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Joe Mallon - 2004-06-02 15:08:44
As if being hot weren't enough - a Boston! Do y'all get the commercials for Zyrtec allergy medicine w/ the Boston? She's from the Bay Area, and her name is Buckle. She's the cutest thing!
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Paula - 2004-06-02 15:32:55
I love that commercial. Although I hate when they say "dog owner."
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Sue - 2004-06-02 20:40:23
Do you prefer "pet guardian"?
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Paula - 2004-06-02 22:03:12
Somethin' like that...I just can't support the idea of a living creature with a brain and a will and a personality having an "owner." An "employee" mebbe.
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2fs - 2004-06-03 00:01:30
Cats, of course, often adopt pet humans. We are owned by two cats, for instance. "Owned" isn't right here either - it's perhaps better to say that they've deigned to train us to better approximate the standards of cat behavior.
You could always say "cats/dogs/iguanas and their humans."
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Semi-disagreeable Bob - 2004-06-03 00:29:33
Yeah, well, I used to think owning a single dog, particularly if you left it alone, was blind cruelty to a pack animal, of the sort that clueless PETA types were want to engage in, but then I found out that dogs were wolves a mere 50,000 years ago, until they willfully prostituted themselves by becoming camp followers. So now I say screw 'em;; they chose the life. I'm still not clear on what African painted dogs are, though. Regarding the purportedly "purty" lady, though, I was somewhat yeah rightish, given what we celebrate 'round here, but when I saw that it was Famke(sp?), I couldn't disagree.
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Paula - 2004-06-03 07:10:26
I found out that dogs were wolves a mere 50,000 years ago
The jury's still out on that one. I'll provide links when I have a moment.
I know you're bein' semi-facetious, but even though dogs "chose" to follow humans, they are still pack animals--it's just that the humans are now their pack. So it is kinda mean to leave a dog alone all day. This has been a public service announcement. Beep.
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Sue - 2004-06-03 12:32:59
My dog spends 3/4 of his day wrapped in a blanket, asleep. (Right now, for instance, I can only see a little bit of his furry butt.) But at least he's not alone...
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Paula - 2004-06-03 13:19:13
I'll bet he knows you're there and is reassured by your presence. Or maybe California dogs are mellower. All I know is, both of my ruffians, when they have to be solo for whatever reason (e.g. if one of them has to go to the vet), get anxious and act out.
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Joe - 2004-06-03 13:33:33
Hobie is definitely not mellower. Viz. his behavior around our neighbor's golden Lab - he's strained so hard at his leash that he made himself sick. I'm guessing it's Sue's calming presence.
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Bob - 2004-06-03 14:52:19
Regarding them being wolves (or woovs, as a girl from Alabama at our alma mater seemingly had to pronounce it), I thought that was pretty well established genetically, (I read it in an a Smithsonian article on the wild "yeller" dogs of South Carolina... which I think are sposed to be related to the singing dogs of New Guinea), and the fact that dogs and wolves can crossbreed is certainly suggestive. (If not downright prurient.)
But even then, wild adult wolves aren't invariably a pack animal. Painted dogs or Hyenas, they would be cruel to isolate... but we don't get a lot of that. (But otherwise, I'm sure Hyenas - whatever they are - would make lovely pets.) (More certainly, dogs are definitely not Foosas, which should NEVER be kept as pets, because they will slit your throat in the dark.)
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Paula - 2004-06-03 16:49:22
Argh, have no time to post, nor will I tomorrow, but what I meant was that the timeline of wolf-to-dog may not be as recent as 50,000 years, and then again it might be even more recent. But, sure, dogs came fomr wolves no question.
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Tim Walters - 2004-06-04 14:33:44
Bringing this back to book recommendations: in my favorite "prehistoric humanity" novel, Reindeer Moon by Elizabeth Marshall Thomas, the protagonist accidentally sort-of-befriends a wolf, but the relationship eventually comes to nothing, and you realize that for every successful domestication there must have been thousands of near-misses.
I highly recommend the book--Thomas makes prehistoric life seem both utterly strange and incredibly real. Anne Crompton's The Sorceror is also quite good.
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