Category: dogs

failure to control

my father and my first dog
My first dog was executed by the Albemarle County dog warden by rifle shot at my request. Mr. D would have taken Charlie away and gassed him, I preferred to have it be quick and dead.
Charlie was a fabulous dog, I was a bad dog owner.
Problems with domesticated animals can generally be traced back to the owner. Having my dog die of lead poisoning made an impression on me.
Charlie the Labrador slew rabbits at Carlo Columbini’s place on Route 20 North.
You kill livestock in Virginia, you die. There is a law for that.
When a state or a municipality enforces its existing laws, changes in behavior will occur.

I support leash laws for dogs and cats. I am tired of domesticated cats killing wild birds and defecating wherever they see fit.

ears up

sophie elephant rock beach
one of the main things people do wrong with their dogs is anthropomorphize, attribute human thoughts and sentiments to them.
That said, allow me to do wrong.
Sophia here expressing her inner “German Police”.

there is a website for that

bad parking job
The Saluki, perhaps the oldest known breed of domesticated dog, doesn’t know how to park.
There is a website for the Saluki.
There is a website for this parking job.
The Internet is a vibrant place. Everyone agrees. And so it puzzling to run into the Stop Online Piracy Act disagreement. One of those disagreements between intelligent people that would require study to understand.
Someone please explain.
wikipedia blacked out
So, the website for the Saluki is dark today.
NYT Media decoders Carr and Stelter on the shutdown. “Might be a good day for Encyclopedia Britannica”–B.Stelter

old girls

Sophia and EG
Always treat your parents as if they are close friends who are soon to move to a distant land from where it will be impossible ever to
return. Never take them for granted, no matter how busy life gets. You can’t imagine your mother and father dying. And then they do.–Tony Parsons

Bella


The Italian Greyhound is the smallest of the family of gazehounds (dogs that hunt by sight). The breed is an old one and is believed to have originated more than 2,000 years ago in the countries now known as Greece and Turkey. This belief is based on the depiction of miniature greyhounds in the early decorative arts of these countries and on the archaeological discovery of small greyhound skeletons. By the Middle Ages, the breed had become distributed throughout Southern Europe and was later a favorite of the Italians of the sixteenth century, among whom miniature dogs were in great demand. It is, in fact, due to its popularity in Italy at this time that the breed became known as the “Italian Greyhound.” From this period onward the history of the breed can be fairly well traced as it spread through Europe, arriving in England in the seventeenth century. —Italian Greyhound Club of America

Coluber constrictor

Coluber constrictor
The black snake is the state reptile of Ohio. Sign of spring, the snakes come out. Virginia does not have a state reptile, real estate developers did not want the publicity. However, Virginia did recently name the striped (Stry-Ped) bass as the state salt-water fish.
There are many cool, deserving reptiles in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Lets crown one and make it a crime for it to be run over. You deliberately crush a box turtle? We still have capital punishment in our state.
This black snake lived near the intersection the of Riverview and Woolen Mills Road. This is the snake corner. My last living coluber constrictor photo was taken at the same spot.