Not really, but it’s because she’s generous about sharing. Gotta love da mutts.

Linda

A dane and a chihuahua in the same house, huh? Gotta make for some interesting moments. When I used to show Rotties, my daughter had a Yorkie who ruled the roost. Never knew he was less than 2 lbs. He thought he was a giant.

Maybe a dog house is where we live…

You mean in third world countries they don’t have auto-flush public toilets and electronic sensor paper towel dispensers???

I have actually been on a call here in the mountains where the family had just 2 rooms and a dirt floor. The late 40ish brother of the woman we were there to transport was sitting on a huge coffee can having a bowel movement when we arrived – in the same room as the rest of the family. His sister, age 57, was being transported to the hospital for her semiannual cleansing. They remove all the bedsore scabs, bathe her and medicate the areas where folds of skin hang and breed bacteria. She’s put on antibiotics, given fresh clothing and the same old instructions, which she ignores. The family was given a very nice doublewide mobile home, which is just down the road, and has running water, electricity, and all new housewares, linens,etc. Part of the family moved in, but these few others refuse. They say they like living there.

You can’t imagine the stench of this woman, who is obese and foul but otherwise fairly healthy. Why she chooses to stay in this hovel is beyond me. At least the sister with the children moved into the doublewide. They seem to be doing well enough.

Anyway, it’s not people like Betty B. who make me angry by spraying the toilet seats. It’s people who know better, or ought to. They wear gold jewelry and Alfred Dunner blouses and Hushpuppies. Or they wear long painted fingernails and big hair and chew gum loudly. Or they wear whatever it is 20-somethings wear these days. But they all have a phobia about touching the toilets, so they all make sure nobody else can, either. Not me, not the 4 year old who is potty training, not the 80 year old who has to endure yet another indignity.

I don’t think I’d have a problem adapting to whatever situation came to hand in your third world country. At least, I hope not. That’s a whole ‘nother ballgame, and not at all similar to what goes on here in our priviledged world.

Linda

And whether there is an undercoat, and the temperature outside, and whether the dog is acclimatized to the cold or just visiting…and overall health. One really good way to make your dog sick is to ask it to spend every ounce of it’s energy trying to keep warm on a pile of hay in a drafty doghouse in 10 degree weather. Contrary to popular opinion, most dogs are not unaffected by the cold. Even the cold-weather breeds, like the spitz groups or Saints or Newfs or Pyrs or Sammys can be greatly compromised if not acclimatized to cold weather.

Cats, even the longhair breeds, have no undercoats and virtually no protection from the cold. They have no business being outside without some form of adequate shelter available, and that doesn’t mean a cardboard box with an old towel thrown inside.

Give a dog a break; if YOU can sleep in the doghouse all night long with the equivilent of your dog’s coat (i.e. short hair: you wear a light sweater; medium hair: you wear a pullover fleece; long hair: you get a windbreaker over the fleece; heavy undercoat: you get a parka), then the dog will do fine. But if you think you might be uncomfortable, so will the dog be. If you think you might freeze your cojones off, then it’s likely your dog is shivering up all his stored energy in an attempt to keep from becoming hypothermic. Long story short, dog struggles to remain healthy. Coat is dull, dry. Energy level is low, dog is listless. Stools are loose or otherwise unusual. Dog is losing weight, despite the fact you’re feeding him more. Dog grows unhealthier by the day, and only springtime and warm weather will give him relief, unless his owner buckles to reality and gives up the antiquated and inhumane “he’s born with his own coat” mentality.

1) People who dress their dogs in jackets during cold weather. Isn’t that what fur is for?

It depends on the dog, factoring in both age and coat length. Our cocker spaniel has a medium coat, but he’s old and prone to chills. He gets a dog jacket in cold weather, even indoors. Our dane has a very short coat, even in winter, and ought to wear a jacket; but she’s incredibly skittish, and would likely have a stroke if she was wrapped up in something like that.

The rest of them — the blue bearded collie, the pomeranian, and the long-haired chihuahua — all have coats that are plenty long. No need to give them extra protection.

1) People who dress their dogs in jackets during cold weather. Isn’t that what fur is for?

2) Guys in bars who take advantage of clearly hammered, barely conscious women.

3) Anyone who complains about the hassle of passing through a metal detector before boarding a flight, visiting the Statue of Liberty or going to the top of the Empire State Building – as if placing their change in a little plastic tray is that much of an imposition.

p.s. Linda –

Spraying all over the toilet seat in public restrooms

Try the mensroom in any bar on Earth. I always assumed they just came ‘pre-sprayed’. Not a dry seat in the house.

I suspect it will shock the bejeebers out of you, but ’squatting like a cavewoman’ is what an awful lot of third-world women do to this day. And not just the natives, either.

When I was running the Fulbright Student Exchange program in Syria, back in the mid-80s, the students had an “Okay, this is what the real deal is” briefing that they’d pass on to the next year’s incoming students. One of the items discussed that very issue as large parts of Syria are lacking in handy toilets and those that exist are primarily of the ‘bear paws and bombsight’ variety.

Plumbing fixtures and public toilets aren’t significantly different now, one you get ‘East of Suez’ as they say.

Oh, I nearly forgot! If you don’t bring your own TP you use what’s available, including your left hand if that’s all that available.

Even for men, voiding in the wide open spaces takes some acclimatization.

But this isn’t a one-way street. Twenty years earlier, I had to teach Thai men that squatting, with their feet on the toilet seat, was not considered the proper way to use the commode. Somebody else taught the Thai women that little fact.

And the reason they had to hire them in the first place is…? Yep, because we are WAY too busy, and WAY too important and WAY too superior to be inconvenienced by replacing our carts. After all, we just gave that store a lot of money, didn’t we? We are WAY too indignant over the money we just spent to walk our carts back to the storefront. They OWE us.

And excuse me while I double park right here – It will only take half a sec and I’ll be right out, and you don’t mind getting caught in the ensuing minor traffic jam as everyone tries to merge from 2 lanes into 1 to avoid hitting this huge 4-wheel-drive, heated seats and mirrors, cooled drink holders, 9 miles-to-the-gallon environmental holocaust I drive, right? I’ll be right back, I only need to run in and pee all over the interior of the bathroom…

Yeah, we’re not spoiled.

Yep. That one just burns me up. It’s incredibly inconsiderate, and every single merchant who employs people who make change (do they even know how to make change any more?) should INSIST that money is counted back properly, with the change going into the palm of the hand, and the bills being passed to whichever hand the customer presents.

There’s one that burns me even more, though, and probably only the women will get it.

Spraying all over the toilet seat in public restrooms. This is a relatively new affectation that has become a nationwide plague. It is founded on the premise that toilet seats (in their unsprayed form) are too dirty to use safely. Rather than take the time to use the seat liner provided (in every WalMart in the nation), or improvise a liner with toilet tissue, or carry a travel pack of wetwipes, women now just lower their drawers, squat and aim in the general direction of the commode, and let fly in all directions. If there was any question before, the toilet, and subsequently the handle, the wall, the floor, and any other fixture in the general vicinity, is now MOST DEFINITELY in an unsanitary condition. It is vile, disgusting, hoggish, uncouth, asinine, filthy, and the most discourteous thing I’ve ever encountered. How, may I ask, does a young mother help her toddler go potty, in a urine-soaked stall worthy of a city subway? How does sweet old Mrs. Smith, who barely gets around these days, cope with this? Can any woman picture her grandmother squating like a cavewoman and splattering her urine across the back 40, like some animal marking it’s territory? Of course not! And grandma didn’t die from sitting on toilet seats all her life, either.

Does this animalistic, selfish, paranoid behavior make sense to anyone else?

And I always return the shopping cart to the store, or at least to the cart station in the parking lot. Small town thinking, because I probably know the person who has to retrieve them, and I’d hate to be seen making extra work for her. Just seems lazy of me (and I can always use the exercise), and very inconsiderate of the person I might be chatting with in frozen foods tomorrow. What do I say? “By the way, sorry for the 20 carts I left in the parking lot last month. Thanks for shagging them for me”? Sounds lame.

Linda

You’re on a 2 lane country road with curves and hills etc. The speed limit is 55. You get stuck behind some yahoo who slows down to 35 for every single curve and then speeds up to 60 in every straight stretch making it impossible to safely pass. (For these people, I recommend the use of the car-to-car missile system known as the “Bumper Sticker” missile.)

I suggest compound turbochargers and nitrous oxide.