They’re derived from an earlier line of the German shepherd breed, before selective breeding for excessively sloped backs increased their incidence of health problems. There were originally a rare white colour mutation, but they’re now a distinct breed; more of a smart, social, companion / working dog. We prefer them because they don’t suffer hip problems to anything like the same extent, and they’re a lot more agile than most GS dogs.
Day two of puppypalooza now, making sure they’re fed every 1-2 hours is fun, but incompatible with a good night’s sleep. But the cuteness factor overrides all that.
prolix
1742
Cute dog! I hope the other puppies were saved from that trash can also.
Heh. It’s a laundry basket, the only thing we had at hand when a quick transport of puppies from A to B was required.
I wish someone would capture, sedate and shear me.
I may have posted this one before of my Basset. i used to have a yellow lab, but he got old and passed away–best hunter I ever had! I owned a Basset before the lab, but it was a long time ago.
Amazing pictures! I should have had a picture of my dog in my laptop but I don’t so I can share to you how playful he is even in pictures!
More Smaug pictures from yesterday. Here he is investigating some food, possibly me at this stage, hard to tell.
And here he is having just swallowed a bird (you can still see the feathers in the corner of his mouth). He looks somewhat sated, fortunately for me.
Nixxter
1748
He has a rather fetching smile !
One of my pretty babies from last year, hoping for more to hatch any day now:
Oh my! What kind of snake is it? It looks like a garter snake.
Cave Dwelling Rat snake, one of the Beauty snakes from SE Asia.
I found a nice garter snake, maybe a yard long, chomping on one of my friendly toads near the front door. Now, I like my toads, as they eat bugs, but I understand snakes gotta eat, too, and they consume a variety of pests as well. So I carted Mr. Snake across the dirt road to the woods to finish his meal. It was rather disconcerting at first, as when the dogs spooked the snake (he was on the front step), the toad was still only half in, so it looked like some horrific nightmare serpent with hand claws on its head. It was just the top half of the toad.
My dogs do play-bows to the toads at night. But the toads I think are still in mourning for Uncle Teddy.
How did you get the snake across the road with a toad in its mouth? If you used your hands, please don’t tell me. Just make up something believable.
Wait. I thought garter snakes were harmless (and in my mind, that means non-carnivorous). That’s the only reason my dad got me to pick one up many years ago: “Oh, they’re harmless, son. They don’t bite.”
But a whole toad?!? Good lord, man! That thing coulda took off a finger! Thanks Dad.
Garter snakes (and all snakes) bite plenty. Whether they can actually break a human’s skin is something else. I don’t think there is such a thing as a non-carnivorous snake… in that they all eat fish and toads and worms and bugs.
Used a grippy-grabber–that’s what we call it, one of those grabbers-on-a-stick things you see given away with scooter chairs on Hoverround ads. I have an old one I found and repaired, which is useful for stuff like this. The snake was not terribly pleased but, slithered away with his meal more or less contented, eventually.
JFrazer
1757
Bummer post alert:
These are our two kids. The white one is Charlie, the little Yorkie is Ren. We took Ren to the vet about 6 weeks ago because she was sleeping more than usual and was just being weirdly lazy. Long story short, they found an extremely aggressive but benign tumor on the x-ray and follow-up ultrasound. They attempted surgery, but when they got in there they found that the tumor had infiltrated the area between and around almost every organ in her lower abdomen. It was impossible to remove, and debulking it wouldn’t have done much since it was growing so quickly. The surgeon called us and basically told us our 3 choices were to bring her home and let her waste away, wake her up to say goodbye, or leave her under anesthesia. It was probably the worst phone call and decision I ever had. Choices 1 and 2 were me being selfish, so had to chose 3.
I’m not quite 40 yet and really haven’t experienced loss like this before. Both parents are alive. I barely knew my grandparents, making it mostly academic when they passed away. I lost pets before when I was younger: 2 dogs, both of which lived to be 14, and a cat that lived to be 17. This was different. We got Ren as a puppy when we first moved to L.A, around the time we learned that it’s not possible for my wife to have children. She was also really young (not quite 5 years old) and it was so sudden, there was no time for mulling it over and coming to peace with it.
It’s been a little over a month since Ren passed away. At first we decided we weren’t going to get another dog, but over time that has changed. Charlie is miserable without a playmate and the house is weird without 2 dogs running around. This weekend we checked out the Nebraska Humane Society, but the pickings are slim, which is great news since they are a no-kill shelter as long as there is room in the inn. They haven’t had to euthanize a healthy dog in over 3 years. We found a terrier rescue that has a 5 month old Yorkie that is ready to be adopted. They just need to do their little walk-through house inspection and make sure Charlie is good with her before giving the green light. If all goes well, I’ll have a puppy picture to post as a follow-up later this week.
My condolences on your loss…and my congratulations on your forthcoming adoption! Having animal companions is one of the greatest things in life, but like relationships with beloved humans, loss is going to be part of that too. It’s always hard to lose a companion like your Yorkie. He had a fantastic life though, thanks to you, and you’ll be able to offer the same to another wonderful friend soon.
Lol, ok. That’s pretty believable. :)
Just teasing Wombat. I know you used a grippy grabber, but I couldn’t resist implying that you’re a snake toting, toad hauling kinda guy. :)
Toads I’ve picked up. They usually pee on me. Snakes…well, my policy is, you leave me alone, I leave you alone. Which is usually fine, but sometimes… When I lived in the Philippines as a youngster, we had Asian cobras in the back yard. We offered the local construction site guys free cobra meat if they came and shot them. They did, and we got rid of the cobras. Usually I’d be fine with snakes in general, but I there are exceptions for massively venomous serpents of doom.
