Another 5 things post

[summer_jackel]

...this time from akiko. I am appreciating these, having the slowest work day ever.



Giant wolfy dogs

Are a challenge to keep and to keep happy, and also very rewarding. Intelligent, complicated, beautiful, difficult, they are fine, noble, magnificent companions. There's nothing else like a wolfdog; no other canine has that kind of energy and grace. They are fantastic to hike with and spend time with, though I don't think I will keep three at once again, at least not soon.

I've learned a lot about dogs, people and social interactions from my pack and from studying wolves and wolfdogs in general. I didn't much care for dogs before I obtained a wolf pup in my mid-teens; now, of course, caninity is integral to my life and my identity.

furry

I adored furry as soon as I discovered it, through a YARF! table at a Baycon sometime way back when in the early 90s when the thing was still a small phenomenon. I'd actually been drawing furries since I was, uh, 5 or so. I'm remembering a drawing of a very busty, sexy rabbit woman which surprised the heck out of my mom, coming as it was from a...oh, I want to say third grader. ;) I had this whole comic series based on my My Little Ponies that was nothing like the saccharine backstory they came with, and was quite dark. (Lots of furry artists have stories like these). I wish I still had all of this art, but it's gone.

Anthropomorpic characters are fun to draw and look at, and they've served me well as artistic playthings and storytelling devices. Some of the furry art out there is pretty sexy, too, and I like that the fur fandom tends to be more sexually open minded and accepting of alternative sexualities than the general populace is. It's also a great place to dialog and play with other artists and their ideas.

birds

I've always liked them; they are so beautiful. I collect feathers, and I love watching birds do their thing in the wild. I have a particular soft spot for raptors and ducks.

My first deep relationship with a parrot was a green conure named Squeaky Green that I received for my 11th birthday, after having asked my mom for a cockatiel. He came to me utterly wild, and through the process of learning how to care for a parrot as best I could with the resources available to me, I was able to gain his trust and affection. It was a beautiful bond, and we had some great years. Unfortunately I didn't know everything I needed to about parrots, including that cat saliva (not just the wounds) will kill them, and birds must be vetted after any close encounter of the feline kind. His death was the worst heartbreak I'd experienced at that time, and I swore never to have another parrot, although you can see where that got me.

ocean walks

I am fortunate enough to live in one of the most beautiful places on the planet, and I try always to be grateful for that and to enjoy it. I pretty much live for beauty, mostly natural, sometimes human. I really love intertidal life (I know, you'd never have guessed by looking at this journal, right?) and never tire of exploring it. Also, especially when the wolfdogs were younger, the beach is one of the few places I can really let them go run without any kind of control on them and still be safe...they can't get away from me, and I can see other dogs before they do.


photography

I sure wish I was better at it. I can look at good animal photos for a long time. I really enjoy taking them, and seeing an image through a camera lens. It's a neat art form, at which I am an amateur with barely adequate equipment she doesn't really know how to use.

Comments

[bloolark.livejournal.com]

I was going to ask, what are your wolfdogs mixed with? And what sort of wolf? I had always wondered but never gotten around to asking. :)

[summer-jackel.livejournal.com]

My current two are both Fenris' pups, one from each of her two litters. Fen's dam was a mystery rescue but was obviously a high content hybrid; she was bred to a 75% wolfdog to produce Fen's litter. Sadly, I don't know any more of the history than that, but Fen's dam was a gorgeous and very sweet animal. I never met her sire. Pryde's sire was a purebred Alaskan Malamute.

Jez's sire, Shiloh, was a high-percentage animal whose parents were both hybrids that came out of Canada. My old wolf Chewy was one of his older brothers. Sadly, Shiloh died the year Jez was born.

I'm really sad that I will be unable to breed Jez and preserve this line, which I have known for several generations and which is a really amazing line of animals. (She had pyo a few years back and had to be spayed). I'm in the process of tracking down any possible relatives, but to my knowledge, all of Jez's littermates were fixed. Pryde isn't, but I really wanted to keep the sire line to Shiloh.

[summer-jackel.livejournal.com]

Oh! The dog part of Fen and Jez (and Pryde through Fen) is Siberian Husky. There's no shepherd in my dogs, and I avoid it for the hip issues. There was one guy once who wanted to breed a very nice bitch who was low-content shepherd. Of course I made him test her before breeding, and sure enough, hip dysplasia. Awful.

I'll keep wolf crossed to mal and sibe only.