Maslow's hierarchy of psychosocial needs

[AntonioLao]

The city pound told me that for the owner(s) to reclaim these two mutts they have to pay $75 each for their safe return since they will be given rabies shots. If the owner(s) dont want them back then they will be given up for adoptions to the general public. As for me, I really want to raise one or at most two pure breed German Shepherds, male and female for progeny if only I can afford them financially.

[labelwench]

The city pound told me that for the owner(s) to reclaim these two mutts they have to pay $75 each for their safe return since they will be given rabies shots. If the owner(s) dont want them back then they will be given up for adoptions to the general public. As for me, I really want to raise one or at most two pure breed German Shepherds, male and female for progeny if only I can afford them financially.

German Shepherds are a lovely breed, yet from others who have worked with them, I am aware that one has to screen very carefully for hip problems in this and other large breeds of dogs. That being said, there are always advantages and disadvantages in selecting any breed of animal for companion or progeny. When working with purebreds, there is also the politics of the paperwork and breeding criteria that go with the territory.

How is it that you have come to develop a fondness for the German Shepherd, Antonio? From past exposure to the breed, or perhaps researching their intelligence and capabilities?

[AntonioLao]

I grew up with a mixed breed German Shepherd and I can't bear to see him being frequently overpowered by the pure breed German Shepherd next door. I was able to train him to raise his paw as mimicking handshake. He used to greet me every time I came back from school. I raised him from a pup until he died of old age.

[labelwench]

I grew up with a mixed breed German Shepherd and I can't bear to see him being frequently overpowered by the pure breed German Shepherd next door. I was able to train him to raise his paw as mimicking handshake. He used to greet me every time I came back from school. I raised him from a pup until he died of old age.

The English language has a great many nouns and adjectives which may be employed when discussing matters. One thing interesting has just come of our discussion.

Upon their arrival, the dogs were two stray female puppies (1 yr old and 3 yr old).

As the pound arrives to retrieve them, they are now 'two mutts'.

When the topic turns to a preferred species, we have the terms pure breed and mixed breed whereby we further differentiate.

From the genetic point of view, many Heinz 57's (another term for mixed breed) are far superior to the controlled breeding outcomes practiced by human beings, when we select for traits that we desire as compared to nature's electives, most often survivability. Of course, being that many species have no choice but to co-habit with humans, their survivability now falls under our purview of desirability.

Upon arising this evening, it just seemed interesting to me, that our use of language is, in some part, motivated by the emotions that past and present experience bring to the table.

To the owner of a companion animal, love is blind to such trivialities.

That you had your friend from a pup until his passing of old age, would leave you with many memories. The loss of such companions leaves us with voids in our lives.......I too, have such voids, as well as happy memories.

[AntonioLao]

About fifty years ago, I also raised homing pigeons and fighting roosters and able to watch their progenies inside the incubators. I have an interesting true story to tell about the fighting rooster I named as 'Yellow Feather.'

[labelwench]

About fifty years ago, I also raised homing pigeons and fighting roosters and able to watch their progenies inside the incubators. I have an interesting true story to tell about the fighting rooster I named as 'Yellow Feather.'

As a young child, I was frightened by the rooster in an enclosed coop while fetching the eggs with the Grandmother. That fear of birds remained with me long into adulthood. When neighbors began to raise chicks from the hatchery, and I could observe the process, I became less fearful of the small beings as they grew into mature birds, and saw that their pecking could be easily deterred by a strong glove, and any persistent bird could be caught and held upside down by the legs until it gave up such aggression. The knowledge gave me power over my fear, and I went on to raise several flocks of birds, including one that we hatched in an incubator here in the house.

Of homing pigeons and fighting roosters, I have no experience and would like to hear your story about Yellow Feather.

[AntonioLao]

Yellow Feather was given to our household destined for the dinner table because the color yellow is known to be the color of cowardly fighting roosters. Instead, my elders gave me Yellow Feather as a pet and saved him from being eaten. I trained him to climb up 20 steps of stairs up to the top of the second floor to be rewarded with a few grains of dry corn or rice whichever is handily available. These physical exercises must have increase his physical stamina as well as his intelligence for he learned fast that by jumping two steps at a time, he can get to top sooner to eat the corn. His will to survive also allow him to kill field rats at night that entered his cage to eat him. He killed them by pecking at their eyes. Instead of dead roosters after nights of rat attacks, we found only dead rats in Yellow Feather's cage. To be continued...

[labelwench]

I look forward to hearing more about Yellow Feather, whom you saved from the cook-pot. In the meantime, perhaps you may enjoy this link to some of the contexts in which the color 'yellow' is viewed around the world.....

http://www.sensationalcolor.com/colo...or-yellow.html

[AntonioLao]

Roosters, in general, always crow before dawn. However, for all the 50 roosters we kept, in particular, Yellow Feather always is the first to crow. They would stop cawing when fed and given a fresh portion of potable water. During the day, if something or someone startles the flock then cawing would start again. Somehow, Yellow Feather remains calm and never participated in this wasteful energy racketeering. It seems nothing can startle him and he only crow before sunrise every day, cloudy, rainy, or stormy days. My grandfather who was a devout Buddhist believed there is an intelligent human spirit incarnated in Yellow Feather. When he was fully grown, my grandfather ask for my permission to test him of becoming a rooster gladiator. Cockfighting was still a legalized pastime sport in Cebu City, Philippines during the 1950s and 1960s. To avoid unnecessary bleeding, the crown and wattle must be circumcised. Afterward, Yellow Feather was more determined to stay alive and all the fights he had won he got out without a scratch. At the prefight pairing, everyone wants to fight him, and was given such outrageous odds, many times higher than 50 to 1. Eventually, people can no longer be fooled by the yellow color and his fighting days are over. He survived a plague that killed 38, but some of the remaining 12 were transferred to a rooster’s stud farm and Yellow Feather lived out his life in the comfort of a rooster’s harem. However, none of his progeny ever lived up to his lifetime achievements, especially his feats in the arenas, that for me, all the excitements of the various galleries can only be heard but not be seen since no children are allowed to watch the bloodshed and the bloody agony of defeat.

[labelwench]

Very interesting. Antonio, and I thank you for sharing. Excellent that Yellow Feather was retired to the life he likely would have found in a natural environment. That he never passed his prowess on could be the result of genetics that skip a generation. From some of my work in monitoring the selective breeding of horses and dogs, it is well seen that the offspring frequently share more traits of the grandparents than the parents.

I shall have to do some investigation of the genetics of fighting roosters, for interest's sake.