The Poodle (and Dog) Blog

Keeping wild animals as pets

After three baby squirrels lost their home to a chain saw, North Carolina woman Gail Latta tried unsuccessfully to feed them.

Then she turned to Pixie, her Poodle who had recently had her own pups. They had been sold, but Pixie was still able to nurse the baby squirrels for two weeks until they were old enough to be weaned.

Because she thought she might be violating state regulations by keeping wildlife in her home, Latta wisely turned them over to an animal rehabilitation specialist who will keep them until they can be released on his own property.

States have different laws regarding keeping wild animals as house pets, but whatever the law says, it is generally not a good idea. Dogs and cats have been domesticated for thousands of years. Wild animals are not like they are in Disney movies.

We had some neighbors who adopted an orphan baby skunk. They had her de-scented and named her Blossom.

Everything you want in a pet, Blossom was not. She was never interested in affection or bonding with humans, she used the litter box—sometimes, she ran fast and was difficult to catch, she was nocturnal, noisy, and destructive.

They ended up keeping her in a cage which they moved to the basement each night. Too late they realized that having Blossom in their lives brought no joy to her or to them.

If you’re following Carlos at the Owl Box, every day someone wants to know if  owls make good pets. He is quite adamant in saying no. Carlos has done a lot of work to allow people to learn about and experience the lives of owls in the wild where they belong.

Near our town there is a wildlife rehabilitation center which takes in young and wounded animals. Their success comes when the animal maintains its fear of humans and is healthy enough to be released into the wild.

I worked with a woman—I’ll call her Margie because that was her name. She just “loved animals” so she volunteered to work at the center.

Margie was one of those people who knew more than anyone else. In spite of the orientation, instead of just cleaning out the cages as she was supposed to do, she insisted on giving the animals treats and trying to pet them.

After less than a week she was asked not to come back. Of course she had to tell everyone how cruel the wildlife workers were.

Have any of you had an experience or know someone who tried to domesticate a wild animal?

Confessions of an Owlcoholic—watching Molly and McGee

I really thought when the Shiba Inu Puppies went to their forever homes I would have more time to… I don’t know, re-roof the house, write a novel, work for world peace.

But it was not to be.

My blogging buddy Jackiesue turned me on to the USTREAM Owl Box and I’m joining those experiencing MOD, Molly Obsessive Disorder.

The scene is an owl box in the one acre yard of Carlos and Donna Royal in San Marcos, California. They built an owl box equipped with cameras two years ago but this is the first time they have attracted inhabitants. The cameras have zoom and night vision capabilities.

Mollie and her mate-for-life, McGee, are common barn owls who have produced five viable eggs. Barn owls lay eggs over a period of several days and they hatch in the order they were laid. On Sunday the fourth egg hatched with over 18,000 anxious owlcoholics looking on.

Mollie stays with her brood while McGee spends his days at Hooters sleeping in a nearby tree. At night McGee stops by for visits and brings back groceries, mainly rabbits and rodents. People on the east coast are losing a lot of sleep waiting for it to get dark out here so they can see McGee.

Through the day Mollie snoozes, cleans house, or rips apart the dead bodies McGee has provided and tenderly feeds her rapidly growing babies.

Live chat is available. It consists mostly of people anthropomorphizing the birds, coming up with word plays on "owl," or complaining about their dining habits.

Isn't it amazing how little some people know about wild animals? They seem to think that Carlos should cater some tofu owlet chow and spare the untimely deaths of  rodents of the area. Hopefully those people will just stop watching or at least commenting.

Stop by to say hello to the world’s favorite owl family reality show. You may even get MOD.

More information from Amazon on barn owls in sidebar.

Sunday photograph--Puppy love

U.S. Marines in southern Afghanistan
feeding a stray puppy

From Time

Winston, the car eating dog, is set free

Hurray for the police and Judge Sherry Paty in Chattanooga, Tennessee. After two weeks in the doggie slammer, Winston was allowed to rejoin his happy family.

In less enlightened communities, family dogs with no history of violence have been destroyed for behaving badly.

Up to that time Winston had been a sweet family dog, disturbed only by lawn equipment at times, according to his owner.

Then for whatever doggie reason, Winston, a mixed breed, escaped a fenced yard and went on a tangent against cars. It may be that he was showing off for his two doggie buddies who were running with him. Dogs will do things when they are running in packs that they would never do alone.

By the time Animal Control captured him he had attacked four cars, chewed tires and mangled the front bumper off a police patrol car. Even being tasered didn’t stop him.

For a while his future was in doubt. But, since he had not harmed any humans, the judge’s main concern was making sure it never happened again, rather than taking harsher measures.

Owner Michael Emerling, who had taken Winston in as a stray two years ago, had to pay fees of over 200 dollars and sign a lot of agreements. Winston must attend obedience classes and must not be allowed to run loose. For six months, he will wear a tag saying that he is potentially dangerous, but that that could be dropped if there are no problems during that time.

An enlightened and compassionate treatment of a beloved family pet.

Here is a dash cam video of Winston in action.

Someday these little guys will be predator and prey

But for now…

When this three-week-old bob kitten and four-day-old fawn were rescued from a wildfire near Santa Barbara, California, they bonded and found comfort in each other at the shelter.

Normally animals are kept separate from other species, but with so many animals being rescued, there was no crate big enough for the fawn. The bob kitten had been found dehydrated and near death.

Now healthy, he scampered over and curled up with the fawn.

Someday they will take their roles in nature as cougar and deer. But for now we can smile at their baby innocence and cuteness.

Fantastic Mr. Fox DVD—Review

Fantastic Mr. Fox is available today on DVD and Blu-Ray.

This is a different experience in films, but three generations of my family loved it. We all gave it a solid A. Perhaps not everyone will.

The stop-motion animated film is based on Roald Dahl’s children’s novel.

It takes a little while to adjust to the jerky stop-and-go rhythms, but once we were captivated by the charming puppets and meticulously detailed sets, we were thoroughly entertained and caught up in the humor, action, and creativity. There are a lot of laugh out loud moments in the film which moves along at a fast pace.

The story involves Mr. and Mrs. Fox, their somewhat different son Ash, their visiting nephew Christopherson and their many animal friends.

When Mrs. Fox finds out she is pregnant, she insists they give up their life of stealing chickens. But after a few years of being straight-laced and somewhat dull, Mr. Fox gets restless and decides to pull some new capers against nearby farmers. The mean farmers join forces and it becomes all out war against the Fox family and their animal friends. What the humans don’t realize is that Mr. Fox is too fantastic to be outsmarted by mere humans for long.

I didn’t find anything in the film that would be unsuitable for children. The strongest language was “what the cuss?”

Even if you saw Fantastic Mr. Fox in the theatre, the behind the scenes segments of the video give an understanding of the challenges, the creativity and the meticulous detail that went into filming the puppets frame by frame on the various miniature sets.

I was sent an advance copy of the DVD to write an independent review.

Yogi’s breeder banned from Kennel Club for threatening judge

Yogi, a Hungarian Vizsla, was named Best in Show at Crufts on March 14.

But now his breeder, Moray Armstrong, 63, (left) has been banned from all the Kennel Club events for a year for threatening a judge who placed Yogi (right) second at the Welsh Championship last August.

Moray told Rachel Herbert that he would make sure she never judged another dog competition after she didn’t give Yogi the Best In Show title. He was also fined £500 and ordered to pay costs of £1,210.

Bad Moray, bad human.

The 2010 Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race is in the history books

At the Finisher’s Banquet last night there were a lot of cheers and standing o’s for what has been one of the greatest races in the 38 year history of The Last Great Race on Earth.

Best of all, there were no dog deaths of the 1100 who participated.

Some of the mushers are planning next year’s race. Others are going home with the memories of a once in a lifetime unforgettable experience.

The dogs are ready to run again.

Why is that Bulldog smiling?

I’ve always fantasized about showing dogs at Crufts and Westminster because, you know, that’s where the cool kids are.

With their expensively tailored clothes and perfectly groomed dogs, they just seemed like the epitome of class and decorum—competing as a team with thousands of people watching and applauding.

Then Bev from My Fire Hydrant sent me this video.

Perhaps a word of explanation is in order.

According to the breed standard the Bulldog should “convey an impression of determination, strength and activity.” Handlers seem to believe the above method will make the dog stand still and give him the right facial expression, thus making him more prize-worthy.

And that’s their story and they’re sticking to it.

The Nigerian Puppy scam goes on and on…

Correct me if I’m wrong, but hasn’t the Nigerian (and sometimes Cameroon) Puppy Scam been going on for close to ten years? The puppy is often FREE. You just pay transportation.

Google “Nigerian puppy scam” and you get over 100,000 hits.

And yet again and again we get stories about yet another trusting American wanting an adorable Yorkie or Bulldog puppy sending money to them. And then they are shocked to find out there are bad people who want to take their money. ”Gosh, he seemed sincere and he even sent photos.”

This from yesterday’s, KGW News in Portland

PORTLAND, Ore. -- Crooks have been using puppies in the latest twist on Nigerian money wire scams, according to a warning from the Oregon Attorney General's Office.

Loretta Updegrave of Salem said it happened to her. It all started when she was browsing the classifieds and noticed that someone was selling Yorkshire terriers. Updegrave traded e-mails with the dog seller and said he seemed legitimate. The person posing as the puppy owner even sent photos of the puppies for sale.

But then he asked her to send $400 to Nigeria. Updegrave did. And guess what - her money disappeared and she never saw a puppy.

"You know, when you think you can trust somebody and you lose that a... there's people that are out there just waiting to take people's money for every little reason," she said.

State consumer advocates warned never to send money overseas to strangers.

How about don’t even send money across town to people you’ve never met to buy a dog you haven’t seen? Nigerians aren't the only puppy scammers. There are even people claiming to own the puppies shown on the various puppy cams.

This has been a Public Service Announcement.