Pawcurious Vet Blog: With Pet Blogger and Veterinarian Dr. V

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So yesterday my husband walks in the front door with his elbows over his head like he’s dodging a barrage of garbage at a hockey game.

“The hummingbird had a baby again,” he said. “She’s divebombing me every time I go out to the car.”

But he was wrong.

She didn’t have a baby. She had babies, two miniscule little beaks pressed skyward from the safety of their golfball sized itty bitty nest.

It’s charming, almost enough to make me sad about the fact that our house hasn’t sold yet. But not really, because I REALLY WANT IT TO SELL.

But in the meantime, I will enjoy my hummingbirds and my king snakes.

Koala Rescue

If I could go back and do it all again, I’d try to be a National Geographic correspondent. I just can’t get enough of their work- I’m quite certain this magazine is the reason I studied biology and primates. Today, I’m fortunate enough to have an excerpt and some amazing photographs about a koala story that I hope you find as fascinating as I do. (Look at the avatar on the Be the Change section of the site if you want to know how much I love them.)

I had always assumed koalas were in pretty good shape. Other than watching them shyly chomping on eucalyptus at the zoo, I’ve never seen one in its natural habitat, and I figured- hey, I have plenty of time to make it to Australia. But as an article in the May issue of National Geographic excerpted below asserts, the koala is in danger:

The koala, cuddly symbol of a nation and one of the most beloved animals on the planet, is in crisis. Before Europeans settled Australia more than two centuries ago, about ten million koalas lived in a 1,500-mile-long swath of the east coast eucalyptus forests. Hunted for their luxurious fur, koalas were brought to the edge of extinction in the southern half of their range. In the northern half, Queensland, a million were killed in 1919 alone. After the last open season in Queensland was held in 1927, only tens of thousands remained.

Through the next half century their numbers slowly rebounded, in part due to efforts to relocate and recolonize them. Then urbanization began to take its toll. Habitat was lost, and diseases spread. With urbanization came the threat of dogs and highways. Since 1990, when about 430,000 koalas inhabited Australia, their numbers have dropped sharply. Because surveys are difficult, current population estimates vary widely—from a low of 44,000 by advocacy groups to a high of 300,000 by government agencies. More than a decade ago a survey of the Koala Coast, a 93,000-acre region in southeastern Queensland, estimated a koala population of 6,200; today there are believed to be around 2,000.

“Koalas are getting caught in fences and dying, being killed by dogs, struck by vehicles, even dying simply because a homeowner cut down several eucalyptus trees in his backyard,” says Deidré de Villiers, one of the chief koala researchers at the Queensland Department of Environment and Resource Management. For 15 years de Villiers, 38, has been tracking koalas, monitoring populations, studying the reasons for their decline, and creating guidelines to make development more koala-friendly.

De Villiers insists that koalas and humans can coexist in urban environments “if developers get on board with koala-sensitive designs,” such as lower speed limits for streets, green corridors for koala movement, and, most especially, preserving every precious eucalyptus tree. Unfortunately, koalas have another problem.

Two joeys cling to each other at an animal hospital before being placed with human caregivers. Later on, they'll be released into the wild. ©Joel Sartore/National Geographic

Vicky Toomey, head veterinarian nurse at the Australia Zoo Wildlife Hospital in Beerwah, trims a cast for Harley, who is lucky to be alive and on the mend after being hit by a car. ©Joel Sartore/National Geographic

I MUST GET ON A QANTAS FLIGHT RIGHT NOW AND SMOOCH THIS CREATURE AND SAVE ALL THE KOALAS.

I had access to a third photo, a scene of a “koala morgue”, but it was so sad I decided not to post it here. You can see the full series here.

This excerpt and photo selection, used with permission, are from the May issue of National Geographic Magazine – on newsstands and ipad now. And for more from the fantastically talented photographer, check out his website, JoelSartore.com. OK, so who’s coming Down Under with me next week?

Where the Wild Pups Are

RIP Maurice Sendak, a true visionary.

Where the Wild Pups Are

The night Brode wore his wolf suit and made mischief of one kind and another

His mother called him “Wild Thing!” and Brody said “I’ll eat you up!” so he was sent to bed without eating anything.

That very night in Brody’s yard a forest grew, and grew until the ceiling hung with vines and the walls became the world all around

And he sailed off through night and day and in and out of weeks and almost over a year, to where the wild things are.

And when he came to the place where the wild things are they roared their terrible roars and gnashed their terrible teeth and showed their terrible claws

Till Brody said “Be still!” and tamed them with the magic trick of staring into all their yellow eyes without blinking once

And they were frightened and called him the most wild thing of all, and made him king of all wild things.

And Brody the king of all wild things said “I’m lonely!” and wanted to be where someone loved him best of all.

So Brody waved good-bye and sailed back almost over a year and in and out of weeks and through a day and into the night of his own room

Where he found his supper waiting for him.

And it was still hot.

(Originally posted October 30, 2009).

Happy birthday Koa- no joke

Two years ago this February, we took an hour and a half drive north to the Retrievers and Friends rescue to meet a 6 year old black lab named Lucy.  She was feisty, glossy, and fun, a slightly older version of Brody. We loved Lucy.

But then the rescue volunteer suggested we take a look at another dog, one who didn’t photograph quite so well but was kind and sweet and might be a good match for the family. There she stood, with her hangdog face and her defeated posture and her barrel chest and her gnarly teeth, just sitting back patiently. She came over with her tail gently wagging, licked my daughter and then my son, and sat down. “It’s OK,” her face said as we petted Lucy. “I just wanted to say hi.”

And that is how we ended up driving home that winter morning with Kekoa.

I didn’t realize until some time later, as I was going over her paperwork, that she was born on April 1st. It seems a bit of a cruel joke that so many pranks have been pulled on her in the past. (more…)

It’s a black and white world sometimes

We had a full and busy weekend, like, I imagine, most of you. The kids are on a two week spring break, which has both its ups and downs. I’m sure they would be more thrilled if we were going somewhere exciting, but we’re not, so they’re not as thrilled as, say, their friends who are off to Maui or the like. Such is life for a kid.

I’ve spent most of my spare time this weekend obsessing over black and white photography. I don’t know why but I’ve always loved it. I think it’s just so much more evocative. Anyway, I decided to plumb the depths of my husband’s photography library and quickly found I was way in over my head, so I found some books more along the lines of “black and white pictures for dummies”, which was still over my head but not as deep.

And then I spent most of Sunday afternoon messing around with his raw files from Africa, which, once he discovers this, will probably upset him, though I think- but I don’t know because it was all over my head- that the originals are still in there somewhere.

But my point is, instead of writing to you all about the dangers of Easter lilies or sharing more memes telling you to encourage your friends to get chocolate rabbits, not real ones, I was doing this. I’ll get to the rest of it this week. But in the meantime, because it is what I have, here is my attempt at dramatic Africa pictures.  (more…)

In search of the balloon office: Tarangire Office Space

As I alluded to in a post last week, I’m planning on travelling back to Tanzania in June for a project with World Vets. As you all know, or I think you mostly know, that was pretty much the most amazing experience of my life. And this is going to be different- it’s a working trip, not an anniversary trip I planned for two decades straight. I get that, and in a lot of ways it’s a relief- the pressure is off. I saw the chimps. I saw the Big Five. This time I get to just relax, do some good work alongside good people, and let Africa sink into my pores.

A friend once said to me, Africa is a place you either love or hate. You either get home and shrug with a confused “what was that?” look on your face, or you start planning your next trip. Well, making it back to a country in less than twelve months is a new record for me, so you tell me where you think I fall on that spectrum. I’ve had Africa on the mind since my feet touched ground back in October.  (more…)

Dogs, DNA, and some really incredible pictures.

I’ve had dogs on the mind lately (what else is new?), but the world of purebreds has been there even moreso than usual. The AKC/Eukanuba show I attended in December will air on ABC on the 4th, as you probably gleaned by now since I haven’t stopped yammering about it since then. In addition, I’m also going to Westminster on February 13th and 14th, for no reason other than I just wanted to see it, to marvel at the spectacle.

It’s such a strange confluence of worlds, society-minded dog fanciers and competitive point-watchers and intense breed overseers who make it their life’s work to delving into the pedigree and genetics of a dog in order to improve the health of the breed. And then there’s fascinated outsiders like me, doggie voyeurs who just take in the show. It’s so much fun to watch.

Domesticated creatures are a wonder unto themselves, aren’t they? We busybody primates tinker around with natural selection and breeding in order to create a creature more to our liking: a canine with a commanding bark, or a dog with a natural retrieving instinct. And in the process, we muddled up the gene pool quite a bit. Interestingly enough, as our understanding of genetics evolves at an exponential pace, the very oddities we’ve introduced into the canine genome are providing some unexpected insights into our own genetic makeup. Ah, science. I STILL don’t get how dogs accumulate points in order to be show champions, but start whispering in my ear about the genetic markers for albinism and I’ll perk right up. Now you’re sweet talking.

This month’s well-timed National Geographic (my favorite magazine ever since I was a kid dragging my Jane Goodall issues around) is headlined by this very topic:

National Geographic, Feb 2012

For reasons both practical and whimsical, man’s best friend has been artificially evolved into the most diverse animal on the planet—a staggering achievement, given that most of the 350 to 400 dog breeds in existence have been around for only a couple hundred years. The breeders fast-forwarded the normal pace of evolution by combining traits from disparate dogs and accentuating them by breeding those offspring with the largest hints of the desired attributes.

To create a dog well suited for cornering badgers, for instance, it is thought that German hunters in the 18th and 19th centuries brought together some combination of hounds—the basset, a native of France, being the likely suspect—and terriers, producing a new variation on the theme of dog with stubby legs and a rounded body that enabled it to chase its prey into the mouth of a burrow: hence the dachshund, or “badger dog” in German. (A rival, flimsier history of the breed has it dating back, in some form, to ancient Egypt.) Pliable skin served as a defense mechanism, allowing the dog to endure sharp-toothed bites without significant damage. A long and sturdy tail helped hunters to retrieve it from an animal’s lair, badger in its mouth.

The remainder of the article may be found here at the National Geographic website; or, check out the current issue of National Geographic Magazine on newsstands now.

In the meantime, please enjoy some of the gorgeous images from the February 2012 issue of National Geographic magazine, used with permission. For the full set, check out the National Geographic Gallery of dogs from the 2011 Westminster Dog Show:

(more…)

Cat Lady Undercover

Anyone who’s read this blog for a while knows I identify as a dog person. In this world, you’re one or the other, it seems, but just because you lean towards one doesn’t mean you dislike the other. I happen to like cats a lot, too. Which is why I took my daughter to check out the 2012 San Diego Cat Show this weekend. It really is a different world.

Much like a dog show, there are ‘rings’ where the cats are judged.

There’s none of this running around in a show lead, however. The cats wait in a cage until it’s their turn.  (more…)

Hello Olive

Our friends Jeff and Shelia recently brought home a poodle puppy, Olive.

Now, I love these guys to begin with, but when they told me how they prepared for a new dog- being inexperienced owners- I loved them even a little more.

They waited three years, until the time was right and the kids were old enough.

They researched exhaustively, picking a knowledgable breeder who spent hours with them visiting, teaching them about the breed, and making sure they knew the importance of early socialization. The kids have been trained in proper holding of a puppy. These people are prepared for a puppy and all the work that comes along with it, and that is why I am sure they are going to have a great life together.

Ready to play! Let’sgolet’sgolet’sgo  (more…)

The happy place

Do you have a favorite place you dream of? A memory that, when you close your eyes at the end of of a long week, you dig up from the recesses of your white matter and relive in a brief but joyous fantasy of wishing yourself back into the past? I do.

I know I have a bunch of things I was going to write about this week. This is what happens when I don’t write things down. I’m sure there is something I should be writing or that I thought to myself I would write this week, but when I actually sit down to do it I draw a blank and all I can do is think about chocolate, or Africa, or other such things.

I’m sure some of this has to do with the chaos of the holidays now being behind me, and the looming horror of all the work I need to do on the house looming ahead. Plus the fact that our cash strapped school district dealt with their budget issues by adding on an extra week of vacation- surprise!- and the fact that despite several goes with the saddle soap my favorite shoes still smell like a dog pooped on them, which of course he did. All of these things combined kind of make me look wistfully at my old photos and think to myself, surely someone in Tanzania could use the services of a veterinarian for six months or so, right? Just for a wee bit?

And I still haven’t told you my favorite story from Africa, about Graeme the Disenchanted Disillusioned Disgruntled Imprisoned Scottish Balloon Pilot, but that is a whole-day sort of post so I guess I will add that to my New Year’s Resolutions.

In the meantime, just enjoy some pictures my husband finally got around to editing this week. They are from Tarangire National Park, our last stop on safari.  (more…)

Carefree

Scenes from a holiday

The holidays are exhilirating.

Well, for most of us, at least.

Some find them merely exhausting.

While others use them as a time to indulge in the most ironic of activities, such as opening a “Good Dog” ornament from under the tree and chewing it up.

Indeed.

 Hope you all had a great one!