Leash innovation for emergencies

Yesterday was your blogger Tom's (Rocky Jones) birthday, so we headed down to Monterey, Calif., for a mini-vacation. Or maybe, "mini-long weekend" would be a more appropriate description. Anyway, we left Thursday afternoon after finishing up various chores, packing up all Daisy's things and loading the Mini.

Daisy, with her pre-cooked eggs and rice, brush, breath mints, toenail clippers, alfalfa and supplement mix, blanket, plastic bags, codliver and safflower oil blend, mouth rinse, poultry-flavored tooth paste, tooth brush, biscuits and lint roller, has more in her suitcase than we do. So off we went, delighted to have a couple of days off alongside a different beach than ours . You might wonder why we'd go to another beach, but this one has sun and white sand. Much as we love Montara Beach, change is good.

Oh no! We discovered an hour down the road that Tom, who was in charge of gathering Daisy's things, had forgotten her leash. Poor Tom, he was furious with himself. But there was no going back, and no walking Daisy without a proper leash. While driving along the curvy cliff road and watching the sunset, we considered our options. Finally we decided to check in at the "rustic cabins" where we were staying, then go find a pet store where we could buy both a leash and a Gentle Leader.

But once at the cabins, a remarkable solution presented itself in the form of Tom's extra belt. We wrapped it around the front of her harness and buckled it. Voila! A "handle" for Daisy that fit neatly into the palm of one's hand. We weren't sure it would work, but in fact, this leash was almost as easy to use as the usual contraption. The length was so short and the grip so comfortable, we had a lot of torque. With one light pull, Daisy's front feet were off the ground and she'd have to stop. So if you're ever stuck without a leash, you might try out this invention.

Anti-shedding tips

Our reader Suzette had pity on our fur-saturated household and wrote in with a suggestion - the FURminator! She reported on her experience using one on her dog, Bella. Now Bella is short-haired in the extreme, but Suzette thinks Daisy could benefit, too. She told us:

You would be shocked at the hair from the second coat below that comes up. It reduces shedding by 90%. It is pricey and can be found at Pet Smart, Pet Express, online, etc. I got the medium size and it was $49 but well worth it. I brushed her with the normal brush I bought for her that had bristles on one side and wire on the other. Not much came out.

Then I used the Furminator and I got half a bag full of fur!

The description on the FURminator web site says it grabs undercoat hair and leaves the lovely top coat pristine. At first read it sounds dangerous -- be gentle, it warns, and watch for the redness and irritation that deep brushing can cause. But the lady in the demo video isn't holding back. You can see why they suggest that it's best to brush in a place you can sweep -- or better yet, have a vacuum with a fresh bag handy. Best of all, though, this product promises to get rid of our household's "cleanliness problems." Wow!

Fur flow overwhelms household

Yup, it's shedding season. That means we're navigating drifts of fur pressed up the walls, mashed into doors, covering whatever clothing we happen to have on. Tom bought a special, high-powered vacuum just for this occasion, but there's no keeping up with the fur flow. Now and then we'll try to brush some of those thin, sticky fibers off Daisy's person but it's really a 24-hour job. So out with the lint brush and on with the grubbies. It's best simply to put a "do not disturb" sign on the door to discourage guests and just wait it out.

How to remove oil from a dog's foot

Honestly, we're not sure. How do you remove oil from a dog's foot? We had to try to figure this out earlier today, when Daisy seemed to be walking oddly, as if she didn't want to put her foot down. There weren't any stickers in there, but sure enough, there did appear to be a blob of that bunker oil stuck between her pads.

We have learned over the past week that oil on the fur is not something to be taken lightly. Down at the beach, the volunteers from the Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary have been out every morning looking for signs of oil from the Cosco Busan spill and for sick birds. They warned us to keep an eye on Daisy's paws. If she were lick any oil off, she could be poisoned.

For a seagull, they said, a small blob on the feathers is enough to kill. That's because the birds try to pick it off and then ingest it. Hundreds have died already from oil sticking to their feathers, matting their fluffy protective coat, and destroying their ability to stay warm and stay afloat. Earlier this week, the volunteers told us glumly, they had found more than 50 oiled sea gulls just down the road at Venice Beach near Half Moon Bay. They had counted nine globs of congealed oil on Montara beach just that morning, including one stick just covered with the stuff. Not the kind of thing you'd want your pup to pick up and run with.

The oil is new here, but not the other detritus of humanity. Each morning we pick up at least half a plastic bag full of garbage. This week there has been an unusual number of discarded tampons. Who knows why? Maybe a garbage pail from a women's restroom somewhere got kicked into the sea.

The tide is powerful and high right now, and the crashing waves lift our spirits. But
even here, disregard for ourselves and our planet washes up every day.

Oil spill reaches Montara Beach

A week ago the Cosco Busan bashed into the San Francisco Bay Bridge and dumped 58,000 gallons of bunker fuel oil into the water. Since then, the foul black muck has drifted through the Bay and out to sea.

At first the oil headed north. But one morning we spotted the telltale gunk collected into a tar ball in the sand. Sure enough, just down the beach was a common murre, curled up and shivering. Altogether as many as 1,255 birds have died out of 2,278 found by rescue workers.

This is peak migration time. Crab season had been about to begin. The ocean was growing wild and full as winter approached.

This morning we found another another tar ball washed up onto the beach.

The balls look benign. But touch them, and the sticky goo lets you know they're toxic. One swallow can kill an animal.

At first the ship's pilot vastly underreported the damage as only 400 gallons split. Fragile areas of the Bay weren't protected, volunteers were shooed away, and the oil spread. As Peter Fimrite reported in the San Francisco Chronicle,

Among the myriad questions that have yet to be answered is why there was a nine-hour lag between initial reports of only 400 gallons of oil spilled and later reports that 58,000 gallons had poured into the bay. There are also questions about delays while large numbers of cleanup workers were brought in from out of state. Environmentalists have accused cleanup organizers of not placing booms around sensitive wetlands and wildlife habitats until it was too late.

In his excellent story, Fimrite exposes the tenuous state of the massive cleanup process. Shockingly, response to this disaster is in the hands of a private company. The effort

hinges on a little-known Louisiana company that works for big oil shipping lines and is largely self-regulated.

The oil will surely be with us for at least a decade to come.

Big, shiny teeth

Daisy seems to have recovered from the anesthesia and the trauma of having her mouth messed with. You can see the gums are a bit inflamed and there's some staining, but no more calculus. Remarkably, she got good marks from the dentist for her breath.

What a smile!

What were the survey results? The readers have spoken. Daisy's nose gets far more votes for beauty than her teeth do.

Doggie dental care - not to be ignored

Daisy's a little woozy, so I won't check out her new Cover Girl smile. She spent the day at the dentist, a long-overdue item on our list of her health priorities. She came to us with black-and-yellow tinged teeth, the plaque built up like cement. Judging from that and her reaction at the sound of a cellophane bag opening, we figured she had survived on a diet of potato chips and candy. Certainly not dog biscuits -- we'd give her one and she'd take it gingerly, then set it down carefully and walk away. Don't even mention those Greenies -- she hates them.

We did take her to the dentist once already, but she came back with the same yellow-coated teeth. We thought perhaps the situation was permanent, but lately we've gotten to wondering what kind of dental work really went on during that visit. Today, armed with a "wellcare plan" from Veterinary Pet Insurance, we sent her back for another try. The plan covers dental cleaning up to $100. Daisy's bill? $487.15.

We missed her all day and worried about a possible extraction, or two or three. Those back teeth looked baaaaaaaad. But fortunately, she came back with only a few negatives on her dental report card: staining and root exposure/gum recession. Not ideal, but better than losing one or more of those big teeth! Daisy was not as happy as we were. She spent the evening letting out little cries, as if she were reliving the horrible dental visit or, maybe her mouth just ached. A couple of aspirin didn't help.

The dentist had sent Daisy home with an oral rinse and instructions to brush every day. "Most dogs and some cats will actually learn to enjoy this daily ritual," the Linda Mar Veterinary Hospital wrote in its handout. Right.

"The paste should be pressed down into the bristles so the pet doesn't lick it off the brush. Start by brushing just a few teeth at a time. Hold the toothbrush at a 45' angle so the bristles go under the gumline. Only the outside surfaces of the teeth need to be brushed at first. Try to use a circular motion with the toothbrush if at all possible."

The handout included a photo of what looked like a Sonicare electric toothbrush just like the one in our bathroom. Maybe we all three could use it! But no, it turns out there are special electric toothbrushes made just for dogs. There's the Complete Pet Dental Kit by a company called Keep it Clean and Hartz makes electric toothbrushes, too. But as another handout warns, this only works if you can "successfully condition your dog to tolerate a whirring, jiggly thing in his mouth." Not likely.

I was glad that I had become an expert at trimming Daisy's nails. "I'm the nail technician," I told Tom. "You'll have to handle the teeth."

Escape artist Saint

Daisy has progressed really well in many ways. We can walk down the beach in the morning and she keeps our pace, not pulling or yanking on the leash. We can even lash the leash around her halter at her waist and let her continue on her own. She'll stick by us – that is, so long as there aren’t any distractions like dogs a half-mile down the sand.

Maybe that’s why we dropped our guard a bit while visiting a friend’s house in Oakland, Calif. We were helping out Daisy’s godmom – yes, she has a godmother, more on that later – and moving some things out of the house into a small, freestanding garage out back. We tied Daisy to a tree nearby while we loaded boxes into the garage and tried to stack all their goods relatively neatly. At first, Daisy hated the idea. She whined and then would let out with a loud bark – unusual for this non-barker who didn’t seem to realize she had the ability until a year or so ago. But she finally settled down on the grass and as long as I stuck my head out of the wooden garage doors now and then, she was okay. This was great, I thought, good training.

When we went back into the house to do more packing, Daisy came along. We left the door propped a little so people could go in and out. Bad idea. I looked up from a pile of papers to spot a wisp of a tail heading the wrong direction – out the back. I went after her. But Daisy’s fast. She was down the block, crouching low to the ground in a fast trot and heading toward the intersection. I put the speed on, glad I had worn tennis shoes that day. She rounded the corner, passed the YMCA, and shot around another corner.

This was Oakland, not Montara. People speed down this street in their hot rods, police cruisers chase parolees on the lam, fire engines roar out of their station. Daisy’s godparents live in a “transitional” neighborhood --- theirs was one of the refurbished old gems amidst rows of houses suffering from impoverished urban blight. We ran. Daisy could have chosen the route to the freeway, down to the shopping center, who knows where. She was picking up speed. What if I couldn't catch her? Suddenly, she slowed and stopped. On the other side of the grating was a silvery pit bull, nosing through the fence back at her. No barks, no bites, not even a growl. The pit bull was staying back a little from this big animal. Daisy lunged forward in a rude greeting but I grabbed her. The pit bull was curious. Another time, I decided, and dragged Daisy away. Disappointed, she came along back around the block and to her godmom’s place. Another lesson learned… generally, she’ll stick around. But if she’s got some business around the corner – watch out.

Earth gas and other theories

For a definitive ... well, interesting, piece on earthquakes and animals, see this 2003 National Geographic story.

".. precisely what animals sense, if they feel anything at all, is a mystery. One theory is that wild and domestic creatures feel the Earth vibrate before humans. Other ideas suggest they detect electrical changes in the air or gas released from the Earth."

While Japanese researchers trust their pets, the article says, American scientists appear to be more skeptical. The bottom line, according to those creative U.S. thinkers? "More research is needed."

Can pets predict earthquakes?

Oops, sorry for the long absence. Regular deadlines intervened. But that's no excuse, we know, so we will try to do better.

The night before last was very exciting around about these parts. We had a 5.6 earthquake, large and long enough to set the house shaking for some time. We were sitting at dinner and at first it seemed as if someone had kicked the table. Or maybe someone with a loud stereo was driving by. We looked at each other, and the shaking kept going. And going. The windows rattled, the candlesticks wiggled. The table shook. We sat in our chairs but we felt like we were riding a roller coaster.

One is supposed to climb under the table when such a thing happens. But we just sat there. Could have been our surprise. Or it could have been the unperturbed animal lying there on the floor. I read in the paper this morning that pets have a remarkable ability to anticipate earthquakes. Somehow they can feel one is coming, whether through higher sensory awareness or some kind of sixth sense. Look to the animals, the sages say, and you'll be prepared.

Hmmm. If this animal was alerting us, it certainly wasn't apparent. Not only did she not lift her head before the quake, but she didn't budge at all while the earth rolled beneath her. Perhaps this dog has been earthquake-proofed. Bolted to the foundation. But an earthquake early warning system? I think not.

Daisy alerts us to a 5.6 earthquake.