Pitbulls ARE Good Dogs. Period. AKA Pitbulls and Babies/Kids

 "Hi, my name is Mirka!!!"

  

Mirka pronounced Meer Ka, meaning peace and glory in polish is a sweetheart.  Mirka is a pitbull.  She is an amazing family dog, as most pitbulls are.  The truth is in these photos and our observations of her since our son was born on 10.10.11  I am a licensed veterinary technician so I know canine behavior and I know a good dog, regardless of breed.  Mirka has a heart of gold and has never once shown ANY signs of aggression towards a human, child or cat-she simply doesn't have it in her.  Mirka loves Henrik (our 12 week old son) beyond words (and no we would never leave her or any dog alone and unsupervised with him, ever). In fact Traveler, our recently deceased and beloved rescued Alaskan Malamute, was not a big fan of children, tolerating them for a while, but eventually gave them a warning snap when they irritated him too much, especially toddlers; he scared me around them more than she, the "evil" pitbull does...Mirka shows no signs of that.  She seems to like other dogs too although she and Traveler did not get along because he decided he didn't like her.

My wife and I have hearts bursting with happiness since our son Henrik was born.  It has changed our life in ways that we could never imagined.  All for the better.  10 days after he was born we euthanized our Malamute Traveler for spinal related issues that were causing him to be unable to walk, to which there was no treatment that would help.  During this time our life was turned on its end and then some as we rode an emotional roller coaster with the birth of our son, the death of our dog all while Sarah fought back from nearly losing her life to post op C-section complications (severe anemia resulting from acute blood loss).  We were stressed, tired, happy, sad and sick (Sarah) all at the same time.  Our bodies and minds were at a breaking point because it was simply too much for 2 people to bear.  Without the help of family and friends I don't know how we would have done that.

The other rock through all of this was Mirka.  As we struggled to get our heads above water and find which end was up I won't lie and tell you that Mirka didn't go on the back burner.  She spent more time in her crate than we would have liked as we made sense of our new life and made repeated trips back and forth to the hospital for Sarah, and oh yea tended to a newborn baby.  Crates are a place of safety for dogs and they love them but it's not fair for them to spend too much time in them.  At more than one point we thought about finding a new home for her as it would have been easier in light of everything that we had going on; and more fair to her.  I am so glad we did not.  Mirka showed us over and over that she was a patient dog, yes a pitbull in addition to being loving can be patient too, that would wait as long as we needed.  She was amazing to say the least.

 

We took our time introducing Mirka to Henrik because after all he was this new screaming/squeeking "thing" that entered our house without warning and we weren't sure how she would be with him because he was after all new and something that she never, ever experienced before.  Some dogs no matter the breed simply don't like babies or kids.   

Mirka loved Henrik from the moment he came home but what worried us the most was her exuberence for life.  While she has a heart of gold she sometimes forgets her manners and will kiss you to no end, all while not realizing just how strong or big she is, nor how solid like concrete her head is.  We worried more that she would inadvertently hit his head with hers not that she was going to bite him.  Over the past 3 months it has been very interesting, and heart warming for that matter, to see Mirka's acceptance of Henrik into the family and how she really seems to truly cherish his company; wanting to be around him but not showing too much interest in him.  Simply being next to him or in the same room seems to make her day complete, seeing that like a cat, she basically finds a warm spot and curls up in a tight ball staying there for hours.  They are both very similar in this respect, Mirka and Henrik that is.

 

At the beginning she certainly showed a great deal of interest in him wanting to kiss him, disregarding how little he was and that he was sound asleep.  Over time it changed to her showing less and less overt interest in him but rather a quick hello kiss, no longer so excited and interested that her size might injure.  Once she checks in on him she is then off to do her dog things that dogs do, especially sleeping.  She also realized how she could appropriately use her body around him so that she wouldn't inadvertenly injure him.  We are always in the same room with the two of them but If Henrik cries she will check on him and will give us a look as if to say "Are you going to do anything about that?" almost supervising us.  If he is napping on one of us she can often be found sleeping right next to us with her head on our lap, often touching Henrik while they both snooze.  Sometimes he has his hands on top of her head.  When pitbulls first came into existence they were bred to protect children and I can see why.  She loves his company.  It's almost as if, as we say; she is Henrik's "doggie."  So sweet.  Just wait until he is eating solid foods and rewards her for being so close by accidentally dropping food on the floor.  It's called positive reinforcement; the idea that if she waits like a good girl patiently good things will come.

   

I know that some of you reading this are probably cringing at the thought of us allowing our son to be so close to a "killer" dog and I assure you that if we felt our son was in any danger we wouldn't even consider it.  The same holds true for thousands and thousands of family pitbulls around the country in that they too are excellent family dogs- I know of several owner by co-workers.  To this some of you will say that plenty of pitbulls that were considered family dogs injure children, people and other dogs all the time.  While this may be true just because a dog lives with a family does not mean it will not do harm.  The dog either was in a situation that when pushed, it acted out on its animal instincts (the very reason not to leave ANY BREED of dog unsupervised with a child), wasn't always truly good around people to begin with and dogs do bite.  Any dog.

  

Pitbulls are often the preferred breed of choice for gun toting thugs and gang members because of the terror they induce and they look tough.  This certainly doesn't help their cause.  Sadly pitbulls are currently the poster child for the child eating, blood thirsty bad dog. It was Rottweiler's before them, Doberman's before that, German Shepherd's before that, and the list goes on and on.  Will your favorite breed be next? To bestow such negative stereotypes on a breed is not only breedist (think racist but for dogs) but downright wrong.  This current stereotype stems from the fact that the breed is used in dog fights and also when the rare attack on a human does occur they inflict a lot of damage because of the power they have in their jaws.   Truthfully though this accounts for less than 1% of the pitbulls out there and it's too bad that they aren't known for all the good they do: family dogs, agility dogs, service dogs, assistance dogs, therapy dogs, etc.  Anything that your favorite breed does, so do they, and probably better because they have so much love to give that they often burst forth and smile.  They have a zest for life that is almost unparalelled in the canine world.

  

Also as a result of this negative stereotype there are thousands, if not more, of beautiful, loving pitbulls that are homeless and euthanized every year because of the false and bad publicity that they receive.  Many communities have banned the breed (which includes other "bully" breeds as well) and banned people from owning them going so far as making people give them up, in essence giving up a family member to be put down.  Look at your dog right now...what if someone told you that you had to give it up to be killed simply because of the breed that it was born as even though it may have nothing but love to give people?  Many pitbulls are indeed involved in attacks of other dogs, people and children every year but so are many other breeds, including mixed breeds but they don't make the news like pitbulls do.  Those attacks always make the news but you never hear about a family's cocker spaniel when it bites a child in the face requiring stitches do you?  These pitbulls involved in these attacks are dogs that are not in good situations and are often results of poor breeding programs, poor training, poor living conditions and abuse.  Pitbulls are used to fight other dogs but they must also be best friends with humans; they have to be because a human is a fighting dog's handler.  Many of the fighting dogs want nothing to do with fighting and choose not to.  Those "failures" are usually put down.  That is unless they are given an opportunity to start over as did 96% of the dogs that were rescued from Michael Vick's dog fighting organization.


Most of these dogs from Vick's "club" ended up with families or are in rescue.  They were lucky to have human intervention and be rescued by some incredibly canine smart, and loving, human beings who knew that these dogs were not vicious monsters but rather good dogs that were in a bad situation who deserved another chance. Those placed with families are obviously great with people and children.  The rescue groups involved simply have too much to lose to put a dog in that type of situation without being 100% certain that the dog is not going to harm anyone.  For those that ended up in permanent homes in rescue it was because the dogs, while good with people, were too shy or had too many permanent behavior issues as a result of the bad breeding, poor conditions and poor care...not to mention being forced to fight or strapped down while raped to produce more pups.  For all these dogs to come through on the other side after having been through so much and having seen the face of evil speaks volumes about the breed.  Bottom line is that they are good dogs.  A good dog should be thought of as a good dog regardless of breed.  Any breed has the potential to be bad or cause harm just as any race of humans can do the same.  As a white male I would never expect to be lumped in with someone like the KKK, just as not all Muslims are terrorists...what I am getting at is that there is trash of every color and evil people of every color but we choose not to (hopefully) define a group by the small percentage of that race or group that chooses to do bad.  To that end we shouldn't lump all the thousands of good pitbulls in with the small percentage of the bad ones.  Would you say that Golden Retrievers are bad dogs?  Well, why not; they attack children too.  What about Cocker Spaniels?  I didn't think so.

http://www.moderndogmagazine.com/articles/what-it-about-pit-bulls/17294

Sadly due to the ignorance of the general public, misinformed media and the demonization of a breed that loves people and family as much as any breed out there, there are many good pit bulls out there in need of homes.  There are not enough homes for them and thousands of good dogs are being euthanized every year.  We as humans are failing them.  

The day late in 2010 when Mirka was brought into our hospital as a stray that needed a home has turned out to be one of the best days of my life.  I never thought that I could ever love another dog as much as we loved Traveler.  Mirka is well on her way to making that happen.  Our life is all the better with her in it.  What's not to love about a dog with a heart of gold.  You bet she's a pitbull.  To anthropomorphosize the situation: she doesn't hold it against us (not that she knows or can possibly choose to) that humans are responsible for killing many of her kind due to misinformation and breed prejudice.  In fact we as humans as responsible for more atrocities to her kind than they to our kind.

Before condemning an entire breed, let a pitbull lick your face and get to know it.  You'll never feel the same way again.  If you can't do that I would ask that you not speak out against them.  If you do you are perpetuating a negative stereotype and helping to send more dogs to their death.  Just like this one that I have fallen madly in love with and by the way she is a blood donor at my hospital saving the lives of other dogs.  Everyone at the veterinary hospital where I work loves her.  She is a great ambassador for the breed.  When she visits she makes her round smiling that big pit bull smile, tail not stop wagging.  Yes, thousands and thousands of them are killed and homeless due to ignorance.  Just like this one:























an excellent resource that is working to change the public's perception of pit bulls: http://stubbydog.org/

 

This song makes me happy!

I don't often post about things unrelated to the farm but music is very much part of my life, infusing all parts of it so in a way it is very much about the farm.  This song is by one of my favorite bands, the shins.  It makes me happy and sounds so positive doesn't it?  A great way to start 2012.  Enjoy!  Turn it up loud!

Weather Extremes and Chicken Update

We had arguably the most mild December in terms of weather that I can ever remember.  Not only did we  have very little snow and a green Christmas but the temps approached 50 degrees.  Around Christmas it also finally stopped raining and the animals here at Czar of the Woods were very happy to get out and enjoy the unseasonably warm weather and sunshine.
The chickens are finally producing more eggs in part because of the new ones that we adopted from the SPCA (not only are the new ones producing more but it seems to have induced the others to lay more as well), the weather and I told them that they would end up as soup if they didn't start earning their keep.  As you can see the chickens thoroughly enjoyed time outside in their chicken yard for Christmas.

 The bounty!

Even the horses got outside for the first time in a while due to all the rain and mud.

And what a difference a week makes.  These photos taken with my new outdoor, mounted wildlife camera (more on this to follow in a coming post) show winter as we have come to know it around here...thermometer on the barn reads negative one degree fahrenheit (30+ in the barn due to heat the horses give off).  This is more like it, although I don't like it.

Operation Chicken Drop or Chickens Can Be Real A#@holes!

I wanted to increase the number of chickens in our flock because my 17 chickens have not been producing enough eggs for us or for my egg business at work.  On a good day lately I would consider myself lucky if I got 4 eggs.  The eggs usually vary from day to day so I know that many of the chickens are laying but too few and far between to keep up with demand.  Supply was low.  I can't blame it on the cold either because this had been going on since the summer when a good number then was 7-9 eggs/day with that number slowly decreasing.  In the spring most of our chickens will be 2 years old which is arguably approaching the end of good egg laying days for the girls.
When we initially bought our chicks in the spring of 2010 we picked a variety mostly for looks and not necessarily all heavy layers.  We get many big eggs and many small eggs from the smaller, but unique looking chickens; variety in chicken and variety in egg is nice but I really want consistency now that I've gotten the unique chicken thing out of my system.  Chicken feed certainly isn't getting any cheaper and the girls need to earn their keep.  Periodically in every flock chickens die and over the past almost 2 years we went from 20 or 21 down to 17.  Time to get more chickens.
There are several means to get chickens: buy as chicks on-line or at a local feed store (not possible this time of year), friends of friends that raise them, craigslist, or rescue.  I opted for the last, well thought I would look into it anyway.  Within the last couple weeks I contacted the Erie County SPCA (where we adopted our pot-bellied pig in January 2010) to see if they had any hens that might be looking for homes.  At the time they did not but a few days ago I got an email from the barn manager to tell me that some hens became available.
There were 5 in all: 4 white chickens (possibly White Orpingtons or White Rocks) that were found as strays in Elma (Elmanian chickens-since my parents live in Elma my mom and I will periodically discuss whether or not they are Elmanians (read terrorist sounding) or Elmanites (Amish sounding) as my mom prefers) and a Red Star that came from somewhere else.  They all seem to be laying eggs quite nicely so I decided to go check them out.  Drove out to the SPCA yesterday and the place was a hive of activity as they were in the middle of their annual Radiothon to raise money.  I was happy that most of the dog kennels their had signs on them saying "Adopted: going home soon" or "Adoption Pending."  I didn't get to see the cats because the place was full of people waiting to get processed and take their forever pets home.  We have plenty of those furry types for now so I was the guy adopting chickens.  Yep, I like what I saw so they came home with me.

2 hens in one dog crate and 3 in the other.  2 of the white hens had some feather loss; who knows why since they were strays.  Could be normal molting or weather related.

The chickens remained in the crates until nightfall at which point I added them to the flock of "sleeping" chickens.  Flocks are much more likely to accept new members if added at night because they are in a way tricked into thinking that they were there all along.  Chickens are not the brightest...or always the nicest.
First thing this morning I checked on how things were going and if the new girls were assimilating, being allowed to is more like it, into the flock.  The coop was very loud as the girls were trying to figure out what happened overnight.  For the most part things were going well but of course the chickens were picking, literally, on the one that had the most feather loss.  Not sure how long this will go on but once chickens lock in on something they tend to not give up on it.  It can take months for them to accept a chicken, and will beat up on it in the meanwhile.  Not all chickens survive the hazing process.  I hope that is not the case here.  Chickens CAN be a#@holes!

The 4 chickens on the ground are 4 of the 5 new ones.

And the 2 white ones to the right are new...

Breakfast in the coop is always fun to watch!

And Czar, backlit by the morning sun coming through his window eats his breakfast and wants to know what all the ruckus is about.

As does Divo.

Plus One/Minus One: the Birth of Our Son, Henrik; the Loss of Traveler

On October 10th, 2011 Sarah and I welcomed our first son, Henrik Finn, into the world and he arrived epicly, to say the least.  To give you the brief version: 27 hours of labor, followed by an unplanned c-section, followed by Sarah hemorrhaging and needing a blood transfusion due to losing half her blood volume (had it been a different era she would have died during childbirth and if not then, from the hemorrhage for sure).  I am lucky that she is still here.  That was scary beyond words.  All in all we stayed in the hospital for a total of 6 days (we were camping at the hospital in Fort Henrik as we deemed it).  I have never seen anything like the labor that Sarah went through; it was mindblowing!  She could have easily moved a mountain with the amount of energy that she put into it but for some reason our little 6# 13 oz son wouldn't budge.  I have never seen anything like it.  The word does not exist to describe just what it was. 

and mother of the year...

A few days after returning home Sarah just was not recovering like she should have been and on top of being sleep deprived, recovering from major surgery and producing milk she was still anemic.  Really anemic, needing a second transfusion and a second, this time 2 day stay, in the hospital.  This same day we had made the difficult yet right decision to euthanize our beloved, rescued Alaskan Malamute, Traveler, after a battle with neurologic degeneration in his spine that caused him to have difficulty walking but did not affect his brain one bit.  For those of you that knew him, I don't need to say much.  For those that didn't I could go on and on as I have never met another dog like him.  I will be brief and use what the author Jon Katz calls the "lifetime dog" that he describes as "a lifetime dog is the one that enters your life at a particular, critical point and changes or affects you in ways no other animal can or will.”  He made our life better and his love of his family, or pack if you will, was paramount to him.  To say that this love was human like sells it short.  Words cannot describe him.  Our life will never be the same without him and we are so happy that he stuck it out to meet Henrik.  A friend of mine told me that animals have that amazing ability to know when it is time to move on or out of the way to make room for the new arrival so that we can focus on what needs to be focused on.  I have talked to so many people who have lost pets just as they had a baby.  To describe it in human terms it isn't to say that they don't want to be around anymore because of the baby or are jealous and can't possibly compete but rather that they love us so much that they move out of the way so as to allow us to focus on the baby.  I wish this was not the case but it certainly is a beautiful perspective. 

The timing of losing Traveler could not have been worse because we were torn between sheer joy in Henrik, and sheer, and ripping loss in Traveler.  It was odd to be so distracted from losing him that it made it easier.  I still haven't fully realized that he is never coming back.  Maybe I never will and perhaps there is something to be said for that.  He doesn't feel gone, but rather in the other room, outside or at my parents house visiting with them and gram.  If every day feels like this her will never be fully gone.  It does wash over us periodically and to say that we miss him does not do the feeling justice.

Welcome home Henrik Finn!
Goodbye Traveler.  Thank you for making our life better while you shared it with us.

How things balance out don't they.  Plus one.  Minus one.

Traveler's final resting place in a park like setting in our front yard, amongst a grove of maple trees.  Every morning and night I say good morning and goodnight to him.

ps-this arrival has TWO legs...and the chickens don't count!  Below, Henrik in a carrier meets our pig, Morgan Sophia Beasley for the first time!

You Put the Turtles Where?!?!

For the winter we are hibernating our rescued box turtles.  How does one do this one might ask?  Well, in the fridge (in the garage) of course.  Yep, it's true!  Turtles, in the wild, do this naturally and it is actually quite good for them, helping them to live longer.   Read about their arrival at the farm here: http://czarofthewoodsfarm.blogspot.com/2011/07/turtles-arrive-at-czar-of-woods-farm-or.html

Shortly before Henrik was born I stopped feeding the turtles any fruits or veggies.  While they had access to wild food in the form of bugs and plants by withholding anything else, coupled with a few warm water soaks prior to hibernation, would allow their gut to remain relatively empty for their long winter's nap.  Had I not done this any food that they had left in their gut could rot, making them sick.  I then got 3 clear rubbermaid containers, drilled holes in the top and filled them with moist but not wet peat moss and some straw.  I placed the turtles in them, one in each, then simply placed them in the fridge.  Have to make sure that the fridge temp remains between 35-45 degrees F and does not freeze.  This is the necessary temp to hibernate them at.  I must admit that it goes against one's nature to place a living animal in a fridge and it does take some getting used to.  You must then wake them up every 4-6 weeks by putting them in a room temp setting.  Simply check them out for health and start the process over minus the soaks.  Basically just put them back in the fridge.  The fridge must be opened periodically to get oxygen available to them otherwise you have to run an aquarium air pump and tube into the fridge to supply air.  Cold blooded animals are quite amazing creatures.

Here is a photo of the containers in the fridge.  Once the temp hits freezing I will move the containers to the barn where the heat that the horses produce keep the barn at about 40 degrees F all winter long, even at its coldest point.  The reason I can't keep them in the garage fridge all winter is that the ambient temp in th garage will affect the fridge temp dropping it too low.

 And you can barely see the turtle mixed amongst the substrate...

Project Update: Back Pasture Fence and Drainage Project

My Dad and I have been in the process of laying out and installing a new pasture fence in the back pasture.  I have had this pasture "closed" to horses for almost 2 years now in order to give it a chance to re-grow and re-establish itself after re-seeding; having been over-grazed previously and decimated.  It is doing beautifully well and the fence is coming along nicely. 
We have had over one hundred holes to dig and my bit of advice is DO NOT EVER use a 2 man post hole digger to do so.  They are awful and I'm pretty sure they made the job more difficult.  Digging with a shovel and manual post hole digger has been easier.  Unfortunately it rained way too much this October to be able to use a tractor back there.  It simply would have done too much damage.
We have a natural gas distribution line that runs diagonally across our property and the fence crosses it twice.  The day that we dug the posts around them we had to have National Fuel on site in order to know where the line is and standing by in case we hit it.  This is the day that we rented the 2 man digger and it was a waste of time for sure.
At the end of summer I installed a culvert pipe to help drainage in a low spot that will get a lot of traffic and also ordered 15 tons of bank run gravel to cover it, in effect making a small bridge ove it to get to the pasture.  It turned out amazingly well and with the serious amount of rain we had in October it tested quite well and actually works.  And next time if someone wants to buy we a tractor with a front end loader we won't have to use a wheelbarrow and shovel next time to move 30, 000 pounds of stone.  ;)

Thanks to my Dad for all his help on this project.
Tractor?  Anyone?  Anyone?  55 holes left out of well over 100!