the museum gets a swell award!

Check it out! I got this yesterday from Noll at Noll's Nip:

Noll gave the award out in this post, where you may see the excellent company we're keeping.

As with every award, there are some rules that need to be followed:
1. Each Superior Scribbler (SS) must pass the Award on to 5 deserving blogger friends.
2. Each SS must link the author and name of the blog from whom he/she received the award.
3. Each SS must display the award on his/her blog and link to the post which explains the award. 4. Each SS is asked to visit the post which explains the award and add his/her name to the Mr. Linky List. (Curator's Note: I don't actually get what this one means; I'm not THAT savvy a blogger.)
5. Each SS must post these rules on his/her blog.

And where are my chosen five? Why, they're:

1. My Dog (Life with Penny, in Australia) http://mydog-parlance.blogspot.com/

2. The Long and Short of it All (best source of all-dachshund news ever), http://dachshundlove.blogspot.com/

3. Housecat Confidential (Suburban cat lets it all hang out), http://housecatconfidential.blogspot.com/

4. Everycat (with THE Whicky Whuudler) http://everycat.blogspot.com/

5. I Is Maximus Spittimus (the Brit kit of snappy lit, new, punchy, and funny) http://maximusspittimus.blogspot.com/

pirate cat

image courtesy Becky via Brit

This is Sagwa, and he's dressed as a pirate for Halloween! Of course you know what that means: a post about pirates' cats. Alas, I'm two days into it and haven't found anything solid on the history of feline sea buccaneers.

I did find this from Weatherby Chesney's ripping yarn for boys, John Topp, Pirate (London: Methuen & Co., 1901):

* * * * *
The scent of the cooking brought an addition to the party. A gaunt, long-legged, black cat put his nose round the door, and leered at Alec and me with such an evil expression that we involuntarily shrank back ; and I at least had uncomfortable recollections of the stories I had heard of witches and of the Evil Eye. A cat may be a mere cat and nothing more ; but the other sort are much the same to look at, and I had no particular fancy for being hurried away on a broomstick to attend a witches' Sabbath.

Willie noticed my consternation and broke out into a roar of laughter.

" Ha, ha! Master Topp; afraid of Nep I see. Come Nep, there's a compliment for you ! You've scared the young gentleman with yer pretty smile. No need to fear him, my lads ; if there ever was any witchery in him the salt water has washed it all out by now. Nep's been half over the world with me, and you might rub him in the dark for a week without gettin' a spark out of him."

That was all very well, but when Nep set up the brine-stiffened bristles on his tail, and arching his back spat and swore at me through his jagged teeth, all because I moved my twenty-pounder out of his reach, I thought it advisable to rap out a piece of Latin just by the way of precaution. Nep, however, was nothing more than he seemed, and in later days we became shipmates and firm friends, though it took some time before I became sufficiently accustomed to his eccentricities to be able to pass him without a shudder.

* * * * *

and some dog proverbs

Similarly from Christy's Proverbs, Maxims, and Phrases of All Ages (1907).


A dog has nothing to do and no time to rest. (Tamil)
A dog is a dog whatever his color. (Danish)
A dog is never offended at being pelted with bones.
A man's best friend is his dog, better even than his wife. ("Esquimaux" - the older version of "Eskimo" and we might say Inuit.)
Dogs have more good in them than men think they have. (Chinese)
Every dog is a lion at home.
Every dog is not a lion at home. (Wait, what? -- Curator)
Mastiff never liked greyhound. (French)
Stones or bread—one must have something in hand for the dogs. (Italian)
The dog has no aversion to a poor family.
When the old dog barks he giveth counsel.

starring elizabeth

I just wanted to share this: Elizabeth being all cute and sassy in the sun. She's a big girl now - but look at those bitty little feet!

vintage photo time

Another Ampersand treasure, this one dating from May 1958. Those beagles must have been playing with all their might to have their tongues hanging out like that!

a wary eye

image in public domain

This is Johann Zoffany's (German, worked in England, d. 1810) portrait of Archduchess Maria Amalia of Austria, Duchess of Parma and Piacenza. Zoffany was a Neoclassicist, which normally would make for a more stripped down presentation and color, but I think this is just a poor reproduction. I can't find the date on this, but it might be 1772-79, during Zoffany's extended stay in Italy. He was very fond of a deep red for a Neoclassicist, though. Just look at that chair.

So - do you see the dog? No? Look down in the lower right hand corner. Surprise. That's why I chose this image today; it's unusual for its time in the almost subtextual use of the dog. After all, isn't the dog-in-the-portrait usually one of the first things you see? One of those trappings that points up the essential humanity of the great person being portrayed? Right. Why is that dog sticking its nose out so warily from the side?

My first guess is that the dog so perfectly mirrors the wary, sidelong look of his mistress that it's humorous, and Zoffany was said to have a bit of an attitude and humor to match. Secondly, perhaps Zoffany saw something embattled in this woman that he couldn't help but portray. A daughter of Empress Maria Theresa, from whom she was largely estranged most of her adult life, Maria Amalia was married to the Duke of Parma in a court that seems to have been a bit of a mess. She had a taste for power, and tried to exert it since her husband didn't care to step up. Nothing seems to have been easy. No wonder she - and her faithful pet - are giving you the onceover.

little handsewn outfits

(all images public domain)

Harry Whittier Frees (1879-1953) was a nice bespectacled man with a great deal of patience. How else could he place puppies, kittens and rabbits into tiny costumes his mother made, wait for that split second when they were standing still, and then do it over and over again? Not immediately, though - he was too kind a man for that.

"Barker was Busy in the Kitchen" (above) and "Rosie and Jennie Took a Cat-Nap" (below) are only two of the many, many staged story photos Frees took during his career, using his own pets and those he rented. And you'd think I'd already have known about him, but I didn't till today.

When I first saw these, I worried a little bit that these little ones had been used without regard for how tired or scared they might be. But now that I've learned more about Frees I don't think that was the case. I'm going to send you to some blogs that know way, way more than I do about him: here's a good page, and this one is a mother lode.

freshly found cat worship

Big thanks to Joey and Maggie at The Long and Short of It All, who found this breaking news story on the recently found 2000-year-old temple possibly dedicated to Bastet. There's a photo of a lively sculpture to go with. Boy! You guys lost no time getting to me with that one!

"It is said, too, though I cannot say if the story is true, that Cambyses conquered an Egyptian city once, by the help of cats; that is, when his soldiers were just going to attack the town, he gave to each of them a cat, instead of a buckler. The Egyptians, of course, would not fight with cats, and rather than let one of them be hurt, they allowed their city to be taken." -- From The Cat and Her Cousins, 1871.

more cat proverbs

These are from Proverbs, Maxims, and Phrases of All Ages, Robert Christy, compiler (New York and London: The Knickerbocker Press, G. P. Putnam and Sons, 1904).

An old cat likes young mice. (Greek)
Cat after cat kind.
Cats eat what hussies spare.
Cats hide their claws.
Don't look for five feet on a cat. (from Don Quixote)

Wanton kittens make sober cats. (I love this one -- Curator)
"We are all well placed" said the cat, when she was seated on the bacon. (Danish)
Well might the cat wink when both her eyes were out.
When cat and mouse agree the farmer has no chance. (Danish)

Singed cats live long. (German)
The cat always leaves her mark upon her friend. (Spanish)
The cat and dog may kiss yet are none the better friends.

breaking news: national disaster search dog teams to haiti

That's right, deployments of handler/dog teams are probably in Haiti by now. Check in on the teams, and think about a donation, please!

squeezy chickens!

I don't have anything deep for you today. What I have are these cute rubber chickens, which were a gift to a co-worker from friends in Siberia. And as we all know, I do like an adorable chicken.

"this is a little pup. no, really."

Say your friend invites you to come over and see her new little pup. Who doesn't like puppies, right? So you go racing over there with a giftwrapped chewy bone, and discover . . .

. . . she's got a tiny young shark in her fishtank.

Because the term for a baby shark is a pup. And you had better be prepared so you don't say "Ew," and make your friend feel badly. Though if your friend likes to snuggle up with sharks I suspect she can take it. So consider yourself forewarned and forearmed for any baby walruses, rats (also called pinkies), otters, hedgehogs and moles. Most of those are a stretch, but you never know.

By the way, an echidna's child is a puggle, while an alpaca's is a cria. These and much more young'un nomenclature may be found at the Baby Animal Names page on the adorable ZooBorns site.

"a cat may look at a king"

Okay, sure. Anybody can look at a king these days, if they can find one - but why a cat?

As you may imagine, the phrase means "any lowly person has certain rights before a superior," more or less. At phrases.org.uk, the saying is attributed to a collection of English proverbs dating from 1562. They do note that the saying's origin is unknown, but I have found a possible one -- and it involves Albrecht Durer.

It seems that after Durer completed his massive project "Triumphal Arch of Maximilian" in 1515, the task of engraving the work went to a fellow named Hieronymus Rosch of Nuremberg. (Not Hieronymus Bosch. I checked. Very odd.) The "Arch" had been done under the patronage of Emperor Maximilian I, who liked to drop by Rosch's house to see how things were going. On one of his visits a number of Rosch's pet cats ran into the room where the Emperor was visiting - and it's said that's where the original cat got its look at a king. I got that from page 90 of
Artist Biographies in Five Volumes, vol IV: Dürer. Rembrandt. Van Dyck by Moses Foster Sweetser (Boston: Houghton, Osgood, and Company/ Cambridge: The Riverside Press, 1860).

vintage photo time

Another Ampersand find.

I don't know anything about this one, except that someone has well swept the walkway and then someone - the same or another - wanted to capture their dog's keen attention. But to what? Why is this cute dog with its stripey collar so rapt?

Is it a squirrel? The postman? The cat next door?

Is somebody going away? Or perhaps coming home?

rabbits go hollywood

Ah, we all know that rabbits disapprove. But did we know rabbits have such a finely honed sense of cultural criticism?

If I'd been keeping up with Slate.com in 2007 or so, perhaps I would have. Because then I'd have stumbled upon Rabbit Bites much sooner. Briefly put, Rabbit Bites is Buns and Chou Chou's odyssey through mass media American delights such as the Oscars, CSI, and To Catch a Predator. That last one isn't child appropriate of course, but hilarious: (squeaky voice)"My good man! . . . Is that a question for company?" Plus they interview Patton Oswalt, whom I looove. And who's going to take it personally? They're rabbits, forcryinoutloud.

The brightly carrot-colored site takes a little playing with so here's the guests page, just to help.

looty, the lapdog spoil of war

Once upon a time five Pekingese dogs were minding their own business in the Imperial City of Peking (now Beijing). They had attendants, fine beds and the best food, befitting creatures who were beloved pets of royalty and often given Imperial court titles.

These five, however, happened to be in the Summer Palace in October of 1860, when Anglo-French military forces were looting Peking. Their attendants committed suicide so as not to be captured, but the dogs were, and one ended up as a present to Queen Victoria.

He lived out his life in comfort, joined by his mate six months later. He had special food, at least for a while until Victoria's kennel master wasn't having any:

"(the dog) is very dainty about its food and won't generally take bread and milk, but it will take boiled rice and a little chopped chicken and gravy mixed up in it, wrote Captain Dunne, Lootie's savior. Not only unimpressed but unsympathetic, the man retorted that this "Imperial" Pekingese would get the same "nice cooked meat with breadcrumbs and powdered biscuit" as the other dogs, and "after a little fasting and coaxing, will probably come to like the food that is good for it."

Victoria named him Looty.
Not very subtle where it counted, the Victorians. The Royal Family still has his photo, though.

The quote is from this fine article on The History of Canine Nutrition.