Buyer Beware, Breeder Beware

I have always thought that entering into a contract was a pretty serious affair. I don't make contracts with people to buy things ( cars, houses or dogs) that I don't intend to honor. Contracts are supposed to protect both the seller and the buyer and in the case of a live animal the animal itself. The "new age" breeders want to have their cake and eat it too. Oh yes everyone must use a contract ( although they themself have placed a number without a written contract) but if others use contracts that require dogs be returned to protect them they are "control freaks" not caring breeders. Buyer beware when you come across someone (usually an eternal novice) who is so rabid and reactionary calling other breeders names then run don't walk out the door. Most of these type of people have nothing to offer any conversation other than criticism of others and their dogs. Their stories change often because they can't keep up with all the lies they have told about others. Right now this strange person continues to claim I trashed someone who used to own a dog of mine despite the fact that most people don't even know that person ever had a dog of mine. Looks like if I trashed this person everyone would know it. Of course neither she nor her friend who owned the dog are interested in dealing with the two people that I DON'T KNOW but who are in her kennel club who met me at a field trial and told me how she had spoken about me at length for the entire hour of the classes being held as being a horrible person who would not take her dogs back and whose dogs were unhealthy and who didn't test for anything. Now these same two people have changed their story to me being a control freak because I took the dog back. I guess you can't please everyone, and of course I'm not interested in pleasing everyone especially those who tell lies about more things than they have ever told the truth about.

Let no good deed go unpunished

I've never discussed this anywhere much less posted about it but since someone has been misrepresenting facts I think it would be best for the truth to be known about it.
Back in 2004 after returning from the Borzoi National I got a tearful phone call from a Borzoi owner who said that her dog's breeder had just treated her like *&^% at the national and that everyone she talked to had a low opinion of the breeder and she felt like she was finally seeing the person for what the person was which was trash ( her words not mine). She asked about a litter I had planned for the fall and said she would love a puppy from it. We corresponded over the next few months, the home was well known as appropriately fenced and the dogs well cared for and ultimately the puppy she picked went to live with her. I saw him a few times after that in an xpen with a much bigger puppy (who she got from the woman she complained about which I found odd but unfortunately I didn't really put up my radar then) who sort of played rough with him, and she wrote me he was doing well but he felt defensive when he was out with the bigger dogs and told them to leave him alone. (Nothing surprising about that ). The dog turned a year old in September of 2005, I sent out my usual Christmas cards to owners never heard anything back no worries they had my email. Sometime in January when I was surfing websites one night I noticed that the woman's daughter was pictured on a website with a new puppy bred by the same person that she had called me complaining about in 2004. I thought hmmm looks like they are getting another dog from her. In February I was going to a field trial and I called my friend in the area and asked her if she had room for me to stay at her house. She was also the FTS. She said sure, I figured since *&^%$ was returning the pup to you at the trial that it would probably be easier for you to stay here. I said "What? That is the FIRST I've heard of it." She said "Oh I thought you knew she called me and said she was coming to the trial and bringing your dog back." So when I got off the phone with my friend I called the dog's owner and said, "I think it probably would have been more polite for you to contact me first rather than calling someone else and telling them you are returning the dog since I had NO idea and might not have even been at that trial." She said, "Oh I meant to". I then said to her interesting you have already gotten another dog from *(*&& that you complained so much about, please bring my dogs papers with you when you return him. When I got to the trial, she immediately came to me I said put him in the wire crate on the side do you have his papers. She said yes and signed off on them. That was the end of it. No fuss no muss, no discussion or cussin'. Then I hear from two people in her kennel club and her psycho mentor that she is now back in with that she is claiming she "had to MAKE me take my dog back". Hell she didn't even let me as the breeder be the first person to know he ws being returned, and I made NO issue of it at all, in fact no one would even know she had ever had a dog from me if she and the breeder that she claimed was trash didn't keep bringing it up periodically claiming I had "trashed" her while at the same time claiming I wouldn't take the dog back. Pretty bizarre considering there is a third party that knows the owner didn't have the courtesy to tell me about the return first, and who was there when the dog was returned so knows it was a simple and quiet affair no drama at all. I still don't understand why another breeder would start rumors about me like that since it is well known that I require a return clause in my dog's contracts.

By the way here's another funny from the the same so called "breeder". If this breeder has a litter she gives the entire litter away calling it placing them in good homes, but if anyone else let's their friends have a puppy, she says they are just "dumping" the dogs on other people . Like I said do as I say not as I do seems to be the motto for folks like this breeder.

Is the moon full? Or just some people?

I have been a member of an online forum for over a year occasionally scanning topics of interest. Today I came across one that involves yet more Borzoi whackados actually one of them is a revolving whackado known far and wide as let's see how did someone put it this weekend who lives half a continent away from this person and not in our breed , "a complete moron and shit-stirring loudmouth." It is unfortunate for anyone to have their paths cross hers since it is kind of like getting crap on your hands, hard to wash off and the smell lasts a long time. A friend of mine has the distinct misfortune of having acquired her first Borzoi ( although not her first dog) from this crazy person, and all I can say is GOD AM I GLAD that my foundation stock came from someone who wasn't crazy. Someone who was actually qualified to be a mentor rather than a wannabe. Instead of having that person be proud of how she has done with her own dogs she has the person trying to take credit at every turn for dogs of her own breeding two generations removed from what she got from whackjob. Now since my friend isn't just ignoring her behavior and is calling her out on it, it looks as though the whackjob is creating more drama trying to "help" a puppy owner place a dog that she has a contract to return to the breeder on. You couldn't make up this kind of stuff no one would believe it.

By the Way

There are wee Borzoi puppies at my house for the first time in 3 years. 9 of them, 7 boys, 2 girls, they are 6 days old today all doing well. While there were no surprises as to the colors I got, the distribution of colors is a surprise I expected an even mix of reds or red brindles and blacks or silvers and I got 7 dominant blacks in various patterns , 1 red or gold brindle and 1 that I think is tri with brindle. This is the "Z" litter skipping some of those letters where its hard to find a cool name

Fort Smith pictures

This is the HQ for old Fort Smith ( although not the oldest Fort Smith as all that is left of that is the foundation of some buildings.) In front of the building is/were the parade grounds. The Fort is in a lovely park on the river or perhaps I should say rivers as there is a confluence ( I think that is the term for joining of two rivers) on the banks below the grounds of the old Fort.

The town itself is pretty hopping on Saturday nights, downtown lots of old buildings, and jazz/blues bars with the doors propped open and "tavern crawlers". Next time I'm over there I think I'll have to explore that further, (for informational purposes only of course)
There is a huge Catholic church in town really impressive you almost have to hurt your neck to see the top of it. There is a LOT to see in Fort Smith. They also have a BIG historic district full of old homes with ornate woodwork, and amazing leaded and stained glass windows and doors some of them on cobblestone streets! This yellow house is only one of many I took photos of on Sunday morning before leaving. Now as previously mentioned I can't leave a good cemetery unexplored and as luck has it Fort Smith has two that I would like to have spent more time in. One is a US national military cemetery. Lovely grounds although not as spectacular as that beautiful one I came across in New Mexico back in February 08. The other cemetery and a real must see in Forth Smith is an OLD OLD cemetery called Oak Cemetery where the old US marshals, judges and the men they hung are buried along with lots of just regular law abiding folk I'm sure. The grounds of this cemetery are beautiful, wrought iron fence around it. Incredible monuments and statuary throughout. These are a few photos of some of the monuments there.
As best I can tell about the statue to the left the fellow was born in 1837 probably fought in Civil War ( the uniform he is wearing appears Confederate) and died in 1920. His wife was born in 1847 and died later in 1920. Could not figure out the other woman, maybe it's his mother but she didn't appear to be buried there.

Cemeteries are of course sombre, sad places to the right is the grave of a small child as I recall dead at 10 years of age. What a heartbreak for the parents. Life was truly difficult in the 1800s for everyone.
I have no idea about the Celtic Cross monument but it was very handsome and really wanted its photo taken and of course I am a fan of Celtic Crosses even named a dog ( one of my favorite) that once.

What cemetery would be complete without guardian angels? There are several in Oak Cemetery. I think my two favorite though were this kneeling one next to one of the roads in the cemetery and the very tall monument where the angel almost seems to float in the trees.

Bummer Man

Received an email back from my nurse at Vandy. Bummer, I am iron, vitamin D and vitamin A deficient despite taking a lot of supplements. So she is prescribing me more iron and D and told me to double my daily multivitamin dosage. OK. It's a bummer because I've felt so good I was shocked that I am low on iron especially. Oh well, deal with it.

Then I hear, read and see on the news our sales tax revenues are so deficient ( guess everyone in TN is JUST BUYING GASOLINE) that the governor is talking about 1600 -2000 LAYOFFS of state employees. Ugh. That is a lot. 20 years with them but you never know where you will fall on the food chain until they start laying folks off. Hmmm, maybe I'll be moving to NM or WY a lot sooner than I thought. I hope not, I really wanted to stick them for that 30 year retirement although it is pretty sad (47% of your highest 5 years average).

Still have to put some of those Fort Smith AR photos up here ah well maybe this weekend since I'll actually be home then for the first time ( and last time ) in a month.

Another in the long list

of things I wish I had not seen. Still photos of Eight Belles desperately trying to get up after breaking both her front legs in the Derby. It isn't like myself and most of America don't know what a fatally injured thoroughbred looks like. Almost every day there is racing you can read about it, and the big events have treated us to these horrific images burned into our brains forever. So pardon me if the only thing I can think of when I think of horse racing are horses breaking down and thrashing around to get up while track personnel try to calm them down and hold them down. Nothing excites those spectators like a big downed animal rolling around like its in pain and probably knows its life is short. Not anthropomorphizing, large quadrapeds are hard wired to depend on their legs for escape. When they don't work, they know there's trouble.

I don't understand WTF is wrong with thoroughbred race people, can they not give those horses one more damn year to get ready. Just one and that really wouldn't be the best but it would beat running immature but very fast horses too young and pushing them so hard. It would surely beat euthanizing so many, and bringing down eventually the wrath of the AR crowd because it is such a horrible and visual image they can use, and I can't effing argue with them about this at all.

So good bye to another great one Eight Belles. I just wish the last photo I'd looked at of you was sailing along on four good legs at over forty miles an hour instead of being held down in the dirt at the Derby with your two shattered legs splayed out before you.

They must think we all have had a lobotomy

Else how could gas companies pretend that there is an oil shortage and that oil is really costing them more too at the same time they post $30++ MILLION dollars in FREAKING PROFITS A QUARTER!!!

Else how could a presidential candidate claim he didn't realize or agree with his pastor's radical anti American views despite spending 20 FREAKING YEARS IN THE PEWS OF HIS CHURCH and calling him FAMILY only a few months ago??

Else how could they borrow BILLION from the Chinese to send a measly check to tax paying Americans? A check that will only fill our gas tanks at current prices a dozen times or so.

What in the HELL is going on. I realize that somehow King George came into power through hook and crook the first time, and due to the radical right convincing the US that Jesus was too a Republican the second time, but the dumbing down of this country surely has an end in sight?

It costs us over $600 a month just to drive back and forth to work. That isn't transportation cost that is a HOUSE PAYMENT or what one should be for crying out loud. It's a good thing we are not on any heavy duty meds because we'd have to choose gas or drugs, and we'd have to pick gas just so we could keep our insurance at work.

I can't watch the news because I can't stand to hear about how wonderful everything is in Iraq every day. Never mind all those roadside bombings, dead brown people and American servicemen and women sent back maimed, burned, crippled or in other serious need. Don't worry about them we can just shove them in some rat and roach infested Army /VA hospital while Halliburton and Exxon continue to shovel their billions of $$ in blood money into their pockets while standing on the backs of the dead and dying US Armed Forces.