neuropoodle

[neuropoodle]

please consider helping Larry, who is in critical condition tonight and might not make it. Larry and his human are a very dear, positive presence in the breed, and i am heartbroken to see this happening to them.

after being a fan of him online for quite some time, i met Larry a few years back at silkenfest in WA. he was every bit as much a gem as he’d seemed on social media, and so was his person, regina.

there are a lot of worthy causes to donate your money to in this chaotic and unfair world, but i hope you will consider sending a few bucks regina’s way. this boy is her world, and since he has multiple preexisting conditions (she took him on as a wee megaesophagus puppy), he is her only uninsured dog. those of you who’ve had pet emergencies know just how fast the bills can add up, even with insurance. to not have it at a time like this is devastating.

thank you for reading. ❤️ if you can’t send help in the form of money, please beam all your love and healing light to Larry tonight.

[neuropoodle]

I think we should start pressuring dog gear makers to make the same stuff they do for big dogs but in tiny dog sizes. I want teenie tiny biothane buckle collars. I want tiny dog collar patches. I want to be able to buy a 3 inch collar with a handle for my 10 inch dog. Small dog equality.

[neuropoodle]

Colonialism is an ongoing problem in the purebred dog world and i just wanna take as second to talk about the national dog breed of Israel, the Canaan dog. Because here's the CKC's blurb on them

I have no doubt and am not denying ancient Hebrews lived with these dogs, but the Canaan comes from a stock of landrace breed native across the Levant and it has also gone by names such as Bedouin Sheepdog or Palestinian Pariah Dog.

Organized breeding of the Canaan began in the 20th century from captured Palestinian dogs (i would also point to the wording of 'redomesticating' used here, implying the feral pariah dogs were in some way not domesticated, which i think is disingenuous phrasing.). If you look up the Canaan, most sources you see on them explicitly brand Canaans as an Israeli breed, neglecting or downplaying any history they have with any of the other countless peoples or cultures in the region this breed has coexisted with across millenia. There's even an archeological site with ancient remains of canaan-like dogs was found in Ashkelon, located just 13 miles from the Gaza strip.

The developer of the 'modern' purebred Canaan was "ardent zionist" Rudolphina Menzel, who trained attack dogs for the IDF:

What really gets me about this story is how this native landrace breed was taken and trained to guard colonial settlements from the very people they lived alongside, there is something so twisted about it..

This is unfortunately nothing new in the world of dog fancy. There are many instances of explorers and settlers importing exotic new dogs from their travels, establishing a breed club, and then claiming stewardship over said breed without any involvement from the local peoples they took or bought them from. I'm not sure what to leave this on, i just think more people should be aware of these 'softer' forms of colonialism and how domestic animals can play a part in colonialism and nationalist narratives.

Anyway, long live the Palestinian pariah dog/ Bedouin sheepdog!

[neuropoodle]

There are no goodbyes for my dog who has died and we don't now and never did lie to each other. - "A Dog Has Died," Pablo Neruda

Hazel, formerly San Tan Drizzle: December 22, 2010 - February 29, 2024. Hazel left us peacefully today at around noon. Before her journey she got to enjoy all kinds of wonderful foods she wasn't normally allowed because of her illness, like a big slice of homemade banana bread, many many slices of bread (her favorite) and peanut butter. She fell asleep licking peanut butter right out of the jar.

A little write up about her life under the readmore. You probably know it all if you've been following forever, but just for me, just to write something about her.

Hazel was born on December 22, 2010 in Kansas. She moved on to a kennel in Florida sometime in the summer of 2012, where she raced a grand total of ten times before retiring at the tender age of one year and seven months old. She then traveled up the coast, finding her way to Greyhound Friends of New Jersey, her wonderful foster mom Marybeth, and then at last to me. I picked her up at the GFNJ annual greyhound picnic, on September 23, 2012.

She will forever be the most opinionated dog I have ever known. She always knew exactly what she wanted to do, and where she wanted to go, and she could never be convinced otherwise. I often have said that she is not a dog, but an alien pretending to be a dog, or a person pretending to be a dog. Hazel has always been special, above mere dogdom. She did play with toys in her younger years like a “regular dog”, but she has never cared for baby talk or any attempts to hype her up to play; she would look at you like you were an idiot and she was worried about your mental health if you ever spoke to her like she was a dog.

No description of Hazel is complete without including her penchant for thievery. In her younger days she was immensely clever and strategic about stealing food. She had a particular taste for pizza and bagels, being at heart a Jersey girl. She also, memorably, once swiped a brownie right out of a child’s hand. She amazed and astounded at every turn with her cleverness and persistence. While she mostly retired from crime in her senior years, she would sporadically remember her love of thieving and get into the garbage, or somehow, impossibly, get up on her weakened hind legs and steal something off the counter.

On today, her last day, she managed to steal the bread I had left out on the counter, which I was going to give to her anyway.

She wasn’t much of a racer at all in her short career, but she loved to run for fun. She would take off across the dog park with the other dogs falling hopelessly behind her. And in her last days, even as her body was failing her and walks became a major effort, she still ran here and there in our backyard – in these great, big, rocking horse leaps, because her hind legs did not work the way they were supposed to anymore.

Like all greyhounds, she loved the sun, and would spend many happy hours across her lifetime sunning outside or by the front door.

She loved to walk in the woods. We had miles and miles of wanderings through the woods together over the years, and she loved nothing more than to clamber up a rocky trail like a mountain goat.

She loved children. She was kind to nearly all creatures – gentle and peaceful with other dogs, cats, and even hamsters. The only animals that ever seemed to activate her prey drive were chickens, to which she happened to be allergic.

Throughout her life, Hazel struggled with various health issues, and I went to the ends of the earth to help her. We had multiple close calls over the years, and as such we’ve had a lot of “bonus” time. I almost lost her in 2020, and again three years later.

We have had over a decade together. Many greyhounds do not make it to be thirteen years old, and I was so happy to celebrate her official teenagerhood this past December. (She even had a crown and sash.)  After almost losing her twice, I was so careful about taking so many photos, trying to capture and remember every special moment. And to me, they were all special moments.

We had these photos taken by Melanie Ruskin Photography about a week before we said goodbye today.

I will miss Hazel for the rest of my life.

#rest easy sweet girl ❤️

[neuropoodle]

Being a dog person is fun bc you go outside and touch grass regularly but you still suffer from chronically weird and online syndrome

[neuropoodle]

"That would make a great name for a band" is out. "That would make a great registered name for a dog" is in.

[neuropoodle]

new Grand Champion alert!

✨UGRCH✨ Mistel’s Butcherbird “Shrike” (14 months)

it’s been a long and bumpy road emotionally, but he’s a star in the ring and we haven’t had a bad weekend. win or lose, he’s so fun to handle, and i’ll always love him more than anything (except Denver <3) very proud of my little bird!

#MY NEPHEW #shrike

[neuropoodle]

Pet owners can have a little anthropomorphism. As a treat.

[neuropoodle]

I wasn’t socialized enough as a puppy

[neuropoodle]

how many of you have trained a psychiatric service dog and how did that go for you? asking for a family member and also because man some of the service dog programs are REALLY really really into alpha & dominance theory which....puke.

#i have!! #i will say he’s multipurpose medical alert/psych/mobility #but i have experience w it either way #i mostly operated from scratch n collecting little bits n pieces of training that i liked #from different sources #i never followed a program or anything #partially for money reasons n also bc i’m too stubborn

[neuropoodle]

Introducing Zaku! He is an eight-week-old workingline Belgian tervuren, he was born on Valentine’s Day, and I’ve been actively waiting on him since 2020. He is @fayeandknight‘s Forte’s half-brother!

His breeder described him as bubbly, happy, sweet, and handler-oriented. She also described him as a “flying puppy” because of his habit of launching himself into her arms when she was picking up a different littermate.

Zaku handled hoteling and a ten-hour car trip like a complete champ. When we got home he had a bit of time to process everything and had a very impressive intermittent eight-hour tantrum. Very understandable, he’d just been through a lot and he is very small and his feelings are very big. Once he’s settled into his new routine he’ll feel better.

He met Kermit and most of the roommate’s dogs last night. Within five minutes, Kermit was play bowing and they had a fun little romp.

Looking forward to having adventures with this little guy!

#ZAKU ZAKU ZAKU #zaku

[neuropoodle]

[neuropoodle]

Is your yard flat and boring? Do you think it will be immeasurably improved by the addition of a bunch of holes? Have I got a deal for you!

Call NOW at 1-800-555-HOLE, and my talented employee will add visual and topographical variety to any outdoor area you want for half off*! Act fast– time is limited!

-

* Payment must be in the form of Carl’s Jr hamburgers or deli meat. Tuna fudge can be negotiated. Credit cards not accepted.

#my kingdom for a kermit spawn #kermit

[neuropoodle]

love dogs but I hate when they have wiry fur. pet em and they exfoliate your hands. get your brillo pad ass dog away from me

[neuropoodle]

Rb with a breed you would own from herding, sporting, non sporting, hound, terrier, toy and working groups. You must either answer to all 7 or none at all <3

#aussie for sure #brittany spaniel #i already have a non sporting (🙄 tho they should b sporting imo) breed so i’ll pick another #boston terrier #dachshund specifically a mini long #RAT TERRIER or honestly an AHT #i love a nakey dog #papillon #n rottweilers r already on my list to own !

[neuropoodle]

Happy third birthday to my big man! Technically his birthday is Leap Day, but that’s not til next year.

I just love him! He’s such a fun and funny dude, and I can’t wait to see where our next adventures take us!

#happy kermit day!!!! #kermit

[neuropoodle]

if ur confused about why animal people advocate for keeping your pets at a "healthy weight" but sometimes also in the same breath will advocate against human diet culture, its because we know what body condition a cat is supposed to be at optimally. but literally there is not one for humans as far as we can tell.

humans are a weird, opportunistic, hyper-adaptable and variable primate and we have evolved to have a LOT of variety in size, shape, metabolism, and weight retention. this has been essential to survival in hard times and easy times. you know the thing people talk about sometimes how about half the population are night people and about half are morning people so we'd be better able to watch at night as a group? yeah, weight variation is like that: there's a lot of latent variation in human populations because as a community we survive significantly better if some of us are fuckin ready to not die during the longass winter of death and some of us can eat their weight in fish and then run a mile immediately after. this is also why some people gain muscle crazy fast and some people don't: muscle requires a lot of energy, so some people are built to gain a lot during a plentiful season and be really efficient then and some people are built to use less energy over time and be more useful during a long hungry period. cats and almost all other vertebrates simply don't have this kind of complex community variation built in, and tend to be much more uniform in build and weight. humans tend to be really variable in body and brain, and that's one of the biggest factors that's made us so successful! there are just a LOT of ways to be a human being.

all of the "science" on "ideal human body condition" we have at the moment is almost entirely bullshit and was done by white supremacists for eugenics purposes. it's just not something we know, and right now there's significantly more evidence that there is no ideal body type for everyone to reach. recent research indicates that humans are healthiest at a variety of weights and builds, and dieting is almost universally bad for you. even if the culture hasn't caught up yet.