Wednesday, February 25, 2009

The Obama's Have NOT Selected a Breed or Dog

I got a note saying the Obama's had selected a Portugese Water Dog .

But the story read wrong, and so I shot a quick note off to my correspondent:


You sure this is not a recycle, i.e. a news story created out of bits of an old story? It does not sound like there is a dog here. And rescue PWDs do not fall out of the air do they?


And was I right?

Yes.

It turns out the People magazine story was pushing vapor, as I suspected. The First Lady’s press secretary, Katie Lelyveld says the family is still debating the decision and no dog or breed has been selected.

At ease, and as you were ...

9 comments:

Bonnie Story said...

Terrierman, This is NOT related - but look at this shot of a six-pound rat.

http://yummydown.com/rattitude/?p=174

I saw it and thought of your blog immediately. It is so big it looks like an Opossum, but the teeth are all rat!

PBurns said...

Thanks!

Yes, I have seen the picture. A Sumatran bamboo rat, no doubt. There is a little forced perspective going on in the picture, but they do get big. The largest rat in the world, I believe, is the Gambian Pouched Rat which is used for mine detection work -- several pictures on this blog.

Anonymous said...

I saw that news about the Obamas wanting a Portuguese Water Dog on the news last night. And, I don't know why we care.

PBurns said...

Maybe you don't, which is fine.

But, as I have noted on this blog in a post entitled "Obama Is on the Edge of a Canine Mistake," the the Portugese Water Dog is a very seriously inbred animal with fairly serious health problem. See >> http://terriermandotcom.blogspot.com/2009/01/obama-is-on-edge-of-canine-mistake.html

And the Obamas are going down the same broken and twisted road as most dog owners. See "Barack Obama, Ordinary Consumer" >> http://terriermandotcom.blogspot.com/2009/01/barack-obama-ordinary-consumer.html

And finally, as Christie Keith notes (about Biden's search for a GSD dog) "Finding a Dog Should Not Be this Hard." See >>http://www.petconnection.com/blog/2009/01/22/finding-a-nice-puppy-should-not-be-this-hard/

Patrick

Living the life in The Little City said...

Sorry, Patrick. My comment came off as a bit cranky. Mostly, I find the dog/puppy selection story exasperating. It shouldn't be this difficult.

Anonymous said...

Keith Olbermann jumped the gun on this one. It wasn't just me. When he started teasing with Ted Kennedy choosing Obama's dog last night, I thought they had actually chosen a Portuguese water dog. And CNN and the Telegraph had the same story!

The media jumped the gun on this one (and I did too).

PBurns said...

EVERYONE had the same story, because that's what People reported. The thing that did not make sense is the notion that a PWD would be available two or three months from now. These dogs are not ripe fruit falling from the ground; still a pretty rare breed and rarely in a shelter.

P

Viatecio said...

I agree with Kathleen. It is getting simply frustrating to follow this. People walk into the shelter and come out with a dog fit for them in far less time than this ordeal. I just hate that people are all over "hypoallergenic" and OMG NO-SHED. I am mildly allergic to dogs too, and I can tolerate it. If the daughter is that allergic, maybe she should be on some medical therapy (maybe shots, like I did) before they promise a dog.

Seahorse said...

I'm a big Obama fan, but I agree, this dog issue of theirs is either getting really weird play by the press (ha, think so???), or the Obamas are so otherwise engaged (hmmm, pretty likely!) that they haven't had time to truly read-up. I agree, too, that either the allergy issue needs to be addressed, endured, or both. Call me a glutton for punishment, but I'm allergic to horses, hay, mold, dust, many grasses, and another laundry list of irritants I can't even recall, and I'm a farm owner, horse trainer and work in muck and dust for fun and for profit. Time for those at 1600 PA Ave to "cowboy up"!

Seahorse, a-choo! ;)