Pawty Planner

It should come as no surprise that a woman in England quit her day job as a event planner after 33 years to become an international party planner for dogs. One of her last events for her former employer was a planning a party for 20 dogs,it was so much fun and such a hit she decided to start her own business,London Dog Party Company. For around $660. she plans dog appropriate snacks and games not to mention party favors. Her company also offers themed parties like Harry Potter or Gatsby. The company took right off and she now employs five additional planners. Who knew?

Cheshire Alive!

There is a condition (erythropoietic porphyria)which causes a group of defective hemoglobin to break down iron too fast causing anemia and sensitivity to sunlight. The broken down byproducts of the iron deposit in the bones and teeth giving them a stained reddish appearance which when seen in black light glows just like the Cheshire smile of Wonderland. Other animals and people have also been found with this deficiency. That covers my learning something new for today. 

On a totally different subject has anyone else noticed that nowadays on the rare occasions that people are smoking in movies that they inhale but never exhale the smoke? 

Doesn't Get Out Much

Fair warning today's post is yet another example of why I tend to poke fun at Florida. A  Orlando,Florida man was so excited about going fishing that when he stopped to fuel up his boat he stuck the gas nozzle into a pole holder and proceeded to pump 30 gallons of gas into the cabin of the boat,when he realized what he had done he filled the gas tank too then waited for the Hazmat team to siphon off the $60 worth of gas from the cabin. No injuries were reported,which apparently includes the man's pride.

Who's a Good Girl

Eclipse is a Labrador/Mastiff  mix who knows how to make a good time happen. Everyday she goes to the bus stop with her bus pass on her collar and waits for the bus. When the bus comes she hops on and rides until it stops at the dog park in downtown Seattle where she gets off and plays and makes friends for a couple of hour before taking the bus home again. Her routine started one day when her owner was taking to long to finish his cigarette before boarding the bus to the dog park so she hopped on the bus and left him. Eventually her owner realized she knew her way to the dog park and didn't really need his company,the bus drivers and passengers all enjoy her company plus the police gave their approval as long as the bus drivers don't mind. You go girl!

A Stitch In Time

Maybe more like a staple than a stitch but that wouldn't make any sense as a title! If you are either looking for an organic way to close a wound or you simple have nothing else available grab an army ant,a major in particular as they have extra large mandibles which open wide when grasped behind the head. Then position the major ant with one mandible on each side of the wound and let it bite down,to finish the closure snap the head off of the ants body the "closure" supposedly stays in place until the wound is healed. It sounds easy enough but unless these ants are the size of a cat I'm pretty sure the average person wouldn't be able to tell if the mandible was on one side or the other plus the fact that most folks wouldn't know a major ant from the rest of the crew unless they were wearing little uniforms.

Going Out In Style?

Personally I find glittery things to be cheap looking and even a bit offensive,but when it comes to custom made glitter coffin/caskets and urns (even for pets) the thought leaves me totally cold. Of course everyone is entitled to their own preferences and Tutankhamen was sealed into a gold sarcophagus so maybe it's just me. At any rate a company in the UK is making them in several colors and will ship worldwide,they also are custom upholstered.  I want my cremains and the cremains of my pets who have preceded me in death to be added to the root ball of a tree and be planted in my backyard with a view of my river that offers me daily peace.

Government Musings

Considering the current state of our government it seemed like a good time to offer some quotes on government.
Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys. P.J. Rourke
We're a trillion dollars in debt. Who do we owe this money to? Someone named Vinnie? Robin Williams
I don't know what people have got against the government-they've done nothing. Bob Hope
To call our government a cesspool of waste is to do a disservice to all the plucky amoeba out there who thrive on human excrement. Dennis Miller
It's easy being a humorist when you've got the whole government working for you. Will Rogers

Booze Hounds

Finally some good news from Florida! A Tampa area brewery announced at its monthly "Yappy Hour" that they hold for animal charities the release of a new 4-pack featuring pictures of adoptable dogs from the Shelter Manatee. Proceeds from the event go to building a new shelter as the current shelter is double its capacity. Two of the dogs pictured on the cans were adopted at the event and over 150 4-packs were sold. There are plans for another run of labels with different dogs on them to further the cause. Breweries are stepping up to the plate and donating to worthy causes all across the nation,too bad other businesses can't see fit to use some of their profits to benefit the less fortunate.

Copycat

A company called Genetics Savings & Clone commissioned Texas A&M to research dog and cat cloning. After it proved too difficult to clone dogs they turned their attention to cats. The first cloned cat they named Carbon Copy (aka CC) but she didn't look anything like the original cat she was cloned from. They harvested ovary cells (not eggs) from the original cat (Rainbow) when she was being spayed,but what they failed to consider is most calico cats are female so in order to clone a kitten to look like the original they would need two X chromosomes and only one gene is active in cloning. Not to worry though CC has lived to be 18 which is uncommonly old for any clone and she even raised a litter of own kittens without any problems. 

Fitting Machine

I'm finally too young to remember something! Starting mid 20th century scientific gimmicks were often employed as sales tools and were particularly popular in shoe sales. The shoe fitting fluoroscope really brought in the customers not because it actually aided in finding the perfect fit but because who wouldn't want to see how their foot looked inside of the shoe? Alas the machines were finally outed as giving off a dangerous amount of radioactivity just like the earlier (1920s) radium based cosmetics and other items. The fluoroscopes was eventually banned in the US in 1960 and 1970 in Canada and Britain.

Book Abuse

One of my biggest pet peeves is the poor handling of books,there is no justifiable excuse for it. I even told an acquaintance once that I wouldn't loan her any books because of her habit of mauling them,really, she even took them into the tub with her and often dropped them in the water,but I digress. Today's book abuser is no simple case of dog earing a page here and there he went so far as to cut his large sized books in half in order for them to fit in his luggage more easily,and referred to it as book murder so on some level he knew it was wrong. There are so many options to this problem,he could have used a Kindle or other electronic reader,or he could have brought a smaller book. To me a book is meant to be enjoyed by as many people as possible before it is worn out,though many argue it is only paper. To those folks I say,"it's only paper if you don't read the words."

Big Gulp

Hearing about some of the "challenges" people participate in is enough to make a person wonder if they ever think before do anything,it is pretty scary knowing these folks are out on their own. I hadn't heard of the gallon challenge and I suppose it could seem innocuous enough if a person didn't know that the stomach doesn't hold much over a 1/2 gallon in an hours time. The challenge is to drink a gallon of milk or water within an hour and not throw up. Unfortunately only 1 in 15 people would be able to complete this challenge without harming themselves. Milk is more likely just to make a person sick but drinking that much water can cause low potassium and sodium,plus an electrolyte imbalance which can lead to fatal disturbance in brain functions and yes,several people have died. A person might be better off with the Tide pods challenge but I wouldn't suggest doing either.
  

Bunny On Board

Coco the emotional support bunny recently made the 11 hour flight from San Francisco to Japan in first class with her owner. The eight year old rabbit even had her own seat and pillow. This was not Coco's first flight,three years ago she made the flight from Japan to California but that time she was in the hold. This time her owner was worried that Coco was too old for the stress of flying in the hold so for $100 she registered her as her support animal and was allowed to bring her into the cabin in a carrier,but since the seat next to her was empty the attendants said she could be loose. The  logistics of bunnies toilet habits make it hard for me to understand how Coco's immediate area wasn't a complete mess after 11 hours since bunnies are pretty much poop and pee machines,but I didn't have to deal with it and hopefully neither did the attendants.

More On Thoughts

Or moron thoughts depending on how you feel. I prefer to think of shower thoughts mostly as strokes of genius,at least when you first read them.
Turbulence is the pot hole of the sky.
Some parking spaces make more in an hour than a worker on minimum wage.
If you don't wear the right clothes when you go for a run you look like an insane person.
When you're cooking with garlic people always tell you how great it smells,but if you had a garlic candle people would find that weird and offensive.

No Time for Prudes

The Utah Health Department came up with a cute gimmick for combating HIV: give away 130,000 condoms wrapped in suggestive Utah themed sayings,but before the campaign gained momentum the republican governor shut it down saying he disapproved of the sexual innuendos on the packaging. Excuse me but what the hell? The whole campaign was centered on sex,or rather safer sex so what was wrong with using that tool? Republicans seem to think that any prevention should be avoided at all cost, and yet they don't want to spend money on either children or health care. If anyone has a rational explanation I'm dying to hear it.

Pampered Pups

Spotify has made playlists and podcasts for dogs to listen to when their owners are gone. 74% of pet owners play music for their dogs when they are left alone so Spotify launched a podcast featuring soothing music,dog directed praise,stories,and messages of affirmation and reassurance to alleviate stress when dogs are home alone. 42% of pet owners claim their pets have a music preference so Spotify is making playlists based on the pet's personality and whether they are a more energetic type or more slow and laid back. Great idea if it really works,it would maybe prevent accidents like eating the sofa or things like that.