heroes

Soldiers and fighters, loyal and beloved, working hard and never knowing just how important they are to those around them.

Furry heroes.

See them at the United States War Dogs Association website.

And may our troops -- ALL our troops -- come home safely.

PS: RIP Barbaro.

big cat heads

That's what he does. It's worked out well for him. And Bruce Andrew Mckay of Toronto is an artist with the surest, funniest grasp of cat character I've seen in some time.

In his bio he says "Cats have a profound range of expressions, but they're so subtle, they're virtually invisible. Have you ever seen a cat smile? They can you know. They smile with their eyes. My work is inviting to the viewer. It makes people happy, and can literally brighten the room it's in. I'll leave the deep, brooding statements of despair to others. I do cats. "

And how!

thou hath my dog sir

Your curator-type host needs to take a brief break for a day or two due to travel. I swear I'll be right back after that. But believe me, you will have plenty to read if you go to the excellent article I've found for you today.

From The Journal of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation's Autumn 2004 issue, it's James Breig's look at how "The Eighteenth Century Goes to the Dogs." You'll see what people offered for lost dog rewards; read philosopher Jeremy Bentham's words on why dogs and other beasts shouldn't be made to suffer; and how the English diarist Samuel Pepys dealt with King Charles II's dog when it "fouled" the boat. There's lots of good things in there that I'm tempted to follow up upon in later posts.

Enjoy.

cameleopard

About 200 years ago, that is how European and American people referred to the giraffe. It was sort of camel-y. It had big spots like a leopard. All right, then.

George the IV of England had a pet giraffe, courtesy of a diplomatic gift from the Pasha of Egypt. It died a couple of years later though, and was stuffed by John Gould, who also served as Curator and Preserver to the Museum of the Zoological Society of London. Brief story on that here.

Another giraffe was gifted at the same time from the Pasha to Charles X, and lasted very nicely for 18 years. Her name was Zarafa, and there's a book about her. Note that to have a pet giraffe, it helps to be royal. Probably the tall ceilings in the palaces.

Eventually we started calling them giraffes after the Arabic word zirafah, "tallest of them all". The scientific name for this gentle, blue-tongued, neck-enhanced creature is Giraffa cameleopardis.

a classic in american squirrel portraiture

Look on the corner of the table, between the boy's hands. That is a flying squirrel, and this is John Singleton Copley's (1738-1815) Boy with a Squirrel from 1765.

The boy was Henry Pelham, Copley's half brother, and he must have known he was posing for a piece in which his brother was placing much hope. Copley planned to send this piece to London's Royal Society of Artists exhibition. He did so, and it paved the way for his solid career and his eventual move to London, where he stayed the rest of his life.

Flying squirrels were often kept as pets at this time, as they were friendly and docile. Note the little creature has a delicate gold chain to keep it from getting away; but note too how open and gentle the boy's expression seems even in profile, and how light and tender a grasp he keeps of his tiny friend. Copley was famed for this ability to say much about his sitters' selves with only a few objects to help. However, the painting for which he's most known is about the grand struggle between man and nature: Watson and the Shark.

new use for cats

The Viennese artist Gustav Klimt (1862-1918) was an elegant man who loved life, women, coffee full of whipped cream -- and cats. He let his have free run of his studio, and there were plenty of them. A story relates that a friend showed up to visit, and asked why he let the cats do whatever they pleased, especially since it made the place smell!

This was Klimt's answer: he didn't mind, and if they peed on the pencil drawings, "that's the best fixative!" (That is, a product that "fixes" and finishes a drawing surface so that it won't smear.)

sofa

That stands for Society of Feline Artists. They're a British group of about 12 years' standing and exhibit yearly at the Llewellyn Alexander Gallery in London. Humourously enough, when you click on their blog as of today, the first thing you see is people eating cake. No cats.

But you should go to the Home Page and then the gallery.

a fierce bad rabbit

I just bet you know what THAT is. That's one of the original Beatrix Potter tales.

There's a movie being made now about Miss Potter, with Renee Zellweger and Ewan Macgregor (what, has the tarnish quite gone off his bad boy image? "Velvet Goldmine," anybody?).

So was Beatrix Potter the coy, rosy, soft creature one might think with that casting? No. She had grown up the product of a typically lonely and sterile British middle-class Victorian upbringing, not allowed to leave the house much less by herself for most of her young womanhood, and was self-reliant to a fierce degree.

She never had kids of her own, though she was fond of others', and it was in letters to these young friends-and-relations that Peter Rabbit (her own pet bunny) and the rest of his kind had their genesis. She was suited to bring them so boldly to life: they had been her only friends and companions for much of her childhood. Her books are still classics today, and I venture to say always will be, and are rarely equalled in pet-literature for their clever, simple beauty and feeling.

Hey, Peter Rabbit dot com here!

sebastian was a girl

But Sharon didn't know that when she found the duckling dragging itself across the road one summer night in 1995. What she did know is that it was hurt, and that its legs were deformed.

Someone had thrown it out with the garbage.

She named it Sebastian and took it to the vet. The vet wanted to put it to sleep and at some point told her it was a girl, but the name stuck. Sharon's husband built a duck wheelchair. Sharon kept her on soft, clean surfaces all day and night and fed her. She threw Sebastian birthday parties. Hard work all day every day, but it made her happy. As she says,

"Never give up on your beloved pets that can no longer walk they deserve every chance that a human does, because all forms of life is precious. "

Here's Sebastian's story. I found it at HandicappedPets.com, which is not only a source of diapers and wheeliecarts, but of support and tales of courage and devotion.

but i do remember the hairstyles

I wasn't around for the Fifties, and wasn't all that intellectually cognizant for most of the Sixties. Which means that among other things I didn't read the papers. So when James Lileks takes a section of his lavishly illustrated all-things-ginchily-retro site to tell me how hokey dog photos used to serve as newspaper filler, I believe him.

"As you will see, newspaper dog photography was for years the last resort of the hack and the flack, the assignment no one wanted, the crap job handed out to the guys who could barely be trusted to take off the lens cap. Put yourself in a photog’s shoes. Imagine how you’d feel when the President’s in town; you’re handed the assignment slip and see the words: Terrier had 11 puppies. Get pictures."

That's what Lileks writes. And this is what he found.

hundreds of best friends

Maybe you already have that many. Lucky you!

Maybe you would like some more. They don't talk much and are really grateful. Plus you can visit them in lovely southern Utah -- Kanab, Utah, to be exact.

They are the pets who have found a home at Best Friends Animal Society.

Best Friends is a large and thriving concern, and they are a no-kill shelter. Their website will take you a while to explore -- and you'll enjoy it -- but I always head for the stories of particular animals with bigger challenges and how they get through. That's the Guardian Angel section. There you will meet Butters, the deaf and blind poodle, Snowball, who survived Katrina, and a host of other brave critters.

Go make some new friends!

when you find yourself in the thick of it

"Martha my dear
though I spend my days in conversation
Please remember me
Martha my love
Don't forget me
Martha my dear

Hold your head up you silly girl
look what you've done
When you find yourself in the thick of it
Help yourself to a bit of what is all around you
Silly Girl. . ."

These are the first part of McCartney/Lennon's lyrics to the Beatles' "Martha My Dear" on 1968's The White Album. That Paul wrote this for his Old English Sheepdog Martha is pretty common lore. What, exactly, did Paul have to say about it?

PAUL 1968: "You see, I just start singing some words with a tune, you know what I mean. Mainly I'm just doing a tune and then some words come into my head, you know. And these happened to be 'Martha My Dear, though I spend my days in conversation.' So you can read anything you like into it, but really it's just a song. It's me singing to my dog." (laughs)

PAUL circa-1994: "When I taught myself piano I liked to see how far I could go, and this (song) started off as a piece you'd learn as a piano lesson. It's quite hard for me to play, It's a two-handed thing, like a little set piece. Then when I was blocking out words-- you just mouth out sounds and some things come-- I found the words 'Martha my dear.' So I made up another fantasy song... I mean, I'm not really speaking to Martha, it's a communication of some sort or affection, but in a slightly abstract way-- 'You silly girl, look what you've done...' Whereas it would appear to anybody else to be a song to a girl called Martha, it's actually a dog, and our relationship was platonic, believe me."

This and other comments on track by track of the White Album here. An online gallery from Portland, Oregon's Photographic Image Gallery includes Tom Murray's portrait of Paul, Ringo and Martha herself. And in 1993, the cover of McCartney's live album Paul Is Live shows him with one of Martha's puppies.

duel

"A walled field was once reportedly set up in the great square before Notre-Dame cathedral for a duel between a man and a dog. The story goes that in 1372 a nobleman, one of the king's favorites, was found murdered on his estate near Paris. The murder remained a mystery, until suspicion was aroused by the fact that the victim's dog, an enormous greyhound greatly devoted to his master, always growled and barked at the sight of a certain man. This man, Richard Macaire, was known to have been jealous of the victim's good standing with the king. When the king learned of the dog's behavior, he took it as an accusation and ordered that the dog and Macaire be set against each other in a judicial duel.

". . . Macaire was armed with a club, while the dog was provided with a large barrel open at both ends in which it could take refuge. According to one account, 'As soon as the dog was released, it bounded towards its opponent without delay, knowing that it was up to the appellant to attack first. But the man's heavy club kept the dog at bay, and it ran here and there around Macaire, just beyond the weapon's reach. Biding its time, turning this way and that, the greyhound finally saw its chance and suddenly leaped at the man's throat, seizing him there with such force that he dragged him down to the ground, forcing Macaire to cry for mercy.' After Macaire was released from the dog's jaws, he confessed to the crime and was hanged at Montfaucon."

From Eric Jager's The Last Duel: A True Story of Crime, Scandal, and Trial by Combat in Medieval France (New York: Broadway Books, 2004), p. 137.

nice drawing. what is it?

My spouse Mark (the artist) says cats aren't hard to draw, but they ARE.

For example, most people want to draw a neck on their cats, but you usually don't see a cat's neck when you are hanging about with one. And don't forget that what we think of as their feet are actually the front halves of their feet, which is why their legs have more bends in them than ours, and I can never get that right either. Don't get me started on shoulders.

But as a guy named Tim has proved beyond all doubt, hardly anybody else can draw them either.

name that pet

Max!

That's apparently the most popular pet name lately. Of all things. I never would have guessed. Though I would have guessed other ones like Buddy and Kitty.

There are some wild name suggestions on this page. I specially like the lists of "Delicious" and "Botanical" names. Now that's creative!

hey, your jewelry is making a break for it

How about an unusual pet today?

How about the Madagascar hissing cockroach?

They're 2-3 inches long. They move slowly, are docile, don't bite, and don't smell. They don't fly, either. The hissing part happens when they're disturbed or handled, and it's quite distinctive. This creature really has serious fans.

And, if you're Jared Gold, they make trendy and unusual brooches. Which you need to keep moist and fed.

More on the care and feeding of the non-jewelry cockroach here.

i'm serious -- where do people find those crazy cat hats that look like other animals?

jocked off

"Jocked off:
When a fashionable jockey takes the already booked mount of a lesser rider"

I learned that at the website for The National Horseracing Museum (at Newmarket, Suffolk, UK). It's on the glossary page, along with other spiffy racetalk like act in the dip, bumping and boring, and tap root mare.

There's also a page full of games and quizzes, and an archive chock full of info about many, many horses, jockeys, owners, trainers, what have you. The horses had great names: my favorites so far are Winkipop and Humorist.

lessons learned from a blind kitten

When Brent and Lorelle VanFossen got the little black kitten, he had no eyeballs. Their friend had found him on the street in Tel Aviv, a month old, both eyes torn out from another cat's attack. The friend had to go to Romania for a month and begged the VanFossens to care for him. They weren't too sure about it, but very shortly thereafter they loved Dahni the kitten as fiercely as he loved life. They took him everywhere on their photographic travels, and over the years learned a few things from their blind cat.

Read this incredible story here.

bee-shawn FREE-zay

That's how you say Bichon Frise. They are smallish, white and fluffy, as befits their poodle/waterdog origins.

And this is what we know about the Bichon Frise:

"Since the time of the Renaissance, the breed has been known as the Bichon Teneriffe, the name taken from the largest of the Canary Islands. Apparently, Spanish sailors brought this Mediterranean dog with them to the Canary Islands, where the exotic name "Teneriffe" became attached to it, and whence it was reimported into Europe as a pet for Italian and spanish noblemen. The early popularity of the breed is evident, for the French invaders of Italy in the 1500's brought many of the dogs home with them as war booty.

"Under Francis I (1515-1547) the Bichon became established in the French royal court society. Its peak of popularity came, however under the reign of Henry III (1574-1589). the monarch, unhappy to be separated from his beloved dogs for any length of time during the day, fashioned a basket in which to hold them, and tied it around his neck with ribbons. Carrying the little white dogs thus, he would stroll about the imperial court and conduct his royal affairs with his favored pets always at his fingertips!"

This info taken from this goodnatured short history of the breed. Check out the gallery for lots of pictures of a well-loved example!

hurr hurr hurr

I have been fighting the temptation to present this site to you.

I have been fighting the temptation tooth and nail.

But this is quite frankly one of the very funniest and cleverest cat humor sites I have ever seen.

CAT TOWN

Meet the cast

Absolutely don't miss the Medieval Tapestry episode -- a seamless parody

When IS this guy going to make a new one? And who makes all those kitty animal hats?

not available in that color

You can't get kitties in certain colors. Ever notice that?

Like you never see a gray and orange cat, or a chocolate and cream cat. So why can they come up with those wild 3-color combos, like you saw on my cat Baci (the Christmas photo)?

Why aren't 3-color male kitties worth anything to a breeder? Did you know there was such a thing as a torbie? Which chromosome is the only one that can carry the gene for red (= orange) fur?

Barbara French explains it all for you.

a mini survey course

I wanted to find you a nice cats-and-artists page today, after the minimal effort expanded in the last 2 posts. (I was out of town. Cut me a break.)

I found one, all right. Somebody over at Cats In the House sat down and lovingly devised a crash course in miniature of Cats In Art, from antquity to modern times. Does it cover everything? No. (I call dibs on the surrealist Remedios Varo and promise to get to her.) But the pages are pleasantly designed, the examples well chosen, and the comments perceptive and friendly.

So make a gallery visit. Do look for the gorgeous Egyptian bronze of a mother cat with her kitten, and for a fluid, witty print by Kitagawa.

i disapprove of this post

Sheesh! Who would have thought rabbits were such a judgmental bunch? I would have bet cash money on cats taking the lead in the Disgusted Look Olympics . . .

. . . but I was wrong, so tragically wrong.

Somewhere a rabbit disapproves of me.

five seven five, meow

You know 5 7 5: it's the syllable pattern for each line of a haiku poem. Such as

This litter is wrong. (5)
I don't like it on my feet. (7)
Poop on floor, again. (5)

oops. I guess you can tell what your friendly curator has been doing lately. I'm a lousy poet anyhow -- why don't you check out these much better cat haikus?

bad iguana. bad, bad iguana

"I will not climb the curtains, poop, and laugh in glee as it slowly slides down to the carpet. "

Apparently on the web there is a place for everything.

Including iguana lists.

the dogs of my uncle

The wonderful French filmmaker and actor Jacques Tati, in his film Mon Oncle (My Uncle), gives us a look at an older, sweeter Paris, compared to a newer, shinier and commercially driven one. One of the small thematic markers of the older -- and much homier -- society is the appearance of a pack of street dogs, joined whenever possible by the main character's own dachshund in a little plaid coat. They open the movie, pop into a factory in the middle, and close the movie.

Tati, who also played the main character M. Hulot, had to acquire dogs for these scenes. When the movie was over, the dogs had to go. Unwilling to see them go to the pound and certain doom, he had an idea.

Tati took out an ad in the paper, offering folks the chance to adopt what he called "movie stars". Every dog was taken. It's said this story gives a good glimpse into the character of Jacques Tati.

captain kirk's great dane's name

Did I even see Star Trek: Generations? Because I swear I don't remember James Tiberius Kirk with a Great Dane, much less the dog's name. (It was Butler.) But somebody at Dog.com does remember - and they've put together the mother of all pop-culture dog trivia pages.

• What was Spuds Mackenzie's real name?
• Which breed were artist Pablo Picasso's dogs?
• What is the moral of the Aesop fable "The Dog and the Wolf?"

Think you know this stuff? Go get 'em boy.

(The answers above in order: Spuds was actually Honey Tree Evil Eye. Picasso had Afghan Hounds, with one Dalmation and an Ibizan thrown in. The fable's moral is "Better to starve free than be a fat slave." Aesop was a slave, by the way.)

song dynasty cat

There's a particular poem I wanted to send along to a friend, written by a man who lived long ago who suffered a reversal of political fortunes. He was left with his son and daughter, and was telling them as he walked along in the poem that they were really very lucky compared to some. I remember part of it as:

. . .You can see the ragged young woman
Some people call the Justice's Miss --
Her father too was a palace official;
They were all in their day exceedingly rich.
When you look at other people, my children,
You can see how generous Heaven has been.

Anyway, I thought that was a Chinese poem, so I went looking. Didn't find that (if you do, will you tell me?) but I did find this on a site dedicated to Chinese Poems:


Sacrifice to the Cat that Scared all the Rats
Mei Yaochen (1002 - 1060)

When I had my Five White cat,
The rats did not invade my books.
This morning Five White died,
I sacrifice with rice and fish.
I see you off in the middle of the river,
I chant for you: I won't neglect you.
Once when you'd bitten a rat,
You took it crying round the yard.
You wanted to scare all the rats,
So as to make my cottage clean.
Since we came on board this boat,
On the boat we've shared a room.
Although the grain is dry and scarce,
I eat not fearing piss or theft.
That's because of your hard work,
Harder working than chickens or pigs.
People stress their mighty steeds,
Saying nothing's like a horse or ass.
Enough- I'm not going to argue,
But cry for you a little.

-- See this poem in original Chinese and stages of translation here.

happy 2007 everybody!!

and happy puppy.

and happy kitten.