Miki Journal

Miki is our brand-spanking new, 10 week old male field spaniel puppy. Very early this past Sunday morning, we brought Miki home, after an epic trip to pick him up from his breeder (Sheila Miller). He’s now been with us for four days and nights, has gotten to know myself, my lovely wife Debbie, our other two field spaniels (Mo’i and Lea), and most our nine cats. Lots of progress in just a few days. And a most amazingly different experience with our first two field spaniel puppies. For starters, Miki is not making any fuss at night, and we still haven’t had a single “accident” in the house. The experience with Miki is profoundly different, and in entirely positive ways.

If you knew our first two puppies, you’d wonder how this could possibly be. Their heart-rending screams on the first night we had them home and in their crates were impossible for us to withstand — they slept on the bed with us within a few minutes, and the crates were completely forgotten. Our experience with Lea and “accidents” was so vivid that when we bought our new home we made sure we had waterproof padding beneath our all-synthetic carpets — and we were very glad of that when we brought Mo’i home. Neither of them took long to house-train, but in the interim their “production” was prodigious. And emotionally they had us completely wrapped around their little paws. I’m sure they laugh about it even today…

The difference: sticking with the crate training. That’s really the only significant thing we’re doing differently.

Miki made it easy for us on the first night — we put him in his crate, put the crate on a chair in our bedroom (so he could see us), and he settled down after just a few minutes of heart-rending shrieks. I’m not sure if it was our prior experience, Debbie’s much higher level of motivation (she wants Miki trained right for agility), or the glasses of wine we had before bed — but somehow this time we made it through drama boy’s piteous performance. After that, he just shut up and went to sleep. Just like that. And we had a night of peace, as we have each night since. During the day, he spends quite a bit of time in his crate. Miki clearly thinks of it as “his” home; he often goes in voluntarily while playing, and curls up for some rest. Once, one of our cats (Maka Lea) had occupied his crate in his absence, and the discovery of him in there was a shocking and upsetting event for poor little Miki — you could almost hear him say “But but but that’s MINE! Get your sorry, hairy, feline butt out of my crate!” Each time we take Miki out of the crate, we take him immediately outside to do his business — which usually he is quick to do, and much relieved for having done so. Then it’s back inside for some training and some play, then back into the crate he goes (with a little treat as a reward).

Crate training works. We’re believers now, and kicking ourselves for not having perservered with Mo’i and Lea. Sigh.

Miki has started to learn some important lessons already. He’s learned that if you get right in the face of a 45 pound adult male field spaniel, you’re going to get a terrifying set of jaws snapping back at you. He’s learned that if he bites mom or dad too hard, a piercing shriek loud enough to roll you over in a couple of backwards somersaults will be your reward. And he’s learned that if he acts in a manner that any cat deems unacceptable, he’ll hear a demonic hiss that is followed posthaste by the supersonic swipe of a fully-clawed feline paw. In other words, little Miki is learning that the world has some boundaries. He also seems to be just barely beginning to grasp the notion that if he does something that mom or dad likes — or asks for — that a tasty snack is the result. Miki really, really likes those tasty little snacks, too <smile>.

The training of the new owners (Debbie and I) started last night, with the first session of the badly mis-named “Puppy Class”. It really should be called “Remedial Puppy Owner Class” or some such thing; that would be much more accurate. We’re learning how we should behave in order to seduce our puppy into behaving the way we want him to. The instructor, using small words that could be understood by any average California adult (e.g., 3 letters or less), carefully described the basic theory of “puppy training”. So far as I could tell, it all boils down to this: place chunks of the very best corn-fed Iowa beef somewhere between where the puppy is now, and where you want him to be. Each chunk should be approximately one-half the size of the puppy. With a series of a few hundred such bribes (per hour), the puppy will be happy to do whatever you want him to do, until he gets full. I figure we’ll need somewhere between 7 and 9 Angus per week for starters; more when Miki grows up.

To be continued…

The rest of the pictures (click on the small pictures for a larger version):

NASA Priorities

Michael Griffin, shortly after his appointment as the new NASA chief, said that “not one thin dime” would be removed from NASA’s already sadly deficient science budget. He said this in response to the loudly voiced concerns of scientists both inside and outside NASA. Their concerns revolved around the fact that the shuttle and the space station were budgetary monsters that were eating all the dollars at NASA, at the expense of hard science.

Those words greatly cheered me at the time.

Now we know: Michael Griffin lied. I say lied, and not something milder like “mispoke” or “was mistaken", because Mr. Griffin was fully armed with all the basic facts about the NASA budget and priorities. He knew that he couldn’t possibly make manned flight NASA’s highest priority and still keep the science budget intact. Yesterday he made all this very clear:

NASA Chief Michael Griffin, testifying before Congress:

"I believe that fulfilling our commitments on the International Space Station and bringing the Crew Exploration Vehicle online in a timely manner, not later than 2014 and possibly sooner, is a higher priority than these science missions."

So there you have it.

Unless something very dramatic happens, NASA’s science budget will be looted for the next decade — or, more likely, for even longer — in order to prop up the manned space flight program.

The same manned space flight program that has produced nothing of value for the past 30 years. The one that President Bush has committed to returning to the moon as a first step to a manned mission to Mars. We’re going to spend billions and billions of dollars, put dozens of brave men and women in harm’s way, all for no practical reason that I’ve ever heard anyone articulate. I hear lots of blather about “exploration” and “vision", and Columbus is often invoked.

Well, Columbus had a mission and a practical purpose — he thought he was going to get rich by discovering a new route to India. There is no such reason for going to Mars, folks! It makes no economic sense to bring back minerals (or any other materials) from either the moon or Mars. The only space-based project I’ve heard that even comes close to practicality is earth-orbit power stations — and moving towards something like that is an entirely different development effort than is needed for visiting Mars. If we wanted to develop earth-orbit power stations (and I’m not advocating this idea; just citing it as an example), we’d be concentrating on the development of low-cost methods for orbiting the vast quantities of materials that would be needed for building large solar collectors.

I think it’s a darned shame that we’re squandering a chance to doing something truly magnificent — hard science in space — in order to do something with a Hollywood-like combination of glitz and serious lack of substance. It seems to fit in well with the times, sadly…

Tony Snow

The media is full of reports that Tony Snow has accepted the position of White House press secretary. The moonbats are (very predictably) all atitter over the many criticisms Tony has made of the Bush administration (all in the course of his work as an unabashedly conservative columnist and commentator). The conservatives seem to be mostly supportive of the pick, often citing Tony’s polish, quick wit, and camera presence.

Ordinarily I would care very little who is selected for the position of White House press secretary — other than some entertaining dialog with the almost uniformly barking moonbat White House press corps, there’s been little of lasting value or import from that position no matter who was in it. But the selection of Tony Snow has my attention, for a few reasons.

Most importantly, I just plain like and admire the guy. His plain-spoken, heartfelt commentary has always appealed to me, even when I disagreed with his conclusions or positions. Reading of his battle with colon cancer was inspiring; some of his words on the subject had me reaching for the box of tissues. And he gives every appearance of having in abundance that old-fashioned and now distressingly rare journalistic virtue: integrity.

An interesting twist to his appointment is that it’s hard to imagine Tony Snow mindlessly spinning a position with meaningless hyperbole (it’s that integrity thing, you know). I can’t say the same about any other White House press secretary in memory. It’s equally hard to imagine Tony Snow being bested in a verbal sparring match with any barking moonbat in the White House press corps — or even anyone that the lamestream media could field. Tony is a very bright guy, fully capable of demolishing an uninformed (or under-equipped) moonbat’s argument. I just can’t see Tony Snow getting flustered into making some dumb statement, or into letting some lamestream assertion stand unmolested.

In short, I think that the Bush administration just made a most interesting choice; one that will create sparkle and sizzle in a usually colorless (and thankless) position. I’m looking forward to a little shock and awe in the White House’s press relationship.

It’s badly needed, Tony — get to work!

Gasoline Prices

Yesterday I wrote about why gasoline prices are higher, and why gasoline is not yet overpriced. But I forgot to include one little factoid that brilliantly illuminates the hypocrisy of the gasoline price yammering of both our legislators and the liberal’s lapdog lamestream media. It is this:

Fact 1: The oil company’s profits last year, in toto, were between 6 to 9 cents per gallon, depending on whose estimate you care to believe.

Fact 2: In my county (San Diego County, California), the total gasoline taxes (federal, state, local, and indirect) are about 60 cents per gallon; in other states the amount varies, but in all cases it is similarly high.

If the definition of gouging is the extraction of unreasonable profits from a product, especially by monopolistic methods — then isn’t it our government who’s the big gouger? With ten times the “gouge factor” of those nasty, evil oil companies?

Ponder this the next time you hear some public talking head decrying the “gouging” of the oil companies…