Orcas, Raccoons and Hello Kitty!
Deborah talks about how community cats can alleviate rat problems, pet raccoons wreaking havoc in Tokyo, and Orca whales attacking boats! Also, can cats have jobs?
Tune in to find out!
Please send your voice clip or typed cat and dog questions to deb@petliferadio.com and you’ll get your pet answers on a future show.
Listen to Episode #192 Now:
Transcript:
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Announcer: This is Pet Life Radio.
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Announcer: Let's talk pets.
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Deborah Wolfe: Hello, you're listening to Animal Party on Pet Life Radio, and you're listening to me, Deborah Wolfe, I'm the host.
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Deborah Wolfe: And today, I'm not breaking on a guest.
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Deborah Wolfe: I've got a lot to talk about on this show today.
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Deborah Wolfe: I know last time, a few weeks ago, I was talking about, oh, Christy Noem, and how she wrote a book about how proud she was that she shot her adolescent puppy dog, who was a German short-haired pointer, a very good choice for a hunting dog, as far as breed goes.
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Deborah Wolfe: And without any training, it failed to do the right thing on a turkey hunt.
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Deborah Wolfe: And then she took it, obviously it got its signals confused.
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Deborah Wolfe: Then she took it to visit friends who had chickens, and it killed chickens.
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Deborah Wolfe: So she shot it.
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Deborah Wolfe: She also shot a goat.
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Deborah Wolfe: And then after the show aired, she was on TV once again, only this time she was saying that if she got into the White House, the first thing she would do is shoot biden's dog.
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Deborah Wolfe: And she made jokes about it, saying, you know, he should say hello to cricket and all this sort of stuff.
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Deborah Wolfe: And OK, biden's dog does have a problem.
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Deborah Wolfe: Now, when I said German shorthaired pointer is the right dog for a hunting trip, true, German shepherd might not be the right dog for the White House because there's so many strangers.
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Deborah Wolfe: There's so many strangers who a good guard dog, a good shepherd dog guarding its flock would think are a danger.
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Deborah Wolfe: Like 200-pound security guards with guns.
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Deborah Wolfe: These guys, they look like threats to a good dog that's not properly trained for this specific task to allow all people in uniform access or whatever else.
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Deborah Wolfe: It's just too big a job for a dog like that.
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Deborah Wolfe: He wants to do the job, and they want him to be a pet.
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Deborah Wolfe: And that just can't work.
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Deborah Wolfe: So unless you take your German shepherd and you put it through an enormous amount of training to teach it, that everybody and anybody is allowed around the president, you're going to have a German shepherd that's going to protect the president, which I would say is ideal.
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Deborah Wolfe: Anyway, just keep him on a leash, and keep him tight, keep him close.
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Deborah Wolfe: Now, even a guard who maybe has bad ideas, maybe been influenced, paid off, maybe a bad apple in the guards, he can't get to you either because the shepherd's on duty.
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Deborah Wolfe: So there's a way to use the German shepherd in this situation.
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Deborah Wolfe: But letting it run loose in the White House lawn, when strange new security guards are coming in and out, is not the way.
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Deborah Wolfe: Killing it for this, for this very amazing sign of duty.
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Deborah Wolfe: This dog, when he puts himself in front of the president and tries to protect the president against armed men, this dog is going above and beyond.
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Deborah Wolfe: He doesn't deserve to die for that.
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Deborah Wolfe: That loyalty and bravery should be rewarded.
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Deborah Wolfe: It just needs to be put on a leash and trained.
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Deborah Wolfe: That's all.
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Deborah Wolfe: Or put in a different home.
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Deborah Wolfe: Maybe he should stay at biden's vacation home and not at the White House.
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Deborah Wolfe: I mean, there's a very simple solution to this.
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Deborah Wolfe: But killing the dog is not the solution.
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Deborah Wolfe: In both these cases, there's no reason to kill the dog.
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Deborah Wolfe: The dog is not a bad apple, not a bad canine citizen, not a threat to anybody if he's put in the right situation.
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Deborah Wolfe: So I just wanted to cover that a little bit.
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Deborah Wolfe: Talk about that just a little bit.
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Deborah Wolfe: And if you can catch Colbert on this, oh my goodness, last week he was, and the week before, he was so funny, talking about this.
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Deborah Wolfe: So it's worth catching reruns of that show or looking it up on YouTube.
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Deborah Wolfe: Something else in the news that I found interesting was that New York City is having a terrible, terrible rat problem.
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Deborah Wolfe: You know, most major cities have this problem.
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Deborah Wolfe: And if you're a port city, you have it even worse.
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Deborah Wolfe: So, okay, New York is a big water port, and it's a big, big city.
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Deborah Wolfe: So it's going to have these problems.
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Deborah Wolfe: And most of the rats were actually imports from Europe.
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Deborah Wolfe: Most of these rats are not native to North America, but now they're here, and they're reproducing like crazy.
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Deborah Wolfe: And New York actually, last year, they had a rat czar.
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Deborah Wolfe: This year, they're having a rat summit.
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Deborah Wolfe: I think it's really quite interesting.
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Deborah Wolfe: And I know Vancouver, the city I live near, I live in a little town called Maple Ridge, in the outskirts of country town, about an hour outside of Vancouver.
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Deborah Wolfe: But Vancouver also has a rat problem, a big rat problem.
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Deborah Wolfe: And it's a big city in a port city, beautiful city.
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Deborah Wolfe: So what happens here with the rats?
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Deborah Wolfe: Hmm, not gonna like this.
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Deborah Wolfe: Coyotes, coyotes flourish on the rat population.
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Deborah Wolfe: And that's not very good for the people who don't want coyotes pestering them, biting them, intimidating them, harassing them, trying to steal their cats or little dogs, picking fights with their big dogs.
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Deborah Wolfe: It's not a good situation at all.
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Deborah Wolfe: And I do wonder if we think of this in a more holistic way, if there is a place for felines in rat control.
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Deborah Wolfe: I mean, there's got to be.
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Deborah Wolfe: There's got to be a way to use the cat population that is stray.
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Deborah Wolfe: There's often conflict between the bird lovers and the cat lovers, and the cat people want to have spay and neuter and humane release of these cats to live in colonies, wild colonies.
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Deborah Wolfe: But sometimes the colonies are in the exactly wrong spot, right?
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Deborah Wolfe: They happen to be right where the birds that are endangered are having their young or right where they're mating or right where they fish or some really sensitive area.
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Deborah Wolfe: And then the whole cat population has to be moved, which I totally agree with.
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Deborah Wolfe: How about move them where there's too many rats?
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Deborah Wolfe: Now we're talking, right?
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Deborah Wolfe: Because the big thing, I mean, a cat will eat about 10 to 12 rodents in a day easily, and a cat can take down a rat its size.
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Deborah Wolfe: It's amazing to watch.
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Deborah Wolfe: This is what they're made for.
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Deborah Wolfe: So I wonder, I wonder if people ought to be thinking about this a little more.
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Deborah Wolfe: Yes.
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Deborah Wolfe: All right, we're going to go to break and come back and talk about another infestation.
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Deborah Wolfe: Nothing to do with rats.
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Deborah Wolfe: And we're going to go all the way to Japan to talk about this one.
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Deborah Wolfe: Stay tuned on Animal Party, Pet Life Radio.
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Deborah Wolfe: This is Deborah Wolfe, host of Animal Party on Pet Life Radio.
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Deborah Wolfe: You know the expression, cats have nine lives?
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Deborah Wolfe: Well, what if you can give them one more?
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Deborah Wolfe: The Give Them Ten Movement is on a mission to help give cats an extra life.
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Deborah Wolfe: How?
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Deborah Wolfe: With spay and neuter.
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Deborah Wolfe: Spaying or neutering your cat helps them live a longer, healthier life.
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Deborah Wolfe: And it helps control free roaming cat populations too.
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Deborah Wolfe: Learn more about the benefits of spay and neuter and meet Scooter, the neutered cat, at givethemten.org.
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Deborah Wolfe: That's give them T-E-N dot org.
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Announcer: Let's talk pets on petliferadio.com.
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Deborah Wolfe: Hello, you're back on Animal Party on Pet Life Radio.
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Deborah Wolfe: Well, has sometimes TV influenced us, and sometimes it's good, sometimes it's bad.
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Deborah Wolfe: So in the 70s, there was this cartoon about a happy-go-lucky, mischievous raccoon.
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Deborah Wolfe: And the cartoon didn't do very well in North America.
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Deborah Wolfe: I never heard of it, but it got so popular in Japan.
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Deborah Wolfe: It was really, really big there.
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Deborah Wolfe: And so people started importing raccoons as pets, and they kept them for a little while, as you might with a baby animal.
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Deborah Wolfe: They're often very easy to deal with when they're infants.
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Deborah Wolfe: But then some of the raccoons got to be problems, and the people just either they escaped or they let them go.
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Deborah Wolfe: Either way, the result is that they ruined a whole bunch of ancient temples.
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Deborah Wolfe: Okay, so that's a few years ago, maybe 20 years ago, this beautiful natural park where you could hike to different temples with the pagoda roofs and pray or look at historical plaques and really immerse yourself in the history of Japan is now taken over by these raccoons.
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Deborah Wolfe: And the roofs are chewed apart, and there's feces everywhere, and it's just a horrible, horrible situation.
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Deborah Wolfe: But to make matters worse, now the raccoons are in Tokyo.
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Deborah Wolfe: And I mean, it kind of sounds like one of those movies where a big giant lizard takes over, a big gorilla, Hong Kong, King Kong takes over Tokyo.
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Deborah Wolfe: It's like one of those.
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Deborah Wolfe: The raccoons take over Tokyo.
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Deborah Wolfe: So I'd like to see what happens with this, because raccoons are unusually difficult to get rid of for a variety of reasons.
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Deborah Wolfe: So for one thing, they have their hands, have a have a digit on them that is an awful lot like our thumb.
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Deborah Wolfe: It's not quite like our thumb, but I might argue it's better because it's a little more dextrous, and they have those wicked talons, those sharp, sharp claws on all their fingers.
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Deborah Wolfe: So they have an opposing digit.
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Deborah Wolfe: They can undo things and do them up and unlock gates and latches, and probably quicker than you can.
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Deborah Wolfe: Now, I've said that before about some of the dogs at my place.
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Deborah Wolfe: There was a Rottweiler thump years ago who could open any latch with his mouth or his head.
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Deborah Wolfe: All my poodles are very, very good at this with their paws.
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Deborah Wolfe: They can open gates and latches, and just watching you do it once or twice, and then the next time they're in the yard alone, they do it themselves.
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Deborah Wolfe: And okay, but raccoons, raccoons have thumbs.
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Deborah Wolfe: So all of this is super easy.
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Deborah Wolfe: Anything you can do, they can do as far as locking, unlocking, opening and closing.
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Deborah Wolfe: So that's the first thing.
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Deborah Wolfe: And then they're very, very smart and they're very, very fit, very strong, very adept climbers.
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Deborah Wolfe: They got those claws.
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Deborah Wolfe: They got wicked eyesight and hearing and everything a wild animal would want.
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Deborah Wolfe: Top of all that, though, what puts them in like the extra, the extra level, if you will, is that they pass down information.
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Deborah Wolfe: So most animals teach their young things, but raccoons do this in an incredible way.
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Deborah Wolfe: So each generation is smarter than the one before.
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Deborah Wolfe: Each generation is more able to adapt and has all the wisdom of the generation before and then some.
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Deborah Wolfe: And it's actually got scientists.
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Deborah Wolfe: It was the raccoons that got scientists first to experiment with different animals to see if there's genetic memory.
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Deborah Wolfe: So in other words, they took some bunnies and they made them hate a certain kind of berry by giving them unpleasant experience around that berry.
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Deborah Wolfe: And then they had offspring and they had offspring and they tested all the offspring to see if they were still afraid of the berry that caused the unpleasant experience.
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Deborah Wolfe: And it turns out that even the grand babies of the initial experiment bunnies, even their grand babies who had never met them, never had a chance to encounter this teaching, even they were afraid of this berry that the grandparents had been taught to fear.
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Deborah Wolfe: So, very interesting.
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Deborah Wolfe: Does it pass through the genes?
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Deborah Wolfe: I think so.
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Deborah Wolfe: So, the raccoon is going to be an extreme challenge for Tokyo.
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Deborah Wolfe: And I'm going to check back on that and find out what's going on later, because it's going to be something to see how they get rid of that.
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Deborah Wolfe: Okay.
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Deborah Wolfe: You know, we were talking about, I was doing some celebrity gossip in one of the shows a few weeks ago and we were talking about Lionel Richie's daughter and Nicole Richie and how she and Paris Hilton had done these television shows and when they were teenagers, they had pet rats and they many, many pet rats and they named them all after the characters on 90210.
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Deborah Wolfe: I'm not a pet rat person.
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Deborah Wolfe: And I do notice that the people who love pet rats are very kissy-cuddly with them, which I find difficult to watch.
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Deborah Wolfe: I'm admitting this as a pet expert.
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Deborah Wolfe: I've not yet made a bond with any rat or snake that makes me want to kiss or cuddle them.
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Deborah Wolfe: And I've had occasion where I had to give awards out.
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Deborah Wolfe: There was like a VIP award, very important pet award.
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Deborah Wolfe: And there was, you know, a dog who had rescued people from avalanches, gave him his medal and his year supply of IAMS dog food.
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Deborah Wolfe: And then there was this other dog who sniffed out things for the police in up to 80 feet of water, you know, like people who drowned or clothes that had been left by people.
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Deborah Wolfe: And so that dog, he was a great dog.
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Deborah Wolfe: He got to give him.
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Deborah Wolfe: And then the third winner is a snake.
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Deborah Wolfe: And I got to go hang a medal on this snake's neck and pretend to give it a kiss sort of.
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Deborah Wolfe: And yeah, it just wasn't the same feeling as hugging these dogs that help people.
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Deborah Wolfe: There was a cat there too.
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Deborah Wolfe: And you know, cats can be used to work.
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Deborah Wolfe: I know people are skeptical about that, but they can be used to work.
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Deborah Wolfe: And actually, I think we're gonna go to the second break of the day.
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Deborah Wolfe: And when we come back, I'll talk a little bit about working cats.
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Deborah Wolfe: And then I'm gonna shift over to some orca news.
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Deborah Wolfe: So stay tuned for that on Animal Party, Pet Life Radio.
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Announcer: Let's Talk Pest on Pet Life Radio.
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Announcer: petliferadio.com.
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Deborah Wolfe: Hello, you're back on Animal Party, Pet Life Radio.
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Deborah Wolfe: Okay, so does a cat ever have a job?
00:14:24.680 --> 00:14:27.160
Deborah Wolfe: Yes, some cats do have jobs.
00:14:27.160 --> 00:14:31.780
Deborah Wolfe: There are cats who live at old age homes and nursing homes.
00:14:31.780 --> 00:14:34.020
Deborah Wolfe: And there are cats who comfort the sick and the old.
00:14:34.020 --> 00:14:40.100
Deborah Wolfe: There are cats who comfort children at police stations during times of distress, trying to think what other jobs.
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Deborah Wolfe: Oh, yeah, there's a good one, here's a good one.
00:14:41.720 --> 00:14:43.280
Deborah Wolfe: This is a really technical job.
00:14:43.940 --> 00:14:47.620
Deborah Wolfe: So, rats, interesting, we're still talking about rats.
00:14:47.620 --> 00:14:52.520
Deborah Wolfe: Rats are the best animals at finding landmines.
00:14:52.520 --> 00:15:01.440
Deborah Wolfe: They tunnel, they're smart, they can be trained really, really well to find the landmine and then alert the humans so we can get rid of the landmine.
00:15:01.440 --> 00:15:04.200
Deborah Wolfe: So, innocent people and animals don't walk on it, right?
00:15:04.380 --> 00:15:12.580
Deborah Wolfe: After wars leave an area, oftentimes the devastation continues from these horrible things placed underground.
00:15:12.580 --> 00:15:16.780
Deborah Wolfe: So, rats are really good at finding these and not getting hurt, finding them and coming back and reporting.
00:15:16.780 --> 00:15:22.880
Deborah Wolfe: They have cameras on their heads and they go and they tunnel and they find these landmines so the people can get rid of them.
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Deborah Wolfe: But the one problem is most of the rats are so afraid of being preyed on by a predator that they're only got half their mind on the job.
00:15:32.900 --> 00:15:49.140
Deborah Wolfe: So what they do is they take these rats when they're in training, after they've learned to find the bombs and everything, and they got their skill set all already, they put them with cats who don't hunt to get the idea that they don't have to worry if a predator is nearby.
00:15:49.140 --> 00:15:51.360
Deborah Wolfe: And so the rat will keep doing its job.
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Deborah Wolfe: Now, there's not going to be predators around when the humans are there, and there's all this noise and bustle, and they really needn't have half their mind worrying for a predator.
00:15:59.600 --> 00:16:13.900
Deborah Wolfe: But once they learn to work around sleeping cats, purring cats, grooming cats, cats who couldn't care less what the rats are doing, they stop worrying about the rats and the cats, and the rats are able to do their job a lot better.
00:16:13.900 --> 00:16:16.200
Deborah Wolfe: So there's another job for cats.
00:16:16.200 --> 00:16:24.220
Deborah Wolfe: And I've also seen cats as hotel greeters, and I've seen cats get read to by kids with reading difficulties.
00:16:24.220 --> 00:16:26.540
Deborah Wolfe: So there's a few good jobs for cats out there.
00:16:26.540 --> 00:16:28.200
Deborah Wolfe: Don't dismiss the cat.
00:16:29.100 --> 00:16:30.120
Deborah Wolfe: All the way.
00:16:30.120 --> 00:16:33.680
Deborah Wolfe: Now, I know they don't always want to work.
00:16:33.680 --> 00:16:42.860
Deborah Wolfe: And years ago, I used to do commercials, and I had a cat who I took for a Western Family cat food ad.
00:16:42.860 --> 00:16:46.560
Deborah Wolfe: I've had cats work for me before, and you have to pick the right cat.
00:16:46.560 --> 00:16:53.220
Deborah Wolfe: You have to pick a cat who's so, so busy, who always wants to do tricks, and always wants your attention.
00:16:53.220 --> 00:16:58.720
Deborah Wolfe: And when you teach it something like its name, and every time you say its name, it comes running.
00:16:58.720 --> 00:17:02.840
Deborah Wolfe: You have to pick the right, highly motivated, highly interested cat.
00:17:02.840 --> 00:17:06.040
Deborah Wolfe: If you have a cat like this, he's probably bugging you all the time.
00:17:06.040 --> 00:17:10.580
Deborah Wolfe: He's probably trying to initiate play with you, trying to get interaction from you.
00:17:10.580 --> 00:17:13.040
Deborah Wolfe: He's probably looking in your eyes a lot.
00:17:13.040 --> 00:17:16.180
Deborah Wolfe: Try and teach him something, like just a simple trick like sit.
00:17:16.180 --> 00:17:19.760
Deborah Wolfe: Say the word sit, place him in a sit position, and pet him.
00:17:19.760 --> 00:17:21.540
Deborah Wolfe: Do it like one more time.
00:17:21.540 --> 00:17:23.380
Deborah Wolfe: Then say sit and see if he does it.
00:17:24.180 --> 00:17:30.140
Deborah Wolfe: If your cat's super food rewarded, if he loves food, you could use some kind of food reward, like a cat treat.
00:17:30.140 --> 00:17:30.860
Deborah Wolfe: Do the same thing.
00:17:30.860 --> 00:17:33.040
Deborah Wolfe: Say sit, place him in the sit position.
00:17:33.040 --> 00:17:35.320
Deborah Wolfe: Say sit, place him in the sit position.
00:17:35.320 --> 00:17:37.260
Deborah Wolfe: Stroke him, give him a treat.
00:17:37.260 --> 00:17:39.780
Deborah Wolfe: Say sit, if he sits, give him a treat.
00:17:39.780 --> 00:17:41.320
Deborah Wolfe: He's just learned sit.
00:17:41.320 --> 00:17:43.220
Deborah Wolfe: Now you might think, what's she talking about?
00:17:43.220 --> 00:17:45.360
Deborah Wolfe: She's saying to just do it twice?
00:17:45.360 --> 00:17:49.980
Deborah Wolfe: Yes, cats are super smart and they get bored.
00:17:49.980 --> 00:17:57.080
Deborah Wolfe: If you do it too many times, you'll think your cat hasn't learned a trick because he'll ignore you because he thinks you're not worth listening to.
00:17:57.080 --> 00:18:00.080
Deborah Wolfe: If you underestimate a cat, he will stop working.
00:18:00.080 --> 00:18:06.720
Deborah Wolfe: So that's my first tip for cat training is keep don't repeat too much and keep it moving.
00:18:06.720 --> 00:18:07.420
Deborah Wolfe: Keep it moving.
00:18:07.420 --> 00:18:08.420
Deborah Wolfe: Do one with dogs.
00:18:08.420 --> 00:18:09.880
Deborah Wolfe: I will often stay at a trip.
00:18:09.880 --> 00:18:12.820
Deborah Wolfe: I'll stay at it and stay at it and stay at it till the dog gets it.
00:18:12.820 --> 00:18:14.900
Deborah Wolfe: You know, keep praising him and keep doing it.
00:18:14.900 --> 00:18:15.640
Deborah Wolfe: And then he gets it.
00:18:15.660 --> 00:18:16.340
Deborah Wolfe: Yes.
00:18:16.340 --> 00:18:17.260
Deborah Wolfe: And then do it one more time.
00:18:17.260 --> 00:18:17.840
Deborah Wolfe: Yes.
00:18:17.840 --> 00:18:19.180
Deborah Wolfe: And then I'll move on.
00:18:19.180 --> 00:18:23.660
Deborah Wolfe: But with a cat, if he's bored, move on to something else, try something else.
00:18:23.660 --> 00:18:26.220
Deborah Wolfe: They really don't have the same attention span.
00:18:26.220 --> 00:18:36.520
Deborah Wolfe: So once your cat actually wants to please you and understands that training and tricks is fun and is kind of into the whole exercise, then you can go a little longer.
00:18:36.520 --> 00:18:42.020
Deborah Wolfe: But the first few times you work with a cat, you want to just do two repetitions, maybe three.
00:18:42.020 --> 00:18:45.500
Deborah Wolfe: And if the cat doesn't want to sit, for example, try something else.
00:18:45.500 --> 00:18:48.860
Deborah Wolfe: So say your cat is always pawing at you, pawing at you, pawing at you.
00:18:48.860 --> 00:18:50.660
Deborah Wolfe: Teach him to paw something else like a belt.
00:18:51.060 --> 00:18:52.500
Deborah Wolfe: Teach him to ring a bell.
00:18:52.500 --> 00:18:57.460
Deborah Wolfe: And then you can hang that bell by the door, and he can ring that bell when he wants to go out instead of scratching.
00:18:57.460 --> 00:19:03.400
Deborah Wolfe: Yet there's so many ways to make cats interested in training that's helpful to us.
00:19:03.400 --> 00:19:06.840
Deborah Wolfe: Okay, so if you have cat questions, please send them to me.
00:19:06.840 --> 00:19:16.060
Deborah Wolfe: You can send me a voice clip at debbettpetliferadio.com or just send a text or an email or anything at all with a question, and I'll give you an answer.
00:19:16.060 --> 00:19:17.500
Deborah Wolfe: And you'll get your cat trained.
00:19:18.200 --> 00:19:21.640
Deborah Wolfe: Most of the time, we train our cats to do the wrong thing.
00:19:21.640 --> 00:19:25.040
Deborah Wolfe: So the cat bugs you in the middle of the night, you get up and feed it.
00:19:25.040 --> 00:19:27.680
Deborah Wolfe: Well, now you're going to have a cat who bugs you every night.
00:19:27.680 --> 00:19:33.320
Deborah Wolfe: Every time it feels like eating, every time it's bored, it's going to think meal times are the middle of the night.
00:19:33.320 --> 00:19:35.380
Deborah Wolfe: So you've just trained it to do that.
00:19:35.380 --> 00:19:43.440
Deborah Wolfe: If instead you close your bedroom door and ignore it till the morning and feed them in the morning, he'll give up on the midnight 3 AM wake ups.
00:19:43.440 --> 00:19:45.260
Deborah Wolfe: They are naturally nocturnal.
00:19:45.520 --> 00:19:51.020
Deborah Wolfe: So teaching a cat that you are not nocturnal takes a little time.
00:19:51.020 --> 00:19:53.880
Deborah Wolfe: They expect us to be up all night and sleep in the day.
00:19:53.880 --> 00:19:57.300
Deborah Wolfe: So we have to teach them that that's not our way.
00:19:57.300 --> 00:20:03.860
Deborah Wolfe: All right, please send me your cat questions, your dog questions, your suggestions, your why does my dog do this?
00:20:03.860 --> 00:20:06.320
Deborah Wolfe: Or why does my cat do this?
00:20:06.320 --> 00:20:09.880
Deborah Wolfe: And just going to talk about something that was in the news.
00:20:09.880 --> 00:20:10.380
Deborah Wolfe: Orcas.
00:20:11.220 --> 00:20:17.820
Deborah Wolfe: Orcas have been sinking boats in the Strait of Gibraltar near Spain for about a long time.
00:20:17.820 --> 00:20:22.420
Deborah Wolfe: It's been about 200 boats and they just did it last weekend.
00:20:22.420 --> 00:20:23.880
Deborah Wolfe: Couple was rescued.
00:20:23.880 --> 00:20:27.080
Deborah Wolfe: Their boat, sailboat was tanked.
00:20:27.080 --> 00:20:29.160
Deborah Wolfe: It just over and over and over.
00:20:29.160 --> 00:20:31.340
Deborah Wolfe: These orca whales just battered it.
00:20:31.340 --> 00:20:35.680
Deborah Wolfe: They just hit it and hit it and hit it till the thing went down.
00:20:35.680 --> 00:20:39.200
Deborah Wolfe: And people keep asking, well, is it play?
00:20:39.200 --> 00:20:39.900
Deborah Wolfe: Are they playing?
00:20:40.060 --> 00:20:43.420
Deborah Wolfe: Why are these whales so different than the rest of the whales in the world?
00:20:43.420 --> 00:20:46.460
Deborah Wolfe: Why is this one area such an area of conflict?
00:20:46.460 --> 00:20:49.140
Deborah Wolfe: And why do they keep hitting sailboats?
00:20:49.140 --> 00:20:52.940
Deborah Wolfe: OK, well, first of all, I think, you know, take a step back.
00:20:52.940 --> 00:20:56.160
Deborah Wolfe: They're smarter than we are, or at least as smart as we are.
00:20:56.160 --> 00:21:00.300
Deborah Wolfe: So a lot of people have been saying, was it just play?
00:21:00.300 --> 00:21:03.200
Deborah Wolfe: And I would have to say, no chance.
00:21:03.200 --> 00:21:05.320
Deborah Wolfe: No chance is this play.
00:21:05.320 --> 00:21:07.960
Deborah Wolfe: These are extremely intelligent animals.
00:21:08.400 --> 00:21:11.120
Deborah Wolfe: When they sink a boat, they know what they've done.
00:21:11.120 --> 00:21:12.420
Deborah Wolfe: They know we need the boat.
00:21:12.420 --> 00:21:14.320
Deborah Wolfe: They know it's dangerous for us.
00:21:14.320 --> 00:21:19.020
Deborah Wolfe: They are trying to get those people off the water, out of their space.
00:21:19.020 --> 00:21:20.600
Deborah Wolfe: It's not about play.
00:21:20.600 --> 00:21:22.000
Deborah Wolfe: They know how to play.
00:21:22.000 --> 00:21:23.140
Deborah Wolfe: They're not playing with you.
00:21:23.140 --> 00:21:25.600
Deborah Wolfe: They're trying to get you out of their area.
00:21:25.600 --> 00:21:29.620
Deborah Wolfe: The question for me is more, what did we do?
00:21:29.620 --> 00:21:36.120
Deborah Wolfe: What sailboat, who in sailboats is pissing off the whales in the Strait of Gibraltar?
00:21:36.640 --> 00:21:43.400
Deborah Wolfe: Because they're targeting specific type of yacht, specific type of boat over and over and over again.
00:21:43.400 --> 00:21:46.720
Deborah Wolfe: So the first question is, is there something about those boats?
00:21:46.720 --> 00:21:48.420
Deborah Wolfe: Are they using some kind of sonar?
00:21:48.420 --> 00:21:50.000
Deborah Wolfe: Are they using some kind of alarms?
00:21:50.000 --> 00:21:57.620
Deborah Wolfe: Is there something irritating to the whales that this particular kind of yacht is transmitting that they can't tolerate?
00:21:57.620 --> 00:21:59.060
Deborah Wolfe: That's my first question.
00:21:59.060 --> 00:22:09.800
Deborah Wolfe: And if we can't find any commonality there, the second question is what idiot on a boat attacked the whales?
00:22:09.800 --> 00:22:14.400
Deborah Wolfe: When, where, what, and how do we show them that we're not all like that guy?
00:22:14.400 --> 00:22:16.880
Deborah Wolfe: How do we send a message of peace?
00:22:16.880 --> 00:22:21.360
Deborah Wolfe: Because they are trying to get every yacht and every sailboat out of their water.
00:22:21.360 --> 00:22:23.480
Deborah Wolfe: And that tells me something went wrong.
00:22:23.480 --> 00:22:33.960
Deborah Wolfe: Somebody shot them, somebody pestered them, somebody went too close, somebody harassed them, somebody hurt one of them, something like that happened.
00:22:33.960 --> 00:22:41.480
Deborah Wolfe: And this particular family of whales is trying to protect itself from the future happening again.
00:22:41.480 --> 00:22:43.220
Deborah Wolfe: And I totally agree with them.
00:22:43.220 --> 00:22:44.380
Deborah Wolfe: So what do we do?
00:22:44.380 --> 00:22:48.620
Deborah Wolfe: And how do we figure out how to send the message that we're not there to hurt them?
00:22:48.620 --> 00:22:52.600
Deborah Wolfe: We need to send similar boats out with a message of peace.
00:22:52.600 --> 00:22:56.220
Deborah Wolfe: And that could be with fish.
00:22:56.220 --> 00:22:57.060
Deborah Wolfe: It could be.
00:22:57.060 --> 00:22:58.300
Deborah Wolfe: It could be a gift.
00:22:58.300 --> 00:23:00.740
Deborah Wolfe: It could be some significant gesture.
00:23:01.260 --> 00:23:03.480
Deborah Wolfe: Other than harassment.
00:23:03.480 --> 00:23:04.920
Deborah Wolfe: So I want to put that out there.
00:23:04.920 --> 00:23:09.520
Deborah Wolfe: We got to figure out what's going on there and solve the problem.
00:23:09.520 --> 00:23:10.540
Deborah Wolfe: Hello Kitty.
00:23:10.540 --> 00:23:12.720
Deborah Wolfe: Hello Kitty opened in Vancouver.
00:23:12.720 --> 00:23:28.300
Deborah Wolfe: And I was really surprised to see that it was lined up around the block with not little kids, lots and lots of men and women dressed in Hello Kitty outfits lining up around the block to shop at the first Hello Kitty store in Canada.
00:23:28.300 --> 00:23:29.580
Deborah Wolfe: I thought that was really strange.
00:23:30.100 --> 00:23:32.560
Deborah Wolfe: I was not in the line up.
00:23:32.560 --> 00:23:38.220
Deborah Wolfe: I would rather go to the Cat Cafe where they have actual cats, rescue cats, than Hello Kitty.
00:23:38.220 --> 00:23:42.420
Deborah Wolfe: But I do appreciate that it is quite the phenomenon for cat lovers.
00:23:42.420 --> 00:23:46.860
Deborah Wolfe: So if you're looking for a Hello Kitty store, you can find one in Vancouver now.
00:23:46.860 --> 00:23:58.920
Deborah Wolfe: And I guess I want to end the show today, just with, I guess, a story, a little story from my own experience here at Camp Good Dog.
00:23:58.920 --> 00:24:03.360
Deborah Wolfe: So I've got the boarding kennel, and there were lots of dogs here for May long weekend.
00:24:03.360 --> 00:24:05.400
Deborah Wolfe: We had a big long weekend this week.
00:24:05.400 --> 00:24:06.820
Deborah Wolfe: And so many, many dogs came.
00:24:06.820 --> 00:24:15.280
Deborah Wolfe: And I had to send my beautiful teddy, Cinnamon Teddy Bear, who's about eight or nine years old now, Standard Poodle.
00:24:15.280 --> 00:24:17.680
Deborah Wolfe: I had to send him down to the kennel to stay for a few days.
00:24:18.180 --> 00:24:25.260
Deborah Wolfe: He's still there because one of his wives and another female dog are up at my house with cone collars.
00:24:25.260 --> 00:24:29.380
Deborah Wolfe: You know, they got spayed and they have to wear the cone collar.
00:24:29.380 --> 00:24:31.900
Deborah Wolfe: And I don't really want Teddy to be...
00:24:31.900 --> 00:24:40.540
Deborah Wolfe: He loves these girls, and he would probably try to clean them or lick their incision area or just harass them because they smell different.
00:24:40.540 --> 00:24:42.560
Deborah Wolfe: You know, they don't smell like they used to.
00:24:42.560 --> 00:24:45.260
Deborah Wolfe: They don't smell like his wife anymore.
00:24:45.520 --> 00:24:48.560
Deborah Wolfe: And so, he would probably be a nuisance.
00:24:48.560 --> 00:24:50.540
Deborah Wolfe: So I sent him down to the kennel.
00:24:50.540 --> 00:24:52.540
Deborah Wolfe: And the two cone dogs are doing fine.
00:24:52.540 --> 00:24:54.200
Deborah Wolfe: They've adjusted to their soft cones.
00:24:54.200 --> 00:24:56.960
Deborah Wolfe: I love the cone that I've got for them.
00:24:56.980 --> 00:25:00.740
Deborah Wolfe: And it's got velcro attachments, and it's just...
00:25:00.740 --> 00:25:06.400
Deborah Wolfe: It's much more pleasant than the hard plastic when it bumps into you, but also against their faces.
00:25:06.400 --> 00:25:07.660
Deborah Wolfe: And they got quite used to it.
00:25:07.660 --> 00:25:08.980
Deborah Wolfe: They're doing really well.
00:25:08.980 --> 00:25:10.480
Deborah Wolfe: One's still on antibiotics.
00:25:10.480 --> 00:25:12.100
Deborah Wolfe: The other one's Dunhurst.
00:25:12.100 --> 00:25:13.720
Deborah Wolfe: Doing really, really well in their recovery.
00:25:14.260 --> 00:25:20.220
Deborah Wolfe: But there was a side effect of all this that I didn't even predict or foresee.
00:25:20.220 --> 00:25:26.560
Deborah Wolfe: I have a really old dog, a blue-heeled dog, who's got a cyst in the middle of his back.
00:25:26.560 --> 00:25:28.660
Deborah Wolfe: And the vet's told me, just monitor it.
00:25:28.660 --> 00:25:31.040
Deborah Wolfe: If it doesn't do much, don't worry about it.
00:25:31.040 --> 00:25:31.900
Deborah Wolfe: He's old now.
00:25:31.900 --> 00:25:33.660
Deborah Wolfe: We won't, you know, it's okay.
00:25:33.660 --> 00:25:36.000
Deborah Wolfe: We'll just have a look at it every once in a while.
00:25:36.000 --> 00:25:36.540
Deborah Wolfe: Okay.
00:25:36.540 --> 00:25:44.080
Deborah Wolfe: And it didn't seem to be doing much, but I didn't realize the reason it didn't seem to be doing much is because the other dogs have been taking care of him.
00:25:44.080 --> 00:25:51.660
Deborah Wolfe: So now with Teddy gone and the two females in cone collars, they can't take care of him anymore.
00:25:51.660 --> 00:26:03.220
Deborah Wolfe: And so within three days of this happening, poor Blue had a big mess on his back, and I had to clean it all up, and he lost lots of hair, and now he has a big bald spot.
00:26:03.220 --> 00:26:09.560
Deborah Wolfe: He looks like a George Costanza dog, the poor guy, or Fry or Tuck with a big bald spot in the middle of his back.
00:26:10.100 --> 00:26:16.280
Deborah Wolfe: I didn't realize that these girl dogs were taking such good care of him, and keeping him in such good condition.
00:26:16.280 --> 00:26:21.260
Deborah Wolfe: And when they got their phone callers, they stopped, and the wound got really messy.
00:26:21.260 --> 00:26:26.600
Deborah Wolfe: So I've cleaned it all up, and he's probably gonna have to go to the vet next week for another recheck.
00:26:26.600 --> 00:26:32.460
Deborah Wolfe: But I just thought, you know, sometimes our dogs are doing good work, and we don't even know it.
00:26:32.460 --> 00:26:35.120
Deborah Wolfe: All right, everybody, thanks for listening today.
00:26:35.120 --> 00:26:42.440
Deborah Wolfe: Until next week, from me, Deborah Wolfe, and Animal Party, Pet Life Radio, be good to your animals.
00:26:42.440 --> 00:26:48.420
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