Dog
drorzel | September 15, 2006It's raining, nobody's petting her, nobody's dropping any food, nobody's taping bacon to slow-moving domestic animals:
Some days it's hard to be the Queen of Niskayuna.
drorzel | September 3, 2006Behold the undeniable dignity of the Queen of Niskayuna:
I've heard a bunch of different people give sort of pop-science explanations of what dogs are really doing in various circumstances-- sort of a canine version of evolutionary psychology. According to this theory, lots of the cute things that dogs do are actually evolved behaviors that play a crucial role in communication within dog packs.
I've always sort of wondered what the dog thinks she's doing when she flops over to have her belly rubbed. Is this some ingrained pack-bonding response, or is it just that belly rubs feel good?
drorzel | August 26, 2006A day late for the usual pet-blogging, you say? I prefer to think of it as being six days early.
Caption: "Hey! Who said you could stop petting me?"
(The Queen of Niskayuna is shown in her usual spot, on a pillow next to the couch, which is my usual spot when I'm downstairs watching tv or reading. She tends to flop down on the pillow, and demand to be petted. If you stop petting her-- say, to change channels, or turn a page in a book-- she gets annoyed.)
drorzel | August 10, 2006Since dogs are superior to cats, and she's the best Emmy ever, here are some dog pictures a day ahead of the usual pet-blogging schedule.
This one shows Her Majesty in her element, basking in the back yard in a little hollow under a bush.
(More after the cut)
Her little den provides an excellent view of the back yard. This one was shot from behind the bush, while I was waiting for the house sparrows to settle down and be photographed.
Of course, the increased bird activity does occasionally force her to get up and re-assert control over the yard. Here she is after chasing off a bunch of…
drorzel | July 26, 2006Greetings from Chateau Steelypips, home of the world's saddest dog:
Why is she pining away? Because I've gone down to New York for a ScienceBlogs get-together, and left her alone. ..
(Bonus pathetic picture below the fold.)
OK, she's not really pining because I'm away. Not in that picture, anyway. The picture was taken Monday morning, and is pretty typical of her behavior when I go into the shower (the door above and behind her is the bathroom). She knows that means I'll be leaving for work soon, and mopes about pathetically in hopes of convincing me to stay.
Here's another, slightly more…
drorzel | June 30, 2006The great thing about soccer is that even pets can get in on the game:
Here, Emmy shows off her ability to bat things around on the floor, in honor of the Germany-Argentina game coming up today. The toy in question is a Buster Cube, which we heartily endorse-- it's a plastic cube with a hole in one side and a chamber inside to hold food. As it gets knocked end over end, every now and then some kibble works its way out, and the dog gets to eat it.
Humans love it because there's no human intervention required: we put a handful of kibble in, and she bats it around the living room for ten…
drorzel | June 16, 2006Why is this dog sad?
Because people aren't donating enough to the ScienceBlogs fundraiser... Isn't it worth a few bucks to cheer her up?
(Actually, that's not true-- donations thus far are in excess of $3,000, and Seed has promised some additional matching funds. But how could I resist the opportunity for a shameless appeal, and some Friday dog-blogging?)
(She's really very easy to cheer up, as you can see after the cut:)
All it takes is some smelly gym clothes for her to roll on:
(If you really want the full effect, there's a movie of her ecstatic rolling at my old blog. The one linked in…
drorzel | April 23, 2006Why is this dog sulking, you ask?
(Answer below the fold)
Because this:
and this:
show what the back yard looks like right now.
We've needed rain for the last couple of weeks, and as you can tell, this has been good for the lawn. Those parts of it that are still above water, that is...
drorzel | January 29, 2006The lunar new year on Janurary 29, 2006 marks the beginning of the Year of the Dog in the Chinese system. We are pleased to present New Year's Greetings from Her Majesty, Emmy, Queen of Niskayuna:
Bow before Emmy! Bow before Emmy NOOOOWWWWWW!!!!
Or, failing that, at least rub her belly:
drorzel | January 12, 2006In recognition of the fact that somebody else is now hosting my image files, here's some pet-blogging, a day earlier than is traditional. Because dogs should always come before cats...
What's Emmy staring at so intently? Could it be the new ScienceBlogs home page?
Well, no. She's not that into science. It's just the skunk toy we were playing tug with:
The greenish stuff hanging from her tongue in the top picture is stuffing from inside the skunk. She loves her toys, but she's very hard on them.
(I don't really expect to make this a regular feature, but it's a nice excuse to practice posting…