Whack Kennels

[Billi Mayhue]

TheJapanese breeds have a host of issues looming on the horizon: small gene pools, lack of health testing in their country of origin, and extreme selection for aesthetics while traits like working ability and temperament are being left behind. The Nihon Ken are also part of the larger purebred dog world, that has its own issues, and I've been wrestling with serious questions for several years now. How do we move forward with the preservation effort? What do I consider ethical breeding? How can we deal with health and temperamental issues in an ever shrinking population with very little hope for more genetic diversity? What part do I want to play in this world?

In the grand scheme of things, I think we're running into a few problems in the breeding world. One is that 'purebred' dog breeding with no outcrossing is essentially breeding into a wall. All breeds are hurtling toward it, some slower than others, but that wall is ever looming. As a breeder I feel like I'm playing a game of whack-a-mole, where there are more and more moles, and they will get faster and faster.

I think another big issue with purebred dog breeding is what this article points out: the vast majority of dogs today will be pets. They will essentially be lapdogs, with maybe some being a bit more active if they are owned by people who like to hike etc. But almost all our dog breeds are heritage breeds, that were bred for a purpose that they are no longer used for. They were essentially selected to do one thing (like herding for example), but now we want them to sit on a couch. And that has consequences.

Even the best-staffed boarding kennels cannot deliver the same one-on-one attention as a professional pet sitter provides to your dog or cat. A pet sitter is also better equipped to handle special needs. At TLC House & Pet Sitting we are also available to stay with your pet through the night.

According to statistics from the American Pet Product Manufacturers Association, half of all pet owners live with both cats and dogs in their homes. Throw in fish and birds and reptiles and you have a menagerie that no boarding facility can handle.

The close living quarters of a kennel promotes the spread of contagious diseases (e.g., think Kennel Cough). You may not want to expose your pet, especially vulnerable young animals, to these conditions. Or you may not want to give your dog the vaccinations that some facilities require.

There is no substitute for peace of mind when you are away from your pet. At TLC House & Pet Sitting, lines of communication are always open to your pet sitter with voicemail, texting and daily notes.

If you have questions about this topic or general questions about pet care, you can contact Kara Jenkins, Owner of TLC House & Pet Sitting. We are also available by email at in...@tlcpetsitter.com. View more of our articles on pets here.

I have not been able to convince him to go into the brand new but slightly smaller mega crate. And a situation has arisen where I really need that K4/Mega Crate combo in the Cottage. So, I decided to bite the bullet and swap them. I did that this morning.

Then I made a template (accounting for the sole plate in the wall and using a wall stud as locator) to use in transferring the hole to the siding so the two holes will line up perfectly. I also used it to trace the circle on the insulation which I did not staple in place in the lower part of the wall. That way I could pull it up and out of the way to get to the siding, and I used scissors to snip a tunnel through the batt. For some strange reason, it all lined up well.

Moving the switch to the proper side of the door meant surface mounting it on a concrete block wall. Home Depot had an attractive system for doing just that, including low-profile switch boxes sized to fit the cover plates.

An experienced electrician could probably have knocked this out in an hour. I am not an experienced electrician. I know enough to get things done, but I take my time and check things thoroughly as I go.

This is pretty basic stuff here, except that the low-profile wall boxes leave no room behind the switches for wiring so that all has to be routed around the switches. This issue is compounded by the fact that all the wiring comes down one race. The wires for the box on the right (exterior kennel lights) comes in and goes out through the box on the left (interior lights). Getting everything to fit and making the connections was a task! This 12 gauge wire is stiff stuff.

With the wire race cover and switch plates installed everything is hidden away nice and neat. The switch boxes and the race are primed, so I can paint them the same color as the wall to further hide the mechanics of the thing.

Customers order on-line with their smart glasses (because computers and even phones are a thing of the past by then), bots run around collecting the items and stashing them in a locker, then the system sends the customer the pick-up code. Large orders, like building materials or appliances, would be in a large locker on a robotic sled that will follow you to your truck so you can transfer the load (it might even help), then return to the store.

A couple of months ago I bought a platform scale for Piney Mountain Foster Care. I used funds we received from The Binky Foundation for building and equipping an I.C.U. room to better care for sick or injured dogs. The scale counts (no pun intended) because knowing a dogs weight is needed to properly dispense medications and some preventatives as well as monitoring a dogs body condition.

First off, I found that while the scale will display in pounds or kilograms, it must be calibrated in kilograms. But I used an on-line conversion calculator to determine that 7 Kg is 15.43 pounds. I used a 15 pound bag of dog food and a baggie with 6.9 ounces (.43 pounds) of loose kibble. Armed with these I ran through the sparse directions (yes, ladies, I do read directions). It took me a couple of tries before I got it to say that the process had been completed successfully and the 15 pound bag of dog food weighed in at 15 pounds.

About that time I bought a truck load of building supplies for a renovation project we have underway and needed to store them indoors. To make room I had to unplug the scale and stand it up on its end. It has been there until those materials were used up last weekend. So today I took another run at calibrating the scale.

A few days ago I rounded the corner of the house, heading across the back to get to the play yard. What I call The Chute runs along the North side of our house and across the back, formed by a tall retaining wall to the North and a chain-link fence from the wall over to meet the play yard perimeter fence. The walkway is graveled, with large stepping stones placed atop the gravel for the dogs comfort and our convenience.

As I started across the back of the house a scrabbling sound caught my attention and I just caught sight of a small (4 foot) Black Snake racing along the walkway until it hung a left and shot through the fencing into the weeds and grass on the other side. I really need to weed-whack that stuff.

The next day I was cleaning the kennels. I was crossing the front of the building to get to the entry door at the far corner when I noticed the tail end of a black snake disappearing through the rotted out wood at the bottom of the door frame. I really need to patch that rotten wood.

I grabbed a corn broom and swung the door closed, exposing the corner into which the snake had crawled. Two rolls of tar paper sat atop a two-by-four laid on the floor to keep the rolls dry in heavy rains when that back wall leaks. The snake was between that two-by-four and the wall. The door was still open enough the leave a bright spot of sunshine beaming in, hopefully signifying escape and safety.

I was once fooled this way by a Yellow Bellied King Snake, which has markings that could be mistaken for a rattler, unfortunately that deception backfired and let to the King snakes demise. I felt terrible afterward when the truth became clear from a closer inspection. But I will not be so fooled again, especially not by a Black Snake.

At one point I stopped to reconsider my approach. This clearly was not working. All I was accomplishing was to make the snake exceedingly pissed-off.

During my respite the thing decided on another tactic as well. It went UP THE WALL!

The snake had finally had enough and quickly exited, it scales grating against the wood and concrete and the steel door. It went around the corner of the building and back up into the brush behind the kennel building.

Black snakes are officially the longest snakes in North America, some reaching 8 feet in length, but 6 feet is quite common. So a four footer was probably at least a couple of years old, maybe more. Definitely old enough to have been hunting in here for a while.

Just as I was finishing up the last step: scrubbing and squeegeeing the sidewalk in front of the kennels, the rain intensified to a downpour, the breeze freshened to a stiff wind, and the temperature dropped 6. I was SO glad to be going inside!

St. Malo has fascinating history that includes Roman occupation, British invasion, pirates, and total bombardment and destruction in World War II; it has been a busy place! There is even a Netflix series out now based on the Pulitzer Prize winning book All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr, set in St. Malo. The best way to learn all this history is to head immediately to the ramparts that surround the city. These are 20 meter thick walls that were first constructed in the 12th century. The ramparts contain armory platforms for cannons to fire out at unwelcome ships, and below, seawater-soaked kennels formerly (from 1155 to 1770) used for housing rather vicious dogs that enforced curfew.

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