trivia night and Huntington's disease

Penny had a quiet night at home alone last Saturday while her humans went to a trivia night. We didn't bring home any prizes; we obviously didn't know enough about sport or about the pop music of the seventies and eighties. That's weird - we were there, after all. Hmmm - must have had the radio turned off for twenty years.

However, we had a great night and also had the pleasure of knowing we were supporting a wonderful cause. Sean, the nephew of a good friend, is going to ride a bicycle across Australia, to raise funds for research into the terrible disease called Huntington's.

Three years ago Sean's father died of this disease and Sean, who had been diagnosed in 2002 as also carrying the Huntington's gene, decided he wanted to do something to honour his father's courageous life.

I'll quote a little from Sean's blog:

In May of 2005 John Egan died of Huntington’s Disease (HD). HD is an inherited neurological condition which slowly destroys the brain cells that affect the way people think, feel and move. There is no treatment. No cure. The disease is invariably fatal. I am John’s son, Sean. I am gene positive for HD.

The day after his funeral I started training furiously for the Melbourne to Warrnambool Cycling Classic; a professional, one day race of over 300km. Two weeks out from the race I purchased my new bike; a final gift from Dad.

On the day of the race I cried most of the way to the start; partly due to the daunting task that was ahead of me, and partly because I missed my dad. When I completed the race, I was immensely proud of my achievement, and realised that this was only the beginning.

I began planning a bike ride across Australia. I wanted to try to do something physically difficult to honour the courage and determination with which my father lived his life. I’m training for the ride by cycling 300 to 400 km each week (up to 600km during school holidays).

I want to show people that despite the setbacks life throws at us, we are all capable of achieving amazing things. When I think about what Dad went through, failing to complete the ride is not an option.

He's starting on Friday 12th September, from Perth and intends to be in Melbourne on Sunday 5th October. If you glance at the map you can see it's a huge challenge.

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.

parlance's ten rules for crossing the road with a dog

When Penny and I cross the road she always has to sit at the kerb and then we hurry straight across. Today I saw a woman standing on the centre line of a busy road with her dog beside her. I think that's dangerous. To a dog, the hurly-burly of vehicles racing past in front and behind must be quite scary.

In my opinion, when crossing road with a dog you need to allow for the worst-case scenario.
Be prepared for the possibility that the driver of every car passing by:

1. had a spider drop into their lap;
2. was told by their GPS to make a 180º turn;
3.will sneeze a mighty sneeze as they pass you and your dog;
4. hates dogs;
5. hates dog owners;
6. got their licence two minutes ago;
7. is putting on makeup and talking on the phone, whilst reaching for a drink from the glovebox;
8. has suddenly gone blind;
9. is drunk or under the influence of an illicit substance;
10. all of the above.

do the beeps on toll roads hurt dogs' ears?

Penny and I drove under the tolling gantry on the new Eastlink road today. She was snoozing on the seat beside me - she'd had an energetic time at K9 dog training.

I've bought an electronic tag because we'll be making the trip each Tuesday when we go to Lilydale for training. As the tag beeped, Penny whimpered and looked around. I remembered that she did the same thing last time we travelled on this road.
I'm glad we only go under one gantry, because I don't like the idea that the sound is bothering her. I was talking to someone recently who said she doesn't travel on the toll roads because the beeps upset her dog.

I've looked around on the Net but I can't find any specific information on this topic. However, Joyce D Kesling, at Responsible Dog and Cat Training, has a report on canine hearing that seems to explain what might be happening. Dogs hear high-pitched sounds more clearly that we do. Quoting from Stanley Coren's 2004 book,How Dogs Think: Understanding the Canine Mind, she says that dogs evolved to hear these high frequencies because they needed to hear the high-pitched squeaks and rustlings of small prey.

Addendum, 29th pril 2014. A comment today about this old post has made me realise I should update it. I still don't know whether the beeper was bothering Penny at the time, but she doesn't react to it these days. 
After I had those problems with Penny refusing to get into the car at all, I discovered I had a petrol leak in the car, at dangerous levels of fumes in the cabin of the vehicle. I got rid of the car, after having the leak dealt with, because I never again felt safe in it. (I made sure to let the prospective buyers know I had had this problem.)

I subsequently blogged about the Great Petrol Leak Saga here and here.

feeding a dog a raw diet that includes fish

Penny found something weird in her food bowl this evening. While her humans were eating their fish dinners, Penny was busy at her bowl long enough for them to think she was enjoying her meal of rice, beef leftovers and sardines. But she wasn't, because there was a strange creature staring at her.

It smelled good, though. So she decided to get it out of the bowl and roll on it. Her humans all leapt up from the table, yelling, 'No!'

Hmm... What to do with it?



She carried it over to her eating mat to think about it, but one of the humans' hands came sneaking over her shoulder to steal it away (and put it in the rubbish bin), so she had to crouch really, really low to guard it.



Even though she studied it carefully from different angles, it still didn't look like something a respectable dog would eat.




In the end, she decided it wasn't worth the trouble and the humans stole it away. The house rule is, 'Eat it if it's in your bowl, because you won't get anything else.' So all she got tonight was some left-over rice and a teensy piece of old cooked beef.

The bad news is, another piece of fish is going to appear in her bowl tomorrow.
The good news is, there'll be nice things mixed in with it, to make it less obvious.
The even better news is that the next bit won't have eyes.

If only she could be like Noah and family, and enjoy a fish meal properly! I belong to the Yahoo rawfeeding group and I'm convinced Penny will benefit from more oily fish in her diet.

There's an interesting discussion about fish in a dog's diet at Dogster.

strolling with a dog in the lusciously wet Darebin Parklands

Penny and I wandered around Darebin Parklands today to admire the green, green plants. On the way I heard a couple of locals chatting to each other across a street. (I couldn't help but overhear, seeing they were calling across the road.) One said she was tired of this wintry weather. They laughed that we'll soon be complaining about the hot, dry drought taking over again.

I wasn't laughing. I hate the drought. I hate the hot weather. I hate the fact that I have to watch out for snakes, even in my own backyard. Note, I don't say I hate the snakes themselves. They have a right to live. I just wish they weren't capable of killing me or Penny.

I love this rain we're getting. For the first time in ages, we are half way through a month and we've received HALF OF THE AVERAGE RAINFALL. Hooray!

As we walked past an area of lush grass, I realised it must be the result of a planting day last year, or maybe it was the year before... I'm so used to seeing brown, dried-up, struggling clumps of grass that at first I didn't recognise what I was seeing.



I began to doubt. Maybe it wasn't planted native grass I was seeing... But... the mowing seemed to delineate that section. It sure looked like native grass. And then I saw the outline of small mulch mat hidden in the foliage. I sure hope the plants we put in a couple of weeks ago will look as good as this next year.

Penny, as usual, checked out the puddles. The lovely puddles. The delightful, life-giving rainy puddles.

Penny says thanks for the award.

Penny and I are pleased to have received an award from Rusty. Well, to be quite honest, Penny's asleep on the couch and hasn't shown any interest in my blogging so far, but I'm super pleased to have received it. Here's a picture of it.