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Pinehurst Pet(s) of the Week: Tucker, the hens, and some bees


Meet Tucker, a 10 year old Greater Swiss Mountain Dog. Tucker is an AKC Champion (his kennel name is Alki’s Black Twig Tucker) and has worked as a therapy dog in neighborhood eldercare facilities. He owns Perry and Elizabeth.

Perry says that he’s a big lumbering dog (Tucker, not Perry!) who seems to scare most people he meets on walks, but he is really a sweetheart. Perry wants people to know they can come up and pet him (Tucker again!), even though he will act tough at first.

Elizabeth sent me this link:
http://www.swissylover.com/
Part of their website is a tribute to Stuart, Tucker’s son, who died last Spring.

Perry also has 3 chickens, Fluffy, Scratchy and Boris. He recently built them a fancy new hen condo — but I don’t have a picture of it yet. If you’d like to learn more about City Chickens, the Seattle Tilth has a very nice section of their website devoted to the subject.

And last, but not least, the mighty bee! Perry has been keeping bees – and gets honey from them. You may have seen his bees in your yard, pollinating your flowers and vegetables.
He recommends the Puget Sound Beekeepers’ Association website as a great place to learn more about beekeeping http://www.pugetsoundbees.org

Perry mentioned in his email to me, “I do wish everyone would just stop using any sort of pesticide/herbicide on their yards – The new pesticides that have been developed may be in part responsible for Colony Collapse Disorder, and as you no doubt know there are dozens of insects which are beneficial to a garden that are killed right along with the “pest” insects. And many weeds (clover, dandelion) actually make pretty tasty honey, but any chemical sprayed onto plants will be picked up by the bees are deposited into the honey we harvest and they eat over the winter. I don’t think people realize how dependent we are on bees for crop pollination. Overall, they pollinate some 15 to 30 percent of all the food we eat, and in some cases are responsible for 100% of certain crop pollination.”

If you have a pet that you would like to feature in the Pinehurst Pets column, please email Erica at ehas2dogs@gmail.com. Send me a picture or two and a few words about what makes your pet(s) special.

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