Giving Animals a Voice

Recently, Massachusets became the first state to ban devocalization surgeries for animals. This will prevent anyone from damaging or removing an animal's vocal cords unless they have a valid medical reason.

Now, those of you who know me well will know that I'm generally against laws that limit what a pet owner can or can't do with their animals, and I'm typically against bans. However, I wholeheartedly support this law, and I think more states should follow suit with similar legislation.

I brought Gizmo home knowing that he could potentially be loud. (Fortunately, he is quiet most of the time, unless you count the screaming fits he throws when the cat kicks him off the chair.) Anyone who buys a dog does so with the knowledge that it can bark. I don't think an animal should be mutilated merely for the sake of fashion or convenience.

Most dogs can be trained to obey a "be quiet" command; just about every dog training book I've seen has had a section on this. And even if training fails, there are plenty of effective, humane means of bark control available for noisy dogs, ranging from collars that produce a high-pitched sound or unpleasant vibration to gadgets that plug into the wall.

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Not only that, but barking serves a very important purpose: Communication. Studies have shown that humans are very good at understanding what dog barks mean. For a very cool demonstration of this, check out this excerpt from "The Secret Life Of the Dog":

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Even my pet fox uses barking, along with a wide range of other noises, to communicate with me. What do you guys think about this new law? Is a good thing, or do you think that it's too restrictive of pet owners freedom? Are there consequences that maybe we're not anticipating? Let me know in the comments!

Sounds Of The Fox

Two new clips, one of Gizmo barking, the other of him warbling (and then wailing when warbling wasn't getting me to go in the room)

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New Gizmo Video!

I've gotten a lot of requests to try and get a recording of some of the noises Gizmo makes. A lot of the time, if I'm outside the play pen and he's in it and wants to play, he'll start trilling and barking at me.

We tried to get him to do that on camera, but didn't have much luck. Still, the end video was cute, so I uploaded it anyway. Enjoy!

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Snuggling a Fox

Gizmo was in an incredibly sweet, snuggly mood this morning, so I got a video of it.

Happy Valentines Day!

Happy Valentines Day everyone!

I've got a brand new digital camera/recorder, so to break it in, I took a video of a training session with Gizmo. He's still not quite used to the slippery floor, so the command "shake" was giving him a bit of trouble. Once he gets a little more sure of his footing it shouldn't be a problem:

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Gizmo in the Leaves

We recently taped Gizmo out playing in the leaves; too cute not to share.

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Gizmo the Fox Q and A

This summer, we left on vacation, and boarded Gizmo for the first time ever. He spent 10 days away from us at the vet's office.

As usual, having Gizmo in public quickly turned into a Q&A session. I realized that I'd never posted it before, so I figured I'd share:

Foxes on Trampolines

Not Gizmo-related, but too cute not to share.

Perhaps I should get him a trampoline to play on! :)

Improvised Breakfasts and Foxy Brown

This morning when I went to feed Gizmo his breakfast, I realized that I didn't have any "Gizmo Burgers" left in the fridge or freezer at all, so I had to improvise. He ended up getting a cup of cooked oatmeal, a hard-boiled egg, and a little bit of ham, all mixed in together. Definitely not his standard fare, but he seemed to like it well enough, and I didn't think that any of it would be strong enough to make him sick.

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Tonight on our walk, we got to meet the neighbor's brand new Bernese Mountain Dog puppy, "Foxy Brown". She was super sweet, and calmed down really quickly for any dog, let alone a puppy. I was really impressed with her. Gizmo, on the other hand, was more interested in the garbage sack her mom was holding.

My brother was able to get some of it on film, but he ran out of memory pretty quickly. 

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Gizmo's Expansion

Well, it's been a long two days, but it's been worth it!

We've spent a lot of the last two days working on adding a 75 square foot addition onto Gizmo's pen, as well as two Little Tykes playcubes, a big one and a small one. It took the better part of the day to get the whole thing up and ready to go, but the end result has been great.

: ) He seems to love it. Below, I've included a video of us taking him out to see it for the first time.

Kids, Raw Food, and Pointless Screaming

Well, our walk tonight was a long one, and went rather well. Near the beginning of it, we ran into a couple who was playing with their toddler in their driveway. The mom asked if Gizmo was a fox, and we stopped to talk to them for a while.

The little girl was fearless, and watching her and Gizmo was so cute. She kept on trying to "sneak up" on him and grab his tail, and he just grinned and tollerated it. She also kept picking up dried, dead leaves and offering them to him, and he would reach out and very gently take them from her, then set them down in the grass in front of him.

Gizmo loves kids, and it's a lot of fun to watch him play with them. When it was time for us to go, he kept on trying to drag us back over to their yard; he wasn't done yet.

We also passed the house with the lady who called the nice Sheriff on us the other night for having the nerve to walk down the sidewalk. Her dog ran to the door and started barking at us loudly, and she came to the door, gave us a big grin, and waved.

We declined to wave back at her.

Near the end of our walk, we ran into Teddy, Gabe, and their mom. Teddy is a golden-doodle, and Gabe's an eight-year-old. We talked with her for a long while about raw diets and home-made pet food. I recommended a few books for her to check out.

After we got home, I fed Gizmo his dinner and put him to bed in his crate, thinking I wouldn't be seeing him 'til morning...

....Only to hear him screaming bloody murder about half an hour later. I went downstairs to see what the problem was, and found my mom sitting on the couch and holding Gizmo, who was gekkering** and shrieking his little lungs out.

The little guy was REALLY upset, and trying to let the whole world know. It took quite a while to get him calmed back down, and mom says she has no idea what made him so angry. She just got him out of his crate to play a little more before bedtime, and he just had a meltdown.

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**For those of you who have never had a fox, "gekkering" refers to a fairly specific noise they make when they are upset. YouTube has a nice video example of it handy, courtesy of thedeffox



The two foxes in the video are red foxes (Vulpes vulpes). They are a special color morph known as "marble". Gizmo's father was a marble fox.