Argh! I can think of absolutely nothing to write about in the next 9 minutes! Several good topics come to mind that would take much longer, but I'll need to work on one of those during the day and then put it on the blog the next morning. A tribute to a wonderful Agility Dalmatian too (not one of mine, just a dog I admire) but that will take some time as well. One of the reasons I have a blog is to work at spontaneous writing - forcing myself to write when I don't "feel like writing". No way to become a famous author until I learn to do that! Being a terrible procrastinator often interferes with my writing.
No pictures to post either. I have quite a few on my camera that need to be downloaded. Wish I had a better camera so we would not fight the "red eye battle" when taking Dal pictures. Ah, that reminds me, when taking Dal pictures the black dogs usually reflect green "eye shine" while the liver dogs reflect red. Blue eyes also reflect red - has something to do with the lack of pigment on their retinas. Some black-spotted brown-eyed dogs reflect red on one or both eyes because they have unpigmented retinas.
When I took the puppy pictures of Mariah I noticed that she reflected green in one eye and blue-ish in the other, something I had not noticed before. When she had her CERF exam two weeks ago, I asked the Veterinary Ophthalmologist about that, wondering if she had an unpigmented retina. Nope, she just had a small area that was a bit more lightly pigmented which was causing that affect. Meaningless, but interesting. Actually, retina pigmentation would make a good article. Something else to study up on.
Oh, that reminds me, Mariah's eyes. She passed her CERF exam with no ISD or Iris hypoplasia - those are additional issues that are noted on Dalmatian eyes but are pretty meaningless, and seem to be much more common in liver-spotted dogs. I'll send her results in to CERF and they will go to the OFA database. Because Janey has sent in the hearing results for the litter, Mariah will have 2/3 of the requirements for her CHIC number. We'll have her hips and elbows x-rayed at two years of age to get the 3rd requirement. Eye exams OR thyroid panels are required, but we'll do both if we decide to show and possibly breed Mariah.
And Mariah, well she's going through the uglies right now. It's nice when pups grow up evenly and always look beautiful. Mariah is still beautiful, but her pieces no longer fit. She's lumpy in front and cow-hocked behind. Ugh. This too shall pass. I try not to look at it. Well do I recall taking 4 month old Pauli out to show to a Dal friend. I'd told her what a wonderful mover Pauli was, but on THAT day she sure wasn't. Ugh. I was embarrassed. But her lovely came back in a few months. Presumably Mariah will do the same.
