The things we learn

So I was asked in my health food store the other day: "do you carry the good cinnamon?" Huh? So, I'm thinking "no, we only carry crappy cinnamon" "What do these people want?"

The next day, another guy, same question? What the heck?

So I started doing some research and what do you know... there is a good cinnamon and a not so good cinnamon.

The not so good one is from the Cassia tree, (grown in China, Indonesia and Vietnam) while it is a tree in the cinnamon family it has higher levels of coumarin in it than real cinnamon and can be toxic and cause liver troubles.

The real cinnamon comes from Ceylon (Sri Lanka). It's coumarin content is minimal and SO much better for us.

The things we learn. So, if you can find it, Ceylon cinnamon is the best choice. I understand it's difficult to come by here in the US, because, well, frankly, Cassia cinnamon is cheap.

Check out this site for more information. http://www.ceylon-cinnamon.com/Identify-Cinnamon.htm

Jasper's tale

Ok, ok, I guess I can forgive mom for dropping that horrible stuff in my eye. I'll sit on her lap for a while. She's been convinced for a couple of weeks now that I don't love her anymore.

In the scuffle over who should be #2 in the new hierarchy, someone mistook my eyeball for a pin cushion. It was all goopy and swollen, so MOM took it in her head to snatch me up, unsuspecting me, and drop some drops in my eye. I was VERY unhappy about this. then, later that night, DAD betrayed me too, he grabbed me, held me like a baby, as he often does and tried and tried to drop said cold stuff in my eye. I fought like the dickens. Finally, dad won.

My eye is all better now and I've had a chat with everyone to let them know I have NO interest in changing my status in the hierarchy, so just leave me out of the scuffles, thanks.

A note on Great Danes

Now you all know I love my Danes, they are wonderful dogs, companions, lap dogs, watch dogs (because they'll watch, maybe even bark, but they won't do anything about it)

There are all sorts of different looks for Danes. Some Great Danes have their ears cropped, like my Sir did, some have natural, like Pongo and Purdy do. Some are Fawn color, the original color of these beautiful beasties, now there are many colors.

Fawn was my Sir and is my Purdy.

Merle is my Pongo.











Brindle is a lovely color, marbled looking.


Harlequins, often confused for LARGE Dalmatians.


Black, so pretty.




Blue, wow, stunning.



Boston have large black and white markings.

My furfamily, Pongo

Pongo came to us through the Great Dane Rescue of Northern CA. We went to a kennel way out in Rocklin where he and his brother were after their rescue from a group in Fairfield area. This little guy was 30 bs when they took him and should have been closer to 80, he was about 60 lbs when we brought him home and should have been closer to 100. He filled out pretty well pretty quickly and grew fast. He and his brother were very close, too close, so close they would have been disfunctional together, so sadly they were separated. But, both have done quite well.

Pongo adjusted quickly, quick and easy to potty train, one accident in thehouse, just like Sir and that was the last one. One accident in the van the first day he was with us and no more.

He was soon 100 lb PUPPY and full of energy and would like to have driven me crazy until Purdy came to live with us a week later and he had her to play with.

Poor little guy fell in the pool once, when he was first with us, within the first few weeks of him being home. Ian and I were out front talking to our neighbor Dick when we heard Purdy barking crazy and I glanced through the slats in the fence and saw some splashing, I ran like a crazy mom through the house, out to the backyard and lifted my big baby boy out of the pool by his front legs in one swift motion. He had been hanging on to the pool deck by his claws really, struggling to use his back feet to lift him out, to no avail. He was bloody footed and later that even he couldn’t move, walk, or even squat to pee he was so sore. His little muscles had seized up. Could be that did some damage to his tendons, as later he had to be confined to his cage and kept from moving for weeks due to a bum leg. You try to tell a 100 lb puppy he can’t play let along move around for several weeks. He healed up well though.

He and Purdy LOVE to romp and play but Purdy squashes Pongo with regularity. She outweighs him by 40 – 50 lbs and uses that to her advantage. There have been a few times she’s injured him with her romping. We have to watch and police their playing.

Pongo, like Sir and Purdy loves to go for rides in the van, he preffers to wait in the van too wherever we are. They will both run loose at my mother’s place or Ian’s folks place but will always return to the comfort of their van for security, warmth and the knowledge that it always goes home.

He’s a barker, he’ll bark crazy at any movement outside, any idea of someone coming to the door or near it, in the van at any pedestrians. He loves the “park and bark” rides, he can bark crazy at passers by to his hearts content. He usually gets the back seat and leaves Purdy the padded floor, they do enjoy the van rides. Sometimes she makes him share.

Pongo loves his stuffies. He’ll grab a toy and run to the door being all ferocious. I guess he thinks carrying a stuffed animal makes him more frightening. He sleeps with it, uses it as a pillow or sleeps with his front leg wrapped around it like he’s hugging it.

He’s funny with his "indestructable" (yeah right) Kongs or tennis balls too, he’ll go get one and go to sleep on his bed with it in his mouth.

Pongo is a lap dog, no, really, all 115 lbs of him. If he can get his bum on your lap, there it will be.

Pongo is mama's lovebug. wouldn't trade him for the world.

My furfamily, Purdy

Purdy is our fawn Great Dane girl. When I quit my full time job and was feeling ready for another dog, we looked at other breeds, but Sir was SO wonderful we couldn’t see having any other breed. So, in honor of Sir, we found the Great Dane Rescue of Northern California and found Purdy. She looked so much like Sir but for her natural floppy ears where his were cropped. Her loving personality shone through from the first day we met. She’d look in to my eyes with such a soulful gaze. I wanted her on the spot.

They were going to have her spayed and her shots and call us, they called and said someone else was going to take Purdy. So… we went looking again and found Pongo. Turned out, a week after we brought Pongo home, they called and said those people didn’t take Purdy after all, did we want her? Of course we did. 2 Great Danes, sure, why not? Twice the love, right?

We brought her home within a week of bringing Pongo home. Purdy was 20 months old when she came to live with us. She had been used as a breeder with her brother and was rescued from horrible conditions along with many other Danes from Truckee, CA where they were left outside. Truckee gets extremely cold and Danes are not cold weather dogs.

She was so starved, she looked deformed. She fattened right up here with us.

At first, we weren’t sure we could keep her as she wouldn’t settle, wouldn’t relax, be calm and when she saw a kitty she would tremble. We didn’t know if it was love, excitement or if she wanted to eat the kitty.

We trained her with a squirt bottle not to tremble at the kitties’ presence. I think, now, really, she thought they were her babies. She ADORES the kitties.

She used to watch “her show” at night when it was kitty treat time and they’d all gather in the kitchen, Purdy would come and watch adoringly all of her kitties come to eat.

Shortly after getting both pups, I’d gone to a healing expo where I met a pet communicator. This gal came out to the van where both pups waited for us and “spoke” with them. She’d said Purdy wanted to know if this was to be her home for good and if Pongo was staying too?

We told her, yes, this was her home forever and yes he’s staying too. That was the first night Purdy settled down and relaxed and slept soundly since she’d been home.

Purdy Purrs and Purdy sighs. I love those happy noises.

There was a story going around online about a little girl going from shelter to shelter looking for a puppy, to mom’s exasperation, the girl kept saying “I’ll know the right puppy when I get the puppy size” Later, they found the puppy that sighed when picked up by the girl… that was the right puppy. So, I love that Purdy sighs.

Purdy has to be with her mama. She has a blanket right near the dining room so she can be near me when I’m on the computer, but if I go to the kitchen, even for a second to get coffee or what have you, she’s up and goes around to the other side of the kitchen so she can see me.

If I’m cooking, she’s in the family room where she can see me, if I step to the dining room to look at a recipe, she’ll come all the way around to the dining room. Silly pup.

Boo loved his puppies, he’d lay on their blanket with them, rub on them, sleep with them on their bed. Purdy loves this, I suspect she sees the kitties as her babies.

She enjoys her walkies, but doesn’t like water, dirt, mud, weather… much like Sir. She’ll go to Fallen Leaf Lake with us, but she’ll lay with her back to the water and pretend it’s not there.

You can’t lead her to the water, 160 lbs of power will bring you to a screeching halt and dislocate your shoulder if you’re not ready for it.

She likes her bed fluffed, it’s quite funny to watch, you’d think she was double jointed as she fluffs with her front paws way out to one side then the other. We call it the Purdy dance.

My not so furfamily, Yoda

Yoda a was our 4 + foot long iguana. He came with my husband.

Initially, unsure of how I felt about reptiles, I asked innocently… how long do iguanas live?

When I met Ian, he lived with Yoda loose in his apartment. Yoda had free reign. When they moved in with us,the girls, and 6 kitties, Yoda had to have a habitat. Ian built him a LARGE cage from Plexiglas, wood panels, he had a large log in there to climb, his big tray of water for his potty, some green stuff.

He still came out and ran loose in the house sometimes. I remember him climbing a pile of laundry at the end of the hall and when it toppled over he went racing to the other end of the hall.

He would swim in our pool once in a while. He would often get to be turned loose in the grass in the back yard. Once, he escaped his cage, we couldn’t find him, we looked all over, asked neighbors, no Yoda… turned out he’d climbed a Pine tree in our backyard and was watching us franticly searching for him the whole time.

Even my grandma had a soft spot for Yoda, she came to take care of our house, kitties and Yoda for a few days while we went to Disneyland and it turned out to be a nasty rain storm that week. She was out back trying desperately to cover Yoda and make sure he was warm enough. She worried so about him. Not that she’d take him out and bring him in the house.

When we got back from that trip, Ian took him to the shower so he could be in some nice hot water and steam; he whacked Ian, just once, with his tail leaving a welt. I think that was for leaving him in a rain storm. He would come to the foot of the bed and nibble toes. Yoda would never hurt or bite, but he sure could if he’d wanted to.

In later years Yoda had begun to launch himself off of his log in his habitat and WHAM in to the Plexiglas at me when I was near. I thought he must hate me…

Apparently, as it turns out, that’s a move they make to claim their mate. He loved me after all. Who knew?

Iguanas have quite individual personalities. He was a good guy, he was always good with the kitties even though he could, with one swift tail swipe, kill one if he were so inclined.

The kitties were always curious but rarely got too close. Even Sir was not sure what to do with Yoda and kept a healthy distance as a rule.

Yoda was king of his roost. I loved to see him swim, but… to an Iguana, water is a toilet, so we didn’t often let him loose in the pool.

We lost our dear Yoda, sadly it was totally our fault. It was late October and we thought the hot part of the year was over. He’d been in his smaller cage for the day and wasn’t sufficiently covered from the sun and didn’t have water in his pan to cool himself.

We were all broken hearted and so devastated for none of us realized how hot it would get so late in the year. He is missed and remembered.

My furfamily, Sir

Sir, wow, what can I say about Sir. He was majestic. He was a light in our lives.

I went to PetsMart one weekend... for cat food... and walked in to see this wonderfully beautiful Fawn Great Dane up for adoption. I walked up to him and he leaned on me. That was it, I was already in love. I called Ian right then and there, "hon? can we have a dog? He's a big dog" "how big" asked Ian, "well, big... he's a Great Dane".

I learned later, that’s a common Great Dane trait, the leaning, but that was love at first sight, for me anyway.

He was 5, his family lost their home and couldn’t take him to the parents home, that was the story anyway. I wonder now, because he had old stress licking scars on his legs and the foster mom told me he was a house dog. When we got him home, I’m sure he hadn’t been a house dog. He was a VERY good boy. He slept in our bedroom that first night and in the morning he had to go potty, he got up and went to the slider, we weren’t fast enough though, he peed there on the carpet. Ugh. But that was the one and only time there was an accident like that. He’d wait for hours, he stayed in the house while we were at work all

day.

One day he spotted the clock up hanging high on the wall and heard it ticking I suppose, and he
went nuts,barking crazy. We took it off the wall and showed him, he eventually decided the clock could stay.

No, I’m sure he wasn’t a house dog.

He quickly became a happy house dog though. The first Christmas, we brought the tree in, and well, what dogs do with trees? He couldn’t figure out why on earth we’d bring a tree in the house, but… ok. So he peed on it. Again, a one time deal, never did he do it again. He was a smart boy.

I’d never seen a dog nest. Sir liked to nest. He’d fluff and root his bed to make it all cozy, but being so big and having such big claws, he’d nest his bed to shreds, regularly. We’d buy him big pillows and they’d last a while, but eventually they’d shred.

The first winter we had him, we took him to the snow. Ian says “all dogs love snow”, hmmmm.

So, we loaded the girls in the backseat of the Honda Accord, lay Sir on top of the girls and off we went.

We got to the snow, walked a way in and he took off. Now, he was still new to us, so I didn’t know where he’d go. I was so worried he'd run off and we'd never find him... I was yelling at people to grab his leash, no one would grab the leash of a fleeing 150 lb Great Dane. Go figure.

The snow was soft and puffy, so with each step I took I sunk to my knee, hindering my chase. When I finally got free of the snow I found him waiting at the Honda's back door. “take me home, take me home now” No snow for Sir.

We soon bought the minivan so Sir could have his own seat rather than having to ride on the lumpy girls. He loved that.

There was one incident that I happened to hit the brakes suddenly though, poor Sir. sigh... Ally had just said “don’t throw Sir off the... seat” and down he went, between the 2 seats and couldn’t

get back up easily.

He rode everywhere with us, he was happiest waiting in the van. Even when we’d go to my mother’s place or Ian’s folks house, he’d prefer to wait in the van. I guess he knew that was always going home.

He wasn’t supposed to lay on the sofa or the beds, but when we’d come home from work we’d hear the shift of the sofa or the squeak of Allyssa’s bed as he got down to pretend he’d been on his bed all day.

The first day we left him all day, I was first home and came in through the garage to the kitchen door and he greeted me by standing up on his hind legs and wrapping his front paws on my shoulders. He stood several inches taller than me and it scared me to bits. He was just really happy to see me. That too, was a one time thing.

I remember him up on his hind legs springing up and down so he could see over the privacy fence in the back yard. Funny funny sight.

Sir would regularly RUN around the back yard, several laps, and when he was done he’d run full speed in to the house through the slider. Well, one day the slider wasn’t opened and WHAM. Poor guy! He was very careful after than to check to see if the door was open.

Sir loved his stuffed rabbit. It was his friend. Once he got a little too rambunctious with it and tore its head off. Later that evening I was lying on the bed crocheting or reading… and he sadly, mournfully, brought me the stuffed rabbit body, sulked back out of the room, then again, mournfully brought me the head. I’m sure he wanted me to fix it. I did. He was a happy guy

again.

Much later, months probably, after many repairs, arms, feet, head again too I’m sure… it was unrepairable and the one and only time I ever saw Sir dig… he was in the garden digging a hole with the bits of his bunny next to the hole. I’m sure he was going to bury his passed friend.

Now, tell me animals don't have souls or are just "dumb animals". Sure they are.

Sir was the love of our lives. He went on a long camper trip with us and traveled very well. He was such a good boy.

Sir would go for a walk around the neighborhood with Ian every day, very early in the mornings. One day he was out front while Ian was washing a car and off he went, I think he was going to take his walk. He knew the route by heart after all.

Sir didn’t care for dirty, no mud,rain, weather, water… while he would drink from the pool… and did fall in once, he really didn’t like water.

Sir HATED bath time. I can't stress enough, he was a good boy and would very reluctantly let us take him in the shower for a warm bath once in a GREAT while.

When Sir fell in the pool, that’s when we learned that Great Danes don’t swim, they sink. He didn’t even try to swim. Luckily Ian happened to be out there when it happened and led him to the steps and got him out.

He was our giant ball of love.

We lost our dear Sir to Bloat when he was 12. He was quite old, by then his hind legs wouldn’t hold him up for long, he’d sag. 12 is quite old for a Great Dane.

Sir is the reason we adopted Pongo and Purdy. In his honor, we saved 2 more like him.