safe from the christmas cat

The Jolakotturinn of Iceland is bigger than life in Reykjavik this year!  This Christmas Cat goes after those who didn't get any new clothes at all for the holiday; even one small sock will get you off the hook.  I'm safe because I have two whole new pairs of socks!
Bjork has a song about this festive fiend.  It's in Icelandic.  Don't fret: you can see a translated version here.
His whiskers, sharp as bristles, 
His back arched up high, 
And the claws of his hairy paws
Were a terrible sight.
Sounds like business as usual around here.  I think I shall go look for my new socks.

no cats allowed

Have you heard about the gatecrashers at Hiroshima Onomichi City Museum of Art?  The security guards have had to turn two of them away multiple times.  They're very persistent, but they simply cannot come in.  They haven't bought tickets, and - oh, right - they're cats.  Ken-chan, and the ginger copycat Go-chan, stroll from their nearby homes to the automatic doors of the museum, wait for them to open, and make a break for it.  So far the staff have caught them every time - and often on video, where you can see their hijinks on Twitter.

greek and roman household pets

Today I'm going to send you to a fantastic article I've found, dating from 1949: "Greek and Roman Household Pets," by Francis D. Lazenby.  There you'll find a treasure trove including:

- Supposedly Ajax had a pet snake that followed him like a dog
- Quails were a favorite pet of patrician boys
- The ancestor of our domestic cats may well be the cream-colored Nubian cat
- Cats and weasels are most often interchangeable in ancient sources (that is, you can't really tell what animal exactly they're talking about)

Don't be put off by the footnotes and quotations - there's so much here!  Read it now.

ancient leashes

Today I'm going to send you right over to Hyperallergic's article on a certain set of rock engravings found in the Arabic Peninsula. Created over 8,000 years ago, the hunting scenes show the very earliest evidence of dog leashes in use.  What an exciting find!

studio ghibli's cat food commercials

Nissin Seifun is a large Japanese food conglomerate that includes a line of pet food.  In 2010 the company celebrated 100 years of business in a most delightful way: they commissioned a commercial from Studio Ghibli. Yes, the source of My Friend Totoro, Kiki's Delivery Service, Spirited Away, and Howl's Moving Castle, to name a very few of their masterworks.
Studio Ghibli presented Nissin Seifun with Konyara, a rotund cat sketched in a sumi-ink style, rolling round after Nissin's red butterfly logo. The spot was such a hit that two more were made adding some rolypoly kittens into the mix.  All three are elegantly adorable. 

Want to see them?  All three are available in this article at Open Culture.
Want to see the company's page on Konyara, complete with some sweet wallpapers for download?  Right here.

prayer to stop a dog from barking

I found a book of charms, prayers and magic songs from the prehistoric Finnish people.  There's words of healing power (for hiccups, a lizard bite, when torn by a wolf or bear); words to chant to attract love, to repulse love, to avoid the cowhouse snake; prayers against wasps and elf-shots.
Here's a prayer to silence a dog:

Field maiden, farmyard girl! O golden king of earth,

here where they need thee, come from the field with thy

family to close the mouth of a dog, to plug the nozzle of a

whelp. Bind silk across its eyes, tie a bandage round its

ears, a mushroom up one nostril thrust, an apple up the

other one, lest it should scent the breath of man, perceive

the smell of a full-grown man, lest it should hear a passer-

by, lest it should see a wanderer.

Try it and let me know if it works!  There's two more in the book, if this one doesn't do the trick.

Abercromby, John Abercromby, baron, 1844-1924. The Pre- And Proto-historic Finns, Both Eastern And Western, With the Magic Songs of the West Finns. London: D. Nutt, 1898. p. 216.

zoo boy jr

I've been tripping happily through a series of American field dog stud books published from 1901 to 1923.  Why? For the sheer entertainment of the names:

Waddle

Shadeland Flashlight

Bang Bang Fred

Sheriff

Spotiferous

Zoo Boy Jr.

Bird Graphic

Smut

Princess Nicotine Buckellew

Ornithologist 

The Abbot

Kate Perry (an English Setter from Hot Springs AR)

Queen of the Stubble

. . .  and that's from ONE year.

- Rowe, Nicholas, Mrs. The Field Dog Stud Book: an Authentic Register of Names, Colors, Ages, Pedigrees, Sex, Winnings And Owners of Field Dogs On the American Continent. Chicago: American Field Pub. Co., for Mrs. Dr. N. Rowe. v. 3 (1902), 1903.

to charm your bees

thanks pixabay (CC0 creative commons)

I know bees aren't normally considered pets, but they are important to human well-being.  Every so often I come across a bee reference that is too good not to share.  Today it's an old Anglo-Saxon charm to keep your bees from swarming.

AGAINST A SWARM OF BEES
Take earth, with your right hand throw it under your right foot, and say: --
"I take under foot; I have located it.
Lo, earth is potent against every sort of creature,
And against hatred and against forgetfulness,
And against the mighty spell of man."
Throw gravel over them when they swarm, and say:
"Alight, victory-dames, sink to the ground!
Never fly wild to the woodland!
Be as mindful of my profit
As is every man of food and home."

-- Grendon, Felix.  The Anglo-Saxon Charms (New York: Journal of American Folklore, 1909), p. 169.

"a dog that stinks, come on, come on"

thanks british library flickr (PD)

A little while ago I had a great deal of fun translating some cat proverbs from a huge Italian collection.  Today I'm going back in for wise words on dogs. Remember, I'm doing this with Google Translate, so correct me where you will.

Ogni tristo cane abbaia da casa sua -- Every sad dog barks from his house
A cane che puzza, dagli, dagli -- A dog that stinks, come on, come on (Idiom, and I have no clue -- curator)
Canini, gattini e figli di contadini, son belli quando son piccini -- Puppies, kittens and children of peasants are beautiful when they are little ones
A cani magri, mosche ingorde -- Lean dogs attract greedy flies
Porta rispetto al cane  per amor del padrone - Respect the dog for the sake of its master
Un cane arrabbiato corre soltanto nove giorni -- An angry dog runs only nine days
(BUT:) Niun cane arrabbiato corre sett'anni - An angry dog runs seven years  (I wonder which? - curator)
Al cane fu data la coda perche scodinzoli -- The dog was given its tail to wag it

- Strafforello, Gustavo, 1820-1903. La Sapienza Del Mondo: Ovvero, Dizionario Universale Dei Proverbi Di Tutti I Popoli, Raccolti, Tradotti, Comparati, E Commentati Da Gustavo Strafforello, Con L'aggiunta Di Aneddoti, Racconti, Fatterelli, E Di Illustrazioni Storiche, Morali, Scientifiche, Filologiche, Ecc. Torino: A. F. Negro, 1883. vol. 1. 229-33.

the dachshund museum

detail from a photo in the museum collection

Did you already hear about the new dachshund museum in Germany?  (Probably from the Smithsonian article?)  The Smithsonian does not provide a link to the website, but that's why you have me:  Dachshund Museum.  I've sent you to the English version of the site, but it hasn't been completely translated.  FYI.

the imperial kittens

From a book on the dog and the cat in Japanese superstitions:

* * *

Originally there were only wild cats in Japan, but in the time of the Emperor Ichijô (986-1011) some specimens of the small house-cat were imported from China. As they were very rare, their price was high, and only the Emperor and a few rich noblemen could afford to keep them. How much His Majesty liked these so-called Kara-neko or “Chinese cats” we read in the O-u-ki (the diary of Fujiwara no Sansuke - curator) and the Makura no soshi (also known as The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon - curator). The former book states that “on the 19th day of the 9th month of the year 999 a cat brought forth young in the Palace. The Left and Right Minister had the task of bringing the kittens up, and prepared boxes (with delicacies) and rice and clothes for them (as for newborn babies). Uma no myöbu, a Court lady, was appointed wet-nurse of the cats. The people laughed at the matter and were rather astonished.” Another funny thing is told in the Makura no sòshi, namely that the Emperor Ichijö bestowed the fifth rank (that of the court ladies) upon a cat in the Palace, and gave her the name of “Myöbu no Omoto,” “Omoto the Lady-in-waiting.”
* * *
Visser, Marinus Willem de, 1876-1930. The Dog And the Cat In Japanese Superstition. Yokohama, 1909. p. 8.

how to prepare a fine dog kennel, 1400s

Yesterday I showed you a beautiful illustration of a dog kennel from a Book of the Hunt.  Today I have a passage from The Master of Game, the English translation of that book, created sometime between 1406 and 1413 by Edward of Norwich, 2nd Duke of York.  This passage is about kennels, too.
* * *
CHAPTER XX
HOW THE KENNEL FOR THE HOUNDS AND THE
COUPLES FOR THE RACHES AND THE ROPES
FOR THE LYMER SHOULD BE MADE
The hounds' kennel should be ten fathoms in length and five in breadth, if there be many hounds. And there should be one door in front and one behind, and a fair green, where the sun shineth all day from morning till eve, and that green should be closed about with a paling or with a wall of earth or of stone of the same length and breadth as the hounds' kennel is. And the hinder door of the kennel should always be open so that the hounds may go out to play when they like, for it is a great liking to the hounds when they may go in and out at their pleasure, for the mange comes to them later. (1)   In the kennel should be pitched small stones wrapped about with straw of the hounds' litter, unto the number of six stones, that the hounds might piss against them. Also a kennel should have a gutter or two whereby all the piss of the hounds and all the other water may run out that none remains in the kennel. The kennel should also be in a low house, and not in a solere (an upper chamber), but there should be a loft above, so that it might be warmer in winter and cooler in summer, and always by night and by day I would that some child lie or be in the kennel with the hounds to keep them from fighting. Also in the kennel should be a chimney to warm the hounds when they are cold or when they are wet with rain or from passing and swimming over rivers. And also he should be taught to spin horse hair to make couples for the hounds, which should be made of a horse tail or a mare's tail, for they are best and last longer than if they were of hemp or of wool. And the length of the hounds' couples between the hounds should be a foot, and the rope of a limer three fathoms and a half, be he ever so wise a limer it sufficeth. The which rope should be made of leather of a horse skin well tawed.

(1.) They are not likely to get the mange so soon.

-- Edward, of Norwich, 2d Duke of York, 1373?-1415. The Master of Game: the Oldest English Book On Hunting. London: Chatto & Windus, 1919. 125-6.

a greek dog on egyptian soil

www.mfa.org Egypt Exploration Fund by subscription

This terracotta dog is all of 1 15/16" x 1 5/8", but the roughness of his modeling gives him a big presence.  Isn't it amazing how a few well-placed pushes and pulls on a lump of clay create something that's unmistakably a dog? 
He lives at the Boston MFA, where they don't have a date of manufacture listed for him, but they know where he was found (by the great Egyptologist Flinders Petrie, no less).  He's from Naukratis, which was a Greek trading post in the Nile Delta established in the 7th century BC.  The British Museum has a research project about Naukratis; you can read more about it here.  If you search the research project catalog for "dog" you'll see this guy and a number of his fellows pop up, as the project worked with museum collections worldwide.  I learned there that he might be a representation of Sirius the Dog Star, whose rising happened around the yearly flooding of the Nile.

tombili, and other monuments

By Nevit (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Today - after a wonderful minivacation that took me away from the Museum (sorry readers! not sorry) - I find Hyperallergic has a much better post than anything I could offer you today. Dating from October 2016, it's "A Tour of Meownuments to the World’s Most Pawesome Cats," and there are feline institutions included about which even I, your friendly Curator, knew nothing. Included: Istanbul's own Tombili, whose statue seems often to be given refreshment and gifts.  As it should be.

wedawe

thanks reuseable-art.com

Wedawe:  a word that translates as "to own a dog" in the Mi'kmaq language, according to the vintage dictionary I have found this morning. The Mi'kmaq nation lives in Canada's Maritime provinces as well as parts of Quebec, Newfoundland and Maine; at the time of the book's writing, the language and the people were spelled "Micmac."  Also at that time the peoples of this nation wrote in a beautiful hieroglyphic system.  I mention that because I want you to see and appreciate it.
Here are some of their words regarding dogs, as recorded in the dictionary:

My dog, 'Nte.
Thy dog, ukte.
His dog, Ooteel.
A little dog, uliimoojeech.
An Indian's dog, ulnooaasum; Weiasiimooch.
A white man's dog, Aglaseawaasum.
A Newfoundland dog, Mootkulaasum.
A good moose-dog — i. e.. a good moose hunter — A moose-dog, Teamoowaasum.
A fox-dog, (a hound), Wokwisooaasijm.
A useless dog, Mejunooaasum. Lit., A dung- dog.
The ancient Indian dog, Lunsum.
A white dog, Wopsum.
What is this dog especially good for? - kogooaaasum?
A good dog for birds, Sesipawaasum.

He is a good dog for hunting porcupines, Madooeswaasum.
He is a capital dog for hunting bears, Mooinawaasum.
He is a good sheep dog, Cheechkelooaoochwaasum.
To own a dog, Wedawe.
A male dog, Nabesum.
A female dog, (a bitch,) Skwesum.
An old dog, kesegoo'sum.

-- from Rand, S. Tertius. (1888). Dictionary of the language of the Micmac Indians: who reside in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Cape Breton and Newfoundland. Halifax, N.S.: Nova Scotia printing company. 88-9.

"where is my dog?" - a spiritual inquiry

thanks reusableart.com

"What grown man is there in whose life the dog has not been a factor? Who pronounces the word 'home' or 'childhood' and sees not the dog in the pictures which rise before him?"

Good question (unless you're a cat person, but as you'll see, the basic idea still applies), and one asked by the Rev. Charles Josiah Adams in his book, Where is My Dog?: Or, Is Man Alone Immortal? (1892).  He continues:

Is it any wonder that I raise the question: "Where is my dog?" Is he lost? Will I not spend money and time to find him? Not so much because he is worth anything, but because I love him. As a rule, the uglier a dog, the more his master loves him. Talk with the pound-keeper; he will tell you that all the tears are shed over curs. Is he dead? Where is he? Where are Dennis, and Tip, and Curly, and Doctor, and Prince? Where is Old Joe? Dead! Yes; but "does death end all" in the case of the dog any more than in the case of man? Man's life is so much more important. Are you sure? Who is to decide? Man, the dog, or God?

But the good reverend doesn't stop there, for what is valid for one creature is good for all others, is it not?  Would you like to page through this book and reflect upon this with him?  Here is a link to it at Google Books.

you've heard about the cavy cop?

thanks british library (PD)

You're cruising through the Wellington area of New Zealand.  School's in session, so watch your speed:  if you go too fast you'll have to answer to Constable Elliot.  If you get caught, remember it's all right if you don't look him in the eyes, since that would require you getting down flat on the ground.  You see, officer Elliot is a guinea pig.
Mind you, this isn't a completely brand new concept.  Over at Cambridge's Ethology Institute you can sign up for scent-detection animal handler training at Guinea Pig Camp.

fast tuesday check-in

Hi everyone!  I got caught short for time this morning because I'm working on a project (stay tuned).  So I'm going to cheat and send you to some links found by the ever-excellent Strange Company in a recent Weekend Link Dump.  (You should check it out every Friday.)
A real-life pet detective
Some office cats of 1890s NYC
The noble dog Gelert's grave, or so the locals say

Back soon!

thundercat loves his cat

thanks pixabay. (PD).  this is not thundercat's cat tron

Thundercat (Stephen Bruner, born 1984) is a bass guitarist, singer and producer from L.A. who won my ears and my heart around this time last year with the staggering video for Them Changes.   His new album "Drunk" is out right now.  Among its funk glories, "Drunk" includes "A Fan's Mail (Tron Song Suite II)."

. . . No one watching over me

I do what I want

Everybody wants to be a cat . . .

"Tron" would be Turbo Tron over 9000 baby Jesus Sally, and Thundercat loves him very much.  Here's the link to A Fan's Mail.

rorarora

"...to purr as a cat: rorarora."
This perfectly onomotopoeic (= a word that sounds just like its action) word comes from a language once called Secwana.  I found it in a dictionary old enough to call it that and not the present-day Tswana. Tswana is a Bantu language spoken by about 5 million people in southern Africa.
A language's words can paint a vivid picture of its speakers' interaction with their world.  To this end, I went looking for Tswana words about their animal companions.  Here are some more.

to scratch as a cat: napa.
A dog, as distinguished from a bitch, seheke; 

a lean, starved dog, mokgara; 

an old and poor dog, motau; 

a wild dog, leteane, lekanyana, letlhalerwa; 

to scratch a hole, as a dog, hata; 

a sleeping place of a dog, or a hole scratched in the ground, kutla;
to snap at, as a dog, kgogogela;
to be angry, as a dog, tlhonya;
to doctor a dog so as to make it fierce, galodisa; 

the medicine for making a dog fierce, kgalola; 

a dog's lying-in place, serubi; 

a little dog, ncana;
the dog is angry, nca e tlhontse. 

 - Brown, J. Tom d. 1925. (1895). Secwana dictionary: Secwana-English and English-Secwana. Frome [Eng.]: printed for the London Missionary Society by Butler & Tanner. Passim.