Happy New Year to one and all. I hope the new year finds everyone safe, relatively happy, and appropriately warm or cool depending on what's appropriate for your continent Here in Portland we had a crisp and bright and sunny New Years Day, perfect for boxing up the Christmas decorations, removing lights, and doing some pruning and winter yard work.

Recent Forum Updates

In the spirit of continuous tinkering (I just can't help it sometimes) I have added yet another database you are free to use or ignore This one is a place to record the weights and major dimensions of our Cairns. Cairn Terrier size seems to be a topic that comes up regularly so I thought I'd make a repository for reference: Weights and Measures.

The database functions available through the software are fairly basic (it's really just a content management system, not something like Excel or Access or similar) so the ability to do on-the-fly unit conversions (US to metric, etc.) and calculated fields (automatic ratios, age-at-date calculations, etc.) are out of scope; it's just a simple place to record and store manual measurements.

For anyone interested in participating, I've linked a size card to the database description that can help serve as a shorthand guide where to make the sort of measurements that are most commonly discussed with regard to Cairns.

If you are puzzled by the height measurement in particular, I urge you to do a bit of independent research to help you feel comfortable locating the withers.

The database is intended to reflect the size and proportions of adult Cairns (the AKC standard uses 2 years as a reference point). The data entry form provides some guidance but it may be worth highlighting here: the Age and Weight fields in the record are intended to reflect the age and weight of the dog at the time it was measured. However you can use whatever data you have (or omit missing data) and you can also edit your entry later if you want to update or correct it.

Add your Cairn today!

Future Forum Updates

There is a new version of our forum software in the process of marching toward general release by its developers. I will spend most of the coming year tracking its progress and planning for our eventual upgrade here. I don't expect it to happen until later in the year. Probably much later. I want to see it up and running on other sites and maybe get through a maintenance release or two before upgrading here. I am hoping the theme (visual look and feel) we use will be updated to make use of the new software. That will reduce the noticeable impact to us leaving mostly performance and functionality improvements to enjoy while still looking very similar to the way it does now.

Cheers

That's all the news I have at the moment. Be well, have fun, and may Cairn spirit be ever present in your heart and life.