Miscellany Monday

Monday, Feb. 07, 2011 - 4:09 a.m.

First, breaking news:

For fans of Australian author Paul Kidd, he's entering the electronic age and there will soon be the following titles of his available on Kindle:

Mus Of Kerbridge
A Whisper of Wings
Dreamscape
Fangs of K'aath 1
Fangs of K'aath 2
Fey
Hall of Orpheus (NEW!)
Lillith
Petalstorm
Mission (NEW!)

And there will be more titles announced soon!

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I'm seeing various forms of an online protest about the culling of old or ill sled dogs by a tourist destination in British Columbia, Canada.

There were a hundred dogs that could no longer be cared for or used as sled dogs, so they were put down.

It's very plain to me that the people who are upset about these dogs beng put down have no earthly concept of how to deal with a genuine sled dog.

I was once married to a man who kept sled dogs. These dogs are NOT pets or cute or wonderful to touch or bring into the house. My orders were, since I was a stranger to those dogs, to leave them the fuck alone if I didn't want to lose a hand. When I watched him work with them from the house, all I ever saw was those dogs being used for practical puposes, and the dogs did what they were instructed to do. They are bred to work, and that's what they do, beautifully.

But, like it or not -- that's all they knew how to do.

Sled dogs are obedient. But this does NOT make them domesticated. BIG difference.

They're bred and raised to run and pull things, to maintain their pack mentality, and could almost never be retrained to do boring things like wait to go outside to pee or quietely sit by the fireplace or look up adoringly into their master's eyes. They just don't do that.

Canada isn't a backwards country when it comes to their animals.

But it's also not impractical country.

I'd no more have a sled dog in my home than I'd hoist an automobile engine up onto my futon.

With that said, if the method of their being put down was anything less than done as humanely as possible, then I want trials and convictions for any people who handled this with ineptitude.

But please. Make no mistake.

With few exceptions, these are just not house pets, and shouldn't be anthropomorphized.

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And finally -- Turntable Porn!

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That's it. See you next time.

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