Don't sign me up for one of those

Many of you are probably familiar with the amazing variety of "designer dogs" out there. For some reason, mutts of all types are the in-thing, and if you can give your puppies a cool breed name, you can sell them for big bucks. Labradoodles, Schnoodles, Puggles...the list goes on and on. But today, I was confronted with one I hadn't seen yet. A lady brought her new puppy in today for an exam and vaccinations. This pup was a Shih Tzu / Bichon Frise cross. When she filled out the information, she wrote the following in the breed section: "Shibich."

Backyard Birds

Some more common visitors to our feeders!

--Chipping Sparrow (Spizella passerina)
-- Indigo Bunting (Passerina cyanea) -- male-- Eastern Goldfinch (Carduelis tristis) -- male, the state bird of Iowa
--Grey Catbird (Dumetella carolinensis) -- normally very shy, but they have been visiting our feeders daily for the last few weeks. Named for their cat-like "meow" song. They also mimick other bird songs, but the periodic meow gives them away.

Baby Critters!

Here is a list of link about some baby critters born around the world lately:

Baby Hedgehogs in the UK

Baby Giraffe at the Jackson Zoo in Mississippi

Wolf Puppies in Minnesota (make sure you click through the pictures)

Fawn adopted by a Great Dane in the UK

Elephant Calf at Maryland Zoo

All very adorable!

A Week after the Derby

I purposely delayed writing about this year's Kentucky Derby while I waited for the dust to settle. By now, even those who didn't watch the race know that the undefeated favorite Big Brown won the race handily while the second-place finisher, favorite filly Eight Belles suffered an ultimately life-ending injury after the race had finished. The official report is that she broke her two front "ankles" (actually called "fetlocks" or the metacarpophalangeal joint) and had to be euthanised on the track.

The tragedy and triumph of the Derby has once again brought out all those who are against the horse racing industry and those who defend it. PETA has called for the suspension of the jockey, Gabriel Saez, and the forfeiture of the $400,000 purse that the filly won in the race (along with the usual call to end all horse racing). The Kentucky Horse Racing Authority (KHRA) made a public announcement of sympathy for all those involved with Eight Belles and reiterated their dedication to making horse racing as safe as it can be. The trainer, Larry Jones, has publicly defended the jockey and his actions. An online petition has been started to encourage the ringing of eight bells before the start of next year's Derby in memory of the filly. There are even wrist bands now available, the proceeds of the sale of which benefit a horse rescue organization.

There are many questions about the racing industry being raised, all of which have been asked before with no good answers as yet. Questions about the safety of the track surfaces, the breeding practices that have lead to the Thoroughbred of today, the age the horses are run, the training routine, the running of fillies against colts, the relative short time between the 3 Triple Crown races are continually asked. I won't try to address those questions at present, as I don't think I have enough information on any of them to make an educated answer, but suffice it to say that I am a horse-lover and a lover of horse racing and whatever they can do to make the sport safer, I will support.

In the meantime, Big Brown is off to the Preakness next weekend, and none of the Derby racers will be joining him. In fact, few horses at all will be racing against him. Everything seems to indicate it will be a much smaller field than the 20 horses that ran in the Derby. Many seem to agree that he is simply an amazing horse. While Big Brown's ultimate fate as a breeding stallion is certain, he is a promising candidate to win the Triple Crown for the first time since Affirmed in 1978. Hopefully he does, and does so safely.

Derby Day

It's Derby day! In about 6 hours, the most exciting 3 minutes in sports will take place. They have a very nice interactive site at http://www.kentuckyderby.com/2008/contenders where you can see all of the contenders and videos of their races and some exercise rides. Check it out!

I certainly like Big Brown (he's a monster!) and the filly Eight Belles, but I also like Visionaire and Colonel John.

Brown Thrasher

I caught pictures of a new visitor to the yard that I haven't seen before. This is a pair of Brown Thrashers (Toxostoma rufum). It is a neat looking bird, and is related to catbirds and mockingbirds. They were foraging in the backyard, digging around in the mulch.

Women Veterinarians

This article comes as little surprise to those of us in the field, but it provides an interesting perspective: (I threw in a couple of pictures of my classmates in surgery lab)

Women dominate admissions in veterinary schools -- MercuryNews.com

"Odd hours, physical labor, blood, dirt and the occasional bite or kick. For generations, women were told veterinary medicine was too tough for them.

But now, that longtime bastion of machismo is overwhelmingly female. Changes in culture, pharmacology and even pet preferences have led to one of the most dramatic gender shifts in the workforce.

Eighty percent of the applicants accepted this month by the University of California-Davis' prestigious veterinary school are women. Similar numbers are reported by other vet schools around the country.

Plenty of other once male-dominated fields, such as law and medicine, are experiencing a surge in female students. But nowhere has the gender shift been as dramatic as in vet medicine.

In the past four decades, the number of women enrolled in colleges of veterinary medicine has skyrocketed from about 140 to 8,000. Women's increasing confidence in math and science is giving them a new edge in the fiercely competitive admissions process, experts say. In the mid-1970s, three-quarters of all students were male. Now the numbers are reversed.

"It's unbelievable to watch how it's changed," said Rance LeFebvre, UC-Davis' associate dean of student affairs. "Women are 100 percent capable of doing anything that's out there."

When UC-Davis Professor Carol Cardona graduated from vet school in 1990, she drove eight hours to apply for a job at a dairy farm. "I didn't even get to be interviewed by the vet," she

said. "I was interviewed by his wife. The big question was: 'Why do I want to work with cows?'

"At the time, everyone said that a woman isn't strong enough to handle a cow. Well, a man isn't either," Cardona said. "A cow is 100 times stronger than a man and 100.5 times stronger than me. That's not a real argument."

Education equity laws and a changing perception of women in the workforce are among the significant developments that helped set the stage for veterinary medicine's transformation. Another key change: better drugs.

"We call the tranquilizer Dormosedan 'the great equalizer,' " joked Belmont equine vet Kristin Dietrich.

While farm-based practices still require fitness, improved drugs and handling techniques mean that brute strength is less important, said UC-Davis veterinary Professor John Madigan. "The older practitioners used more muscle. Now vets work smarter."

Physical danger was a greater threat in America's more rural past. Back then, most work dealt with horses and cows - creatures whose medical emergencies often occur in remote pastures, sometimes in the cold, the dark and the rain. To pull a trapped calf from a laboring cow, for instance, a vet must reach shoulder-deep into a bloody birth canal.

As farms give way to subdivisions, vets are increasingly treating a different kind of patient: the family pet. These small-animal clinics allow more time to raise a family, with flexible hours, part-time work and job sharing, said UC-Davis equine vet Professor W. David Wilson.

Women students say they are attracted to newly emerging high-end specialty care, such as kidney transplants, cancer chemotherapy, back surgery, MRI and titanium hip-joint replacements. Many enjoy treating the increasingly popular "pocket pets," like rodents, as well as exotic birds and reptiles.

Modern vet practices also rely more on building strong relationships with people, something many women said they enjoy. There are no insurance companies telling them what to do.

"What we do is motivational speaking. You can't convince a dog or cat to take their medicine - you have to influence the owner," Cardona said. "I think that's something that many women excel at."

The young men at UC-Davis' veterinary school say many of their classmates in calculus and organic chemistry pursued fields that pay more. The average salary of a vet is about $75,000; the average internist makes $175,000.

"My family said: 'You've gone through all that work - why not be a doctor?' " said Andrew Ichord of Hickman, a town in the Central Valley. "Vets aren't as glamorous. People think you've gone through a two-year trade school or something."

Noted UC-Davis' Madigan: "Some men say: 'I could spend eight years in school - and get paid less than the Sears repairman?' Women see that they're paid less and say: 'What else is new?' "

Elena Shirley admits she initially hesitated when, at age 37, she decided to switch from a career in international development to vet medicine. "I asked people: 'Am I crazy?' But I love it. It's great to be part of a solution."

"For me, it's a big deal to see so many young women here doing top-level work," Shirley said. "But for them, it feels completely normal."