Commission Impossible

Pilgim's eh? =D

dude, so Al Gore lied to me? ahhh that jerk! "oh I invented the internets look at me durr dee durr I'm Al Gore! durr durrr internets are fun!"

CIC is OSU Beavers team logo

Your skills as a videographer are improving dramatically. Thank you for this excellent tribute to one of America's hardest-working residents, and also one of our cutest and most adorable. It was long overdue, so I'm glad it appeared first in CI. The never-resting beaver invented the American work ethic (did you think it was the Puritans?) and are, therefore, directly responsible for the rise of this great empire.

Trevor,

I think Al Gore was a proponent of funding the early "Beavernet" through ARPA, but certainly the beaver scientists that actually did the work deserve the credit. Durr dee durr.

Lon

Shatzi,

Thank you for those kind words. I believe my ability to create videos within a 2 hour time frame has improved. But I suspect that it is Frank Sinatra singing America the Beautiful that really polishes this effort.

I should also point out that it is the beaver's contribution to our nation that made a solid video so easy to produce.

On a side note, has anyone seen the puppy "George" displayed on the Butte Humane Society link above? That guy is cute. When I pulled the photo/information there were 3 or 4 other puppies from the same litter up for adoption. It's going to be a tough time adopting out the homely dogs until those puppies find a home.

Lon

Lon,

I have been noticing that the animal shelter has a lot more pit bulls than other breeds. Is that a college student thing?

I live in the college neighborhood and for the last 2 years I have noticed that many of the students have pit bulls. In fact, the pit that they were advertising a few weeks ago, "Mocha" used to live across the street from me.

This year I am noticing a lot of little chihuahua-type dogs in my neighborhood. The Paris Hilton style dog-fashion-accessory-type of breed.

Is there a way for the humane society to make extra money for the dogs that are all the rage this year? Maybe they can start their own fashion trends with the dogs they have too many of.

Maybe they could just lease them to the students on a month to month basis.

Got the tattoo, got the cellphone, got the suv, got the couch on the porch. If I only had a little runt dog, I would be pimpin it Chico style. Fresh.

TJ,

I noticed that a lot of pitbulls were on their web site as well. In fact a month ago I think they were showing all pitbulls. It's probably the case that they don't show all of the dogs all of the time based on their workload. I have to figure updating the web site is not a constant operation they do.

The dogcessory is a fancy fashion trend, and one that probably shouldn't exist.

I noticed the BHS has begun listing the adoption cost for the animals and have a sliding scale that seems to be tied to age and breed. The puppies are $150, young adult dogs are $75, and older dogs are $50. There also seems to be a reduced price on pit-bulls. That's a pretty sound practice designed to incentivise people to select the "less marketable" animals.

Dog-lease? Do they come with a baloon payment at the end?

BTW, George, shown above is now marked as "adopted". I'll have to select another animal, maybe...

Jasper - 10 year old, male, lab/pitbull mix
Description: Jasper is a spunky old guy with a lot of life left. He came to the shelter as a stray in September 2007 and no one came to claim him. The poor guy has all kinds of scars and bare spots on his body from what could have been malnutrition and a big scar around his neck from possibly being tied up. Even with such a harsh past, Jasper’s spirits are very high and it didn’t affect his temperament at all.

I think if Jasper can't find a home he's not long for this world.

Lon

Hey, there is a website where they list dogs in the area that are about to be put down, or have limited time left, etc etc.

http://www.dogsindanger.com/

dunno if the BHS posts up there, but they should.

Last time I worked there, they weren't in the practice of putting dogs down, there was one guy there that had been there for at least 2 years before I even showed up. Although while I was there they did put down two different ferrets, which is understandable given california's laws, but it was still sad cuz I love ferrets.

when i said "one guy there" i meant a dog. ... there was a guy working there that had been there a long time, but he was certified nuts in my opinion.

Trevor,

It's good to hear that Jasper may not be in trouble. I just had to put down my dog (last Wednesday) who was headed towards 15 years old. Seeing an old dog looking for a home certainly poked a sore spot.

Old dogs like Jasper need someone pretty special to show up and take them in. My old dog wouldn't have fared well at the pound.

It doesn't look like BHS uses the web site you linked to. Actually, if they were needing to put animals down I would hope some local media outlet would give them a regular opportunity to make a final plea.

Lon

PS: What's not to love about ferrets, aren't they widely considered the "beaver of the plains"?

awww sad. I'm sorry. It's been a while since i've had to put a dog down, since i was about 16 or 17 i'd say, with my old beagle dog. The new dog was a McNabb Shepherd who is about 9 years old now, and one of the smartest dogs I know. I also got a jack russell last year who acts as dumb as a bag of rocks, but tends to have those sparks of intelligence, like figuring out how to get the window to roll down in the car.

Wasn't BHS hoping to expand recently? I seem to remember something about that.

Trevor,

I wrote a little bit about that previously. The Humane Society was on a list to get funding from the city's redevelopment agency to expand their shelter.

The money was withdrawn, and it was apparently due to the fact that the city and shelter couldn't quite agree on what the money was for.

Actually, here is a comment City Councilor Scott Gruendl made to that post that describes his perspective on what happened.

The city and BHS have worked for almost two years to negotiate a new contract. When the contract fell apart nearly two fiscal years ago and BHS announced the out of town property acquisition, the city backed out of the shelter expansion because the future was unclear. For example, we (Larry Wahl and I) looked at alternative locations and alternative operators. The first allocation was for plans and engineering. Since everything was in limbo, the funding was not expended.

BHS has a very good Board of Directors and has a new Director. Together, we have forged a new, longterm agreement that makes sense to both BHS and the city. The agreement even delineates what the facility needs to be like based on contract conditions. The new relationship between the city and BHS moving forward is exciting with new technology, improved relationships between the shelter/animal control/police, and stability for both BHS and the city.

I believe that we are close to determining how a new police station will be developed and I believe this is key to making final decisions on animal control and the animal shelter. So, good timing Lon, we are close to moving forward on the shelter.

BHS has embarked on a capital raising project to expand or buiild some facility. And at one point I was going to meet with their director and get some information on it. I haven't done that, but maybe I'll drop her an email and see if I can get the details.

Lon

Lon,

"beavernet" was neccesitated by the problems with beaver communications. The early "ping" used by beavers to signal their presence (tail slap) to other beavers was not stealthy enough.

Oddly though, it wasn't Gore, but Clinton that made the original suggestion that "tail slapping needs to be quieter" which spurred funding and the invention of "beavernet" So when you think of beaver, think of Clinton, not Gore.

oh yeah... i remember now.

i want to get another dog. mebbe i'll go take a trip to the bhs on saturday or something.

Anthony,

I would also point out that early human adopters of the network took its name to mean something entirely different as opposed to it being a reference to its rodent creators.

That misunderstanding has significantly impacted content on this network even to this day.

Lon