ducati pup

I think Ducati motorcycles are so fab that I would have no other bike if I knew how to ride.

And now I've learned that Ducati named its first scooter, created in 1946, Cucciolo ("Puppy"). These vehicles were beloved of Italians over the next decade, and ads for it featured a perky terrier-like pup that served as the company's mascot. And now you can buy him. He's dressed in various stylish Italian jerseys.

More Ducati pup history here.

cats and dogs and the writers who love them

Laura Miller of Slate.com bravely examines the burning issue,

Who's more annoying? Cat people or dog people? (And just how bad is the writing devoted to each one?)

1919 cat: freeloader or jobholder?

The jury stayed out on this one as far as I can gather. On December 16, 1919, the New York Times ran a small piece about the Mayor of New York being put on the spot for the $6.50 work of milk the Dept. of Education cat was drinking over summer vacation.

The cat declined to comment.

more tub cat

I'd like to feature another tub-lovin' cat of the extended Museum family. Feast your eyes on Finnegan the Maine Coon as he indulges in one of his fave activities. I only wish I could have gotten close enough to capture his funny beady-eyed expression.

Why do they do that, anyhow? According to this thread from Yahoo Answers, it seems to be because they like to be cool.

dog going going gone

On February 12 there was an auction of dog art at the New York branch of Bonhams, a British auction house. Took me a tiny bit of digging but do you want to see some of it?

so i still want a pet tiger

Transportation problems aside, I really would like a pet tiger.
Can I have one? No, of course not.

. . . or can I?
If it's mechanical?
I could ride it.

The tiger's name is Shiva, and there are several Quicktime movies of it on the artist's website. His name is Kezanti, and he does some very interesting work with the intersection of biological form and movement and mechanics. Do note the careful and well-executed decorative surface work on Shiva.

I am so freaking tickled to have found this.

busy curator, cute kitten

The car saga continues. I cannot post properly. You get pictures of Elizabeth.

She loves that tub, I'm telling you.

goats: reliable transport?

So I come out from the grocery store, it's pitch black in the parking lot, and my car is dead. Utterly croakey-o. Makes this nasty rattle when I turn the key. Great. We jump started it enough to get me home, but into the dealer it goes tomorrow with no delay.

I should be driving a goat cart.

What do you mean, there's no such thing? There has been for about 4000 years. It would have to be a biggish goat as it shouldn't pull more than one and half times its body weight. It wouldn't expire on me without likely notice. . . plus the little carts are so cute.

Lots of useful info at this UK site for The Harness Goat Society.

upland bird dogs work hard. . .

. . . and, as this member board shows in lots of great photos, they get spoiled pretty hard too. In these photos you'll see Brittanys (like the first photo), English setters, labs, German wirehairs, clumber spaniels, and springer spaniels. Can you guess which are which? Did I miss a few?

tiny suits of armor

Jeff de Boer likes armor. Many people do.
Jeff makes armor. Not so many people do that.
Jeff makes armor for cats and mice. Nobody else does that.*


Jeff de Boer studied metalsmithing, armormaking, and jewelrymaking as a young art student. I can tell he also paid attention in history classes, because the armored suits he makes for cats and mice are called for varying martial activities, and show a playful use of period-suggestive detail. Well, peek at Gladiator Mouse and you'll see what I mean. Or my fave, Persian Cat. Feast your eyes on the entire gallery of them.


And peek at his other work too -- it's very fine, and yet again shows good attention paid to forms of the past.



*And if they do, I'm dying to know.

a respectful salaam to cats everywhere

What a find! I was looking for Henry James on cats, seriously, and instead stumbled upon the Cats archive on Nour.sg, "the platform where youth culture meets Islamic values through design and lifestyle accessories." Which means inspirational pin button badges. They're adorable.

There's also a blog examining different aspects of Islamic life, which is where I found the archive. Heartwarming indeed. Here is a taste of what I think you will find a very kind wisdom:

The grammarian Ibn Babshad was sitting with his friends on the roof of a
mosque in Cairo, eating some food. When a cat passed by they gave her some
morsels; she took them and ran away, only to come back time and time again. The
scholars followed her and saw her running to an adjacent house on whose roof a
blind cat was sitting. The cat carefully placed the morsels in front of her.
Bashbad was so moved by God’s caring for the blind creature that he gave up all
his belongings and lived in poverty, completely trusting in God until he died in
1067.
(oral tradition recorded in the late 14th century by the Egyptian
theologian and zoologist Damiri (d. 1405)
(Lorraine Chittock, Cats of Cairo, p. 40)

There are lots of such examples and some Islamic cat art too. Look!

the art of paul jenkins

His website is awfully modest. He lives in the UK, was born in 1949, studied ceramics at Dudley College of Art, was a commercial designer for the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and loves animals. Believe me, the "About Paul" page doesn't say too much more.

It's refreshing, this lack of overstatement and cant. Particularly when backed up by such lively, graceful work, left often with a rough finish. Like this long tailed mouse. This large running greyhound. Oh, and note the delectably rendered muzzles on the Twin Cats. Or the exaggerated ears and feet of this (more polished, as befits the technique) raku hare.

Mm.

this was a different cat calendar

Last year I fell in love with the 2008 Kirieya calendar from Kamibashi. Look, here's this month's image -- you'll see why.

"Kirieya" is the alias of Ryo Takagi. I was drawn to the power and clarity of his style, reminiscent of manga and graphic novels in general (I'm such a fan of Los Bros. Hernandez). However, what really sold me was the tenderness and inventiveness of the scenes. Wildly varying vantage points, well depicted seasonal variations, and interplay between the creatures makes for a pleasure worth studying every time I flip to a new month.

a valentine for you all

I may have posted this last year -- but so what?
It's an orange kitten and it's singing about how it loves you.

Happy Valentine's Day!

By the way, about 3% of pet owners will give Valentine's gifts to their pets. I learned that and all kinds of other Valentine facts and trivia here.

foolishness

Yeah. I feel like providing wackiness for a couple of days ... museum and pet related of course. So today I offer you with great delight a tidbit from Liam Lynch of great, genius Sifl and Olly fame. (He was Olly.)

"Let me tell you all about who I am, L to the I to the A to the EM, maybe some day you'll be my friend and you'll say hello and I'll say DAYUM!"

All this in a series of wildlife dioramas - because this is

Museum Rap

Aw yeah.

king dog

From The Dog by William Youatt (London: Charles Knight and Co., 1845):

In Ethiopia, not only was great veneration paid to the dog, but the
inhabitants used to elect a dog as their king. He was kept in great state, and
surrounded by a numerous train of officers and guards. When he fawned upon them,
he was supposed to be pleased with their proceedings; when he growled, he
disapproved of the manner in which their government was conducted. These
indications of his will were implicitly obeyed, or rather, perhaps, were
translated by his worshippers as their own caprice or interest dictated.

Even a thousand years after this period the dog was highly esteemed in
Egypt for its sagacity and other excellent qualities ; for, when Pythagoras,
after his return from Egypt, founded a new sect in Greece, and at Croton, in
southern Italy, he taught, with the Egyptian philosophers, that, at the death of
the body, the soul entered into that of different animals. He used, after the
decease of any of his favourite disciples, to cause a dog to be held to the
mouth of the dying man, in order to receive his departing spirit; saying, that
there was no animal that could perpetuate his virtues better than that
quadruped.

haehae

It's pronounced just like it looks, and it means "Speak (bark)" in Hawaiian. Not every day you run across Hawaiian pet commands, is it? What fun. Here's a few more:

Holoholo? Go for a walk?
Pololi? Hungry?
Mimi. Go pee.
Noho. Sit.

Find lots here.

zero and scraps

You know who they are, right? (uhoh - short break to dance with wild abandon to Morris Day and the Time on the Grammys) Of course you do. They're both terrific Tim Burton characters: Zero the ghost dog from "Nightmare Before Christmas," and Scraps the bone-puppy from "The Corpse Bride."

I was reminded of them today as I watched "Nightmare," because I love Zero so: all dog, all heart. Though a search for Tim Burton didn't bring up anything he himself had to say on the dogs he's loved that inspired these great characters, here's a fansite article that will do just fine.

kurt vonnegut on humanism and his dog

When I was a young teenager I adored Kurt Vonnegut's work. When I got older, and understood more about why people who write write the things they do, I adored him. He infused everything he did with a gentle, self-depreciating global kindness and sense. You got the feeling he had thought very carefully about everything, but thrown his heart into it as well for what it was worth.

Which is why I am so tickled to have found the speech he made upon accepting the American Humanist of the Year Award in 1996. Typically, he gave his ideas the most appealing framework to hang upon and be thereby understood: he explained why his dog is not a humanist. Not in too much detail. But you'll start to get the idea and find out where to pursue further knowledge.

"may no animal be afraid"

Today I offer you a Buddhist "Prayer for Liberation for Our Brother & Sister Animals." The text has been set to a chant and a YouTube video created.

It is sad, but deeply thoughtful and lovely. This gives a glimpse of the Buddhist belief system as it interplays with animals of all sorts. Though animals that are turned into food products are prominently featured, there is also careful mention of any animal needing a home and care and nourishment. This brings to my mind the lost pet, the pet displaced by disaster, the poorly cared-for or abandoned pet. I find it interesting that most major religions do not feature mention of nonhuman life and the care due thereof. It's part of my job as a good curator to bring as many different views to you as I may.

May no animal be afraid or depressed.

May their bodies be free of injuries, disease and illness.

May those who need homes, or who have been driven from them find shelter, plentiful food & water.

May there be liberation for those tortured for fur, entertainment or who are hunted.

ta da ta da!!!

I would like to unveil my brand-spanking-new logo (I wish I knew how to work with the header some more) for the Museum! It was provided to me by the talented Todd Stoilov of StoilovStudio.com. Isn't it the best?

happy year of the rat!

Felicitations to all you Rat types! You should savor a nice mooncake while you go to Simon Chan's art blog to see his lovely Year of the Rat paintings. I mean, you could just pick them up and rub your nose across those tickly whiskers and perfect ears. Enjoy.

courtesy of parlance

If you haven't surfed on over to parlance's blog "my dog," then you should take a moment to do that - particularly today, as she's got a thoughtful post about the natural environment of the domestic dog. Guess what it is: your home. Yes, that's what they are bred for after all these millenia. So posits Vilmos Csanyi, author of If Dogs Could Talk. And he also offers this:

With well-designed experiments we can even show that puppies are attracted more
powerfully to humans than to their own species. Puppies long for humans even if
they experience pain or other unpleasantness in their presence; in other words,
they are unable to learn that in such experimental situations they should avoid
humans.

I'm all for intellectual inquiry -- obviously -- but not at the expense of sad little babies, I don't care what species. Anyway, it's a good post. Go check it out!

holy rats

Yes, in the Northwest Indian desert town of Deshnok, ship rats have their own temple. Dedicated to Karni Mata, a female political figure of the 14th - 15th c, the rats get houseroom due to a supposed promise that all her male descendants would be born as rats first at her temple, and then once through with ratly life, they got their turn at humanity. The local tribe, called Charans and writers and poets by nature, consider the temple rats their relatives.

All very intriguing. Wanna read about it?

the bavarian jackalope?

Try a Wolpertinger on for size. Supposedly it lives in the Bavarian forests, where it hops out and wags its antlers and flaps its wings at the (very) occasional unwary. Then they shoot'n'stuff it and sell postcards.

They don't always stick to that biological assortment of parts, but that seems to be the classic one. The Wikipedia site has a photo of Durer's "Hare" all decked out as a Wolpertinger and it's hysterical.

Unfortunately, the genesis of this critter-legend isn't as funny: rabbits infected with the Shope papillomavirus may develop bony growths that look like antlers but not so entertaining. Perhaps they may be comforted by folks looking to snag a Wolpertinger, in which case they send a pretty woman out in a full moon to a secluded nook in the woods where the creatures are likely to be. Upon sighting one, the lady should expose her bosom, thereby bemusing the critter for easy snaffling. I should say.

golfing for cats

"Famed British humorist Alan Coren was once advised that anyone seeking to draw
the attention of the book-buying public should write about cats, golf or
Nazis. Coren promptly published a collection of essays entitled Golfing for Cats. Its cover? A picture of a cat in a Nazi uniform wielding a putter."

-- Source: Anecdotage.com (terrific site).
And a photo of a British edition here where you will readily see the Nazi uniform got kiboshed. Just as well, huh?

cat falls, 1890

Étienne-Jules Marey (1830-1904) was a pioneering French chronophotographer, or movement photographer; that was the precursor to cinematography. He's best known, perhaps, for the studies he made of birds and and mammals in motion. . .

. . . including this proof that cats do indeed always land upon their feet.