Looking for a dog to keep you on your toes?

There's a couple of McNab mix pups in California looking for a good home. Mama looks like a shepherd cross; in an early post they call her a Canaan dog, but no real way to know. Mama was found roaming, in wretched shape. In being nursed back to health, she began to look a little suspiciously puffy around the middle, and a phone call confirmed she'd been consorting with a ranch dog in the area where she was found. In speaking with Jon, the owner, it sounds as though he's done a thoroughly conscientious job in raising and placing the puppies, and with two left, I offered to help spread the word.

McNabs are smart, busy, and serious working dogs. They need a job and to be provided with both physical and mental stimulation. These likely won't be "easy" dogs to raise, but put in the effort and you'll have an unparalleled companion. Plus, look at the faces on these guys!

Hercules and Agamemnon (AKA "Aggie"):






















Click here for the full story and more information on these guys!

Saturday, Saturday, Saturday Market!

Yesterday was Raw Dog's Eugene Saturday Market season opening day. Actually the second weekend for Market, but due to the addition of Wags to our roster, we bowed out of the first weekend.

Yesterday's weather was pristine--a gorgeous, clear and sunny, mid-seventies, perfect-for-misplacing-your-shoes April Saturday. I started out the market day by snagging the very last 4 x 4 space available, but ran into Jacqui of Rory's (delectable) Doghouse Cookies, with whom I share the Holiday Market booth. Jacqui's Saturday Market space is a lovely little inside corner with open space on one side, a rock wall and trees all around and behind. It's shady, across from the fountain, and at the cross of a T intersection. Also, it's a corner space so she's got two open sides. It's a sweet piece of Market real estate, and we're thrilled to be invited to share.

What this means is through this Market season you'll generally find us at Market space 39, on the fountain block. If you're crusing around the sidewalks, turn South at the pie lady, but don't forget to stop and buy all the blueberry pie she's got on hand. Trust me on this one; if we haven't cleaned her out, you'll want to get in on that action. We do occasionally take a Saturday off, especially likely when the weather is miserable, and if Jacqui's taking the day off we may take another booth space. If you need help finding us, you can always ask at the Info booth, on the Courthouse corner. Just keep an ear out for the drum circles if you misplace the info booth. ;0)

Meanwhile, highlights of the day kicked off with a cup of Dana's Cheesecake Factory's delicious hot chocolate and a chance encounter with a girl fairly new to the area who'd bailed out of New York City a few months ago, evidently having decided there were better things found elsewhere. In the first few sun-shiny market days, it's hard for new vendors to actually set up a booth space. Space allocation is done by seniority, and early (high-traffic) days are more likely to see vendors actually show up. And show up they do, everybody and their dogs.

Well, not their dogs, because believe it or not, the City of Eugene doesn't allow dogs within park borders. Let me say that again. A park that doesn't allow dogs. But, I digress.

So between high attendance among the veterans and scads of plucky new vendors yearning to hawk their wares, there are just aren't enough spaces available for all, and dozens of folks who took their market point and spent the day in the crowds, instead. My spunky East Coast friend managed to wrangle my empty 4 x 4, so more than one of us won out, there.

Other highlights of the day included RollerGirl Susie B. stopping by for a visit, Market lemonade and barbecued asparagus, the sweetest bluegrass I've heard in dog's years, and the chance to buy a hand-knapped obsidian skinning knife which hopefully will be seeing some use here, soon. We sold gear for a bloodhound, two dauchsunds, several labs, and a herd of pits, amstaffs, a toy poodle, and bulldogs of all types.

All in all a great kick-off to the season. Folks were out in droves, we ran into a bunch of old friends and made several new ones. We did one of our best days of business at Market in over a year, but it's a great way to spend your Saturday even when sales are slow. Come see us!

Onward and upward!

Today Raw Dog picked up a third retail account.
Wags, on Coburg, is now carrying Raw Dog gear!
It's a gorgeous little shop, check them out!

Welcome to Scrabulous.com

As though I needed another way to use up my time...
http://www.scrabulous.com/ --an online scrabble network!

I... really did not need to know that website existed, but now that I do I think my life is just about complete =D

Arion

Well, I released Arion the other day. It was a long and somewhat agonizing decision. I kept starting to write about it and then could never decide exactly what it was I wanted to say.
He was a great bird to handle, but I never could get him to fly. We think he may have had something going on--may have run into a power line or something prior to me picking him up. Whatever was happening there, there wasn't anything physically wrong with him, but I never could get him to fly past a certain distance. Even off the creance and free-flying, he just wouldn't fly more than about 70 feet.
We ruled out any physical, health issues and my sponsor had given me an enthusiastic pair of thumbs-up about his training, which she'd said had gone perfectly. It's just par for the course that not all birds are going to be suited for a working partnership with a human being.
It could be he had a hidden health issue, could have been neurological damage from hitting a power line or being hit by a car prior to me picking him up, could have just been an ultra laid-back bird that didn't have much motivation to fly when he was getting fed routinely anyway. Who knows?

In any case, it was a tremendously valuable experience. We fed him heavily up for several days, then set him out on a fence row in the middle of miles of wide-open grass pastures less than a quarter-mile from where he was trapped. No predators for miles. A small copse of trees nearby for cover. A little stream for water. No haggard birds nesting in the area to chase him away. We left him with at least a day or two worth of food and a full crop. He was so comfy that he stayed put on the fence post, even after we removed his furniture and walked away. We sat watching him for a while just to see if he'd go up in the trees or fly away, but he just sat there on his rat with a full crop digging the sunshine.

A friend asked me if I was worried about him, and my response was something along this line... he was doing just fine before I interrupted his life, and will do just fine without me. He might make it or might not, but their mortality rate in the wild is around 80% even under the best circumstances, and I kept him fed and flying through the rocky first year--so if nothing else, he's back in the breeding population with a season's worth of good food under his belt.

Good luck, big guy!

Dogos Rock!

A shoutout to the Dogo Argentino Club of America. The March fundraising auction is on in full force, and I invite you all to visit the Ebay auction--proceeds go to funding the national specialty and events hosted by the club around the country.

Raw Dog is represented in the auction, so if you're thinking of ordering something out of the online catalog, please consider bidding on this listing--the winner can choose any single item from the entire online catalog. The bidding is currently at $26, so you've got a chance to get yourself a piece at half or even a third the catalog price! 100% of the proceeds go to the DACA, so it's money well spent in two directions ;0)

Cheers!

RIP, Rubester =*(

My lovely Ruby died on Tuesday. She was thirteen and had lived a good, long life for an amelanistic cornsnake, but I sure am going to miss her beady-eyed, expressionless little face.

I'm surprised I'd never gotten around to taking more pictures of her. I took that one of her being held by a friend's little sister just after I'd graduated high school, when she was given to me as a graduation gift by my mentor, my high school art teacher. She had been the class pet. He said he wanted to see us both off and doing bigger and better things.

She wasn't much of a conversationalist, but she made for a nice terrarium decoration and liked a sun-warmed rock and thawed-out rodent as much as the next guy.

I planted her in my lily bed; the tiger lilies will be a nice way to remember her in the Spring. I figure, with her coloring she'd have clashed with the stargazers.

Goodnight, Rubester, I'll miss you. =*(