Dancing About Architecture

Caution! Beagle Plurking

Last night I was on Plurk giving it a second chance when I plurked about how difficult it was to plurk with a beagle sitting on your left arm. Darren suggested that I give Rory her own Plurk account. I laughed it off but the idea went and twisted around in my brain for the rest of the night. This morning when I woke up it was there screaming, “Give Rory her own Plurk account!”. So in order to get some peace, I gave in and created a plurk account for Rory.

Therefore, if you want to stalk my beagle online she can be found plurking here. If you are new to Plurk click this link and once you sign up it will automatically make Rory your friend.

This is my gorgeous beagle Rory and her beloved toy Womble.

I can assure you that she will be plurking about her womble quite a bit. She LOVES her womble. If she wants to play, it is the first toy she picks up. If she notices you feeling down she will give you her womble and womble even gets to sit next to her whilst she eats her dinner. She will no doubt be plurking about sleeping, feeling hungry and stealing underwear as well.

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Tags: beagle, dogs, plurk, womble

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Buy Now, Pay Later

Some pet stores in Australia are now introducing payment plans for animals, where you pay a 40% deposit and pay the rest over 6 months. This is absolutely disgusting. I am already against the sale of dogs and cats in pet stores because so many people impulse buy and then dump the poor animal when it becomes no longer cute. But now, to be able to buy a pet using a payment plan is just going to make the whole situation even worse.

If you can not afford the initial cost of an animal then you have no business owning one. Yes, I know this sounds harsh, but owning a dog or a cat is expensive. You have to be able to afford not only food but their vet bills as well. In the first year, the vet bills for a dog is approximately $600 - that is for three vaccinations and desexing. It does not include flea treatment, worming or heartworm treatment - for that add on about another $150. So, all up, you are looking at about $750 in standard vet bills for the first year alone and then about $200 a year for the next 15 or so years. If your animal gets sick, this amount will increase quite substantially. For food you are looking at a minimum of $30 a month, which is $360 a year. Therefore, in the first year of your dog’s life, you will pay no less than $1,110 for its food and medical bills. However, this is something that impulse buyers do not give a single thought to when they see the cute puppy in the window and the staff at the pet store certainly do not inform them.

So, go ahead, give these people a payment plan and then watch the number of dogs and cats being killed in pounds every day increase. The pet stores most certainly do not give a shit about them, all they care about is making a sale.

Tags: cats, dogs, pet stores

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Sunday on the couch with a book

I spent this afternoon in the most perfect way imaginable on a cold miserable Sunday - on the couch, under a doona, reading a fantastic book.

Elizabeth Moon is releasing the newest instalment of my favourite series - The Vatta War series, so in preparation for when the new book finally comes out in Australia, I am re-reading all the previous books. Today, around midday, I started upon the final book, “Command Decision” and five hours later, I finished it. It was so lovely to be stretched out on the couch lost in a good book for hours on end.

Near the end of my reading marathon Caleb decided to join me. Now Caleb is a large German Shepherd cross and unlike Rory (my beagle), you can’t share the couch with him whilst you are all stretched out. Caleb is a good dog and won’t jump up and lie on your legs (thank god), but he will take any space he can find and expand himself. When he hopped up on the couch, he was lying on my feet and very slowly I lost all space on the couch as he slowly expanded himself. Caleb, meanwhile, was in heaven - he was on the couch snuggled with a human. This is apparently pure big dog bliss. I let him stay as it is so rare he gets human snuggle time unlike Rory who gets it all the time as she is small and compact. I must admit that whilst I didn’t have much space, it was nice to sit and read with my boy curled up beside me.

Now I am all relaxed and really to tackle another week at work. This week will be a short week since Friday is ANZAC Day and hence a public holiday. I am really looking forward to my three day weekend.

Tags: dogs, reading

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There is an exception to every rule

My dog Caleb is dog aggressive. He hates other dogs. Actually he is scared of them and over the years that fear has turned to aggression. He thinks if he can attack first, that they can’t hurt him. Walking him is an exercise in avoiding other dogs and praying that every dog we encounter is on a lead or we can get far enough away without incident. I must note here that Caleb has never injured another dog and I intend to keep it that way.

We got Caleb from a rescue organisation when he was 5 months old. He was rescued from the pound at 7 weeks, but wasn’t socialised with other dogs until he came to live with us. He was a very scared little boy, who suffered from severe separation anxiety and was afraid of other people and dogs. Rory had to teach him how to play and that the world wasn’t going to end if the humans left. Caleb was progressing okay until our local off-lead dog park closed down and Caleb was threatened by several off lead dogs. We then did a stupid thing and stopped walking him.

We have gotten Caleb to the point now where he can see a dog in the distance and not raise his hackles, but we will need professional help to get him actually socialising with other dogs.

However, as the title of this post suggests, there is an exception to every rule. Caleb hates all dogs (Rory not included) except for our friend Ford’s dog B. Caleb loves B. B is the only dog who Caleb will not do dominate posturing over or display any aggressive behaviour towards. It helps that B is a submissive female and that Caleb has known B since he came to live with us. But B is not a dog that Caleb sees regularly. It may only be a couple of times a year, yet Caleb’s behaviour with her remains unchanged.

B and Ford came over yesterday and it was so lovely seeing all three dogs race up and down the hallway playing happily. There wasn’t the slightest bit of aggression or anxiety from Caleb even B when growled at him for getting in her face too much. Maybe there is hope for my boy yet. I just have to find a decent dog trainer with experience in dealing with aggressive dogs whose methods I approve of. This is harder than it should be. I think I will call the puppy preschool trainers I worked with at my old job and get a recommendation from them as I hold them and their ability as trainers in high esteem. Alas, they are not professional dog trainers, but I am sure they have friends who are.

Tags: aggression, dogs

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Fair Day

I have just gotten home, tired and sunburnt, from Fair Day. Fair Day is officially described by the Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras as Sydney’s great big gay picnic in the park - and that is a pretty good description. Once a year, the gays take over Victoria Park next to Sydney Uni and transform into a big gay festival complete with stalls, live music and a dog show called Doggywood. It is a real community day where the whole gay community comes together to chill out in the park. It is the only event in the Mardi Gras Festival that I must go to. I love Fair Day. I love wandering around the stalls checking out what community, political and sporting groups have shown up this year and looking at tacky and trashy things to buy. I love hanging out in the park with my friends and meeting up with people that I only seem to see at Fair Day. Most of all, I love seeing all the dogs that come to Fair Day with their owners. The gay community love their dogs and Fair Day is their big chance to show them off. Lelak and I have a great time wandering around pointing out all the interesting dogs. We saw four Great Danes and two Neopolitian Mastiffs this year. Lelak really wants to get a Great Dane, but at the moment, two dogs are enough. Any more and they would start to outnumber us.

Fair Day is pretty much the one time of the year that I feel connected to the gay community. In my day to day life, I rarely meet anyone else who is gay, except for my friends and in an office where I am the only gay person it can be a bit isolating at times. Fair Day reminds me that I am a part of a big huge community that seems to be getting bigger every year. It is a great feeling to walk around a festival knowing that you share something in common with almost everyone there. I say almost everyone because an increasing large number of straight families also attend Fair Day and I think that is truly amazing. I love seeing them there soaking up the atmosphere and having fun. It is a good feeling to have such visible support from the straight community.

Tags: dogs, Fair Day, gay, lesbian

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