His house is near the 707, so perhaps he’s in that area. Somebody saw a black dog wandering around early Monday morning on Bertha; Dormilon’s owners are hoping that he was the dog that person saw. And maybe that means he’s still in the area?

If you see this dog, please call 250-247-8324 or 604-710-9819. His humans are worried and are desperate to have him back.

But dogs never have to guess. They know as soon as they meet me that I have tasty dog treats in my pocket. Their question is what do I have to do to get those treats?

This boy is so desperate for treats you’d think his humans never feed him, though I know they do. He’s a particular favourite of ours. You’ve seen him before.

My dog would love a job like that.

The following video will probably only be funny for dog owners, and maybe only for those who own herding breeds of dogs, or dogs who just like to chase deer.

We laughed until we snorted over this one:

Related: Fenton! Internet hit raises dog chasing deer problem – BBC

One of the things wedding organizers often do these days is to post a series of signs from the ferry to the wedding location. You might see a series of yellow starfish signs with J and L wedding! written on them, for example. (Now, the apparent need for this signage says something sad about the wedding guests, don’t you think? They are apparently too clueless to follow a simple map, and must have signs all around the island Just For Them. But oh well.)

Recently I saw a sign on North Road that had just a dog head. Huh. Then I spotted these matching signs, which must be the ones visitors are to see first. They’re just before the Agi Hall on South Road.

So. Dog + wedding-style event sign. It must mean that the dog is getting married! Happy wedding, Dog!

• property with wild bits that are difficult to penetrate
• dog
• raccoon

Procedure:

1. Dog smells invader, and bounds into dense brush to sort out the problem.
2. Dog and large raccoon face off to begin combat and make huge amounts of noise.
3. Human gives chase, tumbling into and over bushes, branches, fallen logs, etc, with growing sense of alarm and no dignity. There is falling and grumbling.
4. Dog and raccoon give each other grief.
5. Human manages to grab dog by hindquarters and drag dog backwards, eventually losing raccoon in process.
6. Dog is clapped in irons and carried inside, while squirming and protesting vigorously.

So, yeah. That was today, and it was lot more exercise than I had in mind.

(Yes, that is the Village Foods/Folklife Mall bulletin board in the background.)

Dogs have been going after beavers at University Lake so long that the beavers have drawn a line in the sand, says state Fish and Game biologist Jessy Coltrane. Come in the water near their lodge, get bitten.

They were harassed for years. And they finally said, ‘that’s it,’ said Coltrane, the Anchorage area wildlife expert.

These days the beavers go on the offensive, chasing pooches out of the lake even when unprovoked. [continue]

I can just imagine a family of beavers leaning out the window of their lodge, yelling We’re mad as hell, and we’re not going to take this any more!

(One of the reasons that dogs and horses won’t be allowed in Coats Marsh Regional Park is to give peace to the resident beavers, I think.)

My heart sinks when I see dogs in the back of trucks. If there’s an accident, what do you want to bet those dogs will die, or be horribly injured?

Did you know that it’s illegal to transport a dog this way in BC? The SPCA says:

Section 72 of the BC Motor Vehicle Act prohibits the transport of an unsecured pet in the back of a pick-up truck. Under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act you can also be charged for cruelty to animals if your pet is injured.

If you’ve ever been tempted to put your dog in the back of a truck, please visit the SPCA’s Dogs in pick-up trucks page. It gives details about the problem, the potentially horrible consequences, and explains the right way to restrain a dog in a truck. If your neighbour’s dogs ride in the back of a truck, maybe you could print that page out and give it to your neighbour. Please? Blame me.

The photo here is of a beautiful malamute in a Nanaimo truck. I didn’t want to post a photo of a Gabriola dog, because I don’t want any local dog owner to feel singled-out.

There is, by the way, a Gabriola dog owner whose dog travels in a kennel that is securely anchored in the back of a truck. Are you that dog owner? If so, you give me hope, and thank you for that.

A Gabriola Island man is being investigated for animal cruelty after his dog was tied to a bumper and dragged behind a car.

Molly, a two-year-old wirehaired pointer, will undergo skin grafts and has been in veterinary care since the Saturday night incident.

She suffered severe road rash, with fur and skin in several areas rubbed down to tendons and bone, after being dragged approximately the length of five football fields.

Molly’s medical costs are expected to be as much as $4,000, with months of recovery. [continue]

Utterly, utterly heartbreaking.

The Gabriola grapevine says that the owner thought the dog was safely enclosed in the back of the truck, and that he didn’t realize that the back of the truck wasn’t latched properly. In other words, this was an accident.

So the good part is that there are deer bones to gnaw upon. The bad part is what happens when Dog is distracted from her bone for a few minutes. Raven, that notorious trickster, swoops down and steals her deer bone. This is amusing for humans, but a matter of considerable annoyance and sorrow for Dog.

We don’t see what happens once Raven flies over the fence with Dog’s dinner, but I can imagine. A friend describes her dog’s delight when bones magically appear, dropped from heaven. Heh.

Dog lovers will probably have read Suzanne Clothier’s wonderful book, Bones Would Rain from the Sky. (As in: if a dog’s dreams were to come true, bones would rain from the sky.) There are dogs on Gabriola who would would tell you, if they could, that bones sometimes do rain from the sky here.

They can thank Raven for that.

Now, if Raven would stick to delivering bones and cease stealing them from Dog, we would have less grief over here. Less amusement, too, though. :-)

I post it here for the benefit of that woman I sometimes see on the Quinsam with her Jack Russell terrier, and for our Gabriola mechanic friend. They both want to read it. Do you? I present: Dogs in Elk. Once you’ve read the tale and started to wonder if it’s true, peek at the validity of the Dogs in Elk story.

1. No person shall own, keep or harbour a dog and permit or cause the dog to persistently bark, yelp, howl, or make any other similar persistent sounds.
2. The owner of a dog shall not permit or allow their dog:
   1. to be at large.
   2. to harass or molest a person or an animal.

Source: RDN Bylaw 1066: A bylaw to regulate the control of dogs in electoral areas A, B, C, and D of the Regional District of Nanaimo. (Gabriola is area B.)

So. Your neighbours who let their Gabriola dog wander all over the island (or even up and down the street) on her own? They’re not allowed to do that. And those other neighbours who let their dog bark enough to drive you crazy? Yeah, they’re not allowed to do that, either.

The sled-stealing dog is pretty funny, too.

If you shop at Folklife Village, I bet you’ve seen these two Gabriola dogs, especially when they’re hanging out near Village Foods. The black one is old and calm, the light one zips all over the place. Yeah, you try photographing a dog who never stops moving! Note blurry tail in first photo: it wags at speed.

And then snow comes, and I can see where the deer have been. It’s visual coding for the smell-impaired. I think I rise somewhat in dog’s estimation when she realizes that we are following deer trails on purpose, and — at last! — I know where they are.

Either that or I have a rich fantasy life.

If you were planning to go to Whalebone with your dog anytime soon, you might want to consider another beach instead. No words can describe how horrible this thing smells to humans, nor how irresistible it is to dogs.

Farewell, sweet Airedale.

See also: Gabriola Airedale – that’s Kyra, of course.

Update, October 2011: Kyra still stands out as one of the Best Dogs Ever, and we still miss her more than you could imagine.

Todays’ dead thing is this little mouse, left in our yard by some neighbour’s cat. Probably the same annoying cat who leaves calling cards in the flower bed.

I’ve seen Sam all over Gabriola. He sure gets around!

He looks a little like Misty, Iain Lawrence‘s dog.

There are quiet ones, too, and this is one of them. I spotted him (or her) at Folklife today, looking out the car window and waiting for the important person to return.