Wot did you doo for summer vacay?

by @winecountrydog Tilin Corgi

Wot did you doo durin' summer 2014 vacay? Hopin' you had bestest fresh og noms and good walkies!

When ourselves doo travel any pawlaces, Mumsy does pack emergency Go-Bags for all of us. . . . Ani Meezer maows: "Would you like to see my Hissaster Purrep Kitty Pack? MOL." . . . Mum sez: "Yes, Meezer, everybuddy should see your Purrep Pack. Please post pics someday soon."

Ourselves not travel often or furry far this summer. In summer 2013 da wildfire smokes got us many times. Nobuddy wanting to run into wildfires and smokes again.

In summer 2014, da wildland fires in Nor Cal forests and wilderness areas have been widespread and intense. Mum keepin' watchful and sometimes teary eyes on da fires. . . .Mum sez: "I try not to dwell on the suffering of animals and people caught up in this intense period of Western wildfires. But it's not easy to ignore the suffering, especially that of wildlife in the Siskiyous and Cascades."

You doo know summer 2014 is my ancient woofself's 17th summer? Mum did think mywoofself might not be up for big travels. Mum has da concerns bout my stamina effurr since myself's peeky OTRB in Feb 2014. But myself dooin' fine. Fooled you! BOL!!

Ani Meezer did make wee vacay at Jonny Cat clay quarry. Meezer maows: "Liked tour of giant litter boxes. MOL."

Mywoofself watched local campers tryin' to pitch tent. . . . Howl. Tis not MY craft beer. Methinks Mumsy set myself up to look like a doggeh lush. BOL

Furbro Jackie Nippers also watched campers strugglin' to pitch tent. Hiswoofself asked "Is that a pup tent?" . . . OMD BOL! Myself did snort.

Ourselves did roll on grass wit big BOLs. Da campers looked o'er at ourselves as if we be mad dogs. BOL!

Barkin' at Mum for more vacay! . . . But nobuddy need 'nother "vacay day" like earthquake day on 24 August 2014. *Paw prayers* for all folks and furriends in Napa area. . . . Pawleeze make da emergency Go-Bags for pets + everybuddy, as you doo neffurr know when next disaster comin' eh.

Élégie pour le chat moderne

by Ani Meezer, un grand fromage du WCD house

Très triste, la vie du chat moderne.
Apparaissant comme une forme flat, seulement un équivalent.
La vie dans une photo de Minor White.
Comme un tableu abstraite du Motherwell, sans color field.

Très triste, la vie du chat moderne.
Abandonnée au cours de la season de kitten.
La vie sans famille, sans pride, sans le kitteh clique.
Comme un eunuque dans un pays très cruel.

Très triste, la vie du chat moderne.
Enfermé dans la maison. Trapped.
La vie sans le cuisine français, sans les fresh noms.
Comme un worker de burger king sans pommes frites.

Pawscript: Vraiment que Henri, Le Chat Noir, did sell hismewself to multinational industrial ag food spawnsor? O très triste que Henri est compromisis seulement pour l'argent.

"Onaka ga sukimashita!"

by winecountrydog

We dogs never thought it would catch on.

In 2002, Japanese toy company Takara sold their first Bowlingual Voice™ device fur computer-based dog-to-human language translation.


We doggiggled. Cute idea, but what human would buy it?

Fast forward to last week, when twitter pal @hollygomadly sent us the link to the Youtube below, which shows Japanese dogs sendin' Bowlingual messages to their humans.



"Onaka ga sukimashita!"

Nothin' new 'bout that. Ha howl!

That demo of Bowlingual Voice is one of the funniest things we dogs have ever seen. I'm sure that Meowlingual is just as funny.

The Bowlingual device is called a "translator," but it's really an emotion analyzer. It categorizes dog barks into one of six standardized emotional categories and then provides a phrase to represent that emotion.

Bowlingual and Meowlingual are "for entertainment purposes only." Of course our dog and cat communications cannot be translated easily into words, if at all. Howlever, barks and meows can be intuitively translated by discerning humans.

Now, what's needed in the dog world is a device fur humans to wear that analyzes their thoughts and emotions, and then translates them into something that makes some doggone sense consistently.

Suki desu ka?

Paw-note to dog-ma: Jack, Meezer, and I wish you a happy B.D.

Whine Country Dog Aerobics... sit up fur this!

by winecountrydog & pawlitico

After a hard day on twitter, what better prawgram of exercise than this? C'mon, canine furriends, you can doo it!



It's not that either of us need to lose weight. Rather that we never get enuff exercise fur our herdin' nature.

Our thanks to the beautiful Border Collie, who shows us some great moves in the viddy.

Spotty Dotty dog rides a bike

by winecountrydog

Have you ever seen Dotty Dalmation riding a bicycle? His viddy is a huge hit!

I admire how easily Dotty mounts his cool yellow and green bike, places his paws correctly on the pedals, and sit-stays comfurtably on the saddle. He then deftly pawsitions his front paws on the handlebars and pedals off nonchalantly.

Here is Dotty pedaling around a city street in Japan. This is actual film footage, not a stunt.



Furriends, pawleeze do not try this at home unless you're wearing a safety helmet.

I always paw-point out the safety angle. You know I'm the kind of dog who wears a seatbelt harness fur car travel.

Paw-note: None of the dog helmets I know of have been tested by human safety engineers. Sometimes some type of protection is better than none, but not always. Poorly made protective gear can create a false sense of security or be the cause of injury.

MUTTS farm animals ask for compassion

by winecountrydog

Our friend and neighbor, Ms. Mutts Hen, has an impawtant question fur humans, and she's taking it to the streets.


Patrick McDonnell, the artist who draws the MUTTS comic strip, created this and other cartoons to raise awareness for farm animal protection. The cartoons carrying the anti-cruelty message are running this week in 700 newspapers where the strip appears.

If you live in California, you pawbably already know why Mr. McDonnell's on the farm: He suppawts State ballot initiative Proposition 2 to create humane standards for housing farm animals.

I hope you get to see the cartoons in this eight-day series that shows laying hens, calves, and pigs campaigning on the streets and going door-to-door.

To read about Patrick McDonnell's pawsition on the issues, see the interview by Michael Markarian, prez of the Humane Society Legislative Fund.

Hey, MUTTS is givin' new meaning to the term "chicken strip"!

'Off Leash: Who's a good girl?'

by pawlitico

There's a show in town called Off Leash: Who's a Good Girl? and it's about the relationship between us dogs and humans. You humans can see it at ODC Theater in San Francisco from October 8 to 12, 2008.

Presented by ODC and Litquake, the show is written and performed by JoAnn Selisker, seen here in puritan parody.

Here's a bit about the show:

Off Leash ponders the question "Who's a good girl?" in a world where model behavior is defined by being able to sit still while being fondled by strangers.

Shot through with flat irony and sometimes satire, Off Leash combines elements of literary short fiction, theater, dance, and satirical humor to form a multi-dimensional narrative where the wires carrying the required currents of mutual trust, love and affection inevitably cross, producing sometimes giddy, and sometimes darkly poetic short circuits.

If you're the kind of person who loves animals, is fascinated by dogs, puzzled and sometimes troubled by how humans collectively use or treat them, and in general mull the canine-human continuum, then Off Leash is for you.

Ms. Selisker is said to know how to get to certain comic and arresting realities. Fur example, she sometimes refurs to humans as "dog's best frenemy." She can also give thought-provoking (or, some might say, just plain provoking) answers in interviews. When the San Francisco Bay Guardian asked "What do you think of Cesar Millan, the Dog Whisperer?", Ms. Selisker replied:

I think he makes some nice dog beds. You can get anything he thinks your dog needs with his "brand" on it. You could call him the Martha Stewart of the dog world. . . . They both give us simple how-to instructions and affordable, quality products. All we have to do is buy the videos, magazines, supplies, and accessories, follow step-by-step instructions, and . . . voilà! The perfect dinner party; the well-mannered pet.

The pawblem I have with JoAnn Selisker's show is that I can't apply the title to myself. Not that I'm not good. I am good! . . . I'm a very good boy.

Pawnote: Dog-ma sez she rather likes Martha Stewart.