Well the fun thing about the weekly newsletter is how fast the list is growing! More and more people are looking for good Doberman information. This weeks article is hoping to prevent heartache for many of us. Everyone should be aware by now of the pet food recall, sad thing is the major retailers never even pulled it off their shelves. When I was in getting food this week at one of the “super” stores I noticed they didn’t care about the recall at all! I was appalled! Think of how it would feel to think you are taking great care of your pet while all the while you are giving them lethal doses of poison! Those people must be so devastated and our hearts and prayers go out to them. Part of this is a reminder to be careful about poisoning. Ray and Lori down in Florida learned that the Pet Poison hotline was nearly an $80 call to get information. Seems a little like extortion to me, people in duress eager for help and advice and then asked for their credit card number. They did get some good advice though, when in doubt, call the

People poison control and they will answer your questions as well. We need to all be careful about poison this time of year, people are putting out lot’s of rat and mouse poison to help control rodent problems, as well as other pest control products. It is a shame that the only way to be truly safe is to not let your 4 legged family members 3 feet from you. If your animal does get into any kind of poison, pesticide etc, get to the vet immediately, you won’t be able to do enough on your own to help them. Sadly even with all the tragedy of the pet food recall, someone here in our city has been throwing poisoned meat over fences to pets in their own yard. I can’t understand what moves people to do such malicious and hateful things, but they do it and we all pay the price. So I guess I am asking folks to be careful not to leave your pet unattended even in your own yard.

Also I had some good friends give me a book they knew I would connect with while I continue through my grieving process, and I want to recommend that book to all of you. The Title is “Marley and me” The book was written from the heart and although there was in my mind a lot of writing that didn’t need to be there, it hit home. It is a powerful story of a man and his dog and their years together and the lessons that were being taught to the teacher that were only seen in retrospect. It tore my heart out as I knew too well what the author feels at the end, I have experienced it too many times in my own life. But take a few hours and read it, get the message I am now learning, and that is that life really is too short to live it unhappy or angry, upset or with grudges, it marches on unchecked and out of control and we are left to resent it, or embrace it and actually live it. I think as I figure and look at the calendar, that I only have about 2000 Saturdays left in my life (Thanks Ray). That sounds like a lot until you put into perspective the “marble story” about a guy who put a marble in a jar to represent every Saturday of the rest of his life and pulled them out each week as they passed. At first the jar seems endless, but after a time you realize how much has been lost and you are much more careful about how you invest your scarcest resource time. You soon find yourself turning down lots of “offers” of how to spend your time and focus on the things that give you the greatest return. For me it is my family and my dogs. I am sad for the adversity that brought about all these events in my life, but grateful for the chance I have to just stay home and be with my family and my dogs. So thanks to Marley, and the friends that introduced me to him, and thanks for the “Marley’s” that have already passed through my own life and the treasures they left me to reflect on. On thanks to my extended “Dobe Family” that allows me to wax sentimental once in a while, though I may not know all of you personally, I am grateful our paths have crossed.

And now on to exciting stuff…

We are busy here, Sasha’s litter is flying out tomorrow, all except the red female that we will be watching until her family returns from Mexico next week to get her. Coco is a loving mom that is taing great care of her stunning litter. Though they are only a week old, I can tell you, they are some of the prettiest pups I have ever seen. Farika’s pups have their eyes open now, and I can’t thank Lisa, Morgan and Dan enough for all their help, it really came at a time when I needed it, though I miss having two litters at my feet now that Sasha’s pups are going…. If you guys haven’t seen pictures of the new babies yet, go to the sight and enjoy them! And lastly, and exclusive opportunity for my Doberman list… I have a new girl coming from Denmark in the next two weeks, and I am going to give you all a sneek peek at her before I publish her page on the web. Click this link to see “Fiji” and prepare to be astonished! I am so grateful for the chance to have dogs around me of the caliber we have! Saying these are the best dogs in the world, isn’t just empty words, we are truly blessed. Also Paola Di Altobello has been bred to Zenny, and Paola Naiss ginga House will be next Monday. Isis is due to whelp in three weeks, and Fiji cycles in June. I will only allow one male and one female reservation for pups in Paola Naiss’ litter and Fiji’s both second pick as I am keeping a pup from each litter for myself, and Paola Altobello’s first pick was gone before she was even bred! Her second pick as well! Congratulations Samantha and Larissa! http://www.familydobes.com/fiji.htm

Lastly, there have not been any new questions to address in the newsletter for quite sometime, so let this be a two way communication, and tell me what you would like to know or learn! I did get one question today on color genetics, and how to produce reds. Those of you that know me, know I love to talk about genetics! Doberman color is really simple and DPCA has a great chart. I will post a link, and those of you who don’t understand that want to, give me a holler! First thing in planning your colors is knowing the Genotype (what the genes say) of your dog, regardless of it’s phenotype (what it looks like) You will see there are many possibilities for the four basic colors. The only way to know what your dog is for sure, is test crosses. Breeding to a fawn wil always tell you in one shot. You can make guesses based on the pedigree, but they are only guesses, I guessed Zenny would be red factored, and he is Black Dominant, his brother is red factored though… Too bad for us color wise, but Zenny is incredible and here to stay. Good dogs are never the wrong color!

http://www.dpca.org/color.chart.5.html

Stephen Parsons

Family Dobes

Quality Dobermans for 17 years

801-636-8006