Amazing Dog Rescue-- Dogs in Space

4/1/2010

Courtesy of the South Texas Call.

March 15, 2010

Dog Rescued From Pot of Frozen Chili

Harvey, Texas

A small dog, frozen six days in a pot of chili was revived yesterday in this Houston suburb. The dog apparently crawled into the chili pot six days earlier when Germaine Shepard left the pot for a few minutes in the garage while she answered the phone. The garage door was open, and Mrs. Shepard noticed nothing odd when she returned to the garage, covered the chili pot then set it in the freezer.

"I was making a huge pot of chili for my sister's baby shower," said Mrs. Shepard, "but I got a call that my sister's husband fell off a ladder and broke his leg. The baby shower was going to be postponed, so I decided to freeze the chili."

Six days later, the baby shower was back on and Mrs. Shepard put the pot back on the stove to thaw the chili out.

Doug Pound, her 13-year-old nephew was helping wrap presents for the shower when he and Mrs. Shepard heard whimpering coming from the kitchen. When the pair went into the kitchen they realized the sounds were coming from the pot. When they looked inside, they found the chihuahua-mix covered with chili and trying to crawl out of the pot.

"Good thing I had the stove on very low," Mrs. Shepard said.

No one can explain why the dog survived the ordeal. Immediately Mrs. Shepard and her nephew rushed the dog to a vet.



"Other than calling it a miracle, I can't explain how this happened," said the vet, Dr. Jim Ross. "He has some minor frostbite on his tail," Dr. Ross said, "but other than that I don't see any other injuries. That's one lucky, miracle dog."



No one has claimed ownership of the animal. "If no one comes for him I'll keep him myself," said Mrs. Shepard. "We already named him Lucky."

Story by Kerry Blue.

Fritz Memorial Page-- Dogs in Space

3/31/2010

Thanks to Ada Hoffmeyer for this. There will be more Fritz pictures in the future. Ada and Stefan Hoffmeyer rescued Fritz the greyhound. Fritz had been cage-bound his whole life except when he was losing races. When Ada and Stefan brought him home he would bump into the windows in the house because he had no conception of glass and windows.

Dog rescue services and the pound have lots of great animals who need homes. Some are very talented as you can see.

doggod/goddog Anubis-- Dogs in Space

3/30/2010
Anubis was the Greek name for the Egyptian god of the dead. Anubis could take different forms, part human, part man-- or he might be portrayed as a jackal. This dog god weighed the heart of the dead and led the departed into the afterlife.
Good dog. Sit. Lead me to the afterlife. Fetch.

Yukon King-- A Dog Who Speaks Cat and Other Animal Languages-- Dogs in Space

3/29/2010

On King. On you huskies. So opened The Challenge of the Yukon radio show-- better known as Sgt. Preston of the Yukon. The show ran on radio from 1938-1955 and on television from 1955-1958. It began on Chicago's WXYZ. That station also produced the Lone Ranger and the Green Hornet. (The Green Hornet was actually the Lone Ranger's grand-nephew.)

Since this is a dog blog, we are interested in Yukon King, Preston's lead dog. Sometimes this dog was called a malamute, sometimes a huskie. The Lone Ranger may have had Tonto, but Sgt. Preston had King as his sidekick.

King usually played a pretty substantial role in the radio dramas. Often he was integral to the plot. Some of the radio shows revolved more around King than Preston. Not only did he tangle with outlaws but other dogs, wolves, and bears oh my!

Perhaps King's main contribution to Preston's and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police's crime-fighting lay in the dog's ability to understand completely not only the commands of Sgt. Preston but many other languages. In this show Preston often called on King to cipher the howls of wolves, cats' meows, and horsetalk.

A typical line in one of the radio programs might go like this:

King whimpers.

"What's going on boy? What's that moose trying to say?"

King whimpers some more.

What a kick. Really corny, but still... these were simpler times, and as a kid we suspended belief. How come our dogs couldn't face down a grizzly?

Here's to Yukon King. Fearless and smart. Brave and multi-lingual.

For more King and Sgt. Preston check out Internet Archive under Old Time Radio then Challenge of the Yukon. There's a bunch of these shows to download for free. Also Internet Archive has one of the television shows under Moving Images-- Movies-- Classic TV-- Sgt. Preston. Check it out.

Pretty soon we are going to a real web page. If you are reading this now, and are not a follower of this blog, please sign up. It's easy. Hopefully the website will draw more readers. Right now you couldn't fill a phone booth with our readers, though you can no longer swing a cat in said phone booth. We have progressed some. Sign up, tell your friends.

You Ain't Nothing But a Hound Dog-- Dogs in Space

Hound Dog!

more about " Big Mama Thornton - Hound Dog - Live...", posted with vodpod

You Ain't Nothing But a Hound Dog-- Dogs in Space

3/27/2010

Check it out Hound Dog! Dogs in Space Music.

This is the original. Big Mama Thornton singing You Ain't Nothing But a Hound Dog.

271542-big-mama-thornton-ft-buddy-guy-hound-dog

Hot dogs in space.

3/26/2010

Not to be outdone, the tiny country of Freedonia sent a hot dog into space on September 31, 1958. Unfortunately, the hot dog never returned.

Laika-- First Living Being in Space. Dogs in Space

3/26/2010

Laika, a Russian dog (the name means Barker in Russian) was the first living being in space. Laika soared off on Sputnik 2 on November 3, 1957. Unfortunately, the Russians made no effort to return Laika to Earth. The dog has been honored with postage stamps in honor of the achievement. I expect a dog cookie or two might have served poor Laika better. Truly this was a mutt on a mission who suffered a cruel fate just so I could have a blog name.

Dog Movies-- Dogs in Space

3/25/2010

Today it's dog movies-- that is movies with "Dog" in the title. Since I am becoming such an old dog myself, and many of you are younger than I am, I'd like to suggest to you some movies you might like to rent from Netflix that are older and out of the ordinary. The "Dog" figures in a lot of movies titles. There's Nikki, Wild Dog of the North-- 3 stars; The Dogs of War-- 2 stars; and believe it or not Dogs in Space, a musical that gets 2 stars. Some of the "Dog" films are just that-- dogs (or turkeys as they are rated in my rating book.) Among them is a horror film, Dogs of Hell; Dog Pound Shuffle; and Dog Day which is apparently socially redeeming only because Tina Louise of Gilligan's Island appears in the movie.

Not all dog films are dogs though. Dog Day Afternoon stars Al Pacino chewing the scenery as a gay man who robs a bank-- 4 1/2 stars for that. Boy and His Dog is a really offbeat sci-fi film starring Don Johnson (Miami Vice)-- this film is really different from the recent Alien genre of sci-fi flicks. Dog of Flanders grabs 4 stars-- I haven't seen this one.

Perhaps the best film with "Dog" in the title is My Life as a Dog, a Swedish film from 1985 that is as charming as it is perceptive. If you haven't seen this one, check it out. It will surprise and touch you.

If you are looking for a movie for the kiddies (not the really tiny kiddies though), try Old Yeller. I think Disney made this one and it's a classic. Well, that's all for today.

Don't be mean-- Feed Table Scraps-- Dogs in Space

3/23/2010

Can you guess which of the two dogs below gets to eat table scraps? Easy huh. Don't be mean, feed your dogs table scraps and keep them happy.

Today is grandparents day at Anika's school. More tomorrow, and in the meantime, don't forget to share.

True Story? Vampire Dog! Dogs in Space

3/22/2010 This is supposed to be a true story from 2008.

This name for this "animal" sounds more like some new special at Taco Bell.

Vampire dog spotted in Texas
A mysterious "vampire dog" blamed for a series of attacks on farm animals has been spotted by a police sheriff in Texas.
The corpse of a Chupacabra or vampire dog discovered in Texas
The Chupacabra, which literally translates as Goat Sucker, has taken on legendary status akin to Bigfoot in Latino circles which has seen it appear in books and films including Scooby-Doo and the Monster of Mexico.
It has previously been sighted as far south as Chile and Argentina and as far north as the US state of Maine, and similar animals have been described in Russia and the Philippines.
Its latest appearance was caught on a dashboard-mounted camera by deputy sheriff Brandon Riedel and his officer Ellie Carter in the town of Cuero, Texas.
"We were checking fences when this thing jumped out at us," Mr Carter said.
"I shouted: 'It's a chupacabra!' I recognised it instantly from TV. It had big teeth, a big head, short legs in the front and long legs in back."
In August last year, a chupacabra was blamed for the deaths of around 30 chickens on a nearby farm.
The animals were found drained of blood with two puncture marks in their otherwise uninjured bodies.
The farm's owner, Phylis Canion, claimed to have discovered the carcasses of three strange animals, one of which she preserved in her freezer before handing it over for DNA analysis.
The publicity from that attack saw T-shirts featuring the chupacabra shipped around the world, and there was talk of changing Cuero's mascot.
However, Texan scientists who investigated the case said the animal was likely to be a coyote, potentially crossed with a grey fox.

Vampire Dog Dumps Jen for Angelina-- Dogs in Space

3/20/2010

History repeats itself as Vampire Dog (hypnotic eyes above) has dumped Jennifer Aniston for Angelina Jolie. Jolie's crumbling marriage to Brad Pitt has been the subject of speculation and rumors for months. There is no revenge for Jen though, since Vampire Dog has followed in Pitt's footsteps and run to Jolie. A reliable source says Jen is devastated that Vampire Dog has sped from her lap to Angelina's.

Dog who wouldn't eat waffles-- and vampires Dogs in Space

3/19/2010

Tell me what your dogs will not eat.

This bit of fuzz on the right wouldn't eat rice. Wish I had a better picture of Geoffry. He wouldn't eat rice or waffles. Lynn would give him a waffle and he would bury it in the yard. He would pick out individual kernels of rice from his bowl and leave them on the floor. What a pain. I had a dog that would eat pickles. This dog was picky.

I need readers! Help! Please tell your friends. Have them vote in the cartoon dog poll. If I have to resort to vampire dogs to get readers, I will. Here is but a taste of what I will do to get readership. Be afraid, be very afraid.

The Dog Who Wouldn't Eat Spaghetti-- Dogs in Space

3/18/2010

I love Italian dogs. Gemma hung out with us at the villa in Sicily. We stayed there when my daughter Kirsten got married. Gemma tended to be absent during the day, but come dinner time, Gemma showed up for a handout. She seemed to have no real human attachment, though someone owned her. Of course, we all tried to feed her. But Gemma was picky. She loved the bits of cheese and meat we gave her, but plain spaghetti wouldn't do. Yes, Gemma looked skinny. She'd recently given birth we figured, but she had standards. I can't blame her, plain spaghetti isn't much good. I'm going to continue tomorrow with more picky dog stories. If you have any for me, please send them on in the comment section or via email.

On Tues., March 16th I was in San Francisco. We got coffee at Graffeo in North Beach, then lunch at one of the Italian cafes on Columbus. It's pretty cool. There appears to be a resurgence in Italian ownership (Italians from Italy that is) of the North Beach cafes. It was a bright sunny day in San Francisco on Tuesday, and we saw a lot of people walking their dogs in North Beach. All the dogs were leashed. No one seemed to be brandishing their pit bulls. On the sidewalks were no landmines of dog poop. Maybe folks are becoming more responsible with their animals.

San Francisco tends to be one of those cities where the population feels entitled to run free. Luckily, that attitude does not seem to apply to dog ownership. Perhaps a recent spate of Bay Area dognapping incidents is the reason. (Who would want to steal another person's dog?) Anyway, that's it for today. Comment if you will. Send those pictures and stories. Vote in the cartoon dog poll.

Happy St. Patrick's Dogs in Space

Happy St. Patrick's Day 3/17/2010.

Irish wolfhounds are the tallest breed of dog. These behemoths can be traced back to 273 B.C. They were highly prized by royalty, and disputes about these animals led not only to individual combat but all-out war.

The Irish, still a superstitious race, have a number of legends regarding dogs. One such legend claims that a man came home to find his hound covered with blood. Not finding his infant son, the man suspected the dog had killed the boy. He stabbed the dog with his sword, only to find his son hidden in another room and several wolves lying dead around the boy.

Dogs in Space!

3/15/2010

Today we'll look at Skippy, better known as Asta of the Thin Man films with Myrna Loy and William Powell. Skippy not only played in the Thin Man movies as Asta, but also starred in the Awful Truth with Cary Grant and Irene Dunne, and Bringing Up Baby. He had other films to his credit, and during the depression, Skippy pulled down a salary of $250 per week.

For you crossword puzzle fans, you know that Asta is often the answer to a "dog star" clue. In the book, The Thin Man, Asta was a Schnauzer as Dashiell Hammet wrote him.

In the movies, Asta was no hero. He usually stayed clear when the shooting started, and was scared of cats and the dark. But heroic or not, Asta clearly added to the already immense appeal of the Thin Man movies. And in The Awful Truth, Skippy played an integral role in the plot. He sang with Cary Grant, broke up Irene Dunne's engagement to Oklahoma rube and oilman Ralph Bellamy, and even acted as a witness in court in Grant and Dunne's divorce proceedings.

Old news first-- more dog words and phrases include dog gone it and puppy love. I lost my list of more but will occasionally update.

For favorite cartoon dog I have two more votes. Santa's Little Helper, a rescued Greyhound from the Simpsons, and Doggie Daddy who had a voice like Jimmy Durante.

Check out another dog in space above. This one is Moo.

Finally, congrats to Moo's owners, Brad and Lauren Fowler (my daughter and son-in-law), they're going to have a baby! Yea!

Tomorrow there will probably not be a new post.

Dogs in Space! Dogs playing poker.

3/12/2010


Little bits of dog news today. Ever wonder about these pictures? Cassius Marcellus Coolidge painted these in 1903 as part of an advertising campaign. In 2005, a pair of the series sold for a whooping $590,400!


In the days to come this blog will discuss more dog art. Just as an example, when my wife, granddaughter Anika, and I visited the Louvre in Sept. 2009, we started to count the dogs in the paintings in the Rueben's gallery. I know the number was well over a dozen. Didn't we have anything better to do in Paris than count dogs in the Ruebens? Sure, we counted the dogs in the Manet paintings at the D'Orsay.

Today Buddy also gets attention. Like our Funicula-riding dog of the Isle of Capri, Buddy got it into his head that he must follow Christian and Kirsten DeLaMadrid about the Italian town of Positano on the Amalfi Coast. Buddy knew better than to enter the churches though. I can imagine Buddy learned quickly that dogs aren't welcome to worship with humans. Guess god is not dog spelled backward in Italy.



Voting in the favorite cartoon dog poll continues. Count is Huckleberry Hound 1 vote, 2 Goofy votes indeed, 1 Ren, 1 Family Guy dog Brian write in.

Friend Ada, the (and I do mean "the") physical therapist sends on some photos of dog adventurer and bon vivant Fritz. Fritz passed on in 2008 and was a rescued greyhound. Thanks to Ada and Stefan for making his short life happy. Certainly Fritz led an active life as one can see by these photos. If I can figure out how to post them here I will, in the meantime check out Fritz at http://hofmeyer.org/fritz/activities.htm.

Have a nice weekend.

Dogs in Space.

3/11/2010

Today's bit of doggerel concerns dog talk (and read on because we, and I use the term advisedly because as of now the we consists only of my daughter and me) are taking a poll! I know, hot dog! A poll!
Anyway, what other creatures' habits but dogs are so familiar to the majority of humankind that elicits so many words and phrases in common use?

Two plants are named for dogs that I find-- the dogwood tree and dogtooth violet; also there is a dog-fish, a small shark, hopefully it dog paddles. Of course one has dogs for feet. It's a dog-eat-dog world, this book is dog-eared, and I feel dog tired. At this time of year we might wish for the dog days. Doggy bags from restaurants are not often for dogs-- it makes a good excuse though. Real dog fights are much in the news recently, during WWII the dog fights over England may have saved the world. Golf holes have dog legs. Dog trot, a phrase not often heard these days, indicates pace but, in some locales, a roofed passage between buildings. Finding yourself in the doghouse is a bad thing, but it also might it also finds use as a word for a caboose, a shack or a place on a rocket that contains scientific instruments. You might be dogged in pursuit. Dog tired. Lazy as a dog, or dogging it at your job. Umpires were sometimes known as dog robbers. I wish I had a hush puppy. You might put on the dog before you go out.

WWII came up with some interesting dog terms. There's dog tags of course. Dog or pup tents and soldiers were called dogfaces. A dog show-- a foot inspection (trench foot and foot diseases "dogged" the infantry.) Dog food described the hash served to soldiers and sailors.
Lunch wagons have been called dog wagons. Drinking too has hair of the dog, and a concoction of beer and gin was called a dog's nose.

Men are wolves, while women are dogs. This and the term bitch puzzle me. Female dogs are sweet-- so how did the word bitch come to have such a connotation? Apparently wordsmiths are stumped as well.

So that's it for today except for the poll.

Who is your favorite dog cartoon character?

1. Goofy

2. Huckleberry Hound

3. Ren (from Ren and Stimpy)

4. Scoobie Do

5. Write in candidates (suggestions are Astro from the Jetsons; Augie Doggy and Doggy Daddy; Mr. Peabody? from the Rocky and Bullwinkle show; Pluto, et al.)

Put in one vote for Huckleberry Hound.

Dogs in Space!

In the interest of brevity I left out the most interesting part of my dog on the Funicula story. This dog was unaccompanied by any human. Apparently it used the Funicula (a sort of tram) to travel between the upper and lower reaches of the island.

Dogs in Space.

This blog is not meant to be just more "cute" dog pictures. I want to celebrate dogs-- make fun of them-- make them art-- tell stories about them. There are plenty of pictures of puppies looking cute. But dogs are more than cute. They are noble, funny, and each has a different personality. This dog rode the Funicula from the bottom of the Isle of Capri to the top. I'm looking for pictures and stories like this. I want to show dogs expressing their wills. Doing their business (no, not in that way.) Please send me dog stories, fiction or non-fiction. Send me dog photos, especially travel photos or photo-shopped photos. I can imagine a dog at political convention, at a great moment in history, etc. I'll print worthy dog stories here, either in full or in serial form. As this forum progresses, surely more ideas will come forward. Suggestions are welcome. Thanks for taking a minute to view this. Frank Criscenti