4 Legs & a Tail 2016 North Summer

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Dog Days of Summer 2016 Northern VT & NH

Lights, Camera, Horses!

A True Tale From Giant’s Ace Madison Bumgarner

Why Would Hollywood Hunk Bradley Cooper Scoop?

The Story Behind Elsie The Cow

Who Let The Cat Out Of The Bag?

Inside this issue of 4 Legs & a Tail

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2. Green Mountain Dog Club

Four days of dog shows come to Tunbridge, VT this summer

The tale of a retired couple and their One Old Dog

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Curtis Lumber to Host 7th Annual PetAPalooza Pet Adoption Day HSCC Hosts Planet Cat Film festival to Support 1,000 Rescued Animals Of DINKS and DROODS, Justine O’Keefe

7. Summer Fun Without Pesky Fleas 8. Pet Allergies: A Problem We’re Itching to Solve, Michael Tanneberger, DVM 9. Petit Brook Re-Opens at New Location

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10. Alternatively Speaking:

Homeopathy- Little Doses with Big Effects, Anne Carroll, DVM

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As Rufus discovered, not every ailment requires a pill

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Water safety Tips for Pets, Ann Culp, VMD Amazing Grace, Michelle Berry

When horses are neglected, Mountainview Animal Sanctuary is there to help

Heat Stroke in Dogs, Elisa Speckert

What is heat stroke and how is it treated

A few tips to keep your dog calm this summer

13. Fear of Thunder and Loud Noises, Pat Jauch 14.

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Keeping Certified Therapy Dogs Safe While on the Job, Jason Reed Dog Grooming Basics, Jasmine Breiner

Experts agree that dogs should be groomed every 6-8 weeks and here’s why...

Lights, Camera, HORSES! A look at horses on the silver screen Are You Helmet Tough?, Jessica Stewart Riley

Why more western riders are making the smart choice

20. A Rabbit With More Than Just a Lucky Foot Baseball legend Vin Scully shares an unbelievable but true tale from future hall of

famer Madison Bumgarner

The history of one of the most iconic faces in America

How do those cats travel hundreds of miles back home?

Ever wonder what mushers do during the dog days of summer

What coyotes are saying when they howl

21. Elsie, The Borden Milk Cow, Kate Kelly

24. Sometimes Teeth End Up in the Wrong Place, Sandra Waugh, VMD, MS When was the last time your dog asked to see the dentist? If only they could talk

25. Homeward Bound 26. Sled Dogs, Summers, and “The Unchained Gang”, Tanya Sousa 27. Translating the Song Dog, Jaymi Heimbuch

28. Letting the Cat Out of the Bag:

The Wonderful World of Animal Idioms, Mark Carlson 4 Legs & a Tail Volume N.216 P.O. Box 841 Lebanon, NH 03766

Publishers: Tim Goodwin, Tim Hoehn Senior Editor: Scott Palzer Office Manager: Beth Hoehn Graphic Design:

603-727-9214

Kristin Wolff, Monica Reinfeld

TimH.4LT@gmail.com

Sales: Heather Young, Scott Palzer,

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Pg. 21 If you have a tale about a tail or a photo that will make us smile, we’d like to hear from you. 4 Legs & a Tail is published quarterly and distributed free of charge throughout Northern VT & NH. 4 Legs & a Tail, Inc. is locally owned and operated and acts as a moderator without approving, disapproving or guaranteeing the validity or accuracy of any data or claim.

Any reproduction in whole or part is prohibited.

www.4LegsAndATail.com 1

GREEN MOUNTAIN DOG CLUB

T his year, the Green Mountain Dog Club will hold its 70th & 71st Annual Dog Show on Saturday and Sunday, July 16th & 17th at the Tunbridge Fairgrounds.

The Woodstock Dog Club will be holding its annual show at the same location on Thursday and Friday, the 14th and 15th.

Farmer Elisha Lougee held the first Tunbridge World’s Fair in 1867 as a way to determine who owned the fastest horse or the best-looking cow. In keeping with determining the “best,” we will have Best in Show all four days. Woodstock Dog Club and Green Mountain Dog Club are honored to hold our VERMONT SCENIC CIRCUIT - Four Days of Dog Shows at the Tunbridge Fairgrounds.

We expect approximately 1,000 entries and over 100 breeds. With Exhibitors coming from over 35 states and Canada, a long weekend of Dog Shows can bring in over $450,000 to the area.

There will be Conformation Classes with Best in Show, Companion Events, Obedience & Rally for both purebred and mixed breed dogs all four days. There will be Best Puppy & Best Veteran. Dog Show Tours, an Ice Cream Social on Thursday and Friday and a BBQ and Live Music on Saturday. Call Mary at 479-9843 or see us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ greenmountaindogclub or go to www. greenmountaindogclub.org for more information.

The Green Mountain Dog Club is a nonprofit organization serving the Central Vermont area. In addition to hosting the annual Dog Show, GMDC holds many activi-

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ties to promote responsible dog ownership.

Some of the other events that are sponsored by the Club are: Sanctioned AKC Matches; Obedience and Handling Classes; and educational programs. Many of our members and their canine partners show as well as do agility, rally, and hunt. We have a few Therapy dogs as well. Membership meetings are held the 4th Thursday of every month and guests are always welcome. For more information on the GMDC, the show in July, or other events, please visit www. facebook.com/greenmountaindogclub or www.greenmountaindogclub.org Caulder Ripley of Duxbury is the president of GMDC. Caulder has had experience breeding and showing Siberian Huskies.

Caulder also holds regular Handling classes to prepare owners and their dogs for the art of showing. Dave Jones of Waitsfield is the chairman for our show on July 16th & 17th. Dave has bred and shown Australian Shepherds and Golden Retrievers as well as teaching Obedience Classes for GMDC. The Club has approximately 25 members located throughout the Central Vermont area.

Four Days of Dog Shows July 14th – 17th Tunbridge Fairgrounds 8:00 am – 6:00 pm!

Summer 2016

Curtis Lumberual n n A h t 7 t s o H To t e P a z o o l a P A t Pe ! y a D n o i t p o d A

Jay Curtis, President and Owner of Curtis Lumber

C urtis Lumber will host their 7th annual pet adoption day Saturday, June

18, 2016 across select retail stores located throughout New York State and Vermont.

The event is called “Curtis Lumber PetAPalooza.” Each store will host multiple pet adoptions/rescue groups. Many adoption fees will also be lowered for the day!

Hundreds of animals from over 80 (to date) shelters and rescue groups will be available for adoption, including cats, dogs, rabbits and birds. There will also be pet service providers in attendance such as local veterinarians, groomers, pet sitters, photographers and trainers offering valuable discounts off their services.

New this year, Curtis Lumber in Ballston Spa, East Greenbush, Ray Brook and Norwich will be holding Low-Cost Micro Chipping clinics for cats and dogs.

Other events include dog house/cat basket and 50/50 raffles, food and more.

Last year’s event resulted in over 400 animals finding new forever homes!

Curtis Lumber’s President and Owner Jay Curtis and wife Kendra, along with the Curtis family of 600 plus employees are very excited to host this annual event.

For a list of locations, participating shelters and rescue groups attending visit www.clpetapalooza or www.facebook.com/clpetapalooza

REASONS TO SCOOP

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ecently I noticed a person walking their dog. After the dog pooped, they both kept walking. As a pet owner, part of your responsibility is to pick up after your dog. If doing the right thing isn’t enough, here are a few more reasons to consider:

- Hollywood hunk Bradley Cooper can pick up almost any woman he wants, but finds it attractive when women pick up after their dog.

- Marriage website E-Harmony is considering adding the question, “Do you clean up after your dog?” to their match survey. When we contacted a rival match website, their response was, “We don’t give a crap!”

- Walking your dog and cleaning up afterwards burns more than 200 calories per day.

- In some local communities, failure to pick up can result in a fine of up to $500.

- There are several very common diseases that can be transmitted to dogs, cats and people through feces. These include Giardia, roundworms, Salmonella, and E. coli.

- Nobody likes to walk through a yard that is hiding “doggie land mines.”

- Flies will consume and lay eggs in feces.

These same flies will then come into your house and then spread disease as they pause on your counter and food.

This years event will be 10a-3p at 315 Pine St., Burlington

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- The shocking truth is that most dogs will engage in the unsavory practice of eating poop, at some point in their life. Dogs evolved as carnivore/scavengers and feces were considered fair game in lean times. www.4LegsAndATail.com 3

HUMANE SOCIETY OF CHITTENDEN COUNTY HOSTS PLANET CAT FILM FESTIVAL TO SUPPORT 1,000 RESCUED ANIMALS

T he Humane Society of Chittenden County will host the Third Annual Planet

Cat Film Festival on Saturday August 27 at the Flynn Center for the Performing Arts.

Offering Vermonters the opportunity to submit their original cat videos and memes to be viewed on the large screen, this event has been a huge success in past years. One of HSCC’s largest fundraisers, Planet Cat is expected to raise over $11,000 and have 400 people in attendance. All funds raised go directly to care for the 1,000 animals, the majority of which are cats, which pass through the shelter each year.

Planet Cat will be held on Saturday, August 27th from 2pm until 4pm at the Flynn Center for the Performing Arts in Burlington. Event tickets are $15.

People are invited to submit their original cat videos and memes for the chance to take home their very own aCATemy Award, voted on by the audience and three select judges.

For more information about Planet Cat and to submit a video or meme visit https://www.judgify.me/planetcat2016.

Tickets to the event will be available for purchase at http://www.flynntix.org/.

VERY SPECIAL THANKS TO OUR SPONSORS: NorthCountry Federal Credit Union Pet Food Warehouse People’s United Bank

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About the Humane Society of Chittenden County

South Burlington, VT – The Humane Society of Chittenden County works with many partners to ensure that Vermont treats her companion animals humanely. In addition to its most visible work in animal sheltering and adoptions, HSCC employs a humane investigator who responds to reports of animal cruelty; runs humane education programs for children and adults; spays/neuters and vaccinates feral cats; boards the pets of families in crisis; and works tirelessly to see that the animals who land at HSCC find new loving homes.

With no government funding or affiliation with a national organization, HSCC relies almost entirely upon donations from the community to meet its $880,000 annual budget. HSCC’s annual Walk for the Animals is vital to the organization’s fundraising goals.

For an event schedule and additional details, visit www.chittendenhumane.org/ news-and-events.

Founded in 1901, the Humane Society of Chittenden County is an independent, private, nonprofit, animal welfare and sheltering organization. The HSCC serves Chittenden and Grand Isle Counties and each year welcomes 1,000+ animals, and some 15,000 people, to its Animal Care and Adoption facility on Kindness Court in South Burlington, Vermont.

The HSCC receives no state or federal funding and carries out its mission of fostering compassionate treatment of animals and preventing animal suffering exclusively through program revenue and the generosity of individual and corporate donations.

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Of DINKS and DROODS

Justine O’Keefe - East Montpelier, VT

B ack in the 1980’s we were DINKS, a married couple with a double income and no kids. As retirees, we no longer qualify for DINK status. A more appropriate acronym might be DROODS--double retirees, one old dog. We dote on One Old Dog, a much-loved arthritic Golden Retriever with bum knees, allergies, and enough hair to make a toupee for every bald guy in town.

As a pup, One Old Dog blew out the ACL’s on both knees. Two surgeries and four thousand dollars later, we had a dog with functioning knees and a severe case of PTSD. Routine trips to the vet caused his blood pressure to skyrocket and the whites of his eyes to turn red. Mild mannered at home, at the vet he screamed and thrashed, knocked hypodermic needles across the room, and shed a blizzard of hair.

Life for OOD took a further downturn when we replaced the worn carpet in our basement with a hardwood floor. As soon as

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One old dog with support hose.

One Old Dog stepped onto its gleaming surface, he did a belly flop, all four legs splayed out, two east, two west. Using a variety of runners and mats, we created a path on which he could safely traverse the floor's slick surface, but OOD remained uneasy and dispirited.

In the weeks that followed, One Old Dog sank deeper and deeper into decrepitude.

He slept most of the time, couldn’t get up without help, and fell whenever he ventured onto the kitchen tile. His toys languished in their box and we, his devoted DROODS, prepared ourselves for his imminent demise.

Before that sad event transpired, however, One Old Dog’s guardian angel appeared in the form of Angela the House Call Vet. She arrived one afternoon wearing doggie printed scrubs and toting an iPad. OOD,

always pleased to have company, livened up enough to show her his latest stuffed animal and to coat her black jeans with a generous amount of hair. There followed a thorough examination and discussion of his various fat deposits, warts, runny eyes, greasy back, and regrettable teeth. She referred delicately to his weight and gave him a rabies shot.

I told Angela that we were unwilling to subject OOD to the stressors of invasive procedures. Our goal was to make him feel safe and comfortable, not to prolong his life for our own benefit. Angela suggested several ways to ease his arthritis and improve joint function. That evening on line, I purchased fish oil, chondroitin chews, and seborrhea mousse for his allergies.

Days later I received an email from our Angel Vet with a link to a company that sells non-slip doggie socks. Two tiny black socks arrived a week later. They furnish traction on the slippery floors, but are tricky to work onto OOD's pointy back feet and need to be removed each time he heads outside. No strangers to high maintenance, we DROODS perform the on-and-off several times a day.

In addition to his morning dose of arthritis medicine, One Old Dog now receives two scoops of fish oil in his kibbles and cooked vegetables. We use the chondroitin chews for treats during the daily walks that keep him ambulatory. Once a week I groom OOD, working the rake through his thick undercoat and inhaling dangerously high doses of dog dander. I clean his ears, wipe his drippy eyes and rub seborrhea mousse into his freshly brushed coat. At the end of the session, OOD’s fur is fluffed and gleaming, his face clean and his eyes bright in anticipation of his post-grooming treat.

Having implemented the suggestions of the Angel Vet, we DROODS have seen a marked improvement in One Old Dog’s health. He gets off the floor without falling and appears to be in less pain. He looks better, too, if one ignores his fat deposits and bad teeth. The on-going expenses incurred

by OOD’s new health regimen are considerable, but they are small price to pay to keep our boy healthy and happy. And, as former DINKS, we can afford it.

Justine is a writer and retired teacher in Vermont. She is a life-long dog lover and has lived with Golden Retrievers for the past forty years.

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Summer Fun Without Pesky Fleas

W arm weather means fun in the sun, but it also

means that we will soon see a growing population of fleas. Although pets can get fleas any time of the year, spring and summer are often the worst times of year for these blood-sucking parasites. Besides making your pet miserable and itchy, fleas carry diseases such as plague, tularemia, and feline infectious anemia. In addition, certain tapeworm species are carried by fleas. They can also cause life-threatening anemia in young and debilitated animals. Many dogs and cats are severely allergic to fleas, too.

Preventing a flea problem is much kinder to your pet, easier to do, and less expensive than treating an outbreak.

Fleas on your pet can be prevented and killed by using a topical medication or pill. Even indoor cats and dogs should receive a monthly preventative, as fleas can hitchhike on you or a visitor and you can track the eggs in from outside.

Your veterinarian can recommend a flea product for your pet. It is important to talk to your veterinarian before using any over the counter flea products. Many older products are hazardous to people and pets. Cats are especially sensitive to many over the counter topical products.

Flea collars are hazardous to cats as studies have shown that cats that wear flea collars are more likely to develop cancer in their mouths from ingestion of the chemicals when they groom themselves.

How do you know if your pet already has fleas? You may not see them at all, especially if your pet is extremely allergic (they lick and chew them off) or if there aren’t many fleas present (yet). Look for black sand like material on your pet’s skin, especially found from the rib cage back.

Comb a bit of it out, put it on a paper towel and place a drop of water on it. If it turns red, that is “flea dirt”- the digested blood the fleas have sucked from your pet and you‘ve got a flea problem.

It’s critical to understand the flea life cycle in order to eradicate them. Once adult fleas jump onto our pets, they begin reproducing within 24 hours. A single flea can produce 2,000 eggs in her lifetime.

These eggs hatch in as little as 5 days and the ones that don’t hatch immediately can stay dormant for up to 5 months. This is pertinent because only 5% of the fleas in the environment are on your pet! These are the adults you can see-- the remaining 95% are microscopic eggs and larvae that are in the carpet, bedding, hardwood floors, and organic litter in the yard. This means Summer 2016

that if you only treat your pet for one month, you are not addressing the much bigger problem of all of those immature fleas in the environment.

Fleas can be treated with a topical product or pill.

Your veterinarian, who knows your pet, will help you decide which product is best. These products must be used for a minimum of 3-6 months (most veterinarians recommend year-round protection) to break the life cycle and prevent new infestations. Use flea area treatments that contain insect growth regulators as a means of destroying the eggs and larvae in your home. Also vacuum well and wash bedding frequently. Remember, you must treat ALL pets in the household, monthly, as well as the environment or you will not solve the flea problem.

The Vermont Veterinary Medical Association (VVMA), founded in 1898, is a professional organization of 343 veterinarians dedicated to compassionate animal care and quality medicine. For more information, visit www.vtvets.org or call (802) 878-6888.

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PET ALLERGIES A

Michael Tanneberger D.V.M.

s any veterinarian will tell you, itchy skin in pets is one of the most common problems we see in practice. While skin disease has many causes, allergies are near or at the top of the list. Notice that I’m talking about itchy skin – not the sneezing, runny nose, watery eyes that we people tend to get. In our pets, it’s mostly about the skin.

There are three main categories of allergies: the most common is called “atopy” which is a hypersensitivity to inhaled or absorbed environmental antigens such as pollens, molds, house mites, etc. Next, food allergy can cause itching as well as gastrointestinal signs such as loose stools or vomiting. The third is contact allergy.

This is when the skin reacts to having been in contact with the offending substance (wool for example if the pet has been laying on a wool blanket). Contact allergy is actually very rare compared to atopy and food allergy and it is low on the list of worries.

The bad news about allergies at this point in time is that they still can’t be cured. However, the good news is that there are numerous supplements, shampoos, medications and foods all designed to treat the symptoms and improve comfort. Symptoms include itching, redness, hair loss, infections, hyperpigmentation (blackening of the skin), and tend to affect certain areas to a greater degree.

Feet, axillae (arm pits), ears, and groin are most frequently targets. Secondary yeast infections in the areas of inflamed skin are very common. Think chronic ear infections, or toes that are always red and are being licked all the time. In these situations the problem rarely gets solved unless the allergies and the infection are treated.

Identifying the cause of the skin problem often involves a series of tests. Fungal cultures, skin scrapes (to find parasites), food trials of hypoallergenic diets, and skin or blood tests to identify pesky allergy agents are all part of the discovery process.

Don’t forget the obvious…treat those fleas!!

A single flea is enough to make an allergic dog or cat miserable. And remember – ALL pets in the house must be on flea control, even if only one is itching. We are lucky to have so many easy and effective products on the market. Food trials must be done carefully, meticulously, and for a long enough period of time to provide accurate information. There are many commercially made limited antigen or hypoallergenic diets available and I recommend you discuss these options with your veterinarian. Unfortunately, it seems all too common that well intentioned pet owners are simply doing food trials incorrectly.

Immunotherapy (commonly known as “allergy shots”, but are now also available as oral medication) can be of great help 8 4 Legs & a Tail

A Problem We’re Itching to Solve

when necessary. Pets must be allergy tested first, and owners committed to a long term process, but relief can be obtained against a wide variety of environmental antigens.

For less severely affected pets, fatty acid supplements in the diet can be helpful (use only high quality products) and many great shampoos are available. One point to make about shampoos – so many of us tend to think that over shampooing will dry out the pet’s skin that we are hesitant to use these high quality medicated shampoos as often as needed. Without getting too complicated, most of todays medicated shampoos are “soapless” and do not strip the natural oils off the skin like all the shampoos from years ago.

Oral medications are also very commonly used to control symptoms. A wide range of (but not all!) antihistamines are safe for pets – make sure to check with your veterinarian. Cortisones are widely used when their potency is needed, but they tend to have a lot of side effects. They typically are used for short periods in controlled doses. A newer oral medication that blocks inflammatory pathways in the body is now readily available to veterinarians.

It has none of the side effects of cortisones and I have seen some truly excellent results with it.

Until genetic engineering solves the mystery of allergies, we will continue to make use of today’s products. Use them in combination and use them often and you will meet with your best success.

Dr. Mike Tanneberger grew up in Connecticut and graduated from the University of Connecticut before attending veterinary school at Cornell University. Prior to his arrival at Petit Brook, he was a partner in a large mixed practice in Northern, NY Summer 2016

Millie Armstrong with open house guests

Petit Brook Re-opens at New Location I t was a perfect day in April as hundreds of family, friends and more than a few

dogs showed up for the open house at the new Petit Brook Veterinary Clinic, at 5866 Roosevelt Road in Colchester, VT. Although the new facility is just a stone’s throw from the 1808 farmhouse which served as the clinic for more than four decades, the new practice still holds that comfortable feel with much more spacious accommodations.

“It has certainly been busy the past couple of years,” according to owner Millie Armstrong, DVM. The state-of-the-art facility was designed

by Armstrong and has a much better flow for You never know what might show up both pets and employees. “We have four private according to Mike Tannenberg DVM exam rooms located near the comfortable waiting area, and a large operating room for more complicated procedures.” With about 6,000 square feet, the four veterinarians and a support staff of ten, Petit Brook is well poised to continue their compassionate care for the ever increasing number of pets in Chittenden County.

Mona plays it up for Adrieane Snider DVM and Ian Goyette

Alysha Clark at the front desk

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Alternatively Speaking:

Homeopathy – Little Doses with Big Effects

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Dr. Anne Carroll, DVM, CVA

have always been fascinated with homeopathy, since I encountered it over 15 years ago. I was treating a Shar Pei who had gotten a snout full of porcupine quills and somewhere in his big wrinkled nose a quill was buried. It was festering and he was congested and miserable and it would not resolve no matter what medications we tried. We were planning a surgery when his owner met a stranger on a plane who gave her little white pellets he said would help.

I was incredulous that she would consider feeding some unknown substance to her dog. She announced that not only did she give it, but a huge amount of drainage had come out of his nose within hours and he had been totally fine ever since. “Dr Carroll,” she asked, “could that stuff really cure him like that?” She had given the remedy Silica, at that time I had no idea, but I certainly was going to look into it.

This was my introduction into the world of this subtle yet potent medicine.

The wonders of homeopathy: it is a system of medicine developed by the German physician Samuel Hahnemann 200 years ago. He observed that small doses of substances could help treat symptoms; the very

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same symptoms that would be caused by taking these substances in larger doses. He described this as the Law of Similars, and that “like cures like”, and the name homeopathy reflects this fundamental approach, homeo=same and pathy=disease. Unlike drugs or even herbs, homeopathic remedies are too tiny a dose to have a pharmacological action on the body. Because of this, homeopathy has been surrounded in controversy. As advances in modern science progress, electron microscopy and other technologies can see particles smaller than before. This has opened a window into a world where communications and stimulations occur in the body via ‘nanoparticles’, measured in picograms (one trillionth of a gram), and this has led to the recognition of nanopharmacology, or the ability to impact the body with substances much smaller than the drugs we are currently using.

In Dr. Hahnemann’s time, he could not use technology to prove the effect of his tiny doses. He could only show that it worked by using them in real cases, so he faced the same doubts by scientists then as today. In the last 20 years homeopathy is gaining ground again world-wide, in both human and veterinary medicine.

For the past eight years I have worked with Dr. Betty Jo Black, a certified veterinary homeopath, who has brought a whole other realm of treatment options for our patients. Take “Rufus” for example.

He is a lovely Manx kitty who was adopted in 2010 by his devoted owner despite a history of stubborn diarrhea. That diarrhea proved to be Inflammatory Bowel Disease, where the digestive tract is too inflamed to work correctly. Usually we can manage fairly well with alternative supports including diet, probiotics, and Chinese herbs. But Rufus would not eat the diets or herbs and preferred to curl up in a ball, making acupuncture difficult.

In 2011, Rufus was evaluated by Dr. Black for homeopathy. Belladonna and Sulfur were prescribed and in 2013 Phosphorus, between the other therapies we were using.

By this time he was taking antibiotics, immunosuppressive drugs, and getting a steroid shot every 2 - 3 months as well. He still had mild diarrhea and would often have a very red raw bottom. He was cranky when he did not feel well and would fight with his brother, Romeo. By 2015 he was losing weight, vomiting, and dripping diarrhea. He felt so poorly he would only growl at Romeo and not even chase him to start a fight. Dr. Black gave him Podophyllum, which matched his emotional and physical symptoms at this point. Finally we saw a change. He has needed only one steroid

Rufus

shot since this remedy, and that was six months ago, but more importantly, his stools are normal and he feels great for the first time in years.

Rufus is a good example of the benefits of homeopathy. Remedies can be given dissolved in a bit of water so they are tasteless and easily accepted by even the most stubborn patients. They are also very safe, since being so dilute they have no outright pharmacological actions and therefore no side effects and can be used alongside other drugs. Yet its tiny nature allows it to work on the most basic levels of body function to restore health when bigger, stronger, more measurable therapies fail.

Rufus’s case also shows that it is not easy to pick the right treatment from the over 2000 choices that are available.

Homeopathy can be used to treat any physical or emotional problem by itself or as part of a more complicated treatment plan. It is also used for most routine surgeries and trauma cases to help minimize pain, bruising, or bleeding. It can also be used to lessen any adverse effects that may stem from vaccination. Cancers can also be impacted by homeopathy, sometimes dramatically.

For the critics, homeopathy will no doubt remain too unbelievable and denounced as hogwash. But for this practitioner, I don’t need to see a nanoparticle or understand quantum physics to know homeopathy works, I have experienced it first hand and that is enough for me and all the patients who have shared the same life changing experience.

Dr. Anne Carroll is owner of the Chelsea Animal Hospital where she practices both conventional medicine and surgery as well as several alternative modalities including traditional Chinese acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine. Her associate Dr. Betty Jo Black brings classical homeopathy to the practice. For more information on alternative veterinary medicine visit their website at www.chelseaanimalhospital.com Summer 2016

Water Safety Tips for Pets Ann Culp, VMD

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ith the warmer weather here, our furry friends are eager to start playing in the water. Swimming is a great activity for our dogs in the summertime to keep them active, exercised, and happy, but there are some dangers to be aware of. There are many living things, big and small, that benefit from the water sources in our environment. For example, there are two very tiny types of bacteria that can have a big impact on our pets. Dogs with leptospirosis may show signs of vomiting, diarrhea, a decreased appetite, increased thirst and urination, trembling or abdominal pain.

What Should You Do? If you notice any of the clinical signs above or know your pet has been exposed to these bacteria you should consult with your veterinarian immediately. If your dog swam in algae, if possible, wash them off with clean water and soap. Algae can cause illness in humans as well. You must wear protective clothing such as rubber cleaning gloves, an apron, and glasses. If you do not have these materials readily available you should go straight to the closest veterinary clinic. Your veterinarian will perform a physical exam and diagnostic tests. Hospitalization and intensive critical care may be necessary to help treat your pet.

What is Going to Happen to My Dog?

The Bacteria Leptospirosis, a spirochete, is a bacteria that is eliminated in urine by infected domestic and wild animals. It can survive and remain infectious in our environment for months, mainly in water and soil. Infection can occur when dogs drink water that has the bacteria in it. Slow moving or stagnant water in or near rivers, lakes, or streams are the riskiest water sources. Leptospirosis infection can lead to kidney and liver damage and can even be fatal if untreated. Dogs with leptospirosis may show signs of vomiting, diarrhea, a decreased appetite, increased thirst and urination, trembling or abdominal pain.

Blue-green algae, a cyanobacteria, is found in many lakes in this area. Not all algae is toxic, but there is no way to tell the level of toxicity by the naked eye. The algae blooms will look like pea soup or spilled paint with foam along the shoreline.

Not only can the blooms be blue-green in color like the name, but also purple, brown, or white. The algae produces two types of toxins which can affect the liver and the nervous system. These toxins are extremely potent and can cause clinical signs (symptoms?) such as vomiting, diarrhea, collapse, difficulty walking or collapse, trouble breathing and even death within minutes to hours of exposure.

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Treatment for leptospirosis generally requires hospitalization for a few days.

Intravenous fluids, antibiotics, and supportive care will be provided. Prognosis is generally good for those cases that were diagnosed and treated early. There can be permanent kidney damage following infection which will require close monitoring and more frequent veterinary visits.

Your veterinarian may elect to treat other dogs in your household even if they are not sick.

If your pet is showing clinical signs from blue-green algae toxicity the prognosis is poor. A physical exam and diagnostics will help your veterinarian create the proper treatment plan. Emergency stabilization and critical care will be necessary.

Exposure to these toxins are almost always fatal even with the proper medical care.

Prevention is the best medicine!

Bacteria can be scary! But there are ways to protect our pups. Yearly vaccines are available that cover the main types of leptospirosis. Although it is still possible for vaccinated dogs to become infected, it is much less likely. Leptospirosis is zoonotic, meaning it can also infect humans. The main carrier of the bacteria is your pet’s urine. After starting antibiotics a very low level of bacterial shedding occurs. If your dog has been infected with leptospirosis, please contact your primary care physician to talk about further action.

One good thing about an algae bloom is that it is visible. Be sure to assess the water before allowing your dog to go swimming.

Look for signs posted along the shoreline about possible algae blooms. The Vermont Department of Health website provides weekly summaries of lake conditions, tips, and pictures of the algae blooms.

Although the water can be home to harmful species, being well informed can help keep your family members safe, happy, and enjoying everything that Vermont has to offer!

Dr. Culp graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in May and joined the internship program at Burlington Emergency Veterinary Specialists in June. Dr. Culp’s goal after the completion of her internship is to pursue emergency medicine. www.BEVSVT.com

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Amazing Grace N

Michelle Berry

o matter how exhausted of mind and body, every living creature deserves a chance at a peaceful end in life. This is why, a fellow animal rescue, Gerda’s Animal Aid in Townshend, VT, contacted us here at Mountain View Farm Animal Sanctuary this past winter. They inquired if we would take on a recent rescue that they had initially saved from a dire fate; we obliged after hearing her story.

Standing in a pen with at least thirty

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other horses, awaiting her turn to be photographed and videoed for a sale ad, was a weak black mare. She still held a glimmer of hope in her deep brown eyes. No longer an Amish family’s devoted cart horse of many years, she was now simply known as “number 481.” Tagged with a barcode sticker on her hip, initial tagging for shipment to slaughter, she was given one week to grab a person or organization’s attention. A week to gain another chance at life before being loaded onto a trailer with countless others, slotted for slaughter over our country’s border in Canada. Her luck was found when Gerda Silver, of Gerda’s Animal Aid, spotted her and raised the necessary funds with the help of her supporters. They pulled her from the kill pen and sent her in a trailer headed north. Instead of being delivered to a slaughterhouse she was now going on to a new life and a future.

Following a necessary 30 days of quarantine, the mare was discovered, from a tattoo under her upper lip, to be a registered Standardbred mare. She had raced in her early years and then gone on to be a broodmare known by the registry as Mardonnaray, and dubbed un-rideable by

a vet. This was when Gerda made the call to Mountain View Farm Animal Sanctuary in the peaceful green mountains of northeastern Vermont. After hearing her story our Founder, John Pastore, and the Board and sanctuary manager, Michelle Berry, decided that she was indeed a deserving candidate for much needed rehabilitation and retirement. Upon arrival, the hardships that the resilient mare had endured were visibly apparent. From that day on, life was going to be much kinder for her. Despite her weak, starved and arthritic body, after her first few days at the sanctuary, her obvious zest for life earned her the new name, “Grace.”

Grace has been with us here for a little over two months now and is doing very well with her rehabilitation process. It is clear that her many years of diligent work for her human owners, and the later neglect that she suffered, may always have a lingering effect. Though some days may still be tough from time to time, Grace will receive the proper care and management she deserves for the rest of her years, to be healthy and happy. She takes great pleasure in grazing on the green grass pastures, strolling about the property, and hanging out with her two pals; a pair of minis rescued from abuse and neglect a year ago.

The Mountain View Farm Animal Sanctuary is a non-profit Vermont corporation since 2003, dedicated to providing farm animals and equines, especially those with a difficult past, a good future and a chance for a long and healthy life. Additionally, we educate the public on appropriate care and treatment of animals. Our residents come from a variety of backgrounds. Many are rescued from abuse and neglect. And some are with us due to hardships faced by their previous owners which forced them to responsibly surrender their beloved pets to ensure they received the appropriate care for the rest of their years. In addition to rescue and rehabilitation efforts, we also hold educational tours and participate in educational programs to educate the public on ethical treatment of animals. We attempt to spread awareness and perhaps prevent future cases of neglect.

To learn more about us, volunteer, schedule a tour, or make a donation towards the care of current residents and future rescues, please visit www.mvfas.org, contact mtnviewfarmanimalsanctuary@gmail.com, write us at PO Box 38, East Burke, VT 05832 or call 802-626-9924.

Summer 2016

Heat Stroke In Dogs

What is Heat Stroke and How is it Treated?

Elisa Speckert

D ogs are unable to tolerate very hot weather as well as people. People have the ability to sweat in order to cool themselves down, while dogs have to rely on exchanging warm air in their bodies for cooler air in their environment by panting.

Excessive panting can be one of the first signs of heat stroke. You may also notice difficulty breathing, lots of thick saliva, bright red mucous membranes, dehydration, vomiting, lethargy, disorientation and uncoordination. If left untreated at this phase, heat stroke can progress to shock, causing grey or pale blue mucous membranes, bloody diarrhea, coma, seizures and death.

If you notice ANY of these symptoms of heat stroke, it is advised that you begin measures to cool your dog down, starting with taking a rectal temperature. The normal temperature for a dog can be up to 102.5 degrees. If your dog’s temperature is elevated, move him to a cooler environment immediately. If your dog’s temperature is above 104 degrees, cool him by submersing him in cool water for several minutes and then placing him in front of a fan. Pouring cool water on him or covering his face and feet in cool, wet towels is another option if a bath is not available. Ice baths are not recommended as they can actually worsen the problem by causing the immediate constriction of blood vessels, trapping the heat inside the body. Isopropyl alcohol can also be applied to the pads of the feet to encourage cooling since dogs actually have a few sweat glands on the pads of their feet.

Continue monitoring your dog’s temperature every 5-10 minutes. If you are able to cool your dog’s temperature to less than 103 degrees, stop these measures in order to avoid hypothermia. If you are unable to cool your dog, he should be taken immediately to a veterinarian, ideally performing cooling measures along the way. Irreversible damage to organs and cells can occur at 106 degrees.

Any dog that has suffered from heat stroke should be examined by a veterinarian. Abrupt, severe increases in body temperature can cause dehydration, while excessive vomiting can cause an electrolyte imbalance. Additionally, laryngeal edema, heart problems, kidney failure and seizures are also potential problems that can occur due to heat stroke. A complete physical examination and possible blood work and radiographs may help to prevent your pet from suffering from these potentially devastating problems. Your veterinarian will ensure that your dog’s body temperature remains in a safe range and may suggest subcutaneous or IV fluids to replace fluids lost during the heat stroke.

If you have suspect that your dog has suffered from heat stroke it is imperative that you bring him to a veterinarian right away. Heat stroke is a very serious condition and can be fatal if not corrected in time. If you have any questions regarding heat stroke and your dog please do not hesitate to contact your veterinarian.

Elisa Speckert is a graduate of the University of Vermont with a degree in Animal Science and a veterinary technician at River Road Veterinary Clinic in Norwich, VT. www.RiverRoadVeterinary.com

Fear of Thunder and Loud Noises Pat Jauch, Caledonia Animal Rescue, Inc.

S

ome time ago we were awakened

around 3 A.M. by ferocious barking and the gentle rumble of thunder in the distance.

Our companion canine, fearless in the face of loud noise, apparently thought she was protecting us from potential harm.

As the storm came closer her enthusiasm grew and she barked ever more fervently.

Lightning flashed, thunder roared, and still she barked.

What a contrast she is from her predecessor (twice her size) who cowered at the slightest hint of a storm, truck backfire, or starting gun at the high school’s sporting events. Much to the chagrin of our children, their dog would tremble and his bowels would go limp in the presence of any loud noise. Because he was a foundling, we never knew his heritage, so a genetic link could not be documented as the cause of his fear. Perhaps his previous owner traumatized him, something we often considered because of the wretched condition he was in when we found him. Whatever the reason, he never overcame his fear of loud noises, no matter how much we tried to help him.

Fortunately, he never ran away as some Summer 2016

dogs will do when confronted by thunder and loud noises.

We never shouted at him, for fear that he would become more bewildered. We tried playing soft music to distract him during storms, to no avail. Confining him to the bathroom with the exhaust fan running and the television playing in an adjoining room should have provided some comfort.

Unfortunately, no household noises were sufficient to create a buffer on the Fourth of July when fireworks lit up the downtown sky and the air reverberated with each explosion. Reconditioning simply never helped him.

Behaviorists recommend repeating reconditioning strategies, rewarding the dog with toys and treats whenever he begins to overcome his fear, and reinforcing the process as the level of sound increases and the fear appears to abate. They say that this process can take a while. Coupled with “sit,” “stay” and “down” commands, you may be able to help your dog overcome his fear of loud noise. If you care enough to try, you may at least reduce the level of the dog’s anxiety. www.4LegsAndATail.com 13

Keeping Certified Therapy Dogs Safe While on the Job S

“

Jason Reed

he is so obedient and calm, and she loves affection. I think she’ll make a great therapy dog!” Having tested and evaluated therapy dog teams with Therapy Dogs of Vermont for several years, I have heard statements like this time-and-time again. Many of these dogs go on to be the canine half of the certified therapy dog team volunteering in hospitals, schools,

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nursing care facilities, veterans’ clinics, and colleges. The dogs bring joy, relief of anxiety, companionship and entertainment for those in need of some emotional support. The handlers of these dogs make up the other half of the team. Handling these dogs is a great responsibility. Therapy dog handlers have the difficult task of keeping these working dogs safe on the job.

Successful therapy dog visits are equal parts human interaction, maintaining the facilities’ guidelines, and continually monitoring the working dogs’ safety. Dogs, no matter how well behaved, will react negatively to situations that are continually frightening or stress provoking. Monitoring a therapy dog’s reactions to moving equipment, individuals with varying cognitive abilities, slippery floors, alarms or sounds from various medical devices can provide the handler with information about the environments the dog is comfortable in.

Is this a confined space? Are the voices too loud? Is the wheelchair alarm frightening?

Comparing environmental factors to the dogs’ reactions provides information to

the handlers. Continuing to force therapy dogs into working conditions they don’t enjoy, can result in the dogs not liking the work, and can potentially provoke negative responses.

In addition to monitoring a dog’s emotional well-being, monitoring the dog’s physical safety is equally important. Handlers have to continually scan the environment for potential hazards. In medical facilities, there can be medication on the floor in both pill form, and also mixed into soft foods like apple sauce or yogurt. Rolling equipment can be hazardous to paws and tails. It is up to the handler to anticipate the passing of large laundry or meal carts and situate the dog accordingly. Therapy Dogs of Vermont’s policy mandates that handlers use a maximum of a four foot leash. This is to ensure that the dog is in close proximity to the handler at all times. Interactions between the therapy dog and humans it is visiting can be monitored closely. If someone has dexterity challenges, or is handling the dog too roughly, the handler is right there to help facilitate the interaction and better guide the visit. A working dog on a long leash, or off leash, would leave the dog susceptible to potential harm. There would be no way for the handler to properly monitor the dog’s behavior and social interactions.

Matt Baccary, a recently certified handler who worked closely with Therapy Dogs of Vermont evaluators, said, “Before, during, and after each working session we had the opportunity to receive feedback and discuss our experience and ask questions.

This helped us learn to notice safety issues, navigate crowded rooms, work with staff at the site, and more.”

Some locations present more hazards to the working canines than others, but the handlers’ focus on keeping therapy dogs safe needs to be the top priority during visits. This is why Therapy Dogs of Vermont certifies a therapy dog team, rather than just assessing the dog’s performance. Therapy Dogs of Vermont’s top priority is keeping our animals safe while conducting visits. Through the evaluation process, the “practical exam” portion of the certification process, Therapy Dogs of Vermont evaluators are critiquing the human’s care for the dog. “This process left me feeling like I am capable of providing meaningful interactions in any therapy dog situation while keeping my canine partner engaged and safe.” said Baccary. Keeping a working therapy dog safe ensures that s/he can continue to “unleash smiles” for many happy and healthy years.

Jason is a high school teacher in Burlington and has been a tester and evaluator for Therapy Dogs of Vermont for 6 years. He and his wife Emily have had 2 certified therapy dogs.

They currently have one, Olive. www.TherapyDogs.org Summer 2016

Dog Grooming Basics S

Jasmine Breiner

ummer is upon us. Hello suntans, swimming, BBQ’S and hiking! The arrival of summer also means it’s time to think about your dog’s grooming. Whether your dog is a short haired or long haired breed, your furry friend’s coat needs a grooming routine.

While most people like the low maintenance that short haired breeds offer, do not mistake low maintenance for no maintenance. It is important to bathe your dog regularly for healthy skin and a shiny coat. Bathing can also limit shedding and keep them soft to the touch. Be sure to bathe your dog with shampoo and conditioner, rinse well, do this at least three weeks apart or more, (unless directed more often by your veterinarian). If bathing occurs too often, it can dry out the skin and strip away their natural coat oils. If you must wash them, and it has been less than three weeks since their last scrub, make sure to use only water.

Most dogs love to be brushed, whether you think they need it or not. Not only is this a good chance to spend some quality time with your dog, it can also be very relaxing for them. To your pup, getting brushed can feel like receiving a massage. In addition to bonding with your pet it gives you an opportunity to look for any injuries, skin irritations, or any new lumps or bumps you might not notice otherwise. If you find it difficult to brush your dog, ask a groomer for some tips on desensitizing your pet to the brush.

For those owners with long haired breeds, brushing is something you are very familiar with. Brushing your dog every day will keep those pesky matts at bay. Hair cutting and trimming are also very important for any long haired breed.

Some people are able to cut their dog’s hair at home, but it is highly recommended you take them to a professional groomer.

There are many different haircuts for each breed so you and your groomer should be able to find the cut you like. Getting your dog groomed regularly will keep them comfortable and cool. It is recommended to get dogs groomed every 6-8 weeks, but some dogs will need grooming more often. This will help keep the grooming cost down, as well as keeping your pet looking and feeling their best!

The benefits of having your dog seen by a professional groomer are limitless.

Professional groomers are taught to look for skin irritation, lumps and bumps, ear infections, cuts or scrapes, and other abnormalities that you may not notice.

When drying a dog, the hair parts in such a way that the groomer gets a very good look at the skin. Professionals are also very careful to cut nails properly and have the ability to identify ear infections.

Jasmine recently moved to New Hampshire, from Oregon, in fall of 2015 with her Fiance and young daughter. She attended a certified groom school, and worked as a groomer at Petco for several years before opening her own grooming salon. She is currently a groomer at Bradford Veterinary Clinic, 802-222-4903 or e-mail at bvcgroomer@gmail.com.

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Lights, Camera, HORSES! O

ne of my favorite Kevin Costner movies is Dances With Wolves. Even though I’ve seen it a hundred times, I always pick up something new. For example, there is the scene when Costner, now friends with a Souix tribe, rides horseback into battle against the Pawnee. During the melee many are killed, including the horses. While this was a million dollar Hollywood production, it appeared to be so real that it made me curious. Did the horses really fall down or were those special effects? Were they real horses or something created by the Disney labs?

I started by looking at the 1934 classic, The Charge of the Light Brigade starring Errol Flynn. The battlefield set was lined with trip wires called a Running W, designed to trip the cavalry horses. For the filming of the climactic charge, 125 horses were trip-wired. Of those horses, 25 were killed outright or had to be put down afterward. Flynn, an accomplished horseman, was so outraged by the number of horses injured and killed during the charge, and by director Michael When 12 Gauge isn't playing with Katie Stygles, he stands 16.3 hands.

Curtiz’s seeming indifference to the carnage, at one point, while arguing with Curtiz he couldn’t contain himself and physically attacked Curtiz. They were pulled apart before any serious damage was done. The Charge sequence of the film itself, forced the U.S. Congress to ensure the safety of animals in motion pictures. The ASPCA banned trip wires from films in its guidelines as well. Because of the use of trip wires and the number of horses killed, the movie was never re-released by Warner Brothers.

In this modern era of cinematography, horses are carefully trained and are as integral to the movie as the humans they share the screen with. Whether in classics like Dances with Wolves or more current films like Avatar and Django Unchained, horses are trained to perform safely.

“Think of a falling horse as an acrobat,” says Petrine Mitchum, author of Hollywood Hoofbeats: Trails Blazed Across the Silver Screen. “They need to be athletic and fearless, and also need to have a very trusting nature. So they have to not only have a calm, strong nature but also be willing to place total trust in their trainer.”

The humane way of making a horse fall is actually centuries old. It’s an old battlefield technique of teaching a horse to fall so that - I mean, it’s not for a very good reason on the battlefield - so that you can fall a horse and use him as a shield.

But as it has evolved as really an art in the film business, it’s a process by where the horse is trained very, very slowly, starting at a standstill. The trainer will pick up one of the horse’s front legs, maybe tie it up and slowly push him over - always onto soft ground - very, very carefully done so that the horse lands on his shoulder and he’s not hurt. And once the horse is confident doing that - that he’s not going to get hurt - then they’ll start doing it at a walk and then at a trot and then finally, at a gallop.

This can take months to teach a horse, and not every horse is going to go for it. I mean, it’s a very strange thing to do. But some horses just trust their trainer enough and have the athletic ability to do it. And from what I heard from talking to stunt men who trained their own falling horses, which is usually the case, they had horses who actually came to love it and anticipate it and were real star athletes.

In a recent interview on National Public radio, Mitchum pointed out: You can tell a trained fall when you’re watching a film by looking for the horse’s head - looking at the horse’s head. And as the horse is galloping along, the trainer will pull the horse’s head, usually to the left, and he will fall on the opposite shoulder. So he’s taking the weight off of the outside by pulling the horse’s head to the inside and then cueing him to fall over onto the other side. Of course, the stunt man is wearing a saddle that has rubber stirrups on that side so when the horse is falling, he’s not falling on anything hard.

Of course, the rider has to get his leg out of the way, if possible. So it’s a very, very carefully orchestrated - almost a dance move, if you will.

The training is very specialized and not just anyone can do it,” says Mitchum: It requires extreme patience and confidence, and the ability to read the horse and know what it is capable of, and when to push and when to back off. The trainer also has to have impeccable timing and a certain fearlessness, as well. To deliberately fall down with a 1,000-pound animal in a gallop is not for the faint of heart.

Summer 2016

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Are You Helmet Tough?

Jessica Stewart Riley

W

hether its all-around events like western pleasure, or pro-rodeo events like calf roping and barrel racing, helmets are not commonly worn in western competition. The straw or felt cowboy hat is and has always been a major part of the traditional attire. I started showing in American Quarter Horse Association All-Around competitions as a 10 year old, and later became a member of the AQHA Professional Horsemen and trainer of youth and amateur competitors in events like western pleasure, westIn 2010 Nicole Aichele and Blondie broke a world ern horsemanship, and trail. Besides record for fastest time on a WRPA standard pattern. young children competing in leadline and walk-trot, and now youth competitors in English events (because of a rule change in late 2013), it’s fairly rare to see someone wearing a helmet at AQHA shows. This lack of concern for safety that seems to be the norm has always caused me an internal struggle, because my “other” job is as an educator in the Vermont Technical College Equine Studies Program, where safety is our first priority. The focus of our program is teaching the next generation of equine professionals to be the best horsemen possible. Because of this, we require all riders to wear an ASTM-SEI approved helmet at our facility when mounted, regardless of the discipline they are riding.

Recently there has been a lot of buzz on social media about helmets in the western part of the equine industry. Champion barrel racer Fallon Taylor made a splash at the 2014 National Finals Rodeo by thundering down the alley and bursting into the Thomas and Mack arena in a helmet.

She went on to win that go-round of the competition and also become the 2014 Women’s Pro Rodeo Association World Champion Barrel Racer. There have been numerous articles and interviews with Fallon where she talks about experiencing a life-threatening head injury, and how that motivated her to start promoting helmets in barrel racing. Another professional barrel racer, Nicole Aichele, started wearing a helmet after she learned about traumatic brain injuries in sports like football, snowboarding, and skiing in a high school class she was taking. She decided that it was just too much of a risk not to wear a helmet in such a fast and potentially dangerous sport. She started wearing a helmet by choice and became known as “the helmet girl” on the rodeo circuit. Years later, after receiving large amounts of fan mail from young barrel racers who had been made fun of for wearing helmets, she decided to start the #HelmetTough campaign to help eliminate the stigma of helmets in western competition. Fallon Taylor decided to use her notoriety to bring more awareness to Nicole’s #HelmetTough movement.

7 time World Champion Header Jake Barnes recently received attention for trading his cowboy hat in after experiencing a traumatic brain injury that had him laid up in a hospital bed for two months.

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Summer 2016

is happy to use his celebrity status for a good cause.

Overall, I am encouraged by the #HelmetTough movement, and the number of people, although small, that I have seen wearing helmets in western disciplines lately.

I don’t think that things will change overnight, but I can also remember a time that you didn’t see anyone wearing a helmet at a ski area, and now it’s become rare to see someone on the slopes without.

It’s not about how much we trust our horses or how welltrained they are; the inherent risk is a part of the sport we love. Even the best horse can be taken by surprise or lose traction, slip, and fall. Wearing a helmet increases the chances we won’t be severely injured and unable to ride. It doesn’t make us any less of a cowboy or cowgirl; it just makes us smarter (and safer)!

Initially it was questionable whether Jake would walk and talk again, let alone ride and rope. Although he didn’t want to, he started wearing a helmet at his wife’s request, and now feels comfortable wearing one on a regular basis. Jake has stated in a variety of articles that he would prefer if the focus was on the quality of his roping rather than the apparel he is wearing, but

Jessica Stewart Riley is an Assistant Professor and the director of the Vermont Technical College Equine Studies Program in Randolph Center, VT. She is a graduate of Johnson State College, UVM, and Vermont Tech, as well as a member of the American Quarter Horse Association Professional Horsemen and an American Riding Instructor Association Certified instructor in Western, Huntseat on the Flat, and Stable Management. www.vtc.edu/equinestudies

Jana and Sage Lovejoy from Apple Ledge Farm in Coventry, VT and Gabriel Hillicker with Betsy the calf

Summer 2016

Next time you're at Sears in Williston, say "Hi" to Ollie & Rocco

Horsing around at the Farmers Market

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A Rabbit With More Than Just A Lucky Foot R

ecently I caught a tale from baseball’s legendary play-by-play announcer Vin Scully, about San Francisco Giants pitcher Madison Bumgarner. I had heard that the future Hall of Famer was a good ‘ole farm boy, but I was sure that this one was made of the stuff that urban legends, or in this case country legends, were born.

However, after further investigation, here is the story in text, originally from Tom Verducci’s 2014 profile of MadBum in Sports Illustrated: This may be the best Boone-like tale about the man they call Mad Bum. One day during spring training this year in Scottsdale, Bumgarner and his wife were roping cattle when Madison was startled by a large snake he figured was a rattler. He quickly grabbed an ax and hacked it to pieces. When Ali, an expert field dresser, examined what was left of the snake, she found two baby jackrabbits inside pieces of it and extracted them. A short while later the Bumgarners noticed that one of the rabbits had moved slightly. It was alive. Ali brought the rabbit back to their

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apartment and for the next few days kept it warm and bottle-nursed it. The rabbit soon was healthy enough for them to release into the wild.

“Think about how tough that rabbit was,” Bumgarner said. “First it gets eaten by a snake, then the snake gets chopped to pieces, then it gets picked up by people and it lives. It’s all true.”

The pace of baseball is often criticized, but the flip side of that is that there is time for Vin Scully to spin a yarn about snake murder and rabbit rebirth punctuated by a “Meanwhile, line drive base hit to center.”

What a sport!

By the way, this isn’t even the best story from that SI profile. That would be the fact that Madison Bumgarner once dated a girl named Madison Bumgarner.

Summer 2016

Elsie, The Borden Milk Cow E

lsie the Cow is one of the most famous marketing mascots ever created.

She has been more popular than the Pillsbury Doughboy, better than the Campbell twins, and more accessible than Tony the Tiger.

During her heyday (1940s-1960s), Elsie led the Rose Bowl parade, raised $1.6 million for World War II bonds, celebrated her tenth birthday at the Roosevelt Hotel, her 25th at the Waldorf, and collected keys to more than 600 cities.

She appeared on Broadway, traveled to Hollywood to play Buttercup in the movie of Little Men, and has written several recipe books. She gave birth to one of her sons at Macy’s. (Red drapes were discretely draped across her store-window birthing area.)

And she was a lovely guest wherever she went. She often delivered 30 gallons of milk to her hosts as her bread-and-butter gift.

She has received a plentiful supply of fan mail from all over the country. When it came to children being told they were going to see Elsie, the Borden Cow, Elsie raised as much excitement as Joe DiMaggio or Mickey Mouse. She was almost of a rank with Santa Claus, she was so well liked.

Best of all, she proved extremely effective at selling Borden Dairy Products.

Kate Kelly

This meant that in the 1930s, dairy processors like Borden had their work cut out for them to convince the public that their milk was more worthy—and safer---than the dairy cow on a family farm.

Borden ad man Stuart Peabody knew his first approach to selling Borden milk needed to be through the medical establishment.

If doctors understood that pasteurized milk wouldn’t make people sick, they would start recommending it to their patients.

Peabody felt the ads needed to be light in tone. His first ads were in the form of Letters to Mama: “Dear Mama, I’m so excited I can hardly chew! We girls are sending our milk to Borden’s now. Love Elsie.” These ads were accompanied by artist Walter Early’s illustration of a perky, friendly cow. (The Advertising Age Encyclopedia of Advertising credits Walter Early; the Borden site attributes David Reid with having created the image of Elsie. Reid would have been only 19 at the time; perhaps he was a member of the marketing team who created Elsie.)

As early illustrations show, Elsie had a kindly face, huge brown eyes, and wore a chain of daisies around her neck. She generally wore an apron, and whatever

she was doing, she was surrounded by her calves. Husband Elmer, later to be the face of Elmer’s Glue, took orders from her, repairing things around the house.

In 1938, Peabody expanded Elsie ads into some consumer publications, and he began buying radio time for her as well. Elsie took off quickly. A survey done in the 1940s found that 98 percent of the American public recognized the Borden cow.

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How Did Elsie the Cow Come About?

The first ads that featured Elsie were created in 1936 by Borden’s director of advertising, Stuart Peabody, and a staff illustrator, Walter Early.

In the 1930s, milk was not the drink we know today. Much that was sold in the U.S. during the early part of the century was disease-laden. In 1907, the Department of Agriculture revealed that dairy cows frequently carried tuberculosis and that unsanitary conditions on farms meant other illnesses were carried in the milk supply as well. Most milk was shipped to stores without any form of processing.

The Borden Company was in the forefront of change. They had purchased a dairy in New Jersey that was among the first to install equipment for pasteurization. However, the world changed slowly when it came to perceiving that “processed” (pasteurized) milk was better than regular cow’s milk.

Chicago was the first city to require pasteurizing of milk (1908) but the first state-level mandate did not occur until 1947 when Michigan passed such a law.

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World’s Fair Brings Need for Real Cow

For the 1939 New York World’s Fair, the theme was World of Tomorrow. Companies came in to show their vision of how they expected their industry to look in the future.

Borden’s exhibit was an advanced view of a dairy barn. It involved a “Rotolactor,” which was an automated rotary milking parlor with live cows coming on and off an over-sized turntable with several milking stations.

The guides at the exhibit were assigned to keep track of questions asked by the public. This meant that Borden quickly learned what was catching people’s attention: 20 percent of the questions concerned operation of the Rotolactator; 20 percent concerned the whereabouts of the bathroom; and a full 60 percent of the questions were about which cow was Elsie.

Clearly, the Borden Company needed to cast the role of Elsie! Those in charge of the cows quickly identified one cow as having more “personality” than the others, so she became Elsie. The actual cow was a Jersey cow born in March of 1932 at Elm Hill Farm in Brookfield, Massachusetts.

Her real name was “You’ll Do, Lobelia.”

And thus began Elsie’s public appearance schedule. For practical reasons, Elsie was sometimes played by a substitute cow from a farm that might be closer by to the location where she was scheduled to appear.

One day in 1941 Elsie (You’ll Do, Lobelia) was on her way into New York City for a milking appearance at the Schubert Theater. Her truck was rear-ended by another truck, and Elsie was badly hurt.

The handlers took her back to her farm hoping that something could be done, but the veterinarians agreed that her back was broken; saving her would not be a kindness to Elsie.

For Borden’s sake, it was fortuitous that they had other Elsies-in-waiting.

For a time, the demand for Elsie was so great that Borden established an East Coast Elsie and a West Coast Elsie. All was well until the late 1940s when local newspapers picked up wire service stories about the doings of both Elsies on the same day. Borden received irate letters from parents who were upset that their children now knew there was more than one Elsie.

After that there were still multiple Elsies, but there were never two Elsie publicity appearances on the same day unless it was clearly the same cow going from one place to another.

Elsie’s Family Grows

Elsie traveled to Hollywood in 1940 in a private railroad car to play Buttercup in the film, Little Men. Her calf, Beulah, was born during this time, and Elsie and Beulah returned together for the final summer of the New York World’s Fair.

When Elsie was pregnant with Beulah’s little brother, special provisions were made. Elsie was in the middle of a series of guest appearances at Macy’s, so Macy’s Summer 2016

put up some temporary drapes in the store window where Elsie was the main attraction.

The baby was born quite discretely without the birth having to be in public view.

Then a contest was held to name the baby bull. One million entries were received and ultimately the judges picked “Beauregard” in honor of the Civil War Confederate General P.G.T. Beauregard at the Battle of Bull Run. (They clearly disregarded the fact that Elsie would have been a Union cow.)

In 2000 she was voted one of the ten most outstanding marketing mascots of all time, and today her face adorns the packages of Eagle Brand Condensed Milk (Borden’s original product), and she is also mascot for the 22,000-member Dairy Farmers of America.

This article first appeared on the website, www.americacomesalive.com During the summer, America Comes Alive publishes more stories about American dogs and other animals. Visit the website and sign up for “American Dogs” to receive the stores in your In Box. Or email Kate Kelly at kate@americacomesalive.com

A Typical Day for the Real Elsie

A typical event for Elsie was described in The New York Times on October 17, 1940.

She was to be awarded a “Distinguished Service” award during the second season of the World’s Fair. Among those in attendance at the awards ceremony were two bear cubs, a horse and colt, two goats, and some monkeys. The bear cubs, who had been provided with milk bottles, were acting up during the event and after a few glowering looks from Elsie, those in charge of the show had them removed from the scene.

Elsie’s citation read: “The New York World’s Fair hereby confers upon Elsie this citation for distinguished service; because she has been such a sensational attraction at the New York World’s Fair; because of her genius as a decorator and designer of barnyard boudoirs; because she has inspired so man thousands of calves of the future to have better parents; because she created so much extra work for countless newspaper photographers; because she has established that a girl can have a career and still be a good wife—but mostly because through her, more of the milk of human kindness is available in all quarters than ever before.”

Elsie the Cow Takes on a Cartoon Personae

After World War II, the world of television became a more important part of American life. The Borden marketing department needed Elsie to appear in television commercials. Live cows are interesting to see at fairs, but their dramatic ability is severely limited to simply looking cow-like. The marketing department’s next task was to create an animated version of Elsie. There are many examples of these commercials on YouTube.

Elsie Retires and Then Un-Retires

By the late 1960s Elsie had been retired by the marketing department. They felt it was time for an updated marketing approach. But with flagging sales during the early ‘90s, Elsie was revived in 1993.

Joey, keeping Maureen & Johnny Horan company in Strafford, NH

www.4LegsAndATail.com 23

Sometimes Teeth End Up In The Wrong Place W

203

103

Sandra L Waugh VMD, MS - Windsor, VT

hen puppies are born there are no teeth present inside of the mouth. The tissue that will produce each tooth is present within the bone of 603 503 102 101 201 202 the jaw. Each and every tooth, both baby (deciduous) and adult (permanent), has its own group of cells to produce that tooth. As the puppy grows the tis101, 102, 103 Adult incisors on upper right sue that will produce each baby tooth becomes activated at the appropriate 503 Baby corner (third) incisor on the upper right time to produce that tooth. The crown of the tooth is made first, then the 201, 202, 203 Adult incisors on upper left root is made and this pushes the tooth out of the bone, erupting it through 603 Baby corner (third) incisor on the upper left the gum and into the mouth.

Baby teeth are meant to be replaced by the adult tooth, again at the appropriate time.

This process may go awry for a number of reasons. Sometimes there is no adult tooth 201 tissue present in the bone, and therefore no 101 203 adult tooth ever erupts. Sometimes the adult 102 202 tooth is present but does not erupt into the 503 603 103 mouth. Most commonly, however, is that the baby tooth fails to fall out when the adult tooth erupts. This leads to two teeth trying 103 503 102 202 603 203 to occupy the same space in the mouth.

101 201 A 3 year old Welsh Terrier had an unusual The adult incisor teeth are the first adult to teeth to erupt. Normally, the configuration of incisor teeth. These are the baby tooth root is removed by the body as the adult tooth develops, leaving just teeth at the very front of the mouth. There the crown of the baby tooth to pop out as the adult tooth crown pokes up into should be 6 upper incisors present. He had the mouth. In this dog, the baby teeth 503 and 603 retained the full length and 8, 6 adult incisors and 2 baby incisors. strength of the root. As the dog grew, the teeth must have pushed on each other, and for whatever reason the adult corner incisors (103 and 203) ended up in very odd places. 103 was sticking straight out of the gum and was not causing a problem. 203 was pointing up into the side of the cheek and eventually created a large sore.

203 203 603

503

603

A large ulcer had developed with an overgrowth of gum tissue as well (yellow arrow). The ulceration is hidden by the overgrowth of gum tissue in the photographs. This was so painful for the dog that he would not allow his mouth to be examined without sedation.

Tooth 103 and 203 were extracted first and dental x-rays were taken. Now the deciduous teeth could be seen without any overlap. Because there was significant bone loss on the roots of both 503 and 603, these were extracted as well.

503

603

The final X-ray showing the remaining four adult incisor teeth.

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24 4 Legs & a Tail

Summer 2016

The overgrowth of tissue on the ulcer was trimmed away and the ulcer was closed with sutures. The dog was seen 14 days later and was comfortable enough in his mouth to allow it to be examined without any sedation, but not quite enough to get a photograph!

Homeward Bound T

Before and after extracting the teeth.

The ulceration area sutured.

Could the adult incisor teeth be moved back into a normal position?

Technically, yes they could. Practically, however, this would require multiple visits with adjustment of the braces to produce such movement, with sedation required each time. This is hardly worth the time, effort and expense this would entail. The dog is not going to “miss” having these teeth, in fact he is happy to not have them. The goal in veterinary dentistry is to produce a pain free mouth, not to produce a “perfect smile”.

A question I am often asked is “Do the teeth move after other teeth are extracted?” Such movement is common in humans and is why people are fitted with bridges or implants. Luckily, dog and cat teeth do not move after neighboring teeth are extracted.

Dr. Waugh is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. She also holds a Masters Degree from Washington State University of Veterinary Medicine and is owner of Windsor Veterinary & Dental Services.

Summer 2016

he homing instinct is very strong in many animals, including cats. It’s not unusual for people moving to a new home to make frequent visits to their old home (especially if it’s not far away), to persuade their cats that they no longer live there.

Not such a problem if it involves a few minutes’ walk, but cats can get ‘home’ from much farther away than that.

Some cats have homing skills so well developed they are capable of finding their way back home over immense distances- in extraordinary cases, over dozens or even hundreds of miles. Take Sooty for example.

When his family moved over 100 miles away, he somehow managed to find his way back to what he regarded as home.

Another extraordinary cat named Pilsbury, an eight-year old English Tom, refused to accept that he now lived eight miles away. He went ‘home’ and was returned forty times, by which point he and his frustrated humans must have been able to travel the route blindfolded. To get to his former home the indomitable Pilsbury had to cross busy roads, and fields with herds of cattle. Even this persistence pales beside the record held by a tomcat named Ninja.

In 1996 Ninja and his people moved from Utah to Washington State. Ninja obviously disapproved of his new home and disappeared shortly after arrival. A year later he turned up in Utah at his former residence, after completing a journey of some 850 miles.

No one taught cats like Ninja how to find their way home. Until these cats were moved to their new homes they had never made the journey, so it is something of a mystery how so many have found their way back.

There are actually two types of ‘homing instincts’: the first, with animals being able find a way to get home after being moved or lost outside their home territory is uncanny, but possibly given a cat’s extraordinary sensory abilities, such a feat is not so surprising.

However, no one can fully explain ‘psi trailing,’ where cats catch up with humans who have either accidentally or deliberately left them behind. One such story tells of a cat who was left in Chicago with friends while the family moved to New Orleans. The cat abandoned the friends and managed to track down his humans in New Orleans. Anecdotal stories of this sort abound, but unlike stories of cats finding their way back home, we have yet to find

a fully authenticated case of ‘psi trailing.’

While researching homing instincts, scientists in the USA have worked with a group of cats. These cats were sedated, so that they could not remember their journey. Then they were transported on a complex route which finished at a maze, in which the cats were left to wake up.

The maze had 15 exits. The scientists were intrigued to discover that more often than not, each cat exited the maze at the closest point to their home. Older cats performed better than younger ones. Homing ability dropped off with distances greater than 7.5 miles from home.

A cat will return to their original home because they do not like changes. They have spent time and effort securing their home range, negotiating access and spraying rights with other cats, and generally getting on top of things. Suddenly they are yanked from their known environment and have to start all over again. Cats do not understand the necessities of changing homes for work or financial reasons. They know where they want to live, and if they get a chance, they’ll go there. So why cats have a homing instinct is relatively easy to answer. How they put that motivation into practice is much harder to explain.

One theory is that cats are sensitive to the earth’s magnetic field. It is well known that the magnetic intensity of the Earth varies from point to point, and differences in the magnetic field can be detected even over a short distance. It is possible that cats can read these magnetic changes and use them in choosing their direction. In fact, this was tested in an experiment where a magnet was attached to a cat’s body, the homing ability was indeed disrupted as a consequence.

Although magnetic changes may be important in a cat’s navigational system, cats may use multiple clues to find their home. For example, pigeons are thought to orientate themselves by the sun, and cats probably also have this as part of their built-in direction finder. Cats eyes are also more sensitive to a wider spectrum of light which they can use in navigation. Smell may be helpful for homing over relatively short distances, although that probably will not help a cat much beyond her natural range.

The homing ability (or perhaps the motivation) can weaken (to some extent) over time. This is why it is strongly recommended that when you move home, you should keep your cat safely indoors for at least 10 days to two weeks, especially if you move a short distance away. Otherwise, you will never be short of an excuse to pop back to your old house and see how things are getting on. You might as well collect your mail while you’re at it. www.4LegsAndATail.com 25

Sled Dogs, Summers, and “The Unchained Gang” Tanya Sousa - Originally published in Vermont’s Northland Journal

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usher Jim Blair and his family pack of a mind-blowing 40 sled dogs, live in Eden, Vermont, racing and offering sled dog rides to visitors – in summer as well as winter.

Musher Jim likes to live against the grain—or at least in ways he finds true to himself and his dogs. He’s not one to do as things have always been done…just because they’ve always been done that way.

Sled dog racing has historically been both admired and cruel. Admired because of the incredible stamina and drive shown by dog teams and mushers, but also with the belief from generations back, that dogs that function as racers will be ruined if treated as house pets or kept other than isolated or chained outside on extraordinarily short lengths.

26 4 Legs & a Tail

When Jim was drawn to the sport in the mid-’90s he knew things had to happen differently for him to compete. And compete he and his dogs did. His dogs live in his home, socialize with each other in a very structured way in large kennels, or sometimes playing free outside. They live lives that fly in the face of historical sled dog keeping and training practices.

Musher Jim usually runs six races a year, a respected, award-winning contender. In 2004 he and his team won an International Federation of Sled dog Sports (IFSS) race that put him on the charts, showing the world ever since that sled dogs can be champions without the chains. His team has been coined, “The Unchained Gang.” He runs the dogs if they are healthy enough and doesn’t put them through the longest distance sprints sometimes so grueling dogs die along the way or become badly injured. “Injuries can happen,” he admits, “but some of the races are just too far, and it’s risky, dangerous, and I won’t do those.” Now he usually competes in an 8-dog class, which he and his present racing team won three out of four years in Quebec, often performing faster than larger teams.

Jim Blair was always competitive, playing sports and racing motocross, mountain bike races, and the like. He was a Nordic skier who trained year-round in Craftsbury and competed. He began taking house pets for exercise on a leash as he skied, and discovered the magic of a dog pulling him along. He moved to using a harness. “One day someone asked if I’d ever done skijoring. I’d never heard of it, but it included so much of what I loved—skiing, dogs, and competing.” The winter sport where skiers are pulled by dogs (or horses or vehicles in some cases) became a keen interest of Jim’s. Then he watched a sled dog race in Elmore, Vermont. “I was fascinated,” he remembers.

Jim became “Musher Jim” by teaching himself what to do. He found a gifted dog who already knew the commands and used him to help train the others, a tried and true technique he still relies on today. “The retired leaders are great teachers. They train each other!” That original dog fathered the white and well known “Luna” (sadly passed away not long ago), a

team leader in her own right. Luna’s pups became team runners once she retired.

Lovely white Luna and her teammates, young and old, found another retirement as well—being characters in Jim’s sister Deborah’s upcoming young adult novel series The Luna Tales. They hope the first book will be out soon.

Jim keeps retired dogs as part of the family (adopting out a few to very special homes), and as tour dogs for short runs at his complementary business, Eden Mountain Lodge, where sled dog tours are available all year-round with either runner sleds in winter or wheeled sleds over stunning summer fields and sweetsmelling forests.“We do about 500 tours a year,” he said.

The dogs are “Alaskan Huskies,” a racing, northern mixed breed (the mixed breed part could include nearly any kind of dog). The one ingredient they must include is a dose of Siberian Husky. The results are some typical husky-like dogs with blue eyes, for instance, and others who look like small border collie crosses, even some very Doberman-like. Very few really looked like what my vision of a sled dog used to be, but they all turn from coach potatoes in the cabin to instant balls of energy the moment Musher Jim calls their names for harnessing. They can’t wait to “get to work.” Because they do tours and train all year round, when winter comes again, they will be naturally conditioned and ready to keep winning. Also, because they’re so fit, Blair explains, they experience fewer injuries. “They also run to please me, not because they fear me,” he continued. “That’s a big difference.”

Anyone interested in learning more about Eden Ethical Dog Sledding (also known as Eden Dogsledding Adventures) and summer tours may visit their website: http://www.edendogsledding.com Tanya Sousa is a published author of many magazine articles and several children’s picture books. Most recently, her environmental novel, The Starling God, made the short-list for the national “Green Earth Book Awards,” in the Young Adult Fiction category. www.RadiantHen.com www.forestrypress.com

Summer 2016

What coyotes are saying when they howl

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Jaymi Heimbuch

he scientific name for the coyote is Canis latrans, which translates to “barking dog,” a perfect name for this species which has been called the most vocal of North America’s mammals.

Less formally, the coyote is known as the song dog, and one listen to a group howl by a pack of coyotes makes it clear why. Rather than the simple but soul-haunting sound of a wolf’s howl, the coyote’s howl can be made up of high-pitched howls, barks, and yips that make it clear the coyote has a whole lot of lyrics in a single song. But Graphic by Morgan Heim what exactly do those lyrics say?

The coyote has a range of vocalizations depending on social context and message. In 1978, Philip N. Lehner published his research of coyote communication and what the various vocalizations mean, which has been included in Coyotes: Biology, Behavior, and Management.

“The vocal repertoire of the adult coyote contains eleven vocalizations, several of which are also given by pups. These vocalizations grade into one another such that their separation into eleven types is somewhat arbitrary based on their different sounds, behavior context, and physical characteristics.”

The coyote language is complex and depends on the social situation, the coyote’s body language in addition to the sounds, the intensity of the vocalization, and other factors. Some coyote hunters are convinced they know more than eleven calls for coyotes.

There is a lot of overlap in the sounds dogs, coyotes and other canid species make - from a startled huff to a whine of greeting, from an antagonistic growl to a bark of alarm. But coyotes take the language of canids to another level with their extensive list of sounds, especially the yips, howls, and of course their choral group howls.

Lehner created the following 11 categories, which can also be considered sign-posts on a gradient of meaning and intensity.

TYPES OF COYOTE VOCALIZATIONS 1. Growl - This vocalization holds no mystery. A growl is used as a threat, specifically for something within close range.

2. Huff - This is the expulsion of air through the nose and mouth, and is also used as a high-intensity threat in close proximity. Huffs are used, for instance, when there’s bickering over carrion.

3. Woof - This vocalization is made as both a low-intensity threat and as an alarm. It's a sound made when a coyote is startled and unsure of exactly what is happening, but knows it is not comfortable with whatever it is.

4. Bark - The bark is a long-distance threat or alert of low to medium intensity.

5. Bark-Howl - This is when the coyote gets serious about a threat. The bark-howl is used as a long-distance high-intensity threat or alarm. It starts with a bark and blends into a howl.

6. Whine - This sound is used to express submission and is usually given by a subordinate coyote to a more dominant coyote.

7. Yelp - The yelp takes the whine up a notch and represents high-intensity submission. However, it can also be a response to being startled. As is the case with several other of these vocalizations, this categorization shows that coyote communication is more of a gradient. Lehner writes, “A yi-e-e-e often precedes or follows the yelp portion and resembles a high-frequency bark [and] appears on a sonogram like a short howl chopped into segments.”

Summer 2016

8. Woo-oo-wow - This is the «greeting song» of coyotes, and is used during high-intensity greeting displays. The vocalization modulates in frequency and amplitude as a coyote›s motivation shifts, Lehner notes, and so can fluctuate from a whine to a growl.

9. Lone Howl - The lone howl is just what you probably already know it to be: a howl by a single coyote, which is often started with a series of barks that researcher R. M. Mengel called “herald barks.” As mentioned above, coyotes can distinguish individuals based on their unique howl, and the purpose of the howl is to announce one’s location to others in their social group.

Often, the lone howl gets an answer, and the coyotes can find each other to meet up.

10. Group Howl - A group howl is sent up when two or more coyotes come together after being apart, or it could be given as a response to the howls of distant coyotes. It is, according to Lehner, essentially two or more coyotes giving their own lone howls either successively or simultaneously, as

a way of giving out location information to any listeners.

11. Group Yip-Howl - This is what coyotes are really known for. The group yip-howl is sent up when coyotes reunite, or just before they separate to go off hunting individually. As more coyotes join in, the more intense the vocalizations become, increasing in frequency and amplitude. In other words, the many variations of coyote vocalizations show up in this chorus.

The chorus tells any nearby coyote packs about whose turf this is, and thus keeps other coyotes away. It also reveals (or hides) how many coyotes are in the area and may help regulate coyote density through reproductive rate. Female coyotes will produce larger litters when there is little competition, and smaller litters when there is a high density of coyotes in the habitat. This is one of the secrets to the coyote’s success at spreading across the continent in the last century.

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(Note: This is also why indiscriminate killing of coyotes to decrease their density doesn’t work as a management strategy. Coyotes repopulate an area quickly and easily when competition is eliminated, with the population rebounding or even expanding in a very short time. Perhaps a more effective, cost-cutting and non-lethal strategy for reducing the number of coyotes in an area would be playing recorded group yip-howls to make resident coyotes think there is more competition for resources.)

Mitchell writes, “Group yip-howls are produced by a mated and territorial pair of ‘alpha’ coyotes, with the male howling while the female intersperses her yips, barks, and short howls.

‘Beta’ coyotes (the children of the alpha pair from previous years) and current year pups may join in if they are nearby, or respond with howls of their own. And once one group of coyotes starts howling, chances are that any other alpha pairs nearby will respond in kind, with chorus after chorus of group yip-howls rippling across the miles.”

Myth of the Coy-Dog Yes, domestic dog and coyote hybrids are biologically possible and have occurred; but no genetic sampling of coyotes has found evidence Coy-dogs don’t survive, and here’s why.

• • •

• •

The coyote pair bond is strong and long-term, discouraging interlopers.

Male and female are sexually active once a year, and only briefly.

The female is receptive for 10 days, although general courtship activity that strengthens the pair bond can last for months.

Pups are born in spring when food to feed hungry young is plentiful.

Males are fully engaged feeding mate and young in the den, often with the help of older offspring.

Yes, a female coyote might pair with a domestic dog in the absence of a coyote mate, but a male dog lacks parental instincts and soon departs the scene. Starvation odds are high without his help, as well as predation of pups when the female leaves the den to hunt for food.

As a coy-dog hybrid, the rare survivor will reach sexual maturity in November, way off schedule with a true coyote’s breeding season in February. If a coy-dog does succeed in finding another hybrid to mate with, the second generation coy-dogs will be born in January, not May. The depths of winter are a tough time for the female to find food for herself and her young.

As a third and final strike against coy-dog survival, mixing up the genes also mixes up the instincts that help true coyotes survive in the wild world.

Letting the Cat Out of the Bag: The Wonderful World of Animal Idioms

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Mark Carlson

aybe I should just let sleeping dogs lie, but it’s time to let the cat out of the bag. I know this might put me in the dog house, but once I get started, I don’t like to change horses in mid-stream.

What are the origins of some of our most commonly used animal idioms? Some may surprise you. But even if curiosity killed the cat, I’m probably safe.

Besides, the early bird gets the worm and I got up at 6 a.m.

‘Letting the cat out of the bag’ goes back to the 1500s, when Europe was a barter and trade economy. Sometimes fraudulent farmers, claiming they had a ‘pig in a poke’ (a piglet for sale) in a bag, had instead put in a cat.

But if the cat escaped or was discovered, it was ‘out of the bag.’

We’ve all heard about it ‘raining cats and dogs.’ For years I believed the story that it derived from the Middle Ages, when small animals slept on the thatched roof of houses and barns. When it rained, the thatch was slippery and they slid off, literally raining cats and dogs. But 28 4 Legs & a Tail

there’s no evidence this is real.

For one thing, can you think of a single dog that would choose to sleep on a roof for warmth and shelter? Not my dog, that’s for sure. No, the phrase’s origins are lost to history.

A few days ago I heard a man in a bar asking for ‘The hair of the dog.’ Supposedly a hangover cure, its origins have nothing to do with drink. In superstitious times, it was believed that when bitten by a rabid dog, a person could avoid rabies by applying hair from the same dog to the wound. Nonsense, of course. Just think about how many people managed to get hair from an animal that was as ‘mean as a junkyard dog.’ I’d rather get the shots. Jim Croce gave us the popular line ‘meaner than a junkyard dog’ in his 1973 classic ‘Bad, Bad, Leroy Brown,’ but the phrase may go back farther, possibly to the 19th Century.

Have I got you grinning like a Cheshire Cat yet? Or are you about ready for a catnap?

But, creeping in on little cat feet, I’ll continue.

Have you ever been to a ‘dog and pony show?’ They were popular in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries. Originally small traveling circuses with performing animal acts, the phrase has long since come to mean an over-hyped, heavily advertised public event. Not a dog or a pony in sight.

Entertainment is really going to the dogs.

It’s been pretty cold in San Diego lately. In fact, it’s been a ‘three dog night.’ No, not the 1960s rock group. It’s an old Alaskan Inuit idiom that means it’s so cold you need three dogs to cuddle with to stay warm. Sounds like the Cat’s Pajamas to me.

In the 1920s, during the flapper and Jazz Age, any ‘cool’ or ‘hip’ person was a Cat. Saying someone was the ‘cat’s pajamas’ or ‘cat’s whiskers’ was the same as calling them ‘cool.’ Or they could be the ‘bee’s knees,’ if you can believe it.

I once asked someone a question they were reluctant to answer and I immediately said, “Hey, cat got your tongue?”

There is no actual incident that spawned this old phrase. It’s simply a children’s’ nonsense idiom that dates at least back to the 1870s.

How Many Coyotes Are Howling?

“When people hear coyote howls, they often mistakenly assume that they’re hearing a large pack of animals, all raising their voices at once,” writes Mitchell. “But this is an auditory illusion called the ‘beau geste’ effect.”

Coyotes howl both to reunite and to keep trespassers at bay.

It may be in their favor that if they howl, they sound like a bigger pack than they really are.

When two or three coyotes howl together, they can sound like a pack of six or ten or more, which perhaps makes them seem much more formidable to any nearby competitors or predators.

There is still so much to learn about what coyotes are saying through their complex and varied vocalizations. The more we learn about the way coyotes communicate as social predators, the more we can learn about not just their species, but our own as well.

For more information, visit www.urbancoyoteproject.com

Well just look what the cat dragged in. No need to analyze this one. Cats love to please their owners and we’ve seen what they can catch and bring before us.

As for the tail wagging the dog, that’s from the 1860s and was used for some political comments and essays. Not much has changed. It’s become a dog eat dog world.

But that’s a horse of another color.

Now, don’t have kittens, but I’m so hungry I could eat a horse. This article might make you howl at the moon, so I’ll just run off with my tail between my legs.

Originally published in San Diego Pets Magazine When not visiting his in-laws in South Royalton, Mark Carlson spends much of his time in North County, CA with his wife, Jane and his Labrador Retriever, Saffron. He is an award writer and an aviation historian, with numerous articles and books including his latest, Confessions of a Guide Dog. Legally blind, he travels and works with Saffron, and is a member of several aviation, maritime, and veteran organizations. www.musketmania.com

Summer 2016

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Dog Days of Summer 2016 Northern VT & NH

Lights, Camera, Horses!

A True Tale From Giant’s Ace Madison Bumgarner

Why Would Hollywood Hunk Bradley Cooper Scoop?

The Story Behind Elsie The Cow

Who Let The Cat Out Of The Bag?