Monday, October 14, 2013

Ethel Frances at a Fashion Show

Last Saturday night, Mommy put on nice clothes and make up.  "Ethel Frances," she said, "Let's get your leash.  We're going bye-bye."  I was surprised.  Usually when Mommy takes me places she is wearing old clothes and no make-up.  I ran to the door before she changed her mind.

After I was in the car, I started trying to figure out where we were going.  Sometimes Mommy seems to know what I am thinking even though I can't talk.  She said, "Ethel Frances, do you want to know where we're going?  We are going to Boots' gallery, Huckleberry Fine Arts gallery, to a fahion show.  Boots and Marcy will both be there. Doesn't that sound like fun?"

Since I had never been in the gallery and I never heard of a fashion show, how would I know if it sounded like fun?  It didn't really matter, though, because I always have fun with Mommy, especially when my sisters are stuck at home.  We went in the gallery and I saw lots of dogs -- dogs wearing clothes!  What was that about?  I thought only people wear clothes!  The only time I saw dog clothes was when Mommy tried to put a sweater on my little sister Izzy.  I guess Izzy knew that dogs aren't supposed to wear clothes because she grabbed it out of Mommy's hands and tried to rip it up.

There was a long, raised white aisled down the middle of the gallery.  Mommy pointed and told me that's where the models in the fashion show were going to walk.  I still didn't understand.  We watched the dogs walk down the aisle, which I learned is called a runway, and then we saw tall, beautiful women wearing beautiful clothes walk down the runway.  Mommy could see that I was confused.  She explained that in a fashion show, models walk down the runway so people can see new styles of clothes.

Boots came over to us, tapped Mommy on the shoulder, and told her that people wanted me to walk down the runway.  Me?  Wow!  I was excited.  I love getting attention and I was pretty sure all the people there would watch me.  Mommy does not love getting attention so she asked Marcy to walk with me.  People agreed that Marcy and I are beautiful!  Since I am neither tall nor thin like the models, I was surprised.

The fashion show was to raise money for MC PAW, a Montgomer County place that will keep and take care of animals while they are waiting for new homes.  I wish my sister LuLu had a place like that when she was little.  Maybe she would not have been hurt.

I am glad Mommy found her and adopted her into our family.  We gave her a safe and loving home.  She gives us lots of love, every single day.  

Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Do Dogs Really Love Us?

Do dogs really love us? Mommy told me that the New York Times published an article by Gregory Burns, the author of a new book:“How Dogs Love Us: A Neuroscientist and His Adopted Dog Decode the Canine Brain.”  Here is an excerpt:

 With the help of my friend Mark Spivak, a dog trainer, we started teaching Callie to go into an M.R.I. simulator that I built in my living room. She learned to walk up steps into a tube, place her head in a custom-fitted chin rest, and hold rock-still for periods of up to 30 seconds. Oh, and she had to learn to wear earmuffs to protect her sensitive hearing from the 95 decibels of noise the scanner makes.

After months of training and some trial-and-error at the real M.R.I. scanner, we were rewarded with the first maps of brain activity. For our first tests, we measured Callie’s brain response to two hand signals in the scanner. In later experiments, not yet published, we determined which parts of her brain distinguished the scents of familiar and unfamiliar dogs and humans.

Soon, the local dog community learned of our quest to determine what dogs are thinking. Within a year, we had assembled a team of a dozen dogs who were all “M.R.I.-certified.”

Although we are just beginning to answer basic questions about the canine brain, we cannot ignore the striking similarity between dogs and humans in both the structure and function of a key brain region: the caudate nucleus.
I can't wait for Mommy to read me the book. She says it might be hard for me to understand, but that’s OK.  When I don’t understand something, I just draw my eyebrows together and tilt my head to the side.  Mommy knows that she needs to give me an explanation. 

If Mr. Burns asked, I would have happily told him exactly what I feel and think. Yes, dogs love humans, and yes, we miss them when they leave the room, (unless we're too busy eating!) Perhaps he'll read my book too, 
Tales from a Tail Wagging Dog, and then he'll really know how deeply dogs love humans.​

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