Comment

Comment by Bogart the Cardigan on November 4, 2014 at 8:01am

Hi Brian!
Great to hear you are all doing well. Hopefully no snakes or fires will interfere! Bogart found a snake in our yard this spring, he barked like crazy but he did not go near it. It was a "good" snake, the kind that kills rattlesnakes, so I took a shovel and simply relocated it to the other side of the fence. I was relieved that Bogart didn't try to play with it! We are getting ready for our second big Georgia Corgis meet-up in a few days. The last one was great, over 40 Corgis, so much fun! They all get along so well, like they understand they are a "pack" and belong together... Have a great summer!
Charlotte & Bogart

Comment by Holly on November 3, 2014 at 2:48am

I feel so bad for you! I hate snakes and I hate heat even more! It was 32 degrees Fahrenheit here and snowing all day. I was in heaven. I hope you get some relief soon. We had a really hot summer two years ago and I damn near lost my mind. This past summer was dry and cool. Best one ever I think. Hope your summer changes. Do snakes have any predators? We have some big ones here but they are very rarely venomous. We do have lots of coyotes and foxes which pique Sully's interest, probably because they look like dogs, but they scare me since they sometimes attack, especially if rabid. We did have a baby snake crawl under the door a few times. I kept tossing it back out and it (or its twin) came back a few times. The big ones can't fit under the door!

Comment by Vicky Hay on November 2, 2014 at 5:10pm

You must visit Cassie & Ruby in Arizona the next time you have money to diddle away on travel. It sounds like you would think you'd arrived at home sweet home.

So... 37 to 40 degrees Celsius is 98.6 to 104 degrees Fahrenheit. Yes. You would love it here. What with climate warming (or, if you are a climate change denier, as most Arizona voters are, the urban heat bubble), 46-degree days are now commonplace in the summer. And so I suppose a visit in July would revive your appreciation for the balmy climate in Australia.

Ditto with "not allowed out at night"...or "alone at any time." We do have the occasional rattlesnake, though they don't usually come this far into the urb. However, urban coyotes and urban raccoons are our beloved neighbors. A coyote will ghost right over a six-foot wall, and when they're whelping, few things appeal to them more than clearing all canid competition out of their territory.

Do you have that issue with dingos? Do dingos adapt to urban environments?

It's lovely fall here now -- weather is stunningly gorgeous. So at last we can take our dogs for a walk by daylight. In the summer, Cassie and Ruby have to wait until after dark, and in July and August it's too hot for a doggy-walk even at night, because the asphalt stays hot enough to burn their little feet until one or two in the morning, at which time I will not venture outside here in the 'hood even with my wee Derringer to hand.

We have only one dangerous snake here -- the rattler, although some varieties are considerably more toxic than others. It would be less than ideal to have to keep an eye out for more than one species. The other day Ruby went for her first walk in the desert, and I must say it was quite a production to keep her from sticking her nose under every large rock and every trailside shrub.

Hereabouts, you can hire people to "snake-proof" your dog. I haven't done so, because I think the process is cruel -- involves an electric collar and a defanged rattlesnake. But I suppose if one lived in a place where they commonly came into the yard, one might reconsider that.

I remember those bush fires! When my ex- and I were there, we could allow ourselves to be smug Americans, for at the time the strategy in the US was to snuff out every fire that popped up. The Australlians, from what we could tell, just let the things burn, fill the air with lung-clogging smoke and enduring heaven only knows how much economic damage. But now that has, to a degree, become SOP here, too.  Good luck! Hope you won't be turned out of your home this year.

Comment by Linda on November 2, 2014 at 10:57am

Keep your eye to the sky and the ground!  Our west coast has had a terrible summer of fires with the severe drought out there.  I'm in NY and even we are below normal on rainfall.  If I had poisonous snakes here I would not be wanting my dogs out by themselves either!  I live in a city neighborhood so the worst I get in snakes are garter snakes.  When we do take the dogs with us we are careful where we walk them because we live in the foothills of mountains where there are rattlesnakes and copperheads...both very dangerous.

Comment by Jane Christensen on November 2, 2014 at 9:08am

Hi Brian,

I am thinking that you temp is not Fahrenheit cuz 37 is cold for our temp...luckily we have had a great summer with a good amount of rain in Minnesota but there have been some fires...we are entering winter and the snow and ice season...where we live. Stay safe!