Kitteh?

*Knock knock knock*

me: Hello cute little neighbor kid... what do you need?
me: Oh, you found helpless tiny animal that needs to be saved? Oh, but I don't like cats...
me: No, no thank you... I don't need to hold it.
me: Really, that's okay... no... I....well hello there little guy.
kitteh: meowowowowowwwwhateyouandlifeandgodandeverything
me (forgetting kettehs have a pointy side): Ouch! Fuck! Pointy!
*examines scratch marks on chest*
 *gives kitteh a dirty look*
kitteh: meowwowowwwwi'mpartninjaandwillshankyoubitch

me (because obviously I have half crazy somewhere in my family): Well... if whatsherface doesn't want it, we'll take it...
Brett: What is that noise?
*holds kitteh up*
Brett: well, that's adorable. Don't forget it's pointy. 

Neighbor kids took kitteh to whatsherfaces mother's cousin house who is twice removed and (for all I know) has exactly that many teeth... Turns out she wanted the angry little thing, and I was spared from my temporary lapse in sanity. Whew.

Dachshund's Rescued from Breeder

Mistreated dachshunds and other breeds rescued from unlicensed breeder KSDK -- The Humane Society of Missouri and local authorities in Stone County participated in the rescue of 55 dogs living in poor conditions on a property near Hurley, Missouri on Monday afternoon.

The Stone County Sheriff's Department and Missouri Department of Agriculture assisted with the rescue.

More than 40 dachshunds, four Great Pyrenees, a German Shepherd, several Boston terriers and five mixed breed dogs were rescued. Two four-week-old puppies were not housed with their mother and were severely dehydrated. In additional, authorities discovered 12 dead adult dogs and newborn puppies, including a partially eaten puppy, in a rubber container located behind the home.

Click here to view pictures of the dogs

More than 20 of the dogs were running loose in the home, which was piled with trash and debris and covered with urine and feces. The rescued animals will be brought to the Humane Society's headquarters shelter in St. Louis City for immediate care. They will remain in custody until a formal hearing. If custody is granted to the Humane Society, as many of the animals as possible will be posted for adoption.

For more information on donating or to report animal abuse, visit http://www.hsmo.org/.

Earthdog Pictures - Bettina Woolbright

One of my fellow dog-crazy friends, Bettina Woolbright has another talent. She takes pictures, and fabulous ones at that.  Last year she captured the BEST picture of my Dyllan at the Missouri Earthdog memorial day bash... I just had to share it with you.

We were checking in participants for the trial, and Dyllan was helping. He spent the whole day hanging out on a chair, enjoying the fine weather. While all of the other terriers and dachshunds out there were going crazy with excitement Dyllan was chill. I even left him to go eat lunch, and he didn't move or make a peep. He really is the best long-dog ever.

For those of you close to me (St. Louis) I can't encourage you more to bring your dogs out to Purina Farms one weekend and try your hand (or paw) at some of the working events. It's all about instinct, and very little training is nessisary. The dogs know exactly what to do. If you're not close to St. Louis, look up your local earthdog club and give it a whirl!

If earthdog isn't your thing, you can always get a Dog Portraits by Bettina!

The Facebook

Oh Facebook. How I love thee. Let me count the ways.

1. Endless entertainment from notsoclose friends having death match fights with significant others / friends / baby mamas. Spelling errors are an added bonus.

2. Even more entertainment from much loved family members that know just enough about computers to be considered 'dangerous.' Resulting phone calls from the older family members that relay said drama that happened on “the facebook” are just cherries on the cake, man.

3. Pictures. Lots of pictures. Though I'll be the first to admit how petty it is, there is a small part of me that loves seeing people that were uppity in high school that are now train wrecks in their mid twenties. Heh.

4. Cowbells. Being silly I put that I "needs more cowbell" as my facebook status a while back. A week later, a mysterious cowbell shows up on my doorstep. Maybe next time I should put "needs more cash" or "needs bigger boobs." The mystery of the cowbell still hasn't been solved. Fess up, you!

5. People that forget that every single one of their 300 + friends can see their pictures, status updates, racist remarks, and conspiracy theories…

6. Stalking. That's right, I said it. There are a few people that I'm really really interested in for whatever reason, but only want to be interested in them at a distance. Facebook makes this possible without making me look crazy. For the most part.

Facebook Fails

Oh, sweet jesus.

I have never in my life wanted something as bad as I want these...

Dachshund Keds



Ooooh, or these



and if you're getting the shoes...you might as well get the scarf to go along with it...



Oh man, you can go on and on and on. Dachshund people may be crazy, but at least we look good!

Resolution

Hey, do you know it's oh10?! It's also that time of year that a lot of people out there are considering / implementing their resolutions. I've never been one to make a resolution (or multiples of) because I think you're ultimately setting yourself up for failure...unless your resolution is to fail at all your resolutions, in which case I commend you on your creativity and honesty....not that I think people are ultimately failures I just think...okay this is kind of awkward... yeah, moving on.

So this got me thinking of resolutions that I wished my dogs would make, and I started writing a list. Turns out, there are quite a few of them.

• We promise to no longer shove our cold feet into our mother's back, or our cold noses into her armpit


• We will Rooo less


• We will wag more


• We understand that our mother can use the bathroom unsupervised, and will refrain from constant supervision to ensure that she does not escape from the secret exit that we think is located somewhere in the bathroom


• Squeaker toys are our friends, not our enemies


• Sneaking into our neighbor's yard to poop is not okay


• We will quit fake ignoring our parents when they call us to go outside when it's raining, cold, or when we're just too comfy to bother to get up


• Our parents can dry themselves off without our help


• We will stay out of the kitchen when our mother is cooking, especially when she's transporting boiling water from the stove to the sink


• We will stop thinking other breeds of dogs, excluding dachshunds, are suspect


• We will quit rolling in dying things and or poop in the yard


• We will each have our own individual toy and not all fight for whatever toy that Bitsy is currently playing with


• Socks are not toys


• Underwear would not be a toy, either


• Our poop is not delicious, even when it's froze into a Poopsicle


• We understand our nails will grow back, and that our parents are not cutting off our legs at the ankles when they're being trimmed


• Squirrels and things that buzz are our friends


• There are other ways to enjoy a toy other than destuffing it as quickly as possible


• What is in my siblings bowl really is the same thing that is in my bowl, honestly


• Baths are sometimes a nessisary evil, and shaking while your getting one is just not cool

Do you make a resolution? Do you think your dog(s) should?
Have a happy 2010 everyone. Muah.

UMSL vs Webster

I'm not going to Webster this January. I lied. Instead I am going to UMSL. The reasons why are many, and overall I am happy about my decision. To make me feel a bit 'happier' with all of this I'm going to outline pros and cons vs Webster and UMSL.

Webster Pros - - -
Intellectually I think I would have been a good fit. Small classes in a liberal arts college was exactly what I was looking for. There was something very charming to me when it came to Webster, before I even thought people needed to go to college I can remember driving past it and thinking that there was something prestigious about Webster. I loved the old buildings, the small student population, and the location location location.

Webster Cons - - -
The cost. I was prepared to pay the price of Webster when I was under the impression that I was getting a superb education. But when I hear Webster's own advisors tell me their science department is "subpar compared to most local high schools" I just couldn’t justify spending 25 K there anymore...and while we're talking advising let me tell you something. Webster's sucks, hard. Their advisors are not real advisors, as I found out the hard way. They're professors that just lend a helping hand. They have less of an understanding of requirements than I do, and their advice differs between person to person on things like which classes can be applied to your degree, and how long it will take you to graduate. They lost my transcripts several times, getting anyone to follow up with you was a struggle, and I just had an overall feeling of sloppiness when dealing with them. Also, classes were dropped willy-nilly, and a lot of the required classes that I needed were only offered every other semester, which was a huge deal in how long it would take me to graduate. Also, they really made me feel kind of shitty when it for transferring from a community college. One of my advisors didn't want to accept a class that was transferable from my transcripts because, well, I took it at STLCC…

UMSL Pros - - -
Cheaper, like half as much as I was planning to spend at Webster. They're a large university with a lot of opportunity to get a really decent education. I loved all of my advisors; everyone was extraordinarily helpful and willing to show me exactly where I needed to go and what I needed to do. They worked some real magic to get me in as quick as they did, and a lot of people bent over backwards for me. I recognized the gesture and was thankful for it. I really felt like they cared about my education, and cared about working with me. I know they get paid to do that, but that is a large part why they do their job so well. They have paid advisors that know their department’s degree’s and know what it is they’re talking about. It seemed like UMSL is way better equipped to deal with someone that is not an A-typical student. The only thing I missed out on were quite a few of the scholarships that I would have been eligible for since I was enrolling so late, but my Biology advisor is trying to work some voodo on that for me to see if I can squeeze into any. He was thrilled to have me in his program and had nothing but compliments for me when he saw my GPA and some of the professors I’ve had at STLCC.

UMSL Cons - - -
So. Far. Away. It's a 45 minute drive on a good day, and OMD the campus is HUGE. Some of my classes will have more students than I graduated from high school with. I know I'll get the hang of it but I feel a little overwhelmed with how big everything is there. Also, when I have a few hours down time between classes, I’m going to be stuck on campus. There will be no driving home to let my dogs out and eat and unwind. And this is pretentious of me, I know, and I’m kind of ashamed to write it…. but while I was at STLCC I met a lot of people that were transferring to UMSL and I would look at them and think to myself… I do not want to be them. They were just caricatures of college students, and I thought them to be exasperating and simple. They weren’t there to learn, they were there to try and have sex and scrape by with the lowest GPA possible to keep from getting expelled. I think that has been my biggest hold up with UMSL when it comes down to it. I don't want to be that person that is going to UMSL, so I’ll have to be that other person that is going to UMSL.


So, now that I've had a few days to chew on my decision, I'm feeling good about it. I'm going to get out of UMSL what it is I put into it, and I have really high expectations for myself. I think I made the right choice in switching from a major in math to a major in science as well. (for those of you that didn’t know) Though I love math, I think I would be sick of it in 5 -10 years, whereas with science thing are always new and changing. Plus, planning math lessons vs planning science lessons....well...there is really no comparison
…oh and the best part about UMSL…they don’t start classes till the 19th! Whee!