Happy Adopt-a-versary!

Time flies when you are having fun, and Molly and I have been having a blast!

On April first of last year, Molly came to me from another state and another life. Our lives haven’t been the same since that day.

And it’s all for the good.

The Molly I got that day was a frightened, insecure dog. Her entire life had been uprooted and the people she known for years were suddenly gone. To add insult to that injury, she was so filthy this person she didn’t know gave her a bath. What a way to start a relationship.

This the Molly I met via Adopt-a-Pet

Yup. That is photo that lead me to her and her to me. It took a lot back and forth before it was all settled and Molly made the journey to her new home.

That Molly, the one in photo, was scared, didn’t know how walk on a lead, was extremely leash reactive and aggressive. She would see another dog across the street or down the block and go bananas. She’d lunge and bark loudly. She was not a fun dog to walk. While she got the hang of a basic heel very quickly, the rest was not going away anytime soon. *sigh*

The first week home, Molly slept – a lot. She ate, went for walks and slept. Many rescue dogs do that. Once they start to feel safe and secure, they sleep. The release of all that tension is exhausting.

Molly’s first day home. Notice all the mud in her beard.

She slept – a lot!

Molly was wonderful with most people. I had to go to work, and Molly couldn’t go to work with me until she was vaccinated, so my bestie came stayed with her during the day that first week. Bless my friend forever. She walked Molly several times a day and made her heel and walk with manners. The aggressive behavior was not going anywhere soon, but we both did the best we could dealing with Molly. I knew we needed help.

After that first week, Molly made to the vet and got vaccinated. That meant she could come to work with me. We did a weekend trial run so Molly could see the office and get used to the space before she was there with all my co-workers. She did perfect.

She met all my co-workers and liked all of them. She wasn’t keen on men, but wasn’t aggressive with them. She was just leary and very reserved around them. Since I work with all women, the issue with men wasn’t a problem at work.

Molly’s first week at work. We don’t have much of a view, but she liked watching the birds.

For a while, Molly denned under my desk. She felt safe there. Now she rarely dens and prefers her bed under the window.

Today, everyone has a Molly Cookie jar in their office. Molly visits everyone every morning and after our lunchtime walk. Everyone gets a Molly kiss. She loves her extended pack.

I knew we needed help with the aggressive behavior. A place and class was recommended to me from someone I happened to run into at a dog park. Someone I didn’t even know. Just another dog person. (I would take Molly and only go in if no one else was there. She could not be in with other dogs). So I went to the kennel where the class was and we got all signed up and ready to attend.

The class is mix of training and group play. The dogs that can be in a group get to play together. Dogs like Molly are put in a side pen (with me) where they are safe and all the other dogs are safe. The steps are small and every step is supervised. The trainer showed me how intervene and not let Molly just go off on the other dogs. It was slow going, Molly got better as the weeks went on. During this time, we met another dog of the same breed and his owners. Bubba is an easy going dog, and even when Molly barked at him, he just shrugged it off and didn’t engage. The prize though, is Bubba’s dad. This lovely man came into our little pen and sat on the floor. He and I talked, and he offered Molly pets but never forced it. He just sat on floor and let Molly figure him out. Pretty soon Molly let him pet her, took treats he offered, then she was all for ear scratches. It wasn’t long before they were friends.

Then Molly got where she wasn’t barking at Bubba. Soon she was sitting next to him (fence between them) with no issues. Before long she was sitting next to Bubs with no fence between them and no aggression.

Molly was ready to try daycare. Since Bub’s mom works there, we made sure she was in run next to Bubs. Since Molly couldn’t be in a group to play, she got one on one play time with a staffer. Once she got comfortable with the situation, they tried her out in playtime with just Bubs (always supervised). Yup. Her and Bubs chased each other all over the play yard. From just Bubs, they added Bub’s buddy Mo, and Molly was on her way to playing in a group. The three of them are hilarious together.

First cay after daycare. One very tired Molly!

Now that she could get along with two other dogs, we tried her in the weekly group. Well, a small part of the group. Since we could use the outside yards , Molly joined Bubs, Gizmo, and couple of other dogs in a play group. Molly discovered play was fun! Of course now, she is fully in the once a week play group and can go to the dog park and get along with almost any dog she meets. If she doesn’t like a dog, she just disengages and goes elsewhere.

After a while, some new behaviors appeared. To this day, Molly brings me her dish after she eats.

We started obedience classes. From basic to advanced, Molly has made it through with flying colours. She struggled with some things but we worked on them (three minute down stays are hard!) and now Molly now holds 4 AKC titles. Next, we begin to learn agility.

Molly is always ready for a new adventure

Today, Molly is full of life, loving and very social. She loves men and makes a point of visiting all the dog dads at play group. All of her leash aggression is gone. We can walk past dogs on the sidewalk without a hitch. We go downtown, to the dog parks, to patio restaurants, in shops and anyplace we want to go.

Molly loves her trainer and everyone at the kennel she goes to for daycare (she goes once or twice a week so she can be a dog and play in her very large social circle). And they all love her. Every single person at that kennel helped Molly on her journey to being a happy, social dog.

To anyone out there who is thinking of adopting/rescuing a dog – do it. Just be aware adopted dogs often come with issues. It takes time and work to get through them. Don’t expect miracles. Dogs take their own time and are not at all concerned with your schedule. You may need the help of a trainer, so take the time to find the right trainer for you and your dog.

Don’t over restrict yourself on the dog you are looking for. I wanted a female dog, but did look a few male dogs. I wanted a brown (liver) and roan German Wirehaired Pointer. I got a black Wire Haired Pointing Griffon. Molly is nothing I was looking for and everything I wanted.

That is by far, THE most important thing.

** Note: AKC now has a program for mixed breed dogs and unregistered purebred dogs. Your dog gets an AKC number that allows them to earn AKC titles and compete at AKC events. Your dog must be spayed/neutered and you will need proof of that from your vet. Go to https://www.akc.org/ and look for the PALS program.

Dating Coaches? How Ridiculous is This?

I watch YouTube and subscribe to a few channels. And I do get a laugh over some of the ‘coaches’ and ‘experts’ out there telling everyone how to do something.

There are a myriad of ‘dating’ coaches telling both men and women how to date. I find it especially hilarious when a man is coaching women, and vice versa. Why? Because it’s all opinion. What you, as man, may think a woman wants this or that, may not be what most women want. It’s just what that coach has assumed. Because, let’s face it, these ‘coaches’ have rarely actually asked the opposite sex what they want. Since everyone has different wants/needs for a relationship, even if you asked 100 people, you would get 100 different answers. I know if some man did some the crap advice these ‘coaches’ spew with me, the date would end before it ever got really started.

A very long time ago (probably before a lot you were born), I used to go out dancing about three times a week. I got very tired of looking like I wanted to dance, waiting for a guy to ask me. So I started asking the guys to dance. Sure, I got a few ‘no thank yous’, but over all, I spent my nights out on the floor dancing, not standing at the rail waiting to be asked. My female friends were aghast. What if he says no? I ‘ll ask someone else. Seriously, how do you think the guys feel? They risk being told no every time they ask a woman to dance. I survived hearing ‘no’ without it affecting my life.

There are no rules you have to follow, though these ‘coaches’ will tell you different. I went on a movie date a while back and we decided one one of us would buy the tickets, the other would buy the popcorn. It worked out very well. Make your own rules and be flexible.

The newest ‘coach’ I ran across was a ‘Nice Guy Recovery Coach’. Are you serious? While it may said that nice guys finish last, I don’t see that is the case. Some women want a nice guy. They like the man who polite, helpful and actually listens to others without feeling the need to make fun or put them down. Being nice doesn’t make a man any less masculine.

All you nice guys (and gals) out there – keep on being yourself. Don’t listen to other people telling you you have be a certain way. If you aren’t being your true self, you are simply being untruthful to person you ask out. How will that play out when you drop the charade of not being so nice? Weird, since it is usually the not-so-people pretending to be nice.

And here’s the big thing. Don’t blow up or spout off if your date says something you think is offensive. Try this – ASK QUESTIONS to understand their point of view. Some of us are very good at putting our foot in our mouth and saying things the wrong way. Some of us don’t listen well (read as pay attention to your date) and only hear part of what was said. I once was making a comparison and all my date heard was one tiny portion of what I said and had a cow without ever asking me what I was talking about.

Remember it’s a date, not a life time commitment. I’m pretty sure if you try, you can sit through a 30 minute coffee date, or an hour meal date if you just try.

While I know things have changed out in the world, some things simply don’t change that much. Listen your self, not a bunch of people on your computer. Be flexible (but not a doormat). It’s okay to soundboard off your friends, but you don’t have to do what they say as gospel. And no, the man does not have to pay for everything. Just make it clear BEFORE you go out (if you phrase the ask out as ‘let me buy you’/’take you out for’, then you have pretty much said you are going to pay). I personally prefer to pay for my own meal/tea. It is far less awkward for everyone.

Get off YouTube, stop complaining about not dating, and go ask that person you sorta like out for coffee and see how it goes.

Who knows? A little conversation may be the start of something good.

Molly Had a Birthday!

When Molly found her way to me, I knew very little about her. Her previous owner was a bit cagey about what he claimed he knew – or didn’t know – about her. I have learned a lot about my Baby Girl in the months we have been together.

One of the things he didn’t know was how old Molly was. I never really bought into that. How can you NOT know how old your dog is? (aside from adopting a shelter dog) He couldn’t remember how long he had had her or who he got her from. Again – I will remember forever how Molly came to me and who I got her from.

I made my mission to backtrack Molly’s life as far as I could. I knew some bare details: She came from Idaho. The people he had gotten her from got her from ‘the’ shelter.

Yeah. Not much to go on.

So I wrote to the two shelters in that area of Idaho. One said there was no way to track her from just a name and breed – too many dogs came through with the name ‘Molly’ and what I thought at the time was her breed. That’s right – he didn’t know what breed she actually was.

The other shelter was the Humane Society. The woman there was simply marvelous. She suggested I have Molly scanned to see if she was chipped. She said if she came from there or the shelter, she would have been chipped before adoption.

I felt like, ‘DUH’. All the years I have been around dogs and the veterinary industry you think I would have thought of that on my own.

So yup, she was chipped. I now knew what shelter she came from and what company she chipped through. The shelter people were so very kind and sent me her old kennel card. I had every piece of her history in lovely email. What kind of pisses me off about this, is the fact that the owners who gave her up KNEW she was micro chipped. They either did not tell the person they gave her to, or he ‘conveniently’ forgot. Most days, I think it was the latter. He presented her as younger than she actually is – it is easier to place a 4 year dog, than 5 year old dog.

But now all those things are in Molly’s past. Her present is far more important.

We celebrated Molly’s 6th birthday on January 7th. We went to her favourite dog park, she ran and ran and ran. She rolled in the mud, splashed in the puddles and then got a bath.

Then she got her big birthday treat!

This her ‘special treat’ bowl. In it is the maple bacon ice cream she got for Christmas from one of our co-workers and special doggie cookies. All of it made for dogs.

She loved it! She gobbled it up and licked the bowl clean. Then she snuggled up and snored for the rest of the evening.

My Baby Girl is 6 years old. She is fabulous, smart and earning titles paw over claw. We spend loads of time together. She goes to daycare twice a week and a play group once a week. The rest of the time she is at work with me. She is loved by her extended pack and has social circle bigger than mine.

I can’t wait to see what comes next.

We’ve Had a Minor Set Back

Molly and I are experiencing a minor set back. Molly has contracted kennel cough.

Kennel cough can best be described as Whooping Cough in dogs. They develop a deep, hard, barking cough. They retch like they are going to throw up. They can’t rest because they cough so much. Some get very lethargic and don’t eat. It is highly contagious and spreads from dog to dog very quickly.

It’s a rather poopy disease.

Fortunately, most dogs clear it on their own with few issues. There is medication for the cough and most veterinarians will have you give an antibiotic to prevent the cough from going into pneumonia. The rest of the treatment is rest and isolation from other dogs.

Molly is doing very well. Her appetite is intact. Nothing gets her way at mealtimes, and she still begs shamelessly for cookies. The cough medication (tablets) got her cough under control within a day or so. Once we could both sleep, Molly improved quite a bit. She pretty much slept for a day and a half. I don’t blame her as she didn’t get much rest before the meds kicked in.

I don’t where she got it from. She is, indeed, vaccinated for kennel cough. But vaccines are never 100%. Her being vaccinated could be why she isn’t as ill as she could be. Every dog at her kennel must show proof of vaccination to board, do daycare, or attend any class. So every dog there is vaccinated. But some of these things are tenacious and kennel cough has been working its way through the kennel.

But this means no daycare, no play group, no obedience class. We have stay away for the next three weeks to make sure she is fully covered and no longer contagious. The kennel has stopped daycare play groups, class dogs must bring their own, individual water dishes (sharing dishes in one way this thing spreads). I’m not sure if the night time group play has been halted or not, but if not, I’m sure the dogs must have their own water dishes there as well. There is a notice regarding kennel cough posted on the kennel front door.

There isn’t much more anyone can do. It going to make its way through the local kennels. Some dogs will get sick, some won’t. The owners are the ones who have to make the decision to continue to bring their dogs in or keep them home for a few weeks. Hopefully, everyone is being responsible and keeping sick dogs at home.

We are very lucky. Molly can simply come to work with me as usual. I have let all my co-workers know she is sick so they can wash their hands and disinfect before going home to their own dogs. They make the decision to interact with Molly. This means Molly can’t just go visit everyone at will like she usually does. I feel for people who use daycare because they can’t bring their dog to work. Their choices get very limited if their dog gets sick.

Rather than dog park time, we are going for more walks. I don’t want to take this thing and spread all around the dog parks. If she sniffs noses through the fence, she can spread it to that dog. On the bright side, it makes me walk more and we can work on our heel/stop sits so I suppose that’s a good thing.

Molly is doing fine. She is rarely coughing and when she does, it is a ‘normal’ cough. We will be back in action next month and enroll in the next obedience class.

The other thing I discovered is that Molly had worms! I noticed them in her poop. This again is very minor. I have already given her medication to deworm her, and she is already pooping out dead worms rather than live wiggly ones. Few things are less fun than having to take a stick and poke at things in poo to see if they dead or not. Just ew. Thinking back, I ought to have requested the vet check her for worms once I knew her former owner had never taken her to a vet the entire time he had her. This is my bad, but an easy remedy.

Once we clear the kennel cough, I will most likely take a stool sample to the vet and have it checked for parasites to make sure we’ve killed all the little suckers.

So for now, Molly’s story has stopped for intermission. But we will back!

Miss Molly is Hittin’ it Out of the Park!

A quick Molly update! Not only did we graduate from Basic Obedience, but Molly earned her AKC Canine Good Citizen title as well!

My baby girl has come so far in such a short time. I am so proud of her. I often forget we have only 6 months together under our belts. Molly’s heart is huge and her try is twice as big.

We are now working towards our advanced Canine Good Citizen title (we have a couple of things to really work on), and soon Molly will ready to earn her Novice Trick Dog title.

For Molly, these trainings help her learn to focus on her handler better. She not a breed where watching her handler is a natural thing to do. She is a hunting breed and she tends to focus on her surroundings (hunt) rather her handler. She does ‘check in’, but like not as often as some of the other breeds do. It is all about understanding what a breed was meant to do and working within those breed instincts.

I also want to make it clear – Molly would never be where she is today if I had not put the work in. I knew I needed help from a trainer and went and found it. While I am the one who had the bulk of the work to do, I could not have accomplished any of this without the help I got (and still get) from our trainer. I also have to hand a lot of credit to her play group. The owners there also helped Molly gain her confidence and self esteem.

When I told them Molly was a bit shy of men, one man came over every week and sat on the floor with Molly. He offered to pet her but never pushed her. He let Molly figure it out on her own. Now, not only are they best friends, but Molly will visit every man that comes to play group for pets and hugs. She is no longer leery of men just because they are men.

Dogs are work. You have to put the work in to have a well mannered dog. Well mannered dogs are welcome in more places, in more homes, and with people than unruly dogs. There is no breed that comes with manners or is automatically well behaved. You do the work, you get a well behaved dog – regardless of the breed. Case in point – I had Jack Russell Terrorist Terrier who earned his Canine Good Citizen title. If you know anything about Jacks, you know how hardheaded and stubborn they can be.

Molly’s tail is still wagging. She is my light and love. If I had a tail, it would be wagging too.

Miss Molly’s New Story Moves Forward

If you have been following Molly’s story, you know she came to me not very ago. I got her in April of this year (2023). The dog I got was a wild child with little solid training or manners. She was very lead aggressive and lunged at other dogs that were not even very close to her. She pulled hard and was not very trustworthy. Walks were a practice in vigilance and not very enjoyable.

But we worked on those things. We found a class and trainer to help us work through those behaviors. With a lot of years in dogs, I had a small advantage over those who don’t and end with a dog like Molly used to be. Now Molly is a very social dog who goes to dog parks and attends a play group without any aggression towards the other dogs. I can trust her to make good decisions with other dogs.

She walks on lead in heel position, sits when I stop moving and is getting really good at being in shops with me. Her weak spot is still children. She LOVES kids and sometimes forgets her new manners when she sees a child. But she is getting better and better at waiting for the kids to ask to pet her first, and sitting quietly while she gets petted and made over. And the kids love to help me with her training.

And now she has reached another goal. She has a new feather in her cap! We recently graduated from Basic Adult Obedience!

While this wasn’t an AKC class, the trainer is an AKC certified trainer. It wasn’t as rigorous or as strict as an AKC Novice Obedience class, and that is fine with me. I don’t want to go in that direction. I have competed in AKC Obedience and I didn’t find it very enjoyable.

To go with her achievement of passing her obedience test, she has also gotten a registration from AKC. AKC would not register her as a Wirehaired Pointing Griffon because she originally came from a shelter, and she is black and not liver coloured. There is nothing in her past to show she is purebred WPG. While black griffs are out there, the colour is not recognized by AKC (this also applies to the cousin breed German Wirehaired Pointers). So Miss Molly is now an ‘All American Dog’. But this gives her an AKC registration number and allows her to compete and earn titles at certain AKC events. But everyone who knows griffs, and knows Molly, says she very much a WPG. She looks like one and acts like one.

Her registered name is Good Golly Miss Molly XI. Not very imaginative, I know, but it has meaning to us. My downstairs neighbour calls her that and has from day one. She considers Molly her granddog. So in honor of my wonderful neighbour, I applied for that name for Miss M. She was thrilled when I told her about Molly’s registration and her registered name.

We are still moving forward. Now we can earn titles and keep on working to be our best selves. Molly seems to love the work. Sometimes she doesn’t put two and two together for while, but once it clicks, she gets solid on it fast.

Someone asked me why I like training my dog so much. Well, I get to be with my dog for one thing. I get work with her for her to be the best dog she can be. She gets to learn how to her best in any situation and be welcome in shops and the homes of friends. The world is more open to a well mannered dog.

And once you see where you can go together, the journey becomes fun.

Re-Watching Supernatural

Supernatural ran on the WB/CW from 2005 – 2020. If I remember correctly, this was the show that gave the CW some clout as a network. It also seems to be the show that sparked Grimm – a show that ran from 2011- 2017 with similar premise. When it first premiered, I watched the first few episodes, then stopped watching because the network kept moving it around. I got tired of it not being on when/where I watched it the last. I see no need to chase a flippin’ TV show all over the dial. I later ‘caught up’ when those early episodes made it to Netflix.

The show follows the Winchester brothers as they hunt monsters – werewolves, vampires, Jinn etc. The show was slated to run for 5 years, but the fan base managed to get a 10 year extension.

The first season was horrible. I am surprised it got renewed. The acting was bad because the characters had no clue who they were yet, the writing was uneven for the same reason. They were all trying to figure it out. Sam spoke in silly, soft rather effeminate voice. Dean also spoke in higher register. Watching them again after all these years was hilarious.

They got a lot of lore right, but also got a lot wrong. Sometimes they simply combined lore from different cultures to make it makes sense for the show. They also wrote the wrong thing quite often. Pentacles, pentagrams and crosses can’t be reversed, but they can be inverted. There is a difference. They also talked about Samhain as if it were a person. It isn’t, and they had Sam pronouncing it incorrectly. He was saying it as name – Sam Hain. It is actually pronounced SAH-win or SOW -in. Though this seems to be another writers creation to make a story line work. Things like that I dislike. If you are going to do it, do it correctly or as correctly as possible.

In one episode they run into the spirit of Herman Webster Mudgett better known as HH Holmes. Holmes is one of those figures where the myth has out done the real person. A lot of what bounces around as fact about Holmes and his house are fiction. The newspapers at the time often just made up things to sell papers. In this case, not only do the writers have Sam perpetuate those myths, but when going through the pile of photos of Holmes victims, the one that we see is that of Elizabeth Stride. Elizabeth Stride is believed to have been the third victim of Jack The Ripper. If Sam is the researcher they make him out to be, why does he so often give incorrect information?

But they did have fun on the show. Little things that some people caught and others didn’t. I had a lot of laughs this second time through catching little things I had either forgotten or missed the first time. I had forgotten how much I loved all the goofy theme motels they stayed in.

They used nine 1967 Impalas in the 15 seasons. The original license plate was KAZ 2Y5. KAZ – for Kansas, where the Winchesters hail from and 2Y5 for the premier date of 2005. I don’t know who thought of that, but it’s kinda cool.

I loved how they slipped in little ‘easter eggs’ here and there, the running gag of Busty Asian Beauties and Bobby Singer being named after one of the executive producers. A lot of this kinda stopped when the show ‘over ran’ it’s original run time.

So did the jokes.

They stayed at and ate a lot places that bore the names of the show runners. I remember them eating at Kripke’s Diner. They also visited Kripke’s Hollow. Kim Manners initials can be seen in one of the many themed motel room dividers.

In the first season, Linda Blair guest starred as a cop. At the end of the episode, Dean asks Sam if she looked familiar. Sam says no, but asks Dean if he’s hungry. Dean says yeah, he could eat and for some reason he had a craving for pea soup.

Then they were in California at a TV studio. Dean is all excited to be in the land of swimming pools and movie stars. But the weather is sort of cold and overcast. Sam remarks they could be in Canada with that kind of weather.

In one their investigations, they find out the guy who shot up the hobby store was Tony Perkins.

In another episode, demons were everywhere, big fight scene lots of shooting. You know, the regular Supernatural stuff. At the end of the fight a baffled character gasps ‘I shot the sheriff!’ to which Deans responds ‘But you did not shoot the deputy.’.

Dean is getting ready to be dragged to Hell and they are trying to stop it. They get pulled over by a cop because of a broken tail light. Dean sees that the cop is demon and kills him. Now they have to hide the car – car 54. That one made me laugh out loud.

There are tons more, but I could never list them all.

I am now in season 4 where we first meet Castiel and the angels. It also were we find out angels are dicks.

I don’t know if I will go past season 5. I didn’t really enjoy most the seasons that had seasonal arc stories. I liked it better when they hunted monsters and learned that monsters are not always monsters. There were moments that were good, but overall, I think I may pass on those last 10 seasons.

I will miss the moments with Rowena and Crowley, but I can live with that.

Note: If you are too young or just don’t know: Linda Blair starred in ‘The Exorcist’ as a child and they used pea soup for her vomit. The series filmed in Canada. Tony Perkins = Anthony Perkins who starred in the movie ‘Psycho’. ‘I shot the Sheriff’ was a song written and performed by Bob Marley originally released in 1973. Car 54 is nod to an old TV series ‘Car 54 Where Are You?’

The Myth of the Zodiac Killer

So I have been watching the docuseries ‘The Myth of The Zodiac Killer’. This is series is on Peacock and it revolves around a once private investigator, Tom Horan. This man was an insurance investigator for about a minute. Then he was a teacher and few other things. Horan believes there was not a single killer in the Zodiac killings in 1969, but more than one person committing the murders and the Zodiac himself was fictional. And wow. It seems no one has caught on that Tom Horan contradicts himself right away.

It doesn’t take a lot of looking to find the bare facts of the case or all conspiracy theories that have come and gone with it. Like Jack The Ripper, the Zodiac murders have gone unsolved. Most people, including the police, have come the conclusion that he either died or left the San Francisco area since the killings just stopped.

Tom Horan lacks a lot of facts and leaves a lot of holes in his theory.

1. He claims that since a different gun was used in each of the killings, it had to be different people doing the killing. That makes no sense to me at all. So what if the ballistics don’t match case to case. Lots of people own different guns. No reason why the Zodiac would just have one either.
2. He poo-poos the Zodiac letters sent to the newspapers at the time. This is regardless of fact the the letters included certain facts about the murders that were not made public at the time. So if he wasn’t the killer, how would he know those unpublished/unreleased facts?
3. The codex sent to newspapers was easy to crack. Why would it be so easy? That means the letters were fake. OR – it could mean the Zodiac wanted the codex cracked so he could have more attention. Like, duh.
4. The ex-husband of the second woman, Darlene Ferrin, killed her. It doesn’t seem to matter the the police confirmed his alibi that he wasn’t even town when the murder occurred.
5. When asked if the ex-husband was dead or not, Horan said he thought he was dead but could not confirm it. That is because the man was live and well and at the time of the series, living in Oregon.
6. The ex-husband said he was sent to codex school while in the Army. Horan said the was not true because Army records show him as clerk in Germany. So what? Did you know you can be stationed as a clerk and still be sent to training? My guess is the man did not do well in school and was never made a coder. He was a rather strange dude, but I put that down to all the drugs he did in the 60’s and 70’s.
7. Horan completely ignores that a man phoned the police right after the second killings to report the murders. This happened right before 1:00 am. In that call, he also took credit for the first murders.
8. The eye witness accounts vary, as do the descriptions of the killer. So based on that, the there were different killers. Guess what? Ask ANY police officer how reliable eye witnesses are. The first killings took place at night. They can’t see well in the dark to begin with, then they are scared and a bright light was shined in their faces. Not the best witnesses. Not to mention there are things like wigs, hoodies, glasses and all sorts of ways to not look the same.
9. Now, 50 years later, they are going to interview the witnesses who may have seen the killer. As if a 50 year old memory is really going to be reliable. Seriously? They also ask the witnesses if they think they saw the Zodiac killer. So of course they say yes. Leading the witness much?

All the above is just from the first episode. I can hardly wait to watch the next one. Well, honestly I can. Horan is pretty delusional thinking he solved this case. So far, he has zero proof of anything and has consistently contradicted himself.

This is a two part docuseries. Thank goodness! I was so sick of Horan and his nonsense it was difficult to watch part two. The person who filmed all of this, Andrew Nock, seems to be huge Horan fan and it appears he fell everything Horan says as gold and the solid truth. This makes the series very bias.

So now we move on to the daytime killing. A couple had gone to a lake for a picnic and they were approached by a man in a mask and costume. The man zip tied them and stabbed them. The killer then wrote a ‘letter’ on the couples car stating the dates and locations of the previous murders and noting the weapon used. He even note that this current murder was done with a knife.

Horan claims since everything is different, it can’t be a Zodiac killing. This is in spite of all the professionals who have dealt with serial killers for decades stating that serial killers will, and do, change how they kill. They generally note Ted Bundy (because he is name most people recognize) changed from breaking in and killing women to luring them into his car. Somehow, I’m going to put my money the people who have done this for decades rather than some armchair detective with a bug up his ass.

Horan also notes that the killer used a BLUE pen on the car rather than a BLACK pen on the car. Why this makes it fake, I still can’t figure out. I don’t think the colour of the marker points to a copycat. I thinks it points to the man having blue pen.

As for the costume, the real professionals point out that, again, serial killers may try something new to get more of a thrill. If one is going to try a daytime kill, it seems to make sense one would want hide ones identity in a costume.

The last victim was Paul Stine, a cab driver. He picked up a fare and drove it to a one of the posher neighbourhoods in San Francisco. There he was shot in head and left in his cab. Two young boys saw him from a window across there street. They saw him walk away from the cab. They called the police. It seems there was some confusion in the interview. The announcement that went out over the police radio said the man was a black man. An officer had stopped a man walking in the area, and once the description came over the radio, he the man go. Most people involved are pretty darn sure that man who was stopped was the Zodiac. The officer gave a description and a sketch was made. The sketch is the one most often associated with the Zodiac. To top it off, the description the officer gave, fit what other witnesses gave in term of height, age, build and weight.

But this wasn’t the Zodiac because:

1. There were other cabbies being robbed in the same neighbourhhod at the time. A similar MO – They picked up a fare, drove the fare to this neighbouthood. Then got robbed. Not murdered mind you. Just robbed. The investigators know this and it is mentioned in the documentary.
2. San Francisco is 72 miles from the last murder. That seems like a long way to go the kill someone. I guess serial killers don’t drive cars. On the surface it might seems like a valid point – until you see that the killer was travelling towards San Francisco with each kill.
3. Paul was alone, a male and not part of a couple. That doesn’t match the previous kills. But we have the ‘try something new’ thrill added to the fact that cabbies were being robbed using the similar MO used in Paul Stine’s murder. Perhaps the Zodiac was using the similar MO to help cover his identity.

Now we get to meat of Horan’s theory. After Paul Stine’s murder, 28 letters were sent to the newspaper. Andrew Nock, our intrepid filmmaker, sent these to a French team that uses AI to look for similarities in the letters. They don’t do handwriting comparison, but look for the way words are used, sentence construction and things along those lines. The WAY you write is set as an adult and changing how you write can be done, but is very difficult. Most people can not change how they write. Okay got it.

When Andrew calls the French team, he asks flat out if the AI analysis is 100% accurate. He asks this several times as he talks with them, and every time he is told no. The team does a very good job at explaining how what they do works and how they teach the AI what to look for. This part is really worth watching – it is very interesting.

What it boiled down to is that is a SUBTLE shift in the writing. It MAY point to two different writers. Note that – MAY. Of course Nock and Horan latch on the that ‘sublte shift’ and a ‘may’ as proof that there were two killers. Not some other nutter writing letters, mind you, but two killers.

The police, the investigators, others who have researched the Zodiac – everyone of them says flat out – No, we don’t believe all 28 letters came form the Zodiac. We credit only 4 of those 28 letters to the real Zodiac.

Why? Because those 4 letters included a piece of Paul Stine’s shirt.

This, of course, isn’t what Horan believes. Yet he still has a theory about the bits of shirt.

Of course he does.

Now we get treated to a look back at the relationship between police and journalists in the 60’s and 70’s. It seems the press was allowed to waltz all about the police station at will. No place was off limits. Anyone could have gone into the forensics lab and torn off a piece of shirt.

Sounds ridiculous when stated in documentary and even more so when the journalist they interviewed said sure the relationships was different then. They had a press room that they could into anytime. Sometimes the police were more apt to share information back then. In the PRESS ROOM.

So yeah, the press was not allowed to go into the labs, or investigation rooms at will. Just like today. Sorry Horan, you’ve bungled another one of your own theories.

Thomas Horan does not make his case at all. He contradicts himself more than once. He claims that he is the only one who had ever read all the police reports. He claims he has found holes the investigations, and the murders are not linked and nothing links them. He finds it amazing that people are too hard headed and stuck in their thinking to see any other side of this story.

Yet, even in his own docuseries, he is proven wrong time after time and refuses to see it. He makes outrageous claims he can’t back up because the very evidence and police reports show he is wrong.

Who stuck in their thinking now?

For me, the Hawaiian shirts hanging on a file cabinet in the background and chattering teeth and skull on his prop desk don’t add to his credibility. If you want to be viewed as a professional, look like one. Now, I don’t mean you have to wear a suit and tie, but put a wee bit of thought into your interview props.

If you have the patience, or want a good laugh, I say go watch this thing. It’s rather outrageous and you can count for yourself how many times Horan contradicts himself or is proven wrong by the other people they interviewed. It’s sad and funny at the same time. Thomas Horan got his 15 minutes of fame and I’m pretty sure a few more people listening to his podcast and viewing his YouTube channel.

I bet he sold a few more book as well.

Note: This is my opinion about this series. I am not going to debate with you in the comments section. You are free to come to your own conclusions, even if they differ from mine. I don’t care. I’m not here to change your mind.

Paranormal Shows

Okay. Yeah. I do like paranormal shows. Well, good paranormal shows. There seems to be a shortage of those. Most are thrown together, crappily scripted, poorly acted, horribly filmed things that are just awful to try and watch.

It seems every channel or streaming service has a few (billion) paranormal shows. Just go the Roku Channel and start counting. Even Animal Planet had one.

The of the worst one that comes to mind is Ghost Adventures with Zak Bagans and his ‘bros’. These guys can never shut up. They blabber on constantly. ‘Did you hear that?’ ‘Did you hear that?’ NO! We can’t hear anything with you idiots talking about ‘did you hear that?’. They have been at this for a long time now and STILL run away when something actually happens. ‘Show me you’re here!’ okay (knocks over a stool). ”SHIT! I’m outta here!’. I watched maybe two episodes early on and never tuned in again.

Other are even worse. They rely on shaky cams, fast flipping images and overly dramatic music and/or narratives. They never really tell a good story because they need too many commercials to pay for the crap they put out. The 1 hour show is really only about 35 minutes.

The people that they interview are sometimes the worst part of the show. Many of them sound very uneducated and seem unable to form a sentence that is understandable. Come on production company – hair, make up, wardrobe, and give these people a cue card to read. Make an effort here. For those of you who think I am being horrible to the people they interview – I’m not. Wouldn’t YOU like to be presented at YOUR best if you were going to be on TV telling the world about your paranormal experiences? I know I would like look and sound better than I do in everyday life were I going to be filmed.

The things the people do always kind stun me. One story had a people with three dogs move into a house that began having activity. Things got kinda nasty, the people left with their dogs. Okay. Then the place they were staying said the dogs couldn’t stay, so they took the dogs back to the house and LEFT THEM IN THE HOUSE! ALONE! What the ever loving fuck were they thinking??!??? Oh sure, they paid some kid to go feed and water them, but not the point. The house as nasty activity going on, it’s affecting your dogs, and you somehow think it’s just okay to LEAVE them there alone? Maybe don’t have pets. Okay, you can have a pet rock. Maybe.

And here’s another stupid thing – they claim ‘the house did it’ when it isn’t the house at all, it’s the entity IN the house. A lot of these people won’t do anything about the paranormal issues. They just move out and leave the ‘evil house’ as someone else’s problem. Wow. You sit there tell everyone how scared your were, how you feared for your life, but just leave all that for someone else to experience. That’s a pretty crappy thing to do.

I do know of one story where the land was cursed or bad or whatever you want to call it. The owners actually burned the house down and salted the land. They didn’t sell it either. They didn’t want anyone else to have go through what they went through. I understand that most of us couldn’t afford to do that, but they really couldn’t either and they did it anyway. The last I heard, they were working with several shamans, etc. to cleanse the land and make it safe again.

Now there is a lot of paranormal information out there. There are books on it, programs on it, classes on it. Hell, just type a few words in a search bar and you can find all kinds of websites and blogs about the paranormal. You really shouldn’t be at a total loss of what to do or who to call if your house is having activity. But yet, all theses people are not only clueless, but rarely make any effort to to research their homes history, read a book or look thing up online. Really? Even the Winchesters, who are fictional, knew a little salt can go a long way.

The ‘professionals’ they call on are often just as bad. They jump to conclusions without even completing one investigation. They love to leap to ‘demonic’. That is the paranormal buzzword of the year – demonic. I guess you get higher ratings with demons in a house. They often don’t seem to know the difference between a pentacle and a pentagram or what they are used for. Those automatically pronounced as ‘satanic’ when they aren’t. Not even close. One house had a little boy haunting it, the ‘professionals’ declared him a danger to the family, he was ‘demonic’ (for the record, the spirit never did anything harmful). Guess what? He wasn’t. He was lost. Some real researchers found out he had drowned in a pond on the land eons ago and his grave either was never marked, or the marker has been lost over time. They found the grave site on the plat map, put up a marker, and had a small ceremony. Boom. The spirit moved on. No demons. No danger.

And, so sorry paranormal investigators, most of you can investigate, but don’t really help the people with paranormal problems because you don’t know how. To add to that, you all rarely call in someone who CAN help. You kinda go – ‘Look! you house has ghosts/shadow people/ activity.’ Then leave. Like Ghost Hunters used to do.

My other pet peeve is the reenactments. At least TRY to find actors who can 1) act, and 2) look at least little bit like the real people telling the story. And don’t take poetic license – do the reenactment as the narrative states. So yeah, when ‘John’ looks in the bathroom and seeing an apparition, don’t show ‘John’ looking a bedroom and seeing a shadow figure. Come on. It isn’t that tough to do.

Sometimes it a real shame to watch a show that could be a really good show with some polish. The basis of the show is good. A lot in the information is really good. It’s just the presentation that stinks. You don’t need shaky cams, unfocused images and strobe lights to make a good ghost show. You also don’t need to make everything ‘demonic’ (looking at you Dead Files).

I also have a lot of questions about blessings and exorcisms. How does that work if the family is not Christian? What if they are Hindi or Muslim? What if they are atheists? How can a Christian god do anything if the people involved don’t believe in him/her/it. Why do religious people think hollering ‘In Jesus’ name!’ can make a spirit move on? What if the ghost is an atheist? When you think about it, are ghosts even religious? Why would they be? There are a lot of psychics who don’t use any kind of mainstream religion and they seem to be able to clear a lot places without a cross or holy water. It makes me wonder if the spirits are just playing with the religious folks. I can imagine them rolling their eyes – ‘Oh good grief. This fool has a bottle of water and cross. I suppose I could put on a show for him.’ *sigh*

I know the flurry of paranormal shows has kinda come to a close. Some of the better ones keep on going. In spite of the Dead Files proclaiming more things ‘demonic’ these days, I do like it’s presentation. The early shows were almost better than the newer ones, though we can still make a drinking game over how times times Amy uses the word ‘bad’.

Good gods woman, buy thesaurus already.

The Wagging Tail of Molly

You may not see it, but that tail is wagging

After so much happening in such a short time, I can’t believe this happy dog I now have. Molly is remarkable in her own way. Adopted and rescued dogs often don’t come around for months, and sometimes even years depending on their own personal stories. But Molly? Molly decided to embrace her new life.

I started out with filthy dog, who came to me with poo balls and mud stuck in her hair. She lunged and barked at other dogs on lead (leash aggressive). She had no clue what ‘heel’ meant. Walking her was exhausting with the pulling and having to be on constant alert for things that would set her off. Cats and squirrels were a huge challenge (prey drive). She barked at every noise she heard in the house. If she looked out the window, she was barking. She jumped up on counters and people. She wasn’t used to living in a city with so much going on all the time.

But I saw a good dog in there.

Now I have clean dog. I think she likes being clean all the time. The bath part, no so much, but she never fights it. She stands still and lets me scrub her clean. I keep her brushed out and her undercoat under control (her breed sheds the undercoat in the summer). I keep her feet shaved clean to prevent her from getting foxtails and burs in her toes. And she lays quietly and lets me do that. She sits like a champ to get her nails trimmed.

Now we walk on respectfully on heel all over town. She alerts to the cats and squirrels, but doesn’t go after them. Other dogs and now to met with curiosity and a wagging tail. No more pulling. No more lunging.

She now looks for a noise rather than bark at a noise. She has figured out that this town is noisy place and she doesn’t need to bark at everything. She stopped barking at the doorbell. She alerts me to it (because I am human and may not hear it), but with a soft whine and standing by the door.

Look at her reflection. Happy dog!

She part of her play group, no longer relegated to a side pen. She has grasped the concept of a rotating pack and can be in the group with dogs she has not met before. While we have one dog she does not get on with, that is two sided coin. The other dog isn’t a Molly fan. We all have ‘people’ we don’t get on with, so that’s just fine.

She has made friends at the dog park as well. We found out two of her dog park friends go to the same place for daycare! She has a small core group of doggie friends at the park and has also put the rotating pack lesson into play there as well. I no longer have worry over her getting aggressive with most strange dogs (but I am still very watchful). She has learned to say ‘bugger off!’ and disengage from the situation.

We found out she knows ‘shake’, ‘down’, ‘come’, ‘sit’, ‘give’ and ‘speak’. She has also learned ‘wait’, ‘leave it’, ‘off’ and ‘don’t even’. And her vocabulary is growing.

She knows if she brings me her food bowl, I’ll give her small treat. This came around because she suddenly started picking her dish and carrying it around, dropping it on the floor and making quite a bit of noise with it (it’s a steel dish). I live upstairs and can only imagine all the thudding and thumping my downstairs neighbour heard (she is a huge Molly fan, so I know she would never complain). So I started asking Molly to give me her dish. In return, Molly got a sweet potato fry. Now Molly just brings me her dish to get her fry. Yup. I taught my dog how to barter.

She isn’t perfect, but I don’t expect her to be. The other night she put paws up the kitchen counter stole a piece of pizza. Such a naughty girl! But the funny thing is that as soon as she brought the stolen pizza in the living room, she knew she was in trouble for getting it and dropped it without eating it. So she got a mild correction and we moved on with our evening. The rest of the pizza stayed on the counter for while (as a lesson) and she didn’t even go in the kitchen. Resisting temptation, I suppose.

We still have lots to learn. I want to take her through a group obedience class so she can learn to work with distractions. I still would like to start her on agility. Mostly, I just want all the time I can have with her. She is 1.5 years older than I was initially told not a lot, but enough it shortens our years together a little bit (her breed’s lifespan is 10 – 12 years).

As we journey along, I will share our triumphs and progress. Writing about Molly is a nice break from ranting about the things I dislike. Don’t get me wrong – the rants get all that out of my system and help me deal with the things I can’t change.

Writing about Molly makes me happy, and I think makes you all happy as well.