u/Ruffffian

…’cause it’s clearly not this one! 🤪🤣

Focus of the pic is our 2’ goshiki koi GusGus, one of the 4 survivors of a catastrophic ammonia spike last fall that wiped out our other 22 koi, as well as all of our goldfish and all 3 species of minnows, in our 4700gal pond. Above him is our ~20yro red-eared slider Bubbles🐢, and our 2 1/2’ fellow ammonia poisoning survivor and house favorite shiru utsuri (whose genetics didn’t get that utsuri notice—thus she she cheap🤣) Phoebe to the left. You can also see part of our new-ish goromo koi in the left corner, as well as a single rosy red minnow/xanthic fathead minnow scouring the bottom for leftovers. I believe that is our losing-his-lemon hariwake to the right of the goshiki.

FTR: I called animal control to report the mangy coyote—poor girl had open wounds all over her naked skin. I haven’t seen her since, so hopefully she’s getting cared for. Also, Sorry for my harsh language and attitude toward the coyotes; I do actually love them, I just wish for them to stay in the nearby hills and away from our chickens and neighbor’s cats.

This is crazy! During our first month together,Juniper has already encountered 2 coyotes and a skunk while on our “walks” (I’m disabled and use a mobility scooter, so she gets a nice trot around). It was interesting how she responded to them—even though they are dog-like to us, Juniper reacted very differently to the coyotes than she does with other dogs. Whereas she might exchange a happy glance with a dog before continuing on and ignoring it, she growled and started barking at the first one and really wanted to go chase it down. (You can spot the second one in the first second or two of the clip, turning left into the cul-du-sac.)

Meanwhile, skunk got her interest like, “Oooh! Another kitty friend!” NO. NOT FRIEND.

We’ve kept milkweed in our Southern California garden for years now and we get regular monarch visitors. Weirdly to us, we haven’t seen any caterpillars at all this year. Lots of feeding monarchs, no babies. 😕

Husband did find a dead inch-long monarch caterpillar last week in the grass in front of the garden; we figured it was from one of our chickens snagging it from the bit of the milkweed that juts through the chicken wire, but that’s it. The bulk of the plants are protected, so why there aren’t babies in the chicken-safe zone is a 🤷🏻‍♀️ for us. Boo. Funny, the plants are doing the best they’ve ever done, yet it’s the only year we haven’t seen caterpillars.

I’m just happy to see these adults making regular stops! Also, fuck aphids. I am daily wiping and/or spraying them off the plants. 😤

Still an itty bitty bit left in front of the tail. :::sigh:::

It’s the risk of buying young koi, we know. At least s/he’s a gorgeous silver-white doitsu even without the yellow-orange, but boo. (Filmed from our viewing window)

Lucy was taken in by us in 2013 as a 2-3yro stray right off the streets of Fresno. She’d been abandoned at a middle of nowhere gas station/food mart where my trucker BIL stopped for a meal; apparently, she’d been living behind the dumpsters for a few weeks. Vet and everyone else said she was a rat terrier (to the point one vet argued the Embark results had to be wrong), and her personality sure as hell said terrier to me: lots of energy, very stubborn—training was a beast!, very opinionated, very HEY WHO GOES THERE OH YEAH? GO FUCK YOURSELF WHILE I FUCK YOU UP, and inSANEly hyper focused on rodents.

Then after a few years, I decided to Embark her and was stunned to discover there is not a drop of any kind of terrier blood anywhere. 🤪 Personality-wise, she is almost all dachshund (from what I understand)—that’s where I believe that stubborn, rodent-obsessed, cussing-out, and digging obsessed-nature most likely comes from. (All it seems the Pomeranian did was give her horrendous teeth; she only has 5 left now.)

I did the Embark age estimate test a couple years ago, and by its estimate, she is now an old lady of 15…nearly toothless, nearly blind, and losing her hearing. Sadly, she has been sinking into canine cognitive dysfunction (AKA dog dementia), but we love her and are doing our best to keep her comfortable. We were worried about adding the young GSD, but they already get along better than Lucy did with our previous shepherd. I almost think the dementia helps. She seems to have moments remembering what puppy play is, and this GSD is very respectful of her “bug off, kid” grumps.

She wasn’t allowed in the bed with us for a decade or so, but she’s earned the big bed for her final years and is currently snoring next to me. ❤️‍🩹

EDIT (I can’t edit title): Okaaaay, yeah…not shocking to a lot of folks, heh, but the white splotch and speckled toes really threw me for a loop. Our “rat terrier” turned out not to have a drop of terrier blood of any kind so I guess now I doubt the obvious.

Background: Juniper is an ~11mo old pup we adopted straight from the county shelter 3 weeks ago. She was picked up as an emaciated stray right off the streets by animal control so nothing was known about her history.

Probably not so surprising for some, but she is so different in body type than our former GSD I swore something else had to be in there. The white on the chest, the peppered toes, the prominent jowls, the eye shape, and just how lanky and gangly she is had me more and more thinking she had Great Dane or similar going on.

Now I’m wondering if maybe she’s younger than the shelter thought because she is so leggy and gangly with such giant feet, more than one Redditor suggested she had wolf blood (though I never really considered that a probability). Last night she got the zoomies and it was ridiculously awkward, all feet and limbs tangling and untangling as she went full galoot. Our previous GSD was adopted at 7mos and was a little awkward at first, but by Juniper’s supposed age her frame had balanced out. It will be interesting to see what our vet says Thursday when he sees her.

Sometimes we get surprised by the breeds that are there, sometimes we get surprised by the breeds that aren’t there, and I guess sometimes we get surprised by there being only one breed. Shows just how much phenotypes can vary!

I don’t know why I’m so caught up in knowing her breeds, but I am super impatient and want to know!

🤦🏻‍♀️ Juniper loves her stuffies and loves carrying them around and bringing them to us, but she also loves eviscerating them. Everywhere. I had some unused stuffing-free Kong plushies left over from Luna 💔 so we definitely got those out in a hurry. 🤣

We adopted “Juniper” this past Tuesday 5/26 and I immediately ordered an Embark test that evening. I’m stunned it already got here but am eager to get it right back out. 😁

Juni is an ~11mo old German shepherd or GSD mix. She was picked up by animal control 5/1 as an emaciated stray with fly strike-damaged ear tips roaming the Los Angeles County streets. She seems BIG and likely gonna grow bigger (not just gain weight) as her legs and feet still look huge proportionately, though that might be partially due to how thin she is. I’m suspicious something else is in her genetics besides GSD due to the white chest marking, interesting salt and pepper foot markings, and something about her head/face structure seems a little less GSD-like. She seems to have more jowl and her ruff is loose and even wrinkly like some sort of mastiff.

Someone clearly worked with her early: she knows sit, down, give paw, and immediately knew and understood the crate training. She also has very good respect of space and doesn’t try to steal the ball/toy/whatever when I reach for it; in fact, she backs up. Personality-wise, she is very shepherd-like except she seems to have much less of a prey drive than the GSD I had before. She noticed our chickens (safe in their coop obviously), but that’s about all she did—she turned her head, looked, moved on, and that is still more or less what she does. They are background furniture in her eyes. She is very smart and friendly to everyone of every species.

I’ve been fooled before; I swore our previous dog was some sort of GSD/malinois mix, but she turned out to be a purebred. Juni though…I feel like I’m seeing something else but I’m unsure what. Visually and behaviorally I’m not seeing malinois, pit bull types, or husky (the 3 most common mix breed types out here), and though I initially thought Great Dane may be in there I’m not sure now.

What do you think?

(Too tired to type background details but will in the morning.) Juniper is an 11mo old German shepherd/mix that was picked up by animal control as a stray 25 days ago. She was emaciated (3/10 body condition) and had raw spots on her ear tips from fly bites. She had no microchip, collar, or tags. I was stunned when I first interacted with her that she knew sit, down, stay, and give paw, and clearly had been taught to wait and respect space when playing fetch. (Plus, when I brought her home and introduced her to her crate, she went right in like she was very familiar with that sort of home.) Someone clearly spent some time working with her since she was quite little…I wonder what happened.

I’m quite curious about the white ticked(? Is that the term?) markings on her feet—is that something seen in GSDs, or does it suggest a certain other breed is in there as well? Heh, I’ve already ordered the Embark test for her. 😆

She is adjusting remarkably well in just 12 hours—it’s stunning how comfortable she is with everything. I’ll share more tomorrow but had to share here today. ❤️

I’d say they need the loading symbol spinning over their heads, but even that is probably giving their cranial cavities too much credit.

It’s been just over a year since we lost our wonderful GSD Luna in a horrible fluke accident. We only had her 2 years and the trauma and anguish of grieving her was absolutely devastating. The idea of another GSD has stayed with me, hovering in the background, while we dealt with grieving her and then a metric ton of shit that 2025 pummeled us with at the end of that year.

Luna came straight from a county shelter and I’ve vowed our next dog would come from one as well in her honor—our local shelters are overflowing with GSDs, huskies, pit bulls, and chihuahua mixes, and I knew the right dog would be there eventually. Maybe this girl is it.

She was brought in as a stray 3 weeks ago, emaciated (body score 3/10) and ears damaged from fly bites, no collar or chip, and was estimated to be about 10 months old. She is incredibly sweet and a bit insecure—not excessively so, but when I sat on the ground with her (once I was confident I was safe to do so) she came over to sit in my lap then tried to crawl under me, heh. After she got a sense of her surroundings, she felt confident and switched to play mode, as you see here.

AND as you see here—someone spent time with this girl! She knew sit and give paw, and I *think* lie down (that or she responded to my gestures and figured it out).

We are a unique house with a lot going on, and I **know** full well what bringing a GSD home means. I am disabled and home 98% of the time, and training a dog is absolutely a project I can and have tackled, and honestly I welcome it.

The white on the chest suggests she isn’t a purebred GSD to me, though I don’t see signs of pitbull types or husky, which would be my first guesses of the sources of the white. Maybe a collie/aussie type? Granted she’s still underweight and still a puppy, but for shits and giggles, what breeds do you think may be in there?

Husband is neutral. I can almost guarantee oldest son (20) will be on board; youngest (16) is the question mark. I may bring them tomorrow to meet her and may just bring her home. Maybe. Eep. (My eyes are wide open to what bringing her home would mean, thus the Eep.) Wish me luck, regardless!

Madge is our 6mo old naked neck/polish frizzle cross. S/he does not crow and does not mount hens, but she has quite a red comb and does the rooster flirty dance as well as the “come and get it!” call when I give treats. She isn’t laying eggs, though she’s still young so I know she may soon…if she’s female. Our confirmed rooster regularly grabs her by her back (maybe to mount? maybe to fight?) and she’s missing some feathers there. I’ve heard polish and silkies are hard to sex and I’m seeing that for sure! 🤪

I don’t like harassing wildlife so I feel guilty now for lightly brushing their toes with the straw, so please forgive me Reddit. I was curious if it was in a defensive pose or it had just been hanging out like that, but after how it reacted I’m saying it was a RAWR I BIG AND SCARY thing. Can anyone add more info on the behaviors we observed?

Seemed to give Kronk a concerned look, but of course that doofus was not interested. Meanwhile, Firefly just watched, chilling in a corner doing her homemade flymask/sheet thing with her hay net. WTF? I knew they were around, but not this brazen.