Eirian's red cross husky trek across the Arctic

I just visited a new blog, following across from a comment Eirian put on my last post.

Her blog is very interesting! She's going to trek across the Arctic in April with a pack of huskies, to raise money for the Red Cross.

I'll be putting her on my Google Reader list so I can follow her progress. So far she's:
kept up her training to get fit enough;
walked with a pack of dogs;
done a Wolf Walk.

She also has some super cute pics of her puppy.

blogging about dog friendly travel

Two Pitties has come up with what I think is a lovely idea - that we should post about our own cities, including things travellers could do if they had a dog with them.

She lives in Chicago, a city that I once visited and loved. I was only there for a few days, but I fell in love with the magnificent buildings. And I saw something I've always wanted to see - fireflies!

Of course, I didn't have Penny with me - in fact, that was before Penny came into my life and I realised I could be just as happy walking in a park with her as travelling the world.

dogs and lost consonants

As I was thinking about the English language and writing a (long overdue) post for my other blog, I came across one of Graham Rawle's "lost consonants' humorous artworks.

For fifteen years he produced collages for The Weekend Guardian. He would use actual pictures and scissors, rather than digital manipulation, to produce a picture of a phrase where one consonant was missing. For instance, 'Statistics showed an increase in violet crime', or 'An accident had left him with a small car over one eye'.

A Google search of his name comes up with lots of examples of his work.

But my all-time favorite would have to be:
Every time the doorbell rang, the dog started baking.
(You'll have to magnify it on your screen to see it clearly.)

New blog about dog shopping

I've mentioned Jess the Dog Shopper a couple of times since she commented here. I think she has an interesting idea for a useful blog - she tries out products and reports in an impartial way. She has two dogs of her own and also tests products out on her mother's dog.

dogs and the joy of running

Walks are one thing. Pretty good fun. But running...ah, that is sheer joy for Penny. So I thought I'd find lots of good pictures of her racing across the grass in various places if I searched our 'canine archives', but there are surprisingly few. Surprisingly few in focus - for reasons that relate to my photographic skills and Penny's speed.

I'm looking for photos because Rusty suggested that on Saturday next we bloggers have a 'joy of running' day.I want to take part because it will be fun. But also because it's a message that needs to be sent to 'them'. Those who want to see our dogs walking along beside us all the time on short leads, obedient, constricted, restrained, dominated, leashed... Oh, I could go on for hours seeking the right phrases to express the only way 'they' think a dog should interact with humans.

Not that I don't agree that dogs need to be taught to walk quietly on lead. To interact calmly with humans of any age.

But sometimes they need to run. And we need to make sure our city planners don't take away our right to run off-lead.

Australian leader of the opposition is a dog blogger

Since I started Penny's blog I've found lots of interesting people who like to write about life with a dog. It was a surprise, though, to see a story about a prominent Australian dog blogger on page one of mx - a daily paper designed to be read on the evening train commute by people who've lost half their wits during a long, tiring day at work.

Malcolm Turnbull, the Leader of the Opposition, was accused of updating Twitter posts about his dog blog during Question Time in Parliament.

Of course I took a look around the Net to find his dog blog. Call me easily influenced, if you like, but this is one of the few times I've warmed to a politician. I really liked the posts I read.

I particularly liked the one about Embarkation Park. Jojo the dog (aka Malcolm Turnbull, or whoever writes it - can't quite get rid of the cynical attitude to politicians, unfortunately) quotes one of my heroes in the fight to protect the millennia-long bond between dogs and humans - Clover Moore, whom I've written about previously when she proposed a bill to ban the sale of dogs in pet shops. On Turnbull's blog she is quoted as saying

"regular off-leash exercise helped dogs socialise and release pent-up energy, reducing nuisance behaviour such as uncontrolled barking."

Recently there has been an endless, fraught debate about the use of some of the local Darebin Parklands for off-leash exercise of dogs. Seeing the vital role of off-leash exercise mentioned on the blog of the Leader of the Opposition gives me heart that this issue has some powerful supporters.

dog blogs and awards

Ten days ago Penny and I were excited to receive an award from Noah. I showed my excitement by rushing off to tell everyone in the family that my blog had received an award. Penny poured out her emotional excess with a yawn and a scratch of that hard-to-reach spot near her left rear leg. Just goes to show that different species can live together in harmony but see the world in different ways.

Here's the award.It looks fabulous!



It's great to hear that others out there in the blogosphere enjoy Penny's blog, because blogging is a solitary pursuit, after all, and when you write a blog post you can never be sure whether your words are finding a home.

After I had settled down, I began to wonder who I should pass it on to. I popped over to Noah's blog to let Noah know the award had been received. And then I thought again. And again. And again...

By this stage a week had passed and I still hadn't decided who to pass it on to. Should it be that great blog with the jokes? Should it be one of the many dog blogs that bring me such joy to read? Maybe I should give it to the site with the fascinating recipes, or the one with the masterly photographs?

Hmmm...

I had a look around the Net. No, can't give it to that blog, because it already had the same award. Oh, I know... there's that interesting one about agility. Nope, she's already had it also.

So, to cut a long story short. I'm not going to pass it on. I apologise if that seems selfish. But it's just got too hard. I simply can't choose between the many blogs I love.

Okay, now that it's confession time, I'd better admit that the same thing happened when I received the lovely award from Rusty. I was thrilled to get it but I couldn't get my head around who to pass it on to.

Awards are exciting and make me feel good, but I find it just too hard to choose who to pass them on to. It's not that I don't appreciate the other blogs - my enormous list of blogs in my Google Reader is evidence to the contrary.

I don't like choosing one blog over another.
I love so many.

the third eyelid in dogs

I don't generally look closely at Penny's eyes except when she rolls in the privet blossom that is everywhere in our backyard at the moment and I'm trying to brush the tiny flowers off her gorgeous long eyelashes. (I have read that dogs with hair that falls over their eyes, as Penny's will do if it's not trimmed, have longer than usual eyelashes to hold the 'fringe' away from their eyes. The Lhasa Apso has this feature and I'm convinced that somewhere in the mix of Penny's ancestry is one of these beautiful creatures.)

Anyway, back to eyes...
A friend had a scare the other day when her dog's eye seemed to be partly red and rolled back into her head. The vet said it was a problem with 'the third eyelid'. I looked around on the Net for some information and came across a series of photos of the third eyelid at The Pet Center.com In part it says:

The Third Eyelid is also known as the Nictitating Membrane. It serves as added protection for the eye through an interesting ability to close upward and over the dog's eyeball. The canine is able to retract the entire eyeball backward into the eye socket, and coupled with this retraction is the Third Eyelid's ability to slide up and over the retracted globe.

At LookD. com there's a general overview of dog anatomy and it says:

Each eye of a dog has three eyelids, the main upper and lower lids and a third lid hidden between them in the inner corner of the eye. The third eyelid can sweep across the transparent cornea of the eye and clean it like a windshield wiper.

ChinaRoad Lowchens of Australia has an article about conjunctivitis. It says this is a common problem in dogs and looks at various causes. It continues:

Regardless of the cause, a patient with conjunctivitis will often squint and/or keep the third eyelid partially covering the eyeball. Conjunctivitis is often painful, causing a dog to paw at or rub the eye against objects such as your leg or the carpet.