Two Weeks Till Friday (?) welcome to ambivalence.

ZuZu in HDR

With some of the first signs of summer, ZuZu and I got out to Crab Park in Gastown. The sun was high and pretty harsh so I started taking photos with multiple exposures. Thought I would see what I can do with HDR. This photo is a little on the contrasty side but when I pull back on the detail, it looked to washed out with me. I'm pretty happy with this result.

On Sunday evening, I was invited over to Mohamed, Dalia and Nadeen's for some scrumptious lamb and healthy vegetables. It's the first healthy meal I've had in.. a very long time... They even gave me a take away container for lunch tomorrow! Thanks guys!

ZuZu is Awesome

So you would think with the wife out of town that I would have more time for updating my blog. Heck, I should have more time to play video games. But ironically... no. In fact, it feels like I have less time.

This is the new 'day in the life of me'. Happy reading.

6:30 am: Alarm goes off
7:00 am: After the 3 snooze press, I hear ZuZu making noise downstairs and in fear of waking up to a pile of pooh in my kitchen, I get up.
7:15 am: I'm out the door with the dog. We go to the park. We always go to the park...
8:00 - 8:15 am: We're back home.
8:16 am: Breakfast is prepared and server to her highness.
8:17 am: I turn on the World Cup.
8:45 am: Pull myself away from TV, jump in shower, get dressed.
9:00 am: Out the door with the dog to go to work.
9:30 - 7:00 pm: I work. And work. And work.
7:00 pm: ZuZu and I back in the car, and head to... the park (on our way home).
8:00 pm: Back home, food put out for her highness.
8:20 pm: I find something to eat. Something...
8:30 - 10:00 pm: Tired so I flop on the couch... eat dinner... watch TV.
10:00 - 10:30pm: Afraid of ZuZu going wee in the middle of the night, take her out for a short walk.
10:30 pm: Clean up... get ready for bed.
11:30 pm: in bed.

Wake up and repeat.

It's been the exact same thing... every... single... day. Oddly enough, I don't mind the walks. It's a nice 'check out' time but what it does do is stop me from doing other things. Like... blogging and playing video games. That being said, ZuZu is getting more awesome every day.

She use to be completely FREAKED about getting in the Jeep. Reall bad. As soon as she would suspect that we were going in the car, she would pancake on the ground. I would often need to carry her. Both embarrassing and heavy. Now, she doesn't even need a leash. She jumps in barely giving me enough time to open the door. Last night after work we were in the park and she was a good 100 feet away. I went to the Jeep, opened the back and she came running up and in. That might sound insignificant to some people but when you really need cooperation from your animal, it's the best thing in the world. I almost cried the first time she did it. Especially since I need to take her to and from work every day. The success of having this dog hinged on me being able to take her to work. If that didn't work out, I'm not sure what we would have done. And we took a chance by finding a rescue dog.

And she's now really switched on with her name. Full name recognition. She can go fully off leash in the park. She's been going off leash for a while (before Rachel left) but there was always that uncertainty that she may decide to ignore you and just wonder off. Now when at the park, you can see her keeping an eye on you making sure that you are always in short distance. I can walk away and she will follow me. So cool and something I personally took for granted when we dog sat our other very well trained dogs.

Speaking of eye contact, she now looks at me. Huh? You say? It's only been very recently that she's actually made eye contact with me. To dogs, eye contact is a form of dominance. For her not to look at me was her way of saying that she is submissive and quite scared of me. The previous male presence in her life probably was quite hard on her to the point where she feared him. I've been working really hard at forming a stronger level of trust between us and now you can see that she's keeping her head up more, her tail up and looking at me. It isn't always perfect and I wish she was a little more comfortable but there is certainly a connection developing between the two of us.

So I know you're getting sick of hearing about the dog but since it seems to be the topic and I'm not done yet... I'll just keep going.

Rachel being in Australia, asked if I could send her our ZuZu pictures so she could show her family and friends. I found a site online that hosts free flash web sites and after a few hours of tinkering around with it, I created a ZuZu Website. Sorry for being pathetic. It was really just suppose to be a way to get the pictures to Rachel and I thought this would be more interesting than just emailing them.

So without further ado, here is ZuZu's Website. It is all flash so give it a moment to load fully. Then click on the links in the lower left corner.

The final chapter of this marathon blog has to do with ZuZu's history. We all know that she came from a rescue shelter up on the sunshine coast. We also know that she came from a breeder that had a heart attack and surrendered his stock. Well we've learned more. Apparently the 'dog community' is a small one. I'll save that observation for another time. What we have learned is that ZuZu came from a commercial breeder called Winsome Kennels. There seems to be some speculation on the business practices of the kennel. Commercial breeders are sometimes associated with 'puppy mills'. Was Winsome a puppy mill? I have no idea. I can't say one way or the other. We can observe ZuZu's behaviour and make some assumptions.

If you believe everything you read on the web (who doesn't?), there are/were some heated comments between supporters and... what's the opposite of 'supporters'? Non-supporters? Anti-supporters? Angry people? I don't know. But there is a conflict all the same. People have posted that Winsome is a villainous puppy mill while the owners and some people associated with the breeder have vehnemetly denied the 'rumours'. I honestly don't know what is fact or fiction. These are some of the things we have learned...

The Animal shelter told us that the owner of the breeder in question (they did not tell us who but we've since found out obviously) suffered from a heart attack and was no longer able to keep the dogs. The shelter was given a few and ZuZu was the last to be adopted.
We've since learned that the owner actually passed away from the heart attack and the family, not wanting to keep the operation, got rid of the stock. They did not all go to the animal shelter. Any of the dogs that could be sold went to a breeder out in Langley (or somewhere out there). It was the 'breeding' dogs that we're given to the shelter as they were probably too damaged to sell to people looking for Golden-Doodle puppies.

We've gone through the different threads and while we can't confirm anything (as I've said) some are truly heart breaking. I'm not sure if I fully 'believe' the following comment that can be found online but some elements explain ZuZu's personality...

I feel very passionate for dogs, and was wanting to find a nice non shed family pet. I found winsome Kennels web site to be very impressive but when I went to visit his kennel I was horrified.

Their was large groups of puppies smelling of urine in dirty small confined sheds, with running eyes. I asked him why they smelled so bad and he replied they just are due for baths. The adult dogs shied from Jamie when he made any sudden moves, they reacted to him like he has been hitting them.

The adult dogs where dirty shivering and wet. They didn't seem to have any human interaction other than for feeding and when he found time to bath them. When I asked him why she was shy he said that dog had always been scared since he bought her.

When I asked him if he did any health testing he replied no, that his dogs are all healthy. I couldn't help but notice several dogs not wanting to walk, and standing under them selves. Like they had hip pain, I also asked him how often the mother of the puppies I looked at has had litters. 6 litters since mid 2004!!!. I was horrified, but kept my poker face. I then asked him if he was a licensed kennel. He replied no he did not have this and was fighting the neighbours and locals for zoning. He was starting to get angry at all my questions. I left his place and cried in my car, I was so dishearten that a person could abuse dogs like this just for the sake of making money, using the female dogs for profit.

I wanted to ask how does a person like this be allowed to run and operate a kennel. Can the SPCA not shut this huge puppy mill down just on the facts he isn't allowed to run a kennel no zoning!!

He is clearly using theses dogs and breeding them every heat. Producing between 300 to 500 puppies a year!! Cramming them in small living quarters, they are not socialized or kept clean.

I left this mans so called doggy palace with a very sadden heart. I have never seen so many sad dogs, that where so exited to see me and get pets. It was like they never get any love. I'm hoping you can help these abused isolated dirty dogs from this greedy person. It is clear he has no respect for these animal welfare.

Zuzu has been adjusting well. But she's still scared. More than a 2 year old dog should be. It's obvious that she lives in fear of a male that has mistreated her in some way. She wasn't fully toilette trained when we got her which is fine and somewhat expected however when she does have an accident in the house, she goes in her bed. This is strange behaviour, even for a dog in training.

There are posts online that are very supportive of this breeder, but I'm leaning more towards the skeptical. I don't think ZuZu was a well adjusted dog and everything points to her previous owners using her as just a puppy making machine. Clipped tail and all.

But every day she gets better. Every day she becomes a participating member of our family. And every day, she becomes more awesome.