We worked on the RV renos today and there'll be some new pics to share tomorrow.
'Til then, here's what Shelbert and Norman have been up to this weekend.
Walking and running and pooping and playing and barking and sniffing and jumping and fetching and smelling and licking and sneezing and chewing and eating and napping ...
And snoring.
I love our fuzzy rescue mutts.
As of May 15th, Shanghai dog lovers can only own one fuzzy pal.
According to this article in The Telegraph: "Dog ownership has grown alongside China's fast-expanding middle class with official estimates putting Shanghai's pet dog population at 800,000 -- although only a quarter of that number are registered... The government had said tighter regulation was needed due to rampant barking, unscooped waste, and the growing risk of dog attacks, which affect the city's environment and sanitation."
That law would never fly around these parts.
Every single camper here at Dodge City RV has at least one dog, and more likely two.
We sure love our pups.
Even after they pee on the bedroom carpet and throw up in the car four times in four days. Norman, we're lookin' at you here, kid...
We have a new critter in the house.
Meet Norman.
He's a 4 month old schnauzer cross - we're still trying to figure out what he's mixed with. Before we took him to the doggie salon he looked like he was part shih tzu or maybe maltese... Any ideas?
We sorta hope he's a schnauzer/shih tzu cross, 'cause schnauzer + shih tzu = shnit zu. Gesundheit.
My Fella and I had been in contact with several dog rescues in Arizona since November 2010. A few weeks ago, Robby, from Arizona Desert Rotti Dog Rescue emailed to say she had the perfect pup for us. We weren't actually looking for a puppy, but Norman is a sweet little guy who has fit easily into our family.
And he's so smart! (gushes the proud dog mama :) We house trained him in less than a week. He's also learned:
My Big Rugged Fella is also a big rugged softie and got attached to Norman very quickly...
Shelbert was a little miffed for the first couple of days and hasn't really warmed up to him yet.
A more appropriate description of what she does is tolerate him. Is it so hard to forge a bond with someone who keeps drooling on your squeak toys and sniffing your butt?
But it's all working out. We've been fostering Norman for the past week and today we took the plunge and adopted him.
AZ Desert Rotti Rescue holds adoption events every weekend at the Tucson Petsmart on the corner of Grant and Swan.
Generous volunteers (Sue, Yvonne, Deb, Robby and many others) lovingly donate their time, energy and money to find new families for homeless pets around southern Arizona. They also do a lot of the fostering to get these little guys ready for adoption.
If you live around Tucson or you're a Canadian snowbird in Arizona for the winter, and you wanna adopt a furry buddy, we can't recommend this organization enough. What an amazing, dedicated group of ladies.
Thank you from the bottom of our fuzzy hearts, for bringing Norman into our lives. He may have started out as a baby stray (from humans too stupid/lazy/cheap to get their pet spayed/neutered) but he's a keeper.
And now that we've adopted an American pup, can we get dual citizenship???
My Fella and I don't buy each other many gifts.
But for Valentines Day we did get each other a few fun things.
For My Fella:
For moi:
The video games were purchased thru eBay (half the price of gaming stores) and the M&M's were on sale at Fry's.
My replacement faux engagement ring was found in a little Tucson store selling southwestern art. It's opal, with a man made emerald in the center and 4 little cz stones, set in white gold. It was on sale for $63... a fraction of the price of my diamond engagement ring but if I lose this one too it will be cheaper and easier to replace.
And while running errands yesterday we stumbled into a Blockbuster movie close-out sale. We picked up these three flicks for $9 - the same price as one adult movie admission in Canada.
We spent just under $130, but we're both happy with what we bought and we'll make good use out of everything.
And no expensive restaurant dinner for us tonight; we'd rather stay home to eat turkey bean chili, watch one of our new movies and hang out with her...
Oh.
And him too...
More details about this little monster coming up :)
Wild animals have taken over this blog.
This is the final batch of pics from our Reid Park Zoo visit on Wednesday. Hover your mouse over any of the pics to get a quick description of what you're seeing.
Tucson's city zoo houses more than 500 animals, including these elephant buddies, Connie and Shaba:
Some controversy has been brewing over these two mammals for the past couple years since Reid Park Zoo has been added to the Worst Zoos for Elephants list.
But Reid Park Zoo has begun construction on a new elephant exhibit called Expedition Tanzania, opening in 2012, with a total of three acres for Connie and Shaba to roam. The expansion will feature state-of-the-art facilities including pools, mud wallows, sand pits, and all the things that make elephants happy.
These two speedy featherballs would love their own exhibit as well.
And they'd be even happier if I stopped taking their picture. Ostriches can run up to 45 miles per hour, easily catching me and stomping my camera to bits... maybe I'll just focus on a different, kinder, gentler animal...
Like the zebra...
A zebra's stripes are like camouflage, helping them hide in tall grass.
This sounds silly since grass is green and and zebras are black and white. BUT it is supposedly very effective against the zebra's main predator, the lion, who is color blind.
Lions are color blind? Who knew?
"Hey, Rhino Butt!"
The Reid Park Zoo rhino is a tad camera shy.
On to the warthogs, bears and tigers...
And I saved the best for last.
Giraffes are, without a doubt, my fave wild animal; tall and graceful, but so cartoon-like they could easily fit into a Dr Seuss dreamland.
Reid Park Zoo houses four gorgeous giraffes: Denver, Elinor, Texas and Watoto.
Interesting giraffe tidbits:
After a few minutes into the Giraffe vs. My Fella Staredown, the giraffe finally figured he wasted enough time and got back to more important things...
Like snacking.
I love giraffes.
Tucson's Reid Park Zoo was three hours well spent, and a total bargain at only $7 per adult. It was educational too, especially the bathroom walls where these signs were posted.
Make sure you show this to the teeny tiny kids and really, really old folks in your household. They'll feel relieved (pun intended) after learning that vultures can't hold it either.
Nothing to be ashamed of actually. I drink so much water that even I wake up two or three times in the middle of the night to go. Although I usually get out of bed first.
Us vultures have to stick together.
Too much info again, huh??
More pics in this post from Wednesday's visit to the Tucson Zoo.
It's been two days since our zoo trip and we're still talking about how much fun we had. Reid Park Zoo houses more than 500 animals on roughly 17 hectares of land, right in the middle of the city. It's a sweet little zoo, with admission costing only $7 per adult.
Just like the first zoo post, if you hover your mouse over the pic, a caption will pop up describing the scene. These shots are from the Africa and Adaptation zones... starting with the lions:
The final photo today is of a zoo polar bear, the first animal to hit the endangered species list because of global warming.
Our Friday night wifi is moving slower than the above giant tortoises, so no more pics tonight. My next post will wrap up the Reid Park Zoo tour with zebras, elephants ... and a very strange moment where this giraffe slapped down a staredown challenge at My Fella.
Who won?
Check back tomorrow :)
My Fella and I spent Wednesday morning at the Tucson zoo.
Another gorgeous winter day here in southern Arizona (sunny and +22C) so we decided today would be Reid Park Zoo day. We read mostly positive zoo reviews here at tripadvisor and we were able to use the 2-for-1 admission coupon from our Tucson Attractions Passport book. With our discount, zoo admission cost only $7 for both of us, but after touring the grounds we agreed we would have paid full price.
You can easily see all the animals at Reid Park Zoo in less than 3 hours and the grounds are very well maintained.
The Zoo website gives you a great idea of what to expect so this post will only be pics of what we saw today, starting with the animals from South America.
If you hover your mouse over each picture, you'll see a short caption explaining what the animal is:
After I finally coaxed My Fella (pictured above) to climb down off that wire enclosure, we wandered over to the next section of Reid Park Zoo - the Africa Zone.
It's taking for flippin' ever to load all these pics, so the Africa Zone will have to wait 'til tomorrow. Time to go feed My Fella a banana and call it a night :)
It's been really chilly here in southern Arizona since Tuesday.
It was sunny today, but the high was only +4C (39f). My Fella was doing some research online and discovered that last night was the coldest it's been here since the 1930's. And the local forecast is predicting we'll drop down to -8C (17f) tonight.
JohnnyDisco hates this weather as much as I do, so My Fella disconnected and drained the main water hose and made some adjustments to stop our main pipes from freezing. (There's not much else he can do, but if you have any good cold weather RV tips, please share - after only one year full-timing we're still new at this...)
To keep warm inside, we:
If you were loitering outside our bathroom door, here's what you'd see.
Yes, I look like a complete tool when I play Squeak Fetch. But look how sweet The Bert is ...
Here's what we'd look like if we played blindfolded.
Shelbert has excellent doggie sense so even blindfolded, she would avoid all obstacles.
Unfortunately, my aim wouldn't be as accurate. The cameraman (hi honey :) would probably get accidentally conked in the head with the Squeak toy.
Perhaps we should test this theory. We have nothing else to do in these frigid temperatures :)
FYI: we refilled JohnnyDisco's (24 gallon) propane tank yesterday. There was just under a quarter tank of propane left and the fill up cost us $46 (USD). It's hard to say how much propane we use since it completely depends on the weather, but the last time we filled the tank was May of 2010.
Once upon a time there was a little family we'll call Dick, Jane and Spot.
Dick and Jane had adopted Spot from a doggie rescue and loved Spot to pieces. They realized that they were ready to adopt one more fuzzy friend so they scoured the internet day and night until they found little three legged Timbit.
Dick and Jane read Timbits write-up on Petfinder and he sounded like a great pup. That very day they emailed the dog rescue agency where Timbit lived and were given contact information for Timbits foster mom, the place Timbit lived while he was waiting for his new home.
Dick, Jane and Spot were sooo excited they could hardly sleep the night before the big meeting. They all hopped in the car early the next morning and drove two hours to meet Timbit, the pup who could become the newest addition to their family.
Three legged Timbit was a bit hesitant at first but warmed up to Dick and Jane after a few treats and walks. The adoption went through and Jane paid the rescue agency adoption fee of $250 and then threw in another $100 on top of that to help the other rescue dogs a bit.
Great story so far, but definitely NOT a fairytale ending. Or in this case - Fairytail.
During the adoption process, Dick and Jane learned that the foster mom (for clarity's sake we'll call her Cruella) was actually a puppy breeder. Three legged Timbit was one of Cruella's purebred dogs, but with only three legs he wasn't exactly the 'pick of the litter'. So she attempted to adopt him out through the very reputable website Petfinder - an online database of adoptable pets in the care of about 10,000 animal welfare organizations in the USA and Canada. I will also mention that Petfinder EXPLICITLY BANS BREEDERS FROM SELLING THEIR DISCARD DOGS on the site.
In the end, Dick and Jane returned Timbit to Cruella. They saved all the email communication regarding Timbit and they are contacting the Petfinder head honchos to report this abuse of a very credible and worthwhile adoption website. Jane is so ticked off she may also contact the local Small Business Owners Association and the BBB to report what happened.
It may not be illegal, but it was completely unethical.
Most dog rescue agencies do very thorough checks on potential adopters, to be sure their dog buddies are going to stable, loving homes. Jane offered (via email) to fill out a complete dog application and email it back, but the foster mom said it wasn't necessary. Dick and Jane also made it clear they lived in another country and would be taking Timbit with them, yet the only info the foster mom had was their email address and cell phone number. If you've ever adopted a pet from a rescue agency you know the process is much more complex and complete than that. As it should be.
And nowhere in the Petfinder ad for little Timbit did it mention that his foster mom also happened to be his original PUPPY BREEDER.
Dick and Jane are completely against puppy breeders. If you don't understand why, you need to read this:
Below is a letter from a shelter manager. It is intended to be read by anyone who breeds dogs, buys dogs from a breeder or is considering taking their dog to a shelter. It is very difficult to read but this is the reality of continuing to breed dogs when shelters are full to overflowing. Please pass this along to anyone and everyone you know who is considering buying a puppy from a breeder or taking their pet to a shelter.
Letter from a Shelter Manager:
I think our society needs a huge Wake-up call. As a shelter manager, I am going to share a little insight with you all: a view from the inside if you will.
First off, all of you breeders/sellers should be made to work in the back of an animal shelter for just one day. Maybe if you saw the life drain from a few sad, lost, confused eyes, you would change your mind about breeding and selling to people you don't even know.
That puppy you just sold will most likely end up in my shelter when it's not a cute little puppy anymore. So how would you feel if you knew that there's about a 90% chance that dog will never walk out of the shelter it is going to be dumped at? Purebred or not! About 50% of all of the dogs that are owner surrenders or strays, that come into my shelter are purebred dogs.
The most common excuses I hear are; "We are moving and we can't take our dog (or cat)." Really? Where are you moving too that doesn't allow pets? Or they say "The dog got bigger than we thought it would". How big did you think a German Shepherd would get? "We don't have time for her." Really? I work a 10-12 hour day and still have time for my 6 dogs! "She's tearing up our yard." How about making her a part of your family? They always tell me "We just don't want to have to stress about finding a place for her we know she'll get adopted, she's a good dog."
Odds are your pet won't get adopted & how stressful do you think being in a shelter is? Well, let me tell you, your pet has 72 hours to find a new family from the moment you drop it off. Sometimes a little longer if the shelter isn't full and your dog manages to stay completely healthy. If it sniffles, it dies. Your pet will be confined to a small run/kennel in a room with about 25 other barking or crying animals. It will have to relieve itself where it eats and sleeps. It will be depressed and it will cry constantly for the family that abandoned it. If your pet is lucky, I will have enough volunteers in that day to take him/her for a walk. If I don't, your pet won't get any attention besides having a bowl of food slid under the kennel door and the waste sprayed out of its pen with a high-powered hose. If your dog is big, black or any of the Bully breeds (pit bull, rottie, mastiff, etc) it was pretty much dead when you walked it through the front door.
Those dogs just don't get adopted. It doesn't matter how sweet or well behaved they are.
If your dog doesn't get adopted within its 72 hours and the shelter is full, it will be destroyed. If the shelter isn't full and your dog is good enough, and of a desirable enough breed it may get a stay of execution, but not for long . Most dogs get very kennel protective after about a week and are destroyed for showing aggression. Even the sweetest dogs will turn in this environment. If your pet makes it over all of those hurdles chances are it will get kennel cough or an upper respiratory infection and will be destroyed because shelters just don't have the funds to pay for even a $100 treatment.
Here's a little euthanasia 101 for those of you that have never witnessed a perfectly healthy, scared animal being put-down. First, your pet will be taken from its kennel on a leash. They always look like they think they are going for a walk happy, wagging their tails. Until they get to The Room, every one of them freaks out and puts on the brakes when we get to the door. It must smell like death or they can feel the sad souls that are left in there, it's strange, but it happens with every one of them. Your dog or cat will be restrained, held down by 1 or 2 vet techs depending on the size and how freaked out they are. Then a euthanasia tech or a vet will start the process. They will find a vein in the front leg and inject a lethal dose of the pink stuff. Hopefully your pet doesn't panic from being restrained and jerk. I've seen the needles tear out of a leg and been covered with the resulting blood and been deafened by the yelps and screams. They all don't just go to sleep, sometimes they spasm for a while, gasp for air and defecate on themselves.
When it all ends, your pets corpse will be stacked like firewood in a large freezer in the back with all of the other animals that were killed waiting to be picked up like garbage. What happens next? Cremated? Taken to the dump? Rendered into pet food? You'll never know and it probably won't even cross your mind. It was just an animal and you can always buy another one, right?
I hope that those of you that have read this are bawling your eyes out and can't get the pictures out of your head I deal with everyday on the way home from work. I hate my job, I hate that it exists and I hate that it will always be there unless you people make some changes and realize that the lives you are affecting go much farther than the pets you dump at a shelter. Between 9 and 11 MILLION animals die every year in shelters and only you can stop it. I do my best to save every life I can but rescues are always full, and there are more animals coming in everyday than there are homes. My point to all of this DON'T BREED OR BUY WHILE SHELTER PETS DIE!
Hate me if you want to. The truth hurts and reality is what it is. I just hope I maybe changed one persons mind about breeding their dog, taking their loving pet to a shelter, or buying a dog. I hope that someone will walk into my shelter and say "I saw this and it made me want to adopt." THAT WOULD MAKE IT WORTH IT.
For those of you that care, please repost this letter and email it to your family and friends.
The end.
As of this week, we've been full-timing in JohnnyDisco for eleven months.
We've made a few significant changes to our lifestyle since the dream of full-time RV-ing began:
Making JohnnyDisco our home is still a work in progress, but I'm a fickle gal so things change pretty quickly around here. For such a small space you'd be surprised at the number of times My Fella has been told sweetly asked to move the couch.
We've made quite a few more changes since we've been back from Mexico and I'll post pics in the next few weeks. One thing that won't be changing any time soon is the huge fluffy blanket on the couch.
Or the spooky blanket monster that lives there.
The scary white, fluffy, one-eyed monster.
Okay. Two-eyed monster. And really not so scary. More fuzzy than scary. Perhaps even a little irritated at the constant camera flash.
MY Fella gives me this exact same annoyed look when I sneak pics of him napping on the couch.
While going through blog entries from the past month I noticed I haven't posted year end portfolio numbers or an update of current equities.
For a little perspective, here are some benchmark returns for 2010:
Our overall return was +19.24% ... five different portfolios composed completely of Canadian equities and a teeny bit of cash.
Current equities, in order of weighting:
Looking forward to crunching my January numbers at the end of the month.
Hard to believe there's only one week left in this first month of the new year. And only three months 'til we head back to beautiful BC for another golf season.
