The Misanthropic Shiba

Check this out:  Lifehacker features one of the many uses of webcams: to catch a deadbeat dogwalker.

I am eternally grateful that my ex-boyfriend was available throughout Tierce’s growing years.  He made it possible for us to housebreak Tierce and not leave him too long during the day.  Now that he’s back from his sojourn in Ontario, Wolfie sporadically takes on walking Tierce and caring for him when we’re not there.  I trust him implicitly, but as you can see from the link, not everyone is that lucky.

If someone did that to me, I would probably plaster their name all over the Internet, warning about their neglect (abuse is more like it) of their charges.  What’s she going to say?  “I’m suing for defamation of character because someone caught me not performing the tasks I am being paid for!”  She’s probably doing this to a bunch of dogs. One of my fantasies involving this chick involves a crate, a lock and a 10 hour timer and see how she likes not being able to just go to the bathroom when she needs to.

What pisses me off more than just not walking the dog is that this walker left the dog in the crate when she knew that the dog was likely to be there for 9-10 hours or however long the owners were at work for.  That’s just not okay. She could even have taken the dog out for a quick pee and returned it to the crate in less time than it took for her to rifle through her employers’ belongings.

Now, Tierce can go for 12 hours without having to pee (he sleeps on our bed and we sleep in on the weekends we’re not gallivanting around the Island – he has stayed in bed at least that long several times without asking to go out), but when we’re not home and he has no way of getting outside, that’s putting an inordinate amount of stress on him and I would not do that to him if there is any other way.  Paying Wolfie 10 bucks a walk is more than worth it to me and at least I know it’s getting done.

This is one of my many Shiba-themed Cafepress shops.

Sales from these T-shirts and others like them go to the maintenance of the website and keeping Tierce in expensive dog food.  Because I won’t sport with your intelligence, I am NOT claiming that if you don’t buy a shirt that Tierce will die of some mysterious malady or starve to death in the hedgerows.  But it occurred to me that perhaps not everyone had seen these shirts, so I’m making sure that you do.

This post is full of subliminal messages that are going to make you buy a shirt.  Just kidding.

All benches should have planks too close for a little paw or leg to slide through.

Hurrah!  Remember this post?  I sent a letter to the Parks and Rec Department of Nanaimo about it.  (Richard Harding is the director of Parks, Recreation and Culture and my new best friend)

Dear Mr. Harding,

My name is Julie MacTire and I got your email address from the City of Nanaimo website.  I am writing to you about an incident that happened last Sunday (January 31) at the Nanaimo dog park.  My small dog jumped up on one of the park benches that happened to have widely spaced planks and his right hind leg slipped through when he tried to jump down and got caught.  This has caused a severe muscle strain, perhaps some tearing in the affected leg that is taking him some time to get over.

As a result, I’ve become concerned about those benches that have widely spaced planks.  While we discourage our dogs from jumping up on these seats, it happens sometimes before the owner can warn the dog away.  Also, there are a number of parents with small children who keep their children on the seats to avoid an accidental collision with rambunctious dogs and I fear they could be at risk of an accident as well.

I am wondering if you can give me any information as to what I should do to put forth a petition to the City to have the benches replaced or covered by material that prevents small legs from getting stuck.  I would also be interested in taking an active role in fundraising for the modification to the dog park benches if that is a feasible option.

Sincerely,

Julie MacTire

I got this reply early this morning:

Thank you Julie for your email and sorry to hear about your dog.

I have copied your email to Jeff Ritchie who is Senior Manager of Parks who will get in touch with you.

I am sure we can work something out to modify the benches.

Thanks Julie.

Richard

Then, just now, I recieved this from Mr. Ritchie, another new best friend:

Julie, thanks for pointing this out to us. I hope your pooch is recovering. We will replace the boards on these benches with wider planks so as to prevent this happening again. Thanks for your e-mail.

Wow!  I was expecting… I don’t know, a long time between emails… an argument… certainly not a prompt response that promised immediate attention.  I don’t want to carol the City of Nanaimo’s praises too loudly until the benches are actually fixed, but if their maintenance department is anything like their standard for communication, I think this issue will be resolved very quickly.

I wrote back to each gentleman, thanking them for their timely response to my email and attention to the matter.

So far, this is a great example of the things that can be done if you bring the attention of the powers-that-be to issues in your local dog park with a polite letter.

"What? What the fuck is this? A book? I don't read books. About Akitas? Akitas suck! I'm the only goddamn dog you should be concerned with and HELLO, I'm INJURED here! How about you put that Corn Pop crap dog food away along with this stupid book and get me something I can really recover on? Like steak.

The awesome Darryl from Kari-On Akitas sent me this book.  I think a lot more of it than Tierce obviously does and in the ensuing weeks, I will be acquainting you, my readers, with excerpts of its awesomeness.  Thanks, Darryl!

Chelsea G. Summers of pretty dumb things posted this tribute to her Australian Shepherd, Spencer.  Her blog is also pretty awesome, but it’s for adults only, so don’t you go showing it to your Shiba puppies.

But wait!  This isn’t about Shibas!  It is, however, about dogs labeled as “bad” and the chronicling of their history.  This is something that all dog owners should be concerned about, as dangerous dogs – actually, dangerous owners – are a daily threat to some people and their Shibas, as Bella’s story amply illustrates.

This is a PDF and is quite a long read, but it is fascinating.

The Pit Bull Placebo: The Media, Myths and Politics of Canine Aggression

My leg is sore; I obviously need pizza to help me recover.

Last night I dreamed that Tierce had chewed through his leash and got hit by a car. I was frantic, because I didn’t have my phone and didn’t know where it was and I had to choose between leaving him in the street and finding my phone so I could call Mischa to rush us to the vet.

Mischa thinks it’s because I was so frightened about Tierce’s leg yesterday.  He seems okay today; last night he was weight bearing more – his leg is still obviously sore, but I don’t think anything’s torn or broken or out-of-place.

Funny things our minds do to us.

Nicholas, you are… ridiculous! website is back up again!