|
|
SheltieJim posted this on January 7th, 2013
How many times have you heard somebody say “It’s almost like he has a sixth sense!” or something to that effect. And you’ve undoubtedly seen, or at least heard of, the movie “The Sixth Sense.”
For many years, I’ve been bothered that that phrase. We were probably all taught in primary school that there are “five senses: sight, hearing, touch, smell, and taste.” And, although it’s forgivable that young children just accept what they’re taught, as adults, we should really know better. In fact, I can instantly identify at least one more sense that you have — temperature. Have you ever placed your hand inside a heated oven or over a burner on the stove (without actually touching anything)? Did you feel the heat? How about sticking your hand into the freezer without touching anything? Did it feel cold? Of course. And there is a sixth sense that we all possess. And the nerves used to transmit that temperature information to your brain are different from the nerves that transmit the sense of touch to your brain.
Here’s a seventh sense that you undoubtedly possess: Have you ever closed your eyes while standing and checked whether you’re able to detect whether you’re standing straight up or leaning over? That’s your sense of balance in play. It is, of course, created by the orientation and movement of fluid in your inner ears and the effect of those on the cilia (tiny hairs) in there, but it’s not the same as a sense of touch.
When we get away from purely human questions, we find even more senses than we might think. Sharks — as anybody who’s ever watched “Shark Week” on cable television will be aware — have a line of sense organs down their sides that can detect very tiny electrical impulses from the muscles of fish swimming nearby. That’s eight senses, so far. Many species of fish have a slightly different line of sense organs down their sides that can detect very subtle differences in pressure, the kind of difference that would be caused by a predator swimming rapidly towards them. And we’re up to nine senses.
Many bird species, numerous fish species, some amphibians, and probably others can detect the earth’s magnetic field and can navigate using that field the same way a ship’s captain navigates using the ship’s compass. There’s the tenth sense.
Many bird species can “see” the polarization of light and use that for navigation, too. This isn’t the same as our sense of sight, which detects light vs darkness, edges of objects, and color. It’s different and depends on entirely different kinds of receptors in the eye. We could quibble about whether this represents another sense or not, but I think it does…and that makes eleven senses.
I’m pretty sure that I haven’t remembered everything that can be reasonably considered to be another sense, but it’s a decent start in demonstrating that “the five senses” are little more than a myth. If you can think of additional senses that exist in the animal kingdom — and especially in humans — please comment on this entry and let the rest of us know what it is. Oh, and plants have still other senses that I haven’t mentioned herein, but please feel free to mention them yourself!
BluvsJ posted this on December 26th, 2012
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=532709223412868&set=a.532709220079535.89100551.532707873413003&type=1
For some, 50 S  hades of Grey may represent something erotic but for Monty’s family 50 Shades of Grey is how you feel when you’re Sheltie-kid has been missing for so long. Sheltie Rescue of Utah recently recovered a Sheltie known (though not know by us) to be on the run for over a year in a particular area. Monty is out there somewhere and needs help. Please help us find our Monty. He is a Shetland Sheepdog/Sheltie who has been missing since Aug 26,2012 in Milpitas, CA. He has been spotted on Dixon Landing Road and on Washington Dr in Milpitas, CA. Click About below or Notes for more info.
Description
We have been searching for Monty since Aug 26, 2012. He does not know how to get home on his own. He has been sighted in Milpitas, CA. He is very shy so please do not chase or yell. It is best to lure him with food preferably into a backyard so he cannot run away from the area or into traffic. He likes cheese. He has a scar on his snout. He has been spotted on Dixon Landing Road and on Washington Dr in Milpitas, CA. Last sighting was in early September. He was seen using the overpass on Dixon Landing Road perhaps to cross the 880 freeway going west at around 6-7pm. He may be hiding and coming out near sunset or just before the sun rises to find food.
We’ve done everything on the list of things to do to find a lost dog from shelters and multiple websites. We’ve put up posters, gave out calling cards, drive around with a sign on our car, biked, walked, drove around the different neighborhoods, used petamberalert, craigslist, facebook, twitter, checked with city hall, police, vets, groomers, newspaper, all animal shelters, animal communicator, etc. City of Milpitas will not allow us to put a trap in the parks so we have to plead with everyone to keep an eye out for him. If spotted we can ask someone who lives near the sighting if we can use their backyard as a trap. If someone has taken him in, spreading the word will help that person find us so they can return Monty.
It takes only a few seconds to share his lost poster or his FB page on your FB wall. Please spare a few seconds to help find Monty. Thanks!
teenpower87 posted this on October 25th, 2012
Feel free to check out my facebook page and I hope that we can bring him home. https://www.facebook.com/pages/Please-help-me-find-my-Sheltie-Little-Lad/207541909375916
BluvsJ posted this on July 14th, 2012
Important Quality Update
Nature’s Variety News – July 12, 2012Nature’s Variety has issued a nationwide voluntary recall
on Prairie Beef Meal & Barley Medley Kibble for Dogs
Nature’s Variety has initiated a voluntary recall of its Prairie Beef Meal & Barley Medley Kibble for Dogs due to an off-odor smell that may develop over time. This product is not contaminated in any way, but some products are not remaining fresh for the shelf life of the product.
Reed Howlett, Nature’s Variety CEO, stated, “At Nature’s Variety, we make every effort to ensure that all of our products meet the highest quality standards. We’ve found that some bags of Prairie Beef Meal & Barley Medley Kibble for Dogs have an off-odor smell. To be sure that our consumers only receive the freshest and highest quality product possible, we have decided to voluntarily recall all Prairie Beef Meal & Barley Medley Kibble for Dogs from the marketplace.”
The products impacted are listed below:
• UPC# 7 69949 60420 4 – Prairie Beef Meal & Barley Medley Kibble for Dogs 5 lb
• UPC# 7 69949 60425 9 – Prairie Beef Meal & Barley Medley Kibble for Dogs 15 lb
• UPC# 7 69949 60430 3 – Prairie Beef Meal & Barley Medley Kibble for Dogs 30 lb
• UPC# 7 69949 60432 7 – Prairie Beef Meal & Barley Medley Kibble for Dogs 3 oz sample
No other Nature’s Variety products are affected.
Consumers who have purchased one of the above products can obtain a full refund or exchange it for a different variety by either returning the product in its original packaging or bringing a proof of purchase back to their retailer.
Consumers with additional questions can call our Consumer Relations team at at 888.519.7387. Or, consumers can click here to email Nature’s Variety directly.
BluvsJ posted this on July 5th, 2012
 Jennie on Left and Jackie O on Right – What a Beautiful Pair! This is past Sheltie Rescue of Utah Sheltie-girl, Jackie-O who has been living happily every after with her forever Mom, Jennie George and husband Wes. There’s also a new addition – Paige – who is just a few years younger than Jackie. Jackie is 7 years old now.
Jennie and Wes like to go to the Sheltie National when they can. The year that the Sheltie National was last in Oregon, Jennie and Wes made arrangements to meet us there – AND – to meet Jackie O. We enjoyed having Jackie with us. She’d sleep on the pillow on the bed and help us out at the Rescue booth at the National. I believe she even attended the herding events with us while we ran the rescue booth at that venue. Jackie was a busy girl that week.
It was immediately a love connection and Jackie did not return with us to Utah but rather went home with Jennie and Wes. Jennie is one of our many adopters who are so wonderful – they stay in touch with us through email and photos and we just LOVE IT!!! I really appreciate the chance to see their sweet faces – and how happy they are. – Barbara
BluvsJ posted this on June 5th, 2012
 Missy arrived here Sunday evening at about 10:00pm. What a long saga this darling girl has been through! I carried her inside and set her down in the room in which all the dogs eat (previously our formal dining room). The room smells great to dogs because of all the kibble and dog treats we keep there so it’s usually a great place to put a new kid – gives them yummy thoughts to think about instead of anxious ones. I had a big bed set up for Missy and as soon as she saw it she headed right for it and settled herself in it. I decided to feed her a light meal. I was told by Danielle, one of the two LOVELY women who transported Missy, that she’s only supposed to eat soft/canned foods though nobody was quite sure why that is. So I opened up a can of food (with new dogs I use Hill’s Prescription i/d which most vets use for the dogs they’re boarding due to illness or surgery or something like that) and Missy enjoyed a light meal of canned food. This particular dog food is meant to help soothe the lining of the digestive tract and be very easy to digest regardless of whatever diet the dog may be used to eating. I made sure a bowl of water was within a muzzle’s reach so she really didn’t need to move to get a drink if she wanted it.
I’m not sure why Missy is supposed to be on a canned food or soft food diet? Her mouth and teeth don’t appear to be an issue. However, with older kids, I buy the highest quality smallest piece of kibble I can find. Right now I use Artemis. I’ve tried out some on Missy and she seems to be doing very well with it. 
I slept on the couch Sunday night so I would be near to Missy just in case she had any problems or might be reassured by having a person nearby – having lived her life with people nearby. As I became familiar with the specific difficulties Missy has with movement I have changed her bed to one that will be easier for her to get in and out of and still have a great deal of support for those deformed limbs she has.
Missy is gradually becoming familiar with the location of all the various water bowls we have all over the place here. That’s something I really like to see even with dogs who don’t have any difficulty walking. I’ll probably bring Missy in to have an orthopedic evaluation with a specialist at our vet clinic. Her funny walk appears to me to be related to birth defects in both her front and hind legs. On her front legs her elbows bow way out. Her right front foot appears to be deformed, over-sized, and very flat. Her rear leg “elbows” also are deformed. Missy can walk but she does so with an obviously unusual gait. I think these deformities could have occurred during or just after the birth process if not within the birth sac during her development in the womb. Based on Missy’s teeth and everything else I see, she appears to me to be in pretty good health. We will do a senior wellness exam on her at the same time we do the orthopedic evaluation.
I would like her to weigh a t least a little less just to aid her poor legs which were not built to hold her even at a normal weight. Although she seems heavy when I lift her, I can feel her ribs fairly easily.
Missy will be sleeping in her bed in the food room where two other girls sleep. This will keep her on our main floor with no need to worry about stairs to get inside or outside. She has walked both up and down the large ramp we have for the dogs to get into the yard from the back door. It’s really good to see that she can be mobile on her own and it’s really good to see that she already anticipates breakfast and dinner at the times we prepare them. I’d say Missy is settling in and getting familiar with us! – Barbara
BluvsJ posted this on May 29th, 2012
 http://www.petfinder.com/petdetail/23109013
Transport Needed for Missy – 10 year old Sheltie from Wyoming. Her owners passed away. Family took her in and moved her to Idaho. Other dogs in the home didn’t like Missy so she landed in the Meridian, ID shelter. We’re told that Missy is VERY overweight. She needs to be carried outside to go potty. Thanks to Jim’s building skills we have a ramp that she may be able to negotiate even with the excess weight. If you can help her move to Sandy, UT from Meridian Idaho please call 801-231-3031. We have a volunteer in Meridian who is willing to meet someone halfway. Meridian is about a 5 hour drive from Sandy, UT. If you can meet the volunteer from the Meridian shelter halfway, please consider helping Missy – doesn’t she have a great smile! 801-231-3031 or 801-942-4762. Thanks so much for thinking about this.
Pretty much as soon as she gets here we’ll get a senior wellness profile done on her – it includes a full blood panel, a urinalysis, and a thyroid test. She may be so overweight as a consequence of low thyroid production – a common problem in many Shelties. After that, we’ll give her a chance to settle in and feel like she’s really home. – Barbara
BluvsJ posted this on May 20th, 2012
 Myra has the cutest face. She weighs in at only 17 pounds. She's several pounds underweight. Well poor Corgi/Sheltie mix Myra has lost her first foster home here in Salt Lake County. It was reported that she was drinking large amounts of water and urinating both outside and inside – and very often, possibly even leaking in addition. Were we looking at a urinary tract infection? Could it be end stages of kidney disease? Some other disease that would also mean the end stages of her life? Would it just be that she’s healthy except for the onerous problem of dealing with a leaky bladder? Well, we would soon see firsthand what our foster Mom was reporting to us and start to evaluate Myra’s urination and drinking behavior along with some diagnostic input from our veterinary clinic.
We immediately had Myra into the vet for a comprehensive blood panel, urinalysis, heartworm test, worming (she is underweight and was picked up as a stray), and thyroid test. If she was suffering from a urinary tract infection – we didn’t want her to go on suffering from that any longer than necessary to diagnose it.
Well, guess who does NOT have kidney disease or a urinary tract infection? Myra does not. In fact, her entire blood profile was very close to normal. Since Myra was picked up as a stray, was in a shelter, traveled about 6 hours or more in a car on Thursday, was turned over to her foster Mom Thursday night, and was underweight – it wouldn’t be surprising if any of her blood profile was off by insignificant amounts — and that’s exactly what we saw. Only her red blood cell count was off by an insignificant amount. I next had to consider if we were seeing end-of-life issues such as possibly a cancer that was causing bladder problems but not showing us anything on a blood panel or urinalysis. Or, were we just dealing with ongoing, heavy, and frequent urination as a result of senior incontinence? My heart fell. This is the reality of rescue and older dogs but we want to give them the best end-of-life that we can.
 You have to meet this girl in person to really appreciate how cute she is. Because we’d heard so much about her not holding her urine, I diapered her when she arrived here. It was a bit of a struggle to get that diaper on her not the leas
t of which was that although I accidentally had some doggie diapers here, I’d never used them before. Jim helped me and between the two of us we got her diapered although we did a poor job of it – even trying to pull off a tab that wasn’t supposed to be pulled off (because when we did – it started ripping the diaper!). Almost immediately after we diapered Myra she lifted the back end of her body up into the air and walked on her front two legs. I mean her entire bottom was pointed skyward while she made forward progress. Jim and I were both startled. Within a few minutes Myra adapted to her diaper and was back to walking on all four paws. I was relieved. The idea that she was so bothered by her diaper, bothered me.
We went outside with the other dogs on our usual schedule. Her diaper was always dry. In the meantime, Jim and I went to Barnes and Nobles in Sugarhouse to Bobbie Pyron’s book signing of her popular novel, A Dog’s Way Home. While we were gone, I crated Myra without her diaper to see what would happen. I also measured the water in her water bowl so I could measure the amount of water she was drinking. You can imagine my surprise when we arrived home (just 2 1/2 hours later – not very long) to a dry crate and a water bowl that really looked like it hadn’t even been touched!
We went back to giving Myra the run of the house with her diaper on. By now, not only had Myra, Jim, and I gotten the hang of putting these diapers on (although I still needed Jim’s assistance) I began to realize that these diapers were really well made! They are stretchy in all the right places and seemed to me to be pretty comfortable to wear. They stayed on Myra without sliding off and they’re very adjustable. I have to say that I like this product. I think we’re also lucky in that she didn’t try to pull them off – many other dogs would have.
 Myra settled onto one of the many dog beds here while we watched a movie and she spent what seemed to me to be an easy evening with us. She liked saying hello to the other dogs here but in general wasn’t especially interested in them. Except for Honey. Honey is a very grouchy girl here who wants nothing to do with the other dogs. For unknown reasons, Myra started following her around. It was like a mini-parade of two dogs walking back and forth, Honey leading and Myra following. If only we were smart enough to know what they were thinking. After about 15 minutes of this, Myra lost interest. She couldn’t hear Honey growling at her because Myra is completely deaf and I think she’s been completely deaf for a long time.
On our regular outings to go potty, Myra pee’d and pooped normally outside. Her diaper was dry every time. And she’s had no accidents inside. Myra is an easy, wonderful, girl who was possibly misunderstood by her former foster Mom.
Myra woke me in the morning barking – she needed to go potty! I took off her diaper before letting her outside and it was completely dry! I don’t know what to make of this except that so far it’s great news and completely consistent with the urine and blood work results that we’d done. Here are some photos of Myra in our home. This morning she’s diaper free because I feel that she’s demonstrated, to some extent anyway, that she’s not urinating uncontrollably or frequently, indoors. I believe she’s housetrained and doing exactly as well as I’d expect an older dog to do, who’s used to being in a home. Myra shows EVERY sign of being used to living in a home. I can’t help but wonder if her owners are looking for her? If they’re not, I think that someone else is going to have a wonderful, trouble-free companion in Myra. In general, these kids are wonderful and absolutely the easiest dogs you’ll ever bring into your home because they’re used to being part of a household and are well mannered and just so happy and grateful to be loved.
Myra is looking for a forever home – I hope we can find one for her quickly, if we don’t find that her owners are looking for her We’ll have to scan her for a microchip. Although this was probably done by the shelter in St. George, not all shelters have a universal scanner yet. – Barbara
BluvsJ posted this on May 13th, 2012
 Very Lovable Java – A Wonderful Companion! This is Java. We placed him about 10 months ago with a gentleman with a terminal disease. Java is a wonderful companion dog – very gentle, sweet, well-behaved, and very well house-trained – and very, very loyal. Sadly, he lost his adopter a couple of weeks ago – so we’re looking for a gentle, sweet, well-behaved and very, very loyal adopter that will give him a forever home where he will be spoiled with the healthiest dog foods, treats, and toys for the rest of his life. Java is about 5 years of age. Prior to his adoption we had a thorough dental done on him along with a comprehensive blood panel, urinalysis, thyroid test, heartworm test, vaccinations, microchip implant, and worming. I’ve got to say that I find him so lovable – it’ll be hard to say goodbye to him…again. – Barbara
http://youtu.be/27ZV_-eK0So
 Doesn't he just get cuter with every photo? Java is actually very camera shy! That's why his ears are back.
BluvsJ posted this on May 11th, 2012
|
Top Commentators
Free For You – Donations for Sheltie Rescue!
Treat Yourself & Your Dog
|
Loading ...
Recent Comments