Getting the Nursery Ready

AKC/UKC Champion Sierra's Athena (pictured below) has been bred to Sierra's The West Wing (pictured above). While we never count puppies before they're born, it looks like the breeding took. Puppies are expected mid-June. This will be Athena's last litter and our only Eskie litter for 2009. We can't wait to see these little bundles of white fluff.

Animal Rights Activist on FBI most wanted list

In other animal rights news, the FBI today placed Daniel Andreas San Diego on its list of most-wanted terrorists. He is wanted in connection with summer 2003 explosions at a California biotechnology research laboratory, Chiron Life Sciences Centre and another facility. The FBI has offered a $250,000 reward for information leading to his arrest.

"Animal rights and environmental extremism pose a significant domestic terror threat," the FBI said in a press statement. It said that animal-rights extremists have caused more than $110m in damages.

Helmsley Trust Grants

Most of you know that billionaire Leona Helmsley left $12 million to her Maltese and directed the majority of her estate be directed towards "purposes related to the provision of care for dogs," along with other charities. However, in February judge, Troy K. Webber of Surrogate’s Court in Manhattan decided that he knew better what should be done with Mrs. Helmsley's estate. He reduced the Maltese's share to $2 million, gave $6 million to each of the two grandchildren she explicitly excluded and told the trustees they weren't limited to dog related charities and could divy up her monies as THEY saw fit.

So, out of the $136 million in grants today, only $1 million went to the dogs. The monies went to service dog organizations, seeing eye dog organizations and dogs for the deaf. The only good thing is that none of it went to the animal rights groups, PETA and HSUS.

American Shetland Sheepdog Association National Specialty Show

The American Shetland Sheepdog Association (ASSA) will be holding its National Specialty Show in Perry, GA April 18 - 26. Obedience, agility, junior showmanship, futurity and conformationwill be held at Georgia National Fairgrounds and Agricenter. Herding will be held at Woods End in Watkinsville, GA. Visitors are welcome


For more information see: http://www.sscgeorgia.org/national//welcome.html

Phoenix CABRA Microchip & Vaccine Clinic

The Coalition of All Breed Rescue Assoc. (CABRA) will be holding microchip and vaccine clinics Sunday May 17th, 2009 and Sunday July 19th, 2009 from 10 AM to 3 PM.

LOCATION: University of Arizona Maricopa Co. Cooperative Extension, 4341 E. Broadway in Phoenix.

HOW TO GET THERE: I-10 to 40th St., South to Broadway and then east on Broadway to 43rd Pl. Building is on the south side of Broadway at 43rd Place.

If you have less than 6 animals to chip or vaccinate, the cost for microchipping is $15 and vaccines will cost $15 for micrchipped pets and $20 for pets without microchips.

Ch. Voodoo Retires

Ch. Voodoo has officially retired from the show ring. Her new career will entail couch lizard and bed buddy to David & Yvonne Heron and their 5 year old daughter.

Sad but happy day

Clue and Stevie left today for their retirement home. The lovely couple with them are Gene & Diana Dieckhoner from Sedona. Gene is a gifted artist http://www.genedieckhoner.com/ and his wife is his manager. We know that Clue and Stevie will be spoiled by them.

Feeding your dog raw foods

Dogs are relatives of the wolf and originally ate raw foods. Nowadays it is common for owners to feed commercially made cooked (kibble) foods. Cooking is supposed to destroy harmful bacteria and parasites and to insure adequate shelf life of the food. But, cooking also removes some of the nutrients that our pets need. And, after the problem with the Chinese tainted gluten in US foods, we can't really say that kibble is "safer" than feeding raw.

Raw feeders often say that they feed "BARF" - bones and raw food. Feeding BARF is not the same as merely throwing a bunch of raw meat at the dogs. BARF diets include raw meat, vegetables and supplements but does not include grains or other carbohydrates. BARF includes meats from different animals - beef, pork, chicken and turkey are often available without too much searching. You can also incorporate fish and other animals. Organ meat, particularly liver should be 5 to 10% of the diet.

Here in Phoenix, there is a yahoo group called PhxBARF that discusses feeding raw. And, there is a Phoenix-area BARF food-buying co-op, visit http://www.azrawbones.com/ Various raw foods can be purchased in Surprize, AZ from Susie's Doggy Delights http://www.suzysdoggiedelights.us/

We took our retired Eskie, Voodoo along with two Shelties (Clue and Stevie) to the vet today for spays & neuter. Dr. Turner works with several breeders and I was able to watch the entire procedure. It's really very interesting... took about an hour per dog. Each dog also got their rabies shots updated.



Speaking of rabies... We reported previously that Arizona has been experiencing a severe rabies outbreak. About a week ago a bobcat walked right into a bar and bit 3 people. Now, to be honest, one of the 3 asked to be bitten. He walked right up to the bobcat and bent down to take a picture of it with his cell phone. Not real bright. Coconino county is proposing a 90 day pet quarantine while it distributes edible rabies vaccine for the wild animals. Rabies has been confirmed in 21 wild animals in the area since November. This plan would require owners to keep dogs and cats on their property or leashed for 90 days while vaccines are distributed across parts of Flagstaff.