Critters of Vancouver

Keilah (Kayla), Gianni, Chai, and Simba supplied by:

If you're a regular at Everett Crowley park in South-east Vancouver, and have a good photo of your dog you'd like posted, contact us via the "Contact" tab at top of page.

Even if you're not a park regular but have a good pet photo, feel free to let us know.

Raccoons have to be the cutest animals on the face of the planet, bar none.

I'm sure that, once humanity has run its course, that raccoons and crows will team up to rule the world.

Used The Gnu Image Manipulation Program (freely available at http://www.gimp.org) to make the Film Strip effect, with a little help from a YouTube video.

Ok, a lot of help; the Gimp is smarter than I am...

So, thanks to this guy:
http://www.LittleWebHut.com

and his great video at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nx4N6tPeJgc

A funny and somewhat thought-provoking "Confession" post on The Georgia Straight about dogs, dog poo, and hygiene:

http://www.straight.com/confessions/1403/you-can-thumb-down-dont-hate-me

A choice quote that is part of the Original Post that's garnered 11 comments so far:

So I've seen people with their dogs and know people with dogs who do what is normal to do, walk the dogs and pick up their poop. But I wonder how that is sanitary to then bring your dog back into your car and your home without having wiped their butt? I don't know of humans that go poop and not wipe or wash their butt. I get it - OK, animals are different. But I wonder to myself, do you care that the dog sitting on your carpet or couch may leave slight skid marks? Is that sanitary?

Recently GQ (Gentlemen's Quarterly) web site (and magazine?) published a six page interview with Glenn Greenwald - the man who's publishing the Edward Snowden NSA leaks.

I used to read Glenn over on Salon.com about 5 years ago and was curious about what's he's up to.

Turns out, he has about a dozen dogs in Rio de Janeiro.

Here's his penultimate statement in the interview with Michael Paterniti was thus:

The dogs seem to play a huge role in your life.
One of the reasons I love dogs is because I think they perceive the world, things in the world, that we as humans don't perceive. I think there's something kind of just spiritual about it. They're just completely in the experience. And so many times, we as human beings remove ourselves from the present by reliving the past or worrying about a future, neither of which we can control, and we destroy our present, and we lose all the power that we have, the ability to just be. That is really what I learn from dogs. That's the thing that I would like to apprehend most about dogness.

True that. I wish I could learn dog better. I can read them well, but I can't be more like them in the manner outlined above.

Based in Richmond, BC, Catherine Boucher runs HappyPawsDogWalking.ca. Note that it's a .ca and not a .com (stupid domain squatters).

• On & Off Leash Walks
• Boarding & Daycare
• Reasonable Rates

And training in pet first aid too!

Of course, your dog may not appreciate being walked by someone called Catherine...

This story on CBC, entitled "Tanya Oliva says Fraser Valley breeder sold her sick puppy", makes me shake my head:

A B.C. woman is raising the alarm after paying $1,200 for a puppy that became extremely sick from parasites and disease soon after she brought him home.

$1200 for a pet? What. The.

I can understand having a pet that needs $1200 medical care, but this is a new puppy - how can a pet be worth that much? I've seen / heard someone say, "Nice dog! How much did you pay for it?" and "Thanks, I paid $x00 for this puppy."

Both of them made me think of the saying, "Knows the cost of everything and the value of nothing." Just can't comprehend putting a monetary value on a pet.

It just encourages the puppy mills (careless and cruel breeders) to continue.

Maple Falls Kennel, which claimed to be nestled in an "emerald valley next to the Pacific" and promised its puppies, "play in our backyard ocean bay."

The owners of Maple Falls Kennels told CBC they only operate out of locations in Chilliwack, and Idaho. Business records list the enterprise at an address at the eastern edge of Langley - some 30 kilometres from the Pacific.

These seem to be the types that should be driven out of business, yet they were rewarded for their neglect with $1200 per puppy.

Sickening...

So, the owners of the garage where the raccoon family live have been blocking up the hole. With the raccoons inside.

So the raccoons have had to fight their way out through rocks and wood barricade.

Fortunately, we were under the impression that they'd been on the outside while the barricade was still intact, so they'd moved on but still came around like usual.

Then they missed an evening. Then another. I went out in the rain to check the garage - tapped on it with something hard, rattled some food in a plastic tub, shone a flashlight -- no sign of them. Odd.

Then, tonight (Thursday, July 25 2014) I walked by it near sunset and there was smoke coming out of the garage (gate's not sealed at the top) and it smelled like a camp fire (wood burning).

Their neighbour was watering her backyard garden so I pointed her to the smoke. She went up her back stairs and called to the owners. Mom got son and he said, "It's okay, it's a BBQ."

I had my doubts - outdoor wood fires are illegal in Vancouver (who cares, really), but I smelled no food and didn't see smoke in the back yard at all.

I suspected they were trying to suffocate the raccoons. Not smoke them out - the barricade was in place.

Short time later, she called as she was pulling in the driveway and ... the mother raccoon was fighting her way out of the garage.

She seemed quite timid. Almost shaken up.

She came around eventually - alone - for some food, but didn't eat all that was put out for her. Huh?

Later she came back with babies! But the shy one was ... extra shy. It hung way back, it disappeared around the corner of the porch, it didn't really eat much at all. And, most ominously, it kept making baby raccoon trilling noises.

I went over and re-sealed the garage by trying to fix the barricade, came home and saw the whole family, so they're on the outside. Soon must go back and re-check, before the neighbours seal the garage really tight, or worse, put out poison or something really stupid.

Those raccoons need to move elsewhere and I'm willing to try to help force them to (and maybe even give them hints on some good locations, ahem).