COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL AUGUST 16, 2017 7A
M
iku, 14-years-old, and
her dog, Saku, were
both born in Arizona, seven
years apart, to different parents.
Miku’s parents are Japanese,
and Saku’s are Dachshunds.
Imagine Miku’s surprise
when she received the two-
month-old puppy as her Christ-
mas present! For the special
occasion, Saku was dressed in a
bright red bow as she was ‘gift-
ed’ to Miku.
“I named her Sakura,” ex-
plains Miku, “because it is a
pretty name and in Japanese it
means ‘cherry blossom’. We
nicknamed her Saku.”
Saku is not a fragile fl ower!
She is a wild and crazy athlete!
When she is overcome with
uncontrollable joy, she runs as
fast as she can in huge circles
around her family for long pe-
riods of time without displaying
fatigue.
“She reminds me of a horse
racing at full speed,” laughs
Miku.
It sounds like Saku’s breed
should be spelled DASH-
hound! Usually, the Dachshund
is a tenacious hunter
known for chasing
small animals, birds
and balls with a stub-
born and unyielding
focus, which ex-
plains why off-leash
in a park, Saku’s
passionate
about
chasing any brave
squirrel that dares
make
themselves
visible. She relent-
lessly chases squirrel
after squirrel. Luck-
ily, she never catch-
es the tail-twitching
tree rodents, which is
a relief to her family. . . and the
squirrels! And when she races
through tall grass, her family
laughs as she leaps and jumps
up and down, in the vegetation,
for a better view, like a prancing
deer or rabbit.
Saku truly dislikes running
water (streams, rivers and the
ocean) or going near it. This
makes living in the Pacifi c
Northwest diffi cult with water,
water everywhere!
“Arizona is not this wet,”
Saku would tell us!
When Saku’s family walks
over bridges, she digs her claws
into the earth, putting all her
doggy weight into her back-leg
brakes. She refuses to move so
they have to carry the reluctant
“princess” over the moats. But,
like any deep brown-eyed ro-
mantic lady, Saku, is always up
for long walks on the beach —
just not near the water.
Dachsunds are known as
clever dogs and Miku is - she’s
bilingual. “She responds accu-
rately to “come, stay, or sit” in
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English,” explains Miku, “But
she also understands these and
many other Japanese words.”
The name “Dachshund” in
German translates to “badger
dog,” and the breed is known
for tunneling into burrows to
fl ush out burrow-dwelling ani-
mals like badgers and rabbits.
This explains Saku’s pen-
chant for sleeping (burrowing)
under her family’s beds, espe-
cially when it is “rainy outside”.
(“Yuck! Rain!” says Saku.) Her
breed is so well known for bur-
rowing that cozy ‘burrow beds’
are now available for them on-
line.
Being from Arizona, one
of Saku’s favorite pastimes is
“soaking up the sun until she
starts panting,” said Miku.
“My family and I walk more
now than we did B.D. (Before
Dog). Having parks nearby
benefi t our dog’s health and
ours. Walking Saku helps us
exercise and she also creates
more opportunities for mak-
ing new friends. People easily
spark up conversations with us.
Another benefi t is that my
dog provides companionship
and makes me laugh. Having
Saku has given me a greater re-
spect for living things. When I
was small, I was afraid of dogs,
but by caring for one, my fear
disappeared. Saku has taught
me to see through her eyes and
how to care for others.
When my mother cooks
meat,” said Miku, “Saku sits un-
der the table and licks my legs
asking for a
meat-treat, so I always sneak
her some.
I hope, one day, to have chil-
dren and give them their favor-
ite pet for Christmas. Saku is
the best friend and memory I
have!”
TIPS
“A big dog needs lots of
room and because our fami-
ly lives in an apartment,” said
Miku, “Saku is perfect for us.
Our apartment’s fl oor is sleek,
so to prevent Saku’s from slip-
ping and hurting her long back,
we covered the fl oor with a rug
for her safety. It is an easy solu-
tion to purr-tect her from inju-
ry.”
Peanut Butter Dog
Biscuits
2 cups whole wheat fl our
1 cup rolled oats
1/3 cup peanut butter (chunky
or smooth)
1 1/4 cups hot water
- Preheat oven to 350 de-
grees.
- Mix dry ingredients togeth-
er.
- Mix in the peanut butter and
hot water - add more fl our if the
dough is sticky.
- Knead the dough well.
- Roll out into 1/4 inch thick-
ness and cut into shapes with
dog cookie cutter.
Roll the dough into a rectan-
gle, put on a cookie sheet and
score into 1 inch squares. After
it bakes and cools, snap them
into squares. Store the treats in
the fridge for up to three weeks
or place in the freezer.
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By Caitlyn May
cmay@cgsentinel.com
After an amended amend-
ment, two motions and three
votes, the Cottage Grove City
Council approved a resolution
to allow the South Lane School
District (SLSD) to combine its
SDC (System Development
Charges) fees from the old high
school property and current
Harrison Elementary property
to cover the costs of transpor-
tation SDC fees at the site of
the future Harrison Elementary
School on Taylor Ave.
Public Works and Develop-
ment Director Faye Stewart
presented the issue to the board
noting that SLSD could save
$51,263.24 on transportation
SDCs for the new elementary
school by transferring credits
it had from the old elementary
school to the new school.
However, councilman Jake
Boone raised concern stating
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Traffi c is expected to clog the interstate with
tourists expected to begin coming into the state on
Friday.
A domino effect will take place: the more people,
the more traffi c, the more traffi c, less data, less
data, slower internet, slower internet, less phone
signal, ATM access and card readers may be down.
The moral of the story? If you can, stay home and
off the freeway. Bring cash with you if you plan
on visiting any local stores. Even though school is
still out, parents if you have a report due that needs
to be emailed or researched online, the earlier it's
completed and sent, the better.
While cities closer to the path of totality have re-
ported a myriad of businesses opting to close, as of
press time, no Cottage Grove businesses had made
the same decision. Rather, the cities hotels are fully
booked for August 20, the night before the eclipse.
However, city councilor Jake Boone recommended
during Monday night's city council meeting that
residents stock up on food, medications and other
necessities they may need from town, citing the
increase in demand due to the tourists.
It's not all bad news for Oregonians who are vic-
tims of the biggest tourist draw this year. Local
business, Delights has NASA approved eclipse
glasses and city parks are open for viewing. Agen-
cies have repeatedly warned viewers not to look
directly at the sun and to use only approved glasses
to view the eclipse.
The eclipse is expected to pass over Oregon at
Newport at 10:15 a.m. and reach the area of Lane
County around 10:18 a.m. In all, it will be over
Oregon by 10:25 p.m.
After some confusion, board approves combination of credits
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that the law mandates that SDCs
are site specifi c. The former
Harrison school is located on a
different piece of land than the
new Harrison school.
"The reason SDCs exist is
they're the cost to do stuff. We
only charge them once when a
building is built," Boone said.
"To double them here, I'm not
trying to screw the school dis-
trict but I don't want to screw
us either. We can't just take
money from the city side and
shuttle it to the school district.
This $50,000 was not arrived at
by just pulling something from
the air and I'm hesitant to alter
it willy nilly. The law is pretty
clear."
However, Cottage Grove
City Manager Richard Meyers
assured the board that the city
attorney had approved the plan
and noted that while the law
mandates the SDCs be location
specifi c, legal counsel deter-
mined that since the impact of
traffi c was moving from one site
to the other in the same area, it
was permissible.
While Stewart's suggestion
would allow the school district
to choose to use credits from ei-
ther the old high school or old
elementary school, councilor
Mike Fleck made the argument
to allow the school to combine
both sets of fees.
"I'm just trying to be fair," he
said. "They're losing the credits
when there has been no addi-
tional impact."
South Lane School District's
Maintenance Manager Matt Al-
len addressed the council say-
ing, "They (the fees) caught us
by surprise because we asked
the former planning director
for budgeting reasons what the
SDCs would be and there was
no mention of transportation
SDCs," he said, noting that
SLSD had granted the city an
easement in the area. "We're
not griping, Faye and Amanda
(Ferguson) have been so helpful
but this did catch us by surprise
when we're already in budget
trouble."
Boone made a motion to ap-
prove the resolution at the stat-
ed amount, which was second-
ed. Fleck then made a motion
to amend the resolution to re-
duce the $51,263.24 to $25,000
which was seconded. However,
due to legalities, Fleck's amend-
ed had to be amended to note his
desire to combine the credits at
the two properties because the
city has no mechanism to de-
crease SDC fees.
"It would open the door for
people to come in and say they
were surprised by the number,"
Meyers said. Eventually, the
vote to combine passed 5-2.
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