I was traveling through Zion National Park in Utah with my family. It was beautiful, and we had just seen a very pretty yellow bird, when my mom and I were talking about bird watching. I told her that it was a hobby that I thought I should take up, I like animals and science and we had recently seen “The Big Year” about bird watchers who have life lists of birds they want to see and travel all over trying to see them. I told her how I would kind of like to be one of those crazy people who goes “OH MY GOSH! IT’S A YELLOW CRESTED FLUBERSNATCH!!! AT LAST!” She reminded me “You DO do that. With dogs.”
She was right,. See, my life already revolves around animals. I work at Thanksgiving Point, often teaching children about either the animals at the farm there, or the extinct animals at their museum. I write an Exotic Pets Column for the Salt Lake Examiner (*shameless plug* SUBSCRIBE! It’s FREE! Also read it.) I run a small business called Critters 2 Go where I do educational birthday parties and classes with my exotic pets. And, of course, those pets that are part of Critters? They are my FurrKids (and ShellBabies and ScaleBablies, etc.). My full on BABIES whom I love and treasure! And while not one of those animals is a dog, oh boy am I a dog WATCHER.
For one thing, I wasn’t always dogless. My sweet sheltie Cassie was a ginormous part of my life for 9 years and took with her a huge chunk of my heart when she passed. My former roommate situation included 1 human, 2 dogs—Shasta and Trinket. I didn’t own them… my roomie did, but I still LOVED those dogs. And I have FOSTERED many many dogs in course of my rescue work (even though I only OFFICALLY rescue/rehab small exotics… sometimes I have to make an exception.). So I am familiar with dogs. But that is not the clincher in my Dog Watching habit.
Awhile ago I decided what I wanted to do most in my life was to be a Vet Tech. I love my job(s) but this seemed more like a career and I wanted a change. Long long story short, I did very well, was on the Dean’s List, then got injured badly to the point that my doctors told me this was not a safe career path for me. I cried a lot, but I am now over it (most days). But anyway, it one of my 1st very basic classes one of our assignments involved making flashcards of almost every dog breed recognized by the AKC (American Kennel Club). Then we had to memorize them so that when we were shown a picture (a different picture, by the way, a different DOG… just the same BREED) of that beed we would be able to write down, like, “14. Clumber Spaniel.” We had big tests on this breed identification.
I’ll be honest. I am not sure HOW being able to say “Yup, this patient is a Portuguese water dog!” is going to make you better at the medical stuff (except in a few cases where a breed is prone to something, but even then, I think that is usually tied to a physically observable trait like a brachycephalic face (flat, like Pugs and Pekingese ), but whatever.), but it was ENTERTAINING and made me start watching dogs like a birdwatcher. “Look! In the park! A Shib Inu!”
So when My mom said “You DO do that. With dogs.” it got me thinking, maybe I should do it more officially. Make a Life List. TRY to get a photo. I go to events all the time to help out anyways; Adopt-a-Thons, Strut Your Mutt, etc. Perfect places to spot breeds. Then I said “I could totally write a blog on this!” Her response was “Yeah, I don’t really think anybody cares about what DOG YOU SAW.”
She’s probably right again. But if with every dog I give some info about their breed for those interest in them, answered pet questions, told about events, and highlighted dogs for adoption… maybe let’s prove her wrong?
Now. On to THE RULES OF DOG WATCHING!
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