Author: marga (Page 13 of 158)

Internet Puppy Scam

January 17, 2012 / / 9 Comments

We’ve been talking about getting a dog for a while.  We figured we’d wait until the kids were a bit older and, all of sudden, we realized that they were already older (7 and 10) and that if we didn’t get a dog soon they’d go much of their childhood without one.  Camila, in particular, has been asking for a dog for a LONG time.  Last year I promised her I’d get her one if she didn’t whine until the summer.  She actually managed to do that (though I had to remind her each time).  The weekend before last, for some reason Mike told her that we could get a dog now – so I started looking.

The kids didn’t care too much about what type of dog we got, but I was pretty adamant that it had to be cute.  For me, that meant no mutts (let’s be honest, most of them are ugly), no hounds or other skinny dogs and no small dogs – they are just too precious.  Going through the breeds of dogs that I could actually find around here, I ended up deciding it had to be a Goldern or Labrador retriever, a German or Australian Shepherd, a Siberian Husky or a Border collie.  I had originally wanted a grown dog – so I wouldn’t have to house train it – but Mike wanted a puppy or a young dog, so that’s what I started to look for.

I first started looking on Petfinder, a wonderful website that lists adoptable pets from shelters and rescue groups throughout the country (and more important, the Bay Area).  But I quickly realized my chances of finding a dog with those characteristic were minimal.  Plus the rescue groups, in particular, have pretty onerous adoption processes that include “thorough” questionnaires and home visits, I definitely didn’t want to bother with that.  Plus adoption “donations” for these groups can be as high as $250!

My next place to look was Craigslist.  Some shelters advertise here, but there are also ads from people re-homing their dogs and selling puppies.  Now, Craigslist doesn’t allow people to actually sell dogs but they allow “small” re-homing fees, but what constitutes “small” seems open to interpretation.  Anyway, most of the puppies we called about seemed to be in the $150 to $400 range.  Unfortunately, Craigslist didn’t have any puppies I wanted when I looked, though they do add new ones daily.

By searching around the net, I then came across oodle marketplace, an online classified website.  Here I found lots of listings for puppies at very reasonable prices (about $200-300).  I hurried to e-mail the owners, asking for more information on the puppies as well as pictures.  Almost immediately the replies started coming.  I wrote to seven people, and got five replies back.  All of those were SCAMS.  I’m copying the responses below though they are pretty much the same:

  1. They are all written in bad English (typical of Nigerian scams)
  2. They all offer say their puppies are AKC registered, yet the puppies are free or too cheap
  3. The puppies all come with equipment, guarantees or other things that cost money
  4. They claim that what they most care about is a good home for the puppies and send a long questionnaire.

As I’m a big fan of reading scam baiter e-mail threads (and I have to recommend them to you, the baits are soo funny though sometimes really cruel), I could tell from the first e-mail that it was a scam.  A quick google search for the e-mail address led me to many ads offering all sorts of puppies for sale, in many cities.  But how did the scam work?

Another quick search leads to the answer:  the scammer tells you that she’s no longer in your city but she’ll be more than happy to mail you the puppy.  All you have to do is pay for the shipping (or a low price that includes shipping), directly to the shipping company.  The shipping company they’ll use is a fake and requires payment by Western Union or Moneygram (which will be untraceable to them once they receive it).

Personally, I don’t know why anyone would buy a puppy sight unseen (even from a reputable breeder) but these scams must work because they continue doing them.

Oh, well.  At least scam baiters are having fun with these scams, this one is hilarious.  And as for me, I went back to Craigslist and got a gorgeous German Shepherd puppy from a private party for a very reasonable price.

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Easy Doggy Shampoo – Recipe

January 17, 2012 / / 0 Comments

We have finally gotten a puppy!  A beautiful 8-week old (well, pretty much 9-week old by now) German Shepperd girl dog (it just doesn’t sound right to call her bitch) that we’re calling Smokey.  This pre-bath picture does not do her justice, but you’ll have to wait until I get more.

I’m sure I’ll blog a LOT about her, but this particular posting is about doggy shampoo!  Of course, we have a dog so the kids want to give her a bath.  A few months ago, when I suspected one day we’d get a dog but didn’t know when, I got a Scientific Explorer Pamper Your Dog Science Kit at the flea market for $2.  One of the activities in this kit is making doggy shampoo so you can give your doggy a bath.  Well, we made the shampoo and we could not believe just how soft and fluffy Smokey is.  I have *never* petted a softer dog or puppy in my life.  She smells great too!  I did a quick search and found out that glycerine soap, the main ingredient in this shampoo, is actually good for dogs’ coats.  It’s also cheap and easy to find.

This basic recipe is good enough as it is – but you can also add a couple of drops of the essential oil of your choice to make the puppy smell extra-nice (or get a perfumed glycerine soap).  Lavender essential oil smells nice and works against ticks, while white cedar, peppermint, eucalyptus and citronella essential oils may help with fleas.  Use any natural (non-mineral) oil you have at home.

Doggy Shampoo

  • 1 oz bar glycerin soap
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 1/2 Tbsp. vegetable oil

Chop/cut the soap into chunks.  Put it in a microwave-safe glass together with the water and the oil.  Microwave for 30 seconds, mix well, and, if the soap is not yet melted, microwave for 15 to 30 seconds more.  Let cool

Looking into the sun (with glasses)

December 28, 2011 / / 0 Comments

I remember the first – and perhaps only – eclipse I ever saw.  It happened in August 1979, when I was on fifth grade.  I remember getting out of the classroom to look at the sun – despite warnings that we shouldn’t.  Somehow I managed not to blind myself (though I developed myopia not too long after that, hmmm….).  Since then I have been more responsible and have not looked directly into the sun – until yesterday, that is.  You see, Mike mentioned a few weeks ago that the kids and him had gone to some science event in which they had glasses they could use to safely look at the sun.  I looked them up and found out that they are super cheap (though only sold in bulk) so I decided to get him a set for Christmas.

The glasses are quite simple, they are made of paper with black polymer lenses which filter all of the harmful ultraviolet and infrared light, as well as practically all the ambient light.  Put them on and look anywhere but at the sun, and you’ll see pitch black.  Then sun, however, looks like a perfect orange circle.  When I looked yesterday I couldn’t see any sun spots, but now that we have the glasses I can look often until I see them 🙂

These glasses are going to be perfect for the annular solar eclipse that will take place on May 20th this year.  It won’t hit the Bay Area, but the 20th conveniently falls on a Sunday making a trip up north (Redding is near the center path for the eclipse) easy enough.  As if that wasn’t enough, on June 5th Venus will be transiting between the earth and the sun! It’ll be the last time that this happens while we are alive, so I’m sure it’ll be worth seeing it.

I got the glasses at the Rainbow Symphony Store.  They are usually 85-cents each, plus very reasonable shipping, with a minimum purchase of 25.  But if you don’t care what the frames say (which I didn’t), you can buy them for 40-cents each with a minimum purchase of 50.  With shipping, this came out to less than $25.  The store’s website is very simple – very 1990’s – but I liked the vibe of it, and the glasses came very quickly.

Some Patchy Catholic Censorship

December 2, 2011 / / 0 Comments

As my local friends from San Leandro (the town I live in) well know, I participate a lot in local politics and write and comment on my San Leandro blog and Facebook page about anything going on in this town.  I’m also a very active participant in the San Leandro Patch, an online hyper-local news portal owned by AOL (which wants to become a media company).   Here again, I comment about anything and everything.

One thing I commented about last night was a short frilly article on what some moms tell their kids about religion.  My comment(s) were left alone, but when a gay atheist man commented about his own experience raising a son and how he feels about the Church’s stands on gay marriage, his post was quickly deleted because the editor considered it an attack (won’t say how or on whom, however).  In any case, I am posting his comment here so that everyone can read it.

I am an atheist and I raised my son to find his own way with religion, he went to quite a number of local church youth-oriented faith events in his teens and I did not pressure him to believe or doub. He has become a wonderfully warm and caring kid, and we both have found our moral compass without any connection to the Judeo-Christian belief system. We are good people because that is the right thing to do, not because a book tells us to do it, or because we live in constant fear of an eternity in hellfire. As a gay man I find the ongoing religious demonization and intolerance toward LGBT families simply outrageous and so NOT what Jesus would do. The Catholic church leads the pack in this regard, Archbishop Dolan makes weekly statements about the horrors of allowing gay couples to get married, while at the same time his church seems to be maintaining the largest group of pedophiles the world has ever known. The hypocrisy that exists in the Catholic church is appalling, an organization that prides itself on ‘justice’ clearly does not mean if it you are a child or gay, and heaven help you if you are both. In closing I will paraphrase Caria: “At the end of the day what is most important to me is that my little boy grows up to be a man who is secure in his heart, his mind and his faith that we as humans should love one another.

Billy Bradford

And I’m posting this cartoon because it’s funny and oh so true 🙂

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