Read posts about rosie
October 23
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September 18
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Sergeant’s community liason responds to SentryPro XFC post (Gibberish is my native language (DrFaulken)) by drfaulken
Sixteen months, thousands of visitors, hundreds of comments, one known fatality and one class action lawsuit later, Sergeant's replies to my post about their toxic SentryPro XFC topical flea and tick treatment. Posted in: customer service , dogs , porter , rosie , sentrypro xfc
August 17
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Happy Birthday, Rosie! (Gibberish is my native language (DrFaulken)) by drfaulken
Today is officially Rosie’s birthday. She’s my only dog that I know when her birthday is; I think the best you can usually hope for with rescues is a birth week. For example, I only know that Porter was born about the first week of September, and that Pearl is sometime the last week of [...] Posted in: dogs , rosie
June 5
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Avian reapers (Gibberish is my native language (DrFaulken)) by drfaulken
My dogs are making the world safe from the avian flu, one bird at a time. Posted in: pearl , porter , pups , rosie
January 3
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The Best and Worst Gibberish Gadgets of 2007 (Gibberish is my native language (DrFaulken)) by drfaulken
I buy a lot of stuff, and sometimes my highest hopes turn out to be the biggest disappointments. I’ve evaluated the things I’ve purchased last year, with an eye to what I use on a regular basis that Gibberish readers may use often as well. Sure, I “use” my Keltec PF-9 every day when I carry it, but most of you don’t have carry permits and its appeal is not as universal as this year’s winner. Here’s a look back at the best and worst gadgets covered on Gibberish in 2007.
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December 23
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They’re totally worth it. (Gibberish is my native language (DrFaulken)) by drfaulken
I’m going to take a job that puts me back in the Washington, D.C. area. I’m not 100% sure I’ll be moving, but chances are very high. Having three dogs makes searching for a place to live more difficult, especially when most of the places nearest to where I’ll be working are high-rise apartments. I searched properties for about two hours and walked downstairs to find this:
No matter how big of a pain in the ass it is to find a rental that will allow three dogs, or to find a home with a fenced in yard, damn they are worth it.
Posted in: pearl , porter , pups , rosie
October 23
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HAPPY ADOPTION ANNIVERSARY, ROSIE! (Gibberish is my native language (DrFaulken)) by drfaulken
Two years ago today, Lady Jaye and I brought home a little potato of a dog (sorry, some of the pictures have been corrupted on imageShack). She may have been the runt of the litter, but Rosie has always been lionhearted. We knew she was ours the second she leaped fearlessly off of a tall garden bed to come play with us. We brought her home two years ago today, and I have never regretted it.
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August 13
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Dog day afternoon (Gibberish is my native language (DrFaulken)) by drfaulken
Last Saturday we hosted the second annual reunion for Rosie and her litter mates. Last year the reunion was at a public dog park, and it was way too hot for everyone. This year we had the benefit of shady oak trees, a doggie pool, and air conditioning. As a big improvement over the year before, there was dog cake. More on that in a second.
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July 24
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Canine update (Gibberish is my native language (DrFaulken)) by drfaulken
Three weeks after her adoption, Pearl has fit into the family quite nicely. After being afraid of her for the first week or so, Rosie has taken to Pearl like a true big sister. The two are mostly inseparable now. They cuddle together, run outside together, and do chores together, such as digging a bomb shelter in the backyard for mommy and daddy. Pearl now weighs in at 24.4 pounds, up over six pounds since we got her.
Pictures after the jump.
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June 15
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Porter and Rosie: Stone cold killers? (Gibberish is my native language (DrFaulken)) by drfaulken
It first started about a month ago. Porter brought a stick up to the porch when I called to him. As normal, he dropped the stick before trotting inside the house, except it wasn’t a stick. It was a dead bird. No big deal, I thought, and scooped the bird in a doubled-up plastic bag. I may have mentioned it to Lady Jaye but we didn’t give the incident much attention. Fast forward to today. I picked up another dead bird, again dropped from Porter’s jaws. This brings our known casualty total to five or six in a month. I think we either have some sort of bird epidemic on our hands, or Porter and Rosie are waging a campaign of terror on the local avian population.
Before we begin, let me clarify a few things and set the stage. Rosie is about thirty five pounds. Porter has lost weight, but is still probably lower fifties/upper forties. Rosie is super fast, and Porter has good burst speed, but he’s no greyhound. Plus he doesn’t bend his knees when he runs. I can’t imagine either one of them running down a bird and killing it, let alone five or six of them. The dogs certainly don’t jump, although Porter and Rosie are about two and a half feet tall or so when they stand up on something. Porter can stand up like a bear indefinitely, but his coordination doesn’t seem good enough to actually, you know, snatch a bird mid-flight.
So what the hell is going on? At first Lady Jaye and I thought a bird was sick, or died in some less-fantastic fashion, and dropped to the ground. We also considered that a young bird was testing his wings and failed. But when the bodies starting piling up, I had no option but to consider that my two furry children were bird-killers. I really can’t imagine the dogs charging down a bird. However, I seem to recall from my hunting days that when ducks “set” their wings to coast in for a landing, they must land before flapping off again. Perhaps the mongrels are pouncing at this moment, giving them enough time to strike before the birds fly off again. Or maybe Porter distracts them while Rosie ambushes them from behind? Seems unlikely, but the idea of Rosie in a Ghillie suit is just too humorous to ignore.
To our knowledge, the body count and prey composition is thus:
1 blue jay
3 (perhaps) juvenile or female American Robins
1 or 2 “others,” it was too, uh, well-handled for identification. Possibly a juvenile sparrow, although the bird was taller than what I would consider a sparrow.
Not to put a super serious spin on this post, but I am worried about them picking up some disease from the birds (or bringing it to us). Both dogs have had decreased appetites last week, which has only returned to normal two days ago. Every time I fetch a “stick” from Porter I think, “if this was an H5N1 situation, we would be dead.” If we get the Avian Flu in the US, it looks like the dogs are going to be on attended leashes when we go outside.
Posted in: porter , pups , rosie
May 21
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Problems with SentryPro XFC flea and tick medication (Gibberish is my native language (DrFaulken)) by drfaulken
It’s approaching summertime here in Virginia, and after Lady Jaye and I went on a hike Saturday (more on that later) we knew it was time to break out the flea and tick medication for our dogs Porter and Rosie. I normally get FrontLine, but it was over three times the price of any other topical flea and tick product. I don’t remember it being so expensive. We purchased SentryPro XFC instead.
SentryPro XFC promises to kill fleas, ticks, mosquitoes, flea eggs, and flea larvae for up to three weeks. Sounded good to me. We bought two appropriate dosage sizes and applied them as directed to Porter and Rosie. Unlike other medications that go all the way to the base of the tail, SentryPro XFC is only to be applied from the base of the neck to halfway down the back. I thought this was odd, but didn’t think much more about it at the time.
Everything seemed to be going fine, and Lady Jaye and I went out for a bite to eat. We came home about three hours later. Rosie was flicking her tongue around, as if she was trying to get a funny taste out of her mouth. She drank some water, ran around, and then licked the side of the couch, tail wagging. Both dogs were scratching, but I chalked that up to the fleas biting for one last time before the SentryPro XFC put them to sleep … permanently.
An hour went by, and Rosie was still air-licking. She was also hacking and dry-heaving. I figured that Rosie had licked some of Porter’s treatment off his back. This would explain why we were directed to treat only halfway down the spine, so that the dog couldn’t lick off its own dose. I called the hotline on the back of the SentryPro box and talked to a very nice and helpful lady. She said that it was okay that Rosie ingested just a small dose, and gave me a tip to help soothe her mouth. I put two tablespoons of canned tuna fish juice in a bowl and made Rosie drink it. I think put one tablespoon of tuna fish juice in a small bowl with water, and gave it to Rosie. I made another one for Porter, just in case. After some coaxing, Rosie and Porter quite happily drank all of their nasty tuna water. The hotline lady asked us to watch Rosie to see if she if her dry heaving continued and be wary for a bloated stomach. If Rosie kept trying to vomit and wasn’t producing anything, her stomach could become distended. Another hour or so passed, and Rosie stopped licking. Things were looking up. We all went to bed, cradling Rosie like a baby in my left arm as usual.
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March 23
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Getting Sassy (Gibberish is my native language (DrFaulken)) by drfaulken
Our neighbor Sassy, a Westie, came over yesterday to play while we had dinner with her human mother. She’s an only child, and her mother doesn’t play with her very often. It shows. Sassy was a good little guest, but was very protective of her toys and did not do well when we tried to take a toy from her to play fetch. She would drop the squeaky cone when she was ready for us to throw it to her. She would also growl at Porter and Rosie when they came up to play with her, which is fine. I laughed when Porter was about two inches from her face, just trying to smell her. Sassy was growling and growling, and Porter wasn’t bright enough to get the hint. Like Father, like son.
On the flip, she was more than happy to play by herself away from us while we talked after dinner, while Porter and Rosie camped out on our feet. Sassy is sweet, but doesn’t behave like we like our dogs to behave. Different attitudes for different needs, I guess.
Pictures after the jump.
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