it's raining cats and dogs, and more visual treats

thanks british library flickr (pd)

Here's some creative treats I found on Vimeo:

 - I guess the French don't say "It's raining cats and dogs," but "It's raining ropes."  In this project for Eurostar, animator Claire Fauché mixes them up in a jaunty 30-second spot.  You'll remember how to say it in French now.

 - Absolute Radio invited listeners to share memories of dogs gone by.  Some of the resulting tales were too good to be true/or ignore, so Absolute Radio did the obvious thing and had a song made about it.  You can add your Fido to the Dead Dogs Memorial!

 - So many dog breeds, but to them, it's all one world.  A Dog's World.

 - A very short documentary piece very full of heart: the pets of the Amazon's Awa tribe.

theatre luck, courtesy of a black cat and a pug

In her autobiography, the English actress Mrs. Patrick Campbell (Beatrice Stella Tanner) tells how a dreamed black kitten and her her pug's open sympathy helped her confidence.  She was portraying the challenging role of "Paula" in The Second Mrs. Tanqueray, and in great need of self-assurance after a subpar rehearsal:

. . . When I went back to my rooms in Devonshire Street I slipped into bed in misery, knowing that everyone was disappointed in me,. . .Towards morning I fell asleep and had a childish dream. There was a door opposite my bed, and I dreamed it was pushed slowly open, and, up near the top, a little black kitten put in its head. I awoke laughing, and when my two children came into my bed, I told them about my lucky dream. And, indeed, if a black cat walking across the stage, entirely ruining a scene, can be regarded by all actors as a most lucky event, how much more should a black kitten poking its head high up through a door in a dream on the morning of a "first night" augur success.
One other sign of good fortune had also come to me from my pet dog. I had a pug at the time called "She," a devoted creature. One day—while I was studying the part of the play, where "Paula" bursts into a fit of weeping, I could get neither shape nor form into my sobbing. . . After much striving I thought of "breaking up" the sounds by a natural blowing of my nose. This so affected poor "She" that she howled and howled, and I could not stop her for quite a long time—I felt perhaps I might move a human audience. Then came the first night. I put my children to bed, leaving them in the care of the landlady. They had covered me with their hugs and kisses and wishes for success, and remembering the black kitten and the pug's tribute, I went down to the theatre with "She" in my arms, and my nerves strung up with that glorious sense of a battle to fight.

-- Campbell, P. (1922). My life and some letters. New York: Dodd, Mead. 93-94.

canine aristocrats

a vintage photo time rerun!
probably not 1930's.
maybe not english.
great shoes though.

Scores of women in mary janes and cloches, all sounding like the Queen Mum, clutching King Charles spaniels or a brace of Russian Wolfhounds - a Monty Python skit, or a British Pathé reel of a 1930's dog show at Richmond?  The latter.  It's a couple of gently fun minutes, with a bonus litter of darling wire haired fox terrier puppies in the mix.  Enjoy!

dog test!

oliver herford. PD

No, not like testing your trufflehunter dog.  BuzzFeed has a fun quiz:

"How Many Of These Dog Breeds Do You Know?"

Surprisingly tough in spots!  I learned a new breed or two.  Plus it's funny (hint:  if you pick "Dark-Eyed Junco" on a certain one, I give up).

the day has come: puss in print on kindle

thank you kib prestridge for your awesome cover

Yes, I know, you've heard me talk about it so long you thought it was never going to happen.  Me too.
Yet here it is, Puss in Print: A collection from thepetmuseum.com.
Available right the heck now on Kindle.  Soon to be available on Barnes&Noble NOOK.
This has been a learning experience and a half, and I don't think I'm done learning yet.  Should you pick up this little trifle, please know it comes with my warmest affection for all my Museum friends and the kind support you've given me all these years!
Big shout to the gang at Booknook, without whom this book would not ever had been prepared for all these brave new electronic platforms!

a winsome game marker

from the walters art museum, PD: CC-BY

This small dog figure dates from Egypt ca. 2850 BCE (Early Dynastic Period, late 1st-2nd dynasty).  He was found in Abydos, and made of hippo ivory.  He is identified as a game piece, and I thought he might be part of a set for an ancient Egyptian game we call Hounds and Jackals.  That can't be though because as you see here Hounds and Jackals is like cribbage. Perhaps it's from the game Menet.  Even so, look how personable he is with a minimum of detail but the cleanest and most understandable of forms.  Nothing extra, but all dog.

vintage jokes!

from reusableart.com (PD)

NO FRACTIONS WANTED
A small boy saw some young puppies at the dog dealer’s.
“ Oh, Mr. Brown,” he asked the man, “ how much do you want for those puppies?”
"They’re $3 apiece, Master Beverly.”

"Oh, but I don’t want a piece; I want a whole dog.”

THE WHOPPER THAT WON
A minister walking along a road saw a crowd of boys sitting in a ring with a small dog in the center. “What are you doing with that dog?” he asked. “ Whoever tells the biggest lie, he wins the dog,” said one of the boys. “Oh,” said the minister, “ I am surprised at you boys, for when I was like you I never told a lie.” There was a moment’s silence. Then one of the boys said: “Give the gent the dog, Jim.”

IRREPRESSIBLE
Little Davey Sloan is forever asking questions. “You’d better keep still or something will happen to you,” his tired mother finally told him, one night. “Curiosity once killed a eat, you know.”
Davey was so impressed with this that he kept silent for three minutes. Then: “Say, Mother, what was it the cat wanted to know?”

. . . and a story (true or not?) about the artist James McNeill Whistler, who also had a knack for not making friends:

GETTING EVEN
Here is a story typical of the great maker of enemies:
Whistler had a French poodle of which he was extravagantly fond. The dog was seized with an affection of the throat, and Whistler had the audacity to send for the great specialist Mackenzie.
Sir Morrel, when he saw that he had been called in to treat a dog, didn’t like it much, it was plain. But he said nothing. He prescribed, pocketed a big fee and drove away.
The next day he sent posthaste for Whistler, and Whistler, thinking he was summoned on some matter connected with his beloved dog, dropped his work and rushed like the wind to Mackenzie’s.
On his arrival Sir Morrel said gravely:
“How do you do, Mr. Whistler? I wanted to see you about having my front door painted.”

-- from Carleton B. Case,  Big Joke-book: Over 700 of the Funniest Jokes Ever Told (Chicago: Shrewsbury Publishing, 1919), passim.

the cats of rome

"Rome is just one big catwalk," David Attenborough says as humans and cats strut by the Spanish Steps.  It's a worthy play on words, and found in the 2000 BBC Wildlife series documentary "Pussies Galore."  Though I wasn't thrilled with the title, I took a look and am glad I did.  Now I hope you'll visit the Roman Forum in turn to meet a colony of ferals as they make their way through a year in the Eternal City.  There's tough, grubby Caesar and his foe Brutus; good gray mom Mina; her daughter Livia; and a pack of kittens.  Do I wish they had it easier?  Am I worried about the kittens?  Do I wonder if there's a trap and neuter program in Rome?  Yes to all those things.  But there's a long tradition of kind "cat women" who step into the Forum (dressed up for the privilege, often) with food offerings, and though litters of ferals do die as you'd imagine, in this film the kittens thrive on fresh pigeon.  All this among the ancient stone of a great empire.

You can find "Pussies Galore" on YouTube:

Part I of III

Part II

Part III

PS:  Alley Cat Allies has an article on a successful trap-neuter-return program in Rome - you have to look for it but it's on this page.

performing cats in the news, 1890

from the original publication in PD

Here's the article I promised you yesterday on M. Bonnetty's clever cat troupe.  The illustration above is from the actual publication, an image of star of the show Tibert with a young recruit. I've provided the whole article, despite its length, for your reading pleasure.

* * *
A writer in Harper's Young People gives the following interesting account of a wonderful troupe of performing cats at the Winter Circus in Paris:
"M. Bonnetty, the owner and trainer of these performing cats, believed, in spite of all opinions to the contrary, that puss belonged among animals of the highest intelligence. He collected cats of all kinds, and set patiently to work to educate them. The result has been wonderful, and puss has shown that when treated kindly she is capable of great things, and is a most willing slave, affectionate and gentle, and always ready to do her master's bidding.

"M. Bonnetty never gives puss a harsh word or a blow, for those arouse her hatred, and she never forgets them. His work has been accomplished by coaxing and caressing. He usually begins the training with kittens, but he has had almost as great success with cats which have been several years old when they reached his hands. At first he keeps them in a large apartment for several months, feeding them and petting them until he has won their entire confidence and affection. Then pussy's education begins. The first exercises are very simple, such as jumping through a hoop and climbing a pole, until by degrees puss, obedient to her master's voice, will do every trick that a beast of her size is capable of.

"After a year's training the graceful creatures make their first appearance in public. This is the time of trial, for it sometimes happens that the little feline artist will perform beautifully when alone with her master, but will be frightened and confused by the music, the glare of lights, and the crowd of people at the circus.

"There are fourteen beautiful pussies in the troupe, and the tricks they do are wonderful. They play with mice and birds, holding them in their paws and even in their teeth without doing them the slightest injury; they jump through a blazing hoop held up by the trainer, perform graceful gymnastic exercises on the backs of thirty-two chairs placed in a row, march around in time to music like little soldiers, and group themselves in many graceful and comical attitudes. And the best part of it is that the pussies seem to take as much delight in their amusing capers as do the crowds of children who watch them ; and when a thousand little clapping hands applaud them, they form in a row and look as pleased and proud as if they understood what it was all about. Perhaps they do.

"A gentleman who went with M. Bonnetty to visit the cats in the room where they live found them all sleeping in graceful groups around a glowing stove, for an educated cat loves heat as well as her more humble sisters, and cannot be kept in good condition without it. As the trainer and his friend entered the room fourteen pair of little eyes opened, little ears were pricked up on the alert, and the pussies arose, stretching themselves and purring, and at once crowded around their master, rubbing against him, and reaching up to be caressed, while one little white cat named Gora climbed up to his shoulder and nestled in his neck. 'Yes, they all have names,' said their master, 'and they know them. There are Juno and Brutus and Cajsar and Mayor and Lucette and Boulanger—he's that large cat. He's as gentle and loving and playful as a kitten. You know every word I am saying, don't you, old fellow 1' he added, as a beautiful, glossy tiger cat, with large liquid eyes, came forward purring and showing every sign of feline delight and satisfaction.

"The star of the troupe is named Tibert, after the famous cat in the ancient romance of 'Reynard and the Fox.' Tibert is two years old. He is very agile and skillful. He leads the company in the jump through blazing hoops, and his greatest delight is to turn somersaults over the backs of chairs.

"The performing cats lead very temperate and regular lives. They are given an airing every day, and the large room where they live is lighted and sunny and well supplied with soft cushions for beds. They are fed at regular hours on bread and milk, and once a day they have all the liver they can eat, as that has been found to be the most healthy meat for them. They always have a pan of water, for water is something of which every full-grown cat needs an abundant supply.

"The cats in this troupe are all of the common varieties, black and white cats, tigers, Maltese, and tortoise-shell. The trainer has tried in vain to teach the Persian and Angora cats. They are beautiful for pets, but they are not agile, nor capable of much affection, and they have very little brains and a short memory. When M. Bonnetty needs recruits for his troupe, he seeks them among the cats that climb roofs at night and prowl over back-yard fences, as among these despised and persecuted creatures he has discovered the highest degrees of docility, sagacity, and intelligence."

-- from Horse Stories and Stories of Other Animals: Experience of Two Boys in Managing Horses, with Many Anecdotes of Quadrupedal Intelligence, Thomas Wallace Knox (Cassell Publishing Company, 1890), pp. 108-111

come see the amazing smart cats

thanks bibliotheque nationale de france. marked PD
http://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb42578955r

Come see the chats savants!  This show poster of 1890-1900 has its marquee blank, the better to fill in the next appearance of the clever, skillful cats.  Watch them frolic on a swing!  Watch them balance on each other, walk a tightrope, wind round bottles, jump through hoops of fire! I don't want to watch them do that last one.
There were many troupes of performing cats in centuries past; I have read of one owned by an M. Bonnetty in 1890, which I can tell you about tomorrow.

some useful and amusing pet infographics

thanks vintageimages.org.  i've been wanting to use this one forever.

You know how you're always trying to remember whatever that frequency is at which cats purr?  It's a range from 20 to 140 Hz (hertz).  That finally stuck in my head thanks to this infographic on all the swell things cat purrs can do for you.
Meanwhile, here I learn (among lots of other things)  that 16% of dog owners bought a house or a car with the family dog in mind.  (One of our cars at the Museum actually was.  The porta-kennel fit in the back.)
Do you even remember a world without lolcats?
Do you know the human/dog bond goes gene deep?
Woof vs. Meow:  wait till you see where Paul McCartney and George Harrison show up in this.

Bonus that has nothing to do with anything else here: Construct the perfect s'more.

seen on the street

whomever you are, let me know and i'll credit you :)

Spotted on the telephone pole on SE 28th across from Esparza's in Portland, OR.  I hadn't heard of Dr.Dog before this, but because I like their poster I'll give them a shout.

play "winterbells"

A quick update: Over at Ferry Halim's charming game site Orisinal, 'tis the season for Winterbells.  Make the little snow bunny leap up up up on the bells, quickly now!

Play Winterbells.

let's go to the pet circus

Up up up the fuzzy pole the kitty goes to the pie-sized platform many feet in the air. The pole is being held steady by a strong man, but is that cat really going to jump that far down? Yes, he is. But he will land safely in a fat green pillow held by a red-headed clown. Meanwhile the four white matching Spitz dogs are getting their pretty collars on, ready to dance, and a couple other kitties are persuaded to come out of the flower-bedecked bicycle baskets after their refreshing clown-powered ride.

The clown is Denis Ignatov, and he and his furry friends have created "Performing Dogs and House Cats," an all-pet circus in which feats ranging from daring to sweet (you'll love the "Cat Wedding") are performed for your delight and even education. Ignatov has also added his own acrobatic piece in "Cube." Overview of the performances here. But be sure and see the video clips on the cat page, the dog page, and the mini-"pet show."

Meanwhile, did you even know those cat-lovin' engineer guys had their own candidate for the past election? They proposed their cat Ginger, and I have to say they made a compelling case for her. (The military reenactment alone was worth the time: "Don't buzz the tower! You'll get in trouble!")