Koi-Pekingese

My Pekingese, My Ever Loving Valentines

2012-01-18T08:03:00.000-08:00

My living valentines are my Pekingese with AK Champion Show Quality Pedigrees ... and most are Pekingese I have bred, kept the keepers I couldn't let go of then offered littermates to be adopted. Quality Pekingese are difficult to obtain, and many owners no longer breed Pekingese because it is one of the more difficult breeds to reproduce naturally, plus it is cost and labor prohibitive ... professional breeders have learned AI skills as did I, then used microscopes for photographing and studying collected sperm samples. For many years I have studied, and become knowledgeable of all things related to Pekingese health and reproduction and yet there is more I learn with each new day. Each of my males and a few of my females have DNA identification and I pay $328 a year to Maricopa Animal Care and Control for my kennel license plus many $ to my Veterinarian who is also my close friend. I have organized an Arizona Pekingese Owners Yahoo group to promote the Pekingese breed socially, and for owners to meet and make friends with other owners.

My Pekingese are my ever loving, living Valentines ... wagging tails, happy eyes, beautiful colors, sparkling personalities, with the warmest of hearts imaginable, the guardians of my home. They defend my spirit/soul from evil predators. My Pekingese improve my sanity as well as my mood much better than medicines or human doctors could ever do. Photographing Pekingese, appreciating them as living works of art, is not a trivial pursuit but a telepathy pursuit between a human and his ancestral history, between life and death, between today, tomorrow, and time thereafter.

My Pekingese

2011-09-18T17:57:00.000-07:00

Dogs are great companions. What do your dogs or other pets do for you?

Sometimes with my Pekingese, it seems mostly food in and poop out, but with that, a playful, happy uncomplicated outlook on life where simple joys and basics of human/pet friendship rule and mutually doable expectations reign supreme.

I do enjoy just holding and hugging my warm furry Pekingese pets sensing their satisfaction in receiving whatever attention I give them as my hands feel their beating hearts and my spirit responds with loving thoughts.

I especially enjoy photographing them to preserve the times we share together knowing that one day I may no longer have them. Pekingese have short lives, may succumb to illness or injury, or might get lost or be stolen.

With 10 adults (5 males and 5 females) and 2 young puppies, I see their social group behavior, their personal differences, the games they play not unlike humans sometimes play as children, and how they devise various novel ways to communicate with each other and with myself.

My Pekingese provide my world a sense of stability and focus. I am important to them and they to me.

I see the cycle of life in its entirety and have learned accept that with life there is inevitable change and death. I learn about guarding their health and how to make them well if they become sick or injured. In caring for them, I learn to care better for myself.

My Pekingese help me make friends that are true and valuable to have in life and who are never shallow, selfish, or lacking in good sense.

My Pekingese present me with problems that I must solve, obstacles to be overcome, stimulus to keep me from being bored and lazy.

My Pekingese (10 and 2 puppies) are the tail of my life kite ... it keeps me soaring upward safety and with stability versus plummeting to the ground and crashing... for some, one Pekingese would do that, for me it takes all 10 plus the 2 puppies.

I enjoy sharing my life with my Pekingese because they make me happy, and even when they make me cry or I become angry, I know they are there for me to love.

Life without my Pekingese would be a life without spiritual existence, without substance, without soul.

My Pekingese are extensions of my being, sensitive to my thoughts. They are the living animated works of art that energize my life and home with their beauty and truth.

In 2006, I organized a Yahoo group for Arizona Pekingese Owners (Azpekelist). A loyal member and close friend, Jeri Gerard, wrote these beautiful lines worthy of sharing now with others:

My Pekingese,

Do so many things for me.

They fill a void or emptiness in my heart.

They comfort me when life gets to be too much some days.

They give me unconditional love.

They add so much laughter to my life.

They add beauty to my life.

They remind me to find joy in simple things,

Like playing with an empty candy bag or laying in the sunshine.

I have learned from them that life can be short,

So play hard and nap often.

The Vet Bet

2011-09-11T10:34:00.000-07:00

Several weeks ago, Jeri posted a little known Pekingese medical condition and she is still coping with the decision making process that must be made to decide the future welfare of one of her Pekingese pets in her home. Jeri is my friend and it distresses me for her to have to cope with this when pets should bring happiness and joy to our lives and now heartbreak, expense, and loss of time, and other resources. On Azpekelist Yahoo Group we an divide our sorrows and multiply our joys via group support. Pekingese and other small breed dogs have the medical condition explained below.

http://www.vetsurgerycentral.com/legg_calve.htm

Please look at this excellent web site explanation of the problem and it shows the x-rays before and after surgery of a condition which Jeri’s Pekingese, less than 1 year old, is experiencing. Even with surgery, her beautiful pet Mulan will require rehabilitation therapy and will still be lame because there will be no joint left in a hip socket to support mobility but at least the pain will be gone. The surgery is at least $900 and one new vet wanted to charge her $2200 for the same procedure! Saturday she got the x-rays from her 1st vet and brought them to Dr. Svoboda’s Palm Glen Animal Hospital on Northern and 43rd Ave who said he would charge only $900. The cause could have been either an injury that interrupted blood supply to the joint or a genetic condition and so it is not advised to breed the affected pet.

This costly procedure merely alleviates pain, and after surgery,there must be rehabilitation given to the dog plus bone medication. There are therapy books being sold for about $20 and upwards listed at the above site providing a link within link to help the owner help their pet.

This is a difficult decision for Jeri and Mark to make concerning their pet. I really feel that in this case from what I have learned, I would not elect surgery at any cost, but would let nature run its course giving palliative care and medicines. The decision she and Mark must make is what I now term a VET BET, there are no guarantees, and it does cost a lost of money down on the table, and you may risk a result that continues to be a problem perhaps greater than existed previously.

Modern veterinarian practices and medicines are remarkable, and they most assuredly save lives, correcting for accident, illness, and certain defects, advocating good health and hygiene practices while providing owner education and training. However there are time and cost constraints limiting what any vet can do to help our pet.

Nature is never a bet, it is a given. It is fate versus destiny. All the kings horses and all the kings men couldn’t put Humpty Dumpty back together again.

Let the vet bet. The odds are better with him. He is educated and trained to provide for the welfare of you and your pet. However it is you that must actually place that bet for your pet.

__._,_.___

Azpekelist Owner/Moderator: Yolanda Martin (My Song Pekingese Park), http://ymmartin.com and http://ymmartin.com/html2

A Good Breeder

2011-08-17T12:17:00.000-07:00

A good breeder has to have lots of experience and expertise. This is acquired from reading, interactions with others in the pet community, the pet hospitals and their vets, the internet and library, and also a deep abiding care and concern for the little lives they usher into this world carefully and conscientiously.

It is easy for some one to be an arm chair breeder, but that sort of shallow breeder is not one I would adopt a puppy from nor should you. A good breeder(s) loves what they are doing and has a commitment and loyalty strong enough to withstand unjust unfounded criticism and the challenges that will inevitably test their strength or their other resources.

A good breeder always has to have some business sense, ability to interface well with others, and be a teacher in the community. Works with the pet organizations established for the welfare of animals. The good breeder not only needs to know how to select the best possible healthy individuals to breed and produce offspring, but also needs to know how to market the puppies that result. A good breeder does not over extend their finances, space availability, or emotional reserves because they are doing a service to others seeking a pet to adopt as well as providing for the welfare of their own pets and lives. A good breeder needs friends who help, believes in the purpose of continuing a breed through reproduction, and provides guidance and support when asked. A good breeder provides life time support to those who adopt puppies and provides a means of communication and even a network such as the Azpekelist Yahoo group for new owners to join and to meet and make friends with others who share their love of a particular breed they own.

A good breeder is an ARTIST.... valuing truth, beauty, form, function, visual harmony, healthy positive qualities, and love. They are creating living works of ART!

My Annie, 14 year old canine companion friend.

2011-03-18T08:48:00.000-07:00

Knowing the time is a decision made with the heart as well as with the mind and pocketbook. She was sleeping a lot these last 6 months, then about 10 days ago vomited, then her hind legs buckled when she would try to get up, and she seemed to be confused.

The morning of the appointment, I let her in the back yard and when I called her to come inside, she didn't heed my call but looked unsure and puzzled. Her behavior had become strange and she was not herself either with me or her Pekingese pals. I dreaded the thought that she would suffer at some time such as a weekend and or at night necessitating an emergency run to the vet.

If I did not have my other pets, Pekingese, in my care or if she was not a hard to lift and handle medium 50 lb one of a kind breed and if she were the only pet in my home, then I might have waited until her natural death closed her down.

It is a difficult decision since it is an emotional one. My home is different now. Filled with memories of a life well lived, rather than a life that might have a problem causing end which would create a very bad memory for me and suffering for her.

She was a friend. A close companion who became a part of my life these last 14 years. Life’s beginnings and life’s endings, eschatology, define the cycles that measure our existence in time and space, the linear distance between two points (events). Without events, life would be meaningless and empty.

Condolences in time of grief and loss are appreciated, thank you. My friend was upset and couldn't understand why I didn't pay the vet $100 to have her body cremated and was disapproving of my choice to bury her in a space most meaningful to me in my yard. I just couldn't let go but wanted her remains to become part of what surrounds me just as she was always around me while living. Annie..She was heart and soul a red blooded American .... give to me by a 6th generation descendant of the Davy Crockett family even. She is a legend that still lives on.
Cremains versus remains and then what to do with them. One defining attribute that distinguished one native American Indian Nation from another was the rites and rituals for their dead and it is the same all around the globe for the many different religions that now exist. I have been told that the Jewish religion has the most rites and rituals. Since there is simply not enough land space to accommodate the dead of the future, cremation does seem to be the logical, most sanitary, affordable, and civilized means of disposition of the dead, but somehow I prefer to be
buried traditionally. My friend who is an advocate of cremation, has completed papers to donate her body to science. Farming and harvesting organs is for some a way of ensuring a better future for the recipients
while uplifting the donor's survivors feelings and consoling their loss of a loved one.

I don’t believe DNA can be obtained from cremains, but it can be retrieved from the buried. Perhaps, DNA samples will be required and stored for all future bodies whatever the choice of disposition of the leftovers after life ends. It would be an improvement to have the identity of new births paired to the identity of deaths for many reasons of accounting with integrity for social systems responsible for civilized management of large populations.

Paintography.... Thinking It Through .... What Is It

2011-02-23T10:38:00.000-08:00

February 23, 2011 inbox email .... "I agree with you that everyone involved in this project can feel a sense of pride in being a part of it. Hopefully, the artwork created as a result will have the distinction of its historical significance."

(Brenda Meir, Arizona Veterinary Medical Association)

February 24, 2011 inbox email ... "I so proud that your painting was juried into the show. What a great forum to show off your talent!"

(from Dr. Svoboda
"Medicine is a Science...Caring is an Art." Sent from my Sprint®BlackBerry®)

To My Friends in Phoenix Artist Guild ... I give many thanks to the Board, the members, and the meetings that inspired me and others to actively participate in art shows, learning more about creating art, and improving my social skills while meeting and making friends. I want to thank you sincerely for being so generous with your time and caring to share what you know with others. Your souls are surely sweetened by your spiritual giving.
http://ymmartin.com/ART-awards-shows.html This is a web page on my web site where I keep a record of all the art awards and shows I have entered ..... This morning, I added the 2 entries that were accepted into the 250th Anniversary Veterinarian Show ... Once the paintings are hung in the gallery and the artist’s info cards beside them, I will create a YouTube video using photos I take of all the entered paintings.

Paintography

The entry I submitted is a hybrid photograph and digital painting (“paintography”) .... not one or the other, but a creatively, unique blending of both digital mediums .... You can clone in “missing” eyes, erase distractions, change colors, add effects, and unlimited possibilities to transform the “real” into the “interesting” and “one of a kind” art to share and show others around the world via the Internet.

Many digital artists computer canvas cyber art works are mostly self originated digital paintings, highly imaginative in concept, but they are not using photo based material as a launching pad, so I can see why they would think mine are not “artsy” enough. I am more inclined to enhance reality rather than stray too far away from it. In working with the “photograph” and making it into “paintography”, I improve my own awareness and comprehension of the reality on which it is predicated. Via my media of choice, “paintography”, I improve my own sanity and have improved senses in this incoherent, insane world of political turmoil and strife ever constantly changing and competing for increasingly limited resources needed to sustain life on earth.

I like paintography because it uses the camera’s computer image as digital painting cyber canvas; the artist can experience many artistic freedoms that the traditional artist practices, both are similarly transforming a photo into an art image. The only difference is in "paintography", the artist is working in cyber space with cyber tools which befuddle most traditional artists who are still not computer literate. “Paintography” uses cyber simulated equivalents of the tools and pigments traditional artists use such as those provided by Corel Painter 11 or other photo editing software. In finishing the cyber image after printing to real canvas, then the “paintographer” can further paint the cyber created image using traditional media, either oil or acrylic or add mixed media collage effects.

A photo is the “underpainting” of the finished art to which the cyber space artist adds his unique and original creativity, imagination, and play with colors beyond the limits of real to what is more than real. Discoveries along the way while working with the computer canvas digital creation happily present many choices to improve the overall image and its composition artistically. So while an art created with “paintography” may look similar to a photo, it is much more than a photo... It is what the artist creating it wants it to be and say to the viewer. “Happy to see you”.

With Corel Painter 11 art images are created just as in traditional art. "Paintography" starts with a photograph which can then be rendered into abstract, watercolor, oil, or even a Van Gogh style among many other transformations that can automatically rendered. Abstract art can be created by using one of many "effects and filters" applied to the real world photograph ..... or you just paint using cyber artist tools choosing among hundreds of brushes, pens, and options on a blank cyber canvas of one layer or as many layers you want to for your work.

I did an interesting cubism art work when studying Picasso as a mimic of his style in a class taught online by Academy of Visual Arts, but for that I started with a blank canvas since those works do not start with a photograph but can if you want the palette of the photo and or certain shapes in it or you can select, copy, and paste or clone from one photo source to the new cyber canvas as desired. Once the "paintographer" creates the cyber canvas image(s), textures, patterns, and picture tubes (like little pictures in a paint tube) can be applied. The cyber canvas images they can be combined, resized, made into mosaics, it can be cyber framed if desired, and then if desired printed as giclee on canvas or watercolor paper for framing or finished as a canvas wrap.

Once printed you can then use any of the traditional oil or acrylic paints or textures to enhance the work before finishing and framing for show exhibition or sale. In the cyber art studio, you can apply many different perspectives, warps, distortions, geometrics, or anything you can think of (much more than a traditional artist can do with his tools). Where a real art studio is limited by physical laws, the cyber art studio is not. The cyber art studio is accessible to the world, portable, and does not require real estate cost considerations and upkeep. Many more things can be done with cyber art studio tools and functions/features than via traditional art studio methods and techniques. If it is not already begin done, it certainly is possible to even create 3D art sculptures via cyber art studio software.

Paintography" is neither photography nor is it pure pixel painting digital art. Instead "paintography" uses both the media of photography and the media of digital painting to achieve a totally new media ("Paintography)", creating an art image which may or may not resemble the original photo used as the "underpainting" ..... using the word photographer normally connotes photo editing skills which may then advance to what a "paintographer" does.... a "paintographer" paints with pixels and is assisted or uses as an underpainting the pixels of a photo the artist has ownership of and would not be violating copyright protections, but the "paintographer" uses his artistic license making what began as a photo transformed into an original art work creation.

I think that most individuals who have little or no experience with photo editing via the computer would be astounded at the power and versatility cyber art studios has in making its art creations. I was very impressed and still am with the cyber art studio and the programs that provide the studio everything the digital artist needs to create his art works.

Another interesting cyber art style is fractal painting. I use the program, Apophysis, It creates very intricate art images mathematically via numerical parameters. Apophysis has fractal art image editing tools for the artist to control the making of the fractal art images existing on cyber canvases.

If you like art then you might enjoy learning more about cyber art, digital photography, and "Paintography". It is truly fascinating and rewarding leisure time pursuit which just might become professional work.

It takes talent

to identify and capture

the moment in time

of a subject

in its background

worthy enough

to call the resulting photo,

"Art".....

A picture is worth a thousand words ....

and most are photos,

some are also truly fine art.

"Paintography" can create

fine art with any photo,

or merely be entertaining,

educational, and creative play.

When I photograph my Pekingese and make paintography art of the photo images, I first
had to produce them as living sculpture works of beauty and art (as a Pekingese breeder)
..... so one media can feed another media and I believe the artist who is responsible for
everything in the photo is the most original and creative more than one who
is merely photographing something he had no ownership of or responsibility
for it existing.

I have photographed a sunflower which is the result of 14
years of reseeding and hybridization and set in my own front yard landscape
so I take pride in what the photo is recording and preserving for future
reference and exhibition. After you have a photo, I like to make large size
giclee prints on canvas and suitably frame it to hang on the wall or
exhibiting in an art show..... without paintography work done to it.

2011-02-11T10:47:00.000-08:00

A painting of mine was juried into the Phoenix Artists Guild Art Show hosted by the Arizona Artists Guild Gallery, 9011 East Indian Bend Road, Scottsdale, Arizona, Feb 2-13, 2011. So pleased with the exhibit, I created a photo cyber tour video of the 26 PAG member paintings with their info cards and uploaded it to YouTube so participating artists could extend their audience of appreciation. This is my painting which you will see is now on display and shown in the video.

Dog Art and Dog Lovers Web Sites ....

2011-02-08T06:59:00.000-08:00

Dog Lover Sites

My Song Music Man, 9 weeks old weighs 1 3/4 lbs

2011-02-07T10:30:00.000-08:00

My Song Music Man, 9 weeks old weighs 1 3/4 lbs

My Song Music Man is really adorable, fluffy, playful, with very expressive beautiful eyes... I clipped all 12 feet toenails, 3 puppies, and weighed and groomed Sonata's 2 puppies from Dec 6, 2010 whelping (Holly weighs 2 1/2 lbs and Music Man weighs 1 3/4 lbs). Music Man really is vocal and musical.... yes, and he dances too!

My Song Music Man is so precious to me since I snatched him from death's clutches 2 or 3 times literally having to resuscitate him and rubbing him warm again. He weighed 8 oz at 6 weeks birth weight 6 oz .... simply had a terribly tough infancy (understated) .... I fed him with an eye dropper every 2-3 hours round the clock until he was 6 weeks old, and then one morning, there he was full body lapping away happily in the baby formula food bowl, his sister's weaning formula .... he lost the hair off his tail and it was stark skin naked like a mouse tail. I was reconciled to his never having a Pekingese tail and still loving him with his naked tail embarrassingly abnormal, but now he has hair growing back and it is really thick too... at 9 weeks of age he is the size of 4-5 week old Pekingese puppy (Sonata's) .... "My Song of Survival" .... that should be his name.... and perhaps will be the way I always will think of him from now on.

Faith.....I never gave up hope despite how sick looking and frail he was.... I am convinced he survived only because he knew he was loved and valued highly in my heart and life... The more effort you put into nurturing puppies, the closer you are drawn to them... Goodness knows I don't need to add any more Pekingese to add to my many keepers, but how can I part with him now.... or his sister? ... the 3 puppies (1 is the parti puppy from Christina Greene) are all very close to one another and it would be unnatural to separate them now or ever ... I have so many puppy and Pekingese strings to me, it is like a harp that plays when I am with them.

Soooooooooooooooooo that's my story, and I am proud of it!

Pekingese

2011-02-06T11:13:00.000-08:00

Pekingese are beautiful.

They have more coat colors,

coat textures,

and spiritual senses

in their long history

than any other breed I know of.

I have elevated their status above

an inadequate common designation,

thought by others as “dogs” ...

so much more than mere “pets”.....

to being my caring friends of a different species ....

my comparative psychology research individuals....

my photographic models....

my subjects of literature and poetry....

and my primary way of meeting new friends....

those who share in common...

a love for the Pekingese dog breed ....

they are not my whole world....

but they do make my world complete....

very satisfying ....

they cost me a small fortune....

since one then another is never enough....

they are the luxury I allow myself....

they're my family home companions....

keeping me safe, secure, and spiritually sensitive.

Love.... A Valentine Greeting

2011-01-10T16:55:00.000-08:00

It is not too early to think of February 14, th 2011, Valentines’ Day .... a day celebrating and focusing on LOVE.

I made this animation this afternoon inspired by other traditional valentines often simply bounded and limited to human to human emotional feelings of love and affection .... Love crosses all of life’s boundaries and I hope this graphic conveys that meaning and feeling... One can love another so deeply it permeates through other life forms to its destination ... and other universes.... that is God’s love and the power of love a soul can communicate. Love empowers all life where ever and however it exists. I believe Love is what saved my frail, tiny puppy Pekingese and gave him the will and power to survived, allowed him to live.

Yolanda ..... for all she has ever loved and been loved in return.

When Right Is Wrong, And Wrong Is Right

2010-12-26T04:34:00.000-08:00

It was Christmas morning, and I had self gifted myself a Laguna Power Clean Cordless Pond Cleaner to keep my 4 Koi above ground pools clean, no sludge or debris on the bottom and sides of the pools ....

I had wanted this tool for a long time but its price was beyond my budget until Ocean Floor offerred me a

40% discount on any single item in their store.... It was retailed at $346.49 and 40% brought it down enough

that I could go ahead and give it to myself for Christmas only a few days away.

I enthusiastically opened the 5 ft long box and began assembling the tool. I was a little dismayed that the Laguna Operation and Maintenance Guide didn't have any instructions on how to put it together, but that has happened before with other products so I did the best I could by looking at the pictures of the cleaner on the box. It didn't take very long to assemble, but then I noticed that the instruction booklet said to charge the battery 4 hours before using. Ok, I thought to myself, but then read "IMPORTANT CHARGING NOTES", "When the battery is charging the light on the plug will be green. When the battery is fully charged, the light will turn to red." Well,.... this is certainly contrary to convention, I thought to myself. I put the battery into the charger and the light was red. Hmmm, something is strange, must already be charged. So I put the battery in my pond cleaner and it was working okay enough for me to try cleaning my largest pool. I finished cleaning the pool and was very happy with my new pond cleaner but still puzzled by the red versus green light indicators. I removed the battery from the tool and inserted it into the charger, the light was red. Okay, I thought to myself, we'll leave it in for the required 4 hours and see if it turns to green. The instructions said vice versa, but we all know documentation sometimes has errors, and in this case, the suspected erroneous instruction was consistent in three different languages of the documentation. I couldn't call their customer service because it was Christmas day, perhaps they might not know either.

After 4 hours charging time, the light turned green. The instructions were wrong. Maybe that is why they didn't provide any assembly instructions either since that would have really fouled things up if they too were similarly wrong.

When Right is Wrong, And Wrong is Right.... I learned that actually the light is red when charging, and it is green when finished and fully charged..... contrary to what their instruction and operation manual stated in 3 different languages.

When Truth is False, And False is Truth, verifiable by reality and life itself, we learn to ignore what normally should be accurate since we know emperically it isn't. Little by little misleading and false statements erode confidence, safety, and security in our economy, its goods and services that should have integrity and quality; it creates distrust both in the product, in the supporting documentation of the product, and discredits its vendor.

Red versus Green indicator lights. Imagine what would happen if this error occurred in our traffic stop lights! Christmas lights, red and green colors, it is all very pretty, but what is real? When Right is Wrong, And Wrong is Right.....who is accountable for the errors in the confounded, crazy confusion consequences?

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!

The Angels Called

2010-12-10T13:12:00.000-08:00

The Angels Called

I had to go,

The Master Auld

Awaits, you know.

Can not be stalled

North wind doth blow,

Here is a scrawled

Goodbye, you’ll know.

Sonata's New Baby Pekingese

2010-12-06T07:21:00.000-08:00

The first one born was a girl, which I thought was gray but I see is now sable..... 8 oz at 10:30 pm ,,, It was stuck with its butt halfway out and I finally helped turn the baby so it could come out. I had to quickly remove the placenta so it could breathe.

Then next came a boy, sable, same weight, at 11:18 pm.

Then a long wait, is that all? Sonata was having just slight contractions and preoccupied with her two that were nursing.

I was watching her close by with soft music playing, resting and marveling at the newborn babies. I was watching her so to be able to help, but then I sensed something wrong and checked her, lifted her tail, underneath there was a puppy still in its placenta motionless, a girl. I tried to revive it but couldn’t, not breathing and no heartbeat. I think it was too long in the birth canal and Sonata’s minimal contractions were not strong enough to deliver the puppy normally before nature and time took its life away.

Then another hour wait .... is she going to have more, I wonder ....

She pushes with strong contractions, and there is a big newborn boy at 1:27 pm .... that’s all, its over, I am now sure.

Sonata is pleased with the 3 puppies that are alive, and we both focus on that happiness and not the ill fated loss.

I am happy Mother and the 3 sable puppies are doing fine, very sad that I lost one.... was it stillborn and that is why she didn’t tend to it? While I was trying to revive it by massaging and even breathing oxygen in to its tiny mouth, Sonata was tearful ... and so was I .... This was one of those times, you realize you didn’t do enough, and you can’t undo and do over. That’s life, one time through is all you get. It is also one of those times you will always remember the sad loss and the finality of death with no recall. There should have been 4 puppies but there is now only 3.

I hear Pekingese breeders tell me how their large litters of 5 and more were born in the middle of night while they were asleep or during the day while they were away at work... other breeders tell me of their losses, sometimes losing the Mother and all the babies.

I will take my losses, but also learn more keenly that life is not to be taken for granted as a certainty or even a knowable outcome .

The Ups and Downs in Life

2010-11-30T04:07:00.001-08:00

The Ups and Downs in Life

A friend invited me to go with her and her husband to see a litter of Pekingese and to help her to decide whether or not to buy one of the puppies. They were late arriving, and when they did arrive they explained they had been in a minor car accident; a jeep rear ended them just about a mile from my home. Accidents are one of the downs in life, having to deal with the insurance claim, the vehicle repairs to the broken tail light and dented bumper with scratches, and upset to plans. But they were happy nevertheless and we were still going to go look at the 8 week old Pekingese puppies, perhaps just what they wanted and have been searching for. This evening was an up occasion for us.

I got in their SUV and we were on the way to Cave Creek, Arizona (North of Phoenix) to possibly select their new Pekingese puppy, it had to be a girl puppy to be a mate for their AKC show quality male, Mofasha. After a short drive on Interstate I-17, then turning off at Care Free Highway, we arrived at a lovely new home. The air was crisp and clean, stars shining brightly in the winter's night sky. The Christmas wreath on the entry door hinted their was happiness in the home within.

We were welcomed by Chris and her family. A Christmas tree with lights twinkled through the front window and holiday decorations, some still in boxes, seasonally added to our warm welcome. It was the most unusual home I have ever seen. We entered into the front hall with a living room at street level and 8 or so steps leading up to the dining room and kitchen where the Pekingese puppies/parents were .... once in the kitchen you go down about 10 steps to a lower level family room or 10 steps up to the bedrooms and bath area (2 cats were sitting on the stairway looking at us quizzically). The kitchen had an open balcony overlooking the family room with fireplace below and from elevated kitchen level and dining room, an open balcony looks down to the living room where we had entered.This home had more ups and downs than any I had ever visited before. Chris works for Farmers Insurance Agency, and I am sure she works with customers, their life's ups and downs daily.

Jeri and her husband were jubilant and immediately knew they had found their Pekingese puppy plus we were very surprised to learn Chris had another litter of 5 Pekingese puppies only 5 days old and there was one female in that litter also. Jeri joyfully put a deposit on that one too so now we were all up, smiling, and satisfied with 2 new Pekingese puppies selected. Chris showed us their pedigrees, we could see the puppies parents were exceptional in every way, and Jeri got the necessary AKC application registration papers after paying Chris for her new puppy. We said thank you, said our goodbyes then left with the warm new puppy cradled in Jeri's hands.

Safely returning to my home, I invited Jeri in to give her some puppy biscuits, an exercise gate to make a safe area for the new puppy, and some training pads. She looked at my Pekingese and held the one new expectant Mother soon to have a litter of Pekingese puppies just in time for Christmas, the same Mother of her male Pekingese, Mofasha, born last year. We hugged one another and said goodbye. Tonight was an up time in our lives and memories are made up of moments like these.

I laid down to go to sleep and did so quickly. It had been a long day. The next morning I thought about how many up and downs there are in our life just like the up and down stairs in Chris's many levels home. The next time you are down, look for the stairs leading up.

Koi Pool Maintenance

2010-10-15T13:19:00.000-07:00

]

I have learned that the Koi Pools do require daily maintenance .... perhaps my filters/pumps are not large enough for the number of fish I have in the (2) 300 gallon 5 ft diameter pools because almost daily I have to backwash the filters (about 10 minutes per filter and twice weekly clean out the 3 sponges in each pool's filter (about 20 minutes per filter) ... I have also had to learn to clean the pumps' interior components crevices and surfaces, removing the impeller and flushing out the debris gunk that collects inside. I could double up the filters/pumps 2 to a pool or simply buy a larger model of filter/pump. I have the winter to think about the best thing to do to reduce required maintenance. The large 750 gallon 8 ft diameter pool in the front requires minimum maintenance since I upgraded to the a larger filter/pump. Each spitter in all the pools have their individual pump adding to the workload needing regular cleaning. I have collected or created some of my own common sense cleaning tools and purchased others custom suited for cleaning and maintaining the pumps.

Because I chose natural pool environments with live plants, there is more work than if I could use a chemical to prevent algae and not worry about real live plants and their needs. The dark green velvet algae that collects on the interior surfaces of the pools contribute to dirtying up the pumps in addition to the fish waste, but that algae must be tolerated and other single cell algae more troublesome is killed by the ultra violet light in the filters (blue green algae and string algae). The fish do eat the algae and so do the snails that are happily at home in the Koi pools. The snails came with the hyacinth water plants Darlene gave me.

This morning I removed the fountain from the pool outside my dining room window and thoroughly cleaned its internal parts, also the exterior, then stored it away until next Spring. That took about 1 1/2 hours. The fish will not need the water cooling fountain during the winter months as the water is naturally cool, even cold now that summer has ended. Each fountain (1 per pool) has its own sponge filter and pump to push the water also requiring additional periodical maintenance.

With all the extra work required to keep the water clean and aerated, there is little time to just sit and enjoy watching the fish, but at dawn and at dusk I enjoy feeding them and watching them swim eagerly around to me for their meal of Tetra Vibrance food. The Koi and goldfish are now young adults, each is 7-14 inches long and still growing. They are very healthy, colorful, and seem happy in their water homes. I have satisfaction and a sense of accomplishment realizing how they have enhanced my home with their vitality and beauty. Yes it is a lot of work, money for equipment and food, but they energize and complete both my life and my home as return on that investment.

Video of Tree Heart and My Way (new Pekingese parti-color puppy)

2010-09-29T07:03:00.000-07:00

ART IS WHERE YOU FIND IT ...

2010-09-27T05:59:00.000-07:00

ART IS WHERE YOU FIND IT ...

Cleaning the Koi and Goldfish Outdoor Pool

2010-09-26T10:54:00.000-07:00

Koi Pond Regular Weekly Maintenance

PhoenixKoiRescue.com

Shorty@ShortyPen.com

Water Changes
The MOST IMPORTANT thing you should do with your pond, is to remove at least 15% of the water in the pond EVERY WEEK, and replace it with new fresh water. Doing this solves many problems, and dramatically increases your water quality, and let your koi's immune system keep them healthy. Real koi kichi (koi nuts) change 15% of the water every day. Evaporation is a big issue here in Arizona. As water evaporates, it leaves behind minerals in the water, so if you only "top off" the water, what happens is the minerals build up and screw up the water quality. Keep in mind that koi came from rivers, which are continually supplied with fresh rain water.

The biggest reason that people don't do regular water changes, is that it can be a pain to do. Also very dangerous, if you forget and leave the hose running & change too much water, you will shock your fish and kill them. I have koi in tanks, for for me it is as simple as installing a drain valve in the side of the tank at the 15% level. So I open the valve, the water drains down to that point and I come back later to close the valve, and fill it back up.

Most people have ponds in the ground, so a gravity drain is not a solution for them. Another technique I have found that is very effective, is to setup a special pump that is used for your regular water changes. The automatic shut off pump hangs over the edge of the pond, and is suspended so the pump's intake is down at the 15% level. Then you use a crank timer switch (like used in steam rooms, or public bathrooms) to run the pump for the appropriate time. If the pump stays on for some reason, it can only drain down to the 15% level, and will not pump your pond dry. Every pond is different, so you need to figure a solution that works best for you.

Filling Your Pond - use a sprinkler
Tap water has clorine in it, and koi naturally investigate waterfalls (and streams of water) so if you fill your pond with a hose, the koi will swim right up to the hose and start breathing water that has a concentration of chlorine in it. This may burn their gills and cause damage. One solution is to spray the water with a sprinkler head. This spreads the new tap water over a larger area to quickly dilute it, plus the aeration helps to evaproate the chlorine from the water.

Filling Your Pond - Use a water timer
One really good solution is to use an yard irrigation type water controller like used to water your lawn. The average size backyard koi pond is 5000 gallons, and 15% of that is 750 gallons, which takes about an hour to fill from a garden hose. So you can see how easy it would be to turn on the hose and accidentally forget about it. If you talk to others at your koi club, you will find that many people have accidentally left the hose running (sometimes overnight or all day) and killed all of their collection by accident.

PH and Baking Soda / Oyster Shell (chicken grit)
An ideal PH for koi ponds is around 7.2 to 8.2. Ponds built from concrete and with a large amount of rocks in the system tend to keep their PH balanced just fine. Ponds which have a plastic liner and all plastic parts tend to have problems keeping their PH at an acceptable level. If your pond PH drops below 7.6, then you should add baking soda to increase the PH. Add 1 cup per thousand gallons, per day until the PH is back up to the proper level. A better, longer lasting solution is to add some crushed oyster shell which will slowly dissolve and buffer your water, so it will keep a stable PH. Crushed oyster shell is commonly sold as "chicken grit" at local feed stores, about $10 for 50 lbs. Just put some chicken grit in a net bag, and put it in your pond near water that is flowing.

Filter Flushing & Cleaning
You should flush your filter at least once per week. The good bacteria in filters aerobic, and the newer colonies perform the nitrate conversion process at a much faster rate than old colonies of bacteria, so by flushing the filter you get rid of the anaerobic muck, and also sluff off the old colonies of bacteria, so new ones can form. I have a home made barrel filter that I installed a knife valve in, so for me it is as simple as turn off the pump, open the valve and stir with a stick. Whatever filter you have, configure it so that it is easy to do, so you will do it more often.

Full pond clean out - ~~WARNING~~ - you can kill all of your fish!
Good filter designs collect water and debris from the bottom of the pond so you never build up a muck layer. However many ponds I have seen in people's back yards are not configured that way, and they have layers of muck, leaves and debris. That muck layer builds up over time, and then occasionally owners do a big "clean out". This is very dangerous and can kill all of your fish in just a few minutes. What is happening is that that muck layer creates an anaerobic environment which harbors toxic bacteria and substances. If you disturb this area while the fish are in the pond, it will release those toxins in the water and kill the fish. So if you want to perform a big "clean out", you should remove all the fish to a temporary holding tank (like an intex swimming pool) and then perform your clean. After the clean out, get the pond running again for at least 3 days, and then you can start to replace your fish a few at a time.

My pond water is clear, doesn't that mean it is healty water?
No. Clarity has nothing to do with the quality of the water. Ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate are all toxic to koi. You can have perfectly clear water, and kill your fish, or significantly stunt their growth. To see what levels you have, you need to test your water with test kits.

Feeding
Koi can be pigs and consume mass amounts of food, and on the other hand they can survive on small amounts of food. The more you feed, the bigger they will grow, but keep in mind that you need a filter that is big enough to handle the amount of food you feed. Koi can survive and be healthy on as little as 0.5% feed rate, per day. On the other hand, owners looking to get maximum growth are known to feed up to 3% feed rate per day. If you feed less than 0.5%, then the koi start to become stressed, and start having health issues.

The way to calculate your feed rate (the amount of food you feed), simply calculating the body weight of the koi you have, and figuring the dry weight of the food you feed. So if you have 29 lbs of koi (464 ounces of koi), then a 1% feed rate is 4.64 ounces.

You should split the food and do multiple feeds per day. Koi are grazing fish, and their system works better getting a little bit of food at a time. A common feeding schedule is to give them some food first thing in the morning when you wake up, then some right after you get home from work, and the rest right before you goto bed. If you can split it into 5 feedings per day, they can process the food much better.

NOTE: If you find uneaten food in your pond, then something is wrong. Either you are feeding too much, or you have water quality problems, or your filter isn't big enough, or something else. Also see below about the temperature to stop feeding.

How To Calculate The Weight Of Your Fish The simplest method I have found is to make estimations based on the length of the fish. What you do is place something in your pond that you know the length of, such as a decoration or even just a stick. As the fish swim past the item, you can see how long they are compared to that item. You can even take photos as they go past, so you can look at the pictures to help with the comparisons. You then make a list of all the fish you have, and how long they are. Now that you have their lengths, you can use the following average lengths to figure how much they weigh. This may seem complicated or laboursome, but you really only need to do it once or twice a year.

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Typical Weight of Standard Fin Koi, Per Their Length (including tail fin)
4" 0.62 oz
5" 1.21 oz
6" 2.09 oz
7" 3.33 oz
8" 4.96 oz
9" 7.07 oz
10" 9 oz
11" 12 oz
12" 16 oz 13" 20 oz
14" 26 oz
15" 30 oz
16" 40 oz
17" 45 oz
18" 56 oz
19" 66 oz
20" 77 oz
21" 82 oz 22" 102 oz
23" 120 oz
24" 134 oz
25" 150 oz
26" 160 oz
27" 180 oz
28" 210 oz
29" 230 oz
30" 150 oz

How To Calculate The Dry Weight Of Your Food
First you need to figure what container and scoop works best for you. I personally use a peanut butter jar and it's lid as the measuring cup, however many people use a big plastic jar and a real kitchen type measuring scoop. Whatever measuring scoop you use, put 10 scoops of food into a container and measure it with a postal scale. Then take that weight and divide by 10, and you have a pretty accurate weight of one scoop your food. Write that on the scoop, so you know how many scoops your fish need. For an example, I found that my peanut butter jar lid holds 1.75 oz of my pellet food.

Homemade Koi Food
I have seen a number of large healthy koi that were fed regular koi pellets PLUS large amounts of table scraps. I have become convinced that feeding your koi fresh foods is essential, because processed & dried foods seem to destroy the nutritional value of the ingredients. There are lots of recipies on the internet of how to make your own koi food.

For the food I make, I take koi pellets and run them thru my blender dry, this makes a powder. I set that aside, then blend up a bunch of vegetables to make what looks like a milkshake. I then mix that by hand with the powder, plus wheat germ, wheat flour, corn meal, and other random stuff to thicken it up. I split that up into portions that are the right size for 1 week of feeding. Then I move one portion to the refrigerator, and pull off chunks daily to feed to my koi. Not very scientific, but my fish like it. Also I feed cooked shrimp, and cooked tilapia.

Winter Break - No Feeding
A koi's metabolism is mostly based on the temperature. At temperatures between 60 and 87, you should feed the full daily amount. At temps between 56 and 60, you should cut the feed rate down to 0.75% or less. After the water temp drops to 52 and below (and stays down there), you should stop feeding until the temp rises back above 52 and stays there or above. The koi go into a slow state and mostly sit on the bottom of the pond during this cold time, and they don't process the food very well. This is a normal part of their yearly cycle, they build up a lot of fat in the fall to carry them through the winter. Your filter will mostly die off also, so in the spring when you start to feed again, feed lightly for a while to build the bacteria up again.

Hot temperatures -- reduce feeding
One of the problems we have in Arizona is the water temperature can rise very high, I have seen temps as high as 96 in my tanks. One summer, the water stayed at 96 for about a month and a half. The koi reduce the amount they eat when the temp gets above 88, so if you notice this, then cut back on the amount you feed.

ART IS IN THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER

2010-09-26T10:35:00.000-07:00

Art is in the eye of the beholder ...

My Way Today

2010-09-25T12:12:00.000-07:00

Castaway's affectionate call name is "My Way" or just "Way" .... No Way, yes Way! She was born July 27, 2010 and is 60 days old today, 8 weeks and 4 days, or 2 months in this life of hers. She was attacked by her Mother at 2 weeks of age which I believe happened because her Mother might have been suffering from

Eclampsia

Eclampsia is the sudden onset of clinical signs associated with low blood calcium levels (hypocalcemia) that occur in lactating (nursing) bitches. It is caused by loss of calcium in the milk and is often combined with poor dietary calcium intake. This condition is different from eclampsia in women, which is related to blood pressure abnormalities prior to birth.

Predisposing Factors

More common in dogs than cats

Toy and small breeds most commonly affected

Large litter size

Highest incidence with the first litter

Poor nutrition during pregnancy and lactation

Possibly worsened by use of calcium supplements during pregnancy

Seen most commonly two to three weeks after-birth, although can be seen as late as six weeks after whelping (giving birth)

or some other severe medical problem which caused her to turn on her puppies in order to save her own life ... the owner gave 3 out of 5 surviving puppies to Adell Lantz to rescue and then Adell offered this one to Jeri who traveled to Palm Springs to get her and brought her to my home to see.... Jeri showed me the "scratch" on her eye and I noticed the eye injury needed immediate vet care and so that is how I have her now.

This morning I observed her eye is healing back to normal and the small depression filling in. There might be some slight scar tissue ... too soon to tell ... and if so the vet will prescribe some drops to treat it.

Her eye did cause me anxiety and distress, and of course the need to treat it with medicinal drops and oral antibiotic does require additional time during the day and night.... This is in addition to learning Way's "norms" and making sure she was eating and getting enough water and fluids as one would with any new puppy.... My heart and home is a little larger now with Way in it. No Way would I part with her now. She has made me Way happier than life without her. Way to go as the saying goes.

Way does love baked chicken and is eating some Little Caesar too ... I made some puppy formula but used canned reg milk instead of goat's milk and she isn't eating it .... I made some rice and chicken broth mush and she isn't eating it either ... Way really is a dainty eater, but she is gaining weight .... This morning she weighed in at a little over 2 1/2 lbs, and she is still small enough to fit into 2 hands cupped together .... Way has her little puppy biscuits and dry food always with her water in case she wants to chew and nibble. I bought some beef liver for .89 cents a lb at Ranch Market yesterday and she will most likely enjoy it.... it will mash it with some cooked carrots, spinach, and other vegetables that I eat as a stew cooked in pork neck bones.

My Way is really a pretty little charmer and very alert, very responsive. I enjoy admiring her special beauty and especially like her parti markings.... Way seems to be content and even happy with her new home and living quarters.... Way is ecstatic when I take her outside to see the other Pekingese with her tail wagging receptively as they gather around to "inspect" the new one in their midst.

Until Way develops a stronger immunity, I am not letting her outside ,and when she visits outside it is always with my protecting presence. I have tried to keep her as unstressed as possible giving her lots of time to rest quietly to improve her eye and health healing. The artificial tears drops the vet said for me to apply in between the medicinal eye drops 4 times daily is helping a lot to keep her injured eye wet and comfortable.

A friend came over yesterday to see her. She too thought Way was cute as could be, but was not pleased with my calling her Way.... ??? Oh well, I like the name because it is most suited to Way's guiding spirit. She is the Way to my heart.

As I write this, my Way is finishing the last of her Little Caesar meal choosing it over her baby formula of rice, chicken broth, and ground up puppy dog food Jeri gave me .... yesterday she was jumping and barking at her toys ... grrrrr woooooooof waugh! I HAD TO LAUGH OUT LOUD! LOL!

Way has a 10 inch Cabbage patch doll, a tennis ball with rope at either end, a stuffed lion about 10 inch, and a lamb chops soft toy about 8 inches, and several other toys like a styrene squeeze hamburger, and small 6 inch cabbage patch dolly,, etc...... She plays with them all and every time I look at her playpen they are moved around .... she also likes sleeping on her soft toys...

The white white with brown and black spots gives her a look almost as if she were a lovable, cuddly stuffed toy herself.....

My friend,Suzi, said that Way would be well fed and she is right about that ..... all of us here in my home are well fed .... LOL .... but I am getting lots of exercise working around my home in various projects and maintenance, and even though I may look like a Sumo wrestler, I do feel good even though I am not up to running and turning summersaults like I did in high school cheerleading ..... reminds me .... I need to mow my lawn again (good exercise).

I often think about my bouncing across the the basketball court waving my pom-poms in the air yelling out the cheers leading the crowd at the games ..... they were fun and made good memories for me. At that time I had a sleeve white Pekingese that I loved as my pet named..... you guessed it .... "Snowball" ... When I went to college, she stayed with my parents who continue to love her in my absence ... and when I got married and had young children of my own, we bought a parti Pekingese puppy from the Kansas City downtown pet store which we named "Gidget" ... Gidget was also a sleeve and looked a like like Way ..... in the 1950's most Pekingese were under 10 lbs and since then they have gotten larger and larger and larger ..... I had one couple who came to visit us bringing their 25 lbs Pekingese who they had trained to do tricks.

Removing Salt From Your Fish Water Before Re-use Watering Landscaping

2010-09-25T12:01:00.000-07:00

Aquarium salt is widely used in the keeping of fish .... but little caution is provided warning that disposing of the salted water can harm the landscape, etc and really shouldn't be put down the sewer either .... in fact, I suspect many fish keepers are improperly disposing of their salt water from their aquariums ... (even freshwater fish water uses aquarium salt to keep the fish healthy) .... As a gardener and nature lover, I realize the permanent damage done to soil if salted .... salt accumulation is a global problem!

So since some of my Koi pools have significant amounts of salt, in the water (those pools that don't have water plants), I need to learn how to remove salt from the water so that I can reuse the water directing it safely to my landscape ...

A search of Google provided this technique..

How to Remove Salt From Water

By Shaun Juan, eHow Contributor

updated: August 22, 2009

I want to do this! What's This?

The cheapest way to remove salt from water is by using a solar water distiller. Think of a solar distiller as the same natural process of the sun heating water in our oceans, turning it into gas and then condensing into a cloud that drops unsalted water back down to earth. You can replicate this process by following some simple steps. These steps can also be used to remove salt from water in a survival situation.

Difficulty: Moderate

Things You'll Need:

Clear plastic sheet, 5 feet by 5 feet
Shovel
Containers to hold water

1
Dig a hole roughly 3 feet by 3 feet and 2 feet deep. If you are in a survival situation and don't have a shovel, use anything that will dig a hole, including your hands. Dig your hole in an area that receives the most sunlight possible.
2
Place you container in the middle of your hole. Make sure your container is dug halfway into the ground so it will not tip over.
3
Use another container to transport the salt water to your hole. If you do not have another container in a survival situation, use the same container you used in Step 2. Make sure the bottom of the hole is thoroughly saturated with the salty water.
4
Place your plastic over the hole. Make sure the middle of the plastic is sagging a bit over your container in the middle of the hole. In a survival situation, any color plastic will work, but it will take longer to evaporate.
5
Anchor your plastic over the hole. You can anchor the sides of the plastic with whichever material you have readily available--tent stakes, dirt, sand, rocks. Just make sure you have a tight seal around the plastic cover so the water vapor cannot escape.
6
Weigh down the center of your plastic sheet. Ideally you can use a small stone placed on the plastic directly over the container in the hole, but you can use whatever you have available to weigh it down in a survival situation.
7
Wait 3 to 4 hours for the solar distiller to complete the distilling process. Your solar water distiller works by the sun evaporating the salty water into a gas (which leaves the salt behind). The plastic cover stops the water vapor from escaping the hole, water condenses on the underside of the plastic, gravity pulls the water toward the center of your weighted-down plastic and the unsalted water drips into your container.

Anohter useful lesson was this one which basically provides a better understanding of how of how the above process works ... this one is a small scale removal of salt from salted water ...

How to Remove Salt From Salt Water

By Claudia Henning, eHow Contributor

Excerpted from ....

http://www.ehow.com/how_5127351_remove-salt-salt-water.html

Remove Salt From Salt Water

All images courtesy of Photobucket photo pool

The easiest method of removing salt from salt water is a process called distillation. The water is heated, turned to a gas, condensed and collected in a purified form. The salt will be left behind. Follow the steps below and be amazed at how easy it is to replicate the distillation process yourself.

Difficulty: Easy

Things You'll Need:

Plastic bowl Small glass Plastic wrap Small rock Small pitcher of salt water (tap water with 2 tbsp. of salt added)

1
Large plastic bowl
Pour a couple of inches of salt water into a large plastic bowl. One similar to the bowl pictured will work.
2
Place a small glass upright in the middle of the bowl. Make sure the glass is shorter than the edge of the bowl and that it remains dry inside. A juice glass would work wonderfully for this.
3
Cover the bowl with clear plastic wrap and secure tightly with tape on the edges. Keep the empty glass upright and center as you cover the bowl.
4
Use a small rock to create the condenser.
Place a small rock on the center of plastic cover, directly over the empty glass. It should bend the plastic wrap in toward the glass without breaking through. The angle will aid in the collection of purified water. Place the bowl carefully in the direct sunlight. The heat from the sun will heat the water, evaporating it to a gas. The gas will hit the inside plastic covering and condense back to liquid as it cools. The liquid will then drip down into the glass. This is called solar distillation. The process distills or purifies the water. The longer it is left in the sun, the more pure water you will collect. What will be left behind in the bowl is the salt.
5
Remove plastic cover and try a sip of the water in the glass. You will find it to be salt-free. Distillation is done on a larger basis by providing artificial heat to salt water, collecting the steam on a cooled condenser surface and routing the purified water into a separate tank.

__._,_.___

IT'S MIDNIGHT AT THE OASIS

2010-09-20T02:23:00.000-07:00

IT'S MIDNIGHT AT THE OASIS

It's midnight at my Phoenix water garden oasis home (My Song Pekingese Park), and I am awakened by a small lonely whimper. My new puppy that I took in as a rescue Sunday morning that day needed comforting reassurance and attention. I sleepily picked her up and then remembered that I need to give her a name since I planned to be taking her into the vet this morning for him to inspect and treat her eye. The left eye had been injured a few days earlier by another puppy in her litter. The name I chose for this new puppy and the one that came to my soul searching mind and heart was Californian Cherokee Castaway.

This puppy was from a litter whose Mother killed 2 of the 5 puppies, 2 weeks of age. The owner of the puppy's Mother brought the entire remaining litter into Forget Me Not Rescue in Palm Springs for Adell Lantz to save and hand feed nurture to an adoptable age. Needing to find homes for these puppies, Adell called Jeri, a friend of mine, to see if she wanted one of the female puppies. Jeri did agree to adopt the puppy Adell had selected for her, and when the planned rehoming time arrived, Jeri and her husband traveled from Phoenix to Palm Springs to get her new 7 1/2 week old puppy Saturday, September 18th.

Next day, early on a Sunday morning, Jeri brought the puppy to my home for me to see. I quickly noticed that the puppy had a serious eye injury (commonly caused by litter mates playing together too roughly digging a toenail in the eye). I told Jeri that I would take the puppy to my vet, Dr. Svoboda, Palm Glen Animal Hospital, for his expert care and treatment Monday, and I agreed that I would adopt this unpapered (but pure bred) parti-colored Pekingese puppy. We weighed the puppy and learned it was only 2 1/4 lbs. Normally, Pekingese puppies at 8 weeks are about 4 lbs or even more, but this puppy's parents were both sleeves (very small and under 6 lbs) so the puppy's weight was about right for her development.

Jeri and I were both very distressed by seeing the little puppy's serious eye injury, and we realized that vet care is expensive but also necessary. Also, Jeri really wanted to acquire a show quality female, registered Pekingese, one that she could breed to her Champion pedigree AKC registered male (hopefully one that I would have available in a few months time). My heart opened up engulfing Californian Cherokee Castaway, and now she is mine... and I am hers.

2010-08-27T12:43:00.000-07:00

One of the reasons I am impressed by the Pekingese dog breed is that they
have one of the longest ancestral store of racial memories for a pet
developed by humans .... similarly
Arabian horses, and Koi fish do also. Koi have lived to be 265 years old. I
feel I have an awesome racial memory. One I was equipped with at birth, and
it even included future memory for my life time and my children's...

********
racial memory

-noun Psychology .
feelings, patterns of thought, and fragments of experience that have been
transmitted from generation to generation in all humans and have deeply
influenced the mind and behavior.
********
In psychology, genetic memory is a memory present at birth that exists in
the absence of sensory experience, and is incorporated into the genome over
long spans of time. It is based on the idea that common experiences of a
species become incorporated into its genetic code, not by a Lamarckian
process that encodes specific memories but by a much vaguer tendency to
encode a readiness to respond in certain ways to certain stimuli. It is
invoked to explain the racial memory postulated by Carl Jung, and
differentiated from cultural memory, which is the retention of habits,
customs, myths, and artifacts of social groups. The latter postdates genetic
memory in the evolution of the human species, only coming into being with
the development of language, and thus the possibility of the transmission of
experience. Racial memory is a concept in Jungian psychology. Racial
memories are posited memories, feelings and ideas inherited from our
ancestors as part of a "collective unconscious".

Language, in the modern view, is considered to be only a partial product of
genetic memory. The fact that humans can have languages is a property of the
nervous system that is present at birth, and thus phylogenetic in character.
However, perception of the particular set of phonemes specific to a native
language only develops during ontogeny. There is no genetic predisposition
towards the phonemic makeup of any single language. Children in a particular
country are not genetically predisposed to speak the languages of that
country, adding further weight to the assertion that genetic memory is not
Lamarckian.

*****************

From my own life experience and access to my racial memory from multiracial
ancestors, I personally believe that I do have extra sensory communication
abilities that others have not inherited and also have ancient memories that
are most valuable to me in my life. Intuition, instinct, and intelligence
coupled with a vast inherited racial memory bank are some of the resources I
value and use in my life. They are unique and individually mine and are not
common to others.

My Koi Pool Algae

2010-08-27T10:07:00.000-07:00

A friend came to my home yesterday to pick me up for lunch and was looking at my large Koi pool which is now covered with a dark green algae on all of the interior surfaces, the water is filtered and has ultra violet light exposed to kill bacteria and the most noxious forms of algae (blue-green and string algae) but apparently it doesn't prevent the type of algae growth now existing in the Koi pool.

I enjoyed botany in college and in my choice of reading while doing home gardening. I even took a class to become a "Master Gardener" with the Maricopa County Agriculture Extension. So I will be trying to observe and learn more about the life its ecology in my Koi pool.

She asked me about it and I thought it would be a simple matter to give her more specific information about its name and attributes..... well this morning I learned there are 125,771 different species of algae! How do I go about finding out more information about the specific algae growing in my pool? My friend thinks it might be bad, but I assured her all pools have it , those that have water plants growing in them since one does not use an algaecide in a pool they want water plants to grow in also.
The "green algae" is the most diverse group of algae, with more than 7000 species growing in a variety of habitats. The "green algae" is a paraphyletic group because it excludes the Plantae. In biological taxonomy, a grouping of organisms is said to be paraphyletic if all the members of the group have a common ancestor but the group does not include all the descendants of the common ancestor. Groups which include all the descendants of a common ancestor are commonly termed monophyletic, although this term is sometimes taken to apply to paraphyletic groups, in which case they are called holophyletic.

Like the plants, the green algae contain two forms of chlorophyll, which they use to capture light energy to fuel the manufacture of sugars, but unlike plants they are primarily aquatic. Because they are aquatic and manufacture their own food, these organisms are called "algae," along with certain members of the Chromista, the Rhodophyta, and photosynthetic bacteria, even though they do not share a close relationship with any of these groups.

The major groups of "green algae" are distinguishable on the basis of their flagellar insertion (the number and arrangement of the flagella that the cells have); their method of cell division; and their habitat

http://megasun.bch.umontreal.ca/protists/gallery.html was an interesting sight and I think I believe my algae in the Koi pool is a "green algae"

Green algae:

Algae are not considered "plants" but are their own distinct life form and they do mutate creating new varieties...

I have a microscope but so far have not made a slide of "my koi pool algae"... Oh my, the mysteries of my Koi pool and the life within!

Life or Not

2010-08-24T10:57:00.000-07:00

This morning one of my pretty Koi jumped out of the large 8 ft pool..??? I discovered him not quite yet dead while emptying my recycling can.

I picked his limp body up and had to decide to bury him or try to see if I could revive him.. I chose the latter. I sensed there was life, and I had hope he might be able to recover.....

I went back outside while writing this email and he seems to be alive since I don't see any dead body floating on top of the water or laying on the bottom of the pool... He may have suffered brain damage or may not live long because of his "accident", "bad decision to jump out", or whatever happened that he was out of the water...... but for now he is alive ...

How many of us consciously choose life or not, take risks, make fatal errors in life; and the lucky ones are saved and live to write about it or learn from their near death?

I wrote this blog post this morning on the subject of "Life or Not" ..

http://ymmartin.blogspot.com/2010/08/life-or-not.html

Each day is a new beginning .... Each day is what we make it.

Pekingese, Prayer, Peace

2010-08-17T04:47:00.000-07:00

Sometimes, one of my Pekingese simply will not tolerate another Pekingese even with repeated efforts to teach them to not fight with one another, and then I separate them. If I can not maintain them separately, I adopt them out to a home where they can reign supreme with one on one love and care from their new owner who can provide more intensive training.

Some Pekingese are more pugnacious than others. Some may have aggressive temperaments, so much so that they seem to provoke arguments with others regardless of who they are kept with. Some Pekingese are introverted and shy while others are adventurous players and very extroverted.

The Pekingese owner can observe the trouble maker versus the innocents. Social harmony among a group of Pekingese presents a real challenge to the Pekingese owner having a group of Pekingese, a challenge owners of one or two Pekingese as pets does not have to experience and resolve. With a group of Pekingese, one can also observe the alpha leader (and those he leads less aggressive individuals) and their social group behavior. The alpha individual will emerge creating a social order which exists among the females kept as a group as well as in males kept together in their group. One of the joys of having more than just one or two Pekingese is studying the social interplay of Pekingese kept as a group(s). I keep my males separate from my females unless I want to breed selective individuals which I then pair off into their private space for mating.

People, individually and collectively, are not unlike Pekingese in many ways. They are compatible or not, and if not then it is important to study and understand how they resolve their differences to peacefully coexist. They sometimes are ordered to have professional counseling or seek it on their own. Some reconcile their differences satisfactorily. However, some differences may not be resolved, and may be so extreme, only one way of life can prevail causing wars worldwide.

Wars exist in all forms of life both plant and animal so to pray for peace does seem an impossible and improbable request of God. It is not impossible or improbable that God could give us vision to steer through the conflict minimizing losses and human suffering.

To prevent wars practice peace making in your life and in your community. Try to evolve your social ability to improve your life and that of others. Peace begins with you and your "Pekingese" in your life today.

Root Issues of Water Hyacinths

2010-08-16T14:17:00.000-07:00

I discovered that my water hyacinths plants in the 8 ft round Koi/Goldfish pool were dying because the fish were eating all of their roots faster than the roots could grow. Without roots, the plant dies because it can't get nourishment. I had tried different water fertilizers before determining the real cause of my water hyacinths dying then one night I saw the fish feeding voraciously on the water hyacinths.

Thinking about how to protect the roots of the water hyacinths, mulled over in my mind several solutions.... the one I chose seemed to be the fastest to do. I had some plastic baskets and some float and the ones that don't I tie the water hyacinths to the basket with fishing line to hold the basket up to surface level. After two days I can now see the new white roots growing and the water hyacinths are no longer dying.

The baskets are colorful and are solving the problem for now but I would prefer a more natural solution. I plan to cut a 6 inch wide 12 or so inches long strip out of out door shade cloth netting, and I will sew the ends together making a cylinder. I will then sew the bottom of the cylinder together and the top I will make a drawstring tie so as to secure the "bag" around the base of the water hyacinths thus protecting the roots from fish feeding on them.

My 4 Koi pools are all doing fine and have the necessary nitrogen processing fish waste cycle working effectively. One of the 5 ft pools is just for water plants, the other 5 ft pool is just for fish and artificial ornaments and has aquarium salt for the health of the fish but which would be detrimental to any water plants. The small 150 gallon pool is for goldfish and one koi which I can't catch and move. That pool is a little too warm in the high heat of Phoenix summer and the fish are happy in it. The 8 ft pool is my main pool with both fish and water plants together (no aquarium salt added).

Feeding The Fish .... a Watercolor Painting by Joyce Baldwin, Blue Ribbon 2008, Phoenix Artist Guild Art Show

2010-08-11T21:29:00.000-07:00

(Art Show Photo courtesy of Yolanda Martin, Webmaster 2008, Phoenix Artist Guild)

I am sure there are as many answers to this question as their are readers of it.... What makes a painting valuable?

To me, the fact that I retained a vivid, ever present memory of one out of literally hundreds of paintings that I took photos of in 2008 made this painting "Feeding The Fishes" by Joyce Baldwin valuable enough for me to share it with you and insert it in this Koi-Pekingese Blog post. It truly is a Blue Ribbon winner over time and not just for the moment of decisive authoritative judging at the show (selecting her painting over all the other competing paintings). I know Joyce Baldwin personally and admire her greatly. She is truly talented and creative. I particularly like her subject matter for each painting she does.

Thinking about all the reasons I invested so much time, energy, and money to create my water garden pools complete with Koi fish this summer, I am sure the initial viewing, photographing, and remembering of Joyce's painting was a inspiration. It motivated me to convert the vision and message of her painting into my personal reality and space on the West side of my home.

Art inspires art. Art is the language of the soul. Is there anything more powerful in this world than art? Art is universal and timeless. Art speaks to all cultures and countries, and we can not help but respond to it.

Water Ways Unlimited

2010-08-11T20:01:00.000-07:00

Keeping Our Fish Healthy

2010-08-11T18:45:00.000-07:00

I caught a documentary on Sundance cable TV very early (6:00-7:30am) that began my day with a dismal raising of my consciousness of mankind's planetary destruction. Damage already irreversible....???

The program, narrated by Ted Danson and presented by Filmmaker Rubert Murray (2009), explores scientists' assertion that if mankind continues fishing at the current rate the planet will run out of fish in the ocean as soon as 2048 ... fish droppings consume carbon dioxide as explained in a paper date 2009....

Knowledge is Power .... ??? Oh? Then why do we reach the End of the Line (the title of the program documentary).... no more, for evermore .... extinction....impossible to recover or restore....... the Native American Indian's proverbial End of the Trail ???

Yesterday while shopping at a local Basha's Grocery store in Phoenix, I was waiting in line to have some sirloin beef on sale ground into hamburger (cost only $1.99/lb) .... (standing next to me was a middle aged gentleman asking the butcher for what was displayed in the showcase as $19.99/lb wild tuna ..... ?????). I was astounded by the difference in price between what I considered affordable to consume and his choice (but he did look handsome and healthy). Now I understand why fish (halibut, salmon, shellfish, and other varieties) prices are sky rocketing. The supply and the demand ratio dictates the price of the sale. Soon the supply disappears entirely no matter how much someone is willing to pay to indulge their appetite and dinner plates. Fish farming is not a viable future (it takes much more fish to feed what is being raised than product produced) .... (and this was explained very well by the program) .... also sustainable fisheries are not solving the problem either ..... what is the solution .... ????? The TV program recommended creating Marine Reserves (20-30% of the world's oceans) where commercial fishing is completely banned. Also required, the human population must stop eating fish eliminating the voracious demand for what is already beyond the peril of extinction (and by the domino affect the habitable planet's extinction).

The program stated that it costs 12 to 14 billion dollars a year to fund the marine reserves and would create a million jobs worldwide.... more than that amount is already being spend to subsidize the fishing industry detrimental to the future of the ocean's health. To effect change requires exerting pressure on governments and not the kind of pressure exerted on BP and its oil spill.... a more intelligent approach is needed. Intelligent politicians? Where are they to be found and can they get elected by the uncaring apathetic populations? :-(

I realize now why I am so intensely involved with my Koi/goldfish pool .... with water quality.... with water plants..... with the natural balance of the environment provided in which the Koi are expected to live..... land, air, water .....

Have you sustained a healthy aquarium? It is a learning experience, a rewarding one providing entertainment and relaxation, and almost always keeping fish healthy in their balanced ecology contributes to spiritual enlightenment, personal growth, and greater appreciation for fragile ecological environments. We are all fish in the same water together on this planet.

Here is the web site which created the program I viewed. http://endoftheline.com/

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My Song Pekingese Park with Koi/Goldfish Water Gardens

2010-08-10T19:30:00.000-07:00

Please visit my web site at http://ymmartin.com/ to view photos of my AKC Champion Pedigree Show Pekingese of all colors including the very rare blue. Occasionally there is a litter of show quality home raised puppies available for adoption.

In this blog you will find news about my Pekingese enhanced with occasional photos, videos, and digital art images created for local art shows. The reader will also have posts about what I have learned providing Pekingese care and breeding quality healthy puppies. As an enthusiastic keeper of Koi and Goldfish that I keep healthy in outdoor pools used as water gardens, that too will be reported in this blog.

Typical Weight of Standard Fin Koi, Per Their Length (including tail fin)
4" 0.62 oz 5" 1.21 oz 6" 2.09 oz 7" 3.33 oz 8" 4.96 oz 9" 7.07 oz 10" 9 oz 11" 12 oz 12" 16 oz	13" 20 oz 14" 26 oz 15" 30 oz 16" 40 oz 17" 45 oz 18" 56 oz 19" 66 oz 20" 77 oz 21" 82 oz	22" 102 oz 23" 120 oz 24" 134 oz 25" 150 oz 26" 160 oz 27" 180 oz 28" 210 oz 29" 230 oz 30" 150 oz

Koi-Pekingese

My Pekingese, My Ever Loving Valentines

My Pekingese

The Vet Bet

A Good Breeder

My Annie, 14 year old canine companion friend.

Paintography.... Thinking It Through .... What Is It

Dog Art and Dog Lovers Web Sites ....

Dog Art Sites

Dog Lover Sites

My Song Music Man, 9 weeks old weighs 1 3/4 lbs

My Song Music Man, 9 weeks old weighs 1 3/4 lbs

Pekingese

Love.... A Valentine Greeting

When Right Is Wrong, And Wrong Is Right

The Angels Called

Sonata's New Baby Pekingese

The Ups and Downs in Life

The Ups and Downs in Life

Koi Pool Maintenance

Video of Tree Heart and My Way (new Pekingese parti-color puppy)

ART IS WHERE YOU FIND IT ...

Cleaning the Koi and Goldfish Outdoor Pool

ART IS IN THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER

My Way Today

Removing Salt From Your Fish Water Before Re-use Watering Landscaping

How to Remove Salt From Water

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

How to Remove Salt From Salt Water

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

IT'S MIDNIGHT AT THE OASIS

My Koi Pool Algae

Life or Not

Pekingese, Prayer, Peace

Root Issues of Water Hyacinths

Feeding The Fish .... a Watercolor Painting by Joyce Baldwin, Blue Ribbon 2008, Phoenix Artist Guild Art Show

Water Ways Unlimited

Keeping Our Fish Healthy

My Song Pekingese Park with Koi/Goldfish Water Gardens