"Yeah, that's the spot, right there. SCRATCH AHOY!"
Showing posts with label Cute. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cute. Show all posts
Daily Dose of Cute
Various scenes of cuteness around Shakes Manor (and one clip from the dog park). Starring Sophie, Olivia, Matilda, and Dudley—with special guest star Sam. Set to Dustin O'Halloran's "Opus 36."
Daily Dose of Cute
Video Description: Iain lies on the couch, asleep. Sophie hops up onto his chest and slowly circles around, then curls up into a little ball under his chin. He stirs and mumbles hi to her, then scratches her head. The nap commences.
Daily Dose of Cute
Last Friday, I posted a video compilation of Dudley running to my office with high value treats. Below, Dudley demonstrates the enthusiasm gap between low value treats and high value treats.
Dudley sits in the living room. Liss: "Who's a good boy? You are? You're a good boy?" She holds out a treat. Dudley sniffs at it, then takes it reluctantly. "Mmm, yummy." He drops the treat on the floor. "No? You don't like that one? How about this one?" She hands him another treat, identical to the first. Dudley takes it gingerly, then looks at her disappointedly. "Ehm. Not interested?" He turns and drops the treat on the floor, then eats it with what can only be described as a resigned dog-shrug. He then returns to the first treat, still lying on the floor, and eats it, leaving crumbs on the floor.
He looks at Liss, stretching leisurely. He sniffs at the crumbs, but leaves them; sniffs at his food and water disinterestedly. He comes to the doorway of the kitchen, in which Liss is standing, and nudges her with his nose, then looks in the direction of the treats drawer. "What is it? Do you want a better treat?" He looks at the treat drawer. "Okay." Liss goes to the treat drawer. Dudley stretches and follows her. "Let's see if we can find a better treat." She rummages in the treat drawer; Dudley turns and runs back into the living room.
When she walks back in, he's lying down like a good boy, awaiting her return. Liss laughs. "Oh-h-h! What a good boy!" She hands him the GOOD TREAT. "There we go." Dudley gently takes the treat from her hand then trots down the hall to her office. Sophie jumps around at the end of the hallway, trying to get him to chase her. [edit] Dudley lies on his giant pillow, slowly munching on the treat, which he has broken into pieces, with a look of contentment. He picks up and savors each piece, then carefully and thoroughly licks up all the crumbs. He looks up at Liss and licks his chops.
Daily Dose of Cute
He will lie like this with his tongue hanging out until it looks like a dried-up, shriveled bit of grody beef. And sometimes, if I go over and tickle his tongue with my finger, he'll slide it out even further then quickly bring it back to hanging out just a little, over and over, until I'm weeping with laughter.
I've never managed to get it on film, but this video of another greyhound doing something similar conveys the general idea, lol.
Daily Dose of Cute
Laser Cat will destroy you.
Remember when we first got Sophie, and she was an impossibly tiny kitten with a grown-up face...? Now she's an impossibly tiny cat with permanent kitten-face.
That's some Benjamin Button shit, right there!
Daily Dose of Cute
Although greyhounds are not among the smartest breeds, ahem, bless their hearts, and have a reputation for not being particularly trainable, Dudley has easily learned a variety of commands. It's not that he's exceptionally brilliant, and it's not my mad dog-training skillz; it's just that he'll do anything for food. ANYTHING.
Naturally, I've exploited this discovery for both obedience and cuteness in order to teach him sit, down, up, back, come, wait, leave it, and his latest trick, shake, which he literally learned in about five minutes, because CHEESE!!!eleventy!
He'll do as asked for a regular old crappy treat, no problem. But when there's a HIGH VALUE TREAT on offer, he does everything with a hilarious sense of kinetic urgency, so he can secure the prize NOWNOWNOW and then run off into my office with it, where he luxuriates on his giant pillow, savoring every last morsel.
[Transcript below.]
The funny thing about the "touch" training is that Dudley has started spontaneously using it to communicate with us about what he wants/needs. When he needs to go out, if I'm taking too long getting my coat and boots on, he waits until I'm looking at him then touches the doorknob with his nose. "Here! Turn this thingy! Let's go!" When he wants to get into the car, he touches the door handles with his nose. "Here! Pull this thingy so I can get in!" If I offer him two closed hands, one with cheese inside and one with a cherry tomato (which he hates, like all vegetables, lol), he'll touch the cheese hand. "This one, please!" Too cute.
Dudley lies down on the rug in the living room. Liss: "Oh-h-h! Are you a good boy? You are?" Dudley nods; Liss moves closer and holds out her fist. "Can you touch?" Dudley touches her fist with the end of his nose. "Oh, good boy." Liss hands Dudley a treat and he takes it and trots down the hall into the office. [edit] Dudley sits in the kitchen looking at Liss plaintively. "What do you want? What do you want, Dudz?" He turns and runs into the living room, where he lies down and scratches at the floor excitedly. "What? What is it? What do you want?" Dudley's tail wags wildly. "What do you want? Is this it?" Liss holds out a pig's ear. "Oh-h-h! Good boy." Dudley takes the treat and trots down the hall into the office. [edit] Dudley flips from a sitting position into a lie-down position and snorts. "Oh my goodness!" Dudley play-bows and barks. "What?! What do you want?!" Dudley leaps around and lies at Liss' feet, wagging his tail. "What do you want, little waggy tail?" Dudley looks at her eagerly. "Come here!" Dudley leaps up into a sitting position. Liss holds out her hand. "Can you shake?" Dudley lifts his right front paw to shake. "Oh, what a good boy! Can you touch? Touch!" Liss holds out her fist and Dudley touches it with his nose. "Oh, good boy! Shake." Dudley lifts his left front paw to shake. "Good boy!" Dudley licks his lips. "What do you want? Do you want this?" Liss holds out a pig's ear and accidentally drops it. "Get it!" Dudley grabs the treat and trots down the hall into the office. [edit] "What's this?" Liss holds out a pig's ear for Dudley to inspect. "What do I have for you?" Dudley runs from the kitchen into the living room and starts to sit, then comes back toward Liss. "What's this? What is it? Can you sit?" Dudley half-sits, jumps up, sits again, taps his feet on the floor. "Are you dancing?" Dudley sneezes. Liss holds out the treat. "What's this?" Dudley mouths it; Liss gasps with excitement. "Oh!" Dudley sits. "Down. Lie down!" Dudley looks at Liss from the sit position. "Lie down." Dudley gets up, whines, bows, paws at the floor, then backs up and lies down, scratching at the floor excitedly. "Good boy!" Liss hands him the treat and he trots down the hall into the office.
Daily Dose of Cute
Before & After Edition.
So, the thing about greyhounds is that they sleep like 18 hours a day in some absurd position, and spend most of the other six hours lying around staring at you, trying to Jedi your ass into giving them a treat. And the thing about the specific greyhound that is Dudley Q. McEwan is that he is quiet and calm and chillax, even by greyhound standards.
We had him for months before we ever heard him bark at all, and even now, he almost never barks. He looks out the front window when someone pulls in the driveway, and runs to the door when someone rings the bell, but no barking. He virtually never even barks when he's playing, even outdoors with other dogs.
I'm not complaining. It's just important to convey how much he doesn't bark in order that one might appreciate this video of him BARKING!!!!!eleventy!! while we're getting ready to go to the dog park because we are NOT MOVING FAST ENOUGH!!!1! and he wants to go NOW!!!!!11!!!1!
I don't know how he bloody knows; he never does this if we're getting ready to go to the grocery store. We've tried to figure out what the "tell" is and change up our getting ready ritual. We've tried speaking in code. Nope. He knows. We can't fool him.
And as soon as he gets to the car, he calms right down until we're about 30 seconds from the park, at which point he whines with the urgency of a creature who is convinced that it is exclusively his whining that fuels the vehicle those last 400 yards.
Meanwhile…
After he's had a run about the park, he sleeps like the dead for two solid days. This weekend, we were at the park for about an hour until some other dogs arrived for him to play with. And not that he doesn't have fun running around with us, but it's not the same as socializing with other dogs. So we spent another hour or so while he played with his good pals Uma the German Shepherd and Sophie and Ellie the Newfoundlands, all of whom are really sweet dogs.
And this was the scene across which I stumbled in the living room about a half hour after we got home from the dog park:
[Iain lies on the floor with Dudley, who's all curled up and looking very sleepy.]
[Iain lies on the floor with Dudley, holding his paw in his hand.]
Ridiculous. That's some professional grade cuteness, right there.
No barking. Just snoring.
Daily Dose of Cute
Dougie: "Okay--who's for snuggles?!" Image description: a tri-colored Cavalier King Charles spaniel in a brown leather easy chair, gazing longingly into the distance.
Daily Dose of Cute
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...
Daily Dose of Cute
Video Description: Footage of Dudley playing with his friend Sam at the dog park last weekend. Set to Yann Tierson's "Yellow."
I've written previously about the sweet friendship that has developed between Dudley and a black lab called Sam who we see at the dog park. Sam lost his companion dog last fall, and he's not great with other dogs; it's not that he's aggressive toward them or afraid of them—he just has no interest in them, or, perhaps more accurately, has less interest in them than in chasing a ball. And Dudley has no interest in chasing a ball, or engaging in the tumbling rough-house favored by the other big dogs, but he loves to chase.
The two of them, who couldn't have more different personalities—Sam is utterly disinterested in people and affection; Dudley adores people and seeks out affection from anyone who will give it—have formed this sort of perfect, complementary friendship. Sam's owner throws the ball; Sam chases the ball; Dudley chases Sam.
The casual observer might think they don't interact at all, really, or even that Sam might be annoyed by Dudley, but if Dudz wanders off to get some water, Sam, who just gulps big mouthfuls of snow without slowing down, will run over impatiently, spinning in joyful, frenetic circles to get Dudz back in the game. And occasionally, instead of returning the ball, Sam will leave it in snow and then cheekily take off running while Dudley investigates it, just to get a head start on him.
They are lovely to watch, these two big-hearted creatures who, without a word, have found a way to give each other exactly what they need.
Daily Dose of Cute
Matilda and I have another conversation about her rumor-mongering and conspiracy theories.
[Transcript below.]
Tils: Click!
Liss: What? Are you telling me that story again? Didn't we debunk this last week?
Tils: Myah!
Liss: Well, I know you believe it, but it's not true! Do you remember we watched that Anderson Cooper special about it? And you were like, "Yeah, I guess maybe I shouldn't have been watching Fox News."—remember? [Tils looks sheepish.] I know. It's kind of embarrassing.
Tils: Ah!
Liss: Well…
Tils: Ah!
Liss: Well, that's what you get for watching stupid news sources. I've told you about Fox; I've told you about the Drudge Report.
Tils: Myah!
Liss: Yeah, I have.
Tils: Mrrrrwwwaahhh.
Liss: I mean, when are you gonna learn your lesson?
Tils: Mrow.
Liss: I don't know, either.
Tils: Mrrrrwwwaahhh.
Liss: I mean, you're a smart girl, Matilda! You really need to get it together.
Tils: Ahhww.
Liss: I know.
[edit; Tilsy chews on the camera's wrist-strap and pats at it furiously with her fuzzy paws; edit]
Liss: Matilda, the other day Olivia told me that they found an alien skull on the White House lawn. Do you know anything about that? Where is she getting these ideas?
[Tilsy blinks innocently; edit; she's batting at the wrist strap again]
Liss: I mean, look, I'm trying to have a serious conversation with you, and all you can do is, like, play with a string. Is this maybe part of the problem, d'ya think? Do you think that maybe part of your problem is that you're more interested in string than discussing your bad media habits? Matilda, I think this could be part of the problem.
[Tilsy stares at wrist strap; looks cute.]
Daily Dose of Cute
[Please note that Dudley's incisors are visible while he bites a toy in this video, so if that sort of thing bothers you, skip this video.]
Video Description: Dudley is still learning how to play with toys; here, he's playing with Pinkie, a squeaky toy which his Nana Shakes bought him. There's a high-pitched squeaker in the head he likes, and a lower-pitched squeaker in the body which still kind of freaks him out, lol. When he accidentally steps on the lower one, he runs away, then comes back for more playtime, before he takes Pinkie into his crate and leaves him, for safekeeping.
Just watching him figuring out how to play with this thing has been hilarious. He was totally afraid of it at first, but now he carries it around with him and leaves it in his Special Places—the office, where he must go to eat high-value treats, and the loft, where he hoards my hats and shoes.
He's still not much into balls, and he couldn't care less about frisbees, but he likes playing tug-of-war with the yellow blanket and he's starting to dig Pinkie.
He also regularly play-bows at the cats, trying to get them interested in playing. Matilda just looks at him blankly—"I don't speak that language"—and Olivia either ignores him or bats him on the nose, which evokes the most pitiful look of dejected rebuffment ever from Dudley.
Sophie, meanwhile, totally wants to play, and responds to his play-bows by rolling onto her back with her paws in the air, curling herself into a semi-circle. Neither one of them can figure out what the other one's trying to say, and eventually they give up. It's like watching a cat-dog version of "Who's on first?"
Daily Dose of Cute
Matilda and I have another conversation about her rumor-mongering and conspiracy theories. I've warned her about reading the Drudge Report and listening to Fox News, but does she listen to me? No. Then she goes around talking nonsense all day.
[Transcript below.]
Liss: What is it, Matilda? What is it?
Matilda: Mew.
Liss: Really? Are you sure?
Matilda: Mah!
Liss: Okay. [edit] What, Matilda?
Matilda: Mrraw!
Liss: Seriously?
Matilda: Mrow!
Liss: I'm not sure if that's right. Are you, are you positive? Do you have a, a source for that material?
Matilda: Mrowah. Mah.
Liss: Well, I dunno. I think you're gonna need to back that up. That's a pretty outrageous claim.
Matilda: Mah!
Liss: If you say so.
Matilda: Mrow!
Liss: I dunno.
Matilda: Rrow! Oww!
Liss: I mean, I've heard that before, but I'm not sure that it's accurate. It might just be a rumor, is what I'm saying. You need to Snopes that shit!
Matilda: Mah!
Daily Dose of Cute
Matilda
Olivia
Sophie
Dudley
Four captured moments of classic inimitability: Matilda, curious and cute; Olivia, graceful and distracted; Sophie, in another pose befitting the platonic ideal of catdom, her tail wrapped around the tops of her paws; Dudley, standing in the door of the kitchen, patiently waiting for a treat. Each picture, just so.
Daily Dose of Cute
Video Description: Olivia investigates the snow on the porch first thing this morning and is fairly unthrilled with it. But she did leave ridiculously adorable kitteh prints behind.
Dudley in his boots. Oh the humanity!
