We have another possibility in Guess That Breed!

While out and about today, I had the chance to look through some dog books, and I have found another likely candidate for Sasha's parentage: Samoyed

What really sold me was this page with pictures of a litter of six weeks old Samoyed puppies (roughly Sasha's age now). Granted, all of them are white as are most Samoyeds, but the AKC and other places I've looked list cream as a possible color for the breed.

Look at Sasha's ears here:



And compare them to this picture from the week nine page of the diary linked to above:



I also saw a picture of a Chow puppy with the same coloring as Sasha, but as with many of the Chow pictures I find, the snout is all wrong. With the Samoyed pictures, the snout seems very similar, as do the postures and the tail. I did see one picture of an adult Samoyed with cream coloring that darkened around the ears like Sasha's, but again, the Chow coloring was almost identical.

Curiouser and curiouser.

I'll mention the breed name to Mom and probably try to speak with her friend who is a local dog groomer. She'll probably know if anyone nearby breeds Samoyeds, or if anyone has adopted any (and could still lead to Sasha's real owners, something I admit I'm not looking forward to, but if it happens, then she belongs with them). Truth be told I haven't noticed this particular breed as being very popular around here, but I do see plenty of Chows. Perhaps the vet will be willing to make guesses once Sasha's a bit bigger and growing out of her puppy features (assuming we never find her owners that is).

No, it's not really that important to me that she be exactly purebred (hell, I've only ever had one purebred dog in my life and Penny is a definite mutt), but I do like to try to get a rough guess as to what she might be so I can prepare for possible breed-related illnesses, temperment troubles, and other things that might crop up.

Oh, and I am pleased to report Sasha went for a walk outside around the house with Penny and me tonight. She followed closely and is now actively seeking me out for petting and play. She's becoming attached to us and is showing herself to be very sociable. Her tail has been up and curled over her bag or wagging rapidly instead of tucked between her legs most of the time. This makes me very happy.

Adventures in Shoe Shopping

Yesterday, after taking Tofu out for a long drive so he can get used to his car and soon get his license, we walked around the mall. There's a Finish Line there and I saw some nice casual sneakers on display. Naturally I wandered in and browsed over the small selection of casual shoes. Right off the bat I found a pair of shoes with designs like old school tattoos printed on them.

There was this one awesome pair of white shoes (that I cannot find either on the Finish Line website or the brand's website) with skulls and roses. Really, who can resist skulls and flowers? OK, maybe that's me, but I thought they looked awesome, so I crossed my fingers, said a silent prayer, and then asked the sales associate nearest to me if they might have the shoes in my size. The look on his face told me everything I needed to know. No, they didn't have it in clown shoes, but he would go and look for me.

See, here's where you might need to know something: I have very long and somewhat slender feet. In sneakers, I wear a woman's size eleven. It doesn't sound big, but just like when I go clothes shopping, shoe shopping has always been an exercise in patience, prayer to assorted shopping-related deities, and much disappointment. If I wore a size eight or even a nine, I would have a much easier time. Really, next time you're in a woman's shoe store, look at the sizes. When you get to size ten and up, the number of styles available goes down drastically. I can go down a size in dress shoes, which helps, but any smaller in sneakers and the arch support is all wrong and they really hurt after a while. Of course, shopping for dress shoes is in itself a headache and a half. It seems some manufacturers assume anyone wearing a size ten shoes has wide feet or suffers from swelling. I can't wear the wide shoes, either, and unless I go to a place with very, very upscale prices, I usually spend a long time searching for a pair of heels when I need them.

This all probably explains why I never developed a lust of shoes like my mother has, even though we wear the same size. I think it's because I never inherited her patience when it came to clothes shopping at all, and I don't like spending an hour or more trying on fifty pairs of shoes. Back to the story...

The kind sales associate did go look in the back and returned to tell me he was unsuccessful in locating that shoe or others with similar designs in my size. He did say he could possibly order them online and have them shipped to my house, so I agreed. My luck held out and, as predicted, they did not carry my size in that style. I was a little disapointed, but not entirely shocked. However, my sales associate surprised me. He said, "You know, you'd wear a size nine in men's and they have some designs similar to that. I could let you pick out a pair you liked and still order them online."

Intrigued, I agreed to try on a pair of men's size nine in a similar brand and style to what I would be ordering. Lo and behold, they fit perfectly and were very comfortable. I went with him over to the computer and selected a pair.



OK, so instead of skulls and roses, I get skulls and flames. I think that's still pretty freaking awesome, and no one has to know they were meant for a man instead of an odd woman like me. However, I have to wonder about this practice of limited shoe sizes. I know for a fact I am not the only woman with what is apparently freakishly long feet. There has to be a market out there for women with bigger feet.

Head's up! A warning for all LJ users.

A warning via lupabitch (who credits grrrowly) about some malware being spread through LJ via erroneous community postings:

IMPORTANT

Just so every one knows- there's some malware going around, that makes a post to a community that looks like a mod post, saying the community is being deleted, and then deletes all the community's entries. If you see a post like this, report it and DO NOT CLICK ON ANY OF THE LINKS ON THE POST. They lead to dangerous malware that will steal your password and fuck up your LJ account.

ALSO: the recent accounts that have been friending people that are entirely in Russian (I know a few of you have posted about this), DO NOT FRIEND THEM BACK. They are BOTS.

This is not a hoax/joke/rumor. More info HERE, including a screencap of the post.

Apparently some people are being hacked through old e-mails associated with their LJ account. Go to this page to delete any old e-mails you do not use any more.

This reminds me of when I read about copperbadge last year. He fell victim to similar malware and lost five years' worth of entries, but managed to salvage roughly 80% of them according to his user profile. Still, the comments and many entries are forever lost because of someone's maliciousness.