Dog
drorzel | May 31, 2007This picture is from yesterday, but the scene was more or less the same this morning:
A rabbit had hopped into our yard, to eat the spilled seed under the bird feeder (or something over there-- it's like a Disney movie sometimes, with all manner of happy little woodland creatures), so we let the dog out. She spotted the bunny, and sloooooowly crept across the patio toward it, moving very quietly so as not to disturb her prey.
Eventualy, some invisible-to-humans line was crossed, and the rabbit took off for the back part of the yard, with Her Majesty in hot pursuit. There are a number of gaps…
drorzel | May 10, 2007I'm sitting at the computer typing, when the dog bumps up against my legs. I look down, and she's sniffing the floor around my feet intently.
"What are you doing down there?"
"I'm looking for steak!" she says, wagging her tail hopefully.
"I'm pretty certain that there's no steak down there," I say. "I've never eaten steak at the computer, and I've certainly never dropped any on the floor."
"You did in some universe," she says, still sniffing.
I sigh. "I'm going to move the quantum physics books to a higher shelf, so you can't reach them."
"It won't matter. I've got Wikipedia."
"All right,…
drorzel | May 5, 2007
At lunch Friday, I was talking to a few colleagues about how smart our pets can be. I haven't done gratuitous dog-blogging in a while, and it's been a long week, so here are some of the more impressive of our Emmy's intellectual achievements:
She's managed to learn two or three English phrases entirely on her own. There are a few phrases like "Are you hungry?" and "Do you want to go for a walk?" that we deliberately used with her from the beginning, but a few months after we got her, I said to Kate, "What do you think, is it time for bed?" and the dog jumped up from her pillow and ran into…
drorzel | April 27, 2007How can you tell that it's spring? Look at the Queen of Niskayuna:
When she's regally reclining under the swing in the back yard, then it's definitely spring.
drorzel | March 29, 2007
It's hard to be the Queen. This is actually from Tuesday night, and shows Queen Emmy the Mopey pining away for Kate, who was in Rochester for a trial. I meant to post it then, but I started to feel kind of light-headed not long after taking this, and opted to go to bed instead...
drorzel | February 22, 2007Fade In: The dining room of Chateau Steelypips, at dinner time.
"Can I have a piece of chicken?"
"No."
"But I really like chicken."
"That's nice. The answer is still no."
"But I really like chicken. Pleeeease?"
"For the last time, no."
"OK." Pause "Can I have a cookie? Pleeeease?"
Fade out
Of course, I shouldn't really complain-- I could have Kate's view of this whole exchange:
drorzel | February 18, 2007You may think it's the year of the pig, but know this:
Every year is the Year of the Dog.
drorzel | February 14, 2007Before we get to the dog pictures, I want to give a quick shout-out to the Comment of the Month here, which is Josh's bunny made of cheese. That's great.
Anyway, we went outside with the camera for a little while this afternoon, to get the table picture posted earlier. This was an adventure for Her Majesty, chronicled in photos:
1) "Oh, boy! White stuff! Everything looks different!"
2) "There must be bunnies here somewhere..."
3) "Actually, this kind of sucks."
4) "C'mon, dude, open the door. I've had enough."
Total elapsed time: something like five minutes. She likes snow, but isn't…
drorzel | February 6, 2007We were away for the weekend, so I'm a day behind in reading the Sunday Times. This week's magazine section has a story about the controversy over "hybrid" dogs:
Bob Vetere, president of the American Pet Product Manufacturers Association, told me, "You're going to have a real battle here" between hybrid dog breeders and "the purists who say this is all 25th-century voodoo science." The rift seems to epitomize a peculiarly American tension: between tradition and improvisation, institutions and fads. The American Canine Hybrid Club, one of a growing number of hybrid dog registries, will soon…
drorzel | January 4, 2007It's a little-known fact that gravity is stronger in the vicinity of our couch:
Her Majesty just can't manage to lift her head. I think string theory is involved, but I'm not sure.
drorzel | December 17, 2006What with Time naming everybody the "Person of the Year," Emmy is angling to snag Top Dog honors by uploading video of herself shredding a chew toy to YouTube:
It's hard to blog when you don't have opposable thumbs.
drorzel | December 14, 2006We've been having intermittent DSL problems here at Chateau Steelypips, which has led to much cursing of Verizon. The fact that their tech support department screwed up the first two service appointments, and repeatedly dropped calls after half an hour spent navigating their miserable phone tree and hold system didn't help any.
The repair guy finally showed up this morning, though, and found the source of the problem: Mice had built a nest in the terminal box on the pole, and squirrels had chewed on the wire going into the house.
And now, Her Majesty is being all smug. "You said I was…
drorzel | December 2, 2006The Queen of Niskayuna is being repressed:
Actually, ignore the reproachful look. She spends every night, and all day on weekdays in her crate, and she's perfectly happy to go in there. In fact, most of the time, she goes in there of her own accord, some time before we're actually ready to leave for work, or go to bed. She knows that she gets a handful of treats when we close up the crate, and tries to hurry that along.
The reproachful look in this picture is because I was messing around with the camera, rather than giving her a fistful of dog treats and letting her get on with her busy day…
drorzel | November 7, 2006Rhymes With Orange explains the state of the art in dog surgery, and the Queen of Niskayuna demonstrates the technique:
(The patient is an Awful Mad Kitty from Fat Cat Toys, who make great dog toys.)
drorzel | November 3, 2006
This might not look it, but this is actually a happy dog picture. On windy days, she'll sit like this at the edge of the patio, just letting the wind blow interesting smells past her. You can't see it from a still photo, but she's constantly sniffing, and her ears are twitching, and she's generally having a good time. It's really cute.
It's hard to get a picture of, though, because the minute we open the door, she'll explode into motion to chase... something. Birds, squirrels, invisible aliens that only dogs can detect, I'm really not sure. This picture was actually shot through the kitchen…
drorzel | October 30, 2006In honor of Halloween tomorrow, a menacing picture of Emmy, Queen of Niskayuna:
Caption: "Don't even think about trying to take my Kong."
drorzel | October 21, 2006We have a small ornamental pond in the back yard, with a little bubbler in it to keep it from turning into nothing but a stagnant mosquito ranch. Here we find the Queen of Niskayuna contemplating the pond:
(I'm not quite sure what she's looking for, but it was cute. Sometimes she drinks the water, but only very, very carefully, because she hates to be wet. It took some serious GIMPing to make this picture look good, but I'm fairly happy with it now.)
drorzel | September 25, 2006Kate's busy doing LiveJournal things downstairs in the living room, and I'm upstairs blogging in my office. What's a dog to do? Mope at the foot of the stairs, of course:
She's the most neglected dog in the entire world. Just ask her...
drorzel | September 24, 2006Emmy, Queen of Niskayuna, is not what you'd call a well-socialized dog. We got her from a shelter, where she was an owner turn-in due to allergy problems, so the only time she's been around other digs was in the shelter. I think the technical term for her reaction when confronted with another dog is "total freak-out."
As a result, when we go out of town, we can't just leave her with family, because my parents and Kate's have dogs of their own. And when we put her in a normal kennel, it takes about a week for her to calm down after we get back. Which means that we end up paying a pet-sitter to…