No one throws side-eye like Matilda throws side-eye.
Showing posts with label Cute. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cute. Show all posts
Daily Dose of Cute
Sophie, like many cats, likes to "knead" when she's getting pet, and usually it's just the garden variety kneading, but sometimes she gets super happy and does The Big Knead, in which her kneading is so dramatic it looks like she's riding an invisible bicycle. Here she is kneading my fat belly while I scratch her back (set to Yann Tiersen's beautiful "Yellow"):
Video Description: Sophie the Torbie Cat lies beside me on the couch, kneading my midsection with her paws, while looking completely blissed out. She pauses to lick her paw, then her armpit, before she starts kneading again. She looks into the camera and winks.
She's such a sweet, happy wee cat. I love her to pieces.
Sophs
Daily Dose of Cute
Look at that face! How am I supposed to get anything done with that adorable face plaintively staring at me? I cannot even deal with how cute she is. You should see her in person, waggling her little roundy butt with a big grin on her face, twitching her Dorito ears. She is irresistibly adorable.
(True Fact: I think every dog on the planet is the cutest dog on the planet.)
Daily Dose of Cute
"Could you pay attention, please? I might need you to translate some of the more
convoluted plot-points into Cat for me later. Kthx. Also, what's 'bazinga' mean?"
Photo of the Day
[Click to embiggen.]
Monday, April 16 marked the one-year anniversary of the first time park guests got to see [male cheetah Kasi] and [female yellow Labrador Mtani] start to strike up a friendship that the park's animal experts expect to last a lifetime. Now, a year later, they live together full time at the park's Cheetah Run habitat and even travel together to schools, events and television studios, helping the park's education team teach the public about the plight of cheetahs in the wild and the importance of Busch Gardens’ conservation efforts. (Link)The friendship was developed slowly and safely under the supervision of park staff. Pairing dogs with cheetahs (and finding other domestic animal pairings that work, e.g. a gorilla and a rabbit) is an approach that provides captive animals companionship without removing companion animals from natural habitats and without offering breeding opportunities (thus creating more captive animals).
[H/T to @bekitty.]
Daily Dose of Cute
As longtime followers of the Daily Dose of Cute will recall, Dudley is highly food motivated and considers pigs' ears a high value treat. And, when he isn't busy losing his high value treats under bookcases, he's busy gobbling them up instantly. A pig's ear lasts him about three minutes.
Zelly, on the other hand, will chew on a pig's ear or green stick slowly, often doing little damage to it before she walks away. For her, the biggest excitement seems to be getting the treat, rather than eating it. I have to be quick to grab whatever she abandons before Dudley swoops in, because he's suddenly a Watch Dog when there's a treat to be had.
Video Description: Zelly lies on the living room rug chewing on a pig's ear. She loses interest, gets up, stretches, and hops up onto the couch beside me. In the background, Dudley lies in his dog bed, his eyes fixed on the unguarded treat.
Bonus Cuteness: I received the following email from Shaker cellocat, which I am sharing with her permission:
I showed my daughter (3 years old) [April 10th's] video of Zelda, and then we went to your Youtube channel and watched a bunch more. We don't let her watch TV, and the videos she sees are limited to zoo videos and short takes we do ourselves of us and our daily life. But I feel totally safe having her watch clips of your wonderful menagerie. Anyway, in one of the videos we saw, one or both of the dogs were jumping. I said, "Look at the dogs jumping." [My daughter] said, "They're jumping for joy! They're jumping for life!" It was a sweet moment, and I just wanted to share it with you.They're jumping for life! I love that so much!
Daily Dose of Cute
Olivia loves the tethered mouse with a feather tail on her new cat condo sooooo much! She can amuse herself for hours with it. This is what it's like being in my office while I work. Just add the sound of typing, lol.
Video Description: Olivia the Big White and Tabby Farm Cat plays enthusiastically with a little white mouse toy that has a white feathered tail, attached to her cat condo with an elastic string.
And after playtime, it's naptime. Naturally.
Daily Dose of Cute
Zelly chases a squirrel who lives in the garden and loves to tease her. The squirrel jumps from tree branch to tree branch, with Zelly running around below. If she loses interest, the squirrel will creep down the trunk just far enough to capture her attention again, then scurry back up into the treetop when Zelly comes racing back.
"Confound it!"
"Where'd you go, Squirrel?"
There is a bluejay who loves to get in on this game, and will occasionally swoop down around Zelly while she's racing about, as if he's Maverick buzzing the tower.
Daily Dose of Cute
Dudley, foot-mangler extraordinaire, lies on the sofa showing off the fine work of Melissa's At-Home Animal Clinic: Antibiotic cream, a sterile pad, and a taped-on sandwich baggie to keep it all clean and dry. True Fact: I am the MacGyver of canine podiatry.
Dudley is such a superklutz, but he is also such a good boy: He knows I'm trying to make him feel better, and just lets me clean and dress his hurty feets without a complaint, twice every day. And, once I'm finished makeshifting together some bandage-like contraption to protect the latest in his never-ending string of foot wounds, he never messes with the bandaging. He just limps about goofily, with a big lolly-tongued grin: "Thanks for fixing my foot, Two-Legs!"
And then he tears out into the backyard after Zelly like his foot wasn't bleeding like a mofo two seconds earlier.
"I try to take it easy, but it's so fun to RUN!!!"
Daily Dose of Cute
So, one of the things that I've tried to record a couple of times, with no luck, is the dogs BURSTING out the back door into the garden like they were in a race. They do it every time I let them out, even though 99% of the time, they're whining to come back inside in three minutes or less.
Now, the thing about our house is that we walk through the garage to go out the back door into the garden. We have another back door off the kitchen, but it leads out to a covered deck with another latched door, so going through the garage is easier.
Anyway! One day I was trying to record the DOGGEH YARD SPRINT!!1!eleventy! but instead managed to capture a moment of abject panic when it turned out Iain had accidentally left the garage door open when he left for work and the dogs were heading for the open driveway. Scary business when you've got a sighthound who can be gone instantly if a critter catches his eye. And when you're a clumsy dishit who fell and dropped the leash and had your greyhound rescued by a kind stranger from the middle of the road half a mile away the second day you had him. Ahem.
Everyone was fine, as the dogs immediately turned around when I called them. And because everyone was fine, the recording, which of course I immediately forgot I was making in my instantaneous terror, is fucking hilarious. "Nonononononono!" LOL!
Video Description: Zelda and Dudley wait inside the kitchen door to go out. "Do you need to go out, puppies?" I ask. I open the door to the garage and, as they run out, I realize the garage door is up. I gasp. "No! Nonononononono! Nonononononono! Here! This way, this way! Puppies, this way! Come on!" I open the door to the backyard and make kissy noises. "Come on." They go running past me out into the backyard. "Oh my god," I whisper.
#worstrealityshowever
* * *
Below, all five furry residents of Shakes Manor, in descending age order...
Daily Dose of Cute
This is what I see every time I eat something: Two adorable dogs, sitting politely like Russian nesting dolls and staring at me intently, willing me to gift them bites, or, failing that, spill something.
Occasionally, they will stand like that, with Zelly beneath Dudz, her head poking out just under his. Hence their collective nickname—Master Blaster.
Here's some bonus cute of the puppehs enjoying the nice weather this morning:
Besties.
Zelly Belly grinning, probably because she's got such silly Dorito ears.
Dudley, being Dudley. Who knows.
Daily Dose of Cute
Matilda, thinking about Tony. (Cameo by Dudley's paw.)
Olivia, thinking about Tony.
Sophie, thinking about Tony.
Anderson Cooper Has a Gigglefit (Again)
Remember when Anderson Cooper had the most hilarious gigglefit ever while trying to report a story about Gerard Depardieu peeing on a plane...? That was so great, right? Well, it happened again, this time while he was trying to report a story about Dyngus Day. (That's what zie said.) I love how naughty puns turn him to a pile of helplessly giggling mush!
The best part about this one is how he is fighting it EXTRA HARD, because he knows what happened after the last one, lol.
[Transcript available here.]
Daily Dose of Cute
Video Description: Zelly sits in the backyard, keeping an eye on things. Her nose twitches; her eyes dart; her wee Dorito ears stand at alert. She watches. Once convinced everything's cool for now, she turns to go lie at my side. I scan past her to find Dudley lying in the grass, moving his head around trying to find the most comfortable position for his lounging.
In fairness to Lord Dudlington, he can give good alert when he really wants to. It's the "really wants to" that's the scarcer resource.
[Parts One, Two, Three.]
Daily Dose of Cute
Video Description: Olivia and Sophie play with a toy mouse on a string, attached to their new cat tower, purchased for my office in the futile hope of keeping them off my desk for two seconds a day. Set to Paul Reeves' "Charleston."
So far, Matilda is having none of it. Obviously.
Olivia
Sophie
Daily Dose of Cute
April is National Greyhound Adoption Month!
On April 28, 2010, Dudley came to stay at Shakes Manor. On the one hand, I can't believe it's already been almost two years since he arrived. On the other, I almost can't remember life without him, because he is so tightly woven into the fabric of our lives that it feels like he's been here forever, that we've always had a giant, two-dimensional dog strutting about the place and taking up egregious amounts of space on the furniture.
Dogs aren't for everyone, and Greyhounds aren't for every dog-lover. If you want a high-energy dog who can be your companion in cold-weather sporting and run around off-leash, the Greyhound probably isn't your dog. But if you want a low-key dog who can be your companion on the couch and is happy with a walk and the occasional breathtaking burst of speed at the dog park, the Greyhound may be just the dog for you.
In the two years we've had Dudley, I've had people occasionally express surprise that he is so sweet-natured, so friendly, so ebulliently full of life. There is some prejudice about Greyhounds that they are broken, that they are pitiable creatures who need a special kind of owner to love them despite their brokenness.
This is simply not true. Greyhounds are goofy, gangly packages of indomitable effervescence, whose capacity to give love and willingness to receive it, in spite of their beginnings, is extraordinary. They are survivors. And given the chance, they'll rescue you right back.
If you're thinking about adoption, please consider a retired racer. And if you are contemplating adopting a greyhound, and have questions, please feel welcome and invited to email me.
Video Description: A video I made December 2010 in association with a pro bono project on which I was working for local greyhound rescue, which documents the change adoption makes in dogs' lives. Footage and a still image of Dudley when he first came to us, followed by footage and still images of Dudley over the time he's been part of our family. Set to Angelo Badalamenti's "Love Theme" from the score for Cousins.
Dudley: This is the difference that rescue makes.
Daily Dose of Cute
Cutest whoops ever? Maybe.
The thing I love most about this picture, besides everything, is how the little edges of her grin are just barely visible. She is too cute.
Daily Dose of Cute
Zelly Belly
Dudz
Sophs, aka Monitor Cat
Livsy
Tils: "I ain't looking out no window. Fuck all y'all."
(She really rarely looks out any window. She will very occasionally look out the front screen door, and once in a blue moon will look out the window on my desk, but mostly she is utterly uninterested in the outside world. Given the opportunity to venture out onto the screened-in deck, she might. Or she might not. Haughty sniff.)
Daily Dose of Cute
When I don't go out in the yard with them, the dogs don't generally like being out there more than a few minutes. They do their business, run around a bit, but then they want to come back in the house. They are both dogs who want to be with their people.
Occasionally, though, Dudley wants a lie in the sun, and, since he's usually the one yipping pitiably to be let back inside after three seconds, if he decides to stay out, Zelly is content to stay out with him. I keep an eye on them through the kitchen window, and I noticed recently that, when I'm not out there, Zelda assumes a protective position and keeps a vigilant watch over Dudley.
Video Description: Zelda, vigilant as always, sits in front of Dudley in a protective way, while he lies splayed out in the grass, oblivious to the world.
She is just such a sweet dog. I know that dogs aren't supposed to have the capacity for love, as we understand it, but whatever. Zelda is a dog absolutely filled with love for her family.
I got this.
There are lots of dogs in the world who love their families, so many, in fact, that it would hardly be worth comment, except for the fact that, once upon a time, Zelda was a stray mutt with numbered days and funny ears at an overpopulated city shelter, a dog who didn't even have a name. She was, when we met, the kind of dog that gets overlooked, and gets destroyed.
She was not the most playful dog at the shelter that day, nor the youngest, nor the cutest. She was barely even noticeable, sitting politely in her too-small cage in the corner furthest from the door. When I knelt down to look at her, she didn't bark or paw at the bars of her cage or lick my hand: She simply sat and looked back with her intelligent brown eyes, waiting for me to communicate to her what she needed to do to get out of that horrible place. While I gazed back at her, already knowing with an unaccountable certainty that she was my dog, I saw the tip of her bottle-brush tail wagging behind her.
There were other dogs there who would have made excellent pets, totally lovely companions for us, for Dudley, for the cats. But Zelda was the perfect dog for us, found, after months of speaking to rescues and meeting potential adoptees, in an unexpected place.
Since we've had her, I'm not sure if I'd heard more that people are dubious about mutts or dubious about dogs from the pound. You don't know what you're going to get. Well, that's true, insomuch as dogs' personalities emerge more fully once they feel safe. But if you buy a puppy from a breeder or a pet store certain of what your dog will be like based on breed standards, you might get a surprise.
Dudley and his cousin Alfie could not be more different in personality, despite both being greyhounds and literal genetic cousins.
So no one ever knows exactly what they're going to get.
It's not a good reason to dismiss out of hand the possibility of adopting a mutt, even adopting one from the pound with an unknown background. It just means a little more time, meeting more dogs, investing an afternoon or two to get to know a dog that the shelter workers may not know well themselves. Some pounds will even let potential adopters foster a dog now, a trial run of sorts.
Zelda was a dog who needed rescue in the truest sense of the word.
We didn't know exactly what we were going to get, but we got a dog who is filled with love for her family. The feeling is mutual.
[Part One; Part Two]
