It has been a year since my first post featuring the Bull Penis Incident, about 7 days after the pup was picked up from the airport by a dear friend. The blog has undergone many format changes and took many directions.
First, I would like to thank my condescending mother, my bipolar stepdad, my half-sister who rarely calls and my deceased grandfather. God bless the hole in his head. Also, let’s not forget the little fake redhead who had an affair with me behind her boyfriend’s back. The carpet doesn’t match! What’s the deal with that? Without her, the lifelong obsession all things dogs wouldn’t have been resparked. Oh, and let’s not forget the pothead hippie neighbour down the hall who fueled my addled brain with that dog of hers and funneled the A.D.D.-induced hyperfocus of obsessive thoughts into overdrive. Oh, and where would I be without the guy who bled out and overdosed in my living room a few years back. That was great!
Okay, okay. Enough of the dysfunctional toast. Seriously, without Riley’s breeder, I wouldn’t be here shaking hands with the Pure-Blood Brigade™; instead I probably be blogging about the poor miserable maladaptive trainwrecks featured on other blogs such as Inu-Baka. Nor would I be blogging about the heavily romanticized breeds without the Finnish Spitz, the Karelian Bear Dog, even though the owner says he’s an adopted Border Collie mix, or the Norwegian Grey Elkhound in the neigbhourhood constantly reminding me of the dog I grew up with during the angsty, inept, self-centered “everyone hates me” teenage years in the boondocks of northern Alberta, northeast British Columbia and the Northwest Territories. To you Americans, those are the corners of Canada where there’s only four months of grass.
When I started, I was just going to blog about my Riley, then it devolved into blogging about Swedish Vallhunds and Corgis; and once examples of actual working dogs within the breeds were neither here nor there– cattle dogs became an extension, then the blog regressed into primitive hunting dogs. The blog should be renamed to “Camp Wolves” or something cheesy along that line. Go figure.
For promoting my posts: Scottie Westfall of retrieverman, Christopher Landauer of Border Wars, CA of CorgiAddict, Gusigan‘s kennel, Julie of The Misanthropic Shiba and corgimas. Without you guys, my posts would have not gone viral.
And even though Chris is the scum of the Internet, a backyard breeder, a tool and a sell-out to the Animal Rights movement, he has provided the most thought-provoking topics in the blogosphere which very few people seriously consider. Does that guy even go out? No wonder why he’s so fat: sitting around in front of the computer all day. Anyway, some of the most serious topics on “Little Heelers” were subjected to his scrutiny and were brutally ripped apart before being published. Even though he’s a keyboarding warrior of an asshole who can’t decide between being a pinko and a libertaritard, he is actually quite a friendly giant.
"The Dogless Boy"
Now, not let’s forget Scottie Westfall. He is a real-life Encyclopedia Brown. One can ask him anything, and he will know about it. Even though he may not own a dog, he actually knows stuff. Miley, go home. Stop it, Miley– go home.
Of course, not only that, the evil cross-breeder, Jess of Desert Wind Hounds, and the weird Swede, bjarne, are the most frequent commenters. Seriously folks, leave comments. The best part about blogging is engaging in a dialogue following the post.
And Jess? What can I say about Jess Ruffner? Initally, I thought Riley’s breeder would be my mentor; but instead Jess became a surrogate. Against all conventional wisdom, she convinced me not to go for the wolf on the bag, instead beeline for nutritional homemade meals made of Chinese newspapers and bone meal; supplemented with the whole-prey model based on Wal-Mart freezer fishsticks. She also convinced me to breed Riley to a merle Cardigan bitch, seeing they are part of the same landrace and all. Except that won’t come until he’s lying on his deathbed. Gotta make sure he’s clear of cancer first.
But what’s the deal with Desert Wind Hounds? Isn’t that a trademark, or at least a copyright, violation of Silken Windhounds? Oh, I see, she’s trying to sucker people into purchasing the halfghans through false advertising. I feel sorry for the crawlers on the net. Now that I have tainted her kennel’s name… I can have all the purpose-bred coyote-hounds to myself. Sweet.
What about the brains behind the operation: the ones who wish to stay anonymous? Hats off to the Swedes who gave me clues where to look, the Finns for correcting my gaffes, the Russians for explaining how things work, and mostly– just the entire blogosphere for sending me blog-worthy content. Where would I be without them?
Let get down to business. Let see what evidences we have for social proof.
The top referrers are:
New Domain
Old Domain
The top leechers are:
New Domain
Old Domain
The most popular posts are:
New Domain
Old Domain
The busiest day was:
The busiest month was:
Total views:
Old Domain
Total posts:
Average per Day:
Number of subscribers:
Number of followers on Twitter and “likes” on Facebook:
Now there has been a lot of effort placed into this blog. A lot of sweat and bl… No, just a lot of sweat. I have been working on a self-hosted platform with CommentLuv, tandem YouTube comments, WYSIWYG comment editor and all the nifty social integrative features which consume our daily lives. However when that site will be up remains to be seen, perhaps never. Actually, a lot of this is because I am a cheap bastard who doesn’t want to folk up money for a reliable host. In the end, the blog probably would take the insecured localhost route. Oh, wait, I am a Communist bastard on a shared host exploiting a language associated with socialism as a blog title. Nevermind, I sold myself out to a libertarian in the States.
But please do take advantage of the Resources page. Oh, and of the intriguing articles published on an hourly basis– courtesy of bundle feature by the Google empire. Just take a look to the right, right under the blogrolls. If it’s all overwhelming, and you want to check out the individual blogs, consult here. There are about 108-plus individual feeds being streamed; only a small fraction of what is in my Google Reader.
Some final words. You know who the coolest people are? Unlike the jock sniffer who writes about falconry and pitbulls, the Letts family are actually out there everyday with their falcons and hawks in Nainamo employed under PK Bird Control Services. They took me in their arms like the family I never had and helped me move to British Columbia from Alberta. Go support them, folks.
And in a province full of misguided hipsters, naive hippies, stupid rednecks and squirrel-eating hillbillies, it gets lonely sometimes. There are the rare exceptionals who are inbetween both worlds– sure, a bit neurotic sometimes, but sane: chow down on some turnspit dumbos at Annie B. Mice.
And of course, without DJ of Menagerie Meanderings as my emotional crutch, I wouldn’t be here.
Enough of the shameless plugs. It has been a great year. Thanks for all the support, good night and drive safe, ladies and gentlemen.
Follow Us!