability is everything.

Cheers
C

MRM: stealth report from the Southwest

2006-02-19T11:46:00.000-06:00

Dear General Jem

As one lady to another, you and I both know that we perform our deeds
by stealth and don't usually toot our horns about them. Our ability
to dematerialize and magically appear in total silence out of nowhere
is the secret to the demure Mal huntress's success, after all.
However, you have bemoaned silence on the list, so I'll just whisper
in your ear of a recent exploit that you might find edifying.

Humom gave me a nice raw turkey neck last night while she was cooking
up my special dinner and feeding the other dogs. They are outdoors
and get shuffled around to various runs because they have to be fed
separately. She spent some time working with that clown Rowan on his
sits and stays (nanoseconds!), and did a down stay with that young
sprout Ghost, and recalls with Sascha, so it took a while before she
came back in the house with her mind on other dogs. I got my meds
and then we settled down on the bed to give me my subcutaneous
fluids. Mom sure was surprised to touch the turkey neck with her
bare feet when she put them under the blanket! ... everything was
especially moist since it had been there for a while and I had really
chewed it up. I had on my very best innocent angel expression as I
watched in wonderment as she jumped around squealing and yelping. An
old classic but well worth repeating. I smiled gently as I enjoyed
the freshly-laundered linens and blanket ...

Greetings from very cold Texas
Guerillera Alexandria

Go Costello!

2006-01-28T13:11:00.000-06:00

Costello wins Best in Show at the AKC Eukanuba National championship dog show in Tampa!

This never happens! Alaskan Malamutes are seldom put up in the working group, never mind BIS. He also went Best Bred by Exhibitor, BBE Group, BBE Breed. Congratulations, Costello (Ch. Nanuke's Snoklassic No Boundaries) and Sandra D'Andrea, and the Peels.

Here are some pictures: http://www.akc.org/nationalchampionship/summary.cfm

And of course the infamous Fark photoshop contest

Xmas Meds

2005-12-22T12:53:00.000-06:00

How about this weather?? My dogs think they're puppies again!

Here is a message I sent to the Austin rescue list, in response to the usual warning about holiday dangers. The poinsettia hysteria is largely debunked -- they will cause gastric upset, which is not pleasant in Mals ;-), and are very bad for cats, but usually not automatically lethal. Still, best not to have a bunch of them sitting on the floor.

New adopters or fosters of large dogs may not be aware that some like to snack on low-hanging ornaments and boughs. Pine needles present a grave danger of choking and can create havoc in the GI tract, resulting in high-$ surgery. Anyone who has a tree indoors with large dogs should familiarize themselves with basic first-aid techniques and have the emergency vet's number to hand.

You may need CPR (refresher at http://members.aol.com/henryhbk/acpr.html). Obviously the Heimlich will NOT work with a pine needle, and it is usually too small for a fingertip, and must be removed carefully with tweezers or forceps or similar. Prop the mouth open with a roll of Vetrap (should be in every First Aid kit anyway). Speed to the vet is of the essence.

If you are looking for Christmas gifts for your best friends, instead of a bunch of squeaky toys or dubious rawhides, how about a useful first aid kit? I've been looking around for a good one, and am leaning toward the sporting dog one at http://store.yahoo.com/moravia/spordogfirai.html, or LL Bean's, although for the price they could have added Benadryl, boxed long-life water and soap or soap towelettes, and a few splints. This one at Cabela's seems like a good base kit if you add antiseptic towelettes etc.:

A decent list of contents for a make-your-own seems to be http://www.afn.org/~afn26752/firstaidkit.html. You'd want to add something to measure out ml, tsp, tbs, etc. I always have a water bowl, leash and towel in the car as well, and use Rescue Remedy.

Connie (veteran of trips to the emergency vet 8-(

Rowan's new tricks

2005-12-21T08:58:00.000-06:00

Rowan keeps getting cuter by the minute. He has a couple of new tricks up his sleeve. His sleeves, by the way, are thick and wooly, and he trails clouds of pink undercoat as he goes. Fortunately, he likes to be brushed!

Rowan has learned the ambush kiss. He waits until I am concentrating on something -- weeding, or fixing the lawnmower -- then he sneaks up and sploosh! a long pink tongue right in the ear! He always looks very pleased with himself and dances around grinning and bowing to his applauding audience. Considering that he eats poop, I'm not always in the mood to applaud, but it's awfully cute.

Rowan also has a voice. I was worried that he'd been debarked, since he usually only squeaks or grunts, but the other day a fire truck came roaring by with the sirens going full blast, and Rowan plunked down on his butt, stuck his nose in the air and let loose with a yodel that was perfectly in tune with the sirens. He kept going long after the fire truck was gone, with me and Sascha the Ridgeback mix howling right along with him. The other Mals just looked at him and went back to sleep, but Rowan is now a confirmed siren-howler, and we all look forward to fires and accidents!

Rowan is blowing coat

2005-12-04T08:59:00.000-06:00

Rowan is blowing coat and he's RED. Oh my doG!!! There are CLOUDS of PINK fluff thickening the air, clogging my air filter, up my nose, between the sheets, between my teeth, in the fridge, and killing yet another vacuum cleaner ... I swear I'm getting a Dyson one of these years. The other two haven't started shedding yet, but they have regular short hair and only turn into cotton ball dispensers that is easy to rake off. Rowan is relatively long-haired and boy does he shed! He's outdoors now enjoying the cold and turning the yard pink ...

Now to find a spinner and weaver or knitter to make me an awesome variegated scarf -- white from Ghost, cream from Allie and PINK from Rowan!

Blood work

2005-11-13T15:38:00.000-06:00

To K9KidneyDiet:
Her Excellency Alexandria the Malamute just had her regular check-up. The vet was pleased, said she seemed healthy and that her blood values were pretty good, considering. I am HORRIFIED! I thought she would be getting better, not worse, with all we are doing differently now. And her awful blood values do not seem to reflect how well she seems. Allie is prancing around like a puppy, performing on drill team and eating everything in sight. She gets the homecooked chicken/veg/rice diet with some egg white, is on daily 250 ml saline. Supps: omega 3, CoQ10, B-12, B-50, MSM, parsley herb mix, calcium carbonate, digestive enzymes with probiotics. Since her electrolytes are okay, the vet says we can go to LRS if there is any reason to.
Here are Allie's current values compared with August after 6 wks abx and 2 weekend iv treatments. Is it time for another? Please let me know what I should be doing differently. Or, I guess I have to ask, am I kidding myself? At what point do we slip into denial?
As always, thank you all so much!
C, with Allie the love of my life

11/10 8/17 Ref. Range
Lipase 741 712 100-750
Total Protein 6.1 6.1 5.1-7.8
BUN 60 91 7-27
Creatinine *4.0* 3.8 0.4-1.8
Calcium 11.5 10.5 8.2-12.4
Phosphorus 4.1 6.3 2.1-6.3

Rowan and the vet

2005-11-03T08:54:00.000-06:00

Well, Rowan had his long-overdue 2-week (hah!) vet checkup and is doing well. The wormer worked and he is now free of his heroic case of tapes, negative on the fecal (whew!). He has gained 2 pounds and is now at 62! The vet wants to see him closer to 85-90, but concurs that we should move slowly. His bloodwork is pretty good. (Rowan's, not the vet's). He is slightly anemic and his electrolytes could be higher. I am increasing his B-12 and working on hydrating him more. The new pail should help, since he can't use it as a frisbee ;-). He'll find some creative use for it, I'm sure. Enzymes etc. are all normal. Amazing considering how emaciated he is. The vet feels that his physique and coordination will improve tons with exercise and just hanging out outside, but says not to set expectations too high and that he'll always have some trouble with things like stairs and corners because of the chondrodysplasia. His feet just aren't where he thinks they are. So no agility for our Rowan. But as he gains muscle tone, he should be able to handle regular walks, curbs and things normally. My job is to be patient with him and not push him too hard on heeling, figure-8s, etc., and always make sure hills etc. are easy for him to negotiate. And to start doing some research on chd. Rowan's eyes and ears are admirable as are his lungs and heart, and his tummy is super active and gurgly, he has to be fed several times a day, preferably three (I'll try to figure out how to do that). It's too early for his coat to have improved much. His teeth are a train wreck, so I'll have to get him used to the brush.

The vet called him a Very Pretty Dog, and every one at the clinic Ooohed and Aaaahed over him, and of course he acted like a total ham, grinning and fluttering his eyelashes at all the girls, waving his big fluffy tail like crazy and strutting around like Mr Big Stuff. He did scare the living daylights out of a teacup chihuahua when he put his snout in the thing's carrier, but those things don't count as self-respecting dogs anyway. Good think Rowan didn't inhale. He loves our vet, ran up to smooch on him this visit, basked in all the attention and squeezing. He likes riding in the car, I guess because he thinks it means we're going to go see his buddy the vet! There are a couple of guys who live up the street who are usually home when we walk by; we always visit with them, and Rowan adores being in the limelight. He really comes out of his shell when people are cooing over him. Not that he has much of a shell, Mr Friendlypants. I'll have to see if I can get him trained up for drill team -- he has such a star mentality. Or maybe I'll install a spotlight in the living room -- "Heeeere's Rowan!"

Malamutes and Drill Team, hmmmmm ....

2005-10-31T17:29:00.000-06:00

Two concepts intrinsically alien to one another. Case in point: on Saturday we attended the Travis County Kennel Club dog show. Allie was gorgeous and shiny, not a whiff of the chicken entrails she had rolled in, since I was able to get her an emergency visit at the groomer's on Friday. I won't say she was fluffy -- next to the show-mutes, her funny cowlicks and stegosaurus ridge look somewhat less than plush. But she was adorable, had nicely clipped claws and a perky red bandana. And that certain gleam in her eye. It should have warned me. We were called for one p.m. and were kept waiting interminably, and Allie got more and more Malamutey, while my back was aching and I was developing some 'tude of my own. After several eons, we finally entered the ring. To my shock, Allie did not immediately throw herself onto her back and present her tummy to the admiring multitudes. Instead, she was a perfect angel and performed the first half of the routine dead on. When we got into the big circle, however, and I put her into her "down," she did not settle all the way down, and I should not have had any confidence in her stay. As I moved away to walk around the circle, I glanced back, and of course Allie had broken the stay and gotten up to meander after me. The expression on her face was pure-as-the-driven-snow innocence. So of course I had to return to her and stand with her, face burning, while everyone else completed the manoeuvre. Fortunately, the next part is a comedy bit, so Allie and I had basically loosened the audience up ... we should probably have done a little schtick, if I could have thought of something. Of course, of all the parts of the routine, the down stay is one she NEVER gets wrong in practice. Malamutes! She was very tired afterward. The diva slept like a log til morning.

Rowan's plastic snack

2005-10-27T13:25:00.000-05:00

When I took Rowan out of his crate this morning, his stomach was making funny gurgling noises. I looked around the crate and saw that one of his squeaky toys was missing. Only one shiny plastic corner had eluded his appetite. The silly galoot had devoured an entire big, white, bone-shaped squeaky toy with dental spines. His poop will be closely observed for the next couple of days! This is definitely a plastic-loving dog. He completely ignores the soft plushy toys in his kennel run and snubs the other dogs in favor of demolishing any and all plastic pails, planters, watering cans, handles of garden tools, and all other hard, jaggedy plastic items he can find. I swear he has a vendetta against his stomach lining. However, he has merrily passed everything else so far, so I trust this too shall pass; if not by tomorrow, we will visit the vet with very red faces (his red by nature, not embarrassment like mine). What a dog!

Rowan still moves very much like a cartoon dog. He loves to run, and when he has to stop short, the legs and big paddle feet go flying everywhere. He still thinks that the street is where you walk, preferably in front of the bus, and the lesh is only there to tell him how far he can circle around me -- our walks are more lateral than forward, because he's curious about everything. We have lots of laughs, and never a dull moment!

He and Allie have completely fallen in love and tend to lean against each other. They clean each others' faces and make googly eyes. It's very cute. He seems to realize that he can't be as rough with her as with Sascha and is really sweet, except when he's sitting on her. But he never hurts her. I really cherish that in him, because he obviously doesn't have any body consciousness, so he really has to put in an effort.

He loves to eat, but was having loose stools when I gave him too much; this has now settled down -- we'll see what happens with the addition of toy supplements! Of course he would rather eat all day and have the other dogs' dinners too! His coat is improving a bit, although I can't groom him after he ate the rake ... that Rowan! he's always good for a grin.

Rowan and the Chickens

2005-10-23T14:57:00.000-05:00

So there we are in the backyard, Rowan and I. I'm teaching him a few tricks, or trying to, but he keeps sitting on me, the big galoot. Meantime, The Magnificent Ghost is bawling up a storm from his kennel because he wants to mix it up with Rowan. These boys are just too much. So I wander to the back of the yard to get a little peace and quiet, and what should I find but a passel of chickens! What a clucking and flapping of wings! Feathers everywhere! The intelligent Malamute hunkers down to allow the frenzied fowl to settle down and forget all about her presence. I cast an eye over my shoulder to make sure that Rowan isn't going to come galumphing along in full bellow to spoil this plan, like that young sprout Ghost invariably does, but the silly thing is gazing off into the distance and watering the bamboo. So I'm slowly creeping up on a particularly juicy hen, when the rooster spots me and flings himself over the fence with a wild cackling, and the hen goes after. Foiled again! I check to see what Rowan thinks of it all, but the goofy redhead is sniffing the ground, completely oblivious to the life-and-death drama unfolding mere inches away. >sigh< I have my work cut out with this one. Alexandria out.

Going to Work

2005-10-14T12:57:00.000-05:00

Yay! I got to go to work with humom yesterday. First I had to throw up a little in the morning, so she went into a hysterical tizzy. What is her deal? She knows Malamutes can throw up whenever they want! Besides, a renal dog always has a bit of an upset tummy. Anyway, mission accomplished, she called in to work and got permission to bring me in. Well, duh. As if I could be anything but a highly desired guest! So we drove in, and I threw up a tiny bit more in the car, just as a reminder that I really needed to be Observed all day. In the office, I was not allowed to run up and down the hall chasing my squeaky ball like in the summer session, but had to stay in the office and receive my admirers there. Lots of people came by to give me lovin's and scritches on the head. We also went outside several times, where I had Little Chats with the squirrels, which are unusually fat. But humom did not alow me to eat them, although they did not run away, but just sat there waiting for the Malamute pounce. Very disappointing indeed. A few people shied away from the Big Dog, hahahah, but several asked about my breed and quite a few called me Beautiful, as is my due. It's amazing how many students are dog-starved and desperately need to hug and grab a nice substantial dog. I am always happy to oblige.
Today, for some odd reason, humom left me at home again. I cannot fathom this oversight. Clearly, I will have to throw up again on Monday. Humans! Alexandria out.

Drill Team

2005-10-07T13:26:00.000-05:00

Tonight is drill team practice. This is the second week that we will have gone back to "class," and Allie is wriggly with excitement at the word. When I put on the music to practice the routine, her ears almost meet in the middle from anticipation. We still have to work on the down-stay -- her preference is to get up and do something interesting while I'm doing my walk-around --but otherwise she's perky and happy. It's so good to have her back in shape to participate in something she enjoys so much! We perform in two weeks, and Her Majesty will undoubtedly have come up with some neat trick to give me a heart attack -- lying down on her back before the first note, or something. Hurray! I will know she's feeling really good when she gets up to some mischief in true Malamute fashion.

Rowan and leash walking

2005-10-05T17:50:00.000-05:00

Rowan has his own interpretation of how to walk on a leash! He's very nice about it, he's just clueless. I'm standing in the middle holding the leash, and he treats me like a maypole, dancing all around. He has no idea about cars -- dashing out in front of them, or running away scared, completely unpredictable. He doesn't understand "walk with me," much less "heel." So we're starting from scratch, just getting him around the next cul-de-sac and back, avoiding the block with the Rottweiler and the one with the Akita ... Poor fella is so weak that I can control him easily. I can just pick him up and move him where I want him! He's afraid of the stairs down the back of the house, so we're working on that -- I put up the other dogs and he has to descend the stairs to get his dinner, at his own pace. He has chewed up his collar and eaten a toy. He is such a hilarious character! Sascha has decided that he's her soulmate and just adores him. They're both bright red so they're very cute together.

Rowan just inhales his dinner! I've decided to feed him twice a day to try to avoid bloat and to aid digestion. That boy can eat! I want to start brushing his teeth but he's not thrilled about me touching his mouth ...

He LOVED the rain and all the mud on his big paws! my T-shirts will never be the same ;-)! what a goofball!

To S - first Rowan report

2005-10-03T17:35:00.000-05:00

He is a PRINCE!! He is the nicest dog I have ever been around. I'm crying all the time, can't let myself think about this sweet angel being neglected. He already has a huge part of my heart.

L and S have a picture up on my wall -- I have a shrine to them! They are SAINTS! I can only imagine the work they have done with this little fella! We went for a walk around the block and when we went up and down curbs, he would stumble, and fell down once. He must have been a total wreck when they got him out. It's only their loving care that has made him able even to get around the back yard, I'm sure. But he has such a great spirit, and is always cheerful and game for any project; I'm sure he will bulk up soon.

He has some patches where the skin is really dry and the hair is brittle and broken -- I'm wondering if R even fed him decent food. But S and L have given him a good start, and he's going to get nothing but the best. I have to cook for Allie's kidney diet anyway, so I might as well cook for Rowan as well and give him a high-protein diet with extra canola oil for the skin. He's getting Omega-3, CoQ10, B-50, Vit E, calcium, and I'm throwing in Allie's glucosamine/MSM joint formula just for thrills. He's also getting digestive enzymes and an herbal mix sprinkled on his food to make it all bioavailable. Between them, these dogs are going to bankrupt me ;-)! But it's going to be so rewarding to see him blossom.

Rowan already had a cat encounter and completely ignored him, much to my relief!

I don't actually have any exciting stories to tell yet, but will be sure to write once he has settled in and I have something to report.

THANK YOU SO MUCH for bringing this little guy into our lives!! He is so good-hearted, and promises to be such a wonderful member of the family. It feels like he's always been here. Please give L and S my thanks too!

Introduction -- Rowan

2005-10-03T17:17:00.000-05:00

It is with some butterflies that I introduce my new dog, Rowan ("the red-haired or ruddy man"). He is bright red! He was rescued by Mal-loving people from Brazos animal shelter and I adopted him on Saturday. He is a big, long fellow, with short squatty legs, and so skinny that you can feel every vertebra and rib. He has so little muscle tone in his hind legs that he has trouble walking, indicating long close confinement. He does not appear to be hip dysplastic. I am taking him in to the vet this week for a thorough checkup. His coat is dry and sparse, but he will be a gorgeous dog once I have fattened him up and worked on his nutrition. He is now getting handfuls of supplements and home-cooked food. The Magnificent Ghost still would like to eat him, so we are working on a desensitization program, but he gets along great with the girls, and completely ignores all cats, indoors and out. He is alert, responsive and sweetly affectionate. What a guy!

Rowan

2005-10-03T16:00:00.000-05:00

Well, I wasn't expecting THIS! Humom went out for a drive with her partner in crime, Lynn, and came back with another DOG! Where will it end?

I should not be surprised. Lynn's house is where I lived for a year until humom finally got around to discovering and adopting me. Whenever she goes out, she comes back with another dog. They call it "rescue." I suppose it's a good thing.

So here he is, a big red Malamute, yet another male. He'd be handsome if he had an ounce of flesh on him and any muscle tone. Knowing humom, he'll be fattened up in no time and need to go on a diet. Two nice Malamute lovers, L and S, sprang him from the shelter a month ago and have been taking great care of him and getting him ready to be adopted. I'm glad; a shelter is a terrible place to be -- it smells like terror and death, and if nobody takes you, they kill you. S and R remembered that humom is kind of partial to Malamutes and told her about Rowan, whose name was something very bad before. Now he is called the red-haired man, which he is.

What I want to know is, is humom still going to pay any attention to ME?? I am the Queen of the Universe and expect the due amount of respect and adulation to be paid accordingly. I will be Extremely Miffed if this Johnny-Come-Lately thinks he's going to steal the limelight. Alexandria out.

Ham

2005-09-30T10:56:00.000-05:00

Allie has known that Something is up for a couple of days now. Although it's been up to 105 degrees out, she's been dancing a little jig as we walk around the block, anticipating the fall weather, and indeed, it cooled down by 20 degrees today. She fluffed out her coat, put that sparkle in her eye, and charged ahead, insisting that we take the long walk all the way around the playing fields and beyond.

A little girl came out of her house as we walked past, all pigtails and teeth and dwarfed by her backpack. She immediately stretched out both arms in a passionate gesture and cried out, "doggie! good doggie! Mommy, I want that doggie!" Note that Allie undoubtedly overtopped her. Her Mom said to her sharply, "that's a German Shepherd, they're not very nice," and dragged her off to the car. I barely managed to call out loudly, "Alaskan Malamute!" before the kid disappeared in the cavernous SUV, crying out "doggie!" the whole time. Meanwhile, Allie was rolling her eyes at the child, tossing her head, ears pricked up, tail swishing brightly, white paws flashing high, giving her the full treatment. How she loves to be the object of adulation!

I hope the kid heard me. Everyone has to meet their first Malamute, an experience akin, I assume, to being hit by a small, perfectly formed bolt of lightning. It changes you for life, and she will hopefully remember Allie when one day she is selecting her own first dog.

Allie's Cats

2005-09-28T12:10:00.000-05:00

There are up to 6 feral cats living under and around our house and eating us out of house and home. Allie comes and helps me feed them as part of our evening walk. It is a good opportunity for us to practice Be Nice to Kitties. Or rather, Don't Eat the Kitties. Hah!

Actually, Allie is very good about cats as long as they don't run. Unfortunately, no-one has imparted this to the ferals, who tend to boot-scoot when they encounter something large, wolf-looking and obviously prey-driven. But Allie leaves the indoor cats strictly alone. This took a long time and a lot of patience to learn, but she is now able to sleep curled up with them on the bed. This is the Mal who once proudly brought me a cat carcass when she first came to me. If Allie can achieve the peacable kingdom with cats, any Malamute can.

When I adopted her, I made a dog-free zone by placing a backless bookcase in the hallway -- the cats could get through it, but not the dogs, without some effort. It was mainly a strong psychological barrier. There are also lots of bookshelves, filing cabinets, etc where they can find refuge. Then Allie and I immediately went to obedience class, where we worked hard on Attention. At home, we practiced: treats and praise whenever I called her name and she made eye-contact with me. LOTS of praise when she did so in mid-cat-chase. The first few days she was on-leash in the house so I had some control in case she got too close. After that, I just gave a sharp reprimand if necessary ("hey!") and immediately called her name -- chase cat = bad, look at me = good. At the same time, my dog-savvy cats reinforced the lessons with the occasional bat across the snout. Unfortunately they find the Malamute tail irresistible and used it as a toy from the very beginning, attacking it from under the bed or from a perch on a chair! Nowadays, when Allie rolls an eye toward a running cat, I just remind her quietly -- she doesn't move a muscle toward it -- but only in the house. Outside cats are still extremely interesting. And of course possums, squirrels, birds, mice, etc. are fair game. >Sigh<

Sideways

2005-09-24T11:21:00.000-05:00

Well, if there's one thing a lady doesn't enjoy, it's being blown along sideways! All very well to take my stately morning walk, but now my lovely coat is all tousled and I feel all battered from being buffeted by the wind gusts. A lady doesn't appreciate having to constantly brace herself to keep from flying along like an ice skater -- and then when the wind drops, she staggers back like an overloaded weight-lifter. It's not as though one were pulling a sled in the Arctic or something -- this is Texas and it's in the 90s already, for doG's sake. One is entirely disconcerted and in need of many treats and a good nap. Alexandria out.

Whole Again

2005-09-21T10:45:00.000-05:00

There she is, that beautiful face; that sassy plume of a tail; those monumental paws; that glorious coat, standing up in cowlicks, generously shedding; that irresistible tummy. Much as I enjoyed every moment in Ireland and had a glorious time, I realize I was just half a person. It's great that I've found a boarding solution I have confidence in and can attend important conferences and excursions, but boy is it great to be back with my other half. Sure, she needs me, but I need her too.

Funny how The Magnificent Ghost seems to have missed me even more than Allie. He really gets neglected, and I tend to forget what a needy fella he is, the poor poot.

Humom's Back

2005-09-21T10:25:00.000-05:00

Well finally. Sheesh. Not that I didn't have a great time at PAH. Drs. D and O took great care of me, and the gals waited on me hand and foot, as is their role in life. When humom came to pick me up, they all converged on the desk to tell her what a wonderful dog I am. I smiled sweetly, already planning my exploits for when we got home. Dr O spoke very seriously with humom and told her several things about kidney disease that she didn't know, and made some good suggestions, so I will get even more fantastic care. She said that I seem like a much younger dog! I deserve an Oscar!

It would be really nice if I had the chauffeur I am due. Humom is just a terrible driver. It didn't help that 183 is under construction and the traffic was terrible, but did she have to cry most of the way home? I hunkered down in my brace-for-impact position and could only hope for the best. Which has materialized in the form of my favorite Branstone's cranberry treats ...

I am seriously miffed that I can't go to work with humom any more. The semester has begun and for some reason that makes a difference. Stupid. All the more reason why the students should benefit from my wise presence, I say. I have several times been able to sneak into the car, but unfortunately an Alaskan Malamute is difficult to conceal. Must work on camouflage. Alexandria out.

Prescription?

2005-08-28T19:24:00.000-05:00

Depressed? Weary? Anxious? Horrified about Katrina approaching the coast? Can't sleep, eat, concentrate, get anything done? Aha! I have the perfect prescription for you! Five minutes nose to nose with a mellow Malamute will convince you that
a) everything is right with the world,
b) even if it isn't, here is a special place where magic rules,
c) you just have to breathe with this dog, and
d) there's nothing that matters that can't be seen in her eyes.
I will admit, is has been an awful day, but one short Allie treatment is the magic potion to set the world right. Where do you get your therapy dog certified for "Soul Dog"?

The Baker Dancer

2005-08-27T11:03:00.000-05:00

One of the objects I studied at university was a Hellenistic bronze statuette called the Baker Dancer. She is a strange little woman wearing a thick, richly pleated dress with a long, transparent mantle over it that covers even her head. Her face is covered by a tight veil with eye-holes. The head is tilted, giving the impression of movement. One hand draws a fold of the mantle to her face, while the other arm is outstretched and displays the fringed hem of the garment to good effect. Her free leg kicks out a bit and the booted toe peeks out under the dress. She is very undancerly by modern standards -- chunky under the voluminous garments. It is the free hip that juts out awkwardly higher than the standing hip in a non-balletic, off-balance pose, belying the popular interpretation that she is spinning, and yet what is she doing? She is eminently realistic, and yet the entirely mannered work of the invisible artist. She is exotic, gorgeous, mesmerising, infuriatingly enigmatic, familiar, strange, and new every time you see her.

Why am I wittering on about the Baker Dancer? Because you remind me of her in many ways, Allie. I was admiring your mask this morning. Some call your face "dirty." It is one of the many ways in which you don't conform to the Malamute standard, bless your heart. You almost have goggles, but they are a soft, taupeish gray and flow gently into a Mardi Gras mask that extends down the side of your face like batwings, shading into reddish browns, golds, grays, creams and white. It is as though you were wearing a veil of gossamer (not that I know what that is, but it's traditional) pulled tight across your face and shimmering in many shades against your contours. You could not be more gorgeous. Your expressive brown eyes are set in high relief by their halos of white. The little hairs swirl in perfect order to create exquisitely molded landscapes, some white hairs marching off into lush eyelashes. It's amazing how the merest twitch of those tiny muscles can transform your face from Contended Dog At Rest to Poor Starving Baby Must Have Cheese Now ...

You are so familiar to me, and yet completely enigmatic. I don't speak dog, let alone Malamute, and you are so much of an individual that I don't think I would get you even if I did. Sometimes your basic body language is clear even to me -- Must Go Out Now, or Take Me To Work. Other times I'm just stumped. And when I look in your eyes, there's so much someone there, but I have no idea what you're thinking, other than Stupid Human. I'm always asking you, How high? and you persistently refuse to tell me, Jump.

Under the Fence

2005-08-22T15:39:00.000-05:00

Back in my domain. Gave the cats The Eye. Set a few things straight with that young sprout, Ghost, and Sascha the rhodie mix. Then humom absolutely insisted that I spend some time outside in the backyard. Well okey-dokey. The gals next door were also outside so I went over to investigate. Lucy, the little black Lab mix, was shy and gentle as usual, but Zoe, the big brown pit/? mix that mom calls the Psycho Bitch from Hell was yelling her head off as usual. So I decided it was time to mosey on over there and have a little chat with her. Turning my rather substantial self into a different form of matter altogether, I slid beneath the fence and rematerialized in their yard. I raised a single eyebrow. Suddenly, there was complete silence. The Psycho Bitch and I communed. She agreed, and wandered off. I reassured Lucy, and we had a refreshing round of chase. Then I lay down in the shade and had an overdue snooze. When humom came to find me, of course I was on the other side of the fence, with no visible means of transport, and no way to get me back. I smiled sweetly. There ensued three hours of high drama including long-distance phone calls, earth-works and excavations, involvement of neighbors, tears, rantings, cajoling, treats, recriminations and regrets, during which I had several meditative naps and a pleasant game with the gals. When I was brought back into my yard, I was finally allowed to stay in the air-conditioning (d'oh) and got many special treats in apology, and quite right, too. I mean really. This is the way I get treated after a stay at the vet's? Guerillera Alexandria out.

Humom Returns

2005-08-22T13:19:00.000-05:00

Return of humom! No big deal, of course. Megan at Dr. D's took great care of me. At first I was a bit astonished to see the multitude of colors stuck in her ears, but she used a nice voice, and I immediately set out to make her my personal slave. I gave her the big brown eyes, the waving plumy tail, the ingenuous smile, and then presented her with the snowy white tummy to rub, folding my paws gently on my chest. Who can resist the bunny pose? Sure enough, I heard the requisite "awwww," and felt the strong fingers on the tummy. After that, my visit there was a breeze. They gave me masses of fluids, and I was a sweet angel and didn't try to pull the needle out like I do at home. I even ate the icky k/d. When humom came to pick me up, everyone told her what a sweet temperament I had, what a pleasure it had been and what a wonderful dog I was. Hah! I don't work by stealth for nothing! On the way home, humom mentioned that I had cost an arm and a leg. Hahah! She can't fool me, I still count 2 arms and 2 legs. Anyway, for my next fluid treatments, she is trying to sell her hair on eBay -- as if anyone would be interested in such a pathetic display. Fortunately, she took my advice and put a picture of my gorgeousness on the site. Maybe it will dazzle and distract. Now to restore order at home and to put that young sprout, Ghost, Sascha the rhodie mix, and those pesky cats back in their place. Guerillera Alexandria out.

Second day away

2005-08-13T17:49:00.000-05:00

Today is Allie's second day in boarding at the vet's. She is getting her fluid treatments, and is eating and taking her supplements. They are lovely people there, and their experience with renal dogs is vouched for by other patients. Still, taking Allie there, an hour's haul during excruciating "rush"-hour traffic, had every nerve in me screaming, "don't do it! turn back!" Driving home without her was horrendous. I'm two-thirds of the way across the country now, and of course I keep calling, and they keep reassuring me that she is fine and doing well, but until I see that wagging tail and those brown eyes, and feel her warm breath on me again, I'm going to be a wreck. This does not bode well for my 10-day trip in September. What is it with these dogs?? She is perfectly fine without me, but I'm totally dependent on her...

There is good news: Allie's anemia seems to be gone! All that good food and the supplements are helping in one sense anyway. Her other kidney values are still too high, but we have one good reason to celebrate!

Ghost at Home Depot

2005-08-07T09:24:00.000-05:00

Alexandria here. Well, my training of that young sprout, The Magnificent Ghost as he insists on calling himself, is finally paying off. He came back from human training (joke!) yesterday all puffed up and full of himself. Harrumph! But it wasn't because of anything they worked on at training (Stand! I ask you!) but what happened on the way home. Apparently the car was shaking like it was going to fly apart into a million pieces. Humom was scared and didn't have her phone with her. Ghost won't admit it but I bet he was REALLY scared! He's terrified of thunderstorms and fireworks and buses and children and basically everything. Macho man! But I'm working with him. So they stopped at the Home Depot to see if they have a savvy person in the car department who might help. (Note to humans: HD does not have a car department). They wandered around for a bit, and Ghost did not lift his leg on anything! He also did not cry and try to run away when he saw large men, although he did use humom as a shield. But that's okay! And he did not run away from those nasty children, who insist on squealing and lunging in your face. He was a Very Good Boy, and a nice lady gave him a hot dog on the way out. I'm very proud of him, and will continue work patiently to impart my wisdom to him. Remember: Be Nice, Get Treats. You can always do something outrageous later.

Mouth

2005-08-04T07:20:00.000-05:00

Allie has the softest mouth. This is in contrast to The Magnificent Ghost, who feels that the Malamute, being descended from the wolf, should act accordingly, and interpret "treat" liberally, in a crocodile-like manner. What's a finger more or less? And blood adds that special spice to the bland Milk Bones ... But Allie's mouth is as soft as a pony's nose, and tender as a queen cat with her kittens. I love to hold a Natural Balance roll cube for her to suck slowly out of my fingers. This is her training treat, but what the hell, it's also fun to have her practice a few moves just for the pleasure of giving her some treats. And she'll nibble on those cubes even when she won't touch anything else. Thank you, Natural Balance! The most fun is giving her her Baytril, which I cover with cream cheese. She happily sucks it down, then thoughtfully and meticulously hoovers all of my fingers that have been involved in the gloppy task, making sure there is not so much as a hint of cream cheese remaining. It's the most wonderful sensation. Not slobbery or sloppy (I was kissed by a Dane recently, oh boy), reticent and delicate, completely concentrated on the job at hand. I have no doubt that she could carry an egg in her mouth for miles without breaking the shell.

Bedhog

2005-08-02T14:56:00.000-05:00

At some point in the night, the cats got frisky and Allie decided they needed chasing. After satisfactorily concluding her task, she returned to bed, but not to her usual place, on the right side taking up 80% and leaving me clinging precariously to the left edge. Instead, I was turned toward the middle, so she jumped onto the tiny sliver I had cleared on the left, put her head on my pillow, and used her entire body weight to shove me, ever so gently, further toward the middle. No, I did not leap to my feet, proclaim my alpha and banish her cringing to the foot of the bed or her crate. Instead, I let her sleep happily in my place and slept in hers, enjoying her gentle breathing, the coarseness of her fur and the obvious glee she took in getting to sleep with her head on the pillow. She has a great sense of humor, and bless her for that.

Sunday

2005-08-01T12:30:00.000-05:00

Last night, Allie decided to take the "medium" walk. The "short" walk is just to the traffic light and back, lately with many stops in the shade in between, to contemplate life and observe the world around us. The "medium" walk goes all the way around the blocks with the playing fields along the creek, and features many opportunities to sniff, greet other dogs and offer to eat them, and cover oneself with burrs and unspeakable substances. Allie made it all the way around without once demanding to be carried -- an interesting proposition with an 80-pound dog. She did not actually chase any squirrels, but she gave them the evil eye, which made my heart soar. What a great day, that called for an extra yoghurt treat, not to be shared with the cats!

Rasslin'

2005-07-24T15:36:00.000-05:00

Subqs are still a real trial -- Allie keeps rolling onto my hand with the needle and pulling it out (in the nicest possible way, but an 80# dog can be pretty firm!)

Allie update / Neufchatel cheese

2005-07-12T15:31:00.000-05:00

To K9KidneyDiet:
Allie has actually eaten of her own free will yesterday and today. I started her off by hand, but she finished up out of the bowl!! Even had a couple of cans of k/d, but for some reason I just feel more confident about the Chicken / Egg Whites / Gl Rice / Veg meals I've been cooking her, poor soul. Her tummy feels better since she's been getting pepcid ac (cvs pharmacy generic) and acidophilus yoghurt. No vomit in 3 days. She is perkier and has lost that dreadful listless gray look.
We've settled into a rhythm of 250 ml saline at lunch and 250 ml at dinner -- that's about all she'll sit/lie/roll around 'still' for. I know a big dog should get more, but at least we're getting this much, and can try to sneak in more as she gets used to it. We also have a 22cc syringe and we have Marx-bros moments with me introducing water into her mouth and she dribbling it out the other side. Or maybe she's Lucy, she's red-haired and has the attitude, bless her.
Her supplements are currently: Omega complex, Vit E + fish body oil, Vit B12, Glucosamine, MSM, Calcium citrate. Today we add coQ10. She also gets digestive enzyme powder plus probiotics. Amounts of these depend on how much of her food she will eat as they are mixed in.
Today Allie is a whole new dog! Thanks to the great advice and support on this list, we have seen real improvement and have enjoyed two good "up" days, and are prepared for the "downs."
Query: I'm giving her abx and pepcid wrapped in Neufchatel cheese -- it says it's just lowfat cream cheese, but according to NATS the phos is 40 and Na 120 with fat 16g / 1oz, while cream cheese is phos 20, Na 90 and fat 10. Does anyone know where Neufchatel cheese gets its rep as particularly healthy?
Also query: why do cats get Lactated Ringer solution and dogs get .9% saline, or is it just Allie?
Thank you all, and a happy Sunday
C and a sparkly Allie

Replies: Fat-free cream-cheese is better, and it's just Allie. It's a matter of electrolytes; blood test values determine which fluids to use

Which needles?

2005-07-05T15:29:00.000-05:00

These are Terumos. I only got 250 into her of the prescribed 500, but did 500 this morning and plan to do another tonight. We no longer have a sense of time. I can certainly hang the bag up higher, but then I can't both squeeze it and keep her in check.
She is really doing poorly -- threw up a little this morning, just stomach fluid, but still worrisome. Malamutes usually have cast-iron stomachs. Hate to think she can't handle the Baytril. The vet says to take with food, the web site says take an hour before food, and Allie says "I'm not eating anyway." She ate k/d at the vet's, but adamantly refuses at home. She had diarrhea for a day after the ivs, vet said normal, I'm not thrilled. She's lethargic and won't even chase the cats. >Sigh.<

Fluids in!

2005-07-04T15:22:00.000-05:00

HUGE relief! Finally able to get a decent amount of fluids into my girl!!! Beginning to feel like I have a purpose in life after all!

Response to K9KidneyDiet:

Thank you, L! We found a "tent" space on the rear/side of the neck and just used that -- scares me to death, but I'm careful. Yes, always fresh and slant side up. She is a very good girl, just really hates the procedure and tries to rub the needle off by turning on her back - so I'm trying to wrangle an 85# dog and stabilize the needle, squeeze the bag, etc. You're right, I am going to get bigger needles, these little ones are flimsy and slow. There may also be some scar tissue -- she's a rescue. She seems better now with some fluids in her -- I didn't realize how fragile she'd still be after the ivs, but her crea is still above 3. It's just starting to sink in what a day to day struggle this is going to be ...

Thank you so much for your help!

Feeling like a fumbling idiot

2005-07-04T15:14:00.000-05:00

Sent home in shaking terror with a bag of saline and a handful of needles. Set up at home and now can't do what the vet tech showed me! The needle won't go in! except into my fingers ... So I'm trembling and howling and dripping and bleeding all over my poor Malamute, who is refraining from snapping at me, the amazing queen.
Sent this to the angels at K9KidneyDiet: Okay, I'm biting the bullet and trying to give my beloved Allie her loathed subQs. She has been home for a day and a half after her iv fluids. She must be pretty dehydrated, because her skin is like leather, and I'm having trouble getting the needle in! I feel like I'm torturing my girl! It's only an 18 gauge, which is small and slow-drip for a Malamute, and I'm trying to go fast, but it's really tough. Is there any place better than the shoulder where the skin might not be so leathery where I could get her hydrated a bit?

Dog, I feel like a horrible mother!
C
for Allie, who is being a gentle giant

How's Allie?

2005-06-26T14:33:00.000-05:00

Dear Margie,

Nose barely above water, but she's eating, so I'm hopeful. A non-eating Mal is a terrible thing. The Clavamox was really rough on her. Now she gets to be outrageously pampered and to heal. Thanks for asking after her. You are one of the few people who know what a funny sweetheart she is. She's being a supercool trouper about pills, injections, iv fluids, ultrasounds, the works. I have so much respect and admiration and love for her, it's her strength that gets us through. What an amazing soul. Time to go cook her some more chicken and egg whites!

Love, Connie

Nierenkranker Hund

2005-06-12T14:46:00.000-05:00

Liebe Tante Meggie

>Mich wuerde nur interessieren, wie man merkt, dass ein Hund
was an den Nieren hat. Dass er Schmerzen hat, das merkt man ja
sicher am Jaulen und Winseln, dass ihm sonst was fehlt, das merkt
man sicher daran, dass er nicht fressen will. Aber auf die Nieren kommt
wohl erst ein Arzt oder ein Bluttest....

Ja, sie hat furchtbar gejault, und zuerst dachte ich, es ist ihre Arthritis, oder sie hat am Ruecken oder Hals was eingeklemmt, aber die Untersuchung zeigte da nichts. Beim Bluttest stellte sich heraus dass sie sehr wenig Nierenfunktion hat, so wird sie wohl einen Stein oder vielleicht Tumor an den Nieren haben. Mittwoch wird mit Ultraschall nachgeschaut. Sie frisst nicht gern, schlaeft viel, aber ist sonst ganz normal -- spielt draussen mit Ghost, geht mit mir spazieren, trinkt, spielt, macht Unsinn ... nur hatte sie diese Schmerzanfaelle. Jetzt nicht, sie kriegt Tabletten. Sie hat auch mehrere Behandlungen gekriegt mit Fluessigkeit, so eine Art Dialyse um die Gifte auszuspuelen. Diaet und Vitamin B-12, Omega-3, usw. koennen nichts rueckgaengig machen, aber den Abbau vielleicht verzoegern.

>Noch eine Frage: fuehlt sich ein Malamute denn ueberhaupt wohl im
heissen Texas? Zwingt man ihn denn da nicht in eine Umgebung,
die seiner Art ueberhaupt nicht entspricht? Wird er denn da nicht viel
anfaelliger? Ich weiss, Du hast das Tier ja nicht nach Texas geholt, sondern
dort gerettet - aber weisst Du denn, ob Allie jemals wirklich gluecklich
war?

Allie war in Texas geboren und muesste sich sehr langsam und vorsichtig dem Arktik anpassen -- eine ploetzliche Umstellung haette sie wie alle Hunde nicht ueberstanden. Sie ist dem Klima hier gut angepasst. Malamutes haben eine niedrige Basaltemperatur (100 F) und sind durch ihr Fell isoliert, mein Ridgeback wird schneller heiss. Sie haben hier Schatten, Brise, eine Porch mit Airconditioning (!) und Fan, und ein kleines Swimming Pool (sie sind gern im Wasser). In den letzten Wochen war Allie fast staendig drinnen im Airconditioning, weil ich mit dem Ruecken zuhause war.

Malamutes wurden von den Mahlemut Eskimos gezuechtet, um durch unglaublich schreckliches Wetter ueber Eis und Schnee ihre Schlitten zu ziehen. Sie mussten ihr eigenes Futter fangen. Nur die staerksten, am stoischsten und gutmuetigsten ueberlebten. Das heisst nicht, dass sie es genossen. Kein Malamute lebt heute "Artgerecht," und zum Glueck. Malamutes kamen nicht absichtlich nach Texas, aber sie nehmen das Klima mit der gleichen coolen Einstellung und machen das beste draus. Besser von mir gerettet als getoetet, und besser 5 sehr vergnuegte Jahre als garnichts. Ich glaube doch dass sie gluecklich war und ist, furchtbar verwoehnt, und dass sie unsere obedience, agility und drill team Aktivitaeten sehr genossen hat. Ich glaube dass sie gern mit mir auf dem Bett schlaeft, in ihrem Swimming-pool plaenschert, und gebuerstet wird. Das ist fuer mich ein grosser Trost.

Deine
cze

Alexandria (Deutsch)

2005-06-11T14:41:00.000-05:00

Liebe Tante Meggie,

Du weisst dass meine Alexandria (Allie), meine Malamute-Dame, die Koenigin der Welt, meine grosse Liebe ist. Sie ist nierenkrank. Ich versuche so viel wie moeglich mit Diaet usw zu machen, und habe schon hunderte von meinem und Charlottes Geld fuer Tests und Behandlung ausgegeben, aber es ist mir klar, dass mein einziges Ziel sein muss, ihre Zeit so angenehm wie moeglich zu machen. Sie hat furchtbare Schmerzen, so dass wir Steine oder ein Tumor vermuten, naechste Woche wird mit Ultraschall nachgeschaut. Gestern Nacht musste sie wieder ins Krankenhaus fuer die Schmerzen, es ist furchtbar. Ich will nur, dass sie ihr Leben geniesst -- ich werde nicht versuchen, Monate dranzuhaengen wenn's sie nur quaelt. Sie ist ein wahnsinnig liebes Tier und jede gute Stunde ist ein Geschenk. Ich bin so froh, dass ich viel Zeit mit ihr verbracht habe, letztes Jahr mit ihr zur Show in Utah gereist bin, und jeden Tag mit einem "thank you, Allie" angefangen und geendet habe.

Es ist sehr ruehrend wie Vati und Charlotte mir den Ruecken staerken -- ich versuchen, nicht durchblicken zu lassen, wie schrecklich die Lage ist und wie viel ich heulen und verzweifeln muss, aber sie verstehen and fragen nach der Allie, und helfen auch finanziell damit sie die teuren Behandlungen kriegen kann. Es bedeutet sehr viel!

Anfangs war mein eigener Tierarzt abwesend und wir sahen seinen Partner -- wir verstanden uns schlecht mit ihm. Jetzt aber ist meiner wieder da und es ist eine RIESEN Erleichterung -- ich kann mich auf ihn verlassen, und er weiss wirklich bescheid. Du kennst das bestimmt auch von Menschenaerzten ...

Jetzt weisst Du alles im kleinsten Detail. Wie steht die Lage bei Dir??
Danke fuer's ausheulenlassen

Deine cze

Starting treatment

2005-06-09T14:57:00.000-05:00

L, Thank you so much for your support and knowledge!
I spent several nights and days on the internet researching kidneys ;-) and finally got to talk to my own vet. He spent 1.5 hours with me going over Allie's blood work and urine. She is not concentrating as well as she should, and there is some blood. There are some anomalies in her blood values. So we have scheduled a thorough ultrasound for next week with the best woman in town (I researched this). Allie is on phosphorus binders, and he gave me some Eukanuba Early Kidney, since she refuses to eat k/d (dog; she loves k/d for cats!). He also recommends what they do on the web: regular protein diet, supplementing with omega-3, fish-body oil, vitamins E and B-12. She is low thyroid, so that may have to be treated, although she isn't showing symptoms. We probably will do a fluid treatment next week to get BUN and creatinine down at least temporarily to give her a break, depending on what the ultrasound shows. But he is letting me do one thing at a time, and putting the diagnostics before the treatments! What a relief, to speak with my own trusted vet and have him be rational and, I feel, thinking of Allie's best interests. She is such a great gal, she really deserves it.

I don't know how much longer I can continue taking time off work for my back problems (facet joints and annular discs, yeah), but while I do, I'm enjoying every minute with Allie!! ;-)

Allie's gris-gris

2004-08-05T14:52:00.000-05:00

Dear L and D

So last night I took Allie outside when a few stars were visible. She did her business and wandered around a little, making sure no terrorists had taken over while she was inside. Then she and Ghost came up and sat down with me. Even Ghost, who usually dances around like a wild man. They listened very soberly as I told them all about Stocker, how he wasn't some sissy show dog any more, but carried the whole weight of his humom's heart and worked night and day to make the home a perfect place for his family. How he had had several close calls and things had been growing in him that didn't belong there. How he had fought like a Malamute and was the toughest dog imaginable. That now he was in pain again and we all had to think of him and send our best Malamute energy his way to help him get through this time again. How his humom was terribly afraid for him and beside herself because he is the love of her life. How tomorrow would tell whether he had another growth or not, and that we had to be pulling for him.

They looked at me with their big brown eyes, and Allie's said to me,"never be afraid for a Malamute. Do your best, but trust us to do our very best, and that is damned good. We will give you everything we have, and that is ourselves, now. Be satisfied with that, and love and outrageously spoil us now. Every day with us is a gift, to be enjoyed anew with wonder and excitement. All those gifts will stay with you for the rest of your life."

(Allie thinks rather highly of herself, and knows I worry about her age.)

Late that night, as I was drifting off to sleep, I heard a very soft, haunting sound outside my window. It was Allie, howling. She only whisper-howls, but it's very spine-tingling and I'm sure it reached as far as Bellville.
love,
c

Joining drill team

2004-06-01T16:08:00.000-05:00

So I came in from the garden and lay down with an ice pack on my back. Allie jumped up on the bed, covered my sweaty legs with undercoat, and energetically wiped her eye snot on my arm. Tears came to my own eyes. I realized that, with Allie, every moment is a special gift. She is pure happiness in my life. Although I sometimes want to kill her, I haven't had a moment of regret. L. and TAMR will always have a special place in my life for saving her life and bringing this unique dimension into my own life. She's my mental health dog, and my happiness dog, and I can't do enough to spoil the pants off her for the rest of her life. Although I don't do much for rescue, maybe the one or two adoptions I help with help bring as much joy to somebody else.

We've been invited to join a drill team! She did splendidly walking through the steps, sits, downs and turns, but does not want to back up. If anyone has tips on how to teach that, please let me know. Imagine, a Mal on a drill team! We are supposed to perform in the 4th of July parade.

Welcome to Alexandria's Live for Today site!

2004-06-01T13:49:00.000-05:00

Guerillera Alexandria is a unique, fantastic, incredible, gorgeous, one-of-a-kind, superb Alaskan Malamute. This blog was started by her humom to celebrate her and join her in living in the moment.

Our dogs are with us for such a short time, and sometimes we get caught up in the day-to-day rollercoaster ride of treatment, research, feeding, minute observation ... it is important to remember to enjoy all the happy times and the precious, silly and unexpected moments that make it all worthwhile. Please feel free to post here if you would like to share a moment or memory to help you Live for Today with your dog. Send me an e-mail if you would like to be a regular member.

Best to you and your dog!
Connie and Allie