I really did intend to make a real entry here today, but instead I took the time I wasn't working to go romping with the dogs in the snow.
And got the best photo ever of Puck the Dog, possibly:
But because Emma gets jealous, here's one of her too, walking the wall ala Jon Snow:
I have no regrets. You can see the whole captioned set of romping photos at Flickr.
While we were stuck in St. Patrick's Day parade traffic on the way home from grocery shopping, we realized that we adopted Puck the Dog exactly five years ago today. The anniversary is easy to remember, because we got stuck in parade traffic that day too. We still had a small SUV back then, and Emma the Dog was making her feelings known about Strange New Dog by refusing to sit anywhere but the very back and ignoring him and us. Strange New Dog sat on my lap nervously and…threw up all over me and my giant messenger bag a mere five minutes from his new home. (Even in the traffic, we were so close.)
We kept him anyway.
(As if there was any question!)
Here's me and him together on Christmas Eve night (note: it were late):
And here's the first post I put up about him. It features an adorable video of he and Emma romping together (she got over her attitude) and a picture of him looking tiny and stubborn.
From Philip K. Dick's thoroughly charming author's note on his first sold story, "Roog":
"So here, in a primitive form, is the basis of much of my twenty-seven years of professional writing: the attempt to get into another person's head, or another creature's head, and see out from his eyes or its eyes, and the more different that person is from the rest of us the better. You start with the sentient entity and work outward, inferring its world. Obviously, you can't ever really know what its world is like, but, I think, you can make some pretty good guesses. I began to develop the idea that each creature lives in a world somewhat different from all the other creatures and their worlds. I still think this is true. To Snooper, garbagemen were sinister and horrible. I think he literally saw them differently than we humans did."
Snooper was PKD's dog, who became the dog in the story. Puck the Dog agrees with Snooper. That's why he sleeps, ever vigilant, next to my Buffy stake.
(It's not that I can't figure out how to rotate the picture… it's that this is a Puck's eye view of the world, okay? Note: Dog decidedly unalarmed by lurking Kim Stanley Robinson and Justina Robson novels.)
…here today, though I'm technically meeting my BEDA obligations, so ha! There is lively discussion in the comments of both yesterday's post on chocolate and SF and the day before's on series.
We had a visit from an excellent dog trainer yesterday, who shares our distrust of the Cesar Millan Be A Pack Leader Approach, and instantly had both Puck and Emma's numbers. (Puck's the one mainly in need of assistance, as he hates all strangers on sight and is territorial. Emma's just smart and bossy, a winning combination.) Anyway, a fun evening was spent learning how to dissuade dogs from bad behaviors, and now we practice for a week and report back. A good trainer? Worth every penny.
I have completed hours and hours and hours of admin paperwork and gathering and such for the stuff that has to be mailed in at the end of one's final MFA semester… and my brain feels mushy. Also, hurty. (Evaluations, a complete bibliography of everything read for the last two years, miscellaneous forms, a title page to be signed by faculty honcho types and abstracts of creative thesis. Etc.! MLA format is Eeevil.)
The rest of the week will be spent fluffing and pruning my novel, which thankfully goes in electronically on Friday. And I'm sure the formatting of said submission will cause more head aching.
So, alas, for today, I'm afraid I'm only good for this ferocious holiday pic of Emma the Dog Girl.
Presidential pet photo gallery at the WaPo.
Which is your favorite? I have a soft spot for Checkers, because he really got Richard Nixon to open up to those two zany girls.
We Earned That Puppy Read More »
You want to talk think tank? Eeevil genius?
Yeah, me neither.
Hadron Collider Eat Your Heart Out Read More »
Best LOLCat in the history of the world:
Yay! (With a hat tip to my in-house cute animal picture guru.)
