There’s a Bamboo tale that goes with this podcast. Just as I was editing the last bit of it, he stepped on some combination of keys on the keyboard that put blue bands at the top and bottom of the sound track and itty-bitty arrows in it, plus caused it to do weird things when I clicked the cursor or hit control z in an attempt to undo the damage. In a panic about losing all that work, I did what I always do in a computer crisis, I called one of my sons, this time Jeremy. He had no idea, but thought Bam had called up a tool of some kind. If that was the case, he thought it should disappeared if I closed the file and reopened it. So I renamed the file, closed it, reopened it, and voila! a normal-looking soundtrack appeared. Because of this, Bam still has nine lives to squander in other escapades that hopefully occur away from the keyboard.

Below are the peonies, a picture taken in one of the rare bursts of sunlight that week.

I tried to get some pictures of those feline-canine interactions currently going on in my house that I could allow to generate fear if I chose to go that route. But as it turned out, many times as soon as the animals see the camera, they immediately stop what they’re doing. Instead, Frica freezes and shuts her eyes lest the dreaded flash goes off while the others scurrying toward me to see what I’m doing. In fact, these results are sufficiently consistent that I bet I could create an entire training program based on the timely use of a camera and flash.

Be that as it may, the most my attempt to get pictures for this blog got me were two pictures of Bam, one as he was considering launching himself at the camera from the desk,

and a second one when he lost interest in my attempts and made his thoughts on the matter clear:

Early this morning, I turned Bee’s collar on to flash mode and took the dogs out like I always do. As soon as we got outside, Fric and Ollie went off to  do their thing, but Bee stayed between my legs, a behavior she assumes (with any convenient human adult) when she feels unsure of herself. Because the other two went off with nary a second’s hesitation, I doubted there was a wild animal out there that had spooked her.

I wondered what this could be for a while, but soon became entranced by all the lightening bugs that decorated the trees and the sky like countless flashing Christmas lights. It was an otherwise pitch-black cloudy night, the perfect night for a female to transmit her amorous message to a male without interference from moon or stars. For a while I was so awe-struck by the spectacle that I didn’t realize that the corgi between my legs with the hem of my robe and nightgown draped over her head was watching the flashes, too.

So now I wonder. Was it just all those flashes that spooked her? Or did it have something to do with the fact that she flashes, too? Her collar flashes red which I know she, even with her visual problems, most likely sees as a shade of grey that would look whitish in the dark. Could she have thought that she was seeing tiny versions of herself? Has she attached some meaning to the flashes of her own collar that she then projected on those lightening bugs?

I don’t know. All I know is that nothing would induce her to leave her cave under me until I turned and opened the door. And then she turned and quickly scurried inside.

If you read the blog about the new addition to my household, you probably guessed that a podcast about Bsmboo was inevitable. As I write this, there’s dirt on the floor where he raced through a large plant on his way to the desk where he knocked over a picture before leaping onto an old piano roll cabinet where he knocked over a carved Russian monk on his way to window sill to see what was going on outside. Never a dull moment!

Bewitching………………..getting ready to bother and bamboozle

This is kind of a heavy podcast, but I think it’s important because it’s about something that can mean the difference between treatment success and failure: commitment. And no, this isn’t one of those “Blame the owner” rants. Instead, it’s about one way we can stop spinning our wheels and summon the commitment to get the job done right.

No, this isn’t about some dread new disease that attacks male dogs or cats without warning and causes them to go blind. On the contrary, this podcast is about a human affliction, but probably not the one you might have in mind.

For whatever reason, BeeBee and Ollie thought this podcast would sound better with a background of jangling tags and general canine fooling around. I’ll let you be the judge of that.

My request was pretty specific. I wanted a short-haired mackerel tabby male with enough presence to tolerate dogs and kids. I also wanted a barn kitten or one from roots that would suggest good hunting potential because the basement of this old house is more or less at one with the earth.

Shortly after I put the word out my son, Dan, called to tell me that some friends of his had a litter of kittens, all but one of whom was taken. The mother had been tossed out of a car in a parking lot along with a male cat and Dan’s friends took them both home, only to discover that the female was pregnant. Dan sent me a picture and

told me it was the kitten on the left and it was a female.

Hmmm. I looked at the picture and I’m thinking “This does not look like a farm cat at all!” but you know how it is when there’s a cat-vacuum in your life and home. It doesn’t take much of a cat to fill it.

So even though I wanted a big burly male I said, “Sure, I’ll take her” and she arrived about a week later. When she did, there were several things about her that surprised me. The first was that she was so incredibly small. She was all tail, legs, and ears. Toss in the triangular face and her chattiness and I had to wonder if there was some Siamese in her lineage somewhere.

The second was that she was fearless, into everything and anything she could get into. Hence the name Bamboo, after the plant that would take over my yard if I let it.

Bamboo on the left trying to nudge out the lilac bush on the right.

I set up what I thought was a tiny kitten escape-proof box

and she was out of it in minutes, although fortunately the dogs have yet to figure out how to get in. Now I’m thinking, “There’s something fishy going on here. This kitten has way too much energy and is way too cocky for one so small. You don’t suppose…”

Sure enough it turned out that she was a he. And after a harrowing 3 days waiting to hear if Dan had accidentally been given the wrong kitten and I’d have to give him back—during which time he learned to go up and down the stairs and trash my bed playing hide and seek with the little dogs–I  learned he was mine to keep.

Now it’s just a case of staying one step ahead of him.

…which might be challenging.

We all know people who have no qualms about making hurtful or boorish remarks to others. In fact, such people are common enough in our society that learning how to deal with them gracefully is just another part of becoming a mature adult. But what’s with the people who call themselves animal-lovers who aim such remarks at other people’s animals? What’s the motivation that drives them to assume this anti-animal stance?

Read more here.

I think I’ll take the dogs out in the rain and then fix myself a cup of tea to celebrate.

If I had edited out all the parts of this podcast with dog-noises, there wouldn’t have been anything left.  In fact, the sight of the recorder now so reliably triggers BeeBee and Ollie to engage in raucous play, I’m thinking about getting a patent on this use and making millions. Until that lucky day when I can afford a pet-free recording studio, the barks, growls, grunts, jingling and all the other sounds associated with two young dogs tearing around the house oblivious to their detrimental effect on my recording career are doomed to remain.

For those interested, the tall split tree in the middle is the one I made my unscheduled descent into rosebush hell to liberate from the killer bittersweet. It hardly has a full head of leaves, but at least it’s not dead. I’m beginning to think that tree is part feline because it’s survived two experiences that would have easily killed other trees. In addition to having the bittersweet wrapped around it, it came within an inch of being smashed when the large tree next to it fell. Saving a tree with that much luck is worth a dive into a rosebush.

No, this isn’t a podcast about the relationship between animal bellybuttons and the animal’s behavior or some such thing. This is a podcast about the two kinds of relationships people may have with animals: those that come from the outside in and those that come from the inside out.

Confused? If so, hopefully the podcast with make this clear.

I decided a few visuals would help, but I had no desire to recreate the fiasco. Instead I took the following from the top of the slope which, I admit, make the it look pretty lame.

This one is taken looking down on the tree with its killer bittersweet on the left. The bright green is early wild rosebush foliage:

I admit it doesn’t look like much. Here’s a picture of the trailer from the top of the slope:

And how it initially looked to me after my fall from grace:

It’s amazing how little time it takes the brain to “see” things rightside up even when one remains upside down.

This week’s ruminations focus on the famous ethological statement, “To relate or not to relate, that is the question.” Well, not really famous because I just made it up. But the concept comes up so often in seminars and in my mentoring program, it might have a teenier weenie bit of fame in that world.

If you want to read a write-up about the study that precipitated these thoughts you’ll find it here. Even though I don’t completely agree with the study (or the way the article presents it which I realize may not be the same), I do know from  years of clinical experience that the relationship is a factor.

Years ago a friend, who is as knowledgeable in his field as I am in mine on my better days, and I were discussing books. Our conclusion was that, relative to any particular subject, there are two kinds of books. Those written from the outside in, and those written from the inside out. Michael Schaffer’s One Nation Under Dog is an outside in book.

Read more here.

Technically, in this podcast I continue to master the new recorder settings that will provide the best quality while enabling me to record while staying ahead of Ollie and BeeBee who still think the recorder means “Play time!!” In fact, Ollie apparently has made that connection so well that if I leave the recorder somewhere where he can get it, he will take it to the dog couch and shake it out of its case. I’m happy to report that the recorder suffered no negative effects from two episodes of this, and I learned to keep it in an Ollie-proof place.

You can find the National Pet Obesity Day Study here.

And finally, after you listen to the podcast ask yourself if you can think of any greater gift than providing our pets with environments that enable them to master the simple joy of being. So far, I haven’t been up to come up with one.

Happy listening.

If cats and dog could drive, what kind of cars would they drive? Or if their furry little feet couldn’t reach the pedals, what kind of cars would they prefer to be driven around in? Well, if we look at what drives their behavior, there’s only one answer: the most energy-efficient one.

A quotation that showed up in a weekly news magazine caused my thoughts to meander down the path of management. What does it mean to manage an animal’s behavioral problem? Are there times when it’s OK and time’s when it isn’t? Is there a right way and wrong way to do it? I’ll let you be the judge of that.