War Horse

War Horse is a painting
of a collection my husband has.
12x12 acrylic on canvas panel.
To order contact me at
angelasacrylics@yahoo.com

Watching the Geckos glide....

The days of healing and moments of our memories are being slowly replaced by the normal heartbeats of life.  Books are read, tv watched, small walks taken.

The passing of time measured by changing murmurs of awe..... "one week ago today, you had a heart attack"......"one week ago today, your heart was touched by human hands"...."one week ago today I brought you home from the hospital."   

It's been really quite wonderful to take this bubble of time and slow way down.  The weather has been cold, here in Hawaii, with strong winds....so we stay inside.  Hours marked only by the schedule for medications, naps and remarks of gratitude.

And we watch the antics of the geckos.   While it might seem creepy for some, for us here in Hawaii, geckos are like little friends.  They belong on this island more than we do....it is their home....and so when one scampers across the wall....or appears on a glass that was left out....it brings a smile and a soft "hello little gecko friend".  Inside the house they are pale, almost transparent.... blending into the colors of the walls.  Outside their color will change to match a leaf or tree bark.  Geckos make a chirping sound, impossible to imitate, but charming to listen to.  They have become part of our entertainment.  And I just love their little toes.

Message in a Bottle

SOLD
Painted on commission for a private collector.
Contact me for special orders at
angelasacrylics@yahoo.com

Cha Cha

Sold
Cha Cha
Painted on commission for a private collector.
Private collection.
Contact me at angelasacrylics@yahoo.com for special orders.

Heron Catches and Eats Baby Rabbit

Grab it.


Carry it to the water.


Drown it.


Swallow it down whole!

The Daily Mail is featuring these amazing pictures of a heron picking up a baby rabbit, drowning it, and swallowing it down whole.

Wildlife photographer Ad Sprang captured the dramatic images in Vianen, Holland.

"I was trying to get some nice shots of this grey heron,' said the 56-year-old Dutchman. "After taking several shots, a little rabbit appeared out of a hole. "

And the rest of the story is told in the pictures.
.

Autumnbriar Abandons Dogs To Die ... Again

Video

Lauren Wolfe, aka Autumnbriar, aka Laura Antretter, is a person that has routinely popped up on the working terrier boards.

She is also certifiably insane.

I have said so before, and I have repeatedly warned people off of her, telling them they should never buy a dog from her, give a dog to her, or even communicate with her.

This was not speculation on my part -- I knew she had already been cited for abandoning her dogs, and she had confessed to being on medication for some type of mental illness. And, for the record, I do not believe she has ever dug on a dog in her life.

This morning came this article out of Pennsylvania:

Dead Dogs Found at Abandoned Kennel

Thirty animals were found dead at Autumn Briar Kennel in Sullivan County, PA, last week. State Police at Laporte are investigating, with numerous animal cruelty charges and dog law violations pending. Corporal William Brown, State Police at Laporte, said charges should be filed this week.

PA Humane Society Police Officer Marlene Metzger, who works for the Dessin Animal Shelter near Bethany, was asked to respond to the Colley Township address, located below Tunkhannock, by Regional Dog Law Supervisor Ellen Howarth, Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Dog Law Enforcement.

Metzger said conditions at the kennel were “just horrendous, gross.” She says there were approximately 50 dogs living in the kennel area in “horrendous living conditions: feces everywhere and urine.”

“You’d really consider her a hoarder,” said PA Dog Warden Jim Rickert, referring to the kennel owner (name withheld pending filing of charges.) “She was a licensed kennel in 2008 and (the Department of Agriculture) was in the process of revoking the license,” he said, based on numerous animal cruelty and sanitation violations.

Metzger says the owner surrendered approximately 30 dogs on Thursday, of which 21 were transported to Dessin Animal Shelter in Bethany, to be placed for adoption. The remaining dogs were accepted by shelters in Susquehanna, Lackawanna and Luzerne counties, said Dessin Animal Shelter Manager Sue Frisch.

Frisch says the Dessin took in one Lurcher (resembling a greyhound); six adult, Jack Russell Terrier types; and 14 Jack Russell puppies. Five of the puppies are already spoken for, and Pregnant Dog Rescue in Newfoundland accepted three adult Jack Russells to be placed for adoption.

Animals dead on property

Rickert says they found seven dead animals when they searched the Autumn Briar Kennel property Thursday: six dead dogs and one cat. When they returned Friday with a second search warrant, they found an additional 23 dead animals, including a pig, goat, hamsters, gerbils, and more dogs. “In her bedroom was the mama dog and puppies. There was a pile of cat food bags. Under the pile of cat food bags was the dead mother dog and six puppies,” he said. “The hamsters were in a closet on the top shelf, in their cages,” Rickert said — all dead.

“Everything just died and stayed wherever it died,” Metzger said. She says it’s unclear if the owner lived at the house. “There was no place for her to sleep. There was dog sh** on every piece of furniture in that house—the bed, the couch, the loveseat—everything,” she said.

Rickert said animal cruelty charges were also filed against the owner 12 years ago.

Want to see the Kennel report from last year? Here it is (PDF). She failed food, water, bedding, sanitation, eccreta (shit), drainage, and water resistance, and has received numerous citations.

I will set aside the question of how someone cited for animal cruelty 12 years ago could get a Dept. of Agriculture kennel license to house nearly 100 dogs.

Instead, I will focus on the dogs that need homes. These dogs include a very nice lurcher and some small Jack Russells and Jack Russell crosses (which Autumnbriar tried to market as "rare Atlas Terriers").

There is nothing wrong with these dogs. What was broken was their owner, not the dogs. Contact the Dessin Animal Shelter to adopt or help and please cross-post to list-servs and boards where appropriate.

These dogs started out life in a bad place; they now need to bounce into good loving homes.


These puppies need a home!


Johnny, the lurcher, needs a home.
.

Let's Hire Women Who Win the Beauty Pageant!

The February 2009 AKC Gazette has an article in it from Dorothy MacDonald entitled "Not Just a Pretty Face." You can read it here.

MacDonald is an ancient AKC judge of the type that has clocked several hundred thousand miles in cars and airplanes on behalf of dogs, is qualified by the AKC to judge every type of dog under the sun, and never mind that she has never worked the breed in question, or even owned it.

How are we to know the dogs we judge, she asks? A good question. And the answer?

By reading! Not by DOING. Not by seeing if a fox terrier can go down a hole, not by seeing what it actually takes to make a good bird dog, a working sheep dog, a fast coursing dog, a solid sled dog, or a man-stopping molosser.

She opines that Nornay Saddler, a famous smooth-coated fox terrier that won many shows in the terrier-crazed 1930s "could show today and win," but she does not ask if that dog ever worked a fox or could. (It didn't, and it couldn't.)

She lectures that we need to judge soundness, and suggests that a bird dog should have a sense of smell, but she does not explain how you judge a sense of smell in the ring.

She suggests a terrier should have good teeth, but I have never seen a working terrier with bad teeth. Scissors bite, level bite, or shot bite, it hardly matters. What matters is whether the dog has voice -- an element Ms. MacDonald does not mention. And how do you judge voice in the ring? Not easily!

This is the American Kennel Club today, repeating the ancient chestnut that "form follows function," and never mind if that is not true in the AKC, and that it is not even true in that sentence!

Instead, what we get is regurgitated rhetoric, gleaned from a book, and spewed back out for the next generation of young puppies to lap up.

The core message of the American Kennel Club is a simple one: The best dogs (or people) are the ones who win beauty pageants! They will be the healthiest and the smartest workers.

"Look at that movement" says the boss of the young lady who has just left the interview.

"Yes," says his Number Two. "That girl sure has talent."

"Yes. As soon as she walked in the room, I could see she was sound."

"I wonder if she can type?"

"Does it matter?" asks the boss.

And they both burst out laughing.

"No, not at all. She starts Monday."
.