RIP GeriPatric

One day early last summer, as I was out gardening in the front yard, I spotted a lanky dog meandering down the road. Owner-less and collar-less, he sniffled about in leisurely way, completely oblivious to the oddness of his presence.


I called my roommate who, having a dog of his own that he regularly walked through the neighborhood, might recognize this old gent.

As it happened, the roommate did not know the dog, but took him all over town in search of the home from which he had surely escaped.

One month later, after numerous trips, emails, posts to lost dog fora/craigslist/petfinder, calls to the humane society and animal control in two cities, it began to dawn on us that this dog could end up ours for good.

We struggled with a name. He was so old and grey, we had taken to calling him Geriatric. But, a friend informed us that such a thing seemed rude... and suggested GeriPatric. It stuck.

Shortly after Geri's arrival into our lives, we lost my roommate's dog Jacques. One day he simply could not use his back end any longer. Recently, the same thing happened to Geri.



So today, we say goodbye to GeriPatric as well.

Geri will be most remembered for his random voluntary trips to places like Broadway Liquor Outlet (he forgot to bring money) and Fire and Ice, as well as his surprisingly deft pizza-stealing abilities.

Geri was also quite tolerant of our various foster puppies.



Rest in peace, Geri.

The Hounds of Hell

I love dogs.  Really I do.

I have had dogs since I was a kid - mostly large breeds, and some (well, one) with socialization issues.  I understand that dogs are a lot of work, and that sometimes they have genetic or puppyhood-related personality issues which can be challenging.  I am totally sympathetic to this.

Nevertheless, it ultimately an owner's responsibility to keep their animals under control, and - if they have socialization issues - away from other people/dogs/etc to which they might do harm.

Unfortunately, not everybody seems to get that.  And what is even MORE unfortunate, is that it seems often the folks who are most irresponsible with their animals happen to own breeds which ALREADY face challenges due to perceptions of genetic propensities toward violence.

I am speaking, of course, of Pitbulls, Rottweilers and similar.

Take, for example, my neighbors.  Not only do they have three huge Rottweilers that live 24/7 outside, are un-fixed, bark and snarl their brains out ALL FREAKING DAY, but, on TOP OF THAT, their fence is so broken-down that the animals regularly escape and terrorize the neighborhood.  I myself have called animal control no less than three times over the last two years when these animals escaped.

I feel sorry for them, really.  The dogs, I mean.  They have a terrible life.  They are stuck in the hot sun in a dirt yard all day and night, with nothing to do - they don't get walked EVER... but seriously people.  This is not cool: