Military K9 Part of Team That Captured Osama bin Laden

According to this New York Times Story, one member of the elite Navy Seals team that captured Osama bin Laden was/is a four-legged canine!

The article also says that there are currently 600 dogs serving in Afghanistan and Iraq.

So, while we thank our men and women of the U.S. military, let's remember (and be thankful for) the unique roles their canine colleagues play in our safety.

About Cesar Millan "The Dog Whisperer"

Do you know Cesar Millan, The Dog Whisperer?

I confess that I do not know his techniques for training dogs or people (!), have never watched him on TV or read any of his books. I do know that he is immensely popular. Today's New York Times has a really interesting business article about Millan -- his background, how he started business, how it grew.

Check it out: Whispering to Rottweilers, and to C.E.O.'s.  It's a good read.

Pets, Autism, and Health Benefits of Pets

Just found this great site: Autism Service Dogs of America. I hadn't known there were service dogs for the autistic. Good to know.

Also, check out this interesting Consults blog in the New York Times: Readers Ask: Pets, People and Autism, and the related article Exploring the Health Benefits of Pets.

It's all good reading.

Finding Peace with Animals

There is a great story on the National Public Radio (NPR) web site, which you can both read and listen to, titled Injured Veteran Reunites With Bomb Dog And Medic. It's about a young woman veteran, severely injured in the Iraq war, who came to adopt her bomb-sniffing dog Rex and marry the medic who saved her life. What a story!

This woman and her husband and dog now live on a farm/ranch in Pennsylvania. The last paragraph of the story is subtitled "Finding Peace with Animals."

It's a good read.

Military Vets & Their Service Dogs

Monday's NY Times ran a great story about US war veterans assisted by service dogs. Read Veterans Helped by Healing Paws, a good read about the physical and emotional service these dogs contribute, and our good soldiers that recognize the strengths of such partnerships.

Want to read more about military and working dogs? Check out this great blog, K9 Pride.

Dog Days, a Video by Jeff Scher

Something very fun in the NY Times today, and a good read...or, good see.

Check out The Animated Life, a quick read by visual artist Jeff Scher, with a short video titled Dog Days. Music by composer Shay Lynch.

Wildlife Art

There is an interesting article in the NY Times about wildlife art, and specifically at the National Museum of Wildlife Art in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Titled The Prowess of the Painter in a Hunter's Paradise, critic Edward Rothstein's story is also a somewhat melancholy look at the vanishing wildlife that inspires wildlife artists. Rothstein also makes mention of the varieties of wildlife art (sport, scientific cataloging, etc.) and the history of wildlife art and the driving forces behind it. It's a good - and educational - read.

One of the best collections in the Midwest of wildlife art can be found here in "our own backyard," at The Ella Sharp Museum in Jackson, Michigan.

Lassie Come Home

Photo of Roddy McDowell with the original Lassie, from 1943 movie Lassie Come Home
(Photo kindly borrowed from the Wikipedia web site)

There's a wonderful story you can listen to on National Public Radio's In Character blog, titled Lassie, the Perfect Dog.

The 7-minute story is about the history of the collie Lassie through book and films, the standards her character set for real dogs and expectations by real people, and associated memorabilia.

Most importantly, we are given a brief glimpse of Lassie's legacy in our everyday lives - the trust and hope in our dogs to both love us and serve us well.

Trivia:

• The 1943 movie Lassie Come Home starred both Elizabeth Taylor and Roddy McDowell (one of detroit dog's favorite old movies)
• Lassie is one of several dogs that has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (others include Rin Tin Tin and first "dog star" Strongheart
• Lassie was originally a boy! (the name Lassie is Scotch/Irish for "young girl")
  

Cats During Wartime: Home Sweet Home

Today's Sunday New York Times has another great story, Nine Lives: What Cats Know About War, written by Times correspondent John F. Burns. The author tells about the lives of the stray sometimes feral Iraqi cats, how they affect the lives of military personnel and others in the compound (including himself), and how the cat population is often a measure of life during wartime (despite the U.S. military ban on caring for stray animals).

The Baghdad compound cats offer some humanity and comfort during the goings on that are anything but humane and comfortable. To read the NY Times story, click on this link.

Also worthwhile is the web site The Cat from Hue, titled from the book by CBS News Vietnam war correspondent (1965-1970) John Laurence. According to a review by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Stanley Karnow, the book title "alludes to the filthy, forlorn kitten he picked up in the rubble during the horrendous struggle for the imperial city of Hue in February 1968. I construe it to be a metaphor for himself--as if he, like the animal, was endowed with nine lives."

Another proof that the way we measure the quality of our lives is with the animals that walk the earth with us. Perhaps this is the only way we can bear to look deep within ourselves.

Gus the Cat, R.I.P.

A tribute to local tabby cat, Gus, was published in today's Washington Post. Gus was a D.C. cat, very well known in the neighborhood, where he often walked people to the metro and basically patrolled his 'hood. Gus died recently of cancer, and the neighborhood responded with a public ofrenda, which included the usual candles and flowers, as well as a can of tuna.

Very touching story. Really about how, in our daily desensitization to the goings on of people (in often futile attempts to deal with the horror we wreak on each other) it's the small, almost minuscule happenings that provoke our senses into spontaneous generosity and showings of affection.

To read the article Tribute to a Tabby: On Irving Street, Paws to Remember, click on this link.

Bad "Dog", New Tricks

Wow. Here's another great dog story. It's a part of the This I Believe series on NPR, and it's titled Teaching A Bad Dog New Tricks. The narrator speaks of himself (the bad dog) and what he has learned from his first ever dog, Duncan the chocolate Lab. It's not the literary piece that is My Dog Days (see sidebar), but it's great story about learning how to live life.

To read the story, click on this link.

Alex the Parrot: Language & Love

Just read a wonderful article in the New York Times' Editorial Notebook, by Verlyn Klinkenboorg, simply titled Alex the Parrot. Ms. Klinkenboorg writes about language, learning and cognition, and most especially about animal - human communications, and concepts therein.

Ms. 'K' is writing in response to the reported last words of Alex: "Be good. See you tomorrow. I love you." She questions whether Alex understood the concept of love, though acknowledges that he obviously understood the "performative" use of the word. We humans understand ourselves within our language. We tend to anthropomorphize our pets. Do we then understand animals within that same language? What do they understand about us within that language?

Of course, I'm not articulating this well enough. You can, and should, read the article by clicking on this link.

Ms. K's final sentence, food for thought: Ethically speaking, the value lies in our surprise, our renewed awareness of how little we allow ourselves to expect from the animals around us.

My Dog Days

The words of a New York Times Op-Ed article has, this afternoon, reduced me to tears. My Dog Days, by Arthur Phillips, is a pensive short about marking both time and life with the inadvertent assistance of a dog.

sigh