The Elka Almanac

Elka V, 2009-2018

2018-10-19T11:34:00.000-04:00

Elka died on July 16, 2018.

I don't want to write this post.

I also don't want to just leave everybody wondering forever, what happened.

She was in congestive heart failure, very suddenly. She was fine, and then she was not fine, and we couldn't make her suffer. We stayed with her, of course.

We gave her the best life we could. She was happy, had toys, had so much love. She was my first girl, my best girl, and I'll love her so much, forever.

I won't be updating this blog anymore. Previously, I'd left it because I'd just moved my creative energies to my fiction writing, not because anything bad had happened. I'm sorry to have left you waiting for so long.

My Writing News!

2016-05-03T18:11:00.000-04:00

So I mentioned back in February (!) that I was going to have some writing news for you guys. And now, here it is.

My second publication has arrived! My short story "The Lion and the Dragonslayer", is in the anthology Mosaics 2: a Collection of Independent Women. You can find it on Amazon, both for Kindle (Smarturl.it/Mosaics2) and in paperback.

Each author had art for their story, which I thought was amazingly cool. Here's mine:

Additionally, Mosaics volume 1 (which I am not in, but has some grand stories) is on Kindle sale for 99 cents all week, to celebrate the Mosaics 2 release: smarturl.it/Mosaics1

Proceeds from both volumes go to the Pixel Project to Stop Violence Against Women.

Throwback Thursday (because yesterday was National Puppy Day) 3/24/16

2016-03-24T07:43:00.000-04:00

I missed both Wordless Wednesday and National Puppy Day in one fell swoop, so here's one of my first Elka puppy pictures.

What Elka (and I!) have been up to

2016-02-20T16:39:00.000-05:00

We're still here. I know it's been awhile.

Let's see, where did we leave off?

We took the standard New Jersey trip at Christmas. My grandparents' neighborhood does luminaries on Christmas Eve, and so Elka and I helped with that.

Special Needs Dobermans wants to Make Santa Pay!

2015-12-19T16:50:00.002-05:00

That's right, via generous benefactor, Special Needs Dobermans is again running their Make Santa Pay! fundraiser.

Donations are being matched, dollar for dollar, from December 15 to December 31.

As always, there are a number of General Funds cases who really benefit from any funds that SND can receive, in addition to the Senior Doberman Project and the Seniors Medical Fund. So let's get that info out there and help these Dobermans have a healthy and happy holiday and year to come!

ProjectDog Fundraiser: Vestibular Deafness in Dobermans

2015-11-26T11:50:00.001-05:00

A few years back (in 2012, I've been blogging here for awhile!) I wrote about ProjectDog, and how they had a Doberman survey. I was contact recently by a breeder who would really like to see ProjectDog get some much needed funds, asking me if I was willing to blog about them again. I was provided with a linki to a fundraising campaign to fund research on Vestibular Deafness in Dobermans (affected dogs are referred to as "dings", but I'm going to use the other, less mean sounding, DVDob). It's "vestibular" deafness rather than the usual sort, because frequently it also severely impairs the dog's equilibrium.

According to this article (which quotes Ann Ramsbottom, the Doberman breeder who uses the Cambria prefix, who has had a lot of very beautiful and successful dogs), a gene for DVDob was isolated in 2012, and is an autosomal recessive mutation. Meaning that, like Von Willebrand's Disease, a dog who is a carrier can be bred to a dog who is "clear", and the resulting puppies will not be affected by DVDob. But they still don't know if the gene is related to other things, more prevalent in certain lines, associated with other genes, etc. and would really like the research to move forward. Frequently puppies are so badly affected that they are euthanized before they get very old. To paraphrase the Cambria breeder's quote from the above article, They seem to be in constant discomfort, have trouble locating the nipple to nurse, have trouble latching, and that's if the mother doesn't push them away.

Breeders don't want to have to watch their puppies suffer, and definitely don't want to have to make the tough decision to euthanize puppies when they're still only a few weeks old. It would be a great boon to learn more about DVDob and its causes, and build a database of dogs who are carriers, clear, and affected to be aware of these factors as well while breeding.

And before you think "It's just deafness, what's the big deal?", take a look at the video on the top of the Go Fund Me page for ProjectDog to study Doberman Congenital Deafness. It's of a three week Doberman puppy affected by DVDob. The puppy struggles around on the surface where he was placed (granted, there's only so well three week old puppies move anyway), unable to even maintain an upright posture. His head movements are jerky, unnatural and heartbreaking, as are the little cries he's making. He looks, to me, like a wounded animal. It seems rough to say, but it doesn't surprise me that a dam would reject a puppy like that, if the rest of the litter seems "normal" and viable. There's another video on the page of a 10ish week old puppy affected by DVDob, and these physical symptoms have not gone away. She falls over for no reason, she cries, she staggers around. It breaks my heart (and might break yours, so if you don't want to sit weeping at the computer, perhaps don't watch those videos).

So, if you're able, I urge you to donate what you can to ProjectDog so they can resume funding research in this area.

Bonnie, with Illinois Doberman Rescue, is SND Senior of the Week

2015-10-11T15:09:00.002-04:00

This is Bonnie. She's the Special Needs Dobermans Senior of the Week!

(picture from her Illinois Doberman Rescue page)

Bonnie is a 7 year old cropped and docked red girl who's with Illinois Doberman Rescue Plus. According to their page, she was surrendered to a shelter when her elderly owner died, and was adopted out. Unfortunately, she and the resident dog were not a good fit, and when her subsequent owners returned her to the shelter, the shelter contacted IDR+.

Read more »

Georgia Doberman Rescue T-shirt fundraiser

2015-10-04T15:06:00.000-04:00

The Georgia Doberman Rescue is selling T-shirts on Booster.com (which didn't show me the picture, but I saw a picture on Facebook [which I've screen shotted below] an they do seem like nice shirts) to help raise funds to help Dobermans in need. They currently have 15 dogs in rescue (with 6 currently listed on the site), and unfortunately, there are always more who need help. The goal is to sell 50 shirts, and they've sold 20 so far, with 6 days to go. With every shirt they sell, money goes to GDR, so more shirts means more money for Dobermans in need!

GDR is a 501(c)3 Not for Profit Doberman Rescue which relies on volunteers and donations to run. According to the stats on their website, they rescued 30 Dobermans last year, and adopted out 19 dogs. If you don't read this post in time to do the Booster fundraiser, they also have a Zazzle store with T-shirts and hoodies.

DDR fundraiser is a success!

2015-09-07T17:27:00.003-04:00

So my last blog post was about the Distinguished Doberman Rescue fundraiser to reach a total amount of $10,000 ($5k in donations, matched). And they did it! Exceeded it, in fact.

It's great that DDR, inc. will be able to continue doing their good work, thanks to the generosity of the donors.

Help Distinguished Doberman Rescue, inc raise $10,000

2015-08-10T14:30:00.000-04:00

Distinguished Doberman Rescue, inc. has a blessed and mysterious benefactor, who has said they will match donations up to $5000, for the months of July and August. That means, if people like you and I get the total to $5,000, DDR,inc. will get another $5000 from this individual for a total of $10,000 to help Dobermans in need!

No amount is too small, and DDR,inc does amazing work for Dobermans who have nobody else in the world to help them.

(poster from DDR,inc Facebook page)

In addition to cold hard cash, you can check out their Fundraisers page to see how else you can support Distinguished Doberman Rescue.

Wordless Wednesday July 1 2015

2015-07-01T20:04:00.000-04:00

Product Review: Kurgo Tru-Fit Dog Harness

2015-06-29T00:00:00.000-04:00

Recently, I was contacted by reps at Kurgo, to see if I wanted to review their Tru-Fit Dog Harness. You see, they'd recently revamped the design and then crash tested it at the University of Michigan (and you can watch the video at the above link). I said YES, because continued improvement on the safety of car harnesses for dogs is always fantastic in my book!

Sadie with Illinois Doberman Rescue is Senior of the Week

2015-05-26T00:00:00.000-04:00

Sadie is this week's Special Needs Dobermans Senior Doberman Project Senior of the week. This 7 year old docked tail, natural eared girl was picked up as a stray and then surrendered to IDR when her owner was located an found unable to care for her. She's in the care of Illinois Doberman Rescue plus.

Product Review: Fromm's Four Star Nutritionals Treats (Parmesan)

2015-05-25T00:00:00.000-04:00

We got these treats to review from Chewy.com, and this particular flavor (Parmesan) leapt right out at me from the list. Does Elka like cheese? Oh yes she does!

So what happened to May?

2015-05-24T10:24:00.000-04:00

I'm sorry folks, I didn't mean to pull a disappearing act for nearly the entire month of May.

Wordless Wednesday May 6 2015

2015-05-06T00:00:00.000-04:00

Safety First

2015-05-04T00:00:00.000-04:00

I've realized lately that lots of our training, and lots of our equipment, has to do with safety.

Elka is on a collar and leash when we go outside, to make sure she's safe. She can't decide to run into the road, or chase something and get off our property, anything like that. On our walks, she's on a harness and collar, with liberty's attachment to make sure more than one thing will have to fail to put her in danger; not that I'm sure she'd just hare off somewhere the instant she had a chance, but better safe than sorry. See, there it is again.

In the car, she has a harness which hooks to the built-in child seat anchor vehicles have. In the case of an accident, it will hopefully protect her, and also the humans in the car, preventing the 75 pound dog in the back seat from becoming a missile within the vehicle. It also keeps her from just jumping out when a door is opened, so her exit can be controlled to a safe place and situation.

Wordless Wednesday April 29 2015

2015-04-29T00:00:00.000-04:00

Happy Xanadu update!

2015-04-15T17:48:00.002-04:00

I just saw the news on the Illinois Doberman Rescue Facebook page: Xanadu, who I posted about on March 2, has been adopted! Congratulations on your forever home, pretty girl. I hope you and your family have many happy years together!

(picture from IDR+ website)

Wendy, natural eared girl with Illinois Doberman Rescue

2015-04-14T12:19:00.000-04:00

This is Wendy! She's a nine month old, natural eared, docked black and tan girl in Illinois Doberman Rescue.

(photo from Illinois Doberman Rescue)

MY FIRST PUBLICATION! "Adventuring", in Daily Science Fiction

2015-04-09T14:20:00.002-04:00

YOU GUYS! I got my first story really-truly published. Like, "they're sending me a check" published.

It's a very short (read: flash fiction) fantasy story, entitled "Adventuring", inspired by things like Tolkein and playing D&D. You can read it (and rate it!) on Daily Science Fiction.

There are no dogs in this story, however. Maybe the next one?

April 8 is Dogfighting Awareness Day

2015-04-08T07:52:00.000-04:00

Evidently, April 8 is Dogfighting Awareness Day. I didn't know/remember until I visited the Blogpaws site to get onto the blog hop for Wordless Wednesday.

I should think it goes without saying that dogfighting is a reprehensible act. But clearly it doesn't; there are many, many people out there who think it's perfectly acceptable. Who are culturally mired in it, caught up in it, don't give dogs a thought other than as equipment or a means to an end.

The ASPCA has a portion of their website dedicated to dogfighting awareness; FAQs, a tipline to call if you suspect dogfights in your area, and a form to fill out to send to the Department of Justice. If dogfighting makes you angry, makes you sick, take a couple minutes to have a look at those resources. Even that small thing might make a difference in some dogs' lives.

UPDATED: Daisy WAS ADOPTED!! through DOBER, inc.

2015-03-27T00:00:00.000-04:00

This is Daisy. She's in a foster home and available for adoption through DOBER, inc (Dreaming of Better Endings Rescue).

(picture from Dober,Inc Petfinder listing)

She's a natural eared fawn girl with a docked tail. Daisy is 11 months old, housebroken and crate trained, according to her foster mom.

Wordless Wednesday March 25 2015

2015-03-25T00:00:00.000-04:00

Elka does not know the difference between skunks and cats

2015-03-23T00:14:00.000-04:00

I did not witness this particular adventure; my fiancé related it to me after coming back in the house. I have no pictures of this adventure, so I'll provide you with some stock photos and you can use your imagination.

Because the backyard is still techtonically snowy and icy (spring is here or coming or something), we're still just letting Elka out the back door and into the fenced area to go potty (which reminds me, I'm going to need a new poop scooper for when that is no longer the case). We're working on self control, so she doesn't just bolt out that door as soon as it's opened, but rather waits to be released.

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