I sometimes refer to Luna as “the Galumphing Galloot.”
In this photo, I think you can see why.
She is actually very agile for her size, sometimes amazingly so. But there’s just so much of her that you’d best be elsewhere when she’s charging along.
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You take such good action shots. Makes me very jealous — fortunately for me, the dogs are very, very good at holding still.
Sniff shows Giddy and Hopeful (and even Luna) that’s he’s the BIG dog!
Ah, king-of-the-hill has been a favorite game of many of my critters, but none-so-much as my goats. Especially the kid goats.
We saw a mob of half grown lambs playing king-of-the-hill on our way to the airport today. Because of where we live vis-a-vie the airport, we drive “the back way” through sheep country and vineyards. It sure beats the drive into LAX.
Hi Andi, I love your dogs’ names. I’m changing some cat names around here… I wonder how Leaky, Growls and Sir Poops-a-lot would go over?. I suppose it would be fine until the neighbors heard me calling them. (They already have their suspicions) Current cat names: BooBoo, Punkin, Grouchy, Smelly, Smooch, Smudge, Ralph, Moe and Larry.
That’s a great shot of Snif… I love the look on his face.
Our take on names is that everyone has a natural name and the trick is to be able to discern it so we think our dogs named themselves. 🙂
I’m sure the cats will let you know if you got it right.
Oh, hell… I’m not REALLY changing their names, they ignore me enough as it is. 😉
What a great picture of Dog on high.
I had a little terrier who always had to find the highest spot in the room to settle into.
they may be small but they like a clear view — when Sniff runs after something, he periodically leaps up in the air like springbok.
Besides, the only reason I get good action shots is because my camera will take a shot every 1.3 seconds. So, I just keep clicking and hope to get one or two keepers.
Luna really likes playing fetch with her rope toys. She actually “throws” it up for herself (and catches it [most of the time]) while she’s running it back to you.
It’s my reaction time that’s the problem, not the camera. You’ve clearly got an excellent combination of a good eye and good reflexes.
I’d attribute it to autofocus and lots of practice.
Oh look, now that Luna’s all wet she wants to come in.
Luna is so beautiful… I just want to grab her and give her kissies. Nice shots, Keres.
I’m not sure how she’d feel about the kisses, but she likes a good hug and a vigorous scruffle.
Right now she’s out front wondering why she asked to be let out in the rain. It’s still a toss-up as to whether she’ll come to the door or just curl up under a plant.
This is Leaky, aka Punkin. She’s 17 yrs old (people years, not cat years) She’s teensy and has lots of hair and a few leaky pipes. (Oh, there’s a joke there somewhere, but I can’t seem to find it)
Thanks, Olivia. She’s actually a lot prettier than this pic. The cats have been looking over my shoulder lately at all those horse pics and they’re starting to rebel. I had to post a pootie shot or pay the consequences.
I love pooties … >’.'<
We’ve been wondering if anyone has any idea of where calling cats “pooties” comes from. Kidspeak and I are interested in the quirks of language and the quirks of cats, so this is a natural question for us. Any ideas? Where did you first hear it used? From whom? When?
well, I first heard it used over a dKos … PhillyGal … and it’s the nick given to Putin … Pootie-Poot … I think … and ah, you know. 🙂
Googling “pooties word origin” doesn’t get any answers. Googling “pooties cats” mostly links to DKos diaries.
So, here’s my etymological speculation:
“Pooties” is an alternate spelling of “puddies”, as in Tweety Bird’s famous utterance “I tawght I taw a puddy-tat.” “Puddy-tat” obviously being play on “pussy cat” (with Tweety’s “baby-talk” pronunciation indicating his child-like nature).
Thanks for the research. Kidspeak and I are also intrigued by word origins.
I was wondering about the “puddy cat” – “pussy cat” connection. “Pooties” I’ve heard as motherese for bowel movements. Kinda cute little baby bowel movements. (I’ve never understood motherese, but then I’ve never had a baby around.) My guess is that “pooties” is affectionate word play on pussy cat.
I have to say I never expected to post about bowel movements.
Yes, my googling did lead me to several references to bowel movement, and farting.
As to my above speculation, it is just that: speculation. I can claim no emperical knowledge as the first time I’d heard the term was here at BooMan.
In Australia, people call cats “Moggies.” I’ll have to do another post once I figure out the origin of that term (although I suspect it is English, as is most of the slang here).
Moggies is listed “Commonwealth” usage for cat.
Try this Wikipedia entry, if you haven’t already.
I been ruminating on pooties and one of favorite words rode a stray neuron into the conversation. Pampooties: an Irish word for lightweight leather slippers. Source: Seamus Heaney,
My words lick around cobbled quays,
go hunting
lightly as pampooties
over the skull-capped ground.
What a sweetie! Our Leo looks a lot like Punkin, but Leo is very long and thin. I’ll see if I can find a shot of her to post.
Love the tail … it’s so thick!
She’s tail-proud.
Speaking to cat names, she was named Leo as a feral kitten, after the West-Wing Leo (Kidspeak named her, not me). We were so sure she was male! Mistakes were made.
I loved west wing Leo … nice name … and yes, very nice tail … 🙂
Her brother was named Toby until he also turned out to be a she. They were really fuzzy kittens and they were feral and it was hard to tell and … we blew it on both of them.
Beautiful! I can’t believe it… Punkin has the same type of tail, and also has those big yellow owl eyes. Even the tufts of fur between the toes are similiar. People tell me that she’s like a mini Maine Coon. Love the sink fixtures, by the way.
As for the word pooties, I first heard it either here or dkos, I can’t recall which.
Thanks! Leo is our only “black-foot” (all others except our oldest cat have white feeties) and she does look like a Maine Coon, too.
We appreciate the sink complement. It’s one of those little details that made me fall in love with this 1911 house when we looked at it. Of course, I had no idea what we were getting in to, but at least the cats like the sinks. . .
What a perfect cat expression. She’s lovely.
She so usually poses so elegantly (a tribute to your photography skills, I’m sure). It’s fun to see her romping and stomping. I’ve been working with my kids researching bears and this picture of Luna looks amazingly familiar.
Pyrs are very elegant in reposse – being livestock guardians (which mostly requires sitting on a hill and watching the sheep) it is their natural state.
Luna’s galumphing about usually only lasts a few minutes, as Pyrs have a metabolism (the lowest of any dog) suited to sitting about and they tire quickly.
You anticipated my next question. You’d think that sheep dogs would be more active to help round up the sheep. It seems that most sheepdogs breeds from Scotland and Great Britain are. I’ve seen an Australian sheepdog, or at least what a vet friend said was one. It was pretty rangy. Are Pyrs like Luna a development from the basic breed or is she an example of a working dog? Maybe they are from a region with more predators?
You’ve made the very common mis-asumption that Luna is a livestock herder, which she most definately is not. She is a Livestock Guardian Dog.
There are two types of dog who work with livestock:
1) the guardian, who lives with the flock and protects them from predators
and,
2) the herder who is used to move the flock and round them up.
Guardians are large and laconic. Examples are Pyreneans, and Komondors. They tend to be white, to blend in with the sheep, and they are usually very un-dog-like in their movements, smell, etc. so that they don’t scare their charges.
Herders, often called collies, are smaller, usually dark colored (to be clearly seen by the sheep) and very predatory (sholders down, staring intensely, chasing, etc.) in their movements. In France, the Pyrenean Mountain dog is paired with the Little Pyrenean Shepherd.
Makes perfect sense once you explained the distinction. So beautiful Luna is an enforcer/bodyguard.
And like the best bodyguards, Pyrs deflect aggression rather than respond with aggression. If the have to fight, they’ll body-slam and keep their opponent off their feet rather than bite. Think of her as Vin Diesel in The Pacifier.
That’s interesting stuff. Makes me think that maybe we out to put Pyrs in charge of homeland security.
Would that make us sheep?
I was out of town yesterday and off-line. Today I checked in and Booman had a diary posted that had a link to the “Gang of 500.” I nervously followed his link, expecting to see a picture of my house with 500 new cats swarming over every surface. Believe me, the Gang of 4 and the four senior cats are plenty. I have never been so happy to be linked to the 500 media trend-setters.
But here’s how our little tripod answers nature’s call:
What’s his name?
Weird, but wonderful. Go Stumpy Jake!
What a tribute to spunky survival skills! I had a similiar technique in college after drinking a bit. (No video I exists, thank FSM.)
(No video exists, thanks FSM.)
that would have been pretty impressive … considerable balancing skills required I imagine … 🙂
I fell down a lot, but somehow I didn’t feel it.
Not weird at all. Totally awesome how they can adjust. Who would have guessed that a furkid could stand on his front legs in order to pee? I have boy dogs and I never guessed. amazing. Thanks for sharing.
I think it’s his way of marking territory as high as possible so other dogs think a giant lives there.
Taken at Maria Island
Click image for larger version.
Stunning.
The textures are amazing, and the sweep of color gives a sense of vastness.
It’s spring here. Today we had diagonal rain and hail, and horizontal snow.
Luna loved it.
Cape Barren goslings.
They have the most adorable fluffy tushies. We wanted to pick one up and fondle it, but their mums and dads would not permit it.
What cuties! I couldn’t help noticing what appears to some form of animal droppings scattered about. Thus seems to be a recurrent issue. Tasmania must have extremely fertile soil.
Australia actually has the worst soils in the world. The geomorphic forces that shaped Australia ended millions of years ago, and it’s soil has been steadily washing, blowing, and just in general wearing away ever since.
Mt. Wellington, that rises majestically behind Hobart is actually the core of a mountain that was once three times as tall.
Tasmania actually has the most recent volcanic activity of anywhere in Australia (about 200,000 years ago) and consequently has the best soils. Most of the animals here have addapted to low nutrient soils, and the resultant low nutrient plants, by eating large volumes of food. Hence the large quantities of grass in, and large quantities of poop out.