CERF vs OFFA ???

Can't we all just get along?  The health testing and sharing of information is supposed to be for the betterment of the breeds we all love, but now two 'governing' bodies seem to be at war.
If you send your information to OFA, they won't send it to CERF so the fact that your dog had an eye exam, and the results, will not be posted on the CERF website.  If you submit your info to CERF they will continue to process the information and send weekly updates to OFA to post to your dog's OFFA page.

Basically the bottom line for us is the new OFFA form.  While it does not allow a lot of room for your information, there are no more of those darn circles to fill in.  We just had 18 CERF exams completed at the Kansas City show yesterday.  We have other forms from earlier CERFs that we still need to send in.  So, next week when I send in 35+ CERF forms, I WILL BE INCLUDING A LETTER TO THE CERF PEOPLE, EXPLAINING THAT WE WILL BE LEAVING CERF AND GOING TO OFFA IF CERF DOES NOT ENTER THE 21ST CENTURY AND GET RID OF THESE RIDICULOUS FORMS!

From the OFFA website:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
OFA AND ACVO ESTABLISH NEW EYE CERTIFICATION REGISTRY
AND CLINICAL DATABASE FOR OPHTHALMIC DIAGNOSES
Columbia, Missouri, Friday, August 31, 2012 - The Orthopedic Foundation for Animals (OFA)
and the American College of Veterinary Ophthalmologists (ACVO) are pleased to announce the
establishment of a new joint Eye Certification Registry (ECR) and Clinical Database for
Ophthalmic Diagnoses (CDOD) effective November 1, 2012. Together, the ECR and CDOD
will be important tools to monitor canine inherited eye conditions and reduce their incidence.
OFA Eye Certification Registry exams are ophthalmic examinations, performed by ACVO
Diplomates, to assess dogs for the presence or absence of observable hereditary ocular disease.
Dogs with normal exam results will receive OFA eye certification numbers valid for one year.
Eye Certifications are an important part of the routine health screening practiced by responsible
dog breeders to produce healthy puppies. Recognizing that animals presenting for a Certification
Exam represent a biased population of primarily normal dogs, the CDOD will capture aggregate
statistics regarding disease prevalence for those animals presented to ACVO Diplomates in
private and institutional clinical practices.
The OFA currently maintains the world’s largest online database of canine health screening
results. The addition of eye exam results will enhance the value of this important toolset for
responsible breeders to make more informed breeding decisions to reduce the incidence of
inherited disease. For informed puppy buyers, the database provides documentation of a
breeder’s health screening efforts.
A portion of the proceeds from all OFA eye registrations will be donated to the ACVO Vision for
Animals Foundation to support research leading to the elimination of ocular diseases causing
vision loss and suffering in animals.
For more information please visit the OFA website at www.offa.org
CONTACT:
Eddie Dziuk
OFA, Columbia, MO
(573) 442-0418 x222
edziuk@offa.org
www.offa.org
Founded in 1966, the OFA is a not-for-profit foundation with the mission to promote the health and welfare of
companion animals through a reduction in the incidence of genetic disease. The ACVO promotes excellence in
veterinary ophthalmology through advanced training, certification, research and education.
###

FROM THE CERF WEBSITE:

January 24, 2013

Dear valued CERF client,
As you may already know, OFA’s new registry went live on November 1^st.  CERF is NOT affiliated with their new system, nor have we partnered with them or been acquired by OFA.  There is no “transition plan” in place.  CERF and OFA are two different systems, and we are now competing for your valued business.
CERF will continue to operate independently as we have done in the past.  We’re not planning on closing the doors anytime soon.  We have the longest history and greatest experience with operating an established canine eye registration database.
You still have the right to use a CERF form and submit your data to CERF, if you so choose.  I sincerely hope that you continue to do so.  If you sign an OFA “release form”, they will attempt to add your information into the new, unproven OFA registry.  It will NOT be added to CERF if you sign this form.  There is no “combined registry” or “transition” from one registry to the other. 
I urge you to request an original CERF form, make your check payable to CERF, and avoid signing any type of “release form” from OFA.
If you are given an OFA form in place of a CERF form and your intent is still to use CERF, you may still send in that form for registration into the CERF registration and statistical database.  Please note on the form that you wish to add the registration paperwork to CERF’s database and make the payment payable to CERF.  Any OFA forms received by CERF with payment to OFA will be returned back to the owner.
CERF has not changed any procedures on our part.  We still continue to send a weekly submission to OFA so our breeders can qualify for their CHIC number.
CERF is now accepting forms via email and fax for your added convenience.  Please contact CERF and let us know your email address to facilitate future communications.
If you have any suggestions for how we can serve you better, please feel free to contact me at any time.  Thank you for your continued support of CERF. 
Check us out on Face Book and visit our website often for any further updates.
Sincerely,

Robert Malinowski, DVM, PhDPresident, VMDB/CERF

October 25, 2012

Dear CERF Breeder,
I would like to take this opportunity to share with you some updates on CERF.  There seems to be a lot of misinformation floating around out there, so I’m hoping this letter will clarify a few things.
Despite what you may be hearing, CERF is NOT going away, nor have we partnered with or been acquired by OFA.  We are still an independent group, having the longest history and greatest experience with operating a canine eye registration database.
OFA is moving in their own direction, creating their own new registry that will be operational starting November 1st.  CERF is not affiliated with this new system.
You still have a choice!  You can continue to request CERF examinations when making appointments with your ACVO Ophthalmologist.  Utilizing CERF will guarantee that your data will be added to the largest, most established registry currently available.  We need your help to ensure that this valuable resource doesn’t disappear.
Beware of deceptive practices!  Signing a “release form” and making your check payable to someone other than CERF will add your data to the OFA registry.  It will not be added to the CERF registry if you sign their release form.  There is no “combined registry”.  CERF and OFA are two independent systems.
I would certainly like to continue working with everyone that has supported CERF in the past as we navigate this complicated situation.  I greatly appreciate everyone that continues to support CERF.  Only through your continued efforts is CERF able to collect data and provide these valuable services. 
Please feel free to contact me at any time if you have any concerns or suggestions. 
Thank you for your continued support,
Robert Malinowski, DVM, MA
President, VMDB/CERF

Studley Dudley

Dudley enjoyed the snowfall that we had a few weeks ago:

You LOVE me!!!!!

Look Mom, I'm making yellow snow!!!

I know there's something under here, just give me a minute.

Yep, I made yellow snow.  COOL!

What??? I'm busy here.

Dudley just turned 1.  They grow up so fast.  We are proud of our BIS boy, he has just passed his OFFA certifications for Heart, Patellas, Full Dentition, and CERF.  

Poco's on the Boulevard - A Kansas City Mexican Disaster

Because of the Restaurant Impossible show we made a point of visiting Poco's yesterday.  It’s just a couple of miles from Bartle Hall, this year’s location of the Heart of America Dog Shows.  In an area filled with crowded Mexican restaurants, Poco's parking lot was empty.  Not a good sign at 4:30 in the afternoon, the restaurants that we passed to get there were already filling up with early diners and after work, basketball, and dog show diners.  The inside is filled with signs about 'Top 12 in 12' and all of the good reviews, that I am sure came shortly after Mr. Irvine re-made the restaurant.  

Yesterday was an extreme disappointment.  I called for directions from Bartle Hall, a major Kansas City landmark, telling her that we would be coming from the North on Broadway.  If I had not had a pretty good idea where it was, I wouldn’t have found it.  On the way home, I realized that she had given me directions from another street about a mile farther east. 

Our visit started with no greeting by the only visible person in the restaurant, a tall slender woman, dressed in black, with long straight black hair.  We were not sure if we were supposed to wait to be seated, since no one came to the hostess stand when we arrived and waited for a couple of minutes, so our party of 4 sat at a table in the center of the dining area. 

The woman in black plunked the water glasses down, at which time I asked if they had Coke or Pepsi.  She replied "Coke' then walked away.  That was her clue to take the drink orders, as there were only two other people in the restaurant and they were leaving.  She headed for the bar/counter and poured a Coke from the fountain.  My husband thought, that maybe she thought I ordered a Coke.  About that time, she started to drink the beverage and waited 3 to 4 minutes before coming back for drink orders. In the subsequent 8 minutes that it took for her to bring the soft drinks, we had made our meal decisions. Two in our party ordered their Grande Burrito, one chicken and one ground beef. The other two orders were one Lamb Shank dinner, and one Pork Tenderloin with Cherry Sauce (ordered sauce on the side).  After the woman ordered the chicken burrito, the waitress commented on "how big it is, you won't be able to eat it all” so we expected to see something that covered the plate (it didn't).  I went to the ladies room to wash up before our meal was served and the floor was horribly sticky.  Before and during our meal the waitress returned to behind the counter and took chips from the baskets on the pass-through from the kitchen, dipped them into jars on the counter and ate.  Not once washing her hands, and was there double-dipping going on?  Who knows?  So I guess I am glad that there were no complimentary chips and salsa offered. But in an area surrounded by dozens and dozens of Mexican restaurants, charging for chips, REALLY?  Three of the four meals were finally delivered to the table.  Are there no trays, so that they can serve an entire party at once?  It was only 4 dishes.   As our companions cut into their NOT SO GRAND burritos, the waitress came over, swapped their plates, telling our female companion "I think I gave him your Chicken" AFTER THEY CUT INTO THEM!!!  The burritos had a little sauce on top of them, which had already started to dry out.  The Lamb Shank dinner was good, the corn (canned) mixed with the black beans (also canned) wasn't bad.  The presentation was terrible, a lamb shank stuck on top of a plate of beans and pork.  The pork loin came sliced into medallions, and was the best presentation of all, but since I had ordered their cherry sauce on the side, it didn't come until they brought the last dinner out.  The broth that the pork was cooked in was good since the cherry sauce was so sweet it was almost inedible, but there was only about 1 tablespoon of the broth, so the first couple of pieces were good, and the rest was dry, and I gave it to another member of the party who like the cherry sauce, and ate the rest of my meal.  I would have eaten more if they had even drizzled a bit more of the cooking juices over it.  Back to the burritos: The chicken one was so dry, you could see the 'dryness' from the other end of the table, and had no flavor.  That comment came from a woman who thinks that Pace Mild Picante is too hot.  The ground beef was so greasy it just ran all over the plate, but again, very little flavor. The gentleman with the ground beef burrito asked for hot sauce, 'the hottest you have.'  The waitress brought out about 2 tablespoons of their not-so-hot hot sauce.  He spooned it over the burrito hoping for some moisture, other than grease, and some flavor.  The waitress did not offer dessert until we asked about it, but she did make a comment that we must have like the food since the burritos were gone.  No we didn’t really like the food, but we had one really hungry person with us that just needed to be filled up, so he finished off his meals and two others. Did he enjoy it, no, was he full, yes, and that was his goal.  After being told that 3 of the 6 items offered for dessert (at $6 each - even flan which is typically $2.50 to $3 at KC metro area Mexican restaurants) were no longer being served, we took her suggestion for the Margarita cake.  Which is not at all what one might think.  It is chocolate cake covered with a layer of flan, made in a bundt pan.  Perhaps another name or a description on the menu might have been helpful.  It also came in vanilla but the waitress told us that it wasn't very good.  The poorly named Margarita Cake was very good.  This restaurant, on the west side of Kansas City, is surrounded by many restaurants.  Ones that I now know are much better.  As we were driving out, all of them were packed, and only one person was driving into Poco's lot, and I think they worked there.

I cannot recommend this restaurant for food or service, and we won't even go into the 'refrigerator repairman mode" of the waitresses black pants every time she bent over.

OK, I do have to go back to her snacking, then putting the straws in our glasses, and when I asked for another, she brought it out in her bare hand, and laid it on the table.  POCO'S on the Boulevard - DIDN'T LIKE IT, WON'T GO BACK.  

Goes to show that Robert Irvine can do wonders with remodeling, and knowing what needs to be done, but once he leaves it takes a strong team to stick with his sound advice. 

Read more at: http://blog.foodnetwork.com/fn-dish/2012/11/restaurant-revisited-pocos-on-the-boulevard/#idc-cover?oc=linkback