Craigslist can be pretty funny

Just go read this.  I hope it stays up for a while.

Today Conker got:

Turkey neck piece, chicken meat, heart and gizzard, beef liver, kidney and scraps and a small piece of lamb.  First time having lamb.

What is that?

It's a Schnauzer!  Not my Schnauzer though, the neighbor behind us's Schnauzer.  His name is Pepper and he is going to be staying at our house for a couple days while his owner is in Portland.

So far he's gotten along with the Girls and Conker alright.  Sasha has been ignoring him since he got here.  Juneau doesn't quite know what to think and will follow him around then run off when he tries to sniff her. Conker though, the second he saw Pepper he tried to get him to play.

I'm hoping Pepper won't bark at all while he's here, since when he does bark he sounds like he's being killed.  And that's just how he is.  The only barks he's done have been low not-getting-killed barks and only one or two at a time.  I hope he keeps that up and doesn't switch to the obnoxious kind.

It's been a while since I've seen a Miniature Schnauzer and he's a couple inches shorter than Conker.  I didn't realize that Pepper was so small until he was standing next to Conker who now looks like he's a medium-sized instead of small dog.

Pepper, unlike Conker, gets along with the people great.  He had no problems going with Mom and I from his house to ours.  I know Conker would have objected the entire way and turned into a mess when he got into the strange house.  Not Pepper.
Unfortunately he is just like Juneau and Sasha.  When he wants to be pet he'll lean on or touch you.  As you may or may not know, I HATE that, but Pepper isn't going to be sticking around for long enough that it's going to seriously bother me.  I hope.

So now instead of one annoying little dog following me around I have two.  Or three or even four, depending on what Juneau and Sasha are doing.


Today Conker got:  Beef meat, liver and kidney, turkey back chunk, chicken gizzard and heart and an egg.  He also got an additional chicken breast bone (with a bit of meat) and some skin.

Shiba Shedding

Shibas Shed, it's a part of life.  Today on the Nihon Ken forum someone askeds to see pictures of a Shikoku shedding but I figured a Shiba was close enough.  So I got out the bag of Conker's fur that I've been hoarding for some ungodly reason, spread it out on the bed and took a couple photos.

Shiba, fur and Furminator knock-off.  The fur is kinda wadded up so if it were "fresh" it would cover more than half of my bed.

The small pile at the very bottom of this shot is freshly brushed fur. See how it's looser than the other stuff?  And that was only from a small portion of Conker's neck.

The fur was about three inches deep on the bed, so there is a lot more than appears in the other pictures.


And today was somewhat exciting (frightening) for Conker.  While I didn't get any pictures of it, today was his first official swimming lesson!  He was NOT happy do be in the pool however, but I'm going to keep taking him in and letting him swim around until every time he heads to the stairs instead of the side.  He can't get out of the pool if he tries from the side, so I take him in about halfway then let him go and walk backwards ahead of him towards the stairs so he knows to go that way.
And thankfully since he's lost almost all of his winter fluff, he dries off really quickly.

Today Conker got: Pork meat, turkey back piece and gizzard, beef kidney, chicken liver and heart.

Information Dump

Ignore this post if you want.  It's a general layout of Conker's diet and whatnot.

Boring lasts forever

There is NOTIHNG FUN to do around here.  I now remember why I didn't like Grant's Pass when I was here last year.  Very boring, less to do than Vancouver Washington.


We found another snake yesterday.  That makes three snakes in the backyard and one elsewhere.  All have been Northwest Garters, harmless little dudes that look pretty neat.
I knew a snake was near when I looked over at Conker and saw him doing this.

Hunting Shiba is hunting.

Like all the times before I have gotten the snake before the Shiba hunter has.  And every time he thinks I'm going to give it to him.  These little snakes have only been about a foot to a foot and a half long and aren't very fast.  I don't know why Conker hasn't gotten any of them first, but the general rule is if I get it before he does it goes free.  If he happens to catch one, I'm gonna let him kill it since I wouldn't want to take it away only to see it's got bite wounds and would suffer if I let it go.

Conker was determined to find a snake even though I took it and released it on the other side of the bottom chain-link fence.  He found an old wood thing and dug out a hole in it and found some holes that he dug out even more.  But no snake appeared.
And today I spotted him sitting near the ivy where the snakes usually are.  He would get up and sniff through the bushes a bit then return to the concrete by the pool and wait.  I guess he wants to get the fourth backyard snake before I do.


And...

Finding Nemo sheets!

Conker got beef meat and kidney, chicken leg, heart, gizzard and liver.  And he again demonstrated today why I want to get a meat grinder.  Conker decided to crunch up the bone in the chicken leg but not to chew the meat apart and attempted to swallow the whole thing mostly-whole.  I said no to that and pulled it out of his throat so he could at least chew it in half first instead of gag on it.

For a while I'd forgotten why I wanted a meat grinder then today I was reminded of the very reason.  Because my dog is a dumbass.

June 16th

Ugh man, there's something I really want to write about but I'm not going to unless I actually do it.

In other news...
Today Conker got:

Pork meat with beef scraps, liver and kidney, turkey neck half and gizzard (turkey gizzards are HUGE!) and a chicken heart. 

Since it's basically the middle of the month...

Conker's doing great with all his body stuff.  Fur is great, breath is great, poop is... normal, eye boogies have reduced a bit, don't know why, but everything is generally good.

Surprisingly Conker's LP has gotten better.  When I first posted about it the right knee would go out every day, usually more than once.  Now it only goes out once or twice a week and goes right back into place after a few seconds.  Before Conker would have to move it around a lot or I'd have to put it back in for him and it made the worst click sound if he did it wrong. 
I wonder if this has anything to do with the joint supplement I'm giving him?  I know it doesn't treat LP but can it make it... betterish?  Since the joint is getting more lubricant than before is it holding it in place better or makes it able to slide back in more easily?  I have no idea, but whatever it is I hope it sticks around for a while.

Sasha's progress

Conker got: Pork meat with piece of turkey back, chicken wingtip, heart and liver, beef kidney.

It was sooo good.

Sasha has been making some slow progress.  She weighed 70 pounds when I got here in February, but I didn't put her on any serious diet regime until they were switched to Taste of the Wild some weeks back.  Sasha now weighs 65 pounds, so she's lost 5.  She needs to loose at least another 10 for me to be happy, preferably 15, but I'll take what I can get right now.

I try to take Sasha on a walk at least every other day.  Today she got to go to the dog park (Juneau didn't come) and with the exception of a couple small growls and rushes, she did very well with the other dogs.  She only got riled up when Conker was being chased by a superfast red merle Border Collie.  

Sasha is beginning to get a bit of a waistline.  It's not much, but at least you can see it now.  Hopefully she'll continue to be good with other dogs at the dog park so I can bring her along more often.  That will help her loose weight more quickly since she would be going on more and longer walks.  Plus she can run around and go swim in the creek before we go in and after exiting the park.

Conker the Almost Hunter

Today I was chilling with Conker in the backyard since there is a great lack of anything else interesting to do.  First we chilled by the pool, then on the diving board, then in the shade and lastly by some ivy-bush things.
Conker suddenly dove into the ivy, nose going a mile a minute, his eyes glued to the twisting vines under the leaves.  He jumped around rapidly, ears alert, in a stiff but limber stance.  He was hunting.

What was Conker hunting?  I asked myself as I parted some of the vines.  Then I saw it.  The slick black body, slightly kneeled scales, bright yellow and red stripes.  Another Northwest Garter Snake.  This snake was a crafty one and eluded both Conker and I as we searched the ivy for it.  I with the intention to remove it and place it in safety on the other side of the chain-link fence and Conker with the intention to kill and eat.

I spotted the snake several more times as I combed the brush for it.  Conker, much to my surprise, was actually very responsive to me while we were searching.  I thought for sure if he got the snake first there would be no stopping him.  But instead he listened to every command I gave and went where I pointed. (I directed him away from the snake.)  I guess since we were both hunting the snake we were a team.  If he was the only one doing it he might not have listened to me.

After a while of not seeing the crafty snake (I grabbed him several times but I don't like pulling on them when they are tangled) I was about to give up. Conker was off sniffing another set of ivy that snakes are known to hide in.  But alas, the snake re-appeared and I was able to snatch him before he could hide again and before the now alerted Shiba did.
I carried the angry snake down to the lower yard and to the chain-link fence where I have released the other snakes I've caught.  Conker kept trying to jump and grab the snake and chased it when I put it down near the fence.  But the snake was too quick for him and he didn't get it.


As awesome as Conker catching a snake would have been, I do not want him to think snakes are fun to chase.  There are rattlers up here, though somewhat rare, and while Conker was very fast I don't think he is faster than one of them. 


Today Conker got:

Halved turkey neck and scraps, beef meat and kidney, chicken liver, heart and gizzard.

Fancy Beagle

So today at the dog park I saw a Fancy Beagle!  Buckley over at Inu-Baka is a Fancy Beagle, and this pup was the exact same mix of Beagle/Bichon.  He was a very nice dog and his name was either Travis or Tucker, I can't remember exactly but I know it started with a T.  I think it was Tucker... I didn't get any good photos but I did get some.  Here they are.

Fancy Beagle from above.

Fancy Beagle in background while Conker and Midnight mingle.

Conker and Fancy Beagle look at Midnight.

This picture looks kinda wrong... Sorry.

Fancy Beagle is tired.

The owner was kinda surprised when I asked if he was a Beagle/Bichon mix and that I got it right.  I might see him again since the owner says they come more often in the summer and now that the dog park isn't a marsh he'll be dropping by more.  He also knows the Westies who come to the park almost every day.

Homecookin

Today Conker got:

Turkey back scraps (meat and bone) with pork meat, beef kidney and liver and a chicken heart.


Some while ago when I was still in St. Louis I made some lard.  Then I made chicken lard.  I like to call the chicken lard schmaltz even though I technically don't make it correctly and it's just rendered chicken fat, but schmaltz sounds a lot better.

Anyways, I made some more chicken lardfat last night.  It took a couple hours but the end result was good.  I probably used something like 3+ pounds of chicken fat and skin I've accumilated over a period of months since I strip off half of it from Conker's chicken.
I didn't take any pictures during the rendering since I was busy watching Band of Brothers with my bro, and because I was lazy.  But I do have a couple pictures of the end product.

The rendered fatlard is on the bottom, the "fried" chicken skins on top.
For those of you who've never made lard and think it's gross, tell me that after you've had some fresh trout cooked in pork lard, or some crispy veggies sauteed in chicken fat.  Amazing.

The chicken fatlard slowly cooks off the skins and it simmers in a bit of water that eventually steams off and leaves just the lard.  You are left with two products, lard and skins.  The lard I use instead of cooking oil when I make veggies, meat or whatever in a pan.

The skins, some people just throw out.  I eat them as a snack fresh from the pan, cold or after they've been nuked for a couple seconds.  They are also great additions to salads or dishes like a veggie and meat mix I saute in a pan. 


Although the chicken schmaltzfat isn't of use to my dog since I wouldn't feed a dog rendered chicken skins or lard, the dogs wouldn't leave the kitchen or immediate area while it was being made.  They all wanted it so bad, so I imagine if you had to give them a pill just coat it in lard and they'll slurp it up right away.